Seriously surprised we didn't have an anime thread already. I avoided anime like the plague since my brother was a typical otaku/weeaboo/Narutard, but recently I was drawn into starting by watching this: Holy fuck, is Cowboy Bebop phenomenal. First off, the soundtrack is fantastic. It's got jazz and funk and the eponymous bebop, and a lot of the series seems to be thematically tied to the music, with episode titles such as Jamming with Edward, Hard Luck Woman and The Real Folk Blues. The best word for the setting and the themes explored is probably subtle. It's a little like Firefly with regards to its Space Western style setting, but there's no "big damn heroes" moment, by and large. Rather, the action is very informed by the interactions that happen in the "in spaces" between climactic events. The zeitgeist of the show is Clint Eastwood meets Bruce Lee in a 1940s Harlem nightclub. There's a lot of series, in TV or in any other media, where the events get so big and the characters so heroic that at some point they stop being as relatable as they were at the beginning. This never happens in Cowboy Bebop - the character interactions stay intimately familiar all the way through. It probably helps that the English dub is so damn excellent that even a hardcore acne-picking otaku would grudgingly admit to preferring it. It's no wonder this is considered one of the best anime series of all time - it's probably the best introduction to anime I could have had, and I highly recommend it.
My anime knowledge is limited, but a friend of mine is really into this and made 2 recommendations that I actually liked. Its been a few years since I watched them, but I remember them being good. The first one was 'Deathnote' and is about a bored god of death (similar to a grim reaper) that decides to leave his tool on Earth for a human to find and use. This tool is a notebook and if the user visualizes a person's face while writing their name in the book, that person will die. The guy who finds the book is a very intelligent young student who decides to kill criminals. The public becomes aware of this mystery killer and detectives begin to pursue him. The villian and the head detective are both prodigies which lead to some clever and elaborate plans as they try to outsmart each other. Second was a show called Hajime No Ippo and is about a young man (Ippo) that takes up boxing after being saved from a bully by a pro boxer. Ippo is a monstrously strong in-fighter that develops a rivalry with a temendously skilled out-fighter. I should also mention that Ippo does not have an undefeated record. After watching the cartoon, I actually read the books because they are so many chapters ahead.
Cowboy bebop is one of my favorite series of anything, period. I still remember the final episode vividly even though I probably haven't seen it for 5 years. I also highly recommend the movie. If you've never heard of it check out the five-part mini-series Afro Samurai. Really, really slick modern animation with bad-ass fight scenes that pit old school samurai sword vs high tech. It's about a black dude (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) avenging his fathers death. They made a sequel but I thought it was pretty awful; just stick with the original mini-series. If you want a really, really good movie that's different then the usual kids with superpowers and girls with humongous tits anime stylings, watch Grave of the Fireflies. It's about two orphan kids trying to survive in WWII Japan. This movie is so fucking touching, if you watch it be ready for a tear-jerker. I think it won a buttload of awards and it deserves all of them.
I've recently started watching Black Lagoon, a show about a gang of pirates/mercenaries who impress (in the nautical sense) a young Japanese salaryman into their gang. The English dub for this show is pretty fucking awesome: Spoiler I'm looking forward to watching more of this series. It's got tons of action and lots of things blowing up so far.
We had a thread back on the old RM/TM board about TV show moments that choked you up and Cowboy Bebop contributed to my big three. I love that show, but still to this day have not watched again because of much it got to me emotionally. Spoiler The moments were: 1. The by god fucking ending when Spike dies and the star winks out of the night sky 2. Ed and Einstein realizing that it is time for them to move on together and leave the ship. 3. Faye watching the message she left herself before her accident and life made her so cynical and har. Another show I was a big fan of that also ran back in the early 2000 Toonami days was Ruroni Kenshin. It was really solid for the primary storyline, but got fairly weak in the second half of the show. The story takes place after the Meiji Revolution in Japan and follows Kenshin Himura a wandering samurai who is trying to atone for the sins he committed during the revolution. Like a lot of manga/anime it has an interesting mixture of really really silly moments followed by strong questions on morality and how long one should be beholden to their past.
Here's a list of anime ranked from least to most obscure: <a class="postlink" href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfAnimeObscurity" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... eObscurity</a> It's pretty interesting if you're just getting into the genre.
I've always been a huge fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which really got overrun by the super-pretentious loser crowd, but is still a fine series if you don't need to like your protagonist much. FLCL is still the most crazy ride in anime A good series I JUST watched, and would recommend right up with Bebop is Baccano!
I've just finished watching Simoun. It's got girls kissing. Now that I have your attention... This show is legitimately the best anime I've yet seen. It's about a country called the Simulacrum Theocracy, whose priestesses (sybyllae) operate flying machines called Simoun to offer prayers to their god, Tempus Spatium, via aerial maneuvers. Everyone on the planet is born female and chooses their gender at age 17. Unfortunately, Simulacrum is attacked by one of its neighbors that wants the secret of the Simoun technology. The priestesses are required to fly sorties against the enemy air force, since the Simoun is capable of great destructive power. As long as a priestess keeps flying Simoun, she is exempt from having to choose her gender. And also, the Simoun can only fly if the two sybyllae pilots kiss each other. The first episode is a little jargon-heavy, but that's one of the only complaints I had about this show. The soundtrack is great, and the main theme rocks surprisingly hard for its lyrical content. The character interactions are fantastic - literally every character on the show has a backstory and a character arc, and each character's behavior is believable and fitting given the situation. The series starts off with big changes to the status quo, but it turns out that even the smaller things have lasting effects. Anyone can die, and each death hangs over the characters, fundamentally shaping their development. It's definitely a character-driven plot, but it surprised me in that I didn't hate any of the characters. Usually, when I watch a series that's heavy on emotions, there's one or two that I wish death upon every time they touch the screen. Not here. Watching the last episode left me with the feeling of my heart simultaneously being full and empty - the bittersweet feeling that you get when watching any amazing work come to an end. This guy seems to like it as well.
I'm a Narutard. I've watched it from the beginning into current Shippuuden episodes. To further the nerdiness, I hate the English dub. Its annoying, kills a lot of the context, and removes cussing, which is always entertaining in cartoons. In no particular order, anime/manga to check out... Gantz Neon Genesis Evangelion Death Note Big O Berserk Akira Ranma 1/2 Dragon Ball/ DBZ (GT was very ehhh) Ruroni Kenshin FLCL Naruto/Naruto Shippuuden Bebop (They're supposedly making a full length live action movie and last I heard, Keanu Reeves is playing Spike)
I used to be fairly into anime actually, mostly back when I was in school, single and living at my moms house. Not too surprising. I never really got into much of the obscure stuff and mostly just stuck to what was on Adult Swim, especially their Saturday Night anime block. The ones that I liked and mostly stuck to: Cowboy Bebop Full Metal Alchemist Ghost in the Shell Samurai Champloo Bleach FLCL Trigun Also, there were a couple Rurouni Kenshin OVA's that a buddy of mine turned me onto that were actually pretty good. I also tried to get into a couple others like Death Note, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Eureka Seven...and there was one other one that was usually on AS, but I can't remember the name. Never really did keep up with them though, more of just a "watch it if it's on while playing games". There was another one that a friend of mine always raved about that I just remembered, about airships or something, but I can't remember the name of that one either. And yes, I have seen every Dragonball Z episode. For some reason I got into that one to the point that I was downloading fan subs through IRC chats way before they ever came out in the US. Oh to be young again. Edit: The Last Exile was the one my friend always raved about. I never got into it.
I use to be huge into anime, but recently the only one that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out is Berserk, highly recommended if you've never seen it, even if you're not an anime fan.
I have Berserk downloaded and have been meaning to get Last Exile, I'll let you guys know when I actually watch those. Frank, you should probably check out Cowboy Bebop and Black Lagoon if you haven't seen them, you might like those. The Cowboy Bebop movie is in development hell last I checked, which considering Keanu Reeves as Spike, thank God. I've been reading/watching some shoujo-ai recently. I've kind of been trying to stay away from the overly-melodramatic and/or prurient stuff, but one manga I read recently that was quite good was Girl Friends. It does a really good job of portraying the blossoming relationship between two school girls without getting too sappy.
Loved it, and could probably stand to watch it again, the OVA is fucking fantastic too, one of the best. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ripping on anyone for liking anime, just for some reason or other I stopped enjoying it. I LOVED DBZ and Trigun, but watching either makes my head hurt now. Not saying that makes me grown up or anything, I still love video games, I just lost touch with anime.
I go on and off of anime. I really liked Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Cowboy Beebop back in the day, but lately I've started watching 'Bleach' - which is surprisingly watchable. Ghost in the Shell, Gundam, Akira, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki does fucking great movies in general), Blood - The Last Vampire, Vampire Hunter D, and Robotech have all held my interest at various points. A bunch of my friends at the moment are raving about Elfen Lied - I know there's some kinky connotations in there, but is there anything to redeem it apart from the Hentai aspect?
My big three with Anime are Ghost in the Shell SAC, Full Metal Alchemist both of them (Brotherhood being 2x better), Neon Genesis Evangelion. I also watched Code Geass: Lelouch the Rebellion. I thought that was also pretty good. I tried watching Gantz, and thought it was the most retarded thing I've ever saw. This could be I was stuck with the English dubbed version and it was just terrible, I rather get fucked by KIMaster wearing a sandpaper condom than watch that again. Definitely looking for recommendations, big fan of the action adventure animes with the overarching plot like the 3 mentioned above, where everything comes to a head in a huge epic finale. I always like to feel that something bigger than the characters is happening. Also, I want to avoid schools and school rooftop scenes as much as possible. NGE was the only exception to that rule.
That show is what happens when you have a bunch of producers take something interesting and dilute it to shit and dumb it down so that it can go out to a wider audience. The movies (and I'm sure there was a manga before hand but I've never read it.) that this was based on were amazing. Particularly the first one called Samurai X Trust and Betrayal. Honestly if you're over 13 don't waste your time with Ruroni Kenshin but do watch Trust and Betrayal. The TV show would be the equivalent if someone said lets take Saving Private Ryan and lets put it on the WB during Saturday mornings where we will tell the story of all the whacky hijinks he gets into when he gets back stateside. Naturally we need to keeps rated G. Tell me does this look like the same show? Trust and Betrayal Spoiler Ruroni Kenshin Spoiler I realize I kind of just shat all over your opinion which you are entitled to have. This is more to do with me wondering who saw the original, and then OKed this piece of shit to be produced.
Hate to burst your bubble here, but the silly kid show was before the OVA's of Samurai X. <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurouni_Kenshin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurouni_Kenshin</a> There is nothing wrong with running a show during Kenshin's true Battosai phase, but don't fall into the common mistake of thinking they watered down the original storyline, because it was the opposite. I think a lot of people saw these in reverse order, because the OVA made it to the US before they dubbed the show for Toonami, but the Manga and the TV series ran for years before they produced Samurai X. The original show was that you slowly learn that seemingly gentle and kind of stupid Kenshin was actually one of the most feared killers in all of the Meiji revolution. Seeing the actual scenes of his time as the Battosai probably lessons the intrigue of learning the truths of his past as I viewed it originally years ago. I would also point out that the TV show got especially hard during the Shishio storyline (with Shishio being dubbed by the same VA that did Spike's dubbed voice on Cowboy Bebop). It's Japanese so there are going to be moment of silliness, but I always enjoyed that about Anime.
Ya you're right. I Never bothered to check that the show came out in 93 and the movie in 99. That being said i still think this type of show is the reason I don't really watch anime that much. I don't have the patience to sift through all the bullshit to find something interesting. The movie on the other hand had way more compelling characters and story. Nerd fight concluded.
I actually agree with you there. I have fond memories of Kenshin, but they are 10 years old at this point. I think though if people like some of the shows that have been mentioned in here then they will like Kenshin.