Anime recommendations

[Simond]

I'm turned off by the art alone on those things. Pretty much can't stand the whole range of anime with artwork like that (I guess it's Sailor Moon-ish??). Can't go for anything with an all-bubbly-female-cast as well. I'm simply not the..umm.. right demographic for that (i.e. not a teenage girl).

You need to watch Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha - it's pretty much a magical girl show put together by fans of shonen 'giant robot' shows. Just be aware that the the first series is slow starting and doesn't really pick up until the mysterious, black-clad antagonist appears.

Speaking of giant robot shows, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann continues down its path of awesomeness. Ripping off the 'head' of an enemy mech and wearing it as a hat = greatness.

[Stormwaltz]

Ultramaniac - Fluffy but pleasant. Less angsty than the manga (in which Nina actually did fall for Ayu's crush). I could happily paper a wall with images of Ayu - that odd color choice of silver eyes and wine-colored hair worked for me.

Nanoha - the OP for Strikers grabbed my attention.

[Strazos]

Yeah, I feel the same way about Kaname's blue-green hair and hazel eyes. Dunno why.

[Yoru]

I watched one ep of Lucky Star over the weekend at a friend's insistence. The following is an actual exchange:

Me: My brain is searching for an ice pick so it can stab out my eyeballs from BEHIND.
Him: Give it time.
Me: I'm 7 minutes in.
Him: It grows on you.
Me: SO DOES CANCER.

Needless to say, I'm not particularly going to continue watching it.

[Strazos]

Looks like I'll have to give it a shot at some point as well. I don't want to be left out, the only one not suffering from Lucky Star-branded Cancer (tm) like all the cool kids.

[Simond]

 

Edit: I suppose context might help: In Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, Lagann (the 'head' mecha) and Gurren-Lagann (the 'fusion' mecha) use drills as weapons.

[stray]

Monster  --- Overrated

[Strazos]

I watched one ep of Lucky Star over the weekend at a friend's insistence. The following is an actual exchange:

Me: My brain is searching for an ice pick so it can stab out my eyeballs from BEHIND.
Him: Give it time.
Me: I'm 7 minutes in.
Him: It grows on you.
Me: SO DOES CANCER.

Needless to say, I'm not particularly going to continue watching it.

I watched the entire first episode. I still can't figure out what it's supposed to be about, as it jumps around so damn much. It almost looks like they're going for some kind of crazier version of Azumanga Daioh, but I can't tell. I'm not sure if I will watch the second episode.

On the bright side, afk always seems to do very good subs and translations.

[Medic975]

Anything by Shoji Kawamori and Shinichiro Watanabe. Both Key in one of my favorite OVA's Macross Plus(Heavily colored by my love of Robotech when it was originally on air as a child.) But seperately these two went on to work on both Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop. Seems almost anything they touch is gold. I agree with Schild on    Studio Ghibli Especially on the Grave of the Fireflys, but you cannot forget they also did what was probably the first Anime I ever saw Naussica Valley of the Wind. Both good ones.

I am RiggsWolfe's ex source that he mentions in the beginning of this page and in the time I was away I never had time to keep up with stuff.
Basically I am currently looking for things along the quality of the Epic of the Lodoss wars, Escaflowne, Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop series.

Will probably look at Samurai Champ and Eureka 7 when I get around to it. Any other suggestions is cool as hell.

And don't mention Evangelion as something to see been there done the therapy and punched RiggsWolfe in the jimmy for it.

[Hoax]

I loved all of those you mention except Lodoss war, so my suggestions may be up your alley.  I suggest checking out Ergo Proxy and Black Lagoon (the second barrage esp is pretty fantastic action anime) in addition to the two you listed.  Enjoy the start to middle of e7, it sort of gets weaker towards the end but is still worth it imo.

[Chenghiz]

Eureka Seven is kickin' rad all the way through in my opinion, and it grows stronger. But that's just my opinion.

FLAG is one of the ones I've been watching on and off. It lacks the strongly attractive qualities of other shows due to its unusual presentation - mainly as a series of photos taken by a photojournalist during a fictional war in a Central Asian country - but has very intellectually mature themes such as the influence of visual imagery in favor of a cause, and how one can portray such causes in a way that moves people emotionally. Not much action or drama, though.

I've been watching Death Note a lot lately, catching up to where it is currently. It's a very intense drama show with a really unique and interesting premise. One of those shows where the author could easily ruin the suspense and mystery but manages not to do so.

Medic - have you seen the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series or Rahxephon? Rahxephon is similar to Evangelion but depending on what you hated about Eva you might enjoy it. Stand Alone Complex is a great action/mystery show with excellent animation, good storytelling and characterization, and of course Ghost in the Shell cyberpunk goodness.

[Arrrgh]

I'm not someone who generally has to read FAQs to figure out WTH just happened in an anime, but...

After watching Neon Genesis Evangelion - Death & Rebirth/The End of Evangelion Two-Pak, reading two or three FAQs on the subject I found on the web, and then watching The End of Evangelion again with the commentary track turned on I'm happy to say it mostly made sense and was far more enjoyable as a series.

Yes, that might be more trouble than the whole thing is worth.

RahXephon needs to be watched on a setup with a good sound system. I saw/heard someone watching it on a laptop and the sonic attacks just sounded puny.

[Hoax]

@Chenghiz:    Spoilers re: e7 ending

Its less that I think it gets bad, as much as I think it gets corny/kiddy/feel-good happy-ending treatment.  Which doesn't fit some of the overall desperation of the storyline up to the end.  I didn't see any comedy/silly/childish stuff on his list, hence the warning.

[damijin]

Welcome to the N.H.K. has been mentioned a few times in this thread, but I just wanted to give it more props. Probably one of my favorite series. Without giving too much away, lets just say that at some point gold farming becomes an important plot element, and it's hilariously sad.

Must watch for any MMO fan, or anyone who has ever been a part of one of these new fangled, internet facilitated sub cultures.

[Stormwaltz]

My thoughts on RahXephon, for anyone who cares:

All of Earth, save Tokyo, was destroyed by an alien race called the Mu. At least, that’s what the powers that be tell our schoolboy hero. Mayan prophesy, sonic technology, giant robots, and James Churchward’s whack-job “Lost Continent of Mu” theories mix in a story that veers back and forth between pompously over-inflated and startlingly simple and human.

RahXephon is a box of exquisite puzzle pieces that don’t... quite... fit. Each of the various character stories and plot arcs make sense on their own, but once you’ve seen the whole thing, you realize that they don’t fit together. There are plot holes you can drive the titular robot through. It’s like they sat a bunch of great writers down, told them all the basics of the story, then let them wander off and compose a complete tale around one or two characters. Then they took all their scripts and put them in a vague order with no overall vision or continuity editing.

It’s a bit disappointing. With a firmer hand in charge, this series could have far better than Evangelion. As it is, it’s memorable for a few precious character moments, some wonderfully original mecha designs (the Dolem), a haunting closing song, and one of the hottest female characters ever drawn (Quon, a teenager with a glorious mane of strawberry half-curls and thighs muscular enough to choke a horse).

I liked all of Medic's save Lodoss (I've never been a straight high fantasy fan, I need to see some original ideas). So let's see what I've got...

Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
In the closing months of the One Year War, a small Zeon commando unit infiltrates a neutral O’Neill colony. Their mission: destroy a prototype Gundam being secretly developed for Amuro Ray (the hero of the original series). Bernie Wiseman, one of the Zeon soldiers, befriends a ten year-old local boy named Al. Al, still naïve enough to play at war in the park, follows the group’s mission to its tragic, inevitable conclusion.

0080 distills everything that makes these series great into six episodes and an equal number of well-developed characters. Unlike most Gundam, the tight focus prevents the story from getting bogged down in abstract politics and a profusion of characters that get killed in action nearly as quickly as they are introduced. As in all the best Gundam, there is the moral ambivalence of good men on both sides killing each other due to the orders of bad men above them, moments of self-doubt, despair, and futile nobility, and the grim conviction that in the end, all war accomplishes is the destruction of the honorable, the charitable, and the innocent.

Zone of the Enders: Dolores
A forty-something alcoholic space trucker – the widower of an orbital frame developer slain in the prequel OVA ZOE: Idolo – finds himself caring for a prototype frame with an AI calling itself Dolores. His estranged son and daughter get dragged into his troubles, and the three fugitives flee to Mars - since Dolores seems to have been sent to them by their supposedly dead wife and mother.

ZOE: Dolores is an unpretentious and fun SF adventure series that starts with a drunken trucker getting beaten in an alley and takes 26 episodes to escalate into interplanetary war. Along the way you get to watch a mecha that thinks it’s a teenager, a “dirty old man” try to learn parenting from a pop-psychology text, and lots of fun with almost-real physics. Think of it as a family-oriented Gundam.

Currently I'm enjoying the hell out of Kamichu!, which is an excellent example of the "magic realism" genre that originated in Japan. I haven't done a formal review yet. The gist is, grade school student Yurie comes into school one morning and tells her friends, "I became a god last night." The rest of the series is a wonderful Kiki's Delivery Service style trip, juxtaposing slice-of-life school and friend stories with a delightful menagerie of Shinto spirits. Yurie interacts with everything from from the God of Empty Soda Cans and the Goddess of Tofu Cubes to massive wind gods and and spirit of the sunken battleship Yamato. I spend most of the episodes leaning forward with a dazzled little grin.

[Fabricated]

My thoughts on RahXephon, for anyone who cares:

My version: Take Evangelion, remove gore, change angel names to musical themes. :P

[Strazos]

Yoru, tell your "buddy" that he's now given me cancer, in the form of Lucky Star.


It might be pretty crazy, but it has its moments where it's not only entertaining, but also...it almost makes sense at times.

[rk47]

If I ever need to get my eyes burned I'll just go visit my neighbour on my last visit for dinner I went to watch a couple of eps of:

Romeo X Juliet :Yes. Anime version with Pegasi. William makes an appearance. See how they butcher this one. Art is nice, but it's not my cup of tea. (Juliet is a redhead)
Some robot combine anime, name escapes me. Not worth bothering with, altho the main chick drawing is nice (I dig redheads) 
A Lil' mermaid spinoff anime version comedy genre. Emphasis on the little. Made by Square Enix (wtf?)
Some generic fantasy sword stuff, it's up to 4 high school kids to save the day. Again. Made by Sega (console port?) 
A lame 4 beautiful looking guys and a sister in a big rich mansion. The sister has a psychological problem, attached with a human anatomy model (Picture a skeleton with anatomies model for those science lesson). It got stolen, random chaos ensues. No. Just no.   

I might have missed a few, but those are the ones that made an impression.

[Stormwaltz]

ANN reviewed a bunch of first episodes, if anyone cares.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2007-04-22

[angry.bob]

A lame 4 beautiful looking guys and a sister in a big rich mansion. The sister has a psychological problem, attached with a human anatomy model (Picture a skeleton with anatomies model for those science lesson). It got stolen, random chaos ensues. No. Just no.   

Are you serious? This is one of the best anime series to come out in the last five or six years. The fact you don't even know what this show is called or have any idea of what is going on in it should force people to disregard pretty much anything you have to say on the subject of anime.

[stray]

Oh, so it's made by the Gankutsuou guys. I like R&J anyways, but I'd probably really enjoy this.

[schild]

A lame 4 beautiful looking guys and a sister in a big rich mansion. The sister has a psychological problem, attached with a human anatomy model (Picture a skeleton with anatomies model for those science lesson). It got stolen, random chaos ensues. No. Just no.   

Are you serious? This is one of the best anime series to come out in the last five or six years. The fact you don't even know what this show is called or have any idea of what is going on in it should force people to disregard pretty much anything you have to say on the subject of anime.

What series is this?

[stray]

I'm going to guess... The Wallflower? Maybe?

[angry.bob]

What series is this?

It's got to be Yamato Nadesico Shichi Henge, aka The Wallflower (it's horrible NA name)

[schild]

Yamato Nadeshiko was trash as a life action show.

I can only think the anime isn't much better.

I don't know if they're related. If not, I'll try out the anime.

[angry.bob]

Yamato Nadeshiko was trash as a life action show.

I can only think the anime isn't much better.

I don't know if they're related. If not, I'll try out the anime.

As far as I know there's no live action Yamato Nadesico Shichi Henge, so I'm pretty sure you're talking about the old Yamato Nadesico jdrama about a poor girl trying to bag a rich guy. If so, they're not related at all. I thought they were which is why I didn't bother to check it out until there were already 7 or 8 fansubs out and there were about 3 pages in this thread about it. Personally, I think it's a great show. If you liked Azumanga Diaoh you'd probably like it. Regardless, it's a nice show to watch simply for having a mostly original concept.

Did you finish Ghost Hunt yet?

[Simond]

A lame 4 beautiful looking guys and a sister in a big rich mansion. The sister has a psychological problem, attached with a human anatomy model (Picture a skeleton with anatomies model for those science lesson). It got stolen, random chaos ensues. No. Just no.   

Are you serious? This is one of the best anime series to come out in the last five or six years. The fact you don't even know what this show is called or have any idea of what is going on in it should force people to disregard pretty much anything you have to say on the subject of anime.

He also said that Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann isn't worth watching...unless there's another combining mecha show this season.
Oh, and speaking of TTGL - remember how I said that it would run out of budget or spiral towards madness? Well....

[schild]

I finished Ghost Hunt like 2 pages back. I enjoyed it. Need a second season.

[rk47]

A lame 4 beautiful looking guys and a sister in a big rich mansion. The sister has a psychological problem, attached with a human anatomy model (Picture a skeleton with anatomies model for those science lesson). It got stolen, random chaos ensues. No. Just no.   

Are you serious? This is one of the best anime series to come out in the last five or six years. The fact you don't even know what this show is called or have any idea of what is going on in it should force people to disregard pretty much anything you have to say on the subject of anime.

He also said that Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann isn't worth watching...unless there's another combining mecha show this season.
Oh, and speaking of TTGL - remember how I said that it would run out of budget or spiral towards madness? Well....

It used to be cool when I was a kid but after a while combining robots gets very stale. I admit, I used to dig Dragon Ball but most fighting anime fall flats cause I'm already familiar with the plot twist and "unbeatable main character syndrome" , and most mecha shows during my grade sch days: Shin Getter Robo, Gaiking etc. But seeing it again just makes me wince. And yes, Guren Lagann is what I'm talking bout. The ep is kinda funny in a lame way, basically it's a pair of brother with a combining drill robot. I'm not sure if they're making a parody or taking it seriously but I've only seen one episode, so it's just worth a first impression. In this episode, they get hungry while inside...and almost lost.

*spoiler*


they ate a rat ass to save the day.   

[RhyssaFireheart]

Only new shows I'm watching are Bleach and Blood+ on Adult Swim.  Eureka 7 just finished this past Saturday and the TV showing was screwed up by [as].  Apparently they cut out an opening monologue and the entire epilogue to add the opening and ending back in, even though those were cut from the Japanese showing originally.  Bastards.  I guess you could have seen the episode as it was meant to be if you watched on the Fix, but that's only for a limited time.

Next week they start reshowing Ghost in the Shell 2nd Gig in place of Eureka 7, which is fine with me since I haven't seen the English episodes yet.  Plus I have a sub of Solid State Society downloaded, just hoping they release a dubbed version when it comes out in the US this summer.

[stray]

Don't laugh, but... I finally got around to Death Note.


It was really good for a second there. Then got really convoluted.

Also, they should have ended it like the movies. I'm not really digging the second/post L storyarc. It's like a completely different show now.

[Strazos]

Bleh, I hate both Blood+ and Bleach with a passion. I can tolerate E7, but I usually change the channel to something else.


Also, I have Death Note downloaded, but I haven't watched it yet.

[stray]

Hate it with a passion? Any reason why (just asking)?

I've given up on Bleach before, but I'm trying to give it a chance again.

So far though, Ichigo has fought at least a half dozen Hollows opponents and none of them have been very distinctive from the other. That's my biggest beef with it. Every other series I've seen of this type has a seemingly unlimited number ways of portraying battles and character abilities, while Bleach just kind of remains stale in the action department.

[Strazos]

Well, I don't really hate Blood+ too much; I'm just not interested in it.

But I really hate Bleach. Hate, hate hate. It reminds me too much of Inuyasha. I dislike all of the characters, the art style, and especially the fact that it's so many stupid episodes. I despise long series, especially since a lot of the episodes are entirely pointless - with stuff like Inuyasha or Naruto, you could delete, lets say 75%, of the episodes and miss Nothing.

It seems I dislike a lot of what comes out of Shonen Jump.

[stray]

While I agree that some do drag along and lend themselves to filler, I don't think that the type of stories they're trying to tell can even be told without being somewhat long. Saying that 75% could be deleted is being pretty harsh imo. Many series of that type have a dozen characters + dozens of antagonists, and try not to gloss over everything.

The shorter anime series out there, on the other hand, try to stick with a main story arc, and focus on less characters (sometimes as few as two or three). What I don't like is when writers try to extend more out of that particular formula than necessary (like Death Note -- which would great if it was just 20 episodes, and ended like the films did. Now it looks like they're going to drag it out a bit though).


You could say that the first type of long anime is trying to build a "world" of stories, while the latter is just trying to tell a singular story. Personally, I like both.

[EDIT]

Note: I'm still undecided on whether Bleach needs to be long or not. Like I said, the action and the obstacles/opponents he's facing so far aren't very extensive. It doesn't have a very large cast (yet?), and it's already repeating itself somewhat. And basically, to have a good "world", like I'm talking about above, I need variety or I'm not going to want to stick around for long.

I don't like Inuyasha to begin with. Wouldn't matter if it was short or long.