f13.net

I used to have a friend who was my "source" on anime. Unfortunately, he joined the army and it's a bit hard to contact him now.

So...any good anime recommendations? I lean more towards action and less towards silly/weird.

The only animes I own are:

Record of Lodoss War
Legend of Cristania (A semi-sequel to Lodoss War)
Robotech : Macross Saga (had to have it for nostalgia reasons)
Macross Plus

I also enjoyed Ghost in the Shell the one time I watched it.

I have heard Vampire Hunter D is good. Same with Cowboy Bebop.

So...any recommendations for an anime semi-virgin?

I'm not a big fan of Anime, but I do have a few old favorites . If you like blood, gore, action, and something with a complete lack of prissy characters, there's Fist of the North Star. Maybe you've seen it already (fairly old school -- late 80's, early 90's), but if you haven't, you can't go wrong with either the series or feature film (just stay away from the live action movie).

I'd recommend Captain Harlock, but the old stuff is very hard to find (the new stuff I haven't seen yet). It's not exactly action packed, but still, it's a great story with great characters...Kinda space opera-ish, except with pirates.

Vampire Hunter D is boring. It's a very beautiful film and all, but other than that: Too much melodrama for me. And like most anime, the characters are pussies.

Just my opinion, but I wouldn't recommend it.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot to add Ninja Scroll. I'd be surprised if you haven't seen it, but I thought I'd mention it anyways. Like I said with Fist of the North Star, if you like action, then check it out.

I can list a ton as I've seen way too much fucking anime, but here's my top picks:

1. FLCL (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,166,ksjpcy,furi_kuri.html) Probably the opus of Studio Gainax (http://www.animenfo.com/animestudio,54,oajphs,gainax.html). Other notable works include Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,882,brcfkh,abenobashi_maho.html) (Abenobashi Magical Shopping Arcade in America), Oruchuban Ebichu (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,149,ifcwmj,ebichu.html), Kareshi Kanojo No Jijou (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,225,aqinsu,kareshi_kanojo_.html) (His and Her Circumstances in America), and finally the favorite of many elitists and morons alike, Neon Genesis Evangelion (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,284,prlbgu,neon_genesis_ev.html). Any and all of which are worth purchasing in full.

2. Jungle Wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu TV (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,222,icfflr,jungle_wa_itsum.html) & Deluxe (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1094,bnsxgs,jungle_wa_itsum.html). Unfortunately, the two studios behind this show don't seem to be able to make any other shit worth watching.

3. Anything by Hayao Miyazaki (http://www.animenfo.com/person,131,tlsssq,miyazaki_hayao.html) and by extension, Studio Ghibli (http://www.animenfo.com/animestudio,64,crsacf,studio_ghibli.html). Notables include Spirited Away (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,534,lvsptg,spirited_away.html) and Princess Mononoke (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,299,mdcnma,princess_monono.html). Though, I'd argue, Grave of the Fireflies (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,190,nenweg,grave_of_the_fi.html) is their best work and one of the best war stories ever put to film.

4. Azumanga Daioh (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,857,rtsmeg,azumanga_daioh.html). Genco, the studio behind Azumanga Daioh, also did Millenium Actress (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1185,kqzxhd,millennium_actr.html), Figure 17 - Tsubasa & Hikaru (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,587,yuogje,figure_17_tsuba.html), and Kino no tabi ~the Beautiful World~ (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1152,xgqirs,kino_no_tabi__t.html). All of which are pretty goddamned good.

5. And I may be the only one that recommends this, but, Noir (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,290,kjccvj,noir.html). It's highly, HIGHLY underrated. You can comfortably skip the other shows from the joint studios that made Noir.

Edit: Also, if you're looking at purchasing anime, might I suggest getting Hong Kong imports from Animeniacs (http://www.animeniacs.com) and/or Discount Anime DVD (http://www.discountanimedvd.com). I just can't support the gouging prices of localized anime. The dubbing sucks half the time. There's no excuse for charging $29.99 for 3 episodes when for $50 you can get Hong Kong imports with decent to awesome subtitles for a full series. Which reminds me.

6. Colorful (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1070,wfmmyg,colorful.html). The best American dub of anything is located on this DVD. If you're into sophomoric humor, this show is fucking awesome. The studio, Shueisha (http://www.animenfo.com/animestudio,23,drcktm,shueisha.html) also did the hilarious Golden Boy (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,186,bgolzf,golden_boy.html), the positively astounding Ultra Maniac TV (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1214,unwopv,ultra_maniac_tv.html), the surprisingly addictive Hikaru No Go (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,719,jahmbq,hikaru_no_go.html), and the overly cute Happy World! (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1153,varwwy,happy_world_.html).

Though Anime fans everywhere will hate my guts for saying this, I have to say that Robotech (http://www.robotech.com/) is the only series I really liked.

My favourite anime series of all time is Giant Robo, which is only just coming out onto DVD. The first episode is a bit bland-ish, but once you start heading to the climax it's just fantastic.

Excel Saga can be quite funny, but you need to watch other anime to pick up some of the references. I still haven't finished this series, so can't guarantee that the quality stays high (since I've heard that things drop off towards the end).

Nobody said Naruto yet...  Have to get them off Bittorrent as there are no engdub releases.  
Link to season 1 (http://tracker.boxtorrents.com/details.php?id=10720)

#1 in Japan right now.  Pretty good stuff.

Second the recommendations of anything by Ghibli, and definately watch FLCL.  Best. Anime. Ever.

I like:

Last Exile
FLCL
Noir
Beck

Ones I liked alot:
Noir
Wolf's Rain

There's more but its been awhile and I can't remember their names.

I also didn't mind FMA. Very depressing from start to near the end, but still well done.

Just the other day I finally picked up the second season boxed set of The Big O, which is one I highly recommend.  No disgusting cuteness, no screeching J-pop soundtrack, no goddamn children, nobody with fucking animal ears or a tail, no schoolgirls, and no ethnically ambiguous characters with white skin, round eyes, and Japanese names.  It's primary influences seem to be Batman the Animated Series and The Iron Giant.

Plot synopsis:  Paradigm City appears to be the last remnant of human settlement on Earth.  Nobody knows how this came to be, however, because forty years prior to the events of the show, every single living person suffered simultaneous and complete amnesia.  Over time civilization was rebuilt, and the city that is pretty obviously the former New York is now ruled over by the Paradigm Corporation.  The protagonist is a guy named Roger Smith, a former cop who makes his living as a freelance negotiator (works a lot of kidnapping cases, stuff like that).  When things go to shit, he summons his giant robot and beats ass.  So with that, and his faithful butler Alfred... er... I mean Norman, and his ill-tempered android sidekick/possible love interest Dorothy, he eventually tries to figure out what the hell is going on, and who actually knows what happened forty years prior.

You should try the new Xenosaga Anime series.

You should watch Cowboy Bebop for the music if nothing else.  Best soundtrack I've ever heard for an Anime, and I understand it's all done by one guy & his band, Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts.  

I also second The Big O as a good series.  It had such a fanbase from the Cartoon Network that CN funded the completion of the second season itself.

Also, Robotech was fun but watching it nowadays is just painful.  I own the series because I enjoyed the story when I was young  (well, except for the second series with Dana)and you can't go wrong with giant robots but the animation just makes my eyes bleed now.

I prefer comedies myself.  So classic stuff like Ursei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyo, Kimagure Orange Road, Koko Wa Greenwod, and Miami Guns make my list.

If you're looking for epic anime ala Lodoss War, nothing beats Escaflowne.

If you're looking for lighter action, Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats are classics of the genre that deserve to be watched.

For a good Twilinght Zone / Horror series, Vampire Princess Miiyu tops the list.

And if you just want something truly strange, a quirky combination of magical girl anime, comedy, and gender-bending romance that is heavy (and I do mean heavy) on visual metaphor, then you want Revolutionary Girl Utena.  Let me warn you, though, that the series is so confusing most of the people who have seen every episode still don't know what it was really about.

Bruce

Im a big fan of Patlabor myself.  Near future cop story with robots.  Cept the robots could be removed from the show and it would still kick ass.  Sometimes its a comedy, sometimes a techno thriller, and sometimes a drama.  Cept its all good.  Plus you have to love any show that makes references to Ultima and Wizardry in it.

Urusei.
Greenwood.

Anyway, these titles are classic alright. And highly overrated. Easily avoided.



NERV beats both.



Miyu.

Also, every single series you listed is fun to people that like old shitty stuff. No offense, but your taste is highly dated. HIGHLY dated. Catch up with the times, old-timer.

Oh, and a furry recommending Ranma 1/2 is just damned wrong.

I have my anime reviews at http://amr.nextstudio.net even though I'm not watching any anime till I get L60 in WoW.... having a job would probably help too.

Oh, and Gankutsuou is a very, very cool one. The art style is really amazing and it's an interesting retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo.

You know the only thing worse than a furry?

Anime fans, attack!

Jk ;P

Rock on, you crazy, fun loving anime weirdos.

Cowboy bebop is just something everyone should watch, its atmosphere, character, and themes make it stand out as great independant of it's genre.

The same goes for Ghost in the Shell 1 and 2, though SAC doesn't match up to the movies IMHO (Not that it's bad, it just isn't at the same level as the movies.


I like what I've seen of Big O, though I haven't really seen enough of it to make a judgement.  Same for FMA.

I like Big-O quite a bit, it's more than the sum of it's parts. Same thing with Trigun. (Which you won't like if you don't appreciate the wacky sense of humor sometimes)

Also Macross Plus totally rules. It's probably the best thing I've seen. It deserves some sort of award for sound as well. (Like, best use of sound in anything ever) I think what makes it so good is that I, and I would guess a lot of other people, can identify with both the male protaganists even though they are polar opposites in many ways.

Series I watched/liked/own.  No particular order.

Trigun.  Action, fair amount of comic releif, good story anyway.

Hellsing.  Action, guns, less comic releif, fair story.  Vampire genre.

Ruroni Kenshin.  Historical fiction, late 1860s Japan. Kickass swordsman, vowed never to kill again.  Some people don't like the art style.  Often goofy, moderate to high amounts of romantic subtext.  OAV and movie were released in the US under the 'Samurai X' title.

Evangelion.  Big robots, existentialism, everyone is pretty sure theres a Big Deep Meaning but I'll be damned if I've ever seen anyone coherently explain it.  Its good anyway.

Gunsmith cats.  Cute chicks, cool toys, fast car, formulaic action, basically no plot to speak of.

Man, I never realised Schild had such good taste in anime.  You have gone up a notch in my book.

Going to have to second anything by Miyazaki.  Schild already mentioned Spirited Away and Mononoke.  The others you might want to look into are Nausicaa (not sure if this was ever licenced for NorthAmerican Distro), Laputa (also known as Castle in the Sky), My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service.  His studio also has a new movie in the works, Howl's Moving Castle, which I am really looking foreward to.

If you like some deep thoughts kind of stuff, check out Night on the Galactic Railroad.

As for serieses, a lot of good stuff has been mentioned, I would like to add:
- OnePiece (Avoid the English dub like the plague, and get the Fansub version.  Sorry Schild, but fucking Foxbox, or whoever their supplier is, has butchered this show to the point where I dont give a fuck if they licenced it, their end product is a travesty that does not bear supporting).  Probably the best series of its genre I have ever watched.  Better then Naruto, and beats the livin shit out of DBZ.
- The Irresponsble Captain Tylor.  Absloutely awesome series.
- Read or Die.  The OVAs are just cool, and the TV series isnt too bad either.
- Mahou Tsukai Tai.  Great characters, romantic comedy, highschool magic club, and some well done sexual humor.  

For those macross fans out there, I would REALLY reccomend hitting AnimeSuki (www.animesuki.net) and grabbing the full run of Macross Zero before some company licenceses it and it dissapears.  (Just a note, that website hosts torrent links ONLY to non licenced anime)

Kind of surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet(although then some people fucking hate the movie as I used to), but Akira is pretty much THE anime movie, despite being barely half as good(or understandable) as the manga series.  If you are into the action and can stomach some weird, then check out the movie.  This doesn't really have much to do with the topic, but I like the music as well.

Akira and Ghost in the shell (it's sequel, and stand-alone complex TV) are all highly HIGHLY overrated. Style over substance. Though Akira has more substance underneath the surface than GITS.

I'm not really sure why I dig Akira, particularly since I used to absolutely hate the movie.  The pacing is uneven, the story makes little sense even upon repeat viewings, and the ending is anticlimactic.  However, the lil' bastard somehow holds me now, so I figure it might be good for others, even if it is widely recognized(which is a trait that does not mean automatically something is overrated).

I absolutely agree with Ghost in the Shell, though.  The manga is good, the movie is fucking garbage.

EDIT: Oh, and the Ninja Scroll movie is a fun watch if you are in the mood for revenge, gore, and tight pacing.

Great story and music in this one. I bought it several months ago. If you know you like anime, you will love this. Otherwise you will just sit there asking yourself WTF?


Total agreement on this - very underrated and very good. Bought the box set on ebay for $50 I liked it so much. Course I don't know what I will do with the t-shirt now. The pacing annoyed the wife, the constant flashback, with the ever growing length of what is revealed - but I liked that aspect. Very good series.

I'd also throw in my support for viewing Trigun and Cowboy Bebop.  Trigun, you really want to wade through the first 9 episodes to get to the meat. They really take too long to get going - but when they do - wow.

For a fun robot romantic series, I'd suggest full metal panic. Most people like the 2nd season, but I found the first to be much more enjoyable.  I'd clarify that by stating, I borrowed these from a friend, so I never paid a dime for them. If I spent money, I'm sure my feelings would be different.

***Spoiler***
Love to hear what people thought about the parting shots in Noir. The first time I watched it, I figured RIP them. (Not that I don't think they will likely die soon), but then I watched it again, and it's one shot from each of their guns, so I think its some odd Salute. Overall - I wish it wasn't there.

I rented the first couple disks of Noir, and I found the story quite interesting. Problem I had was that it felt like each 20 minute episode used about 12 minutes of re-run footage from the last three episodes.

It was as though they couldn't afford to create new footage. Reminded me of the old Canadian Spiderman/Rocket Robinhood cartoons in that way.

So did they get any better as it went on?

They keep showing the one flashback with them as children, but it changes as the series go on, if I remember correctly. I think there are about 7 episodes in the last 10 that make it completely worth finishing. Unless I'm losing my mind, episodes 23-26 were positively stellar.

Fans of Ninja Scroll would probably also enjoy Berserk, which ranks pretty high in both sheer violence and WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED

My tolerance for anime has gone WAY down in recent years, probably owing to so much more of it being available in the States. It seems like they've run out the string on good shit, and the really bad, wacked out shit is all they can put out now.

I think the biggest thing that bugs me about anime is when they get all "whacky" and shit. Things like gigantic bug eyes when someone is surprised, or something just so goddamn absurb, it just doesn't fit. I tried very fucking hard to like Neon Genesis Evangelion, but I couldn't make it past the first disc. That goddamn penguin, Pepe the warm-water penguin just killed me. I mean, here you have this story that doesn't yet make a lot of sense about giant robots and some kind of demonic or angelic stuff, and I'm trying to get into it and this fucking PENGUIN just shows up and kills the mood. It's like watching a great porno and right in the middle of it, someone's grandmother comes into the frame. WHAT THE FUCK? I DON'T NEED THAT!

With that said, I must say I enjoy Cowboy Bebop, because when it goes whacky, it stays within its universe. I loved Robotech, still dig the Ghost in the Shell movie, like Ninja Scroll and Bubblegum Crisis. Patlabor was good. Even though it does go silly, I still love Moldiver.

Watch all of them. Noir is worth finishing.

Very woth finishing. I'd say it's my favorite out of all of them. Then again, the last 4 episodes or so of Trigun are amazing.

I love ninja scroll. The funniest part about why I love it though is the fact that me and a friend when we first rented it grabbed the wrong copy. The copy we grabbed was all dubbed in spanish with ONE english subtitle.

It is very very odd watching a movie written in one language dubbed in another that you can sometimes understand but damn we had fun MST3king why the hell the big bosses kept sending minions into the grinder with arms and legs flying everywhere.

I have since seen it in english and it is still a very good anime film in an over the top gorey sort of way. The big stone guy gives new meaning to the phrase can lick anybody in a fight though.


kaid

Venus Wars
Ninja Scroll
Spirited Away

If you value your sanity and/or your time, do not come within 200 yards of a theater showing the Ghost In The Shell sequel.  It takes the unfortunate anime tendency to try to sound profound by stringing random metaphysical words together and elevates it to a divine calling.  Never has a movie so bad sounded so self-important.  Yes, I'm bitter.

It sure is pretty to look at though wasn't it?

Oh come on now, it's Ghost in the Shell...  Self Important philosophical rambling and pretty imagery is the point.

Escaflowne
12 kingdoms (especially if you liked Lodoss Wars)
Last Exile
Crest/Banner/Battleflag of the Stars (really underrated)
Berserk (But only because the Manga is sooooo good)

I also have to admit. He had two animes I also liked that were a little racier. One was called Oh My Goddess. I didn't see all of it but found it vaguely amusing. He also had this one about 3 witches that had to seduce a virgin to pass their school tests or something. I don't remember the name of it.

Be warned, Oh My Goddess is sappy as shit.

To say the least.

AMG is the anit-raciest anime ever. The other thing sounds like it might be the moderatly new Viper GTS series. Or it might be one of the nine million shows about teenage witch girls. Unless it was actually hardcore pornographic, the witch thing only narrows it down slightly.

I agree, though I haven't read the manga.  There is supposedly substantially more to the story both before and after.

Interestingly, you can skip the first one and, and watch it at the end.  It's sort of a wtf until you've seen the rest.  I watched it this way, and my wife watched it the other (watched 1 first).  Both work.

I don't know about hardcore, but it had alot of nudity. This was oh...close to a decade ago so I don't remember much other than being entertained in a silyl way. It was funny but bordeline porno as well.

As for OMG, I just vaguely remember it as well. I mostly remember it as being silly but kinda stupid.

Oh my Goddess definitely is sappy, it's also one of my favorites. The relatively recent movie, which combines super-tech science and norse mythology into a single coherent force is brilliant. Very well animated too and Belldandy (Norn of the present) is a more interesting character than she may appear at first.

Really sappy is "To Heart", I believe it is capable of causing revulsion in cynics at over 50 meters. And that's just while in the box!

My personal favourite is probably patlabor though. But all of Miyazaki's films are superb. I use grave of the fireflies only to hurt other people (not that it's one of his). Escaflowne, Trigun, Scrapped Princess, Noir, Read or Die OAV. There's just some awfully interesting stuff around. Largely I think because the manga format is cheap enough to do experimental stuff and anime can feed off the successes from there.

I have about 300 hours saved up at this point, just need to find... 300 hours where I shouldn't be doing something else.

When did this get good? I liked episodes 1-5 or so, but around 8 I stopped because I just couldn't take it anymore.



Get a part time job in an anime store. In 2 weeks you'll digest a good 30 years of anime. And you'll also come to despise and loathe the real anime fans. They are a terrible group of unclean pigs.

Despite some of the hate I've seen above, I'll still suggest any of the Ghost in the Shell material (Both movies and Series).  It has always been one of my favorite animes, as it does away with most of the stupid shit anime comes standard with.  Action with good plot, always recommended.  And yes, I actually enjoyed Ghost in the Shell 2 quite a bit, despite some initial trepidation.  Could have been better, but I find I'm actually sort of missing good ol' mind fuck animes (that you can still understand in the end.  Gainax, take note).  Not to mention, it is probably the most beautiful movie I’ve ever seen.  

FLCL is......unique.  But I have made 4 attempts to watch that series over the last 8 months, and I have still only managed to get through the first 2 episodes.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep paying attention to it long enough to get farther, and to like it, but yesh.  Why does everything Gainax produce make me want to fire bomb there studio?  Yet they seem to be the only people who do anything unique....

Conversely, Last Exile started out being one of the coolest and most original animes I’ve seen in a long time (very cool world).  But by the second half of the series, the characters were just ruining it.  Trying to watch episodes became tedious.  I wanted to kill them all.  Nothing but a group of whinny annoying bitches that fucking CRY at every little thing.  And the ending sucked.  NO FUCKING EXPLINATION OF ANYTHING.  Which is kind of standard in anime, but I had some hopes for this one.  Bleh.

Other, random, suggestions:
Cowboy Bebop -  Yes, a must.  See this series dammit!

Macross Plus - Excellent OAV, just stay away from the dub.

Macross Zero - Same as above, though you might want to be familiar with the Macross universe before you see either of these (It’s Robotech, sort of...)

Kenshin OAV (Trust and Betrayal) - Also known as Samurai X in the US.  This is the first OAV.  The second OAV is epileptic and incomprehensible to anybody who hasn’t seen the anime and read the whole manga.  And it butchers the story on top of that.

Ninja Scroll - Because it’s a classic and you can never have enough ninjas dieing in horrible over the top ways.

Bubble Gum Crisis – It’s old, it’s the 80’s, its fun.


I have yet to actually watch any of the newer big series like FMA or Naruto, though I hear they are good.  Damn college and WoW, taking away all my free time.

Here's the thing about Ghost in the Shell. There is a group of people that thinks it's robot jesus. There's a group of people that think it's style over substance. I think it's the latter.

I think the people that think it's robot jesus is insane. They probably feel the same way about me.

The story's actually really good too.

I'll also put in a vote for Read or Die - It's 3 short episodes. It's fun. Library Superheroes!

And if you want to watch them turn everyting you learned from Read or Die OVA on its head, grab the TV series.  Just about as much fun, with some really whacked out plot twists in regards to the OVA.

Most everyone has covered the series I enjoy, just thought I'd chime in with another online vendor of bootlegs, Cookie Jar Video (http://www.cookiejarvideo.com). I've purchased several anime boxsets, as well as regular Japanese movies from the site, and I've been very pleased with all of them.  Immaculate picture and sound quality, no engrish subtitles, and all for a fraction of the price of the boxsets retail.  The full Neon Genesis Evangelion and the movie/s for $35? Yes, please!  I'm sure it's ethically questionable, but I try not to let that keep me up at night.

(http://www.f13.net/images/necropost.gif)


I see the characters and think of stan from monkey island.  Watched the first 4 episodes a couple nights ago. It's pretty sick that so far it is the most loyal adaptation of the book that I have seen.

Edit by schild: Added the obligatory necropost graphic.

I'm more into the comedy anime so this list may be a bit slanted towards the insane:

Adventures of Mini-Goddess (unspeakably cute and funny spin off of Oh My Goddess/Aa Megami-Sama)
Ranma 1/2
Gatchaman (and Battle of the Planets if yer old-skool and actually know who 7-Zark-7 is.)
Robotech (actaully 3 seperate anime series (Macross, Southern Cross, Mospeda) mashed into one but darn good)
Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato)
Cowboy Bebop
Big O
Gunbuster (6 part OAV)
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (6 part OAV)
Saber Marionette J
Anything Miyazaki.

I'm sure I'll think of others as the weekend goes on.

Quoted because I stand by my opinions. But I guess I should add Yakitate! Japan! (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1522,scxejx,yakitate___japa.html). Breadbaking ftw and whatnot.

Haibane Renmei is better than FLCL. :P

I disagree. But wouldn't compare to two in most cases. Radix - the company that did Haibane Renmei is...an acquired taste. I could never get into most of their stuff.

I'll agree Noir is great - I bought the box set on the cheap on Ebay.

Someone recently suggested Full Metal Panic, It's not art, but it's darn funny. It starts off with Giant Metal Robots, then takes a turn where you don't see a robot for 5 episodes.

Then the robots come back and you realise that the show would be some much better without them.  :cry:.

Anyways, to share the few shows I've watched and enjoyed recently:

• Mushishi (http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=animelist&adb.search=mushishi&do.search=search) (Drama/Fantasy) - The show is highly interesting, taking many of it's ideas, themes and settings from Shinto and Japanese folklore, posing philosophical questions, telling stories or just being generally fascinating. The fact that tha backgrounds and environments in the show are quite beautiful certainly doesn't hurt eather.
• Honey & Clover (http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=animelist&adb.search=honey+%26+clover&do.search=search) (Drama/Comedy) - The plot revolves around the life a group of art students, and manages to be both charming, interesting and occasionally hilarious. A breath of fresh air compared to many of the shows produced the couple of years. (From what I've heard it's apparently aimed mainly at women in their 30's(?). Though that certainly didn't prevent me from enjoying it as a young adult male.)
• Pani Poni Dash (http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=animelist&adb.search=pani+poni+dash&do.search=search) (Comedy) - In the vein of Azumanga Daioh, it's a comedy with highschool students. That doesn't mean that the comedy is the same though, and this is probably aimed at a somewhat geekier audience, with countless references to... anything and everything, really. Thankfully both groups subbing the show are quite liberal with explanations. Still, a very funny show. Download the first episode and check if you like it.

Looked interesting, but I haven't dared watch anything by Yoshitoshi Abe since Serial Experiments Lain. I'm secretly something of a philistine - I can't excuse a meandering, malnourished plot just because "it's artistic."

Haibane Renmei (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/haibane_renmei.html) was this years christmas present
to myself. It actually has a very definite, albeit character based, story thread to it. Extremely strong title if you can
handle something slower moving. I also bought Fruits Basket as my guilty pleasure, although strangely I liked
the fansub translation better. And I can see myself wanting Azumanga Daioh (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/azumanga_daioh.html")
and Great Teacher Onizuka (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/onizuka.html") sometime this year... potential birthday presents
perhaps.

Scrapped Princess (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/scrapped_princess.html) gets better once the stock
fantasy world starts to shred and the story grows dramatically in scale.

There's a bunch of other titles that have been interesting. The biggest surprise was probably Gunslinger Girl (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/gunslinger_girl.html")
being much better than I expected and finding Air Master (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/air_master.html") which is a probably the best fighting anime I've seen
(although that's not saying too much, and you have to be able to mentally block out the support characters). FF7:Advent Children was also great fun, made up of nothing
but pose shots, insane action and the creators obviously having way too much fun.

I also have a job now, so while I have money I'm missing the time. I think I have about 40-60 titles waiting to be watched :)

You don't want to see the top of our TV cabinent. Really. You don't. In box sets alone, we have all of Saishuu Heiki Kanojo, s-CRY-ed, Southern Cross (original, not the Robotech dub), Arjuna, and Inuyasha Season 2 (that's my wife's, I'm under no obligation to watch).

I've said it elsewhere, but I guess it should be said here.

The GTO Live Action with Takashi Sorimachi is much better than the anime - which I also loved.

Haibane Renmei strongly reminded me of the Miyazaki films, actually. Other than ABe's art style, it shares very little with the sensibilities of Lain.

FLCL -- frankly, I gave up after 1 dvd worth. Just too damn strange. Talk about meandering. ;)

I'm only halfway thru Scrapped Princess, but enjoying it. I have Neia7 on the shelf for after that.

Scrapped Princess is one of the only series I've ever not been able to finish for reasons outside of my control. Maybe I was coming off a 3 year anime binge or something, but man did it just bore me.  Ghost in the shell bored me to tears also.

Here's something recent I enjoyed: Appleseed the Movie (2005). I thoIught it was very well done, beginning to end. And just beautiful to watch. Appleseed had always been one of my favorite mangas and I could only hope that someone would make a movie 50% as good as the source material. They easily got it 80% right. Well done.

I'll be perfectly honest though, I'd rather watch a japanese live action drama now than an anime. They have some extremely talented actors over there doing shows that are slight variations on themes that end up making them a joy to watch.  Like the aforementioned Densha Otoko (which would translate well, and may be, one day) or Hero with Takuya Kimura. Just good stuff.

A couple of shows which I don't see mentioned which I really liked.

Hajime no ippo - Wimpy boy turns boxer. Some unexpected fights but sadly generaly follows the usual last minute power up rule. It was very easy to watch, I cleared the whole series in only a couple of days of continous watching. Some people has this series in way higher regard than me though.

Initial D - Very good series about street racing. Still in production, however episodes airs very seldom nowdays.

Slam Dunk - Old series about basket ball, I found it extremly funny. The main character is a good for nothing brute who has a talent for the sport, but he only wants to play to impress a girl. He sucks with girls btw. I find this one very very underrated. You need to get this one in the original language, half the series is about the spot on voice of the main character.

Hrmm almost everything has been mentioned so I'll go out on a limb here and say... 3x3 Eyes. I remember atleast thinking it was good but I haven't seen it for 10 years or so.

The 3x3 eyes manga is much better than the anime (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/3x3_eyes_a.html"). And the anime drops dramatically
in quality after the first two episodes. For my out on the limb contribution it would be "Club to death angel
Dokoro-chan", as long as you only watch episodes 1-6.

I can't remember the last live action TV show I watched... but I do know some of the more discerning fans around
here are into Densha Otoko in a big way.

Ghost in the shell TV (Season 1 (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/gits_stand_alone_complex.html") and Season 2 (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/gits_sac_second_gig.html)) are both better than the movies, which I have to agree are pretty
over-rated. I'm still ambivalent about whether the wacky philosophy makes sense from the fragments presented
in the show, but it at least sounds sufficiently credible.

Thought of one other that I didn't see listed (although I skimmed and may have missed it). Fushigi Yugi. My wife and brother in law were way into it back when he would buy anime fansubs. They only ever got the first 8 or so episodes. A couple of years ago I found the entire first and second seasons on VCD on one of the online auctions. It's a helluva story that if you can make it past the first few episodes, will definately grab you. Not to say that the first few eps are bad, but it took me a little bit of time to get hooked. YMMV.

Oh good times, first the recommendations that I will second (or 5th depending on the series).

-Macross Plus (the best fighting sequences in a mecha show that I've ever seen, hands down)
-GitS:SAC (you can catch it on CN, but really you should just download it or rent the dvd's from your local comic or game store because the plot is spread over the eps in small pieces and you can get lost easily)
-Cowboy Bebop (duh)
-Noir (fucking great show, gets ripped to shreds on many anime review sites because they say the girls fire 3 bullets and kill 5 people.  Which is retarded considering EVERYTHING ELSE THAT EVER HAPPENS IN ANIME)
-Trigun (Vash is one of the most lovable and goofy characters ever, guaranteed to seduce any emo chick you know with his combination of badassness and selfless caring  :-D )
-Kenshin OVA (Samurai X, if you have seen any anime and aren't anti samurai/ninja MAKE SURE YOU WATCH THIS)
-Full Metal Panic (I can't recommend this enough, if you dont find it funny you are broken, if you want more school content and less mecha check out Fumaffu, if you want more mecha, more violence and more sex check out the 2nd Raid)
-Berserk (one of the best, IF you do not watch ep1 and skip the last few eps, they will destroy the series)
-FLCL (le brilliant, dont let anyone tell you otherwise, god I love that show)

Things not mentioned, god damn there isn't much, but here are some things I would add as top tier shows:
-RahXephon, this is like NGE but it doesn't suck, really simple as that.  So stay the fuck away if you dislike: mecha/anime/weird ass confusing plotlines that may or may not involve the destruction of the world at the end of the series.
-Elfen Lied, ok there are some things VERY wrong with this show, but if you like your love stories animated, sad and with a heavy dose of flashbacks needed this is a great show.  But really only anime "fans" should try it out because the art is not very good and there is some stupid stupid stupid shit they put in for no reason on this one.  Oh yeah, dont watch it if you dont like blood...


Ok now some stuff I disagree with that has been posted so far in the thread:
-Xenosaga, fucking terrible I dont know if there is a new version or something but Xenosaga:The Animation felt like I was being skull fucked by stupidity-gnomes.

-Azumanga Diaoh, if you dont like visual comedy dont go near this show, because it is boring, the art is boring, the plot is boring I think I only made it through 2 episodes in full.  Because it was that fucking boring.  Many find it hilarious I'm just warning the rest of you.

-Escaflowne > NGE, not to mention RahXephon being a league ahead of that stupid fucking show.  Evangelion is a terrible show for one simple reason 2/3rds of the way through any self-respecting human will be longing for our race to be wiped out to SHUT THE STUPID ANGSTY KIDS THE FUCK UP.  Watch either of the other two shows if you want good mecha, NGE is ass^7.

-Ghost in the Shell movies, do yourself a favor and try the series first.  It is better, and has less long segments of narration masquerading as hard sci-fi but it is actually total mumbo jumbo.

-Hellsing, is overrated.  A good show that only gets 13eps and has fucking shoddy art quality in all the wrong places.  Should be great, still has its moments but is not on par with most of the stuff in this thread by a long shot.

-Last Exile, fucking magnificent art but the story was meh, the characters turned out meh, I dont know what they fucked up but they fucked up something.  Still worth watching if you've seen lots of stuff because it will change your standards of CGI in anime not to mention the character art is very nice.

-Haibane Ranme, much like Azumanga Diaoh I'm going to put a warning out to the less artsy anime watchers.  This show is boring, and stupid, and boring with a few more layers of yawn.  I made it through 4 episodes this time, but I just didn't care about anything that was happening at that point.  Again I'm told that it is smart and original but I need to stay entertained to get through the preface of the plot for a show to work kthxbye.

So anyways, glad this got necro'd and I was checking on general board thanks to the Danish thread, picked up some recommendations I hadn't gotten already from my anime review board.

I'd just like to add that even though SirBruce recommended Revolutionary Girl Utena, you shouldn't ignore it as a matter of principle. What Evangelion did for mecha shows, Utena does for magical girl shows, but better. It's what the director of the decent seasons of Sailor Moon did next after he got fired for being too weird.

Plus, you know, Japanese Rock Opera for duel music!

The problem with magical girl shows is that they're universally terrible.

Well, they're not intended for an adult male audience. Cardcaptor Sakura is very good, and Princess Tutu's first disc shows promise. Other than that, most maho shoujo is as insipid as Western kids' cartoons.

To save time on recommendations, I just put up my list of capsule reviews (http://www.animeofthestate.org/temp/DVD%20Collection.doc). Length and depth of commentary depends on how motivated I felt when we finished the show.

You gave Cardcaptor Sakura 5 stars and Cowboy Bebop 4 stars. I don't care if you specified why (which you did). Your review system is unbalanced. YOU'RE OFFICIALLY SUSPECT ^_^;;. Actually, now that I look further, you have a lot of oddly rated shows. Noir gets 3 stars while Gunslinger Girl gets 5? Granted, I saw Noir before it was licensed and there wasn't really any hype, it was just another show that popped up so I got it. I guess if it's oversold it'll ruin whatever it might've been.

Looking at that list just shows me how much terrible shit has been licensed and how much good shit has been missed.

I'm entirely subjective. In every way - style, vision, animation, sound, and influence - Bebop is clearly superior to Gunslinger Girl. GSG just engaged my emotions more. I can more easily forgive a show that makes emotional sense and no logical sense than one that makes logical sense and no emotional sense. That's not a rule, just a strong trend.

Gunslinger Girls was an ok show at best until the final episode, you must have rated it right after the ending which was a very good (even more so by anime standards) and very touching.

Otherwise there is just no logic to rating it higher then Bebop or Noir, the CCS thing I am used to at this point there are tons of people who gush over that show.  Bear in mind, you can not watch the dubbed version because 4kids likes to take anime and rape their souls when they do the voice-overs.

Some would say an adult male audience is one of their primary targets.  The kind of audience one wouldn't want living on the same street...

And I'd put a warning on these. Full Metal Panic is decent for the first 6-8 episodes (the first story arc) and then
degrades into some stupid writing, awful action and tiresome characters. Laughing at the lead character being
socially retarded got old really quick. Rahxephon is pretty average, manages to copy all of the flaws of Evangelion
without achieving much of the intensity.

I like most of the other suggestions though.

Probably a fair statement, the formula is so easy to follow that a lot of very average
shows get written in this genre. I'd say Card Captor Sakura is probably one of the best
while Earth Girl Arujuna (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/earth_girl_arujuna.html) shows it could be used in a more mature context (although it's
not actually that good an anime, way too much wacky eco-green / new age philosophy
for me). You could also put the ones where magic is used only to explore adult-hood such
as Magical Stage Fancy La-la (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/magical_stage_fancy_lala.html) which tend to be a bit more interesting than
"beat the bad-thing of the week".

Ah, I also forgot Kamichu which is coming out at the moment. Young girl who accidentally becomes
a shinto goddess (because the actual resident one left to follow a music career) without any of
the training needed. Been interesting so far (6 episodes out).

I actually would like to have a review of Sailor moon for my site, given the historical importance
of the title, but it would probably take something like extended full-body paralysis to make me
bored enough to actually do it. 300'ish episodes in postage stamp size .rm format... /shudder.

Another two that spring to mind.

Galaxy Express 999. Set in the Harlock universe but with a space train instead of a space battleship.

Phoenix 2772 (Space Firebird). One of the few anime that made me cry. And it was a pretty horrible dub as well.

And if you ever want a really huge laugh, look for Revenge of the Bioroids. It's a very bad dub of the Macross movie. So bad it's brilliant.

I'll agree with Raph on Haibane Renmei being a good series, although it is slow and character driven so you action fans will probably not like it.  I also liked Neia Under 7, another by Abe, but it does not have as coherant a story.

I will second anything by Miyazaki.  Nausicaa and Mononoke Hime have the most action.  Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away have the best stories.  The Castle of Cagliostro is a lot of fun and uses the Lupin characters (a good series for fans of girls, guns, and bank robbers).

Those that enjoy shows like Ninja Scroll may want to try Hellsing.  It was not to my taste but plenty of my friends enjoyed it.

Trigun is a great comedy/western with a good deal of action.  Beebop has been mentioned and is worth another recommendation.

Those that like fantasy and drama might like Twelve Kingdoms.  (The manga art is beautiful.)  Escaflowne as mentioned is a very good series.

It may look like a kids' show, but I highly recommend Kodocha (Kodomo no Omocha / Child's Toy).  It is a comedy with some suprisingly serious themes.

Love Hina is a zany comedy with some great characters if you like or don't mind the guy with girl's chasing after him routine.

I also agree Azumanga Dioh is a great show.  If it gets turned into an anime, Yotsuba! will have the potential to be just as good, so keep an eye out for it.

I'm not a fan of Miyazaki myself outside of his studio's ability to put out amazing looking animation. Graveyard of the Fireflies was so good because Miyazaki had very little to do with it. The bulk of his stuff is too preachy for me.

Trigun is one of the best animes I've seen in a long time, but it suddenly gets VERY dark after being relatively light-hearted early on.

Bebop/Samurai Champloo are really similar in that they're both very well animated, have great action, have great music, and are very episodic in nature, with maybe a 4th of the total season being dedicated to any real plot arc. Champloo is a bit weaker but still good IMO.

If you want to see two sides represented in history for the hell of it, check out the Kenshin TV series and Peacemaker. Kenshin is the hero of the Imperialists (and uh, a mass murderer when you think about it), and Peacemaker focuses on "police" force in Kyoto who were on the other (and losing) side. Peacemaker is less action and more drama (and yet much more gory), and actually a bit historically accurate.

A warning about Kenshin though, it's your typical shojou action anime in that the supporting cast spends half the episode talking about every inane detail of the fights. There's usually a good 5 minute speech about how Kenshin is holding his sword or whatever in every fight.

Count another recommendation for Berserk here too. Amazingly awesome series. Warning: Ends VERY abruptly. The manga actually goes on way after the anime ends if you're interested though. If I recall correctly, the manga is STILL being fleshed out.

I dont know how I forgot about Champloo there is a tiny arc in the late middle that made it worth keeping on my computer..

Really though I came to post because I just finished watching FFVII:Advent Children.

OMFGZ.

Wow, anyone who played FFVII and loved it should watch that movie, anyone who is interested in seeing what I would crown the best cgi ever without a moments hesitation should watch it too.

There is almost no story if you haven't played the game though its pretty much the first Matrix, without the parts you skipped every time but the first time you watched it.

Blew my socks off though.

FFVII AC eh. Hmmm. Yea, it was crap. It was a lot of game cutscenes with no game.

I loved FF7. I thought Advent Children was trashy. But it was beautiful trash. I'll get it on Blu-Ray.

Can somebody link me a story summary from FF7?  I cant seem to find one.  I want to watch Advent Children, but I can tell right off that its going to require me to remember plot details from the first game.  While I loved FF7 and played it a ton back in the day, its been quite a long ass time ago since I played it, and have forgotten most of the finer plot points.  As well as most of the characters names.

I think there's a story summary over at gamefaqs, however I would call it a blessing to not remember the game. If I were you I would sit down and simply play the game. I was in the same seat as you a couple of years ago and decided to give it a shot, and it's suprsingly entertaining even if I had finnished it 2 times before. It doesn't take long before you're engulfed in the story once again and forget to eat/sleep.

Now, forgive me if i haven't been paying attention, but why has no-one mentioned the damned flying red pig? It's only like, the best anime ever?

I thought Studio Ghibli was covered, that should include Porco Rosso.

Wikipedia loves you, why do you not love it back? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy_7#Story)

Just started watching Honey & Clover. I'm on episode 5 and it's surprisingly good. I could do without 1 or 2 of the storylines, but at the very least they don't hurt the whole.

To my knowledge, neither Miyazaki nor Studio Ghibli were not involved in Grave of the Fireflies.  The animation director was Yoshifumi Kondo who did have a hand in many of his movies. (I believe Kondo was the protoge that died and caused Miyazaki to come out of retirement.)  Even though I have had this movie for years, I have yet to be able to watch it because I know how much it is going to depress me.

Porco Rosso is another good Ghibli film.  While covered, it probably is worth a mention in its own right.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say? So I'll just cover both bases. Grave of the Fireflies was a Ghibli production. Kondo - like he was on half of the Ghibli movies - was animation director on it. Miyazaki never really went into retirement, at least the chronology of Ghibli would say he didn't. They both worked together on a number of films all the way up to Kondo's death and then on afterwards. I'm a big Ghibli whore. I'm probably the only one here that would mention "Whisper of the Heart" and mean it when I say it should be watched. If you're ever in an anime store with no shame and they're selling a Ghibli box set that looks like this box (http://cgi.ebay.com/Archives-of-Studio-Ghibli_W0QQitemZ6475502086QQcategoryZ617QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) - just buy it.

Grave of the Fireflies was directed by Isao Takahata, who was Miyazaki's producer in the old days. He also directed Only Yesterday and Pom Poko.

Whisper of the Heart is my favorite Ghibli anime. It was directed by Kondo, who then unfortunately passed away and thus left Ghibli without its "heir." He was indeed a protege (Miyazaki directed the "in-story flight sequence" in fact).

Schild, if you want to be a completist, you need more. :) It's possible to get Future Boy Conan (tho I haven't) and a butchered movie version of Marco: 3000 Miles in Search of Mother. I think some of the other old World Masterpiece Theater stuff is out there too. The box set also doesn't include My Neighbors the Yamadas usually (also Takahata) which is excellent. Lastly, there's Goshu the Cellist, which I actually did track down a subbed DVD of. I've looked for, but never found, Chie the Brat.

Miyazaki just finished directing three shorts, and the next major movie coming is directed by his son. And it'll be Earthsea. I'm psyched. :)

I ended up blogging about this whole debate, justifying Haibane, btw. ;) http://www.raphkoster.com/?p=280

I'd guess it was pretty much everything from the 2nd episode on. It pretty much spiraled from good to bad then they had to figure out how to end it.

More what? Dear god, I hope it's not more anime. The shit to quality ratio is way too high.

Edit: And just as a note, the original Vampire Hunter D was my gateway into anime.

I'm trying to say that I have had trouble finding information that says plainly, "Grave of the Fireflies is a Ghibli production".  I know big names from the studio had a hand in it, some places reference it as being Ghibli, but even the DVD box I have does not say Ghibli anywhere.  On the box all I can find is a reference to Kondo and his involvement in later works which indisputably are.  I have seen enough now to say it is one of their films, but for some reason (maybe the nature of the story) it is not linked to the studio in the same way even their lesser-known works are.  That is all I am saying.

The chronology has no break for Miyazaki's involvement because Kondo died between films.  He had retired, but it was very short lived.

I am more of a Miyazaki whore than a Ghibli whore, although I have enjoyed them all, so I'll declare you the winner.  Just don't ask for my credentials.

Technically, Fireflies isn't a Ghibli movie. It was produced by the book publisher that published the original novel, and double-featured with Totoro. i seem to recall from the Ghibli doc on one of the DVD sets that Totoro was what led to the founding of Ghibli.

Takahata and Miyazaki had been partners for a very long time at that point.

Everything one might want to know about Ghibli can be found here: http://www.nausicaa.net

Schild, what I meant was, to be a completist on Ghibli stuff, you need more of the Takahata/Miyazaki work that predates Ghibli. ;)

Ah. Unfortunately, I've seen much of it, and remain unimpressed. I'm actually rather on the 'meh' side of a lot of the stuff they've put out. Probably about half. I'm not a Conan fan, nor am I a Panda go Panda fan. Didn't care much for Kiki's Delivery Service either. I never set out to really be a completist of any sort with anime. It just sorta turned out that I watched an assload of it and before I knew it there wasn't much left for me to watch. This is through roughly 2003. Anything post that i'm still catching up on a bit. Before my break, the last 2 things I was current on was Hikaru no Go (which ended shortly thereafter) and Prince of Tennis. Hunter X Hunter Greed Island had just finished I believe as well - until they brought out that second miniseries. After I stopped watching anime, I got more into asian live action TV. Some older stuff like Say Hello to Blackjack, Shota no Sushi, and Beach Boys. It's just these last couple weeks that I've really watched anime at all with Yakitate Japan and Honey & Clover. After this I probably won't watch anime again for a year or two. I might pick up the new FMP stuff and I'll buy (but probably won't watch) Hare Guu when it's finally released on DVD here.

Ah ha!  So it isn't.

See why I'm confused?  :cry:

Utena is more of a alternate look at magical girl shows though, rather than the generic Sailor-Moon-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off anime (Tokyo MewMew I'm looking at you) - in fact, one of the (multiple) interpretations of it is as a direct riposte to Sailor Moon.

Mind you, the last person i recommended Utena to absolutely despised it...possibly because he was expecting a typical magical girl show. Which reminds me, time for the obligatory disclaimer - if you feel you may be offended by the (non-explicit) depiction of the following, do not watch Utena: Implied lesbianism, out-and-out stated lesbianism, implied male homosexuality, very strongly implied male homosexuality, brother-sister relationships verging on incest, actual incest, black magic, ritual duels, heavy use of symbolism (e.g. The object of duels in the series is piercing a rose with a sword to claim ownership of a passive female object of desire - paging Dr Freud), bishonen manwhores, a series better on the second viewing as you get to watch what's happening with an understanding of the final goals, and the ugliest and least attractive 'cute mascot' in the history of shoujo anime.


Edit:
Also - Slayer/Slayers Next (Slayers Try isn't as good). Record of Lodoss War is supposed to be "D&D as anime" but most of the campaigns I was involved in with my regular group tended to be closer in spirit to Slayers - joke, more jokes, bad jokes, random violence, massive property destruction, outright greed and then a sudden (but well-done and fitting) switch to Serious Drama.

Ninja Scroll is also now in serials (saw first 8 episodes)

No one mentioned Serial Experiment Lain (http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lain.htm)?  I will only because it was odd

Overrated. Much like GitS:SAC. But people feel compelled to mention Ghost in the Shell. As if it's the anime barometer or sommat.

Edit: In the anime store I was working at the Lain merchandise sold better than the anime. Never trust consumers, just trust what they're buying?

GITS movies are overrated for the most part, but I think the series is actually quite good.  Not for everyone sure, but I've really enjoyed the parts I've watched and it was dubbed.  I have every intention of downloading buying the creamy subbed goodness someday.

@Simond:  The Utena movie flayed my mind, so I dont think I'm up for the series.. I can see the appeal but I dont think it is for me.

The series actually makes more sense than the film - the film was a result of attempting to condense a 39-part anime series already heavy on symbolism and interpretation to a feature-length movie. Think of the movie version of Utena in a similar way to Akira - style over substance certainly, but such pretty style.  ;)

Just finished Honey & Clover. Not bad at all. I would've liked the last episode to not have been rushed though.

Disc 6 of Scrapped Princess just arrived today. Of course, I am still back on disc 3 or something...

I realized I was unclear before, replying about Grave of the Fireflies.

No, it's not technically a Ghibli film (as I understand it), but since Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki are the co-founders of Ghibli, their films pre-Ghibli often get lumped into the Ghibli category. Many of the Ghibli films are actually Takahata, not Miyazaki, even though people often think Miyazaki does all of them.

BTW, whatever you do, stay away from the supposed sequel to "Whisper of the Heart," it' a warmed-over version of "Catnapped" and captures none of the charm of the original.

To further confuse the matter, Grave has a 1988 release while the studio was founded in 1985.  In terms of those dates it is not a pre-Ghibli film.  Production may have started before this, or parallel to the studio getting started, which may be why there are conflicting sources.

What I do know is that people responsible for other works I place on my best movie list had a hand in this, so I guess the production company does not really matter.

I still need to watch Scrapped Princess, although the short clips I have seen interested me.  Is it worth making my boyfriend borrow from work?

I liked Scrapped Princess, but in the way I like Chrno Crusade, Vandread and Mai Hime.  Its not art by any stretch and its not going to wow you with intelligent dialogue but it does entertain, quite well in fact.

The whole technology versus religion/magic was an interesting twist on the otherwise vanilla fantasy world.

I assume you mean "The cat returns"? I certainly agree that film was disappointing both in itself and as a possible sequel. I
must admit I consider grave of the fireflies to be a Ghibli film regardless of how the financing resulted in the rights being
assigned. It certainly isn't pre-Ghibli, since it's 4 years after Nausicaa, their first film. Pre-Ghibli would be something like
Castle of Cagliostro.

My review of Scrapped Princess (http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/scrapped_princess.html) if it helps, though I often
wonder if I was too generous. Oh my Goddess, especially the recent movie, also has a really nice underlying technology.
Turns out reality actually depends on support from the heavenly computers and bug hunting is an important part of a
gods job.

Thank you both.  I will give it a go when I have some free time.

Sorry to bump this one...

But I wanted to say that after seeing a few scattered eps of Full Metal Alchemist on AS I didn't think it was worth watching, but I have completely changed my tune.  It was a quite enjoyable and at times almost poignant adventure versus adversity show.  Not too dumbed down for the kiddies at all, not for everyone but any anime fans who are avoiding it due to its popularity (that was my reasoning really, I hated NGE and think Naruto is ass) might want to give it a shot.

Note: I never really read mangas, but it's worth nothing that the manga apparently has a totally different ending.

I've watched the first three volumes of FMA, and... it baffles me. There can be a run of 3-4 episodes that are 4-star worthy, even reaching toward 5 stars. And then they'll throw in 2-3 episodes of trite, predictable crap that I'm charitable to rate at 2 stars.

The only anime I've seen that was more uneven was Real Bout High School.

Naruto is really goddamn uneven. Hunter X Hunter is uneven. Yakitate Japan is uneven. Any show that gets more than the regular 21-26 episode run is uneven crap. There's nothing worth watching for it's entire run. NOTHING.

I thought KOR was.  Having to reach back to a series made in 1987 does kind of emphasize your point though.

Pretty much. The latter half of the series is filler/drama/filler/drama/filler. A good 4-5 episodes didn't need to be in the last half of the series.

Some of the episodes just tear your heart out though. Episodes 7, 8, 14, 15, and 25 in particular.

I didn't give it a ringing endorsement by any stretch:

"not for everyone but any anime fans who are avoiding it due to its popularity (that was my reasoning really, I hated NGE and think Naruto is ass) might want to give it a shot."

But yeah I think that it hits allot harder then many anime are willing to.  Which is something that pisses me off.  I also agree with Schild's thoughts on over 26 ep shows, but at least they aren't reusing animation (fuck you gundam).

Oh yeah, I guess Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu has finally been localized. I saw it at Best Buy a week ago.

I'm waiting for SChild to buy it and have a stroke over the dubbing. I haven't watched it since I don't like it, but I've heard the dub isn't half bad.

Bought it the day it was released. The dub isn't that bad. Like I said, there's been a few things with reasonable dubbing. There's a couple annoying characters. People from the "south" or Osaka or "southern wherever" shouldn't be dubbed like their from Alabama. But it's not a bad dub. The lead characters are as reasonable as I could have asked. Also, I got an afro wig with the box.

They did that in Abenobashi too didn't they?  That really did throw me off terribly when I saw a few eps of the dub on TV.

Yea, they did. That's one of the ones that really set me off. Dubs would be fine if the people making the dubs knew even the tiniest bit about japanese culture. And every time I think they've gotten it right, they throw in a voice like Chiyo (Azumanga Daioh) and fuck it ALL up).

That is not a wig, it is a chest piece...

Also Howl's Moving Castle, Whispers of the Heart, and the Totoro re-release came out yesterday.  Much happiness.

I really enjoy Full Metal Alchemist.  It's fantastic.  The only thing that irritates me is the voice acting they chose for little girl characters.  Nina especially.  I hated that girl.  The later events involving her would've hit much harder if I didn't want to kill her the second time she said "wittow big bwuddew?"

Correct me if im wrong, but arent people from Osaka (southern wherever) SUPPOSED so have an accent?  I mean, yes, dubbing them like rednecks would be bad, but how exactly do you convey something cultural, like an accent that would stand out to a japanese native as much as a heavy New York or Alabama accent would to an american without coming off a tad bit odd.

I mean, heck, thats one of the things I always thought was interesting about the whole sub / dub debate.  Sure, I much prefer subs, but when watching an anime in japanese, how do you know the origional voice actors dont just plain suck?  It is glairingly obvious when an english dub actor sucks, because english is (or may be) our native tongue.  For all we know, people in japan may find some shows to have terrible "japanese" voice acting, when we in north america dont notice anything wrong at all.

Japanse works for me because I don't understand it. But I can hear Osaka and I can hear Tokyo. I've watched enough live action japanese stuff to pick that sort of thing out. But seriously, english just doesn't sound right coming out of an anime characters mouth. Just like Japanese would sound stupid coming out of the mouths of Ducktales characters or Hanna Barbara or whatever.

There have been good dubs, I typically point to RahXephon as an example of this.  Also sometimes I will turn to a sub to avoid that really fucking annoying young-girl-with-super-high-pitched-voice bullshit that some anime insist on giving a character (see: Tessa in Full Metal Panic).

True enough Schild.

It is rather jarring on occasion to hear anime characters speak in english, and often even more so when they do it with an accent.   I guess I just havent watched enough anime (or maybe just payed close enough attention to the people with accents) to easily distinguish one from another in their native tongue.

In some cases it makes more sense to watch the anime in English. Trigun and Cowboy Bebop are good examples.

It's just weird to watch Trigun in Japanese, especially when a character shows vash a piece of paper with some Kanji on it and Vash says, "I can't read Japanese!" in...Japanese.

I generally prefer dubs.

Don't get me wrong, if the dubs are shitty then I'll take subs any day.  But dubbing done well I prefer greatly to subtitles.  Generally, the animes I tend to like usually have pretty good dubbing- Cowboy Bebop, Trigun (a bit irritating at times, but very well done at other times), Full Metal Alchemist (except little girls... DIE)....

I was actually impressed with the quality of the dubbing in Naruto, with the exception of Naruto himself.  And that new chick who has a crush on him, she's awful.  And that little kid who calls Naruto boss, he's awful too.  But Kakashi is well done, as well as Zabuza (though that particular voice actor is in like every anime ever, so he better be good at it by now).

Y'know, if they remade Naruto with about 1/4 as many episodes and didn't try to make it a kids' show, I'd watch it.

The little kid who calls Naruto boss is super in the jap version, gotta love that little sucker.

I have a hard time imagining liking that character in any language.

He is so irritating, it transcends mundane barriers such as "language" or "context".

Well, a lot of that has to do with the "character" that the actors voice conveys, as well as the typecasting that is done to the role when it is dubbed.

An example would be Melvin from oldschool Sailor Moon.  In the north amreican dub, Melvin was the quintissential, highpitched voiced, annoyng ass computer nerd (think Urkel, but as a computer geek).  A few minutes of his voice was generally enough to drive you nuts.

In the origional japanese however, his voice was much more normal (to the point where he actually sounded moderately cool).  Hell, the first time I actualy heard him speak in a japanese ep of the show, I almost fell out of my chair.  It completely changed the way I saw the character. 

I have to agree that the tone, even if well done, does affect the presentation of the character.

With the Japanese actors I only have to worry about the inflections in their voice while the subtitles convey the story.  It makes the emotions of the actors flow more smoothly to me.  (Of course I have been doing it so long I do not even recognize that I am reading while watching anymore.)

With dubs everything is conveyed by the voice.  A bad or half-hearted performance really stands out to me.  I cannot overlook grating voices because I have to focus on them to hear what is being said.

Now there are some decent dub actors, but they bring their own take to the character simply because their voice and inflections are different (assuming the script is not Americanized, which also bugs me), so it completely changes the flow.  Because of that I almost always prefer the original language.

Just as an aside, it's kind of interesting that emotional content of a dialogue is pretty much spot on even from an entirely different culture you have no experience with and in a language you don't know (visual clues in the anime I am sure help a lot).

OMGWTFFULLMETALALCHEMISTTOTALLYBLEWMYMINDJESUSCHRIST

I'm making a habit of yelling "Aww!!!" at the end of each episode now.  I have been completely sucked in.

Yeah the beginning is the best part though, its a good show any way you slice it but there are some later arcs where they add in more characters then they can handle effectively and things bog down a bit.

I watched Crest/Banner of the Stars, no idea why but that is one of the most capitvating shows I've seen.

Watching Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor, starts off really slow, typical mecha but I wouldn't recommend it.  Go watch RahXephon instead.

Crest/Banner of the stars is a guilty pleasure for a lot of people. I couldn't make it through 3 episodes.

As for the RahXephon recommendation. That's  rough one. I know too many people that disliked it. I know too many people that pretended to like it. I don't know anyone that genuinely liked it. Much like the game Xenosaga, everyone's lying about it. :P

I'm not pretending to like it at all, I genuinely feel it is the only 'mecha genre show I can recommend (outside of Full Metal Panic, which hardly counts) to others.  I'll watch just about anything with giant robots but I sure as shit will not tell other people to watch it.

RahXephon was a very nice portrayal of characters, by any genre's standards.  Toss in the fact that it is a semi-engaging mystery for the first half or so and turns into a very touching love story.  I could keep going but suffice to say I think it is worth watching, not everyone will like it but that is true of all things.

Finished Fafner, nothing to add to previous assessment.

Moved on to a show called Saikano, I dont think anyone has mentioned this but really it is pretty interesting after two episodes.  Basically this guy starts dating this shy, clumsy girl for no reason then finds out she is the military's ultimate weapon.  Now throw away every notion of how that storyline will work out, because its not what your thinking.  She's not super hot, she's not even kind of a badass, even when she is in weapon form it doesn't seem.  I need to watch more obviously, but I'm tentatively thinking that some people around here might get a kick out of this.

Given discussion of RahXephon and SaiKano, I'd like to again suggest the underappreciated Infinite Ryvius. Short form: Lord of the Flies on a space battleship.

Saikano.

My girlfriend is the ultimate weapon

How can we stretch that out?

I don't know what it is, but we're really touching on a handful of series that I had an acute dislike for. Though, out of Ryvius, Raxhxephon and Saikano, I'd take the latter any day of the week. Saikano had a premise I really dug. I also liked the manga. But the show, ugh. I really just couldn't get into it.

In other news, Ryvius isn't underappreciated. It's just not very good. It's easy to dig up positives in any anime. Ryvius just hit us with boring characters, stale music and poor dialogue all at once.

If we're on a sci-fi streak here, I'd tell people to watch Kiddy Grade before any of the recently mentioned things. I don't even like Kiddy Grade. :P

Now you've gone off the fucking deep end, I saw two eps of Kiddy Grade and promptly tried to remove the part of my brain that was infected by that crap with a sewing needle up the nose.

As for Saikano, I've only seen two eps and let me say the character art style doesn't work for me at all.  But so far it has been very different from what you would expect from the premise in an enjoyable way.

The point of mentioning Kiddy Grade is that it was as bad as you say and I'd still recommend it to people over the other stuff. It seems, zee point, was lost somewhere.

Possibly at the part where I said: "I don't even like Kiddy Grade. :P"

Just because I see your point doesn't mean that I don't think your completely insane no?

Have I mentioned Gankutsuou?

So staying up late the other night while the husband went to bed early garnered me control to the TV.  Surfing found me on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim (I think).  I ended up staying up late to watch Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.  Enjoyed both very much, and I wanted to see Neon Genesis Evangelion but there was something else on first and I didn't feel like staying up the extra half hour just to see one more show.  I'm not a person for TV anyways and rarely have time to watch DVDs for myself (husband doesn't like the same things I do, but gets pissy if I don't like, or at least watch, some of the things he does like.  Men!).

Anyways, the point I was aiming for was that the necro-res of this thread was timely, because I read through it all after my late night anime sojourn.  On the advice of several posters, I picked up Howl's Moving Castle at the local Target (hey, I was there picking up puppy chow) and got to watch it tonight.  Thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  So this is to say thanks for the recommendation and I think I'll be keeping my eye out for more in the future.

Quick little bump have something worth mentioning.

Schild was spot-on about Saikano, while they tried to do a good job and avoided things that could have made it REALLY stupid, I got very bored with the show and didn't even finish.  In fact I've been having a hard time recently finding anything worth watching.  Stellvia was boring with a thin plot that didn't work well, Kenran Butou Sai was really stupid and Gun X Sword was so bad I'm actually going to watch the whole thing out of some kind of facination with crap.

I have watched the first few episodes of Planetes and it has some potential (the show is about space garbage collectors) but it is way too early to call.

There seems to be some decent stuff that is still on TV in Japan right now, I try not to watch anything before I can see the whole series but if you enjoy giant robots at all I suggest giving Eureka 7 a shot.  I'm not sure how it ends (mecha have a terrible precedent of ending poorly even by anime standards) but I've seen the fist 26 eps and enjoyed it.  Not art by any means, but fun on the giant robots are cool level.

Planetes was good I thought, in a kind of Wings of Honneamise sort of way. I just finished watching the first five episodes of Ergo Proxy and I liked that, though it looks like it has the potential to turn really stupid really fast. The next round of shows scheduled to start in Japan all appear to be total shit. Which is about right... 99% of all anime ever created is barely watchable garbage. But the good stuff tends to be really good so it sort of makes up for it.

Big recommendation from me to any of you who prefer dubs to subs.

Check out Eureka seveN on [AS] tonight, no idea what time it will be playing but all signs point to its first showing being this Friday.

It has mecha, but they are mecha that surf (it is MUCH cooler then it sounds) in fact this might be some of the most enjoyable mecha combat sequences since Macross and its lovely robot-planes.

What it has that you might not be expecting is a very well developed story, with a very limited amount of angsty emo shit (although there are healthy doses of adult character drama).  Oh and of course our lead is involved in a cute romance with a mysterious girl who he just met, but come on who didn't see that comming?

Anyways, I have seen the first 26 ep's fansub'd I haven't mentioned it because there are 50eps in all and I wanted to finish it first.  But with the subs already appearing I would be remiss to not say something.  I have REALLY enjoyed this show, its a great story that manages to avoid some anime-cliches despite being in the most cliche prone genre of them all.  Some character wardrobe design features are really stupid, I'm sorry about that but that is my only real complaint.  Also there are a few sequences where you can see that somebody was trying to emulate aspects of American culture and just didn't quite get it.  But watching the highs and lows of the cast's journey far outweigh these minor flaws.

Again, this is not art, but it is close (good production values, solid music imo, solid storytelling) and it is more enjoyable then most art ever is.

If you have ever been part of an Anime club, I recommend Genshiken.  I was giggling non-stop through the first disk yesterday.

Genshiken is very good.

Nah, even heving few firnds who dig anime will make you giggle all the way through this series.

Kiddy Grade: Weird beast. It's a mix of three totally different animes. Personally I love the middle part, but loathe everything else.

Dub vs. sub vs. voice-over? Dubs can be better than orginal movie/anime, but in last 15 years of Hollywood cinematography, it only happend three times. so, why can't anime companies just stick to voice-over? It's cheaper and leavesthe orginal feel of series.

This thread misses me...

Here's a rundown of stuff that came out recently:

Good Shows:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - You should watch this just so you know what everyone else is talking about, peer pressure 4tw!
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - This one has a lot of potential I am waiting for the fansubs to finish with it but the whole idea is bizarre in a way that could be quite interesting, will update once I've seen the whole thing.
Ergo Proxy - Like Bladerunner + the Animatrix - the taint of being associated with the Matrix I really dig the atmosphere of the whole show and the female lead may be the hottest animated goth of all time  :-D



Average Stuff:

Ouran Host Club - Its like a harem show + a school drama + the main character is a girl dressing like a boy, funny at times.  I've only seen the first 5 or so eps I'm not sure how long it can last before it gets repetitive.
xxxHOLiC - Odd premise, very ugly character design but sort of interesting story-wise and funny at times.
The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo - This may get very stupid, I'm not sure, will update later but the first few eps were solid
Juuousei - Short show, I haven't seen any has been getting pretty good feedback from people I trust, will update with my thoughts once the series is finished and I've watched it all the way through.
Eureka seveN - Goes in avg. only due to the stigma attached to mecha as a genre I think its fucking great, not art but quite entertaining.


If you are watching this you either
a)need more money for b33r
b)ran out of porn
c)need to get out more
d)really wish there was a good MMO out

-School Rumble
-Utawarerumono
-Black Lagoon
-Fate/Stay Night

These shows are the Japanese equivalent to a TV show about how much John Leguizamo loves to have Chris Kattan shit in his mouth narrated by the movie phone guy with a cameo from SirBruce:

-Kiba
-Soul Link

There are tons of other things but I know what I like and what I dont, these are the shows I bothered to check out.  Also here is a quick disclaimer, I haven't finished most of these (many aren't all the way out yet) so you can't cry to me if it turns crappy after the first story-arc.

I just got around to watching the whole Evangelion series, including the movies.

Yeah, I'm a bit late to the party.

Anyway...End of Evangelion - so fucking sad, sad, sad....but I cannot dispute that it is a fitting ending.

Anyway, yeah - Haruhi is awesome, as is Higu. I really want Higu's new episode NO; huge fucking cliffhanger from last week's.

Figures - I just read that Haruhi is only going 14 episodes, because the people producing it are taking people off of it to do a remake of something called Kanon.

Totally - WTF? I thought the series was just beginning to pick up steam...

Ergo Proxy lead vs. Evanescence singer - can YOU tell the difference?

EDIT: Posted itself before I was done...

The first Kanon was pretty good for what it was (an anime based on a game where you can woo and bed doe-eyed underage girls). I can't see the sequel achieving the "otaku darling" status Haruhi earned. It's possible that Haruhi was only budgeted for a half-season, though. That's become more prevalent in the last five years.

Personally, I'm intrigued by Strawberry Panic, for entirely callow reasons.

I cannot possibly understand how, what with all the support the show is getting, Haruhi can be done in only 14 episodes - that means it will be done in a scant 2 weeks. There is no way this will be a fitting end for the series, when it's clear there is a TON of material that will simply be ignored. If you think about it, not a Whole lot has occurred in the series thus far.

It seems like someone is half-assing the thing. It's not like someone can't say, "Oh look, this series is really popular...perhaps we should actually give it a full season, and go from there..."

Er, really? Where'd you read that? That would seem very odd to me, since I originally heard it was specced for 26 episodes.

While not exactly contradicted, it's strongly implied when you look at the mapping between Haruhi's episode numbers, given in the end-of-ep previews and the airing-order episode numbers.

 A friend of mine put together this chart comparing the two; it hasn't been updated with the ep13 Haruhi number yet.


Note the missing numbers: 5, 6, 11. Given episode 12, episode 1 is probably episode 11. Would they end the show with #s 5 and 6? That would be strange. You can already see that, if it's only 14 eps, then the series ending was already played.. in episode 9.

I read that on a few different anime blogs, who I am guessing got the info from the Korean animators.

And from the direction episode 9 took, I can kind of see where the producers might pick it back up next "season," which would suck because I might very well forget to pay attention this time next year. I plan on being very busy with actual work at this point next year....so ending the series at 14 episodes would suck balls.



I'm also stil waiting for the release of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni episode 12 subbed. I'm using the WIND subs, and they are not out yet.....anyone else using subs from a different group that HAS released episode 12? I hate waiting for stuff like this when I'm expecting it, like when I have something cool coming in from UPS/FedEx.

EDIT: Durka, I meant subbed.

I think the Haruhi rumor is going to fall into the "I'll believe it when I see it" bin.

As for Higu... Um.. dubbed or subbed? I'm not aware of any groups fandubbing Higu yet. Higu releases Tuesday or Wednesday in Japan; Wind usually has a Higu ep out on Friday or Saturday US time, subtitled.

Jesus. Fandubs. The mind boggles.

Personally I think that f13 should do a fandub of some atrocious show, that would be le awesome!

Goddamn it. I accidentally opened this thread. I may have to kill myself now.

It's like Pandora's Box...

I've seen it done. Mostly as a stunt for a convention, but it does happen occasionally.

The magic of the intarweb.

This idea has merit. But do we use the original dialogue? Or create our own?

I would think our own. This would be a completely scandalous endeavor.

Yeah definately our own, we could use one of the .hack series and it could be all about how ghey MMO's have gotten.

1. Fandub
2. ???
3. Profit!

OP: Irresponsible Captain Tylor (silly/funny), Paranoia Agent (weird), FLCL (very weird).

The .hack series had at least two series for TV, 'Sign' and 'Legend of Twilight'.  'Sign' takes itself so seriously it practically begs to be parodied.

I hate on Paranoia Agent. I find it to be completely insufferable.

FLCL, on the other hand, is gold.

I do a good Nick Nolte impression.

I guess I could download a couple of the .hack episodes and piece together a script.

Dibs on goofy supporting non-mangina role?

Odd, I had you penciled in for the supporting goofy loli-mangina role.

WORLDS COLLIDE.

Couldn't it at least be a killer-loli?

Also: (http://faculty.niagara.edu/scwagner/images/Powerman%205000.gif)

FLCL is one of my favourites even with the Peter Townshend impersonations.
Try Read or Die (OVA not the TV series), something I usually recommend to anyone who hasn't seen anime before.
Porco rosso is another solid starter, being a Miyazaki work almost gives it a good review before viewing. Try to obtain the older non Disney redubb/voice over with Michael Keaton as the protagonist, the new Disney remake is god awful if you've seen the early one dubbed version. I guess it wouldn't matter to a newcomer though

I will play anything, including a tree that only makes tree noises... 

I live to serve!

I'll play the guy who only says "...".

Fortunately, this means my VA work is already done.

Now, something I put in my wife's head long ago, which I continue to reinforce even today, is that anytime you see dots it means the character is farting.  I usually make some sort of contextually [in]appropriate sound whenever I see them, and the resulting physical violence is usually worth it.  It makes the story in Grandia III more tolerable, if nothing else.

Hope she never plays Pokemon...

@Schild:  I'm going to download the first ep of .hack//roots tonight with the current dearth of games worth playing a nice group activity is just what the board needs in between juvenile spammer attacks.

Just finished this one, it comes in at 11 eps, which were either too many or not enough depending on who you ask.  Personally I thought it was if anything a little above average.  Not a great deal of replay value but worth a watch.  The story is about two brothers who are mysteriously sent to a prison planet after their parents are murdered.  The planet is akin to Chimera of WH40k lore, covered with carnivorous plants of doom and whatnot.  The cast is solid, the music goes from quite good to annoying for a few tracks.  The art is above average but nothing that will blow your socks off.  I have a gripe with the fight sequences, which I felt lacked inspiration.  Some people have complained about the ending, but I didn't have a huge problem with it.  While you may see this show classified as sci-fi that is misleading.  There are a whole host of things that are meant to just be accepted, with only 11 eps almost nothing is explained in detail setting wise.  Also some of the things that are explained aren't explained well. 

Overall I think an anime fan should at least check it out, I recommend Kiss-Subs, who did a solid job although the white subs are hard to see at times.  Think of it more as an adventure-mystery show, not sci-fi or else you will feel misled.  I stick by the classification I gave it based on reactions on anime boards I frequent.  A average to above average show but nothing groundbreaking.  Definitely some things that could have been handled better.  Possibly the weakest effort by Bones I've seen (which doesn't mean much I love their work to death) if you ignore the whole slew of recap eps in Wolf's Rain that damn near ruin that show.

Has anyone seen Dead Leaves (http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=1170) or Mind Game (http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=1834)? The former I just couldn't bear to watch for more than 15 minutes (it's a 45m OVA) but Mind Game was pretty interesting in an avant-garde needlessly philosophical mindfuck way.

Well here's an addition to the "These shows are the Japanese equivalent to a TV show about how much John Leguizamo loves to have Chris Kattan shit in his mouth narrated by the movie phone guy with a cameo from SirBruce" catagory.

Magical Pokan yeah going to have to re-think the whole, if it has under 20 eps might as well check it out rule.  Ye gods the suck was strong with this one.  The fanservice was disturbingly loli, the jokes unfunny and the entire premise was just a huge ball of wtf.

I can't even find that one on AnimeNfo or anything.

http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3592,pibsuf,renkin_san_kyu_.html

I swear to fucking god I never read the description...

Ok just for the record, I was behind the times and just finished this one.  If you haven't watched any of this show yet one of the following better be true:
1. You hate cartoons
2. You hate the Japanese
3. You hate me and you aren't watching it just to spite me.

Seriously, it is so good I am using a non-Reka avatar for this site.  That should mean something to you, for real.  The only gripe I can imagine someone having with this show that wouldn't be ass-backwards retarded would be that the eps are not in chronological order.  But the cast and the "style" of the whole thing are just dead-on-great.  If you are even a kindof sortof anime fan do yourself a favor and check this out.

Durr, that's why there have been so many avatars of the show popping up around here (ok maybe only 2...).


"Haruhi HUNGRY!!"

EDIT: There are hints of a sequel series...but I'm not sure I would mind if the material was never touched again. I thought the series was that good. I might have to go back, just to watch the series in chronological order.

4. I don't download fansubs.

It's a combination of distrusting the security of file-shares and questionable legality. If it gets a legit North America release, I'm on it. Considering its popularity, I'm sure they'll ask a mint to license it. Sticker price excluded the popular Pita-Ten out of the West, and delayed the Eva movies for years.

Storm, what if I "give" them to you, the thought of someone missing this show or of watching it with a bad dub makes me want to kill kittens.

Seriously.


EDIT: Also, with Haruhi over, and no new releases for Higurashi, Strawberry Panic, or Ergo Proxy....I'm fiending.  :cry:

Black Lagoon is out or just about out, nowhere near the level of quality but at least you can finish it.  Also I do recommend trying out Juuousei if you haven't.  Oh and assuming you are poor...

*whisper*
GITS:SAC 2nd Season dvd-qual fansub releases should be done this month as well.

(For the record I'm buying both seasons once I see them on some kind of sale in the thinpack)

Woohoo, Haruhi Avatar Solidarity Movement.

Er, hm...

Haruhi Avatar Movement of Solidarity - HAMS? I could go for some hams right now.

Anyway, I doubt the next season will have as much good stuff as this season; two series at once of sufficient quality that I want to watch them weekly is rare, even during the 00-02 quality flap.

What?

Is there a joke here?

Questionable legality? You work for a video game company. A DEN of questionable legality.

Just because....

Haruhi was awesome. One of the only series, anime or otherwise, that I have been able to go back and watch multiple times.

Ergo Proxy is interesting. I had to practically force myself through the first few episodes, but I like it. Too bad there hasn't been a release forsome time now...

Juuousei is good,though it hasn't quite hooked me hard enough yet to actually go and finish it.

School Rumble 2nd Term is...Well, I like it. It reminds me vaguely of Family Guy with its randomness.

Higurashi is still kicking ass. They just got into a new arc. I really wish I could play the game it's based on...but, well..it'd be in Japanese.

I'm very amused by Strawberry Panic. I like how it mostly just hints at (rather than over-the-top fullblown Hentai) the girl/girl relationships. Aoi getting embarrassed all the time is funny.

And then there is Magical Pokaan. It's...um...well....I was able to get through the series easily enough, which is More than I can say about Utawarerumono.

I saw the first two eps of Witchblade this morning, this show is so average it hurts.  I'm going to watch two more (I usually give a show 4 eps to not suck) later but I'm sure not holding my breath.

@Stray:
Magical Pokaan made me feel ill, I dont know how you can stand it.  At least the sisters in Utawareumono are decent characters.  School Rumble is great if you find it funny, I do not but most comedy anime is hit/miss for western viewers I think.

I don't think I made it past episode 2 with Uta...it just felt so generic and bland. If I get bored I might go bakc and download it all again, but...

It just feels like the same shit we had with Inuyasha.

I'm still slogging through Uta, but that's largely because I hate to stop watching/reading/hearing a story in the middle. So far it's still a really generic fantasy-empire anime with a touch of fantasy-superhero. Unfortunately they're playing up the main character's angst to a level that I can only describe as 'rusty cheese grater on the eyeballs' and not developing side-plots among the dozen or so other characters to distract away from it.

I'm enjoying Ergo Proxy. I guess I'm a sucker for philosophical bullshit; I liked Innocence for that reason too.

Same....but I just don't understand why all the groups seem to have paused all of a sudden.

If it's been licensed, then most fansub groups will drop it like a hot potato.

And just it be pedantic, it has been. Geneon announced at Anime Expo that the first volume releases on November 21.

The first volume being...what, the first 1.5 episodes?

...Damnit.

Well, generally they'll announce it's being dropped and why. I just think Shinsen has too many series on their hands or is being lazy.

Oh, it's being done by Shinsen-Subs? Yeah, they have a tendency to overload themselves and have long delays and/or 'indefinite postponements'.

Then why did everyone else stop? (http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=3302)

It was from what different groups have said  it was actually the combination of summer break and World Cup starting. Things have started to pick back up.

So is Ergo Proxy not dead in the water, as far as subs go?

*pats Straz on head*

This is why I never start watching something until they have finished subbing.  Otherwise something like this just drives me crazy.

Sorry, I meant the fansubbing dry spell in general. Ergo Proxy appears dead in the water. Which makes me sad as liike I said months ago, it was one of the few shows this tiime round that wasn't cloying shit.

Eh...oh well, plenty of other stuff out there to fill the void.

Just gave Welcome to the NHK! a shot after hearing some recommendations, it's really funny. Oyasumi is fansubing it but there's only 4 episodes out so far.

For what it's worth (and for those who don't know this yet) 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya' was (mostly*) based on the first couple of novels - yes, real novels not manga - of a bestselling-in-Japan-eight-books-and-counting ongoing series. There's also some fan-translations of the first couple of books out there somewhere.

There's ample story left for more series.

*Bearing in mind the nonlinear continuity, some of the series was from later books.

Yeah, I've read chunks of some of the online translations...not sure if it's the kind of genre I would read on my own time.

The anime still kicks all kinds of ass though.

I finally went through a ton of GTO episodes, Schild (sorry, it's been, like, a year or two since you suggested it!).

Great shit. You were right.

To further add:

What else is out there like this anyways? List some more adult/mature comedies, please. I'm a fan. I enjoyed GTO more than any old school action anime.

Yes. It's what I think of when someone says the word "anime".
http://imdb.com/title/tt0104652/

Not exactly just animie. but I saw Mind Game (2004) today and enjoyed it.

Shakugan no Shana.  I've seen the first few episodes and so far I'm really enjoying it.  Very interesting/weird story that starts to explain itself over the first 3 episodes, about the Guze no Tomogara that consume human existences, and the Flame Hazes that combat them.  Definitely my favorite recent series.

Yeah Shana was definately watchable, nothing special but I enjoyed it.

Yea, but I also think the live action is better than the cartoon. :P Takashi Sorimachi kicks the shit out of cartoon Onizuka.

Gokusen is pretty similar to GTO, but I liked it much, much better. I just thought it was an all around better show, though I've only seen a couple episodes of the live-action version.

also, regarding Ergo Proxy, a new group named Pino-no-Usagi just showed up with a fansub of episode 15. The video and sub quality is high, translation accuracy I couldn't say since I don't speak enough Japanese to more than exchange pleasantries with my grandparents once a year.

Just wondering, but does anyone have a lead on anything that's sorta-kinda like Strawberry Panic, or the Maria-sama stuff?

Gonna go on a torrent binge when I finally get my own PC back up and running.

Revolutionary Girl Utena. Sort of.

No torrents though, but I'd imagine you'd be able to pick up DVDs on ebay relatively cheaply.

I like to think of Utena as what Sailor Moon would have been like if it had been written by collegiate feminists with a penchant for Victorian literature.

So does that mean it's bad?

Zettai.. unmei... mokushiroku..

nah, it's not bad, it's just long and somewhat strange in parts.

I was never overly fond of Utena. The pacing, plot and artstyle were very much not up my alley.

I remember it being huge in the yaoi circles though...

I liked it personally, but Utena is one of those people tend to love or hate.  It does have a lot of bishies and came out at a time when there weren't to many other options for the yaoi crowd.

I loved that movie but man is it out there.

Pumpkin Scissors started last week. The first ep seems okay; it's obviously setting up to do character exposition/"party building" for the first few eps, then probably more world exposition, then a storyline.

It's basically about some military folks in a setting that's drawn from a mixture of WWI, WWII and Weimar-era Germany. The empire has been decimated by war, and there's disease, destruction and lawlessness rampant. Enter spunky military girl with overdramatic sense of justice, two random folks, and war veteran with Mysterious Past.

Could be good, could go downhill fast. Gonna keep following it for at least a few more weeks.

I also took a look at D. Grayman, which seems to be a pretty stereotypical supernatural/superpowered fighting anime, flavored heavily with religious references. The main character takes a lot from Edward Elric from FMA - right down to the superpowered transforming left arm replacement. The setting is cool (Steampunk), but the story seems to be pretty crappy. I'm probably going to dump this one.

Not sure if it's mentioned b4, but i highly recommend 'Welcome to NHK!'

Looks interesting. Unfortunately some bunch of assholes only subbed it in .mkv. Le sigh.

What difference does it make? Looking for those ginormous H264 encodes?

Neg, was too lazy to look up what an MKV file was. Also, I hate when things aren't in a batch.

 :-D hmm u want the manga then?
i got it off a BT site. it's got 5 vols translated...but I kinda dislike the direction it's taking but could be great for anime previews (smaller size too)
Note: lotsa 'adult' material inside not as tame as the anime version.

try do a search at tokyotosho.com
(http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m20/r3dknight/swgnhk.jpg)

or if u want to play .mkv i think u can just download this http://www.cccp-project.net/
i can play it with Windows Media Player

They relayed the horror of playing that game quite well.

VLC - It should be the last video player you ever need. (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)

I love it because I don't even have to care what format the video is in, because VLC plays it, without fail (so far).

Checked out two titles that groups finished subbing while I was AFI.

Ouran Host Club:  Well it was ok, mostly because I hadn't watched anything in a few months.  Basically this misfit poor girl at a super rich school goes into debt to a bunch of bishonen who run a "host club" to work off the debt she dresses like a guy and becomes a host.  For the most part funny stuff ensues.  I'd say d/l the first 4 eps and you will quickly be able to tell if the humour works or not.  Even after 26 eps though the show hasn't tied anything up for the most part, but the ride was fun and I am not too ashamed to admit I enjoyed it.

I also took a look at Zero no Tsukaima, which is crap.  Crap harem with unattractive character designs, very little fanservice and not much funny at all.  Did I mention the lame attempts at action scenes are lame too?  Show does nothing right, other then being only 13 eps so I picked it up without doing a trial run, deleted promptly.


*PS*  Anyone checked out any eps of Coyote Ragtime Show or Demonbane?  I'm thinking of checking those out next.

I picked up Host Club as well, but I haven't watched it yet. Currently slogging through Aishiteru ze Baby...Basic premise is that a high school guy who is popular with the ladies gets saddled with basically raising his 6-year old cousin after her mother up and leaves. He's not happy about this at first, but comes to love the little girl like...well, a daughter.

I feel kinda odd watching it, but I feel like I've watched too much of the series to turn back at this point.

Over the last few weeks I went on something of a torrenting rampage; catassed through all of Azumanga Daioh (Awesome++), all 3 Full Metal Panic series (Probably one of my favorite shows ever now), Karin (it was alright, had its moments), both Girls' Bravo seasons (mostly crap, though was actually watchable when a plot was involved)...

Black Lagoon was Very Cool. Sort of felt like Cowboy Bebop, with more attitude.

Maria-sama ga Miteru....eh, I liked it. Had some nice spots in it. Same as Strawberry Panic, though the latter series I thought got somewhat worse as it went on.

Went back and picked up School Rumble season 1 + OVAs to go with season 2. I liked both very much, though I almost have to say that Season one was better.

Still trying to download GTO...fucking 10gb+.

Higurashi ended, and I thought it was pretty cool. Ending finally made sense...kinda.

Oh, and the Tales of Phantasia series...I picked it up only because I have the game...but I want to finish the game first...but that involves picking my DS back up....but it needs to be charged... :-)


Oh, as an aside...how about the haircut scene from Full Metal Panic: Second Raid, episode 6. That may very well be my favorite scene from an anime...or any kind of movie or show for that matter.

Now I just wish there was more FMP anime....but alas.

PS: Add anime to the dictionary please.

Yeah I forgot to ever say anything about Black Lagoon it was quite fun and there is a second season already in the works.  I'm sure I mentioned FMP several times.  I own the first series and Fummofu on dvd but dont talk about 2nd Raid too much, they haven't dubbed it yet and I refuse to watch the subs.  Because the Japanese VA for Capt. Tessa is hella annoying and I love her character in the dub version...

I didn't realize they finished subbing Higurashi, about to d/l that asap.

Pumpkin Scissors is going to go south pretty fast. I watched the first episode and it set off all sorts of Crap alarms in my head, especially the interchangeable, generic perky military girl and the brooding, split personality ex-military guy with the "wisp-light" that makes him able to take out a tank in hand to hand combat. There will be some visually interesting stuff going on, but the story will be a perverse, bad combination of FMA and Armor Hunter Mellowlink (Not a bad series if you can find it).

The one good show this season so far seems to be Chevalier D'eon. Set in France immediately prior to the French Revolution, it's a supernatural/swordplay series. It's even got a fencing female lead (sort of). Looks like it could be fairly epic, or as is possible with all anime, turn to shit

I've downloaded a few episodes of Chevalier, but I haven't watched those yet either.

I'm backlogged again.


Well, the FMP I have is Dual Audio, and I watched it with English Dubs, but Fumoffu and TSR I watched in Japanese with subs. I just went back and compared all the VA stuff, and while it seems all the other voices are fairly similar in English and Japanese, the differences in the voice work of Tessa are pretty extreme. That being said, I think I actually perfer her Japanese voice over her English voice; I just think it fits better somehow...though I would like to eventually see all of it in English, just for comparison's sake, especially the Tessa OVA.  :-D

More FMP after KyoAni finish with Kanon.

And then, after that, they might just get around to a second series of Haruhi. Maybe.

Anyone know why FMP was swapped from Gonzo to Kyoto after season 1? I didn't think FMP looked bad at all...

I've been reading the manga (out from Viz). That kid is adorable.

Am I the only person that gets her anime from Adult Swim on Saturday nights? 

I'm in the process of buying the FMA DVDs and am watching Trinty Blood, Bleach and Eureka 7.  That's all.  I must be some kind of anime poseur or something.  :cry:

That's where I started, back when they were pretty heavy into Trigun and Cowboy Bebop.

I kinda liked what I saw of Trinity Blood, but I cannot get into any of those other series. I abhor FMA as well; Alfred Alric is one of the most annoying characters I have ever seen...or maybe it's just his voice.

e7 rocks, Trinity Blood is f'ing terrible if you ask me.  I used to watch my anime on [AS] but I'm way too drunk most saturdays to pull it off.  I've heard nothing but good things about Bleach but never seen it myself, care to share your thoughts Rhyssa?

@Strazos:  I thought FMA started amazingly well but does run out of gas around ep30+ or so, if the dub annoys you check out the sub version, its been awhile since I watched so I dont remember the difference between the VA's.  One day when you aren't backlogged it might be worth ordering the dvd's on netflix or something.

I've heard a lot of hype over Bleach as well, but it seemed pretty average from what I saw of it - high school kids who fight ghosts.

@Hoax: When I stop being backlogged of shit, if I haven't picked up Anything else, I might try to pick up FMP Dual Audio DVD sets...I'd really like to hear how the dubs for Fumoffu and TSR went. I feel obligated to eventually get those at some point.

Trinity Blood's ending is sooooo rushed, which is a shame since the presentation is so stylish. I love their outfits design, unfortunately they just ran out of episodes to go deeper into character. SEQUELS PLZ  :x

Bleach is probably going downhill after diverging from the manga a bit. I can't really follow it well after they went the Dragon Ball (ban kai = super saiyan form etc) path, the power ranking is just way off, no way telling who is stronger than who etc. In the end I just end up catching it on Youtube weekly just to know how it's doing. I admit I was really into Dragon ball when I was 5th - 6th grade, but 10 years later, I've outgrown it >_<

Reminiscent of DBZ? Cool, sounds like something for me to avoid like the plague.


DBZ was single-handedly responsible for keeping me away from anime for Years.

My problem with a lot of stuff is that it is just too slow.

For example Inuyasha would not be bad if it moved at about 5x the pace. I like the atmosphere and the overall plotline, but it is just soooo tedious to watch. DragonBall Z was the same way. (Although DragonBall was not bad nor was the first season of DragonBallZ) It seems that in a lot of anime there is a LOT of people just standing around, slowly talking while nothing animates.

Trigun was the last thing I saw that I really liked, mostly because things happened at a decent clip. Cowboy Bebop was also good in that regard.

Inuyahsa, Bleach, Trinity Blood, Naruto - all too slow. A crazed editor could make all of these shows way way better. And in DragonBall Z they got to the point where just getting ready to fight would take 2 episodes...

I just cannot stand to watch a show for a half hour when absolutely NOTHING happens.

Believe it or not, that is how they make filler episodes in DBZ, because the show was catching up to the manga, they decide to slow it down with flashbacks, long talks before fights or a 15 minute power gathering session in order to overcome the ultimate bad guy. This happens a lot in the manga as well when I was reading it, 5 pages of nothing but holding palms up to the sky growing a huge ball of energy  :|

Just went through all the stuff I have stored on my PC...

I really need to hurry up and get a DVD burner and about 50 DL DVD-Rs. I only have about 100GB of anime sitting around soaking up space.

Here's the thing with Naruto.

It fucking sucks.  I mean, it's really awful.  But some of the character designs are cool, and the strategic misdirections they use in fights are awesome.  Every month or so there'll be something really cool that happens.

Example:  Kabuto escaping from Kakashi in the hospital room was great.

Knowing the particular skills of the characters and seeing how they use them to overcome their opponents skills is a lot of fun.  What's not fun is watching the recap of what just happened, with a five minute monologue from each observing character on how they felt about it, accompanied by chakra diagrams and a 10 minute flashback to the ninja as a child.

Fuck, it's been 20 minutes and he's thrown one punch so far.

So it's sort of a "I have nothing to do, and Naruto's on, let's kill a half hour." thing, but I couldn't become invested in that show using someone else's emotions.

EDIT

Oh, I was over at a friend's a while ago and his sister is a big anime fan, and has some of that Azumanga Daoiohoyodelayheehoo anime, so I watched the first two episodes of it.  I watched the second episode because I didn't want to judge a show by its first episode alone.  What the fuck is the matter with you people?  Am I just not Japanese enough?

Is that the "COOKING IS SO FUN!" show? I kept seeing that on the top 10 lists of people that had a lot of other shows I liked on their list...I've no idea how people who share my tastes on so many other shows could like that one.

Lol they're pretty diverse anyway, they have anime about bakery, cooking and other sorts of really obscure materials. Heck there's even a manga about cooking curries.
It gives you plenty of choice doesn't it?

Which brings me to my next point, I'm pretty disappointed Guilty Gear doesn't move into anime, Street Fighters did it, King of Fighters did it....with cooler cast, I'm sure GG would be a great hit. I saw an animated trailer of the game 3 years back, but nothing else >_<

I have no idea. Maybe you're broken. Maybe you're watching crappy English dubs. Somewhat possibly, the first 2 episodes are not the best (I dunno, I remember liking it all).

Stop watching the anime equivalent of sitcoms then. Go get The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Or Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Those are the two highlights of last season, in my book.

I second that motion. I would also rank School Rumble season 2 and (especially) Black Lagoon very high on the list.

Though I will concede that Higurashi got a bit odd in spots.

I totally approve of the new avatar, btw. Kyon Solidarity, brother.

On Higurashi, quoth a friend of mine, "There's no problem that can't be solved with more axe murder."

I liked the first episodes, but it does take a bit to really get into it.  Once you know the characters it is beautiful.
Yes.  That was just the eye-catch for the first show's commercial break.  None of the others have that.

I just watched the short to verify we were talking about the same thing.  I could not finish the dubbed version.  The Japanese eye-catch I was going all fan-girl on before I was even a fan.  (As a side note, my ex who adored the show wasn't too hot on the eye-catch either.  Maybe y'all just hate cuteness.)

AzuD put me to sleep in under three eps, School Rumble was not funny and the female lead was annoying (her sister was cool though).  I think Cromartie High is retarded, some people should just not watch pure comedy anime.  It doesn't work for them.

On the flip side I find the comedy in Full Metal Panic to be hilarious, same with MHS (Mikeru beam, roflsauce).

So you aren't alone on that front Llava, but really it seems like you haven't been listening to those of us posting in this thread.  Check out some of the fun time more action-y series that people have been recommending and keep away from big anime fan girl picks like AzuD and various anime about singers, gay pop stars and whatnot.

School Rumble Season 2 is marred with sporadic fillers and I think the writer is running out of ideas, kinda expected it.
One view of the 'One hour special for Season 2' convinced me something is really really wrong with this show  :-o

I don't really dig Haruhi, lol the non-ordered episodes is one thing but the voice of the female lead turned me off as well as the personality. Seems like I'm only the minority since my neighbour and his friends liked it very much.

Apparently, with SR s2, the anime was catching up too quickly to the manga, so the some of the episodes are in there to "slow down" the plot progression. Sucks, I know, especially that "2-parter." The episode involving all the main characters in that weird cyberpunk thing was ok, but the thing with the class rep? Unacceptable. I mean, seriously, she has about 2 minutes of dialogue throughout the series besides that episode.

And I can see what you mean by not liking Haruhi's "non-sequential" airing order, though oddly, the series still makes sense somehow (to me anyway). But anyway, I don't watch Haruhi for Haruhi herself; I was far more concerned with Kyon and Yuki, and Mikuru to a lesser extent. Some of Kyon's lines and commentary are absolutely priceless.

Nope,  I haven't in quite a few pages.  I just remember some love for AzuD (that's way easier to type, good idea) way back in the thread, and I've heard a lot of other people raving about it, so thought I'd check it out.

I just brought up Naruto out of nowhere for no reason, because that show pisses me off.

For most anime, I really don't give a shit.  There are certain shows I love, but the vast majority just doesn't interest me at all.  Since I don't really do the torrenting thing because I don't like to watch shows on my shitty old monitor, going out and buying a bunch of DVDs at $25 a pop without having ever heard of the show isn't really a viable option when, for the vast majority of anime, I could take it or leave it at best.

Sounds like you need a new monitor then, or at least video-out on your video card.

The last Good anime I saw was Yakitate! Japan! Even though I only watched to episode 43. Haruhi and that other shit from last season was overrated dreck. Hell, even Yakitate was only watchable for the "reactions" and SOME of interaction between the 4 main characters, particularly the teacher/sensei/head chef at that branch.

For those interested, Black Lagoon Season Two has started. Shinsen Subs is subbing again. Note that they don't title the episodes as season 2. Rather, they start at 13 (since the previous "season" was 12 episodes).

If anyone cares, the new version of Kanon is currently coming out. I'm going with afk's subs. (http://a.scarywater.net/afk/) They're currently at episode 3.

Yes, I already saw the original series.

Yes, I know this remake will be practically the same, EXCEPT for the voice of the male lead (at least, I dunno about any other changes) - it's being done by the same guy who did Kyon from Haruhi. The animation is also being done by the same people that did Haruhi (Kyoto Animation, they also did the later two Full Metal Panic series). This alone makes it worth it for me. I may even be able to replace my copy of the original series with this remake.

Not really an anime but TV-Nihon just subbed Akihabara@Deep, a live comedy series about otaku in Japan. I just downloaded 3 eps (one episode is 45 mins) and it's not bad for entertainment.  8-)

ah, I'd been waiting for that to get subbed.

Schild, don't you have an old avatar from that series?

I have avatars from Densha Otoko, Pride, uhmmmmmmm Engine, and GTO.

I meant an avatar of a goofy Japanese otaku from a JP TV series.

So, I guess not.

Yes. Densha Otoko.

I don't buy anime on the recommendations of other people anymore since I've just been burned way way too many times doing it. A lot of people kept recommending me awful stuff like AzuManga/Excel Saga/etc.

So my exposure to new stuff is mostly limited by what Adult Swim picks up. Their new stuff...eh.

Trinity Blood is neat looking, kinda stylish, and has a lot of wacky hair/outfit styles. The action is alright, and it's kinda cool how people seem to actually you know...care when people (even badguys) die. However, it has that same "power levels" deal that most action titles have along with that wonderful Japanese Kabbalism what with the biblical names and odd interpretations of Christianity.

Bleach...why did I keep hearing this raved about by the kiddies as being the next Naruto again? It's basically a harder edged version of Yu Yu Hakusho only with much less focus on ridiculous power levels (at the moment at least) and more on the whole life/death aspect. It wasn't really all that interesting though.

Also, I loved the first...2/3rds of Fullmetal Alchemist. The characters felt very human in their reactions and emotional responses (Ed coming to pieces at some of the deaths, and especially after nearly being killed in one of the early episodes was really striking), the moral issues raised were interesting, and I liked a LOT of the characters in general. The people who made the series also had balls of steel regarding killing people off, and actually bringing back characters most people thought were cute throw-aways to provide filler...

And then they explained the true nature of alchemy and the backstory. Good fucking lord was it dumb. Easily the worst ending to a series I've seen in a long time. You have this interesting pseudo-science with a vaguely coherent series of rules that didn't shatter suspension of disbelief and then you just throw that shit out the window. Blech.

As for Naruto...I like the early parts of it I've seen so far. It's Harry Potter with Ninjas but for right now the characters aren't astoundingly over-powered, and the fights have a lot more trickery and clever use of known techniques instead of the dude with the biggest blast of energy winning. The fights in the episodes that seemed to get the big animation budgets are amazing to watch. Well, when they aren't lifting stuff from other anime.

That had to have been an homage. And wait a second, didn't the same fighting animator do both things?

Fab, why not just torrent some stuff, if you don't mind subs?

I can see why you might not like Azumanga, even though I think it's fairly awesome.

And yeah, Bleach sucks. For me, same for FMA.

If you want action, check out any of the Full Metal Panic stuff, or Black Lagoon. If you liked Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon is more in line with that, while FMP is generally more lighthearted.

I liked the first few episodes of Naruto when Kakashi-sensei was fighting the dude with the giant sword and was copying his every move. Kakashi-sensei rules.

Unfortunately after that it started focusing more on various middle-schoolers, which I find very tiresome.

I find Naruto tiring for the same reasons I found the Kenshin TV series tiring.  People talking about why they kicked ass, is stupid.

Fab, whoever keeps recommending you pure comedy shows is an idiot.  Comedy in anime is tremendously hit or miss for most American viewers.  I'll second Straz's idea when it comes to FMP and/or Black Lagoon, although FMP is not a very serious show I'd try renting it from a hobby/gaming/netflix style place first.  Black Lagoon isn't in US DVD yet (I'm sure it will be though), so torrents are a must.

By the way, Central Anime has recently released a couple more fansubbed episodes of Legend of Galactic Heroes...they might even finish it in a couple more years.

I think most of the people who keep recommending me these comedies just want to act like they understand the usually VERY Japanese jokes in the series.

Yeah Mr. Friend-of-one-of-my-friends anime fag, like you fucking get the whole angle in FLCL about the curry and the bitter/sweet soft drinks and how they relate to Naota growing up. I understand the culture enough to get it...I just don't appreciate it since I'm you know...not Japanese. I didn't grow up there so it has no emotional context to me, all getting it does is make me not confused when they focus on it; it doesn't make me more interested. ...er, sorry. Needed to put that out there.

I'll probably take that advice and start torrenting stuff instead of just waiting for a dubbed DVD to buy. I largely can't stand listening to Japanese people talk (4 years of class will do that), but I think I can do it to avoid dropping $15+ on another coaster.

Harry Potter with ninjas is a very apt comparison for Naruto.

I love FMA, but I do have to agree that the explanation for alchemy was pretty weak.  But by that point I was so engrossed in the characters and intrigue, the mechanics of alchemy didn't really matter to me.  SPOILER: The final duel between Mustang and the Fuhrer was especially great.

Deathnote, which is currently being released via fansubs comes highly recommended from every source I know.  If your looking for something this should be at or near the top of your list.

One of my friends won't shut the fuck up about the live action movie.

He will die, and so will his little friend Mr. Burgers.

Haha, hated the movie. Really an overrated piece of J-Stuff.
Like how the main chars just twist the plot device as he wanted and expect the audience to swallow it.

Deathnote is really good. See it if you can.

Also, my baby loves the hell out of the opening song to Paranoia Agent.

So I bought the box set of Texhnolyze purely on the basis of the fact that I have liked the other Yoshitoshi aBe series. Is it good?

Noir boxed set is like $57.99 at best buy, seems like a good entertainment value.

!!!

/me bolts for the door.

Just finished watching Texhnolyze myself, and Noir about 3 months ago. Both of them are truely ghastly I'm afraid. Tex has a great setting, opening (my introduction to Juno Reactor) and a real touch for dramatic tension... but story wise there just wasn't a payoff for such a bleak and slow moving experience. Noir just becomes tedious beyond words.

I'm watching D-Grayman, which basically looks like a combination of bleach and FMA. Death note is unusual and looks like it can spin a decent story. Also watching Red Garden and Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge which has awful character art but the goth female can be amusing. Still not sure how those are going to develop.

You are dead to me.

I've been recently rewatching my old Noir fansubs and it remains one of my favorite series, anime or otherwise. Conspiracy stories are right up my alley.

The current crop of anime is quite disappointing, coming off of Haruhi and Higurashi. I await the spring season.

I picked up Noir a disc at a time solely for the soundtrack back when it first came out. Also got the two soundtracks. About five episodes were really amazing, the rest was slow moving drama. Really slow moving drama - that I didn't give a shit about. But man, that last episode. What an anime.

I did not like Technolyze. I'll be goddamned if I'm putting an X in that word also.

Technolyze was too slow for me, the art and setting are spot-on awesome but really nobody ever talks and it is damn hard to give a fuck about a single character.  I watched the first 6 eps and decided I had other shows I would rather watch.

Noir was awesome, but it always seems to bring out strong love/hate feelings in people.  I own it on dvd and watched it about 6 months ago, the animation is dated but when the story reaches its peak towards the end it is pretty cool in my book.  The music, as Schild pointed out, is kickass as well.  Both stories advance at a snail's pace, if that isn't your style I wouldn't bother with either of them.

I just want to point out that there's four soundtracks, not two. OST 1, OST 2, Blanc Dans 1, Blanc Dans 2.

</fanboy>

:)

The Blanc Dans CDs are not soundtracks.

Many anime series gets shit like this, .hack which had amazing music only had 3 actual soundtracks for its original release, but there's 7 cds. They're all worth getting. BUT, much like Noir, you can get the actual OSTs and get every song from the series on them.

I just love how each character has their own theme. It's like Peter and the wolf.

In the unlikely event no one knew this, the same composer did Noir and .hack. She also did Xenosaga II and III, My-Hime, and an assload  (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=3914) of other stuff.

The animation studio is also the same between Noir and .hack, which I find a bit disappointing.

Noir grew on me, but Technolyze didn't. I just finished watching Eureka Seven, which I really enjoyed and recommend heartily. Also watched the first episode of Death Note; looks interesting but I'll reserve my judgement until I've seen more. I hear the plot is a bit rushed, compared to the manga.

On that note there are like 8 volumes of the manga available at every major book store...  I can't stand the format myself but thought that might be useful info for someone.

Probably mentioned earlier, but I missed it on the pages I scrolled through:

I'm not big on anime by any means. But a series called Samurai Champloo really caught my eye. It's from the team/guy (?) behind Cowboy Bebop. Fusing Samurais and hip-hop, sound weird? But they pull it off, it's not overly cheezy, overly Japanese funny/embarrassing, it's actually cool. The characters are pretty solid aswell (albiet being huge archetypes). The show is just full of energy and fun, touching in on the Anime conventions, but not really killing itself in them (mind you, I'm not much for the "super-sized eyes"-and all that). It has some of it, but often comes across as a graphic novel, rather then Anime.

And it's fun, from most of the other shows I've seen the humor has been so childish/embarrassing/abstract that I've simply lost track of what's happening in the story. Or the story is so convoluted that it hurt, the stories are fun, semi-mature and mix of the serious and fun (wacko japanese stuff). Very well animated and the characters feel somewhat real.

Ace ace, from me.

Samurai Champloo was one of the better things to come out of the 2004 anime season. I also enjoyed ROD The TV from that season, but it goes batshit insane-o on the bizarrometer towards the end. The original Read or Die OVAs were pretty boss, too.

I've never seen the TV series, but as Yoru said the Read or Die OVAs are nice.

Finished Elfen Lied the other day, I thought it was very good, especially how I thought it struck a nice balance between comedy and serious/horror content.

I'm still picking away at 4 or 5 other series.

Without making a plan to, we're watching older series now. Armored Trooper Votoms for me, Ranma 1/2 for Jamie.

We tried the first volume of Master Keaton recently, which had pinged my radar years ago. It's not must-see, but it is better than the premise implies (ex-SAS insurance investigator).

Scrapped Princess is finished. Though it was very cool, really liked the style, even though all the females were freakishly well-endowed.

http://www.asosbrigade.com/ :thumbs_up:

Yeah, lolz.

Also, cats.

I've been picking up new stuff since I don't have a whole lot better to do this week.

One of the little gems I've found is Bartender. It's a sedate, unassuming anime completely devoid of the usual plot devices and wacky superpowers. It's about this young bartender at a little everybody-knows-your-name bar. Each episode follows some character as a problem is presented and he goes to the bar to enjoy a drink. The bartender, in the closest thing to supernaturality as you'll find in this show, knows exactly what drink to make them, and generally also either listens to or tells a story about the cocktail(s) he's making that's relevant to the person's problem. They drink and, through some character transformation or epiphany, come to a solution that improves their life. Credits roll.

It doesn't sound particularly exciting, but it's more of an emotional drama show than anything else. The pace is languid and contemplative, which fits the voice of the narrator (most soothing narrative voice ever, seriously) and the presentation of the series perfectly. Interestingly, they bookend the episodes with a "liquor fact" at the beginning and a drink recipe (generally of one of the featured cocktails) at the end.

It's also being presented in HD, which is kind of odd - the series is beautifully rendered, but the pacing doesn't really show off the quality of the animation except in subtle ways. Which I suppose suits Bartender just fine.

I'm doubting this will ever come out in the States though; it's very unlike a standard harem/giant-robot/freaky-girls/superhero anime, and I find the change very refreshing. Tracker link (http://a.scarywater.net/lunar/).

CLAMP's new mecha show, Code Geass isn't that bad really, might wanna check it out if you are looking for something.

Funny you should say that. Ep 04 just started downloading.  8-)

I've got a list of a half-dozen series, and I'm kind of interleaving them so I don't get all screwed up in the head from watching an entire series from start to finish.





Moreso than presently, at least. My current queue is Bartender (watched 1-6, which is all that's fansubbed), Black Lagoon (1-13 downloaded, 1 watched), Code Geass (funny name, 1-4 downloaded/ing), Death Note and Welcome to NHK.

Is that the first or second set of Black Lagoon, Yoru?

The first. I think. The ep I watched seemed very first eppish, at least.

Okay, little report on what I've got so far.

Bartender, as reported earlier, is all kinds of classy-awesome.

Code Geass is a pretty typical CLAMP series. Schoolkids trying to save/change the world, a bizarre superpower, giant robots. Has some good combat mixed in with really bad J-drama.

Black Lagoon (first season) is a decent action series; great animation and characterization, but the rest is mostly average. Picked up the second season, and that's in the queue to watch.

Welcome to the NHK is also okay; of the four series mentioned, it grabs me the least. It's very much a slice-of-life series with some Bizarro!- and Awkward-style humor tossed in. The little blue things are going to haunt me in the wee hours. Only up to ep8 or so, though, so my opinion of this may improve.

Flag still being aired in Japan, pretty interesting concept and stylistic execution from the first few eps I previewed.  I consider it worth watching just to see if they can make it work.

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto also made it onto my watch-this-once-its-out-list by way of having a fairly confusing and interesting take on the typical japanese sword-and-socery fare.  I wish I knew much about Japanese History or the fansubbers had done a better job with notes  but the fighting, large cast and odd twists made it seem like it could be solid.

Also if you haven't at least given Black Lagoon a shot you really should.  The second season was even better imo and I cant wait for a third, if there isn't a third I will be really really pissed.

I could definitely go for a third Black Lagoon season.

Also, I am really digging KyoAni's Kanon remake. Besides the usual exemplary animation, and besides the fact that they have a larger number of episodes in which to properly go through the stories, they have Sugita Tomokazu (RE: Kyon from Haruhi, Hideki from Chobits). He's got to be just about the best male VA out there right now.

EDIT: I also haveChevalier and Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na Crescent Love just sitting around. Chevalier seemed alright, though I've only watched about 4 episodes so far. I haven't touched Crescent Love, so I have no idea how good or bad it is.

Eh, guess I never posted after I finished.

Black Lagoon season two was indeed quite the awesome.

Welcome to the NHK gets really really disturbing and weird after ... well, when you look back on it, it's all creepy and weird, but the notion didn't hit me until halfway through the series. It's well-told, but it's a rather emotionally abusive series to watch.

Death Note is pretty good, with some parts that are amazingly gripping and then some parts that just feel tired. They introduced a new gimmick as of around ep12, which might've made the series positively awesome, but now Viz has licensed it, so I'll probably never find out.

Aside from Bartender, I'm not really actively following anything else any more, although the World Masterpiece Theater adaptation of Les Miserables is set to start soon. Might try that out...

You forgot to mention the upcoming new season of Higurashi.

I have no idea what possible direction they could be taking the series...I thought they were finished with the source material.

Indeed I did, although that's technically not until March, and so is part of the spring season instead of winter.

And no, there were two more games to do, and I hear the 7th was quite long. I've also heard rumor that the director is intending on putting his personal touch on the series by adding in his own ending. Whether or not they're doing 7th + Original, 7th + 8th + Original or some other combination thereof, I don't know.

There's also the rumored Haruhi Season 2 this fall.

OMFG MORE HARUHI

*E-SWOON*

...

Seriously, unleash the inner fanboi and so on.

OTOH its one of my favorite series ever but it doesn't need more eps.  Where some favorites demand more.  Hope they do right by it (can't imagine they wouldn't though).

The is no reason whatsoever to continue Higurashi. You don't see Japanese companies cash in like that very often. Usually it's with 50 different action figures.

Speaking of good series, I could definitely go for more FMP. Not that I've heard anything.

Watched Welcome to the NHK very good stuff.  As long as you dont mind some of the uglier aspects of real life getting in your anime.

Death Note kicks my goddamn ass all over the place.

After S2 of Haruhi, of course.

 Haruhi wasn't interesting enough for me. Death Note >>>>>>>>> Haruhi.

I'll tell you how I feel once I find the room for Death Note, among other things.

I'm still hoping that one of these days that the whole Anime fad will blow over  :hello_kitty:

Hehe, not for as long as it's offering something the western entertainment doesn't.


Anyway, depending on what you think of bleach and naruto, it might be worth to pick them back up again. They're stopping the filler bullshit now. Personaly I found both of them to be top notch before the filler bullshit, even if Naruto definetly is geared at a little younger audience and try to teach morals a bit to much at times.

Yeah, Naruto is starting the story back up on February 15. I'm looking forward to it, given how cool the manga has been. The filler was just execrable.

I stopped following Naruto when they started the filler, but I had liked it. Does anyone know if they're animating the Kakashi side story were he gets the eye?

I strongly recommend that anyone who has an affection for sci-fi and anime give Ergo Proxy a try.  I thought it was pretty crazy and the atmosphere the art conjures was fantastic.

Ok, I know I am bringing this up about a year late considering the last time it was discussed in this thread, but I just watched Haibane Renmei.  I downloaded it a few years ago when it came out for a roommate who really likes watching overlly cutsy anime.  I decided to leave it on my portable harddrive because it did look at least a little different and artsy, so I figured I might watch it someday.  As you may have noticed from my previous recommendations in this thread, I like more realistic/serious anime, usually with lots of guns and death.  Not the usual stupid vapid cutsy anime shit.

And holy fuck, I loved this series.

Despite having alot of the usual cutsy anime character cliches, the underlying darkness kept me intriged through the first few episodes.  Then it just became amazingly well done when they progressed into the two main characters ordeals.  Blew me away.  It was deep, imaginative, sureal, yet it wasnt to hard to fully understand what was going on by the end of the show (which is something most artsy anime fucks up on imo).  It had a good ending as well, which I feel most anime fucks up on also.

So yeah, I completly loved this anime, and have to recommend it despite the fact that its not the normal type of anime I like.  Though I know I probably wont find any, are there any other animes anybody can recommend like this?  "If you liked Haibane Renmei, you'll love this:" sort of thing?  Just in the mood for more now.  I know the director also did serial exparament lain, but I have heard alot of mixed opinions on that.  Is it still at least worthwhile to watch?  Or is it to incoherent (thats the impression I got from people)?


I think Japan is finally driving me insane.

Um...Elfen Lied?

You should try Lain because it does ellicit strong feelings from damn near everyone, I opted not to watch it because it was compared to Technolyze (which you may want to consider checking out, more dark stuff but with some guns this time, very very bleak).  I thought Technolyze was boring but I prefer my anime with a side of giant robots so who would listen to me right?

Lain. Lol. Strong feelings of hate.

Have you seen She, The Ultimate Weapon [Saishuheiki Kanojo (spelling?) or SaiKano]. That's pretty serious and has guns and no cutesy shit.

Admittedly, I didn't like Haibane Renmei, but I really liked SaiKano. It may be just what you're looking for. There's also - reasonably recently - a decent SaiKano live action movie.

Also, DEATH NOTE.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody, I`ll give Elf Lied, Lain, Technolyze, Deathnote, and SaiKano a try (Posters for all the god damn Deathnote movies have been all over the place here).  Im finding that watching anime is helping my Japanese anyways now, and I dont have a TV in my room so I never really watch local TV at all.  So even if I dont like any of it, I should still gain something, heh.

Even though I usually end up disagreeing with you on everything when it comes to Movie and Video Game preferences, I`m just curious why you didnt like Haibane Renmei Schild.  Granted, the more I look at it, the more I realize it just hit me hard emotionaly due to the subject matter it ended up focusing on (which I hadnt been expecting).  Rakka`s story in particular closly parallels some unfortunate real life events Ive had to deal with, so I suppose there was alot more heavy hitting at a personal level, which might not effect others.  Still, I thought the whole thing was really well done, despite going into with pre-established disdain.

Whether or not something hits me on the emotional level doesn't really effect my enjoyment of a show. Things I've hated have hit me emotionally and so have things I love. Renmei bored me, plain and simple. It wasn't bad, it wasn't good, it was just just. I saw it during a period when I watched a SHITLOAD of anime (working in an anime store, new series every day or every other day. We were blowing through shit during 8-10 hour shifts (and during the day shift we didn't get many customers compared to the night shift - we had 5 solid hours of anime to just sit there and stare at each day). When we got to Renmei, a lot of people had been talking about it, so when it wasn't that good it struck us as something more mediocre. Maybe I should give it a chance. The best shows that came out of that period were the fansubs of Jungle Wa, FLCL (it had just been released) and Full Metal Panic 1. 2001-2002 were REALLY GREAT YEARS for anime straight outta Japan, and Haibane Renmei simply wasn't up to snuff.

The standout series from those 2 years are (imo):

Jungle Wa
The Cat Returns
Heat Guy J
Comic Party
Ultra Maniac (most people can't stand this)
Ai Yori Aoshi (I <3 Love Hina, definately these 2 are my GUILTIEST pleasures)
Love Hina OVA
Cowboy Bebop movie
Hellsing
Witch Hunter Robin (not sure it should be on a list with this other stuff)
Full Metal Panic
Noir
Hikaru no Go
Millennium Actress
SaiKano
Read or Die
Naruto (the early stuff was fantastic)
Spirited Away
Hunter X Hunter OVA
Azumanga Daioh
Get Backers

I can't believe I remember that period so vividly actually. There was just _so much good_. And somehow, there was more bad. I guess that's how it goes with anything. The amount of absolute shit we watched is just astounding. But the high points, man, really high. That list wasn't in any order, but of the anime I watched in college, Hunter X Hunter might take the cake. I adored that show in every way possible. It may very well be the best anime I've ever seen.

Hellz yeah Comic Party, among others on that list.

But if you have Comic Party on there, why not Happy Lesson? Same era and all. I'd probably rank them about equally.

Because I enjoyed Comic Party?

Generally, as a rule, besides Ai Yori Aoshi and Love Hina, I'm not a fan of Harem, but Comic Party was good entertainment with a premise that made it surreal. It wasn't normaly in 2002 for hobbies to be portrayed like that, not in anime or live action. Since then we've gotten Densha Otoko (movie, tv show, inevitable anime coming up here any way now), Akihabara@Deep, Genshiken, etc.

On that note, I left something VERY IMPORTANT off that list when I looked at my anime after that post - Abenobashi. I make no apologies though since it was from memory.

I've seen an even mix of shows recently.

Crest of the Stars (*****) - Chacacter-driven SF adventure. Imperious space elf princess and dry-witted human noble get caught up in a war.

Gunparade March (****) - Brutal military action plus dating sim. Seriously, it works. Unfortunately, the latter overwhelms the former at the end.

Starship Operators (***) - Terrible characters, but a couple of the most realistic starship combats I've seen in anime.

Ceres: Celestial Legend (**) - Starts great (if emo), falls to pieces in the second half.

And still plowing through Armored Troops VOTOMS. Good, but you have to be able to deal with the crude art and storytelling of the early 80s.

Do not ever watch the second Gun Parade it is sooo terrible.

Crest of the Stars, at the last Otakon I worked at was what people bought the most of when other people weren't looking. Guilty Pleasure City.

You might try Neia_7.  It has a different, more whimsical flavor, but is more episodic and mostly ignored by everyone.

Everyone who liked Crest/Banner/etc of the Stars really ought to give Legend of Galactic Heroes a try.
Just, you know, make sure you schedule in enough time for it.  :wink:

Noir bored me to death. Parts of it are like watching a kid play Virtua Cop at Chuckie Cheese where all the guys are turned into robots.

Other than that though, I haven't watched a lot of anime outside of what pops on Adult Swim off an on. One of my friends is a Tenchi Muyo fanboy and subjected me to two DVDs of the latest (and supposedly final) series. It's uh...Tenchi. Reasonably well animated though.

I think Noir appealed to my inner autistic.

It was that each character had their own theme, the flashback growing, over-all plot, granted it was slow at times.

God damn I have been getting pwned by "Welcome to the NHK' lately. I'm not even finished yet, but I'm pretty sure it's better than Haruhi.

And I really liked Haruhi.

NHK and Haruhi are both really awesome.  I think Black Lagoon is terribly underrated, just watched it again (both seasons) and I really love that show.

Have started watching Bartender and I'd like to add that I quite like it. Like most anime it takes a job (or institution, etc, etc.) and basically mythologises it but it does a good job of telling the stories in each episode and it gives me cocktail recipes.

Will have to check out NHK as I loved Haruhi.

I mean, hell, it even spends an episode on MMO catassing. What's not to love?  :-D

hahah. i loved that mmo arc
admittedly I'm having a hard time getting 'attached' over anime after NHK ends.  :-( So I've not been watching anything for a while. Doubt there'll be NHK Season 2 tho.

The new anime season will be starting soon. You can look at a translated version of moonphase's list here (http://fansub.andrewlb.com/pukiwiki.php?Spring%202007). Also contains a comments section with bickering and trolling between different groups and their lackeys. The original and much longer list can be found at moonphase (http://www.moonphase.cc/Html/anime.html) of course.

Didn't see it mentioned here, but I didn't really look hard either.

The ones that stand out (at least for me) so far:

Gurren Lagann
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
Hayate
Heroic Age
xenoglossia
Romeo x Juliet
Gigantic Formula
jeeg
Darker than black
Koutetsu Sangokushi
moribito
terra-e
Koutetsu Sangokushi
kami-chama Karin
bokurano
Emma
Skullman
Devil May Cry

I know jack and shit about everything you listed there. Except DMC. I'm a big fan of the games, but I'm afraid the anime series could get really corny. Like, really, really bad. I know the games do (fortunately, they have other strengths).

I want to see the new Naruto stuff too, but I'll just wait until it's a season in. I'm probably bourgeois to someone here for liking it so much, but I don't give a fuck.

It's pretty good. It's not high art, but if you liked the part of the first series that followed the manga, you'll like it just fine. I watched the show up to about episode 160 and had to take a break from the filler stuff. Why people are snobs about either Naruto or Bleach is beyond me. neither is high art, but neither pretends to be. They're both fun shows and there's no fucking harems or early teens piloting giant robot superweapons for the military - rare as hell in anime.

I don't like either because I find them to be boring crap. Also, I'm extremely biased against lengthy series; 12-25 episodes is the sweet spot for me.

Also, you missed the new Higurashi.

All anime has to pass what I call the Dad Test.  This means I have to be able to watch it with my 58 year old father and not feel embarrassed for myself. Big O passed the Dad Test just fine, and he actually recommended Armitage: Dual Matrix to me after catching it on Showtime one night.  But if I were to put on most of what runs on Adult Swim anymore, he'd look over at me and ask me when I went queer.

So what's out there that can pass the Dad Test?  He likes James Cameron movies and there's no such thing as too much cinematic violence in his book, if that helps.

Black Lagoon, probably. It's one of the better new action series.

Really, though, I don't see a whole lot in the spring anime season to excite me, although I have been watching the Les Miz anime just kinda 'cuz.

There's, uh....Some Maria-sama ga Miteru OVAs coming out.

Shut Up.

For my Dad, nothing would pass the Dad test...

I share a lot of the same interests with him, but anime isn't one of them (actually, I'm not the biggest anime fan myself either. At least in the big picture of things). I'd never hold it as a standard on how I should view things, and couldn't help with any recommendations if that's your criteria.



Actually, I like the whole thing. I don't see why some people feel it dropped in quality after the first 50-60 eps or so. Right after Zabuza, you get the Chounin Exam, Orochimaru, and Gaara. Which rocked. Then after that, Tsunade and Jiraiya, and more Orochimaru. Then after that, Sasuke's betrayal, etc.. It has some weak moments, but nothing worth scoffing at really.

But yeah, it's not high art. It is the best shounen type of series I've seen though (or could even stick with in the long run). It's more broadly appealing than the average battle heavy series. Lots of non action related drama and character development, great female and male characters, and a fair share of comedy too.

Some youtube preview links:

Romeo x Juliet Preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfFtwGQG72A)
Hayate Preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIDOZvGbaFQ)
Heroic Age Preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKn_rFlbZ6c)
XENOGLOSSIA Preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYKif1O0x8s)
Gurren Lagann Preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC_lSGooF1Y)
Jeeg is a remake: Old (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cpj6r78jno) New (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3gewCqMFMw)
Darker than Black Preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gc0zSN_D34)
moribito preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waSwndpzFSU)
Skullman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBIUHLh1ne4)

All of those look really good. Except the Idolmaster one.

They're all series? Some look like feature films.

All are series that will begin airing next month.

True enough, but personally I find that even Sunrise's failures are interesting.

Well... I wouldn't mind playing the game. Just for kicks. I'm a sucker for anything sim-like, and wish there was more of the Japanese variety in the States. Also, I like cel-shading, and it looks downright amazing in that respect.

Wouldn't really care about that thing in a form of passive entertainment though (on the other hand, it would appear that Xenoglossia doesn't have anything close to the same premise -- Except I still don't care).

Naruto is awful period. They should cancel that shit and replace it with a new season of GODANNAR (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfb2sBhczlo).

Naruto wasn't awful. Period. It wasn't what most make it out to be, but I thought the first 25 or so episodes were great. I stopped watching around episode 40 or 50 though.

Doesn't matter though, it absolutely pales in comparison to Hunter X Hunter.

Godannar looks like dog shit. Fucking robots. It's funny, cuz I agree with a lot of LC's likes, but goddamn.

Also, Big O? Why am I the only one who found it to be unbearable dreck? Granted when people over here started watching that, I think I had just gotten through Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai for a second time.

Never seen Godannar. I don't have anything against giant robots necessarily, but I've yet to see anything that kept me glued to the screen for an extended period of time (even the so called greatest stuff that's been around over the years). So far, I can digest it in a movie at best.

If a series is going to win me over with long drawn out battles, then it'll more than likely need 1) martial arts and 2) human fighters and conflicts. Supernatural stuff is cool too. The gold standard for me is still Hokuto/Fist of the North Star.

Naruto, of course, doesn't live up to that either....But it makes up for it on other angles. It's an entertaining little show all around -- but I'm not trying to make it out like the greatest thing or whatever.

[EDIT] That being said, I'll give Godannar a chance. Haven't seen HXH either, but I have it queued up.

Watched first episode of Godannar, didn't like it at all. I like Naruto more than HxH if you exclude fillers. My personal favorite is Berserk, it's so raw and badass.

If you shortened it into 39 episodes it might be decent.

Yes HxH is one of my favorites as well. I didn't say HxH because you had already mentioned it. Too bad HxH won't be finished anytime soon if ever. I don't think there have been any manga releases in over a year.

I also wish they would finish Narutaru (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIF5BLyh3Mk) someday. You should definitely get it if you haven't watched it already.


Big O sucked because it was paid for with American money.

Godannar is awesome.

.

No delete post option...

I don't fare well with mecha. Eva, Full Metal Panic - fine. But beyond that, my tolerance for such stuff is...limited.

I thought the same.

Thirded.

The only things that have passed my "first four eps made me want to see more" test recently were:

-Code Geass:  Mecha but decent, which is good enough for me I love giant robots.

-Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto:  Samurai-swordplay, politics, revenge etc. but with a few extra twists for spice.

-Shounen Onmyouji: This is pretty indicative of how bad the start of '07 has been for anime, this show only seems good by comparison.  Its watchable "fluff" about a boy who is a demon-catcher.  The young romance was sort of cute and the mascot/animal/shinigami was pretty likeable for once.

I've been following Geass on and off. It's kinda meh for me; too much cliched melodrama in between the action episodes. Too many cliches in general.

The same goes for me as well. I will watch anything with giant robots.

You shouldn't have any trouble finding something to watch in April.

What...The...Fuck. (http://www.akibablog.net/archives/img-mouse/harehareyukai070325.wmv) (Opens a WMV, smallish)

I'll see you and raise you Pocky Dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y4G0NIk6zo).

(I've been on a GitS:SAC kick since I missed it the first time around.  Found this gem searching for episodes until my bonus comes in this month.  :mrgreen:  )

No idea what that was, besides the guy trying to be Batou. I think the first guy was from GitS as well, the sniper guy.

Yeah, main guy there was cosplaying Saito.  I only found it because I was looking for 2nd Gig episode 14.  Sniper= :heart: but I'm weird like that.

I will admit to having dressed up for GenCon one year, but it wasn't as anyone specific (ah, pseudo-Scottish female is all).  And I sure as hell can't imagine running around like that while someone video tapes it.  Too old and stuffy now, I guess.   :oops:

Was the first guy supposed to be Ishikawa?

I would go as Kyon...or Yuuichi. They're practically the same character anyway.

(I'm too much of a wuss to do that anyway, oh well)

Awww, cosplay is fun.  With the right costume, girls are all over you, too.  (With the wrong costume, fangirls are all over you.)

Somehow that paints this picture in my mind... "My baby's mommy thought my Vash the Stampeed costume was cool...."

lolz

Wait a minute here. This topic is well over a year old, and nobody has yet mentioned my favorite anime of all time... and yes, I did read all eleven pages.

For the love of God and all that is holy, somebody please say they both watched and enjoyed Ayashi No Ceres as much as I did!

That said, I have taken from this thread many serieseses that I needs must watch. Thank you all for this semi-comprehensive list of recommendations.  :-D

I mentioned it under its NA release title (Ceres: Celestial Legend). My extended review:

--

A sixteen year old girl discovers she's the descendant and reincarnation of a mythical tennyo (“celestial maiden”) wronged a thousand years ago.

Talk about dashed expectations on this one. We watched the first half of the series years ago, and really enjoyed it. It was elegant and creepy, like a good Tanith Lee novel, yet with a strong sense of grounding in everyday life. I loved the mix of mythology, genetic engineering, and cockeyed love quadangle. Aya falls for enigmatic prettyboy Toya, while Ceres – the thousand year-old tennyo who shares a body with her – prefers sensitive nice-guy Yuhi. Yuhi inexplicably prefers the vaguely obnoxious Aya. How like real life – the teenage girl wants the bad boy, while the older, wiser woman wants the good boy.

A shame they only developed this angle for maybe three episodes.

The second half of the series falls apart completely. The story they seemed to be building – Aya travels around Japan with a handful of comrades, rescuing other girls with tennyo blood from her family’s genetic experiments – is abandoned after the discovery of young Chidori. For that matter, Chidori and most of said comrades also disappear until the end of the series.

Instead, the story hops around, skipping weeks or months between episodes, disjointedly leaping from plot point to plot point and character to character. In one particularly baffling move they introduce, then kill, a new character in half of the third-to-last episode and expect us to be moved by their death. I don’t know if the manga proved too long for them to adapt, or if this lack of cohesion is Yuu Watase’s own fault. All I know is that every episode left me with the bewildered feeling that I must have missed the two or three before it.

Another problem is the relentless piling-on of misery. Sometimes the sturm und drang gets so heavy as to provoke unintentional hilarity. The death of a supporting cast member (all but forgotten for the preceding ¼ of the series) is intended to move us, but the reaction of another cast member – a long, high-pitched shriek to the heavens (http://unitedstatesofno.ytmnd.com/) – is so overwrought that my wife and I burst out laughing.

One surprising thing about Ceres is its harshness. Perhaps our palette is limited here in America, but I don’t recall any other mainstream shoujo titles with plots based on incestuous rape, or with this many gruesome, blood-soaked deaths.

All apologies, Stormwaltz, I missed that.

It was definitely best at the beginning, but I felt that they did an ok job of holding together the storyline throughout. It definitely became increasingly disjointed, but I got the feeling that was intended as Aya's life got more and more confusing. Just my personal interpretation.

And I must confess that one of the parts I liked best was the bloodbath element. Definitely not recommended for children.

That was one of the series I never got around to watching.  It was at the height of my anime watching days, so I had far more shows available than I ever had time.

I'm really enjoying Ghost Hunt.

Ghost hunt was really good. I'm hoping there's a second season. It felt like they just barely finished the character development in time for it to end.

We haven't watched much lately... I only have two nights a week I'm not crunching.

I rate on a scale of 1-5 stars. Everything starts with 3. Shows lose stars for disappointing me and gain them for impressing me.

Bottle Fairy (**) - As cute and insipid as the name implies. Not bad, just dull.
Strawberry Marshmallow (****) - It's as if someone recast Azumanga Daioh with grade school kids. Wouldn't be half as funny without Miu.
Inuyasha Season 3 (***) My wife's birthday present. I like to think of this show as "Sango and Her Awesome Demon Cat Tolerate Stupid Teenagers."

No spoilers! I'm 10 episodes from the end.

You can put Big O on the list of shit WUA gets insane about, right next to Star Wars and Ultima Online.  I'll kill all you fuckers.

Really? I don't dislike it like some here, but if you like it that much, then you'd probably love a lot of anime then. As long as you're a little open minded, then there's basically someone for everyone -- and a lot of it.

WUA...Fullmetal Panic. You'd probably like it if you can even tolerate Big O.

Even as far as old-er school mecha goes...Eva is still better than Big O. Then again, I don't have much of a thing for Mecha.

If you tolerate Big O, you can tolerate fucking anything.

He could probably, somehow, enjoy Harmageddon and Lensman. *shiver*

I don't have anything special for mecha either.  Scenarios that depict them as mainstream war machines, superior to tanks and aircraft of the same tech level just because OMG MECHS R UBER, usually annoy the shit out of me.  I liked Big O because of the characters and the general mood.  It could color in those characters without going out of the way to slap you in the head with anything.

The Christmas episode is a good example.  The crazy scientist making apocaltyptic threats and the giant evil plant he turned loose were really just big fat MacGuffins.  The points of interest were Dorothy getting Roger a present, Roger being sort of oblivious, and old Norman the butler making up bullshit about her birthday to make sure Roger got her one too.  That and the bit about nobody in Paradigm having any actual memory or knowledge of Christianity, except for the head of the corporation, who seems to believe it.

It all sounds sickeningly cute, but the show avoids ever addressing that sort of thing directly.  You realize that Norman looks out for Dorothy in a grandfatherly sort of way, despite the fact that he has all of maybe ten lines in the episode, and none of them are addressed to her.  It's understated and believable.  You could replace the giant robot fights with fistfights, or gunplay, or whatever, and the show would be no worse for it in my opinion.  It might even be better.

While technically not anime, I just downloaded the full series of Cybersix and rewatched it. I think it's generally very good and you should all watch it. From what I understand it's based on a faily large comic series. If anyone knows where I'd be able to snag translated scans/issues or the live action TV show I'd greatly appreciate it.

Also, I never watched them before, but the first couple episodes of Elfin Lied I watched this weekend were pretty good.

10 episodes from the end of Ghost Hunt means you haven't gotten to the best ones yet Schild. Watch! Watch like the wind!

Dorothy is probably the only thing that makes me tolerate that show.

It's also why I said there's probably a lot of anime you'd like. Nothing to do with mecha. There's a lot of good character focused stories out there. Sometimes in the most unlikely of places.

The Big O was really cool until the second season, then it just fell apart Matrix-Triology style. The first season was cool, even with the just utterly blatant cribbing from every robot anime in existence. Giant Robo style mecha and vaguely-steampunkish technology is just cool goddamn it.

First episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann is  8-).
In fact, it's better than that - it's  :mrgreen:

Of course, it's Gainax so it will either run out of budget, spiral towards madness, or both.

Been watching Salaryman Kintaro. Perfect thing to get me out of a GTO jonesing (which had been going on for a year now).

Why isn't there more stuff like this? I've been searching high and low for comedies in this vein, but it seems like the anime world is filled with more things like Azumanga and the like.

Also watched Gankutsuou. Probably has the worst intro song ever, but seeing that the Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite work of fiction, I thought everything else about this series was pretty slick.

 

Does Kintaro have anything to do with that avatar Schild formerly used? I notice there was also a TV drama based on the same stuff as the anime...

That avatar was from Yakitate Japan.

Man, was that show fucking great.

Just found that Miike made a film based off of Kintaro (holy shit).

[edit]


Sounds like a cool premise. Will check it out.  :-)

Another thing, the other element that Onizuka and Kintaro have in common is that both are ex leaders of biker gangs. Onizuka has the funnier take on it, but the flashback sequences in both series are cool. Which makes me think I'd like a series completely about biker gangs. That both of these guys are ex-crazymotherfuckers is a big reason why I get a kick out of these stories. I can identify a little 8-)

Anything out there? The best I could come up with an 80's film called Shonan Bakusozoku (Explosive Biker Gang of Shonan), which....umm....is hard to find a torrent for.

I know Akira had biker gangs in it, but it was a small element (besides, I think Akira is hard to sit through anyways).

GTO Live Action still > GTO Anime.

No shit? I thought I asked you about that long ago --- and got a different answer.

I avoided it so far. Guess that has to change.

No. You didn't get a different answer. My opinion of GTO has never changed.

Here's a quote from me in July 2005:

And here's the Very Not Popular Japanese TV (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=4543.0) thread. Man. That didn't last and that post took so long to make. Oh well, the torrent links are dead (just get everything at d-addicts.com).

Cool enough. Will check it out.

GTO seems perfect for animation though. Not that the animation was amazing or anything, but part of the humor are the facial expressions alone. And just the generally weird shit that wouldn't work in live action (like the silly chestbeating and/or fight sequences -- especially that Hokuto tribute).

[EDIT]

I had no idea this existed: Shonan Junai Gumi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shonan_Junai_Gumi). I'm really out of the loop.

This is exactly what I want (referring to the biker gang stuff I mentioned earlier), but there hasn't been much done with it, as far as subs go :|

More 'New Shows' stuff:

Lucky Star (KyoAni's latest) has a good, if vaguely familiar, intro.
Pity about the rest, though - hit and miss is the most complimentary thing I could say about the show itself. Mind you, that might be because I was watching a quickly subbed version; it's entirely possible that it needs a better (more in-depth) translation for it to work properly.

Nanona StrikerS is starting slow, but they've got twice as many episode this time around, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment. Still waiting for the decent fansub team on this one, too.

Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann remains  :mrgreen:

Now watching Golden Boy. Funny shit.

Yea, Golden Boy is classic.

Kind of the progenitor of boob physics.

I have no shame. Onizuka, Jiraiya from Naruto (Kakashi to an extent), and now Golden Boy are probably my favorite anime characters around.

List some more fumbling, dumbass pervert characters --- I'll probably like them.  Greatest archetype ever :-P

Not necessarily dumbass pervs, but I'm gonna randomly list some stuff anyway:

School Rumble's Harima Kenji vs Sawachika Eri. I also like Yakumo, just because.

Black Lagoon's Revy is just fucking awesome. And amusing when she speaks in Engrish.

Full Metal Panic's Sosuke vs Kaname. The haircut scene has got to be one of my favorites in all anime. Some of the other characters are very cool as well.

Maria-sama ga Miteru's Yumi. I watch that series for Yumi, and only for Yumi. Especially for when the other characters mess with her and she freaks out.

Haruhi's Kyon, and by relation, Kanon's Yuuichi. They're both voiced by the same guy in Japanese, and he's fucking awesome.

Haruhi and now Lucky Star make me want to vomit. Explain to me why people go nuts over these retarded anime dance number opening/closings now?

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).

Pretty much sophomoric perverts, martial arts, and the occassional supernatural type stuff is what works for me.

Ultra Maniac was Sailor-Moonish, but I enjoyed it.

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.

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  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htJB0HU5f98) grabbed my attention.

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

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.

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.

(http://xs114.xs.to/xs114/07162/veryawesome-cbc.jpg) (http://xs.to)
 :roffle:

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.

Monster  --- Overrated

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

@Chenghiz:    Spoilers re: e7 ending

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.

My thoughts on RahXephon, for anyone who cares:


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...


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.

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

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.

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.   :-o

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

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

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

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.

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

What series is this?

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

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

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?

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.... (http://heiseidemocracy.com/2007/04/27/breaking-news-gurren-lagann-producer-resigns-quits-gainax-board-of-directors-over-episode-4-and-mixi-scandal-fallout/)

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

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.   :hello_kitty:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

While I think I am right, saying that 75% of these long, 100+ episode series are filler episodes may be a bit harsh. Maybe. I think you would be able to cede 50% to me, though.

For me, GTO at 43 episodes is about my upper limit. School Rumble is currently sitting on 42 episodes + 2 OVAs. More than that, and a series just starts to feel stale to me. Something like Inuyasha, or fuck, Dragonball (Z, GT, WhatTheFuckEver)...just get to the damn point already. They just keep making shit up, with no end in sight.

I mean, seriously....AniDB.net says Naruto is sitting on 220 episodes, plus movies and shit. 167 and change for Inuyasha, and 123 and counting for Bleach. Lets say that episodes average 23 minutes each.

That's 84+ hours for Naruto, 64+ for Inuyasha, and 47+ (and counting) for Bleach. Should I even touch the Dragonball stuff? My point is....there is no way that amount of time is even close to necessary to tell a great story.


And on your point of longer series having tons of characters and antagonists...that's just not for me. There's no way they're all going to be worthwhile characters Then you get more than a dozen different story lines going along at once, and it just devolves into a mess that I cannot be bothered to be concerned about; most likely, I would just concentrate on the couple of characters I actually like, and ignore the rest.

Oh, but I think Naruto actually pulled off having that many meaningful characters. Just when I thought there was enough in the beginning with Naruto, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura, they finally dig into the rest of the cast 20 episodes later. And every one of them were cool, in my opinion (and as far as "other" Naruto fans go, there are rabid fanbases built around them).

Besides that, the tournament storyarc that they were all introduced in was really good. Better than anything that came before it (and it didn't end until like the 60th episode at that). Everyone who likes that series would say the same.

During the same time, you were introduced to Orochimaru and Kabuto (basically, the two main villains of the series), as well as Maito Guy (probably the funniest character).

It slowed down a bit after that, but then by the 80th episode, my favorite character came around (Jiraiya, the Frog Hermit). Which is strange even to me to have a favorite character that late in a series.

Further after that, you had the Akatsuki dudes (who are basically the entire centerpoint of the newer Naruto series), the new Hokage chick, as well as the Sand Ninjas becoming mainstays (everybody likes Gaara), and then the whole Sasuke-turning-evil-thing happening.

...

Basically, my point is, it kept on managing to surprise me, and the new characters kept my interest. That wasn't filler shit by any definition. It was only until about Ep. 130 or so that it started really getting filler heavy, but it picked up later as well. I would only suggest cutting off heavily around there.


/Naruto fanboism off  :-P

If you ignore the filler in Bleach and Naruto (especially Naruto) you're really left with two great shows. Also seconding Stray on the post-L arc in Death Note being a lot different and imo not as good.

That was episode 4, which was the one that got someone kicked off the Gainax board because the fan reception to it was so poor. ;)

Get ep 1-3, put your brain into neutral, and enjoy the ride. Speaking of TTGL: The latest episode (6) was 'spot the Gainax female cameo'

Help, I can't stop watching Lucky Star, silly nerd in-jokes and all.

I reactivated my WoW account this week (may the gods forgive me) and named my new character (to adventure casually with some old friends who are also starting new characters) nanakon, in honor of kanata's teacher's character in the MMO they play...

- Q

Well, at least I am not alone then...

Is your new toon an AE-casting mage?

OK. I totally take back what I said about Bleach (especially the stuff about repetitive powers/fights). Once I made it to the Soul Society arc (around the 20th episode.....which is too long of a wait really), it became one of the best examples of Jump animation I've seen. After that, there's some filler (the Bount storyline), and even though it's better than most filler in these type of shows, it almost killed the show for me. I stuck through, and now it's back on track to the main plotline. Pretty good stuff again.

And surprisingly, it's a pretty damn funny show to boot. Perverts and lechery are always a plus in my book.  :-D

....

Anyhow, despite me retracting on Bleach, I don't think I'll EVER like One Piece. Pirates or not. I don't know what people are thinking when they say that show is good. I know most shounen material is geared towards younger male audiences, but One Piece seems even moreso. Like in my mind, I can only see it appealing to ten year olds.

And while I'm at it, I'm having the same problem with HxH.

I don't what it is about Naruto (since he's a kid too), but most series with super young/almost chibi-ish lead characters just don't sit with me well. I mean, I can barely stand early Dragonball/Goku either.

....

Also watched a film from last year called Nitaboh. Pretty cool if you like historical stories and Japanese music. Not sure how much is based on fact, but it's about this blind kid who becomes like the Jimi Hendrix of shamisen instrumentation. It's a little slow, but a pretty nice feelgood story nonetheless. Also has a kickin' score.

(http://www.nitaboh.com/english/images/top/images/07.jpg)

....

Now watching: Full Metal Panic

Only on the fourth episode, but it is NOT as funny as some people lead me on to believe. So far, I'm disappointed.

....

On queue:

Excel Saga

Kyou Kara Maou

The original FMP series is good. Fumoffu is funnier. The Second Raid is just loads better in just about every way.

The worst thing about the first series is the damn Helmajistan story arc in my opinion. You'll know what I mean if/wen you get to it. I personally skip it whenever I re-watch the stuff.

EDIT: Geez, I had forgotten that the first story arc takes up 7 episodes.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll just try to enjoy the first FMP for what it is. I have Second Raid as well for later. I passed on Fumoffu because I was under the impression that it was just self-contained stories. Usually things like that don't do so well with me, but I guess I was wrong.

No, you're pretty much correct in that assessment. The entire series pretty much takes place at school and such, sans ASs.

Bleh, couldn't really get into FMP.  But then again, I really don't tend to go for the Japany Anime humor like some do, so to each his own I guess.

Incidentally, I just finished watching Serial Experiments Lain.  It is taking all the will power I have ever mustered in my life to not walk out the door, find the nearest Japanese person, and punch them in the face.

New anime called Darker than Black - Animation by Studio Bones, who did Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain, Samurai CHamploo, etc, and music by Yoko Kanno. Very mysterious setting, lots of questions to be asked. It's a supernatural powers/near-future setting/kinda noir show, I'd definitely check it out.

I couldn't get into the first episode of Darker than Black. I'm going to wait for the jury to come back with an opinion.

The jury's video card is fucked up, or computer is fucked, either way I haven't even turned on bittorrent in a month or so.  Fucking sad panda.

Lol, I took a break from FMP to see what Kyou Kara Maou was.

I don't mean this in any kind of homophobic way, but this show is pretty gay. Innocently gay maybe. Not yaoi territory or anything, but I still don't feel right watching it.

Yet, I've watched several episodes now. The whole gayness of it has turned out to be pretty funny (I originally was recommended it just because someone said it was "funny". They didn't say why though....).


I'm confused.

If One Piece wasn't one of those shows with 50 fucking million episodes (and still going apparently) I would get subs/uncensored dub DVDs. 4Kids just ruined it for TV. I've never seen an edit job that bad before. Ever.

It's weird. The art style and jokes seem to be aimed at the typical Shonen crowd, but there's a LOT of death and destruction. Way more so than even Naruto. Lots of people getting graphically shot/cut/impaled and just scads of people dying. I know the Japanese have vastly different standards for what constitutes "kids TV" but they're not THAT different. Hell, Evangelion shocked Japanese audiences with the violence/sexual content a few times.

You should have seen the butchering of Escaflowne they did for TV...

Dude, they turned rifles at the beginning of the show into water guns, then they just painted them green, all the blood was edited out (all of it), they removed single lines from characters to avoid the appearance of cleavage, and my favorite edit:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7b/HelmeppoEdit_OnePiece.jpg/180px-HelmeppoEdit_OnePiece.jpg)

God, I would have loved to have seen the meeting behind this.

Has anyone here seen Gintama?


I ran into the characters playing that Jump DS game and decided to check out some episodes. I haven't seen enough of it yet to say whether I like it or not, but I was just wondering if anyone has been watching it.

Unlike most of the Jump series out there, this one isn't focused on action (so far at least). It's pretty goofy. Almost Austin Powers like in it's gag level. Also, unlike most Jump series, it seems to be targetting a more mature audience a bit more. The main character is a grown man at least. Some people who've watched both have compared it to Excel Saga (if that's any indication).

As for the premise, it's Edo era --- Except somehow, it's in the future with flying cars, televisions, scooters, and aliens. Samurai have all but died off (due to an alien invasion). The lead character and his group are unemployed samurai and ninjas who've set up a business that "Does anything for Money". So, basically, the episodes lead off from that. They're freelancers. Anything goes.

Also, if that's enough for you to check it out, I'd recommend starting at Episode 3, which is the beginning of the manga. Episode 1 and 2 are funny, but they're more of an hour long series special. Or in other words, self contained filler.

[EDIT] Further in. I'm sticking with it. Pretty entertaining. Considering that's it's Jump, this will probably a LONG series. And that's a good thing -- I don't think there are any really long comedy series out there (?).

I'm surprised how little info is to be found about it though. It already has a million seller game in Japan, and keeps hitting top 5 polls over there. But yet, there are no English fansites to be found. Fansubs are way behind, and have few seeders to boot.

You guys should just bullshit about anything in this thread. It may be 14 pages, but I think it needs more life in it.  :-D

Argue about something. Or just get fanboi or fangir about something. I mean... Heroes is ONE show, and it has more pages than this.


[EDIT] Basically, we need the equivalent of a Book Club Discussion for both Anime and Games. Extremely geeky, sure, but we all should watch a series at the same time or something. Then talk or fight about it.  :-P

Okay, well, I tried two series over the weekend, but neither look like ZOMG WINNARS to me.

Got 5 eps of Darker Than Black, tried the first and wasn't compelled at all. I had to fight the urge to just hit stop within the first five minutes. It's just so hokey and cliche I can't bear it. Probably going directly to the trashheap without watching further.

Got 2 eps of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, watched one. It cannot be properly summed into words without spoiling stuff. Robots, guns, boobs, drills. It doesn't so much have a plot as a Stuff Happens Hay Look ROBOTS! Wacky, but who knows if N eps of that will be entertaining. The style if very much reminiscent of late 80s anime. Dirty Pair on crack with drills and robots and only 1 of the main characters is a woman. Will watch the second ep, might even make the Three Ep Test.

Looks pretty modern to me. What do you mean exactly?


Heh, when I think of late 80's styling, I think of this haircut in particular.  :lol:

Like this:

(http://manga-news.com/IMG/jpg/slam_dunk_01-2.jpg)

(http://www.discountanimedvd.com/dvd_images/1879.jpg)

The art style and costuming, as well as the setting artwork. It all speaks of a lot of late-80s space anime influence. The character art is also reminiscent of the original Dirty Pair to me, for some reason.

I'd say that another reason (IMO) why it's got a late-80's feel because it's neither some po-faced 90's deconstruction of the genre (Evangelion); nor some knowing, post-modern parody with a smirk on its face (Abenobashi). Instead, it's played straight - it's not trying to be anything other than a really well done Super Robot show.

Back to Gintama...

I'm loving it even more than my last post. If you guys want a break every once in awhile from the more serious stuff out there, then this is good remedy. Really funny series --- and not just in a way that's privy to Japanese and/or Japanophiles (though there is that too... Especially wordplay). Give it a whirl. Stick to at least episode 7 or 8 and see if you like it :)

I broke down and got a torrent client. After watching Paradise Kiss and reading my Ai Yazawa collection, Jamie has gone Nana-crazy. And I was going to buy it whenever it's licensed anyway.

First episode is... pretty much just like the manga, but compacted. I was not entirely surprised that they cut the entire first volume.

Well, Gurren-Lagann just hit another one of the 80's anime clichés last night - (Big spoiler):Kamina - the 'big brother' figure to the protagonist Simon - died from wounds received in a final, heroic battle against overwhelming force. And, of course, this was after Kamina kissed the token love interest.(end big spoiler).

Also, Nanoha StrikerS looks like it's finally beginning to pick up steam.

ahhah i know this is super late, but Code Geass latest ep twist really cracked me up.  :-D
It's a really ridiculous twist nobody expected because how utterly stupid it is but they decided to play it instead of a 'good ending'
2007 summer for the last 2 episodes...how long is that i wonder..

basic summary: mecha anime with some british colonization of japan as background.

Reading this thread made me realize how much of the world has passed me by since the last time I watched a "new" anime. The last episode of Evangelion when it was first released in the US on VHS, so like...1998 ish.

I might have to look some of these up.


That is what got me hooked originally, I saw it on TBS late night when I was a senior in high school. I swear 80% of the people I knew who were into anime in the late 90s said that was their "gateway drug".

Holy shit. Was it TBS? All this time I thought I saw it on USA. Shoulda known better. USA probably woulda been showing Silk Stalkings at 2am. I specifically remember waking up one night and not being able to fall back asleep and going downstairs and this shit happened to be on.

-

Also, Lucky Star is 110% awesome.

TBS, USA fuck if I know. I just know I happened to land on the channel during the opening credits and was like "holy shit this is different!" and was hooked.

I think that may be part of why I can't just get into anime lately. It is no longer this "different" style. You turn on cartoon network and half of the stuff is anime or faux anime.

I almost fell out of bed laughing when Kona-chan starting making Marimite jokes.

Yeah, um, scratch that.
GET TO THE MAIN PLOT, DAMN IT! >:(

Back to TTGL: Berserker-Simon = good; Shinji-Simon = Bad. Oh, and apparently the main villain should have been translated as 'Helix King' instead of 'Spiral King'...as in double helix. The clues were in his general's names. :)

Six days and counting down to SSS on SciFi.  Oh yes!

New avatar due to the awesomeness of ep11 of Gurren-Lagann.  8-)
Nanoha StrikerS: Looks like they heard me. :D

Slightly off-beat recommendation of the season: Lovely Complex. (http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=5053) If you liked KareKano and others of that ilk, you'll want to give this one a watch.

I'm only up to ep6 of TTGL. I need to watch more of it. The quality has been maintained, although the flashback ep was irritating. Stupid budget-savers. They better blow all the money they saved by running flashbacks on an awesome battle sequence.

Just keep watching.  :nda:

I dunno. Just watched ep 8. I fear shark-jumping due to :nda:.

Halfway through Ghost Hunt, next up is Code Geass, been awhile since I've watched anything doing some catching up.  Have put down everything mentioned since pg12 on my "check out first four eps" list. 

I watched the first two eps of TTGL, they had me at Yoko + giant robots.  I'm easy like that.

The last thing we finished was Magic Knights Rayearth season two. Which, much like the first season, was obviously made for six years olds until the angsty final episodes. I think they wrote the script for each episode, realized it only came up to about five minutes air time, and had each of the three girls repeat every line, slowly, one at a time.

Hikaru: "Shut..?"

Umi: "The fuck..?"

Fuu: "Up..?"

We're now through 4/6 discs of Planetes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DakRYsUIiIE), which may be the best SF anime I've ever seen. It's incredibly rich. There's a lot of science in it, and it's all hard. There's side ruminations on the social effects of space development - third world countries trying to get a hand in the pie as they fall farther and farther behind. But in the end the stories all hinge on the characters - how space motivates and changes them. Whether that's the cynical garbage hauler who dreams of a better life, but doesn't believe he can achieve it, or the pack of oddballs who play at being ninjas in the 1/6th G of the moon.

More thoughts when we're done. I'm too emotionally wrapped up in it now. Hell, my wife even loves Planetes. And SF normally bores her to tears.

PlanetES is superb, I recall loving it when I was in high school.

PlanetES shows us how SF should be done. I mean, who would have though show about space garbage collectors would be so damn awesome?
Pity there are only 4 volumes of manga.

Darker than Black win an award for best execution in last decade - I cannot recall a single show with comparable music, backgrounds and animation quality. Also, try watching more than one episiode. It is awesome.

I'm retracting my recommendation for TTGL after ep 8. Instead of going beyond the impossible and kicking reason to the curb, it looks like it's turning into a generic Monster Of The Week love-triangle mecha anime with a Sad Young Boy protagonist.

I should not need to reinvoke the Three Episode Test halfway through a series, but...

Stick with it.  :-)

I watched 11 this morning. I'm reinvoking the Three Episode Test. They have episodes 12, 13 and 14 to return to being tremendously badass.  :x

Also, I loathe the new character.

The only anime this season that I made it past 3 episodes on was Lucky Star. Whoever is writing that show is fantastic. And the comedic timing is brilliant.

I prefer a 4 ep test, as many shows are only finishing their cast introduction and starting the story in ep3.

Dude, Lucky Star didn't even pass the Three Minute Test, let alone the Three Episode Test.

That's ok. You're wrong. But it's ok. Lucky Star is this years Higurashi (in terms of going from sleeper to HUGE FUCKING FANBASE, int he matter of a few episodes).

Are you sure it's not the new Haruhi?

But yeah, Lucky Star is fucking awesome.

I'm sorry, dude, but "Go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb! YOURS IS THE DRILL THAT WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!" followed by a flashy action sequence is way more entertaining for me than a 7-minute discussion on the proper way to eat a dessert.

It's not my fault you've only seen the first conversation of the first episode of Lucky Star.

Edit: In 5 years, everyone will remember Konata. She's probably one of the best characters ever conceived for an anime/manga.

Your words confuse Nia:
(http://xs116.xs.to/xs116/07245/nia_huh.jpg) (http://xs.to)

We get it, you liked Tampopo. That movie's like 23 years old now.

As for Lucky Star, I refuse to watch it. I watched like 4 episodes of Haruhi, it fucking sucked, I'm not being burned again like I was with Excel Saga/Azumanga/what-the-fuck-ever-shitty-comedy-series-for-Japanophiles-is-hot-this-week.

You were burned with Azumanga Daioh? Are you sure you weren't watching Ghost in the Shell?

Just watched the 11 available Claymore episodes in one sitting, seems like this is going to become a real gem. It's a pretty gory and dark fantasy anime, giving me some of the same vibes that berserk gives. It seems pretty meh at the beginning, but after watching the 11 episodes available it seems like it's going to become on of the best anime series ever.

disqualifies it from

There has been slow starters in the past. Or are you applying "if the MMO is not good within the first couple of minutes of play the rest of it is piss as well" to animes as well?  :-P

I dont know what he's talking about when it comes to Haruhi because I thought it was awesome and the funny was very accessible to any audience eastern or western.  But fuck AzuD, it sucked.  In fact I believe it was a similar vintage of suck as School Rumble.  A bunch of language pun/jokes that aren't funny if you have to read two sentences of editor notes to get the joke and some stupid sd humour that sucked nuts.  I'll admit I couldn't make it through 3 complete episodes, I think I skipped the 2nd half of ep2 and then fell asleep during ep3.  Literally.

I wasn't expected to laugh at Ghost in the Shell.

Is it so wrong that I liked Azumanga Daioh and Ghost in the Shell (show, not movies)?

Everyone I've shown Az D has loved it, whether they are anime fans or not.

Yup.

And I will say this - regardless of how hard a man you consider yourself to be, if you do not have to repress the insane urge to jump around giggling and squealing when you see Chiyo waddling around in a penguin costume, YOU ARE A ROBOT AND NOT A REAL PERSON.

Eh, I like Az D, Haruhi, Lucky Star, School Rumble (it doesn't really take That much effort to "get" the jokes)....

/shrug

Or maybe it just means your not a pedophile?  Seriously though, I agree with them.  The show sucked balls.  One of my roommates really liked it and tried to get all the rest of us and everybody else he knew to watch it.  Every single person he showed it to hated it.  It kind of became  a running joke over the years actually.  Its standard unoriginal japancrap.  (note, not attacking anybody for liking it, I just think it was bad bad bad).

I don't think I ever got up, jumped around, and giggled and screamed....

But Chiyo as a penguin is damn funny and cute. Especially when she can't eat food. Or gets pushed over.

What we found consistently amusing about Azumanga was not the cultural references, but the character humor. Sakaki befuddled by her reputation as "the cool girl" among humans and "delicious" among cats. Yukari's driving. The creepy male teacher. Resentment of Chiyo. Tomo being a fucking spaz (particularly the incident where the threw away the keys, and when they found them again, everyone tackled her to keep her from doing it again).

Claymore is only good if you have't read the Witcher before.
Because if you did, you realize claymore is just a very, very, *very* bad ripoff. I mean, color-changing eyes and white hairs mutated-during-childhood monster hunters- that's a fucking lawsuit material!   

First of all, I don't read manga, I'm to shallow for that. And yea, it's not very original, it's just another power up excuse. What's good about claymore though is the gory and harsher setting. They don't try to romanticize and try to teach me morals. It's entertaining in pretty much the same way as berserk. The story takes twists and turns.

This week's Gurren-Lagann wins the "Most Unexpected Cameo Ever"  award, I think:

(http://xs216.xs.to/xs216/07240/what.jpg) (http://xs.to)

Dennou Coil.

I'm enjoying the funky sci-fi vr/ar setting and the animation is beautiful.

-Q

Haruhi Star (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjE4fi0E0DU).

Heh.

I'm not really an expert on anime, and I've tried to find stuff I'd like.  But I find myself usually getting too pissed off with the quality of most anime to enjoy it.  It all seems very stiff and well, unanimated.  Most anime I've seen seems to rely on treating things like body language and facial features as either background scenery which are held static while only the lips move, or with comic hyper-stylized exaggeration.  Action scenes are only slightly better, but watching dialog is murder.  I'm convinced that a lot of the really worst offenders like Ghost in the Shell could probably be done with a Powerpoint presentation.

I guess for that reason I do like Hayao Miyazaki's work, since those are actually animated.  Though I think he has the Mel Brooks problem where his movies are great for an hour and a half, and then suck for the last half hour.  As a bonus he seems to escape the cliche that all women are pedo-approved, saccharin sweet 12 year-olds or top-heavy women wearing hooker boots and bathing suits.  Some stuff isn't so bad though if you can get past that though.  It's nice to find this thread though.

Miyazaki's stuff is beautifully animated and not really much more than that most of the time. It's always a story of the purity of a child winning over a harsh reality, or a "BOTH WAR AND MAN ARE BAD AND NATURE RULES" story.

Licensing news: ADV got Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, Geneon (finally!) got Nanoha/Nanoha A's.

Funimation has Darker Than Black. Expect the fansubs to dry up (well, the pseudo-moral ones, anyway).

And in "items no one but me cares about":

Right Stuf has both seasons of Victorian Romance Emma.

Bandai Visual USA has Gundam MS IGLOO. 3 eps x 2 discs, but no word on whether or not they're going to continue their habit of overpricing for the American market.

Funimation has xxxholic. Despite the incredibly boring adaptation of Tsubasa, I'm still a CLAMP slut.

256...

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22haruhi+dance%22&search= (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22haruhi+dance%22&search=)

Watched 2 episodes now and I agree it is pretty cool.

Funimation puts out crap Dubs, and even worse DVDs...I'd support any fan subbing group more than I would support Funimation.

Plus they reuse far to many voice actors, sorry Fuimation can Die in a glorious fucking pit of hell

Funimation has been bad since Day 1.

Cool stuff I saw at AX this year, some of it new, some of it not-so-new, (that you likely know about if you follow fansubbing very much):
Project Blue Earth SOS (awesome, best one I hadn't seen before AX).
Kyoshiro and the Eternal Sky (possibly awesome, first episode was good, but the concept will either be executed well or turn out way too silly).
Devil May Cry (good first episode).
Welcome to the N.H.K. (very funny).
Pumpkin Scissors (interesting, decently good story in the first episode).
Guardian of the Sacred Spirit (interesting first episode, characters seem good).

Others that seemed pretty good or at least worth looking into further:
Black Blood Brothers (some vampire series I saw, seemed worth further investigation).
009-1 (not sure how that one's going to go, but the first episode was amusing.  Could get old really fast if future episodes don't have more story and less action).
Nanatsuiro (not sure on the name they're going to use when it's released, they never showed the full translated title).
Tokyo Majin Gakuin (interestingly creepy first episode, but seemed very cookie-cutter in personalities and a general 'teenagers with special powers that fight demons/monsters and have lots of interpersonal issues' way.  Another one I couldn't tell long-term possibilities for easily).

In anime-related movies, the Death Note live-action movies were both actually quite excellent.  Tekkonkinkreet was....weird.  A lot of the story boggled me, not in a 'this is too weird to understand' way, but more in a 'this makes very little sense even though I understand the story' way.

Yea, we picked up the bootlegs of Death Note when they came out. Quite damn good all things considered. Better than the anime - which should have stopped at 26 episodes and was only dragged down in the exact same way everything Post the Kyoto Arc ruins Kenshin.

"Welcome to the NHK" is, I think, easily one of the better series of at least the last few years.

What are these "dubs" of which you speak..? :P

Other news: Media Blasters has the Genshiken OVA amd Strawberry Panic. Sweet, sweet lesbian angst...

In a similar vein to 'Haruhi Star', may I now present...

Zelda Star. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz6JaUBN_RI)

(Oh God  :eek3: )

Die in a Youtube server farm fire.  :-P

Also:
I still cannot believe I sat through that entire series. Ugh.

You should have watched Utena instead - at least that has swordfights and random bizarreness.

Also: Yoru - how's the second 3 ep test worked out for you on Gurren-Lagann?

Gigantic airborne cock-sword won the day. Still watching.

Too lazy to go back through 16 pages of posts, but has anyone else watched Noein before?  SciFi is showingit on their ani-Monday block and I've been watching, but after 3 episodes, I expected to have a slightly better idea of what's going on without needing to resort to Wiki.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it, although some of the art baffles me.  It's like they had two different artists draw separate areas of the show and then melded them together.  Like how Karasu is drawn versus how Haruka and Yu are drawn.

http://www.ayu-anime.net/ (http://www.ayu-anime.net/)

New promo for the upcoming series 2 of Higurashi. Been looking forward to it for months now.

Posted on Anime News Network:

 :rock_hard: :woot:

7th of July for the announcement is cute as well because 7th July = the Japanese festival of Tanabata...which is when one of the Haruhi stories not yet animated (Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody) was set.

Edit: Metareferences-a-go-go!
http://xs317.xs.to/xs317/07275/konatarejoicing.jpg (http://xs317.xs.to/xs317/07275/konatarejoicing.jpg)
(PC screen reads something like "Haruhi Suzumiya 2", apparently)

Edit: Changed to link as XS.to seems to be lagging a little.

According to what I've heard on Teh Intarwebs, but cannot yet confirm, the first speedsubs of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Kai episode #1 are being seeded.

Woot woot, summer of axemurder here I come :D

I also saw the Haruhi note while looking some stuff up, but I figured anyone who cared would find out soon enough.

I'm never gonna stop hearing about this painfully boring series from the anime-fans I know am I?  :sad_panda:

I was kinda happy because people had finally stopped recommending it and Lucky Star to me...

O HAY WHAT'S THIS?!? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pfnqsEEEpo)
Oh, it's a trailer for movie remakes of the fourth-best mecha show Gainax ever did.

Ah fuck. No. no. no. NO. NO NO NO NO NONONONO OH GOD NO

Dear Gainax,

I bought EVA once. It was pretty good, though it seemed to be missing 3-4 episodes near the end.

I haven't bought the umpteen re-releases with marginally improved video quality and 10 seconds of additional footage.

I'm not going to see the movie re-releases.

Guys, you've done some great shit. Sure, your endings always suck - ALWAYS - but its a great ride getting there.

I'd like to politely suggest that you stop wanking over Asuka, and make something new.

k thx, bye.

Chris

I wouldn't mind NEW Evangelion material, like a sequel miniseries or something.

But please, no more retreads.

*points at avatar*  :wink:

Holy fucking shit gurren episode 8.

Fucking wow.

You ain't seen nothing yet, son.

There's actually no way it can get better than Episode 8.

I'm tempted to just stop watching since the show is like 50% filler and it just peaked like a motherfucker.

That's what I was thinking about two pages ago. Tough out the crap. It gets awesome again around episode 12-13.

(http://xs217.xs.to/xs217/07305/emot-kamina.gif) (http://xs.to)

Edit: Apparently, Gaianx has reserved ~40% of the animation budget for the last 5 episodes. It's like bizzaro-Eva, or something. :D

What? No finger puppers and slides?

Holy monkeyfuck. If they're using only 60% of their budget for everything prior, those last five episodes are going to leap off my hard drive and give me burning spirit beyond-the-impossible nerd-fellatio when they come out.

I cain't hawdly wait.

I'm guessing this means that the movies (you know there'll be movies) will be made entirely with crayons and a cameraphone though.

Random Lucky Star ep16-related tangent: How meta is too meta? Oh, about this much. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=rPI-mg338Rg)

Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei is pretty hilarious. Like a reverse GTO where the teacher is suicidally depressed and tries to help his students only to exacerbate their problems. Also the backgrounds have random quotes all over the place and "censored" stuff is covered by a photo of some random guy making wierd faces.

I thought School Days is one of those normal romance anime. I was really wrong.  :heartbreak:

lol, I cannot believe how Lucky Star delivers each and every week. I'm not sure what I liked more; Nagato animated Lucky Star-style, or Hirano switching between her Haruhi and Kona-chan voices.

TTGL18.

Whoa.

The universe just set itself up for an asswhipping of epic proportions.

I sort of want a TTGL prequel OVA now.

Also: Nice avatar. :)

Care to elaborate?

it was a porn-dating-game ported to anime.

code geass 24-25. omgitsheavan

It has CRC = 00000000. For a file his big, that is the true OMGWTFBBQ

One word - Baccano!  :-D :-D :-D

TTGL19: Man, fuck Rossiu. I cannot wait until it all starts falling down around his smug, sanctamonious ears.

I just got the subs for it this morning. I cannot wait to get back home tonight and watchee.

Q F T

Really you've got to slog through some stuff but damn that was an ending that was fun!  Its very very very much a mecha show but if you sat through any of Gundam Seed or enjoyed shows like Gunparade March you should try it out.  First thing I managed to finish in awhile.

Also, I watched Karau Phantom Memory, I wonder what Stormwaltz thinks of it feels like it mighta been right up his alley for some reason.

I'm only watching Lucky Star and Higurashi right now. I'm also waiting for the 5th Maria-sama OVA to get released on fansubs.

Not really sure what else to look at right now. And I still have quite a number of things waiting to be watched...someday.

I cut Geass off when it ceased releasing regular new eps around 20 (February?). I found it to be half badass mecha/drama and half eye-stabbingly terrible CLAMP high-school comedy.

Edit: TTGL19. Holy fuck. Next episode NEED. NEEEEEEEED.

What's your opinion on mecha shows of the "Burning Courage!" variety?   8-)

Edit:
Going back a few more posts ITT: Oh hey, look - even more Evangelion! (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-08-06/petit-eva-super-deformed-series-to-be-made-into-video)
(http://xs318.xs.to/xs318/07322/sd_eva.gif) (http://xs.to)

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "Burning Courage" variety. The last Mecha-type show I liked was FMP, and not even really for the mecha parts.

If you mean stuff like Gundam, where you have a gabillion meaningless filler episodes (imo)....Do Not Want.




Actually, looking at what I currently own or "own," the only 2 series I have with mechs in them are FMP and some GitS stuff. Neither of which I would really call a mecha show.

Not to distract from the kitsch comedy animes, but I've been watching Bleach again since a friend of mine has gotten really into it and we've rekindled our amusement at Japanese people attempting to sing in English. Our 3 years of Japanese in high school killed our funny bone for Engrish singing, but Bleach's 4th opening song is sang entirely in English...

and it is totally impossible to understand. It's actually kinda catchy, but what's hysterical is that all the episodes we're watching are done by the same sub group, and the subtitles for this ENTIRELY ENGLISH song are different in every single episode.

I challenge you all to figure out what the hell they're singing if you can find the song (Tonight Tonight Tonight by Beat Crusaders).

for some reason i just lost interest in FMP mecha action. because the way they portray the fights weren't that satisfying.
What's with this abstract 'Lambda Drive' ? Using fighting spirit to empower mecha? The resolution wasn't even that great. Gauron was stupid till the end.

I supose that's what kinda turn me off TTGL. It has colourful character, but the loss of K was a bit hard to take. The show just went emo. Then it got back up again etc. Without explanation why they can't seem to beat this fella other than he has the 'Goku factor' and a bloody big drill.

I'm really hoping Code Geass S2 would start soon, that show has all the right mix of politics, war, mecha, people conflict, ideology and a touch of mystic. strip away the mecha and we'll still have a great story.

I don't recall hearing about it before this. Based on the ADV trailer, I might have filed it right out of mind.


I suspect he means stuff like GaoGaiGar - "The difference between30% and 100% is guts!"

This.

If nothing else Straz, download the first three eps and stop if you aren't struck by it. If you don't think the series is the robot jesus by the time the first three eps are up, forget it, you're probably not going to like the rest.

I'll even make it easy for you. (http://order.kipsta.net/releases.php)

I'm not much of an Anime freak, but I just love me my Macross/Robotech.

Like I said, I didn't watch all the FMP stuff for the mechs, mostly for Kaname....and maybe Sosuke, Tessa, Mellisa, and Kurtz too.


Then again, I actually like School Rumble, so what does that say?

same here. Fumoffu was great. I really couldn't give a fuck about the plot anymore. I realize it can never be another Gunparade (the sequel of GM sucked....BAD). School rumble first season was fresh but I think the writer is running out of ideas.

Well, part of the problem with SR s2 was that they were getting too close to where the manga series is currently. So in actuality, they actually were running out of ideas and material, hence the filler junk in the second season.


Speaking of anime, I need to post another, post-Otakon, picture of my PC desk. Possibly this weekend.

SO, yeah....Higurashi is becoming Very interesting. I might have to re-watch the entire series once this second season ends.

TTGL20. :lol: BSS has really improved since they linked up with Anon.

Also, watched the rest of Geass, though 25. .... .... .... :mob:

that new eva cast looks terrible. I almost can't recognize it if you didn't mention Evangelion.  :-o

Huh?  At least half the characters in that picture were EASILY recognizable.  Rei, Shinji, Shinji's Dad are all fairly easily identifiable.

The angry mob is chanting "moar now because that was awesome!" right?

No, because they ended on a gigantic fucking cliffhanger and then stuck on a little note "SEQUAL ON TEH WAY KEKELOL ^_____________^".

Shit like that makes me want to string them up by their toenails.

Yeah but it was a great cliffhanger, and a great leadup and they ditched all the cutesy stuff in favor of white knuckle crazyness.

Right?  You've got to give them some credit for that.

It was the most cliche cliffhanger imaginable and I expect season 2 will have just as much cutesy shit - this is CLAMP we're talking about after all. Not that I won't watch the first few eps, if I remember it by the time they come out.

What they did well was to start playing up CC's background and the layers of mystery and treachery surrounding that, which has been muted for most of the series as the rebellion and school plots took the foreground. What they may be doing, given the last few eps, is tearing down all of the supporting cast and shit surrounding the main characters, allowing them to have another escalating power curve for season 2.

I'm not quite sure which was the best part of ep20 - prison fight, shotgun sequence, the return of the prodigal redhead, or {Spoiler} Leeron, Lord-Genome's-Head-onna-stick or Kittan basically pointing out that every decision Rossiu's ever made was the wrong one: "Yeah...your plan of hiding most of humanity underground? Not so good. Let me introduce a phrase to you - 'Extinction Level Event'", "Of course my ship has a forcefield - it was a battleship of the Spiral Knights" "Of course the 'obsolete' ganmen can kick the crap out of the anti-spirals - that's what they were originally built for", and "Give me the core drill so the Gurren-dan can go and save the day again".{/spoiler}

Speculation: Rossiu dies a heroic death in the next episode as a partial redemption for all his screw-ups.{/speculation}

CLAMP did the character designs for Code Geass, but nothing else. The story is the original work (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Geass#Development) of the lead writer (Ichiro Okouchi) and director (Goro Taniguchi) of the Planetes anime. That's why I was so hot to see it.

I couldn't stand Planetes, actually, so your mileage with the series will probably vary significantly from mine.

TTGL 21: "WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE!?!"
Utterly awesome. Plus bonus hothot teacher action as well.

The ending of 21 blueballed the entire community. Must have 22...

Oh, it's worth it.

<--Just finished watching the raw of ep22.

I'm grabbing the 720p clockless raw now, and it looks like ADTRW is assembling a sub file, since BSS-Anon announced that they won't be releasing subs for 22/23 for another week and a half.

The nice part of the Comcast fuckery is that, for all us non-Comcasters, a huge chunk of potential competition for high-speed peering slots are now freed up. Even with my upload capped to a paltry 35k/s, as soon as I started uploading my download speed jumped to over 200k/s.  :-D

Edit: ADTRW subs are complete. Here. (http://webpages.charter.net/clearacell/ADTRW%20Tengen%20Toppa%20Gurren-Lagann%20-%2022%20(Comeplete%20Sub).ass) A little ingenuity with Tokyotosho will get you an MKV.

Edit2: Just watched it.

This is quite possibly the greatest thing ever animated IN THE HISTORY OF TIME.

Cowboy Bebop and Great Teacher Onizuka are my favorites.

La Blue Girl was the first anime I ever saw and will forever be ingrained in my mind, so I have to recommend that as well. That Miko Mido- she's so crazy.

For Schild..

http://web.mac.com/eric.calderon/iWeb/Site/The%20Five%20Killers/The%20Five%20Killers.html (http://web.mac.com/eric.calderon/iWeb/Site/The%20Five%20Killers/The%20Five%20Killers.html)

Too many American hands in that shit. We'll see how it turns it. It could be fine, it could go TERRIBLY bad.

Bomb, Gun, Sword, Knife, and Vampire are stupid dumb motherfucking names though.

there was afro samurai. http://www.afrosamurai.com/

Afro Samurai was the earthly avatar of everything that's complete shit in the entertainment industry. You should be banned for even mentioning it.

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned so far (i'm sorry, but i'd rather not trawl through 18 pages), but i've recently started watching Ergo Proxy. I am not a big fan of anime, as i find most of it to be insufferable dreck, but this one has struck a note. Has anyone else seen it, and if so, what have your impressions been?

I was sort of lukewarm on it. They sort of tried a bit too hard to inject a lot of philosophical stuff into the series, and mostly for no good reason.

Also had some dull spots....loved the animation though.

Overall, the series is better than most.

The original El Hazard OVA is re-released at a decent price, $26 for the entirety.  Anyone who hasn't watched it yet, should.  It's one of the only animes ever where the voice actors and translators were so good that the dub is actually better than the sub.  Good-quality animation, a whole pile of fantastic characters, and a very clean, concise seven-episode story that covers everything with no wasteful filler time.

Another one I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is Inukami, one of the 'guy and girl behave like oil and water but everyone knows they'll wind up fucking eventually' genre, but not as much of a giant cocktease about it as Rumiko Takahashi's stuff.  It's not deep, but it's fun, and full of rampant nudity.  The catch being that it's rampant male nudity, a funny twist on how much fanservice of the naked girl variety is on the market, and how seldom the guys are forced to deal with being caught naked.  The show goes to very great pains to have not one instance of frontal female nudity, while the main character winds up parted from his clothes in almost every episode.  (Luckily for everyone's eyes, dangling parts are censored, but the method the show uses for the censoring just adds to the humor.)

just realised I haven't made my obligatory TTGL post o' the week: Inventing/rediscovering FTL dimensional travel just to punch someone in the face quicker is as good a reason as any.

Also: New uniforms = Stolen from a circus.

@Ergo Proxy:  I am a fan, great atmosphere, amazing visuals, solid characters and an ok sci-fi story.


@Inukami!:  Yeah its a sort of nice twist on fanservice but the show sort of drags along and I wouldn't have ever thought to mention it in this thread...

Eh? I thought it was pretty decent for animation and action if not for a mind-rendingly retarded plot and some awful voice actors.

So, I haven't been into Anime for awhile now and just realized there's been some good stuff around. Just looking for a list of some good ones to watch that aren't the love themed ones. I've seen way too many of those.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi

Full Metal Panic

Welcome to the NHK

Higurashi no naku koro ni

Black Lagoon

Elfen Lied

Bartender [lmaonade]

I'd remove Haruhi and FMP from that list. The romance subplots are too strong if he's not looking for that sort of thing. Possibly also NHK.

I strongly recommend Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann if you're looking for explosions and over-the-top action. Black Lagoon is also solid. You may want to give Death Note a shot. It's more of a thriller, but I'm not quite done with it yet.

When he said "love themed," I thought more along the lines of, say....Kanon.


Can I replace one of my earlier choices with Lucky Star?


I still haven't touched TTGL. Haven't had the time, and I'm still a bit cautious of it being similar to...Gundam, or something.



Also, you can't remove NHK - it has a MMO subplot for the auto-win.