Anime recommendations

[Stormwaltz]

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. Length and depth of commentary depends on how motivated I felt when we finished the show.

[schild]

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.

[Stormwaltz]

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.

[Hoax]

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.

[Jain Zar]

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

Well, they're not intended for an adult male audience.

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...

[Kageru]

-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)
-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.

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.

[Kageru]

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

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 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 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.

[raydeen]

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.

[Lantyssa]

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.

[Fabricated]

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.

[Hoax]

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.

[schild]

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.

[Teleku]

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.

[Sairon]

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.

[Megrim]

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?

[Rodent]

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.

[Llava]

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.

Wikipedia loves you, why do you not love it back?

[schild]

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.

[Lantyssa]

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.

[schild]

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 - just buy it.

[Raph]

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

[Furiously]

-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.

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.

[schild]

Schild, if you want to be a completist, you need more. :)

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.

[Lantyssa]

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.

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.

[Raph]

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. ;)

[schild]

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.

[Lantyssa]

Ah ha!  So it isn't.

See why I'm confused? 

[Simond]

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

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.

[Soln]

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

No one mentioned Serial Experiment Lain?  I will only because it was odd

[schild]

No one mentioned Serial Experiment Lain?  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?

[Hoax]

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.

[Simond]

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.  ;)

[schild]

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

[Raph]

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.

[Lantyssa]

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?