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So, I have been an anime fan since high school but since I usually have no money and anime habits are expensive. I fell out of the loop for a while, but since getting Netflix I've been trying to catch animes I've missed. So, please don't laugh at my dated choices of what to watch next. If there's something you really want to recommend, please vote for which out of those three you'd recommend, and specify what your recommendation is in the thread.

I'd love to turn this into a "talk about the last anime you saw" thread in the vein of the movie thread but I don't know if there are enough anime watchers here to make something like that work. So, I'll start. I just finished watching Saikano, which is one of those animes that is way better than its premise sounds. It involves a girl getting turned into a weapon against her will (not a spoiler, you find that out in the first episode), and is subtitled "The Last Love Song On This Little Planet" as it is chiefly concerned with her emotions and that of her classmate/boyfriend. Despite being a war story, there is not a lot of action. It's pretty much a romance/human emotion drama with a little mindscrew thrown in, a study on why we crazy humans do the things we do for life and death. I loved it. I cried through probably a quarter of the thing (13 episodes + optional side story of two episodes called "Another Love Song" which I recommend as well).

Okay, your turn!

Death Note. It's definitely one of the most original series I've seen in a long time and it's not often you see the story told from the villain's perspective... or [spoiler:2xrru3b5]see the villain get his comeuppance in such a story.[/spoiler:2xrru3b5] I also like how L is just as twisted as Light is, going to deplorable ends himself just to catch Kira. This is truly a story where the only "heroes" are people who get killed or people who lose their innocence along the way, like Mogi.

Full Metal Alchemist would be my second pick. It's an awesome parable about the nature of stem cell research and it's applications, a kick ass action show, and a thoughtful narrative about the nature of human beings, as well the prices we pay for the things we get in life.

I'd say go Fullmetal Alchemist.

The anime of Rurouni Kenshin is disappointing overall. Skip it and read the manga if at all possible.

Enough people like Death Note that you should probably watch it to see what they're on about.

I liked Fullmetal Alchemist the best out of all the choices. It kept me hooked every episode I watched on Adult Swim a few years ago.

If you like manga but find it's too expensive, try going to http://www.mangafox.com/
It's free and they have a lot of popular titles there too. I just finished Ai Yori Aoshi and I'm now in the middle of Fullmetal Alchemist the manga over on that site.

I'd say Code Geass just got into it and it's a giant robot anime with a healthy dose of teen drama and political intrigue. I absolutely loved it form first site on.

And it's sponsered by pizza hut so the kids eat pizza pretty regular which I find funny.

From what you picked go with Full Metal. Never really watched much of Death Note, Rurouni Kenshin will have you watching it for years but FMA is a solid series.

Death note. Kenshin is too long of a series and deviated from the manga in the end, so I'd suggest reading the manga. FMA is a tad on the longer side, while still a nice watch I'd always go for the shorter show first.

I say go watch the new Captain Tsubasa and then watch some Love Hina.


Wait.... what?

There's a new Captain Tsubasa?


And i always prefered the shoter ones, like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escaflowne (stay away from the movie though...)

I've been watching Ghost In a Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Other than the Mary Sue Major its a fun show.

SeriousJay said:

I say go watch the new Captain Tsubasa and then watch some Love Hina.


Wait.... what?

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Love Hina is total garbage.

Watch Hellsing, Cowboy Bebop and Record of Lodoss War.

Those are my recommendations anyway.

Gotta disagree with Hellsing. It starts out strong but then the story starts meandering then it gets into the "epic" final battle that is pathetically underwhelming.

[spoiler:2g8iexmj]And then it ends. No final victory with Hellsing standing over their enemies, no end to the Freak Chip production, and no answer to any of the legitimate questions surrounding the entire series. Just dog arm beating blue dragon arm and fade to black.[/spoiler:2g8iexmj]

Do not watch Hellsing series, but the OVA. The series has a nice start but that's it, OVA is true to the manga, which is pure awesome bathed in sweet.

Out of those three, I'd say Fullmetal Alchemist. I liked Rurouni Kenshin well enough, and absolutely hated Death Note (although for the same reasons people say they liked it: I can't stand watching shows/reading books where there is no likeable character).

Full Metal Alchemist.

Another good one is Eureka Seven its a whole lot damn better than Neon Genesis Evangelin. Nother good decent mecha series is Full Metal Panic!

Death Note all the way. While FMA is cute and fun, Death Note has you guessing the whole way through. Even at the final stand you have no idea how it's going to turn out.

I've watched it through twice and enjoyed it just as much each time.

I would not choose RK unless you absolutely love dialogue. 'Cuz there's a lot of it.

--Patrick

Dubyamn said:

Gotta disagree with Hellsing. It starts out strong but then the story starts meandering then it gets into the "epic" final battle that is pathetically underwhelming.

[spoiler:3aoe0xdx]And then it ends. No final victory with Hellsing standing over their enemies, no end to the Freak Chip production, and no answer to any of the legitimate questions surrounding the entire series. Just dog arm beating blue dragon arm and fade to black.[/spoiler:3aoe0xdx]

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No clue what the hell you're talking about. I saw more ending than that with [spoiler:3aoe0xdx]Arucard going to get Integra from her captivity and her agreeing to become "one" with him[/spoiler:3aoe0xdx] Not sure what [spoiler:3aoe0xdx]"fade to black"[/spoiler:3aoe0xdx] bs you're talking about. I will agree that the OVA is the better of the two to watch though. I preferred the music in the series over the OVA though.

Beware that FMA strays from the manga at about one third of the anime, just to find a way to wrap it all. There's a new version of Fullmetal Alchemist that closely follows the manga called FMA Brotherhood, that's just in the fansubs so it'll take a while to reach the US.

If anything anime I would recommend it would be FLCL, it's trippy, it's funny, it's got great music. It also depends a lot on what kind of anime you like. From your selections it seems you like shonen series, which are mostly meh to me so I can't really advise further. Wait a second. If you've already seen Cowboy Bebop, and you like Samurai, I recommend Samurai Champloo, it's very stylish, semi serious yet deadly, like a buddy movie with samurai.

Aisaku said:

Beware that FMA strays from the manga at about one third of the anime, just to find a way to wrap it all. There's a new version of Fullmetal Alchemist that closely follows the manga called FMA Brotherhood, that's just in the fansubs so it'll take a while to reach the US.

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Actually, the people with the US rights are showing the subbed version over on Hulu. They'll probably shop the series to Adult Swim once they get it dubbed though, as they showed the original series.

This is assuming of course that Williams Street stops having such a fucking hard on for those shitty looking, poorly written, cheap as hell "comedy" shows they keep buying/making. The Mighty Boosh might not be bad (probably because they didn't fucking make it), but Tim and Eric needs to be canceled... as does Squid Billies. Shell out for some decent anime or jump through the fucking hoops and get The Simpsons. It's already it syndication!

Tim & Eric will be around a few more seasons, sadly people actually find it funny. I hope it goes the way of 12 Oz. Mouse and just disappears, though. The days of Harvey Birdman and Sealab 2021, hell even Frisky Dingo seem to be gone. Robot Chicken and Boosh are all I can bother with anymore.

Back on topic, though, I agree with FMA. I enjoyed it, and I generally don't get into anime anymore.

I don't especially recommend Samurai Champloo (even though Cowboy Bebop is my favorite anime ever and it's made by the same guy and even has a very similar feel) but the series just drags you on this little quest and you never feel like anything is resolved. Like, the ending "ties stuff up" but it's just a cop-out in my opinion, and in general the entire series felt like you were eating an air sandwich and then about 3/4ths of the way through it someone came along and snatched the sandwich away from you, and you're not sure if you even cared to keep eating it, but you're a littled miffed that someone took it from you.

As for FLCL, it's definitely fun enough to warrant a watch since it's only 6 episodes long - It's a little over 2 hours of your life to watch it, as opposed to, say, FMA's 52ish episodes + movie AND the new series, or Death Note's 36ish episodes.

I actually haven't watched a whole lot of anime recently. The last anime I've watched really was Death Note. And honestly, even having watched it twice, I really wouldn't mind watching it a third time. Like, it's that damn good.

The gf and I will probably be watching the entirety of the Sailor Moon series for nostalgia's sake. Soooo, wish us luck on that'n. :bush:

This is an awesome discussion! Looks like I will definitely put RK on the backburner (although I'll still get around to it at some point) and since Death Note and FMA are at exactly 50/50 I flipped a coin and got Death Note (since I returned my last DVD and had to pick another one). So that's up first, and FMA after.

@Li3n said:

And i always prefered the shoter ones, like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escaflowne (stay away from the movie though...)

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I remember way back in the day (I guess almost 10 years ago) they started showing a dub of Escaflowne on Fox on Saturday mornings when they showed Digimon. Apparently it didn't do too well and they pulled it after only a few episodes, but I liked it! I think that will be added to my "must watch" list too.

Covar said:

I've been watching Ghost In a Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Other than the Mary Sue Major its a fun show.

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I watched that series on Netflix's Watch Instantly service recently. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get through 2nd Gig before they took it off, so I have to put that one on my DVD list too. I like the Major even though she is totally Mary Sueish, and I love Batou and the Tachikawas and all their little interactions.

Shegokigo said:

Watch Hellsing, Cowboy Bebop and Record of Lodoss War.

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I've watched Record of Lodoss War, although I'm not sure if I watched the "right one." I watched the 13 episode series a couple years ago, but I know there's another, longer series. Should I check that one out as well?

Aisaku said:

It also depends a lot on what kind of anime you like. From your selections it seems you like shonen series

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Definitely not limited to that -- if you have some good shoujo or other stuff to recommend, please do. My all time favorite series is Fushigi Yuugi. And I love CLAMP stuff too. So I definitely like some girly stuff. The poll was just for the next series I plan on watching.

Alright, so my (subject to addition -- some of these are newly added thanks to you guys) list of anime I need to watch (not necessarily in this order):

Death Note
FMA
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
XXXholic
Cowboy Bebop
Samurai Champloo
Hellsing
Eureka Seven
FLCL
X
Rurouni Kenshin

this is going to take me years, isn't it. :bush:

Full Metal Alchemist.

Rurouni Kenshin turns shite at season 2, and Death Note becomes boring after a while.

doomdragon6 said:

Death Note has you guessing the whole way through

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[spoiler:1hzh7gve]They tell you how it ends in the first episode[/spoiler:1hzh7gve]

Lally said:

Shegokigo said:

Watch Hellsing, Cowboy Bebop and Record of Lodoss War.

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I've watched Record of Lodoss War, although I'm not sure if I watched the "right one." I watched the 13 episode series a couple years ago, but I know there's another, longer series. Should I check that one out as well?

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Well you watched the "good one". The original OAV was a nice epic story with some really well done characters (though i would have enjoyed more fleshed out backrounds on some of them) you could genuinely care about each of them.

The second series was like a "TV" series, so it felt very watered down. Some characters were COMPLETELY rebooted for this series and feels strange if you watch it after the OAV, even though it "continues" the story of some of the older characters. :bush:

All in all it's a good series if you can get over those mind fucks and worth at least one watch, though I can see you have your hand very full!

Allen said:

doomdragon6 said:

Death Note has you guessing the whole way through

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[spoiler:27fa8suh]They tell you how it ends in the first episode[/spoiler:27fa8suh]

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This

As for the list-

Death Note (watch the movies instead)
FMA
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (great)
XXXholic(never watched it, cant give an opinion)
Cowboy Bebop (watch it!!!)
Samurai Champloo (never got into the style)
Hellsing (watch the OVAS, but the anime aint bad)
Eureka Seven
FLCL (WTF??)
X (never watched it, cant give an opinion)
Rurouni Kenshin (Ignore anything after the first season)

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Add to your list (in order of greatness)

Monster - A Doctor chooses to ignore saving the mayor´s life to save that of a child, but then years later, disgraced and bankrupt, discovers that the child grew to be the next Hitler. Amazing thriller.
Nana - A rather realistic anime (also live action series) about two girls who share the same apartment and name, but are very different, and both try and survive in Tokyo.
DragonQuest, Dai´s Quest - My fave Toryama anime, but yu´ll have to import French DVDs with bad English subs
Trigun -short and bittersweet
Record of Lodoss War - It´ll take you months to finish it all, but this is D&D meets anime at its best
Berserk - Best fantasy anime, if you can withstand the sudden gore overload
S-CRY-ed - short and quite a fun action anime
Ghost in the Shell/SAC - Great sci-fi political thriller that inspired Matrix
The Twelve Kingdoms/12 Kokuki - Chinese mythology meets Japanese teens
Full Metal Panic - Okay, its lighthearted mecha-meets-schoolchildren, but damn its the only mecha anime I could stand
Full Metal Panic FUMOFU - Its FMP without a plot and only short funny stories, you´ll die laughing.

From what you've said so far, you may also like Kare Kano (shoujo), Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan (raw awesome) and Monster (intrigue, and just great).


Last animes I've watched/been watching... Here it comes. For more info on any of the series, wiki is a friend--Go go gadget-list!

Eden of the East. It's a very good anime in all its aspects. Great animation, story, ... Very engaging. It's an intrigue series, only 13 episodes (now there's two movies in the works that will continue the plot) and very recommendable.

Soul Eater. Fun series. The animation is very fluid, the characters are engaging and the plot is good. For the series feel, think Nightmare before Christmas. It's a fighting shounen (main character's a girl). The fights are pretty (none of that scribble-scribble stuff), and overall it just grows on you. Just for Dr. Stein alone it's worth checking :3

Chaos Head. Haven't finished it yet... It's kind of painful to watch. It's not the animation or anything, just the plot. You know that feeling of awkwardness you get sometimes when you see characters do something embarrassing? Magnify that a 100 times and you get Chaos Head's rhythm.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (the new series) [Ongoing]. So far, quite good. The animation is more modern than in the original series, but they overuse the silly faces a tad too much. The story (which this time follows the manga rigorously from what I've read) is much, much, more awesome.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 [Ongoing]. So far, great. Set in today's Tokyo, the series follows the consequences of a magnitude 8 earthquake in the japanese city, from the perspective of a girl with a younger brother. The animation is quite good (a lot of 3d is used for the city mayhem), the characterization is excellent. Also it looks like they did research on the subject, as all the consequences seem very convincent.

Canaan [Ongoing]. Anime about a middle-eastern gun-girl and two japanese photographers, set in China, as they clash with some kind of secret organization/conspiracy/bleh. It's fun, with nice animation. The story s'ok, nothing otherworldly, but on the upside there hasn't been a single boring episode yet.

Bakemonogatari [Ongoing]. Still haven't figured out what it's about. Nice and interesting animation, lots of symbolism (think Zetsubou Sensei), fun characters. I recommend giving it a shot.

Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 [Ongoing]. Skip it. Episodes 2-8 or so are the same episode with slightly different camera angles (happens in the books). The anime series is famous for trolling its viewers, but they've really gone too far T_T

I guess I'm the only one who found Death Note to be annoying. I just could not stick with it, I found it grating after a while.

I voted Fullmetal Alchemist, though I'd got with the new FMA Brotherhood version, I'm really enjoying that, especially now that I've gotten into the episodes where it diverges from the original series (I think, it's possible it's just my memory playing tricks on me).

To suggest off the poll from anime I've seen...
Tenchi Muyo OVA (Silly, fun, good enough story for a week's worth of watching).
Slayers - More goofy fun.

What can I say? Gritty anime is good, but so is slapstick.

--Patrick

SLAYERS, that's an old one I've been wanting to see for years.

Oh dear. My list is getting longer and longer...

PatrThom said:

To suggest off the poll from anime I've seen...
Tenchi Muyo OVA (Silly, fun, good enough story for a week's worth of watching).
Slayers - More goofy fun.

What can I say? Gritty anime is good, but so is slapstick.

--Patrick

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Anyone who can watch the entire Tenchi OVA and TV Series 1 & 2 in one week or a month has got my thumbs up.

Anything after season 2 is trash.

FLCL, if you haven't seen it yet.

...I wish there were more episodes.

Scydron said:

FLCL, if you haven't seen it yet.

...I wish there were more episodes.

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More episodes would have ruined it. It's the perfect size for what it is.

Scydron said:

FLCL, if you haven't seen it yet.

...I wish there were more episodes.

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Watch Dead Leaves. It's a 50 minute long movie done by the guy who directed episode 5 of FLCL (also, same guy who did the first episode of Re: Cutie Honey and Gurren Lagann) and it SHOWS. I have never seen any piece of animation with such excellent insane action.

Just make sure you watch the dubbed version. The original Japanese dialogue is very sparse and isn't very good, while the English version is overall much better performed.

Lally said:

I remember way back in the day (I guess almost 10 years ago) they started showing a dub of Escaflowne on Fox on Saturday mornings when they showed Digimon. Apparently it didn't do too well and they pulled it after only a few episodes, but I liked it! I think that will be added to my "must watch" list too.

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Actually my understanding is from what I read years ago was that it got pulled not for doing poorly but because of content inappropriate for the time slot(lots of death and violence, horrors of war, hints of teenage pregnancy). This was still when studios knew jack about anime beyond 'kids love it lol'.


I highly recommend getting ahold of it though, the dub is VERY good and manages to properly blend medieval fantasy and mechas.

Also note Fox butchered and censored the hell out of it so you will be in for a treat if you liked the abomination they showed a few episodes of.

Seconded on Eden of the East. [spoiler:2ir0yigr]Conspiracy theories done right.[/spoiler:2ir0yigr] And oddly enough, opening by Oasis.

Thank you JonJon, I'll look for Dead Leaves then.

IllogicalVirgo said:

Lally said:

I remember way back in the day (I guess almost 10 years ago) they started showing a dub of Escaflowne on Fox on Saturday mornings when they showed Digimon. Apparently it didn't do too well and they pulled it after only a few episodes, but I liked it! I think that will be added to my "must watch" list too.

Click to expand...

Actually my understanding is from what I read years ago was that it got pulled not for doing poorly but because of content inappropriate for the time slot(lots of death and violence, horrors of war, hints of teenage pregnancy). This was still when studios knew jack about anime beyond 'kids love it lol'.


I highly recommend getting ahold of it though, the dub is VERY good and manages to properly blend medieval fantasy and mechas.

Also note Fox butchered and censored the hell out of it so you will be in for a treat if you liked the abomination they showed a few episodes of.

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Yes, finally got someone to watch it... i swear, i almost punched a friend of mine when he said that he doesn't watch older anime because the animation isn't as good as today.

figmentPez said:

I guess I'm the only one who found Death Note to be annoying. I just could not stick with it, I found it grating after a while.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGAHw-TWV6M:2y3hll2j][/youtube:2y3hll2j]

That scene is even worse in the original japanese. At least the American VA realized how stupid it really was and decided to make it EPIC just for laughs.

I would suggest watching Black Lagoon. :uhhuh:

Just started watching El Cazador de la Bruja, and it's been a thoroughly pleasant experience thus far. Basic plot is that a bounty hunter has been assigned to protect a girl with some very unusual abilities during a lengthy, rambling trip through Central America, and a whole host of oddballs are on their tail up to and including the government conspiracy that created her. It's a surprisingly amusing, laid-back show despite this; things happen slowly, but in a most agreeable manner, and the music's great. Very recomended.

Huh. For a moment, I thought perhaps you meant Witch Hunter Robin. I guess it's just a common theme. Let me add WHR to the list.

--Patrick

AshburnerX said:

That scene is even worse in the original japanese. At least the American VA realized how stupid it really was and decided to make it EPIC just for laughs.

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That, tied with the "spazams" by Ryuk that episode were just all out hilarious.