Calling Papillon and Other Anime Junkies!

[terin]

Hah, Papillon is the only one I am SURE is an anime junky on this board.

I need some good anime, stat. Mother's day is coming up and nothing says loving like some cracked out anime (since our daughter is 2 it is time for me to step up with a gift from "her")

Ok, so we've seen TONS of anime and most of what you name will go on the "seen it" list: But name some good anime anyway.

Our favorites as a couple (to give a taste of our style and the first three are in order of "top 3 of all time") are:

Trigun
Outlaw Star
Vandread
Haunted Junction (Well, I know *I* liked it a lot)
Tokyo Godfathers
Spirited Away


Her favorites that I don't really like:
Magic Knights Rayearth
Princess Mononoke (ok, someone is sure to flame me for disliking it... its not that I dislike it, its that I think it isn't a favorite)
Ghost in the Shell (Ok, this one I actually think isn't very good)

Got any suggestions? I've got a month and a half to come up with something brilliant... I can't take any more Magic Knights... not without commiting a horrible act of homicide.

-Joe

[Hamumu]

What, no Cowboy Bebop?

[yanuart]

In random order :
Vampire Hunter D
Lain
PatLabor -> the manga is so much better
Gundam any classic series prior to Gundam Wings
Zoo Macross
Dr. Slump (I believe that's the english title)
Ranma
Naruto
SlamDunk (english title too)
Full Metal Alchemist
Ruroinin Kenshin
.. there's too much of them :D

if you want something for your daughter, you should try any title from Ghibli studio..
Japanese have different culture so they create fables n tales, comics, cartoon in a totally different way than the western. It's very nice to get different view on things every now and then.
They also have different style of drawings in their animation/comics, I'm not talking about the manga style but something like... you'll never see an animated character in anime deformed/animated in ways like tom&jerry or looney toons no matter how wacky the character is.

Speaking of cartoons around the world.. I miss european cartoons like tintin, asterix, etc.

[tolik]

Miyazaki

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/
Director - filmography

Most of his stuff is good. Find it.

[papillon]

(I didn't think Mononoke Hime was that great - it was okay, but compared to the massive amount of hype, it wasn't THAT good.)

Cowboy Bebop is a fairly good choice, although (stereotypes ahoy!) it can take a while for a girl to get into, while guys tend to dig it straight away.

Escaflowne could be a good match.

If you don't mind slow/mystery titles where you occasionally want to tear your hair out and scream "GET TO THE POINT!" at the show...

Haibane Renmei

Noir (This has tons of action, but the "what's going on" is incredibly obscure, so trying to piece together the ACTUAL plot is slow. Cool music too.)

... I've *seen* Lain (most of it, have never gotten around to watch it all) and I wouldn't recommend it with that list of favorites. :) Nor Key the Metal Idol, which I can never make up my mind whether I liked or hated.

One completely bizarre comedy that I was fond of for a while is supposedly being licensed but it isn't out yet (Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu). Well, the manga is, but the show isn't around yet. Same thing for Child's Toy (Kodomo no Omocha) - the books are available but I haven't read them, and the show which I HAVE seen isn't. .... Yes, I watch all my anime in Japanese.

I am also a complete and utter Utena fan. I have my own rose seal ring...

I haven't seen Rayearth yet but have been meaning to get around to it.

[Bmc]

I've notice no one has mentioned Berserk. It's excellent and a must watch.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0318871/

After that there is Gungrave which is sort of like a combination of Berserk and Hellsing. It's really good (especially when you consider it's based off a videogame).

http://imdb.com/title/tt0435961/

Then there are Elfen Lied, Tehxnolyze, Ninja Scroll the Movie and Ninja Scroll the TV series, Bleach is pretty good has the same type of humour as Trigun IMO. Fist of the North Star

[Dan MacDonald]

Bezerk is awesome (but dark), I own the whole DVD collector set.

Skyred is a pretty sweet series too, about this weird island near japan where people who are born there get the power to summon "alters" out of the raw materials around them.

The good Roruni Kenshin stuff was released under the horrid name "SamruaiX"
there are 3 Disks. "Trust", "Betrayal", and "Reflections" that are all very nicely done, great story, very artistic. (it can have some bloody swordfights, but my wife watched them and liked them and she hates anime)

If you want to go back to the classics there's Fist of the Northstar and MD Guist. Ninja Scroll etc. (More guy appropraite then girl)

I love the ghost in the shell series "Stand alone complex" as well as the two films. But I have to agree they are an acquired taste. The series is a little more palatable to western audiences.

Escaflowne is a nice series as well.

[papillon]

... except Elfen Lied is, or so I've been told, a disturbing combination of cuteness, breasts, and HORRIBLE GORY DEATH. Not to mention it's not available for sale, afaik. Interesting, but hardly a general recommendation...

Bleach I don't know, but checking the info it's pretty recent - doesn't look like it's licensed either.

And you can actually recommend Fist of the North Star with a straight face? Even the people involved mock it! :)

Bastard! is a great action/comedy type thing if you can find a good translation of it. I hear the official version cut out a lot of the jokes. If you get a cut that ISN'T making constant references to 80's metal bands, you're missing half the fun. So probably not much use for buying.

[Dan MacDonald]

Fists of the Northstar is cool because it's exaggerated, completely over the top in a similar vein to that Starship Troopers movie. I'm talking about the original FOTN from the akira era. Not the new stuff. If you like crazy anime action it's got gobs of it :)


(like papillion I don't watch anything dubbed)

[Sirrus]

Fist of the North Star was probably the worst american dubbing I have ever seen ;)

What about 'One Piece'? She might like that...

[Pyabo]

In random order :
*deleted*
Lain


Gauranteed to cure insomnia!

Episode One: Someone kills themselves.
Episode Two: Girl goes to school. Then walks home.
Episode Three: Let's go to school again! Still no update on that plot.
Episode Four: Girl goes "huh...?" You know, that totally stereotypical anime sound / dumb facial expression.
Episode Five: Why are you still watching this show? There is still nothing happening.

[terin]

Well there are a few new titles in here.

I totally agree with the synopsis of Lain. I managed to sit through it...

Long about episode 5 it all becomes a blur... sometime around episode 9 she gets a friend.

Somtime around episode 11 she becomes god.

... sometime around episode 13 it ends and I THANK god.

Dan, you officially make my list of "People to never take anime advice from" but thanks anyway.

Bebop would make my top 10 but we've all seen it a dozen times. I own the series and the movie.

I've never seen any of these:

Dr. Slump
Ranma *I SHOULD have seen Ranma already... but hey*
Naruto
SlamDunk
Full Metal Alchemist

And of course we have seen all of Miyazaki's work.

Bubblegum Crisis should be on my list back there somewhere too... they're so sexy... and .. oh the action is nice too.

-Joe

[botman]

Why all the dark and violent ones? I found things like Berserk to be tripe.

My favourites are Chobits and Love Hina, both are funny.

For the angsty teen/mmorpg player, .Hack//Sign is good too.

[gmcbay]

Ok, to start off with I'm not much of an anime fan, so feel free to ignore me. To give you some context, of the Anime I've seen that I've liked:

Spirited Away (which you already mentioned -- FWIW I didn't care much for Mononke)

Cowboy Bebop (which has already been mentioned)

Ghost in the Shell II & Stand Alone Complex (I liked GITS II and what I've seen of the SAC series both a lot better than the original Ghost in the Shell, which I found a bit too oddly paced for my taste, though I liked the look).

One that I didn't see mentioned though, and I think would work well as an anime gift for a woman is Voices of a Distant Star.

[Mithril Studios]

I second Love Hina.

(Coming from someone who'd never seen anime, and had no interest in it whatsoever - until I caught a Love Hina episode on winamp one night.)

Anthony

[Cartman]

Nausicaa has just been released in the US(by Disney). It's gotten 5 positive ratings out of 5 already at www.rottentomatoes.com (http://www.rottentomatoes.com)

Also, try this link if you want to see the ratings for Hayao Miyazaki's other films:
www.rottentomatoes.com/p/hayao_miyazaki/ (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/p/hayao_miyazaki/)

[papillon]

I've only seen the beginning of hacksign and it was putting me to sleep - partially the bad sound direction (music volume overpowering speech). Love Hina I'm only vaguely familiar with, but I shy away from the "It's funny because the girl hits the guy a lot!" school of anime comedy, which I think it falls into. :)

Other things I haven't seen very much of:

Now and Then, Here and There (I hear this is great but SAD, I've only seen the beginning, my other half wasn't interested enough to bother tracking down the next bit.)

Shamanic Princess (I really didn't like it.)

Soukyuu no Fafner (A mix of every OTHER teens-pilot-giant-mechs show that's already been written. YAWN.)

Chobits (Cute, but not all that compelling. Seen a few, may keep watching eventually.)

This Ugly and Beautiful World (Could be good, too early to tell)

Angelic Layer (Was cute, got repetitive. Too bad we can't make and market THAT game! I want customisable fighting dollies!)

Melody of Oblivion (Odd. Have only seen the beginning.)

Maria-sama ga Miteru (*THE* lesbian subtext anime. That's pretty much all there is. Sighing and gazing at each other and flower petals. The episode I've seen about put me to sleep. Plot, please!)

Super Doll Licca-Chan (If you have a high tolerance for cutesy shows aimed at selling dolls to little girls, this was actually fun. Only seen the beginning, though.)

Wedding Peach (... whereas this is BORING.)

More shows I *like*:

Azumanga Daioh - Love it, love it, love it! Might drive anyone looking for a traditional plot bonkers, though. ;)

Galaxy Angel - We're both pretty fond of this.

[lakibuk]

Hm. Just watched the first 4 episodes of Lain and like them a lot.
But i am no anime fan.

[Air]

The neatest anime I've seen in a long time is called Read or Die.

It's both guy and girl friendly, easy to get into, fun to watch, not excessively gory (but not peachy clean either), and is artistic and creative. All that and it's even got the tell-tale traits of anime: a love triangle and some bizarre spaced-out over-the-top ending that makes you wonder if it was even written/directed by the same people. I like it a lot and highly recommend it as a good gift-level anime.

- Air

[Rainer Deyke]

Some Anime I've enjoyed (long but incomplete list, may not match your preferences at all): Aishiteruze Baby
Akazukin Chacha
Akira
Genshiken
Hikaru no Go
Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl
Vision of Escaflowne
Last Exile
Naruto
Twin Spica
Angel's Egg
Grave of the Fireflies
Laputa
Panda Kopanda (aimed at preschool children but I still enjoyed it)
Tonari no Totoro
Arc the Lad
Record of Lodoss War
Excel Saga
Ranma 1/2
2x2=Shinobuden
Battle Programmer Shirase
All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku
Azumanga Diaoh
Elfen Lied
Full Moon wo Sagashite
FLCL
Full Metal Alchemist
Gilgamesh
Gokusen
Great Teacher Onizuka
Gunslinger Girl
Interlude
Kogepan
Macross Zero
Madlax
Mermaid's Forest
Peace Maker Kurogane
Tsukihime
Scrapped Princess
Galaxy Angel
Kyou Kara Maou
Mahoujin Guruguru
Urusei Yatsura (my current favorite)

[Daire Quinlan]

Paranoia agent ...
I've watched about maybe 10 episodes of this so far, For the first few I thought I had a handle on it and then ... WTF ??? Very odd, Very watchable, As above, once the first few 'episodes' it starts getting more and more left field. I can't work out whether or not the writers actually planned it from the beginning or they're just winging it or something ...

also , Samurai Shamploo. Bit daft, little repetive, but the action scenes are great !

in defense of NON anime animation, can I just mention the Iron Giant, Brad Bird's previous project before going off to Pixar and doing the Incredibles. Its definately one of my top favourite animated movies, great animation, fantastic characterisation, and an absolutely drop dead classic story line.

D.

-edit- And isn't mothers day WELL over at this stage ??? I got my mum a bottle of whiskey for mothers day ! she appreciated it ! -edit-

[botman]

papillon, granted Hack Sign is frustratingly slow!

I didn't enjoy Here and There, Now and Then. The whole child slave/beating/war thing never bothered me (though it did my gf), but the cat killing bit put us both off it completely.

Air, yes! I forgot about Read or Die, but I thought that was great, the gf did too. She also likes Fruit Baskets, but I've not watched it.

I would say FLCL was the coolest anime I couldn't understand at all. And Final Fantasy was the biggest dissapointment! What the heck was with that...

Edit: By the way, do most people here (who can't speak Japanese) watch the English dubs or just read the English subtitles with the Japanese voices.

We do the latter just because the english voices are usually so bad, and always so much more kiddie sounding than their Japanese equivalents.

Edit edit: Plus the english voices always have American accents! :P

[PoV]

Yeah, I'm new to it myself, but I'll hoot in.

Trigun (rules, but it's already on your list)
Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu (might be the Funniest anime ever)
Full Metal Panic (not as funny but pretty good mecha anime)
Full Metal Alchemist (is cool, nice tech (alchemy))
FLCL (makes you go WTF!?)
Dual! (Short/fun mecha anime)
Angelic Layer (Cool tech (the mind control dolls), far too long as Pappy pointed out)
Naruto (Dragon Ball Z'ish, without the constipation)
Gundam Wing (Only gundam series that appealed to me)

And my list of cool, except for the endings:
Rahzephon (Mecha was meh, I really liked the story, ending was a WTF?)
Evangellion (Nice mecha, nice story, and WTF ending!!?!)
Lain (It's lain, you like it or you hate it, but you hate the ending)

[whisperstorm]

Two of my faves:

Read or Die
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi<--- freaking awesome and funny

[Dan MacDonald]

I had no idea my tastes were so extreme :). Fists of the Northstar will always be a classic in my books. Before it was re-released it was going for $180 on amazon.

Most people don't like MD Giest because the "hero" is actually an "anti hero" who destroys the world. It's just one of those story lines you would never see from a western production house.

Vampire Hunter D: bloodlust is as good (if not better then ) Ninja Scroll. The original Vampire Hunter D is a good story as well. Though slightly dated. (the controversial thing about bloodlust was that it was actually made by a US studio emulating the japaneese style)

"Blood" is also good, beautifully rendered. Once of the first anime entirely celled on computer. It's a little short though and ends right when it seems to be picking up.

I can't say I'm picky though, I'll watch just about anything (minus hentai and the really kiddy stuff, sorry pap).

Patlabor and appleseed are both pretty good if you are into the armored police squad thing. There's a new Appleseed movie coming out that looks amazing but I don't think it's released yet.

The Blue Seed series(I think that's what it was called) was also decent (I thought) But nothing compared to Skyred or Escaflowne

I only saw a few episodes of the "Pilot Candidate" series on adultswim but it left me wanting more.

I also quite enjoy low budget black and white sci-fi films, so ya, in the end I should probably not be giving out anime suggestions :)

[Rainer Deyke]

Edit: By the way, do most people here (who can't speak Japanese) watch the English dubs or just read the English subtitles with the Japanese voices.

I only watch subtitled Japanese. I'm actually starting to pick up quite a bit of Japanese from watching anime.

[whisperstorm]

Oh, and by the way if you like anime, you may really enjoy the "live action" anime of Casshern - a really great example of what's new about japanese cinema -- think Matrix meets Ultraman plus throw in some Hero and typical moralization:

http://www.casshern.com/

[KNau]

I'll second that Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind (released as Warriors of the Wind). Also:

Top Picks:
Metroloplis - very stylistic, and different from typical anime. I loved it!
Key the Metal Idol - haven't the watched whole series but what I saw was good.

Good for watching with the wife / girlfriend, mostly kid friendly:
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku - cutesy and amusing
Gunsmith Cats - very funny and stylish
Airbats - much like Gunsmith cats

[papillon]

Key is one of the "ran out of money" shows - so after going at a fairly sedate pace, right near the end they suddenly have to sit you down and spill the entire back story at you for 90 minutes of nonstop chatter, because there was supposed to be an extra arc or two there. Then they move onto the ending, which I... did not care for.

An awful lot of shows end badly, though. It's easier to build up tension than to resolve it. I didn't like the end of Escaflowne or Ayashi no Ceres either... or Noir, but I didn't actually like Noir to begin with. :) (I still recommend it to the average viewer - it's shiny, it's got girls and guns and great music, but the characters annoyed me and the ending really annoyed me. And I kept calling Kirika Key-chan in my head.)

Read or Die is great, I'm still trying to get ahold of Read or Dream.

Jubei-chan was fun. :)

[Abscissa]

Princess Mononoke (ok, someone is sure to flame me for disliking it... its not that I dislike it, its that I think it isn't a favorite)
Holy crap, I'm not the only one!!! Except, I *do* actually dislike it...(But at least it's not 'Grave of the Fireflies', ick!)

Sub vs. Dub: I usually watch in dub because I hate having to bounce my focus back and forth between the bottom and the middle of the screen every half-second (Child's Toy is particularly painful in that regard). But, I'll deal with subs if there is no dub, or if the voice acting is particulary bad. Only thing I'm really religous about is avoiding the zealots who are religous about the "sub vs. dub" issue ;)

Some that I've liked (In no order):

-Child's Toy ("Kodocha")
-Cowboy Bebop
-Tenchi Muyo and Tenchi Universe (Tenchi in Tokyo was awful)
-Golden Boy (One of my current favorites)
-Probably pointless to mention, but just like most anime-watchers, DBZ was my first favorite (Until I saw GT for the first time...yuck!)
-Ranma 1/2 (Hilarious! The earlier episodes are better than the later ones though)
-Trigun
-Case Closed (An old one)
-Lupin the Third (Another old one)
-Inuyasha (Very engaging, and I love most of the closing themes)
-Excel Saga (Hilarious)
-Pokemon :D
-Kirby: Right Back At Ya (Ok, probably doesn't count...)
-Sin (Based on the PC game that was overshadowed by Half-Life. Probably wouldn't like the anime if you didn't like the game though.)
-Animatrix (if it counts) EXCEPT for Second Renaissance (Beyond was the best, IMHO)

I also like the mangas of Love Hina and Ai Yori Aoshi. I'm hesitent to see them in anime form though, just in case they're not like I image them ;)

Oh, and although it's not anime, I *HIGHLY* recommend "Tampopo" (Very funny) and "The Returner". The "Zatoichi" series and "Kikujiro" are also pretty good live-actor films. "Shall We Dance" (Not the recent knock-off with Richard Gere) is popular as well, but extremely overrated in my opinion.

[aiosup]

Last Exile is probably easy to get, fun to watch.

There is a good anime top (http://www.animenfo.com/statistic/top.php?type=anime) at AnimeiNFo (http://www.animenfo.com/). You can check the first 10 -- they've got summaries, images, and also full descriptions -- and decide for yourself. That site also has the animes listed by genre and topic, so you could get the best in one of the categories, whichever suits you best.

[Anthony Flack]

I'm no anime fan but I love pretty much anything by Hayao Miyazaki a great deal. I absolutely can't bear to watch them dubbed though, with their horribly inappropriate American accents and changed scripts.

Mind you I wouldn't watch any other kind of foreign film dubbed, either. You shouldn't dick around with a filmmaker's art, sez I.

[aiosup]

I absolutely can't bear to watch them dubbed though, with their horribly inappropriate American accents and changed scripts.
As a matter of fact, I think most animes get first translated into French (don't know why).

Second, should we understand that you are able to understand Japanese (the mother tongue of all animes (according to the anime's definition at animeinfo))? :)

[Bmc]

As a matter of fact, I think most animes get first translated into French (don't know why).

Second, should we understand that you are able to understand Japanese (the mother tongue of all animes (according to the anime's definition at animeinfo))? :)
He prolly watches with subtitles. It takes a bit of getting used to at first but you eventually don't notice that your reading.

[dima]

Is everyone forgetting 'La Blue Girl' ?! kekeke, ok, ok, let the flames come (if you know this one) :D

[digriz]

I agree with Anthony, anything by Miyazaki is great. Totoro, i particularly like. I can't believe Akira has hardly had a mention here, a truly great film, visionary for when it was made.

All shout together. TETSUO.....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

yep, great. :D

[botman]

Tetsuuuooo!

Kaneeedaaa!

[jpantuso]

Given that you're approaching this as a gift from your daughter, I'd have to say go with Totoro. All of my kids adore it. I've always liked it, heck, my 2nd daughters name is Mei.

The problem of course is that it isn't released in the US in decent English form. We're lucky enough to be able to watch it in Japanese... supposedly it will be out from Disney in August now. You can get it as an import if you have a multi-region capable DVD player.

Barring that, the just released (in the US) Porco Rosso (http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/porco/) (Crimson Pig) is excellent. It's the only one of Miyazaki's films that could be considered a 'guy' film, though kids and spouses love it too. WWI flying ace, cursed and turned into a pig. What more could you want?

Nausicaa was also just released in the US. Not his strongest, the manga is actually better because it has more time to get the whole story out. Still rocks though.

One last suggestion is Project A-Ko (http://www.gravitoncity.com/). Very wacky humor, and it is a series so there is a decent amount of it.

[stan]

I have no idea what would fit your tastes since I haven't seen any anime from your top ten, but I'm going to re-mention some already mentionned in this thread, and add a new one on top of it :)

- Fruits Basket: about a teenage girl who always thinks it's her fault and tries to help other people so everyone loves her (basically), with some fantastic elements thrown in for good measure. I really liked that one (still got 2 episodes to watch, BTW...).

- Now and there, Here and Then: a bit weird because it involves children/teenagers (teleported in a different world), and yet it's very dark (war and more.) It's good IMO, but certainly not something you'd watch with your 2yo daughter.

- FLCL: like already said, very weird, quite funny, and mostly impossible to understand (but not enterily). Talks about girls/boys relationships... well, maybe. Includes a female alien guitar player who rides a scooter, a robot and a giant steam iron.

[Skipping a few good animes already mentionned like Noir, Read or Die, Blue Seed... and .Hack//SIGN which seemed great at first but then got kind of boring.]

- Figure 17: it's about a shy girl who goes to elementary school, and then meets some aliens and is forced to save the world. There's more to it than this short description... There are some fights (one per episode) and a lot of everyday life, at school and in the country (she lives next to a farm). I really liked this anime.

- Mahoo Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: a teenage magician girl who discovers that magic can't solve everything. Great music (mostly quiet.) (Can be spelled "Mahô" or "Mahou" too, or maybe "It's hard to be a mage" IIRC.)

[botman]

FCLC was the coolest anime I couldn't understand. Especially the music. Weird. But good. But weird...

[Abscissa]

Is everyone forgetting 'La Blue Girl' ?! kekeke, ok, ok, let the flames come (if you know this one) :D
Ah ha ha ha! Hey, I kinda like that one :D! But there's still better H out there imo. (Ok, I know, waaaay too much information... ;) )

FCLC was the coolest anime I couldn't understand. Especially the music. Weird. But good. But weird...
Yea, FLCL does have some cool music. Most of it's done by a Japanese (obviously) group called The Pillows. I like the main theme "Ride on Shooting Star". FWIW, Cowboy Bebop and Inuyasha also have excellent music (imo).