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[Senn Typhos]

Uncle Senn says, watch Hellsing Ultimate and leave candyass Adult Swim series where they belong.

[BloodBird]

While I have watched dozens of shows and own quite a lot of them, the only one I've seen in recent days is Angel Beats! - One I got from a friend of mine, and hold no regret for seeing.

It's likely not the best I've seen, but I'm not to fond of 'ranking' my shows in order or what I believed was best, as this varies with taste and opinion. Still, it's a pretty good show for being only 13 episodes, and well worth watching.

This anime started off, in the first 20 seconds with having me annoyed and rather disappointed. Yay, protagonist suffers from amnesia and arrives in a place he has never seen before. Sounds familiar to me...

After 2 minutes 30 seconds however I had to pause it to finish laughing hysterically at the hilarity and master-stroke of the opening acts. After only that much time, I was totally hooked on seeing the show and the pace kept going from there - seriousness, humor, tragedy, character revelation (not sure I should call it development due to the short episode number and the nature of the show itself) and all the rest made for a though-provoking, saddening, enjoyable and really entertaining show.

Humor manages to be a constant, often subtle, and sometimes a bit less subtle and more obvious, to mix in with the general 'negativity' and tragedy, but also hope and positivity of the plot.

I don't want to spoil people, but here are a few facts about it that you learn inside 10 minutes of the first episode and who might make you want to see this. (Besides my charming resume and because I said so, ofc ^^)

[spoiler]Everyone is dead.
There is a rebellion against God.
There is only one enemy. You need large quantities of gun-fire to stop said enemy and even then...
There are NPC's...[/spoiler]

A couple other factors;

The animation is simple, clean and wonderful. It works perfectly for telling it's intended story.
The music is of excellent quality and made of more win than any of you might realize.
If I tell you to go see it, you should. You should go see it. ^^

Another day I might go into some detail on other shows. Gods know I've seen so damn many...

[Mizhara]

I can't believe there's only been two bare mentions of Rurouni Kenshin yet.

Makoto Shishio is easily the finest badass bad guy in the history of Anime. Cool, laid back, doesn't change, doesn't turn back, doesn't hide what or who he is, and he's just logical and well-reasoned enough that he could have been a hero in other shows. Laughing as he burns to death and joining his closest and dearest in Hell, and grinningly moving on to take on the ruler of that place...

Hell, he would have won the fight too, if that bit of combustion hadn't occurred.

[Kala]

/ramble

The first anime films I saw that impressed me were Akira and Ghost in the Shell - both thematically (cool visions of the future) and in terms of storytelling...I don't know whether it's elements of visual storytelling (i.e adaptation from manga) or if it was due to cultural difference...but I hadn't really been exposed to many films that told their stories in that way before...

i.e didn't give me all the answers or explain things as it was going along...(and yes, now I'm aware there are plenty of films that do this  )

They had a big influence on me at the time and I still think they're amazing films.

I then saw Patlabor and Roujin Z which impressed me significantly less  I don't even remember them clearly now.

I enjoyed Ninja Scroll and Monster City (er. despite this on Monster City:

"Hyper's Daniel Wilks criticises the film for having "only vaguely interconnected action scenes punctuated by some rather dull talkiness marred by horrible accents (the heroine is unconvincingly British and the childish sidekick speaks with a mangled Mexican drawl)".[1] Ironically, as the film was dubbed in Britain, the aforementioned heroine is a genuine British person."

though the dub was probably not an issue as, apart from Cowboy Bebop, I always prefer subs...

...though Ninja Scroll did irritate me somehwat with the improbable speed that the relationship between the central characters develops. "Oh Jubei!" goddammit... )

Most of the above I watched as a child/teenager.  Also, 3x3 eyes which I enjoyed at the time and also enjoyed as an adult. Wiki cites the genre as "Adventure, Fantasy, Horror" - it has the typical fantasy anime mainstay of LOTS AND LOTS OF DEMONS  but doesn't do the filler-battle shite...stuff happens for a reason, and the characters are engaging. Wouldn't mind watching it again actually.

Perfect Blue was a pretty cool film...plenty of wtfness going on and is the only psychological thriller anime I've seen. Though I've seen better psychological thrillers in general.

I caught some of Fist of the North Star late night on channel 4. It was hilariously awful.

An unpopular choice, but I enjoyed Dragon Ball Z initially - it was amusing and had charm; I mainly enjoyed the characters and the interactions between them. But as previously mentioned, the ever increasing threat of THE WORLD IS IN DANGER...er...THE UNIVERSE IS IN DANGER...er...and ever increasing power levels just got boring. And the sagas dragged on and on only to be concluded by Goku arriving in the nick of time and saving the day. (since I have found the same thing in Naruto, Bleach and probably countless other shows I haven't seen. I do not like this method of story progression).

Still, it does contain one of my favourite quotes from anything ever:

[Vegeta while in Buu's stomach]

I will not suffer the same fate as cream filling!

Ok, they're pretty much pitching for under 12s here, but I find toilet humour immensely amusing >.>

I did enjoy Blood, but it was almost like watching a game demo (or, I guess literally an art demo). It was absolutely gorgeous. But somewhat lacking in substance other than being a technical accomplishment.  Which by now is probably dated anyway.

I started watching Cowboy Bebop when I was in college and have obtained the box set in recent years    After the first episode I was lukewarm about it for a variety of reasons...I was concerned it would be like some sort of cop-show; the format would be predictable and formulaic - Spike and Jet would tour the universe, catching a bad guy per self-contained episode.  It didn't interest me.

I was so, so wrong. Probably the wrongest I've ever been    After episode 5 or so, when more characters were introduced and Spike's backstory began to develop, I was thoroughly hooked.  There are many things I love about Cowboy Bebop (far too numerous to name in an already extensive post) but it's anything but formulaic - it's very imaginative and I enjoy the extent it incorporates musical genres, as well as exploiting genre boundaries themselves...it takes risks by changing tack from one episode to the next, but is also a very controlled and contained story with a clear beginning and an end, that through rewatching, you can see the end in the beginning. I.e, it was always meant to end how it ended, and isn't drawn out. In fact, the creators refused to do any more of the series despite demand as that is where it was supposed to end.

I wish more people would take that line instead of drawing things out long after they've reached a conclusion for $$$ 

Anyway, Cowboy Bebop is absolutely my favourite anime show, but it's also one of my favourite tv shows ever.

T.H.E.M Anime Reviews said the series has "sophistication and subtlety that is practically one-of-a-kind", touting it as a masterpiece that "puts most anime...and Hollywood, to shame."

I concurr.


I caught  Full Metal Alchemist which I think can be easily underrated and dismissed due to it's colourful and childish presentation. If anything, the juxtaposition between the saturday morning cartoon style and the themes it tackles makes the story all the more powerful and poignant. One episode fairly early on had me rocking back on my seat wondering what they just did to me (I'm specifically thinking of episodes 6 and 7).  Certain things you expect to be sacrosanct - such as children and innocence - are dealt with fairly harshly and uncompromisingly. Maybe gratuitously in some respects - the premise alone is fairly horrific.

I found Elfen Lied enjoyable though it did seem somewhat over-the-top and gratutious.

I liked Ergo Proxy (hm, just remembered from looking at the wiki that the outro was Radiohead's Paranoid Android - it's been too long since I've seen it) it was genuinely engaging and interesting. Though at times maybe it wobbled a bit too near pretentious, I dunno.

I saw bits of Samurai Champloo after loving Cowboy Bebop, but it didn't make as much of an impression. This could be because I only caught an episode here and there though; it could well be a different experience if watched from start to finish.

Grave of the Fireflies was probably the first Studio Ghibli film I saw, as I came into them late. It was bleak and a devastating (anti) war film told from the perspective of children. I can't say I love it for the aforementioned reason, but I certainly admire it - anything that can make me feel deeply has done it's job well imo.  I suffered less on subsequent rewatch (I avowed not to watch it again after the first time given the funk it put me into, but bought it in order to subject it on other people  my mum cried buckets and my dad was angry that I'd made him watch "a nasty film")

The other Ghibli works I've seen have been by Miyazaki who I greatly admire. These are Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaa and the Valley of Winds, Princess Mononoke and Ponyo.  I enjoy his storytelling for a variety of reasons...they tend to look at environmental themes but not in simplistic ways...the central characters are often complex and resourceful and the worlds created imaginative.  I absolutely loved Princess Mononoke, but thoroughly enjoyed the other films too (though Ponyo less, tbh).

Hare & Guu - Hare meets Guu.  Guu destroys his reality without any mercy.

I've been watching Hare + Guu again recently and it's quirkyness amuses me. Guu is a fantastic character - she's like, epic troll 


Anyway! There's probably more I've watched over the years and forgotten about.

I kind of agree with Lallara's point here (though I'm going to use it to talk about something else  )

Spent a few years in my youth watching all kinds of anime, from the soap opera stuff to the 'classics'.
Two things.

Poor writing is poor writing even in animations.
Let me elaborate. Anime is not immune to the same mind numbing dullness that goes with mass produced entertainment.

And I think this is absolutely true - because anime is incredibly broad and not in a sacrosanct bubble...I would hesitate to call myself an anime fan (despite the extremely long post above) because some things I've really enjoyed and other things I've thought are utter crap. I'm not going to like something simply because it's anime, because the scope in that is huge. It's almost like saying "I like films." The fact that it's animated really doesn't tell you anything else - sure there are trends and tropes and things that are massively popular, but there are also some really individual works.  And it's also like saying "I don't like films" which is why it kind of irritates me when people make blanket statements about the whole of anime - I think generally it's a matter of catching some kids show or seeing an apallingly bad anime intro with dancing and j-pop and thinking ... It's an extension of equating everything animated as a child's cartoon, or, conversely, someone seeing some tentacle hentai and thinking all anime is porn.

 

Which to me seems a little silly as I've barely dipped my toe into the water, and yet I've seen and enjoyed things meant for kids, things for adults, and things that should never be shown to kids. I've watched a variety of genres; fantasy, comedy, horror, sci-fi, war-film, psychological thriller, and some that cross genre boundaries in interesting ways (Cowboy Bebop, I look at you).  I've seen things which I've thought have been pretty good compared to other anime I've watched, and I've seen things that have been pretty good compared to anything I've watched.

And things that've totally sucked.

So to paint it all with the same brush is just...madness. Madness I tell you.

[Alain Colcer]

I've been downloading Legend of Galatic Heroes......it has me in awe.....a really old anime, with really bad animation to whatever lowest standards would be today.....BUT GODDAMN INCREDIBLE political plots and strategic turnarounds.

The most interesting thing is it was never released on TV, so its considered an OVA, the longest running ever so far with 110 episodes....

[BloodBird]

It is so annoying to somehow managing to lose one's whole nearly-finished post and having to re-type it. While the re-typed one is not likely to be worded as well the content is still the same, mostly.

It's an extension of equating everything animated as a child's cartoon, or, conversely, someone seeing some tentacle hentai and thinking all anime is porn.

Ignorance. How tiresome.

I've had to explain this to quite a few when the subject came up and by now have a nice 5-paragraph explanation for anyone thinking this.

“Anime is short for 'animation' and in this case refers to Japanese animation, specifically. Simply put, animation is another medium, like live-action movies or western animation like the works of Pixar studios etc. One of it's iconic styles includes the well-known and oft-though about 'huge eyes' style of animation – inspired, ironically, by Disney characters like Bambi and Betty Bopp(sp?) - beyond this animation styles can vary quite a lot, good examples are Neon genesis Evangelion, Pokemon and Spirited Away – quite different from one-another I animation, plot and tone. The things to keep in mind with anime however, are 3-fold.

Firstly, animation requires no live-actors, no settings, no locations. It only needs the animation studios and the voice-actors and the imagination of the makers. This means it's cheaper and faster to make, and can grant nearly limitless artistic freedom for the makers to exploit. Any plot they can think of, they can likely realize. Results... may wary.

Secondly,This artistic freedom can lead to at times absurd ideas being realized and rather unrealistic events taking place. It's generally a good idea to keep an open mind and accept that what the show treats as doable, is doable – though you may wish to do this with a grain of salt for when/if the show starts to get more absurd than normal... (I'm looking at you, Bleach fighting scenes...)

Thirdly, There is a sharp separation between 'normal' anime and hentai – Hentai is the Japanese word for 'perverse/perverted' and refers to pornographic content in animation, among other things (In Japan they simply use the designation 'H' for content of this nature, but the wider world still use the full word specifically to separate anime from anime porn.) and as such, hentai is merely anime's answer to porn movies. The only problem is just that, as anime requires no live-actors and can realize any idea the makers may have, nearly without fail, any fetish under the sun and then some, can be realized in hentai. This is why a lot of people end up thinking of the infamous tentacle rape fetish when the word 'hentai' or at times even 'anime' comes up – it crosses a border live-acting simply can't cross.

All this simply mean that people who enjoy an evening watching anime is no more weird then the next guy enjoying an evening watching any live-action flick you can imagine – it only means that he/she might end up watching a porno slightly more weird than you may be used to, if he/she wants to do that. Keep in mind finally that shitty writing and narration can and will ruin an animated show just as any crappy live-action movie will. If you are watching a crappy anime, or think you are, you might want to look for a better one before deciding animation in general is not worth seeing. And, even if you find out animated works really are not your thing, keeping an open mind for those who do is generally a good idea anyway.”

[Lyn Farel]

Well it is mainly a western culture thing to usually consider animation for children. It concerns mostly our parents and older generations.

[Kala]

I've had to explain this to quite a few when the subject came up and by now have a nice 5-paragraph explanation for anyone thinking this.

I agree with your 5-paragraph explanation 

Well it is mainly a western culture thing to usually consider animation for children. It concerns mostly our parents and older generations.

Mm. Same with video games and comics.

[kalaratiri]

I've had to explain this to quite a few when the subject came up and by now have a nice 5-paragraph explanation for anyone thinking this.

I agree with your 5-paragraph explanation 

Well it is mainly a western culture thing to usually consider animation for children. It concerns mostly our parents and older generations.

Mm. Same with video games and comics.

Totally unrelated to the thread, but I read who wrote this and thought "wat... I didn't write this.." 

[Lyn Farel]

Crazy alts are crazy 

[Kala]

"wat... I didn't write this.." 

You certainly did not! I'd never mix red dreads with blue tats and lipstick 

[BloodBird]

I am currently enjoying a short 23 episode show called Ergo Proxy.

I've only reatched episode 10 so far but will have problems setting it aside before I'm done.

The show is, simply put a sci fi story about a distant future earth and a few people living in the world. A bit of a mind-fuck story, it makes no attempt to answer in detail anything you wonder about - there will be many questions.

The first few episodes are likely to be filled with alot of 'wth' 'what's going on' and much of 'hell is this stuff, what are they doing' and frankly, I love it. Answers and revelations are slowly revealed putting the past events into scope and connects the dots together, in a managable and enjoyable way. It's a show that will engage you to pay attention and think, and rewards you for your patience and curiosity.

I'm half-way soon. I've allready commited to memory a number of memorable events and enjoyable characters. Despite how bleak the story can be, it has it's up-sides and a few outbursts of laughter and smiles. Anyone who enjoyed appleSeed, Neon Genesis Evangelion and/or Ghost in the Shell, is likely to enjoy this, alot.

-------------

Seen plenty of other shows as well. Might share about those at some other time.


*EDIT* I forgot, I wanted to leave you with some great fan-art.

[BloodBird]

One more thing. For those who wonder about where you can get good shows as your somehow unable to buy DVD's or whatever where you live - like me - there are sites out there that are both legit and good at what they do.

http://www.bakabt.com/ http://bakabt.me/ <- New adress for BakaBT, old don't work anymore.

BakaBT has a simple deal: Register one account (ONLY one per PERSON per LIFE) and your get to DL what you want. However... there is a DL/UL ratio that you are not only encouraged to keep in mind, you are compelled to keep in mind. DL a show you want to see, and let it sit there, seeding until your DL/UL ratio is in the positive. Then DL some more, if you want, or just keep seeding stuff to help your fellows out. Long as you do this and don't violate any regulations your good.

http://www.anime-access.com/ Now known as www.tokyoinsider.com/

It's been quite a while since I used Anime-access but they have their own rules an such for users. Registration is free, but a prime account will cost you. If you DON'T get a prime account you get a basic DL speed and a max of size of files - ergo likely no movies etc. but episodes for shows are good - and number; Only 5 every day. If however you wanted to get into a show like, say, Bleach, 5 episodes every day is a fair deal. PLUSS membership don't seem to be expensive but I've so far seen no need to pay for an account myself. YMMV however.

[Rin Kaelestria]

Wow, old thread brought back to life. 

When I was a bit younger, anime caught my attentions more. When I first started to watch it, all I had access to was, unfortunately, what they had on Cartoon Network. It wasn't all that bad, just I've sense learned that (imo) that subtitles are  usually better. Things tend to get lost in translation when dubbed to English. 

I don't watch as much now as I use to, but since getting Netflix, I've start watching a bit more when the kids are asleep. Not too long ago, I finished Blood +, which I did enjoy. I tried watching Trinity Blood, but couldn't get into it. :x    Right now, slowly working on the Hell Girl series when my husband and myself have time to sit down to watch it together.

Some faves from my past that I've watched from start to end are.... Trigun, Cowboy Bebop (yay Ed and Ein!), Record of Lodoss Wars, and Full Metal Alchemist.

[Seriphyn]

Have been watching a lot of different anime recently, or more correctly acquainting myself. Berserk, NGE, Full Metal Panic, Ghost in the  Shell SAC, Chrono Crusade, etc.

I am really enjoying Gundam 00. About 1/4 of the way through, nice real shades-of-grey universe, inhabited by characters with sincere motivations. Quite EVE-like in that regard.