Little help here?

Snoogans

Alright then. I've had a pretty casual interest in anime down the years, scratching the surface. I've seen some stuff I really liked out there but it's all rather bewildering trying to sort out the good stuff from the Drek. Any suggestions?


Personally, I have enjoyed Cowboy Bebop (I know, I know...) Battle Angel Alita, Samurai Champloo and one or two others. Anyone know any movies or series I could rent/watch that are worth catching up on?

OniTenshi

check out full metal alchemist and ghost in the shell: stand alone complex

outside of that i'm fairly fond of naruto and neon genesis evangelion, you could also check out any of the studio ghibli works as they're awesome

Snoogans

Thanks, will look into FMA as that's been rated highly. I should also note I've seen Akira (duh) so you don't need to reccomend that one.

psicic

Based on your list of viewed anime (Bebop was great(in Japanese) :cool: ) I'd suggest the following:

King of Bandit Jing (both the OAVs and the tv series)
Vampire Hunter Bloodlust (a movie - one of the few dubs I enjoy)
Berserk (TV series)
Tactics (TV series)

And I second Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (up to what I've seen) as being a 'must-see'....

CyTai

If you saw Cowboy Bebop than have a look at Gun Sword (watch this if you only bored)

Beside that have a look at:

Aquarion (tv series)
Anything from Gundam to Gundam Seed. (Movies or tv series)
Shin Angyo Onshi (Korean story but drawn by Japanese) (Movie)
Final Fantasy 7 AC (Why did nobody mentioned that?) (Movie)

Shaman King, One Piece, Naruto, Kyo and Bleach are MUST see. But manga is much better in my opinion. It's up to you if you want to see the animation.

OniTenshi

CyTai wrote:

Final Fantasy 7 AC (Why did nobody mentioned that?) (Movie)

It wasnt mentioned because despite the fact that its amazing, its not anime...its a cg movie :rolleyes:

carbonkid

psicic wrote:

Based on your list of viewed anime (Bebop was great(in Japanese) :cool: ) I'd suggest the following:

King of Bandit Jing (both the OAVs and the tv series)

I only found out today that Jing is actually available in an anime series. Been reading the mangas over the last few months.

Is the series as good as the manga? Cant really see it translating over to the screen as good as. Gotta say Yuichi Kumakura's has a wicked style of drawing!:p

sharingan

Snoogans wrote:

Alright then. I've had a pretty casual interest in anime down the years, scratching the surface. I've seen some stuff I really liked out there but it's all rather bewildering trying to sort out the good stuff from the Drek. Any suggestions?

Well there is a lot of anime, full stop. Never mind sorting the good stuff from the bad, just identifying the 'stuff' in the first place is a lot of work.

Personally, I have enjoyed Cowboy Bebop (I know, I know...) Battle Angel Alita, Samurai Champloo and one or two others. Anyone know any movies or series I could rent/watch that are worth catching up on?

You are better off restricting your choices in some way or another. Do you have convenient access to fansubs? Or are you DVD-only? Are you a dub-only, sub-only or audio-flexible? Are there certain types of anime that you don't like at all? Do you have a particular genre preference? Are you particular about the art style (e.g. can't watch old school, annoyed by CGI-ness, favour realism)? Or content (prefer mature themes, don't like schoolkids stuff)? Do you expect that something is completely available (no waiting 6 months for the ending). Is there live-action stuff that you like, and would like to see an anime equivalent?

Note that unless you start doing some of your own research and scouring good reviews sites (from professional reviewers) you are going to get a lot of dickheads cut&pasting their standard recommendation-thread-reply into whatever search you are looking for.

Here are some good review sites, feel free to disagree with particualr reviews, but they at least get a proper opinion constructed in the first place and they are fairly well read. I think all of them have a 'We Reccommend' section which is a good place to start.
http://www.themanime.org/
http://amr.nextstudio.net/
http://www.animejump.com/

Also the animenfo.com top 100 is a pretty good start. Their review system is a bit *hairy* to say the least. But you can't fault anything that gets in their top 100. Don't be afraid to try somethign different. Anime is very good at surprising you into liking soemthign that you wouldn't watch in any other format (like say drama/romance stuff).

If you follow up this thread with a more constrained set of requirements I can give you a pretty good grounding. For my own tastes, I like a wide range of anime, but tend to stay away from very derivative stuff. I love adventure anime, as they encompass nearly every major genre. I really like sci-fi anime but there is actually surpisingly little of this. Anythign thought provoking or generally well done. Also I am a big fan of old-school done well.