Recommend me an anime!

[TheMuffinThief]

Well, it's the summer, and being a slightly bored teenager, I would like you to recommend me an anime series!

My two favourite series are Cowboy Bebop and Death Note (subbed). I watched Tsubasa: Resevoir Chronicles and its OVA series (subbed) recently. It entertained me, but not to the extent of the two said favourites.

I started watching the Samurai Champloo sub, but I didn't find it that great.

Also, I like the manga Vinland Saga (Askeladd is pure awesome :smallbiggrin:).

With this in mind, what anime series would you recommend to me?

EDIT: Also, I'm sorry if this is the wrong section / this type of topic can't be posted. Please forgive a newb pixie. :smallbiggrin:

[EvilElitest]

1) Vinland saga is an amazing underloved manga
2) Beserk, through it is mature in rating
3) Avatar. Not an anime but still, just watch it
4) Full Metal Alchemist of course
5) Le Chevliar D'Eon, great French Revolution stuff
from
EE

[Mr. Scaly]

Wasn't there one of these already?

Princess Mononoke. My number one favourite movie.

[EvilElitest]

Wasn't there one of these already?

Princess Mononoke. My number one favourite movie.

oh that counts? Everything by that guy, absolutly everything. Except for vally of the wind
from
EE

[GrassyGnoll]

Trigun is a classic
Black Lagoon is tongue-in-cheek action
First season of Ghost In the Shell has some good arcs
I've heard good things about Monster but so far it's starting a bit slow (only up to episode 4)

[Tengu_temp]

I second FMA and Trigun.

Also, FLCL. The world would be a much more fun place if everyone has seen FLCL.

[EvilElitest]

kenshin as well, the OVA most of all
from
EE

[ArmorArmadillo]

Samurai Champloo is a smarter show than most people realize, and it has a lot of references to Edo japanese culturre that people often don't get. If you want to watch it again, I recommend the dub. Steve Blum's characterization of Mugen is excellent, like everything else he does.

Paranoia Agent is a complex, difficult, high-level series but it's so phenomenally brilliant that you'd be hard-pressed to find anything better.
Ad to that anything by Satoshi Kon; Millenium Actress, Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, Perfect Blue if you have a strong stomach

I enjoyed Noir, but it's a series that gets wierd fast. Still, I enjoyed it and I promise you'll think of Salva Nos everytime mooks get shot.

Past that, since you've already seen Bebop and Death Note, you've already seen the rest of my favorites.


If you want something really long term to follow, Naruto is decent if you can skip the massive amounts of filler.

[ArtifexFelicis]

Lucky star if you enjoyed Seinfeld at all.

The Melancholy of Harui (Garbled last name begining with S and will be spelled correctly soon)

Outlaw Star I've always found rather fun. One of my favorite, though bias since I saw it on toonami X amount of years ago.

Hellsing OVA if you like blood and general gore. It pokes fun at itself, but masterfully done. Regular anime too, but that's lower quality.

FLCL. It's a coming of age tale! :3


Well, not really. depends on who you ask. I would put FLCL at the very top of this list.

Neon Genesis Evangelion. Strike that. Put this at the top. then watch FLCL immediately after. The sheer sad to happy would be a fun gear to watch change.

[GrassyGnoll]

Outlaw Star I've always found rather fun. One of my favorite, though bias since I saw it on toonami X amount of years ago.

Outlaw Star is one of the reasons I count myself lucky to have grown up to a relatively young Toonami.

x-ed on account of FLCL. And on the note of comedy, Excel Saga does a beautiful job of lampooning nearly everything listed so far.

[Lance_Murdock]

Well I've seen a few anime's. Here are a few I've seen. DNAngel, good but a bit soppy. Gantz, sick, watch only if your a: like being disturbed and b: your a mature viewer. Soul Taker, it's not bad. Bleach, my god this is must watch if your looking for something long time. Black Cat, a nice comedy/family on. Gatekeepers, also good. Saiyuki, this is just silly half the time but has some good action in it.

[TheMuffinThief]

Thanks for the response, everyone! I certainly won't have time to watch all of these, but I will keep these in mind.

Hm, perhaps I'll try the dub of Samurai Champloo, maybe I will recieve it better than the subbed version.

[ArmorArmadillo]

FLCL. It's a coming of age tale! :3


Well, not really. depends on who you ask. I would put FLCL at the very top of this list.

Neon Genesis Evangelion. Strike that. Put this at the top. then watch FLCL immediately after. The sheer sad to happy would be a fun gear to watch change.

FLCL! I forgot about Fooly-Cooly. Hate to contradict, but watch FLCL first, if for no other reason than you can get through FLCL in 3 hours and then move on to whatever you want.
It is a coming off age story. It's very clever when you get down to it, it's just very complicated. Don't try to make too much sense out of it and you'll be fine.

Eva is great, except that it makes you want to die. And that they ran out of money and did the last few episodes in crayon.

[Eldan]

Eva never made me want to die. I mostly yawned. But I'm perhaps the only person on the planet who thought it was boring, movies included. And I usually like psychological/philosophical stuff with not too many action scenes.

[horngeek]

Bleach.
The fight scenes are incredible, with Ichigo really having to come to terms with his power.
The other reason I love it is best summed up in one word- BANKAI!

[Blayze]

Evangelion? Pfft. Watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It's Gainax's apology for Eva. And oh, how they apologised.

But also watch Martian Successor Nadesico. It's good fun - in space!

[Poison_Fish]

I always say this, but Baccano! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msg8ypnLqaw)

Other suggestions include Macross Frontier, Higurashi, and soul eater.

There is quite a lot else out there. But for now, those shall do.

[Mando Knight]

Bleach.
The fight scenes are incredible, with Ichigo really having to come to terms with his power.
The other reason I love it is best summed up in one word- BANKAI!

...My little sister is perhaps the only bigger fan of that anime that I know. I like it too, it's probably the best shonen anime I've seen, but she's obsessed.


Wasn't there one of these already?

Princess Mononoke. My number one favourite movie.

I second Mononoke. I also second EE's suggestion of Miyazaki's other films, including Nausicaa. (Don't watch the '80s dub called Warrior of the Wind, it's a Macekre (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Macekre) if I ever saw heard of one... Miyazaki supposedly sent a katana and a message that read "no cuts" to the team for the '05 English dub)

[ArtifexFelicis]

I'm going to just say anything by Gainax is awesome. From Eva, to FLCL, to Tengen.

Make it easy for you.

And in an effort to remain useful, Ikki Tousen you may want to stay away from. Excellent story, characters, pacing art etc. etc.

Except there's way way too much fanservice. So that's a little warning about that.

Also, you may enjoy the various .hacks. It's been hit or miss for me, but pretty good overall I believe.

[Mc. Lovin']

I've really enjoyed the D Gray Man series, and slightly less the Bleach series, though it is still very good.

[Jade_Tarem]

Slayers was pretty good, if you want to see an anime version of DnD. They've got a new season coming, too.

What, nobody's mentioned Cowboy Bebop? That one was just amazing.

[Echowinds]

Really, if someone likes Cowboy Bebop, it's likely that they will like Baccano! and Black Lagoon. They all have share a certain "badass" factor that many likes, especially so for Westerners. This may extend to Ghost in the Shell and Trigun.

If you like some European-flavoured anime, it ranges from the excellent and dark Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, Victorian romance Emma, the light-hearted Wolf and Spices, and the aformentioned Le Chevalier D'eon, which is a quite clever telling of the French Revolution with all sorts of mysticism.

I personally couldn't stomach to oddity that is FLCL. Despite being only 6 episodes long, I didn't finish it.

If you like Mecha, the most popular 4 in 2007-2008 would be TTGL, Code Geass, Gundam 00, and Macross Frontier. They might all be Mecha, but they have a different flavour to them, although it's arguable that Code Geass is a Gundam with prettier characters and a hook they call a geass.

For action shonen shows, you can't go wrong with the staples such as Bleach. Claymore and D Grayman are pretty well taken as well. But really, as the largest sub-genre in mainstream anime, there's probably a large amount of stuff you can find if you like these stuff.

For weird stuff...I can recommend you Texhnolyze, which is as its core a story of doom and gloom around a dystopia. Slightly less weird includes Noein, stuff revolving parallel dimensions and physics stuff and Haibane Renmei, which to me gives a feeling of complete opposite to Texhnolyze.

[13_CBS]

I've recently finished watching the entirety of Fate/stay Night. It's a fine anime with excellent animation and choreography, with some heart-wrenching music at times.

The manga is good too, and both adaptations of the eroge visual novel manage to have different plots while remaining faithful to the original source due to the novel's nature.

[Lance_Murdock]

Hey, has anyone watched Gantz. It has to be one of the most sickist, most messed up anime's I have ever seen. The story's simple enough, but it's just full of detailed violence, it will turn your stomach (almost did with mine). But I've noticed that the manga & the anime often have something completely different between them. Just why is that?

[The Evil Thing]

Let's see... from personal experience in no particular order:

Minami-ke
Simply very funny
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Excellent adaptation of some excellent novels
Lucky Star
Very soothing and low key comedy; an acquired taste; not to be marathoned. Based on a 4-koma.
Ghost in the Shell:SAC 1st and 2nd Gig
See? If you pay attention to the manga and have a huge budget, you too can make an excellent action/social-commentary series.
Monster
Absolutely incredible but is very, very long. The manga is good, too.
Fate/Stay Night
Another anime Marmite; it tries hard but the game is simply too expansive to really adapt. If you can make sense of the title you're a better man that me. Archer is a the origin/cause of the word "gar".
Elfen Lied
The manga is better but this does a fair job. Violence: caveat visor
Baccano!
Just licensed so you can stream a subbed episode off Funimation's site. It's violent like Elfen Lied (though not as much) but fantastic all the same. Isaac and Miria will cheer you up. Based on a series of light novels. (Like FMP and Shana)
Full Metal Panic
Avoid Fumoffu if Sousuke's classroom antics irritate you; The Second Raid is more the of the first season with a big helping of angst. Otherwise good action but you have been warned.
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
A nice outing in the Gundam-verse, but the series is a big time investment since it practically begs to be marathoned. Destiny is supposed to be good, but for different reasons so I never saw it.
Last Exile
Astonishing visuals and fascinating world complement a well-written (if slightly predictable) story.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, A's, StrikerS
A seinen action series disguised as typical magical girl fare. You can imagine the producers ticking off a list of mahou shoujo clichés. Don't be put off by the first few episodes.
Noir
An action series for those who really, really hate men in suits. Starts slowly but gains momentum quickly. Yes, it does venture into the supernatural, but that isn't really a problem.
Madlax
It's good, but it will forever be in Noir's shadow. It's debatable whether you're supposed to think "Yeah, right," during the first episode.
El Cazador de la Bruja
A much brighter series than Noir or Madlax; a good end to Bee Train's 'trilogy'. Ellis is one of the most charming characters ever.
Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen
Shonen-seinen combination; bypass the main anime series in favour of reading the manga and watching this OVA instead. This is the best way to stop the filler.
Shakugan no Shana, Second
Want to see the ur-Tsundere? No? Well, this anime is good on its own merits anyway so suck it up and have fun.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
"What if I had died!?" indeed. Weird but very stylish gallows humour. The second season gets tiring quickly. Try to get a.f.k.'s sub if possible.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Based on a doujin VN series. If you like yandere, you'll love this. I won't say any more.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
What the hell do you think this is?!
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, R2
It's rare to have a protagonist who's just so bad.
Excel Saga
Every episode takes the opportunity to remind you that it is completely different from the manga. Go read that too.
Azumanga Daioh
If Excel Saga is crack, Azumanga Daioh is marijuana.
ef - a tale of memories
Another series based on eroge; a decent drama and unusually bold considering what we usually get on TV.
Darker than Black
Action series that'll remind most people of X-Men. Features the voice of Kenzo Tenma.
Hellsing Ultimate
Ignore that practical joke of a first series and move straight to this. It's basically an exaggeration of the manga but works very well all the same.
Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke
Ghibli really know their stuff. Pick up anything by Hayao Miyazaki and you won't be disappointed.
Wolf and Spice
Until the manga or novels get licensed - or someone translates them - this'll have to do.
Kanon
Another eroge adaptation; these seem to be pretty safe bets. For the record, make sure you pick up the 2006 version. The previous one is supposedly not very good.
FLCL
It seems unlikely that Gainax knew what they were up to either. It is surrealist but it's not exactly terrible.
Utawarerumono
The name is the most challenging aspect of this; it's not spectacular but it's fun.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Watch it because it's important. No, you're not expected to like it. End of Evangelion supposedly documents the real world events of the final two episodes but don't believe it. Just stop at episode 24 and pretend everyone lived happily ever after.
Grave of the Fireflies
You might not cry, but you'll still feel pretty bad.
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal is one word. Remember that or face internet ostracism. It diverges from the manga early on so feel free to binge on both equally.
Naruto & Bleach
I cannot recommend these in good conscience without giving you fair warning that the are full to bursting with gratuitous filler material borne from the peculiar nature of Japanese programming. Find an episode guide ahead of time or just read the manga - which is cheaper anyway.
EDIT:
Hayate the Combat Butler
I liked this series so much I completely forgot about it. A series that's about as serious as its name suggests. One of the few series in existence that doesn't suffer from its anime-only content.

EDIT 2: Now let's try and make the English a little better...
EDIT 3: Now let's try and correct the grammar...

Wow... that's long.

[ArmorArmadillo]

Bleach.
The fight scenes are incredible, with Ichigo really having to come to terms with his power.
The other reason I love it is best summed up in one word- BANKAI!

I.E. Super-Saiyan.

I'm going to give fair warning: I think Bleach is terrible, by far the worst of the major shonen anime.

Here is why:
1) It starts out as a sort of quirky shinto-ghostbusters story of a boy who can see spirits trying to serve as a substitute grim reaper. After a short while, it abandons that and becomes a bland, derivative power-up anime.
2) It has a bloated cast of way too many characters, almost all of whom end up being poorly developed and irrelevant. The setting also makes no sense.
3) The plot is stupid, after Soul-Society arc it is an endless series of Shocking Swerves, macguffins, and actually-the-real-macguffin macguffins. The bloated cast doesn't help.
4) If anything, the filler arcs are the best thing about Bleach, because they actually dial back the ridiculously dumb myth arcs down enough to actually see some decent ghostbusting.
5) It is really, really, really, sexist.

[The Demented One]

Neon Genesis Evangelion. Strike that. Put this at the top. then watch FLCL immediately after. The sheer sad to happy would be a fun gear to watch change.
From what I've heard, FLCL was originally made so that the art team from End of Evangelion could do something fun and happy.

[ArmorArmadillo]

From what I've heard, FLCL was originally made so that the art team from End of Evangelion could do something fun and happy.
I heard that's what GTTL was for. (Not the same art team, but as in "do something fun with robots and the apocalypse)

[renevq]

I'd have to say Trigun, Last Exile, Scrapped Princess and Tenchi Muyo (the OVAs only. Not Tenchi Universe, and definitely not Tenchi in Tokyo. GXP is funny). Also Outlaw Star and Lain.

[namo]

Disclaimer: when both anime and manga exist, I generally recommend the manga (there are a few exceptions).

Now, good anime series in no particular order:
- Full Metal Panic Fumoffu: The Evil Thing mentioned it. I personally found it hilarious.

- Darker then Black: action & some mystery. Solid.

- Avatar: awesome all around.

- Trigun: funny.

- Samurai Champloo is indeed nice. As was Cowboy Beebop.

- Fullmetal Alchemist: I have no clue about this Fullmetal vs Full Metal thing. I don't care what Internet otakus think of me - sue me. Anyway, the anime is good.

- the Ghibli ones - must see.

- Escaflowne: probably not as good as most others I mentioned. I still have a strange liking for this one.

- Yugioh: the Abridged series :smallwink:

Hmm, I seem to generally agree with the Evil Thing and (s)he has listed more and in more detail, so I'll bow out.

[Chronicled]

- Yugioh: the Abridged series :smallwink:

Everyone should see this, really.

[bluish_wolf]

Kaiba, Kurenai, Soul Eater, and Kyouran Kazoku Nikki.

[feghoot]

If you have some of your friends with you, pokemon can be fun. In a sort of MST3K way. :smallbiggrin:

[shadowxknight]

Gundam Seed: The story is quite engaging. It's one of those animes that you just can't watch one episode. And giant robots fighting is always a plus :smallbiggrin:

Air: Starts out to be a innocent and funny anime, but once the plot kicks in you might not be able to hold the tears back. My favorite anime of all time.

Bleach: Well, the beginning was good. But later pretty much turns into DBZ with samurai swords.

Slam Dunk: If you're into basketball, this will be the perfect anime for you.

[Dunesen]

I second Mononoke. I also second EE's suggestion of Miyazaki's other films, including Nausicaa. (Don't watch the '80s dub called Warrior of the Wind, it's a Macekre (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Macekre) if I ever saw heard of one... Miyazaki supposedly sent a katana and a message that read "no cuts" to the team for the '05 English dub)

If that is true then the impossible has happened and I have even more respect for Miyazaki now.


Azumanga Daioh
If Excel Saga is crack, Azumanga Daioh is marijuana.

I literally LOLed at that, because that is the most accurate description possible.

*

I want to add to this list Great Teacher Onizuka. It's not something that everyone would love, but it's easily my favorite anime series ever. I even made a shirt once that said What Would Onizuka Do?

And seconding on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (which I would also say is my favorite anime series, paradoxically), Evangelion, Trigun, Haruhi Suzumiya, and especially Rurouni Kenshin. The Kyoto Saga is one of the best epics in TV history.

[ArmorArmadillo]

If that is true then the impossible has happened and I have even more respect for Miyazaki now.
It almost makes me want to ruin a Miyazaki film.

Free Katana and Miyazaki's autograph? Thank you!

[Wraithy]

Practically all of the anime already mentioned are excellent, but I'd like to recommend Black Lagoon (the english dub, the japanese uses terrible engrish)
its not for kids (there's a video on youtube that compiles all the times they used the F word in the series, its somewhere over 200 in 24 episodes).

[EvilElitest]

It almost makes me want to ruin a Miyazaki film.

Free Katana and Miyazaki's autograph? Thank you!

no that is his warning to not ruin it. If you actually do, he will show up at your door and cut you in half. Then leave a calling card. Nobody will care of course, because we are too eager to see more of his movies
from
EEE

[ArmorArmadillo]

no that is his warning to not ruin it. If you actually do, he will show up at your door and cut you in half. Then leave a calling card. Nobody will care of course, because we are too eager to see more of his movies
from
EEE
That's a pretty sweet way to die. I'll save my macekre for when I've lived life enough.

[Fri]

Seconding most reccomendation except bleach. Started good, ended as another dragonball.


Gundam Seed: The story is quite engaging. It's one of those animes that you just can't watch one episode. And giant robots fighting is always a plus :smallbiggrin:




You could watch gundam 00 for much better story and graphic. Of you're into that kind of thing. (heh).

[EvilElitest]

That's a pretty sweet way to die. I'll save my macekre for when I've lived life enough.

true, in fact if you do this after he "dies" of old age, the same thing will happen but he will be in his true form. Tortoro, with a samurai sword
from
EE

[potatocubed]

Nobody has mentioned these yet:

Read or Die - superpowered librarians fight minor figures from history, who also have superpowers. Make sure to watch the original miniseries (three episodes) and not the longer sequel series.

Gunslinger Girl - prepubescent girls suffer horrible trauma and are turned into killer cyborgs by the Italian government. Not a happy anime.