What anime..

[FdL]

Really? I didn't realize that...Maybe it's not what I would call fanservice. Asides from some outright funny scenes with Mikururu, which are mostly for fun and so are incidentally fanserviceable (ie, Aika it ain't).
I guess true fanservice is its own end.

Surely the amount of fanservice each person likes/tolerates can vary.

[Behold_the_Void]

Haruhi Suzumiya isn't really fanservice so much as it's a parody of the concept.

Great series though. I recommend Genshiken, since nobody's said it yet. That one's really well done and hilarious. It's fairly slice-of-life, about a Japanese college anime club.

I watched Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad's first episode a few days ago and really like it, I intend to check it out more thoroughly. Crisp, realistic animation and an interesting concept. It's by Kodansha, which also did Genshiken, and the realistic nature is much the same as with Genshiken.

If you like horror and extremely creepy psychological stuff (which I'm not into and thus won't watch this series, but all my friends love it) watch Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (the official release will be titled "When they Cry", which is a shortening of the actual title which means "When the Cicadas Cry"). It's been best described as psycho lolis brutally murdering each other, by which I mean really cute kids going completely insane and murdering each other in various brutal ways before time resets and things happen again because someone's doing evil stuff and you don't know why.

[F.H. Zebedee]

Nobody mentioned Scrapped Princess yet? AWESOME, AWESOME show. What Slayers wished it could be. Humor's just as good, and the plot, animation, and action are incredibly better. Check it out. Rare anime, but every single person I've shown it to has loved it.

[Poison_Fish]

I support Higurashi.

For Fate Stay Night, I've found that the series was so-so, just like Type Moon's other TV series, Tsukihime. But I am a type moon fan boy, so what I would say is I like the plots of their games much greater then the TV series they've released. However, those are 18+ games(It's Japan, yeah). As well, they are not released in the US. There is an english patch out there, but you must get the games yourself.

[Lemur]

Ah, I'm being reminded of series I need to finish seeing now. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of Genshiken and Scrapped Princess, but they looked good.

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni is pretty good, and I kinda wish I could play the game (more like an interactive story from what I've heard) it's based on. Another freaky type anime worth seeing is Paranoia Agent.

[EvilElitest]

I'll do it in advertisment form. I normally hate anime, so i only watch hte good stuff, so if i say it is good, i must be good


Number 1, Full Metal Alchemist

"Are you bored, are you tired. You've watched all the animes you can find and are still bothered by annoying Narato rip off main characters (Not that Naratuo was good to begine with) unrealistic worlds, unbeliavible fight scenes (Sword's vs. guns?), black and white morality, and basic story line? Look no farther, FMA can offer you
Note, the anime and the Manga, while they have same characters and to an extend same event, are dramtically different.
1. Plot summery. It takes place in an alteranate world (Same geogrophy as Earth, in the anime at least) with WWI technology. The story takes place in what is in our country is known as Germany, where a country (In the anime it is only called the state, the Manga plot is amazing but different) that is centreled in germany (with hte orginal captical name of central) has taken over most of Europe, the middle east, Eastern Europe and North Africa and is ruled by a Furher. The main character has lost his right arm and left leg (Replaced with mechanical limbs) and his brother's soul has been bound to a suit of armor (Note, the brother is an awful character in the anime, major bad point, but great in the manga) when the attempted to bring their mother back to life, and now are fighting against the seven deadly sins (Envy, Pride, Sloth, Greed ect) to control of the country, while trying to create the Philospher's stone. With genocide throw in
2. Really awsome magic system. Basiclly Alchemy is a science, to obtain something you must lose something of equal value. Example, Ed could use Alchemy to his metal right arm into a blade, but couldn't use it to change it into a block of wood.

3. A wonderful main character. Unlike many main characters in anime or manga (from Narato, Hunter X Hunter, Shaman King, ect) the main character is not a naive, confused, arrogent, inmature, easily confused, badly written, honest to a fault, dumb as hell (But are somehow able to be amazing fighters and always have morals that agree with hte writer), rash, and generally Gary Sues? With Angst thrown in, Edward Elric, is quite the opposet. An arrogent, witty, insulting, elitest, vertically challenged genius, Ed is a good character who not only has his own options and personality, he is also a far better character all around, with geneeral character flaws and still quite kick ass. He has demostrated an abilty to understand the plot and not have to listen to hte generic female character give him ideas. He also has the best quote
(When facing insane evil villian who harmed his brother)
"Damnit, their are so many moron's who's ass' i have to kick. I'm going to have to keep a freakying list just to keep track of them all"
Also, he is one of the few main characters who I don't want to get killed
4. Really scary villans. (warning spoilers)
4a. Envy, a socaipathic shapeshifer with a joy for breaking limbs and causing war. Also
MAJOR SPOILER

Spoiler

Show

Kills the quite a few major characters]

4b. Gluttony, A child who wants to each every thing and every one
4c. Greed, best villian ever, too awsome to even talk about him except for his best quote
"They don't call me Greed for nothing. I want everything, i want money, i want women, power, fame,. I want everything this world has to offer and immortailty is on the top of the list
4d. Pride, true idenity is to major of a spoiler to reveal , but he is awsome i'll give you that
4e. Sloth, a coward who has forsaken its duty to its family in exchange for power
4f. The Big Bad, i can't really say more except great final villian speech
4g. Barry the choper, a serial killer who kills for the sole reason "Because i Can"
4H. Frank Archer, the greatest corrupt miltary man ever
4I. Zolf Kimblee, beleaves that all souls, including his own are meanenless and so has no moral problems with blowing them up
4J. General Basque Grande is just cool
I might have missed a few
more later
from,
EE

[Eldpollard]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Fruits Basket. It's amazingly funny. However the anime ends without the story finishing. You need to read the manga for the full story.

[Artemician]

Heh... I just realized that in my reply yesterday I left out a few animes that were originally talked about in my earlier (eaten) reply.

So here they are:

Shakugan no Shana is well... fairly so-so. The first 8 episodes were absolutely fabulous. Then I watched the 9th episode and went "wtf?!". From a horror anime, it went into a.. school comedy. I was in tears. However, i stuck through and found it a decent anime overall, as the school comedy aspect, while still present, was toned down in the later episodes. However, I feel that the director messed up horribly with the explanation of the extremely interesting world setting, as even with 2 episodes of pure explanation, he failed to explain every single event when the flashback occurred, with the result that the flashback asked more questions than it gave answers. Final verdict, Shana isn't a work of literature, but it's passable for an evening watch.

Full Metal Panic! The good, but not that great first season went into an absolutely fabulous second season. I especially like how mecha combat is portrayed in the setting, with actually realistic mecha combat, and extremely solid action sequences. However, Gonzo Digimation (IMO) overly stylized the combat in the first season, with the results a bit jarring, as combat is portrayed in an extremely gritty fashion, and where people die in one bullet, as they would in real life. Thus, having the standard shounen anime fare of breaking lightspeed and enemies delivering long monologues... is very strange, to say the least. The second season however, is a lot better.


Regarding Fate/Stay Night, I must repeat that the plot picks up after the 10th episode. It also gets a lot grittier. And the characters are so cool...

Spoiler

Show

What Archer says before he unleashes Unlimited Blade Works is one of the coolest monologues I have ever heard.

But I digress.. episode 15 in particular really impressed me. There was a large amount of character advancement, and the fight scene was extremely epic, yet brutal. However, I get the feeling that there should be an additional episode between 15 and 16, as the gulf between 15 and 16 was really large... ~ahaha. It's still a very solid anime, though.

I am of the opinion that there is a lot more plot in the Visual Novel, but I'm not 18, thus there's no way I can get access to them.

[Aston]

I liked Fate Stay Night. Was an interesting take on things.

Must say that I have also heard good things about Death Note. The manga was really cool. *insert squee here*

Also heard good things about Hellsing Ultimate OVAs....

[FdL]

Yeah, Death Note seems pretty good, but I think I'd rather read the manga, at least first.

[MPHopcroft]

Anime to rent from Netflix:

Slayers is a must for D&D enthusiasts, fantasy enthusiasts, and comedy enthusiasts. There have been many fantasy-comedy animes, but Slayers stands our for its characterization and surprising depth. Anybody who tells you Slayers isn't a love story simply isn't paying attention....

Azumanga Daioh has nothing to do with traditional fantasy, but a lot to do with humor, life and all that stuff. Six girls are followed on their progress through a prestigious Japanese high school, under the tutelage of the worst possible person to have guiding young ladies into adulthood.

Black Lagoon concerns a salaryman who falls into the clutches of modern-day pirates in the South China Sea and discovers he has more in common with his captors than his employers. This extravagantly violent show has been called by many "The best action anime since Cowboy Bebop". Beware the overly-armed nuns....

HOLiC (the original title is xxxHOLiC, which the American distributors have changed for obvious reasons) is the less extravagant but, in my opinion, better of the two new shows from CLAMP manga (CLAMP is the legendary all-female manga studio responsible for such classics as Magic Knight Rayearth, Tokyo Babylon, X/1999 and Card Captor Sakura). A young man who has been cursed with the ability to see spirits finds himself in a period of humiliating indentured servitude to a mysterious and eccentric sorceress, who is also subtly guiding the rest of his life as well.

Anime to torrent:

Murder Princess is a blood-soaked quest for vengeance and a lost throne that has been getting raves.

Lucky Star is a show you'll either get or you won't. Four high school friends amble through life and try to deal with each other's eccentricities (it doesn't help that one of them is not only an extreme otaku but a bit of a cheerful pervert as well). worth the price of admission for its insights into fan culture, and for Akira-chan, the burnt-out idol who presents the epilogues.

Windy Tales is an oddly-drawn yet lyrical story about students who learn that their teacher is one of a secret village of Wind manipulators who's been teaching the neighborhood cats how to fly. It isn't all that much about magic, but is a lot about youth and coming of age. I found it to be the anime equivalent of a Beethoven quartet.

[Dispozition]

Yeah, Death Note seems pretty good, but I think I'd rather read the manga, at least first.

The manga really starts to suck about where I am right now, chapter 60-ish. I won't say why because of insane spoilers, but yeah...It gets really sucky. I just hope that the anime is as good as the manga started out.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is an awesome anime from what I've seen of it (2 episodes) and Angelic Layer is a great anime and manga...I think that's all new for me...*wanders off to watch more Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Angelic Layer*

[Poison_Fish]

Heh... I just realized that in my reply yesterday I left out a few animes that were originally talked about in my earlier (eaten) reply.

So here they are:

Shakugan no Shana is well... fairly so-so. The first 8 episodes were absolutely fabulous. Then I watched the 9th episode and went "wtf?!". From a horror anime, it went into a.. school comedy. I was in tears. However, i stuck through and found it a decent anime overall, as the school comedy aspect, while still present, was toned down in the later episodes. However, I feel that the director messed up horribly with the explanation of the extremely interesting world setting, as even with 2 episodes of pure explanation, he failed to explain every single event when the flashback occurred, with the result that the flashback asked more questions than it gave answers. Final verdict, Shana isn't a work of literature, but it's passable for an evening watch.

Well, for fans of Shana (And I liked the light novels they came from), they are releasing a movie that is seemingly more comprehensive of the first arc. So, it waits to be seen how that goes over.

[PlatinumJester]

Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series.

I know it's not an anime but it is totally worth watching if you are bored.
Also GTO is great but watch it in English rather than Japanese (because it is one of the few animes better in English).

Also if you have an hour spare then watch BLOOD:The Last Vampire. Only 45 minutes long but it is very stylish.

[Matthew]

Yeah, I though Blood: The Last Vampire was pretty good as well. I also enjoyed Kai-Doh-Maru, though it was hardly a straight forward Anime.

[FdL]

Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series.

I know it's not an anime but it is totally worth watching if you are bored.

Erm. No.

I wasn't going to post any negative comment about recommended anime, because as a recommendation you can take it or leave it according to your taste. And we're all giving off names of things we think are good.

But here I'm willing to make an exception.
Come on, you cannot recommend "Yu Gi Oh". In any of its incarnations. And especially not just "if you're bored".

There's good anime to watch and that is the aim of this thread. So no need to watch something that a) Is not anime. b) Is not good.

[tyr]

Seconding Kanon. It's funny, pretty and deep. Make sure to watch the 2006 version. I'd post a link to a place to torrent it, but I'm not sure we're allowed to do that. You can google it anyway.

Of course, it's midnight the following day in this timezone, so you probably got what you needed.

[jaqueses]

Gunslinger Girl certainly caught my attention. I recommend it highly. The action sequences are not the main hook for it, but instead its the interplay between the characters as they progress.

Don't have anything else that hasn't been mentioned already, though apparently my watching list is now much bigger.

[Tengu]

Erm. No.

I wasn't going to post any negative comment about recommended anime, because as a recommendation you can take it or leave it according to your taste. And we're all giving off names of things we think are good.

But here I'm willing to make an exception.
Come on, you cannot recommend "Yu Gi Oh". In any of its incarnations. And especially not just "if you're bored".

There's good anime to watch and that is the aim of this thread. So no need to watch something that a) Is not anime. b) Is not good.

Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged is a series of parody movies on Youtube and Dailymotion, duh. Very funny from what I've heard, but I don't watch them because I have no idea about Yu-Gi-Oh and therefore most of the jokes would probably be lost for me.

I watch Naruto Abridged though. It's hilarious.

[FdL]

Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged is a series of parody movies on Youtube and Dailymotion, duh. Very funny from what I've heard, but I don't watch them because I have no idea about Yu-Gi-Oh and therefore most of the jokes would probably be lost for me.

Yeah, I know what it is. I have other fan-made comedy videos to recommend too, but I don't think this is the thread to do so. And even then, the source material for this one is so bad that I wouldn't watch anything related to it.
FYI, Yu Gi Oh is a low quality animated series made with the sole purpose of promoting a collectible card game. Aimed at kids of about, I dunno, 10?

Compare Yu Gi Oh to the other stuff people are recommending. 'Nuff said.

[Tengu]

Well, if Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged is at least half as funny as Naruto Abridged, then it IS worth recommending.

[Dispozition]

Personally, I thought naruto abridged was absolute crap. Yu-gi-oh abridged had some very, very funny moments, and is highly quoteable, but other than that, is also pretty bad...In america

[Tengu]

Tastes differ, I'd guess. Dissing something before seeing it, though, seems completely unreasonable.

[Matthew]

Okay, this may irreparably damage my reputation, but I'm going to fess up to having watched all of Yugi-Oh from beginning to end. I have to say I didn't hate it. It wasn't very good, but it wasn't awful either. It was a show aimed at kids and the values it promoted were very positive (even if it also promoted a game I have no interest in). I think, though, it's important to distinguish this type of Anime from the more usual fare. Yugi-Oh is like Cardcaptors and Zoids, it's a kids cartoon, same as GI-Joe, Transformers or Pokemon. Incidently, Yugi-Oh FX (or whatever it's called) absolutely sucks, and I'm no fan of the Zoids sequel either.

In short, it's not really appropriate to recommend Yugi-Oh (even the parody version) to someone on the basis that they liked Ghost in the Shell or whatever. They are totally different genres of animation.

[PlatinumJester]

Yeah Yu Gi Oh is a bit crap an anime but the manga is incredibly good. Plus it doesn't matter if YuGiOh abridged is a not proper anime if your board then it's a great way to become entertained.

[FdL]

In short, it's not really appropriate to recommend Yugi-Oh (even the parody version) to someone on the basis that they liked Ghost in the Shell or whatever. They are totally different genres of animation.

Well thanks there. At least somene who got my point.
I'd think similarly of stuff like Avatar and other pseudo-anime, but well...

Yeah Yu Gi Oh is a bit crap an anime but the manga is incredibly good. Plus it doesn't matter if YuGiOh abridged is a not proper anime if your board then it's a great way to become entertained.

And so are karaoke, going to the movies, theme parks, ping pong, clubbing and videogames. But that's not what we're talking about, is it? :p

Also board =/= bored.


Anyway, going back to the topic. Regarding Neon Genesis Evangelion, I'm planning to get the whole series. Any recommendation as to the source? Also, what's the stuff that they released afterwards? Which is original new material and worth getting?

Also been wanting to check out Azumanga Daioh (sp?).

[Lemur]

I don't mind saying it again. If you liked Evangelion or FLCL, or both, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the anime to check out.

It's by the same company (Gainax), and you can see some similar themes (giant robots, young main character with confidence issues) from the earlier series. However, even though it's about piloting mecha against a mysterious foe (like Evangelion) it's more in the "holy crap did that just happen" vein of unlikely absurdity that you see from FLCL.

Regarding Yu-Gi-Oh, as usual, I prefer watching anime in the original Japanese. Yu-Gi-Oh was one of those shows that was sometimes better without subtitles. It's not something I would recommend to other people, but I had fun watching what was going on without actually understanding what the characters were talking about. The show was never exactly well known for it's intelligent dialogue, so go figure.

[FdL]

I don't mind saying it again. If you liked Evangelion or FLCL, or both, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the anime to check out.

It's by the same company (Gainax), and you can see some similar themes (giant robots, young main character with confidence issues) from the earlier series. However, even though it's about piloting mecha against a mysterious foe (like Evangelion) it's more in the "holy crap did that just happen" vein of unlikely absurdity that you see from FLCL.

You know, I researched this title from your initial recommendation. It sounds interesting and I might get it. What put me off was the overabundance of robots (at least in the wikipedia page). Which brings to my mind something like Digimon :S But still the plot outline sounds interesting.

Regarding Yu-Gi-Oh, as usual, I prefer watching anime in the original Japanese. Yu-Gi-Oh was one of those shows that was sometimes better without subtitles. It's not something I would recommend to other people, but I had fun watching what was going on without actually understanding what the characters were talking about. The show was never exactly well known for it's intelligent dialogue, so go figure.

Hey, but then you're not really watching it, if you're not understanding what they're saying! Actually sounds like an excuse for not admitting it's bad :p Seriously, the art is not very good either.

Thinking of it, there should be a name for this non/pseudo anime series made to sell toys, like Beyblade and Medabots and that crap they put a lot of in CN.

[Lemur]

Actually, Yu-Gi-Oh was a manga first, before it was an anime or card game. The anime seems to steer towards merchandising the card game, although the manga is pretty interesting. It's not a show I'd recommend; I should point out that watching anime without subtitles is more of a personal quirk of mine. I just like hearing cartoon characters yell at each other I guess.

I don't think Gurren Lagann reminds me of Digimon in any way, so no worries there. The only thing to look out for is that they'll yell the names of their attacks, if that sort of thing gets to you.

[Setra]

I had forgotten about this thread.

Honestly, when no one replied I ended up forgetting about it, now I see like.. 30 suggestions.

Nice

Edit: Ps. In the end, I started watching Gunslinger Girl, it wasn't really my style, so I started watching Grenadier instead. I think next I'll probably end up watching Haruhi Suzumiya, Mai Hime, or Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (Did I spell those right?) Presuming I can even find the latter.