next »

[apheqks]

Time to max out our collective nerd power.

While anime can get pretty stale, especially when it sticks to genre conventions, there are some shows that truly transcend the form. I mainly crafted this thread in order to extoll the greatness of a couple of these shows, and throw in some opening theme songs for good measure.

One is from the late Satoshi Kon (Millenium Actress, Perfect Blue), Paranoia Agent:

Paranoia Agent Opening	DQ | by Aeva

It revolves around a diverse cast effected in some manner by a mysterious bat-wielding child, Shonen Bat (bat boy). Like other Kon works, there is a large psychological undercurrent and hallucinatory imagery.

Two others are from Takahiro Omori and are adaptations of manga from the author Ryohgo Narita, Baccano! and Durarara!!:

Baccano! Opening	DQ | by Aeva

Baccano! is about as close to an approximation of Tarantino that I've seen in animation, compounded by some genuinely clever humor and a steampunk aesthetic. This is one anime that I think actually sounds better dubbed, as the English voice cast is fantastic.

Durarara!! OP Eng Sub	DQ | by Aeva

Durarara!! is a bit more complex, having two distinct arcs and a large cast, but is definitely cut from the same cloth as Baccano!  Both are highly recommended.

[Xallan]

I literally just started Netflixing Baccano yesterday, super impressed so far. I haven't seen Paranoia Agent, but I have seen Millenium Actress, Perfect Blue, and Paprika (long before Inception). It's not available for stream on Netflix though, which sucks because I hate having to go by mail for series, considering in most cases I like to just grind out the entire series in a day.

[Lorn]

You will all read Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and you will love it.

You will pretend the movie never EVER happened. Or I will beat you, with a stick.

[Psuedo]

Hellsing OVA 1-7

That is all. (BTW Waz, the OVA 8 comes out June 22)

[Xallan]

You will all read Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and you will love it.

You will pretend the movie never EVER happened. Or I will beat you, with a stick.

Is there a substantial plot difference? I thought it was a decent kids movie.

I haven't seen the Hellsing OVAs yet, I thought the first one started out pretty cool but the ending was a let down

[Psuedo]

When it gets to the 3rd one or so and Alucard starts releasing seals, shit hits the fan.

[Teras]

I started watching Anime in 1981.  While in college I made friends with a bunch of comic book artists who worked at First Comics, most impressively Mike Grell and Doug Rice, whose Dynamo Joe was the 1st american comic influenced by anime.

There are so so many old anime that are still amazing.  Some examples would be:

Midnight Eye Goku trailer	DQ | by Aeva

Midnight Eye Goku.  Only could find the trailer on youtube.. the anime is fkn amazing.  The creater was Buichi Terasawa, whose other famous work was Space Adventure Cobra:

Space Adventure Cobra Opening	DQ | by Aeva

Throughout the years Terasawa has also dabbled in animated comics released on CD.  His website is http://www.buichi.com/

Next, for the few of you who don't know it, Golgo 13 was just a great anime.  The art is dated, but the storyline and character are timeless:

Gologo 13 The Professiona • Urban-Vision.com	DQ | by Aeva

Macross Plus was a blast:

Macross Plus Trailer	DQ | by Aeva

Ninja Scroll:

Ninja Scroll - Tessai's thirst	DQ | by Aeva

Wicked City, where the initial scene freaked the hell outta me:
Sacly every clip on youtube is the crappy english dub, which i can't stand.

and both Vampire Hunter D movies:

Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust trailer JAP	DQ | by Aeva

[Sto]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Soup
I watch this about every two months or so. The thing is, compared to most Japanese shit, the mindfuckery and surrealism is rather tame.

Macross Plus has some of the best music (the song in the clip you posted, Teras, is probably one of my all time favorites), but given that they use Akino Arai I'm not really surprised. I remember liking her music before ever knowing of Macross.  :p

For an example of how fucking awesome she is:

新居昭乃 (Akino Arai) - 凍る砂 (Kooru Suna)	DQ | by Aeva

I want to refrain from my suggestions because I assume that the majority of people have seen them, even if they aren't into anime, but I've run into people who haven't... so: Akira, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, Cat Soup, and Ghost in the Shell. Those are movies/OVA though. (Perfect Blue was already mentioned)

I usually just watch long running series so I can couch potato it for a few days. I have my generic mainstream fangirl favorites, so those aside, I definitely recommend Samurai Champloo. I wish I had more, but I have terrible memory and haven't been REALLY into anime since like 10 years ago, and then afterward that I'd be on and off. I'm going to start Fullmetal Alchemist, as well as re-watch Gundam Wing, soon. IDK if FA is any good but I remember seeing a few episodes back on Adult Swim and finding it interesting.

[Teras]

small aside about my earlier post.  Most of the anime of the mid 90's was targeted to the 16+ crowd.  Not just the sex, violence and nudity, but in general the storylines seemed to appeal to an older, smaller demographic than more current releases.  That's probably why Space adventure cobra was shown on a non-regular channel TV station.  It was the playboy channel

Also,  I'm an idiot for not mentioning LUPIN III  !!! especially Castle Cagliostro.  The movie and later laser disc arcade game were great:

The Castle of Cagliostro Trailer Japanese ENG SUB HD	DQ | by Aeva

[Nothing]

Unfortunately I'd say most of the best anime is very mainstream.  It's mainstream for a reason, the best stuff becomes the most popular.  Without a doubt the best feature length film producer is Hayao Miyazaki.  I still haven't seen all of his films.  Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are some of his best works, but I found Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo to be lacking, especially in their latter halves. 

There is also a great deal of anime I'd consider to be highly overrated.  I never understood the draw of Dragonball and found it to be quite uninteresting.  And although Neon Genesis Evangelion was good and enjoyable, I'd say it is nowhere near 'the best anime series of all-time' which it has been labeled quite frequently.  Death Note is also an intriguing series but again nowhere near the cream of the crop. 

I'd have to say Cowboy Bebop is the best series of all-time and I absolutely love its spiritual successor, Samurai Champloo.  A series need not be sophisticated, including multiple layers of dream state imagination and deeper levels of self-aware thought processes in order to be effective.  Often times simple, stylistic, thematic, what-you-see-is-what-you-get anime is the very best material. 

There are still a lot of series that I have not seen.  But my personal favorites include Full Metal Alchemist, FMA: Brotherhood, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Bleach in addition to the aforementioned two. Elfen Lied, Trinity Blood, Black Lagoon, and Wolf's Rain were also enjoyable in the unique sense, but not among the very best.


Bleach is Dragonball done right.  It's hands down my favorite Shonen anime and with no end in sight, it seems like we'll be getting new episodes forever. 

Bleach 196-198: Kuchiki Byakuya VS. Zommari Leroux (Espada 7) FULL FIGHT p.1/3	DQ | by Aeva

Ghost in the Shell:SAC has an excellent opening.  The show is in a class of its own, among all future/tech series.  I'd call this my favorite series since it incorporates all of the best elements of storytelling, interesting characters, action, imagination, projection of the future, and stand alone episodes as well as full-season story arcs.  It's a masterpiece.

Ghost In The Shell S A C 1st GIG - Opening	DQ | by Aeva

Those of you who haven't seen Fullmetal Alchemist yet have be missing the best series of last decade.  Start with the regular American version before getting into FMA: Brotherhood.  The latter is much more anime archetypal and directed towards a Japanese audience (action sequences, floppy headed screaming exclamations, chinese inspired characters) while the former emphasizes the character development and art direction, and the emotional aspects.  Both versions are fantastic.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - On Blu-ray & DVD now- Episode 1 Clip	DQ | by Aeva

MORE BLEACH!!

Ichigo vs. Hollow Ichigo - Full Fight	DQ | by Aeva

[Zarabelin]

Love bleach nothing... Hat filllers.  I watch about 20 eps last weekend to catch up on it.

[Psuedo]

Recently I've been watching a show called To aru majutsu no index, and it's been really cool so far. Scientifically enhanced kids with abilities called espers in a city completely composed of schools and universities.

To Aru Majutsu no Index Opening	DQ | by Aeva

And if we are on the subject of great Bleach fights, this is my favorite of all. This guy did a quasi movie adaptation to cover all the key parts of the fight, but it's still awesome. SPOILER ALERT: this is late in the series.

Ichigo vs Ulquiora - Epic Final Battle	DQ | by Aeva

[Rookey]

Bleach is for 14 yr old boys. The fights are cool and exciting. I read the manga, but mainly just to keep up with it. I would rate it 7/10. As an anime, I would rate it 5/10, even after giving it points for all the satisfying fight animations. Any anime that throws in so much bland terribly done fillers that only succeed in diluting the canon only show to me that the company has very little respect for the anime artform, and little respect for the original work itself.

Mostly, I've given up on anime. They tend to be just like Bleach, aimed toward raging teen boys. They also tend to have extreme pacing issues, the production being so concerned about either filling out a 26 episode series with 16 episodes of story, or trying to somehow get 22minutes of animation out of 18 pages of manga comics. Its an insult to the anime viewer to be given 4 recap episodes in a row (Wolf's Rain), or a year of terrible cannon destroying fillers in a row (Naruto), or long unnecessary pauses mid fight or mid dialogue (nearly every manga-based anime).

I agree that Cowboy Bebop is the best series of all time, and I doubt that will change anytime soon. Its the only anime I would rate a 10/10. Other series that I have seen in the past several years that really impressed me were

Eden of the East    http://www.animecrazy.net/eden-of-the-east-anime/
Light, fun, mysterious, charm. Short. Awesome changes in city settings. Good characters with a range of personalities. Original story as far as I know. Semi cliff hanger that transitions into the less awesome movie sequels. Animation problems. 9/10

Seirei no Moribito    http://www.animecrazy.net/seirei-no-moribito-anime/
Great action with original fight choreography. Great epic story based off a Japanese fantasy novel. Amazing fantasy world. Mostly episodic, with fillers not being filler and actually progressing character development or revealing background stories. 9/10

Planetes    http://www.watchanimeon.com/anime/planetes/
Amazing character personality development. Great sci-fi setting placed in a solar system exploration phase. There is some action which is exciting, but the anime focuses on humanity, self, and space. This anime is manga-based, but a lot of the content is original including the climactic ending. This is one of the few examples of a manga-based anime diverging from the original and doing it right. 9/10    Manga: http://unixmanga.com/onlinereading/Planetes_Complete.html (also 9/10)

Gungrave    http://www.animecrazy.net/gungrave-anime/
Loads of action, drama. This anime is basically like two anime put into one. Aside from the terrible first episode, the first half of the series is an amazing drama about two friends and their rise up through the crime sindicate. This is what I would imagine a Cowboy Bebop prequel being like, as far as story goes. The second half of the anime turns into a post-apocalyptic zombie shooting superbeing hero fighting one zombie boss at a time giving closure to most character storylines, which ends up not being that bad compared to the first episode, because now it has context. Had this anime stuck with the scarface-like rise and fall in the crime world that it was doing so well, I might have given it a 9.5/10, but instead earns a respectable 9/10

BECK    http://www.animecrazy.net/beck-anime/
Drama, original music. A good range of character personalities, with moderate development. The story is about a struggling band. Manga-based. Not much pacing issues, but the story ends semi-abruptly far short of the original manga. Animation problems. Anime: 8/10   I post this anime because the manga was epic although not perfect. Manga(9/10): http://unixmanga.com/onlinereading/Beck.html



Really, I wish there was a manga thread. Theres so much more undiscovered gold in manga than anime. I don't know if there would be that much interest compared to anime, though.

[Nothing]

Yeah Rookey, I can't wait to check out Gungrave and Eden of the East soon. I've been waiting for them to release Gungrave on Blu Ray for some time.  It appears it's finally getting released on June 28th according to Amazon yay.
Also I really want to check out Soul Eater and Black Butler.  No idea if those two are any good or not.

I'd recommend seeing Claymore, it was enjoyable.

Bleach is for 14 yr old boys. The fights are cool and exciting. I read the manga, but

>_>

<_<

[Xallan]

I'll second Seirei no Moribito...as far as Bleach goes, I stopped watching the anime but still read the manga....with Naruto I never bothered with the anime just the manga. I rotate between rewatching Ghost in the Shell series 1 and 2 every few months.

NGE was just frustrating to watch. The main kid pissed me off so much.