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I've just recently started watching a little anime. For some reason I was prejudice against it in the past, but I recently gave it a shot discovered that some of it is really really good. Anyone have any suggestions on good stuff? I really haven't watched much of anything so far. As far as I can remember, I've just watched Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and I'm on the last dvd of Cowboy Bebop. I've been checking some stuff out on youtube to see what I think. I just watched the first episode of Serial Experiments Lain, and was quite taken by it. I'll probably get it next from Netflix. The art direction is absolutely amazing. A friend of mine recommended Ghost in the Shell, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. um... I've also watched the first episode of Heavy Metal Alchemist and part of the first episode of Trigun. I didn't like Trigun at all, and wasn't sure about the other. I think that's about it.

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The problem with anime series is that tons of new ones are released every quarter and 95% of them is usually pure and utterly crap. But there are also really great, great piece of work... Mushi-shi - a drama based on folklore tales and myhtologie- is my current favourite.

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Princess Mononoke is really neato, Porco Rosso is decent if you don't watch the dubbed version (most often the original Japanese versions are :tup:ier than the dubbed ones), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds is one of Miyazaki's best (even the dubbed version is good) and my most favouritest of his movies. Miyazaki in general is really the :tup::tup::tup:iest of anime-drawing fuckers.

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I agree, Miyazaki's stuff is pretty much the only anime that doesn't bore the hell out of me. Most of it feels the same. I've heard that Grave of the Fireflies is pretty good, but I haven't seen it yet.

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anime-drawing fuckers.
Wow, I just had a flashback to my high school art class. Those guys all got 'A's too.

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I'm not much for anime, especially not series as they tend to drag out, but everyone really ought to check out the movie Mind Game. It's both beautiful and entertaining as well as one the best movies I've seen in 2006. The pacing is a little uneven a few times, but I didn't really mind too much.

Here's a few screencaps of the everchanging visual presentation to win you over:

mindgame02story016at.jpg

mindgame34qp.gif

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One that's come highly recommended to me is Blood+. I have yet to watch it, but there you go.

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I agree, MindGame is absolutely fantastic; Studio 4° are ze best.

Series-wise, yeah, Lain is good (though it dips here and there). It gets a bit feverish at times, particularly around the middle/second half.

Other series I really like are:

-Planetes

-Samurai Champloo

-Macross Zero

Sorta like:

-Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

-Cowboy Bebop

-Saikano

-Haibane Renmei

-Samurai Seven

-Cosmic Stellvia

And films:

-Memories

-Wings of Honneamise

-End of Evangelion (which doesn't make much sense if you haven't watched the series, doesn't make much sense even if you have)

-Metropolis

-Cat soup

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Porco Rosso is fucking awesome. I don't watch a lot of anime, but that one is a gem.

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Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Don't accidentally pick up the horrible 80s version, but go for Bloodlust. It's a movie, a spiritual sequel to Ninja Scroll and it's great stuff about vampires. It's English dub only and no less than two small parts are done by Dwight Schultz! Howlin' mad Murdock!

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I'd suggest you give Trigun another go as the first 3 episodes aren't really representative of the series, the silliness gets toned down quite a bit and it gets pretty dark later on.

Full Metal Alchemist is utterly superb, there are perhaps 2 episodes in the whole 52 episode run that don't tie back in to the main plot, and it is very emotional at times.

I have heard great things about Last Exile, I even own it, but haven't yet seen it myself.

Hellsing is quite fun if you like vampires :D

Fruits Basket is a sweet little series, although quite bizarre.

Lastly I recommend the Read or Die OVA, very inventive and fun. The TV Series is good as well, but drags on in places.

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Macross Zero

Oh fuck yeah. Macross is fantastic. Never saw the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series, but did enjoy both movies. Second wasn't nearly as good as first, but still solid.

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"Anime" in a whole is overrated.

That being said. I did enjoy some anime movies. Howls Moving Castle was cool and Spirited Away was nice too.

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Fullmetal Alchemist is very entertaining, but it suffers from something that most longer series are prone to: it doesn't really know where it wants to go. Like, the first quarter of the series it seems to be a youngsters-on-the-road kind of Pokémon thing where they encounter strange things every day, but then it suddenly wants to be a strict movie-style densely narrated thing as well; and told in all genres at the same time. Not that that isn't fun to watch, but I enjoy and admire it if a series has a very clear view on what it wants. Most shorter series find this more easily; take for instance Serial Experiments Lain, which is indeed very good and manages to keep a consistent tone all throughout its 13 episodes.

Which isn't to say FMA isn't good; far from. It's just going all places at the same time (especially if you also consider the movie at the end of the series, which signals yet another change in style and themes). But at least it isn't one of those horrible, never-ending animeshows that are filled with fillers. Dragonball Z, Naruto... they're all good in their own respects, but I wish they would END at some point instead of dragging on and on like zombies that don't know how to finish their narratives/lives.

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Is Ergo Proxy any good? Someone reccomened it to me, but that someone is a bit flaky.

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I would have agreed with you about FMA Rodi, if it weren't for the fact that their encounters in the first quarter of the series were ALL relevant to the major plot arcs later in the series. As far as I'm concerned it's one of the few action based series whose episodes form a cohesive whole. The change in tone is reflective of the change in the characters....

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I agree, that is true, but I'd like to argue that the latter style cramps the former. You see when you've got an 'adventure a day' style telling, you're actually trying to convey a feeling of a world that's very rich and full of stuff happening. But if you then turn to saying 'look, all those encounters were key story events', you're actually diminishing the world, you're making it smaller because you destroy the notion that there is anything that doesn't have a purpose. Am I making myself clear or is it still a bit vague?

That's, again, not really hugely impacting the qualities of FMA, but it's a thought about those contradicting narratives.

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It seems like most of the best things have been mentionned already, but I'd like to emphasize on Planetes which appears in Twilo's list.

Planetes is one of the most underrated show in history of anime and stands as one of the best series (live action included) I have ever seen : character driven with a great plot which goes into political/ stuff only a few writer/director had the balls to even mention. 26 episodes and nothing to throw away.

Oh, and I'd add Paranoia Agent to Twilo's List : 13 episodes of goodness from the guy behind Millenium Actress.

About FMA : it is an enjoyable show which delivers more than the average anime but it would have been greater if it had been 30/35 episode long : the story and characters really reach a peak around "Night of the Chimera's Cry" and it was a bit of a disappointment to see the show going on and on with filler episodes and midly interesting sides story. It really felt like the show was torn between appealing to shonen audience (with battle driven episodes and stupid humor) and boiling things down to a few characters evolving separately and uncovering different truths. The movie was the same : it chose to set the action in a very interesting settings but only used the right angle a few times in the scenario... and it made one step forward to do two steps backward in term of story.

Regarding Ergo Proxy; it is good , or at least the first 8 episodes are : the esthetic is really far above the standards and the story has been drifting from a supernatural/political thriller to coming of age story involving only three characters. You really can't predict where the show will be going next, but despite that it is very focused, very dense and there is no ' fat' , no filler around the main story.

Mind game was enjoyable because of its esthetic (the freakin' final escape sequence for god's sake!) but went really overboard in oversymbolizing everything... in terms of feature film I can only recommend Takahata's work, very different from Miyazaky (whose Howl's Moving Castle was a repeat of all is other movies) in the sense that the guy has been exploring several radically different genre with brilliance : Omohide Poroporo is naturalist animation(does that mean what I think ?) as perfect as you can get and 'My Neighbors the Yamadas' is the best transcription of a strip from manga/comic ever.

Damn, I realise now, this post is freaking long... but hell, among the overwhelming anime trash there are so many good pieces to talk about.

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Thanks for the suggestions. Some of them look promising. Are there any good noir-ish ones? I'm a sucker for noir style stuff. Cowboy Bebop often has some good film noir elements which is quite enjoyable.

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Hellsing

The Vision of Escaflowne (Series not the film)

Two of my favourites there. :tup:

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Ghost in the shell: Stand Alone Complex, both seasons are excellent. Quite clearly the best anime show I've ever seen.

Cowboy Bebop series was great too.

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I second Hellsing and The Vision of escaflowne series (possibly the greatest anime series ever). I also enjoyed Ikkitousen, and Chobits.

Serial experiment Lain is great, but you may have to watch the entire series twice to figure out what the hell is going on. It gets very, very odd. In a good way.

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I haven't seen many animes, but Paranoia Agent is probably my favourite.

Oh and I didn't like Cowboy Bebop nor Samurai Champloo. Too melodramatic with very little substance.

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Too melodramatic with very little substance.
I second the uncensored sentiment. At least for Cowboy Bebop. I haven't seen the other one.

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Thanks for the suggestions. Some of them look promising. Are there any good noir-ish ones? I'm a sucker for noir style stuff. Cowboy Bebop often has some good film noir elements which is quite enjoyable.

I haven't seen it, but there's a series called Noir that's supposed to be noir-ish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noir_%28TV_series%29

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