Let's talk about Anime!

I very much enjoyed Akira, absolutely hated Dragonball Z (it was good without the Z). That's pretty much all the anime I've seen, except for Kickers which ran on TV all the time when I was a kid but I can remember very little about.

Any recommendations?

I watched a bunch when I was in high school back in the VHS days. It was violent, weird and sometimes funny. I think we were mainly into it because it wasn't mainstream (at least in small-town Iowa). We had to buy everything though as the local movie rental stores (I'm really dating myself) didn't have any. The SciFi channel used to do Saturday morning anime, but it usually wasn't any good. The best they aired was Vampire Hunter D.

Then we came to the conclusion that it was all really derivative of itself and stopped watched.

Now anime is everywhere. It's all over cartoons, manga is all over the comic store and racks of Barnes & Noble. You can't be a teen today and not have seen some form of anime.

Looking back the only stuff I still enjoy is Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop. Akira is OK, but the manga series is much, much better.

I liked Samurai Champloo which I liked better than Cowboy Beebop although done by the same people I think. Robotech of course.

I used to watch a lot of anime, but haven't really been into it in a while. Some greats from back in the day:

Cowboy Bebop
FLCL
Samurai Champloo
Mushishi
Last Exile
Welcome to the NHK!
Akira
Ninja Scroll
Perfect Blue
Hellsing
Great Teacher Onizuka
Beck

Schweig! wrote: I very much enjoyed Akira, absolutely hated Dragonball Z (it was good without the Z). That's pretty much all the anime I've seen, except for Kickers which ran on TV all the time when I was a kid but I can remember very little about.

Any recommendations?

Serial Experiment Lain and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are two amazing series that deal with interesting subjects. Lain is about the interface between humanity and technology, Haruhi I actually can not explain without spoiling it so if you don't care about spoilers look it up or PM me.

Also Nichijou is another recent classic that deals with a trio of high school friends. It could go the creepy fan service route but instead was a platform for animators to have fun and some lightly surreal humor.

The new JoJo's Bizzare Adventure is the best punchmans anime. The characters are named after 70s rock bands (REO Speedwagon is literally a fucking character, along with ACDC, the Zeppeli family, etc etc etc). The color palette was inspired by Gaugin paintings so has a psychedlic touch along with generally being insane.

That is the worst waifu I've ever seen.

its about the pallette not how the tits dont make you horney

Now that Tscook has recommended Haruhi Suzumiya, perhaps I can rave about it a little. As he says, it's impossible to explain the premise because it's a huge spoiler but it's by far one of the most interesting I've ever seen in any movie, game or book. There's nothing quite like it and the great thing is that you can enjoy it in many ways and from many angles:

It's a series that digs deep about emotions and what we want out of the world but that can also be enjoyed as a fun series about interesting characters, a mixture of genres or an exercise in metanarratives. It directly taps into some of the impulses the kind of people who play games or read fantasy and science fiction will love too so just check it out.

If you don't think you'll ever check it out without hearing the premise, here it is in spoiler format so you change your mind.


If you are interested in it, there are two ways to check it out. The first is reading the original novels, which have been translated to English and the second is watch the superb anime adaptation with amazing voice acting that makes the characters seem alive. Both are great but it's easier to watch the later so do so.

Some tips:

1) If you watch the anime, watch the first chronological episodes in a row (The Melancholy I, II and III) as until the third you won't see the premise unfold.

2) The original anime release didn't have a chronological order. It makes for an interesting experience and it's how most of us were exposed to the series but I would rather have you guys understand the premise ASAP. The original release starts with a very weird "film" made by the protagonists so if it's incredibly weird, you'll know it's the out of order sequence.

3) The books are slighty better because they have more interesting thoughts by the protagonist but the anime has really great voice acting and a really nice soundtrack so both are really worth it, take the one you prefer.

I get carried away when I really like something. I can be a dirty contrarian but it's a façade, if I really, really like something I am like this. Oh well.