Vivian on 11/8/2009 at 22:59
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-anabfAg06U) Paranoia Agent is not only brilliant, it has a legitimately great theme tune! (same dude as Perfect Blue and Paprika, he's quite the auteur)
Kolya on 12/8/2009 at 00:09
Do you fooly cooly around? :D
PeeperStorm on 12/8/2009 at 02:16
So you like scifi but you'll watch anything? Here's an assortment of good things. Wikipedia has descriptions for all of them.
Azumanga Daioh - Kid safe
Rozen Maiden - Targeted at adults, but mostly kid safe.
Utawarerumono
Black Lagoon
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Basilisk
Vandread
Outlaw Star
Wolf and Spice
Saiunkoku Monogatari
Monster
Moribito
Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. (music by Yoko Kanno, who did Cowboy Bebop)
Darker Than Black (music by Yoko Kanno)
Trigun
Interstella 5555 (movie-length music video for Daft Punk)
These are good, but you really, really won't want your kid watching them at all:
Gantz
Elfen Lied
Mnemosyne
Narutaru
Additionally Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block does a big run of anime on Saturday nights, and SciFi runs some on Monday nights.
Think that's enough to get you started?:D
Kolya on 12/8/2009 at 05:27
Mmh, I used to read Narutaru for a while, weird lil manga, didn't know they made that into an anime.
PeeperStorm on 12/8/2009 at 05:37
Yeah, the anime ends about midway through the story. Actually not a bad stopping point.
theBlackman on 12/8/2009 at 06:39
Samurai Champloo is good, as is a steam-punk remake in anime of The Seven Samurai by Kurosawa, and authorized by him and his estate, called Samurai Seven.
Another good one is Nausica (I may have messed up the spelling), I just ordered the full 4 DVD set of the Roughnecks an anime series based on the novel by Heinlien, and the (badly done) movie of 1997 called "Starship Troopers".
Morte on 12/8/2009 at 06:58
Quote Posted by Matthew
Not enough Patlabor itt.
I suspect Patlabor would be a pretty perfect fit, myeah. It's a fairly lighthearted sci-fi cop show, and pretty bloody good. The earliest iterations of the show are probably a bit long in the tooth animation-wise now, mind.
Also, stay away from the second movie if you're looking for anything remotely upbeat. It's an excellent thriller, but it's about as bitter as gargling gasoline.
WXIII is about as cheerful, but with the added drawback of not being particularly good.
Tonamel on 12/8/2009 at 07:18
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, FLCL, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumya, and Paranoia Agent are all great, but I'm not sure I'd recommend them to somebody just getting into anime. They need at least a basic knowledge of Japanese culture/anime tropes to really understand some of the points they make.
Evangelion's not bad, but I think I'd recommend the less well known Rah Xephon for a giant-robots-but-weird anime.
If you're digging Gundam, check out Gundam Seed, but NOT Gundam Wing.
I'll second Paprika, Last Exile, and Metropolis, as well as anything Studio Ghibli has made (Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away being the ones mentioned so far. Castle in the Sky and Howl's Moving Castle are also good ones).
Full Metal Alchemist is decent, but I think the remake (Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood) might be the better show. I haven't seen all of that one, though.
And I'll get made fun of for saying this, but Naruto's pretty good. I remember hearing a lot of comparisons to Dragonball Z when it first arrived, but after having seen them both, the comparisons make no sense (other than they're both incredibly slowly paced). Unlike DBZ, Naruto has things like interesting story arcs, actual choreographed fights, and tragic characters. I don't even consider it a guilty pleasure.
Now, if we're talking guilty pleasures, then we're getting into One Piece/Rave Master/Prince of Tennis territory... and I'm talking the English dubbed, edited for American television versions.
Fun Fact: In the "Intro to Japanese Culture" class I took in college, the clip they showed us to introduce us to anime was from Urotsukidoji (NEVER google that. It is where we got the phrase Tentacle Rape). They followed this with Grave of the Fireflies. The mind boggles.
gunsmoke on 12/8/2009 at 07:42
Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop are awesome. And BEAR is a great source for some interesting anime suggestions. He led me to several great shows I would never have noticed otherwise.
