I’ve suddenly found myself really liking anime again (after a… 4 or so year hiatus) and I also find myself really behind on what’s good and what’s not. x_x I’ve recently seen (and enjoyed!! :D) Cowboy Bebop, X, Noir, and His and Her Circumstances… And I’m especially looking for more half-humorous, half-serious adventure stuff (if you can call it that) like Cowboy Bebop. I’ve heard Hellsing’s good, but I don’t really know what it’s about, aside from vampires. Anyway, since I’m restarting my journey into the wonderful world of anime, I’d appreciate any suggestions you guys have.
Oh, and as a side note, I got Chobits for christmas… does anyone have any opinions on it, just out of curiousity? (I haven’t started watching it yet, since I’m not done with Noir or Karekano <.<)
Hmm. I’d like to help, but I’m not sure how close our tastes are… I didn’t care for Bebop, for example, and I HATE Noir (sorry, I just can’t stand assassin characters.) But I CAN tell you, anything by Rumiko Takahashi (like INU-YASHA) IS worth watching (and reading) the lady does mostly romantic comedies, but can pull off great dramatic stuff too; and Hades is right, ANYTHING by Miyazaki is worth watching. It’s just so epic (even the down-to-Earth stuff.)
I would also warn you to stay away from the more “dark, twisted stuff” like BETTERMAN. Ever since Evangelion, many animes have tried to recapture that show’s confusion-and-tragedy combination- with the same messy results. (No, I don’t care about Eva- really, it’s either a you-love-it -or-you-hate-it combination.)
Cowboy bebop rocks, I watch it every time I’m in germany ^^
Hellsing kicks ass too. The hellsing organisation is a group who hunts vampires, ghouls and other creepy stuff in London under the commandment of Lady Integra Wingates Hellsing.
When the church in Europe split because of the differences, the protestant king had most of the rights, so he awoke an organisation that should protect the english crown and its people from attacks by undead creatures. The founding was over 100 years in the past (from now on), when sir hellsing, Integra’s father, was involved in building the organisation and gave it its name.
But there’s also the iskariot- organisation by enrico Maxwell. Those are the catholic extremists and thus, the exact opposit of hellsing. They’re obsessed with exorcism and stuff and kill everything that thinks different from them with a passion. Since Hellsing also works with vampires (one of the main characters: Alucard, Hellsing’s best hunter and vampire to the core) it often comes to fights between the organisations.
Witch Hunter Robin. Was made by the same people who did Cowboy Bebop. In animation and storyline it’s quite dark, and has a slow and then speedy upbringing to it. Obviously it’s about hunting witches…a 15 year old girl from Italy gets moved to Japan to become a replacement witch hunter and becomes obsessed with her partner (who seems to dislike her). Then the real trouble begins as the girl starts to be the one who gets hunted.
The Ghost in the Shell movie is nice also, if you’re looking for a heavy Sci Fi drama. You’ll have to watch it more than once, prob.
I also suggest the Kenshin series. The OVA’s are totally dark and gory compared to the light hearted series, but you may enjoy them, and the Samurai X movie. If you plan to watch the whole deep story, remember to watch the Seisouhen…it’s soooo sad and heart wrenching, and mainly focuses around Kenshin, Kaoru and their son.
The movie of Blood: The Last Vampire is great if you’re looking for some drama, although it is a little short. Other than that, Hellsing’s a fantastic series.
I tried watching watching the first episode of Chobits once. I stopped less than halfway throughi n disgust. shudders
But yeah, I’m going to second that recommendation of Trigun. It’s pretty nice. There’s one fun series that’s still being fansubbed called “Full Metal Alchemist”. You’d have to download it, but I found it quite enjoyable. And, if you’ve seen any of Full Metal Panic, download Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu. Really funny.
And if you’re really bored, there’s always La Blue Girl to fall back to.
I used to be a decently big Takahashi fan, but I’ve since been burned out by Ranma, so that’s mostly out. <.< I’ve seen Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed and other Shirou stuff - it wasn’t bad from what I can remember. Witch Hunter Robin sounds interesting, and I’ve been trying to get somebody to buy me the Kenshin boxset since I’ve heard it’s good >.> Trigun I just bought one tape of ($4 at Sam Goody! wheee) so I’ll check it out and see if I like it. As for Miyazaki, I keep meaning to watch Mononoke, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet @_@
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. Keep 'em coming if there’s anymore, otherwise I’ll try to check out the ones you guys recommended ^^
Mononoke is good but I personally liked Kiki’s Delivery Service and Nausicaa (not out in the US yet - I went partially insane and imported the Japanese DVD - I don’t regret it despite the price ^^) a bit better. Totoro is good too but the US hasn’t gotten a Japanese language version of it yet. :too bad;
You seem to like a variety of things so I’ll suggest these…
If you like space shows, definitely see Crest of the Stars (and then Banner/Banner II after that if you like it). Dragon Half is a cute, hilarious show that you’ll enjoy if you love RPGs and don’t mind bits of fanservice. If you see Mononoke and like it, I’d recommend Arjuna since it has similiar themes (and has music by Yoko Kanno - you can’t go wrong with that!).
Read or Die is an interesting little thing, only three episodes but hella funny and actionpacked. It’s a parody of secret super agencies; these heroes are military and superpowered librarians. ^^;;
Also, Those who Hunt Elves is interesting, fantasy parody
Serial EXperiments Lain and Boogiepop Phantom are pretty good, in a Oh-my-God-WTF-was-that kind of way. Gundam Seed is pretty mindless entertainment most of the time. Trigun, as others have mentioned, rocks. Star Ocean EX is supposed to be good also, but I haven’t seen that personally yet. And also the 2nd VHD movie, Bloodlust, kicks ass so much it’s unreal.
I’ve kept meaning to watch RoD… I’ll probably start downloaing them once I’ve finished watching Lain.
I just started Chobits a couple days ago with my friend… It’s kinda odd. I didn’t find it anywhere near as funny as His and Her Circumstances, but I think it might grow on me if I continue watching it.
I’ve seen the beginning of Lain as well as the beginning of Eva, but I guess neither left much of a lasting impression… either that, or I’m just forgetful (which is true). I feel obligated to watch both, though I don’t really want to shell out the money to get them. <.<
Kiki’s Delivery Service is so cute ^^ I can’t remember how I ended up watching it… I think it was on some cable channel.
I’ve heard differing opinions on FF Unlimited @_@ What’s good and/or bad about it?
FFU was the first anime I ever saw, and as such, I’ll probably always like it. It’s a little odd, and a bit cutesy, but if you can get past that, the story isn’t too bad. It has some great characters like Kaze and Shiroi Kumo. but Ai and Yu are a little annoying. The ending also feels a bit rushed, as they had to cut the number of shows down. If you’re a fan of the Final Fantasy series, you’ll probably be glad to hear that chocobos, cactuars and a moogle all make appearances, as well as the summon monsters from the series. The music’s fantastic too. I’d say it was definately worth a look.
Originally posted by Evangelion
I also suggest the Kenshin series. The OVA’s are totally dark and gory compared to the light hearted series, but you may enjoy them, and the Samurai X movie. If you plan to watch the whole deep story, remember to watch the Seisouhen…it’s soooo sad and heart wrenching, and mainly focuses around Kenshin, Kaoru and their son.
If you watch Kenshin, you wont be seeing the end of it sadly.
When they were making the Kenshin anime, they caught up to the manga after the Shishio fight. Then they gave them more time to get further on in the manga by getting a different director to do some fillers for the anime to keep interest in it. Sadly the fillers wern;t good… in fact… they sucked. Because of this, ratings dropped, the show got canceled, and the Final Arc with Enishi was never animated.
