I’m finishing up NOIR now, and I need something a bit lighter… I’m getting sick of the serious animes. I’d really like a kind of “fantasy adventure” anime with some fun characters, the kind of thing that everyone knows is “yeah, that’s an anime sort of thing” but I’ve never actually seen a good example of. ^^; Other than Slayers, I suppose. I saw the first episode of Wild ARMs: Twilight Venom that came with WA:ACF, and it looked pretty neat, but I can’t find it anywhere for download. >_> And I refuse to spend a hundred dollars on an anime season when I’m only going to watch it once.
/me wishes there was a store that specialized in anime rentals…
Outlaw Star maybe? It’s not fantasy, but sci-fi is like futuristic fantasy. I don’t know if you’d be able to find it for download anywhere, but I saw a place that had the full series for $45.
From what I’ve seen so far, the animation is decent, and the characters aren’t too badly contrived either. They somehow managed to misspel “Chrono” into “Chrno”, though. That honestly amazes me.
Yep, I’ve seen Excel Saga, you can read my review on it if you like. http://www.rpgclassics.com/reviews/cidolfas/anime.shtml
MKR’s pretty old, no? I haven’t had great success with the classics (see what I wrote about Saber Marionette J for instance). How has it aged?
It’s kind of odd that I usually think of the quintessential anime as being a kind of fun frolicky fantasy genre, and there don’t actually seem to be many of those at all. 8p Least not that I’ve seen.
And yeah, I’ve looked at that thread and I honestly don’t see too many there that appeal to me… either I’ve seen them or they’re in genres I don’t like (super robot mainly) or they don’t sound particularly interesting.
I thought that Chrono Crusade was pretty good overall. Not exactly my top 10 list but worth a watch at least. Not something you want to watch for lightheartedness though.
As for recommendations, general light adventure anime include Digimon, Trigun, and maybe Tenchi. The best example I can come up with of a good light fantasy adventure is the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender; though not anime it has a heavy Asian influence to it and has a lot of archetypes that are often repeated in anime.
Rayearth has aged fairly well. It’s a bright, beautiful series. Some of the dialogue is repetitive, but simply for the (uncomplicated, but surprisingly well-conceived) plot it remains a good choide. Look for the TV series, not the OVA. Haven’t seen the OVA, but I hear it’s a great deal different.
You might want to check out El-Hazard as well. It’s a VERY light-hearted fantasy series, made in that magical 90s post-80s’ darkness pre-millenium’s CGI vibrant hand-drawn goodness.
Escaflowne is also a good fantasy series, but it ends up being a great deal more serious.
Azumanga Daioh
My Neighbors the Yamadas
Pani Poni Dash
Key the Metal Idol
End of Evangelion (assuming you’ve seen the series. If not, watch it first, then watch EoE)
Dragon Half
Ebichu
Puni Puni Poemi
Now and Then, Here and There
Saikano
Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar
Wolfs Rain
Madlax
hmm this season utawarerumono seems promising, and you might want to check out tsubasa chronicle even though 1st season are 26 episodes and 2nd season is just starting
