I'm sure plenty of you know what anime is so there's no need for an explanation.
So what anime shows do you prefer?

My list:

Elfen Lied- Intresting storyline, action, psychological horror, etc. The split personality with Nyu/Lucy can be humorous at times.

Excel Saga- This particular series really caught my attention because of the super deformed, slapstick, comedic performance it has throughout the episodes. Each episode parodies other anime while giving Excel Saga a certain theme like Horror, Sports, High School drama, Romantic Comedy, and so on.

Puni Puni Poemy (OVA)- A spinoff of Excel Saga created by of course Shinichi Watanabe. I don't know how the hell to describe this one so I'd have to leave it up to you.

BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad- This anime is a great story to the kids who are just starting out in a rock band. The English dubbing is kinda meh but the Japanese dubb is a tad better.

FLCL (Fooly Cooly)- Oh god, this is the weirdest shit that ever hit the mainstream media. To this day after watching this show multiple times I STILL have no idea what the hell the story was all about.
Manga version: The illustrations are unique and the humor is in there but the story kinda takes on a more darker side.


(I'm in the middle of art class and I should be working on my picture of Sepultura's "Arise" album but I'm slacking for now...)

Also, give an explanation as to why you watch anime, who you watch it with, stuff like that.

WORD FROM THE OP:

New subject material added!

Have you ever been to an Anime Con before? If so, what was it like? Any interesting stories you'd like to share?

My list (with reasons ofcourse)


Elfen Lied - Its easily one of my favs very short anime (13 episodes) about an elf who has kind of split personality, and an awesome OST, oh yeah the first episode has minimum of 10-15 slitting and chopping of humans

Inuyasha - sesshoumaru. thats the only reason i love this show

Code Geass - awesome show about one man making a difference, but has a little of mech (robots and shit)

Full Metal Alchemist - first season was awesome, 1nd got pretty bland

Trinity Blood - was very good looking anime, could have been awesome but fucked up the ending

right now watching Basilisk - seems awesome, a battle between two clans each of em having special ability, still watching though


oh btw, dubs suck donkey balls

Code Geass season one is incredible. Season 2 spoiled it.

Despite the awesomeness of the manga, Rurouni Kenshin had a brilliant anime, right til before the long line of fillers came up(after the Kyoto arc).

I suggest you guys give explanations as to why you like what you like to avoid this turning into a list thread and an eventual lock.

I don't watch a lot and I prefer the short ones. My favourite is Basilisk. I love those concepts where each guy has some sort of a special ability. It's a bit similar to Ninja Scroll.
There's also a "real" movie based on it, but it sucks.

I also like Elfen Lied, my only complaint is that the main characters are just children/teenagers. Otherwise, there's plenty of blood and that's awesome!

Trinity Blood, I'd agree with NetherFog. The ending was predictable. I've been waiting to see something more spectacular given the fact that it was obvious what was going to happen, but it just happened with no special thing, and it was actually not good at all.

I can't stand the new "digital" looking anime. Only '70s-'90s is real!

Lupin 3rd - The best anime series ever, like James Bond but the hero is a master thief, not a spy. The characters don't develop at all and are complete stereotypes (suave conman, samurai, Clouseau-esque detective, etc) but the stories are all extremely tight and well-written.

3x3 Eyes - It plays up to most of the 80s cliches because the central character is a schoolgirl who works in a hostess club, and is also a shape-shifting demon. She is hunting for a powerful statue.

Cyber City Oedo - Classic cyberpunk series. A crack team of all-star, highly dangerous criminals are let out of prison by the government, who need them to catch a series of equally-dangerous masterminds.

Ranma 1/2 - Like Saved by the Bell with kung fu and genderbending. Typical high school type comedy except the main character is a master at kung fu. Oh yeah - and he changes into a girl whenever he touches water. Only the first 3 series are any good though.

Urotsukidoji - Overfiend, etc. Gore and tentacles, filthy, classic video nasty. Contains Hitler.

Baki the Grappler - great show that shows us more of the MMA type of fighting with a typical kind of story. Baki is trying to become the best MMA fighter in the world, but under the shadow of his demonic father, well, it just shows how tough it is. Fit this with the criminal underworld, beasts, and fucking weird characters and its sure to be a thrill.

Black Lagoon - Probably my favorite one. Shit, just wiki it and its enough to spark some interest. Gun fights, character fights, crime in east asia, its all perfect.





If anyone says Naruto then I'll put a cyber-curse on them. I know how I watched Entombed's Black Juju.

Only Cowboy Bebop and Miyazaki films are really worth seeing, to be honest.

Elfen Lied is complete garbage. Fan service for creepy pedophiles who like gratuitous gore with no plot.

Almost all anime is garbage. There are a few films in the style that are decent, but I have yet to see a series that has interested me much at all. And I'm just going to add right here that Evangelion is a pile of bullshit that is not fucking deep!

Pokemon was pretty wicked back when there were only 150 of them and it was just Ash,Misty, and Brock roaming around. They lost me with it once they added another couple hundred and completely shuffled the story.

You know, that reminds me of Maburaho...just without the gratuitous gore.

Grave Of The Fireflies. Go and watch that, come back and apologize.

Seconded. I love the show when it was so simple like that. All I had were 151 (counting Mew) and then three main characters, no more than that was needed to keep me hooked. Then bah here come another who batch and a convoluted story (not even a good one) and great now I could care less. All my friends still collected them, but I moved on after that.

Grave of the Fireflies was one of the most depressing animes I've ever seen. BiB, go see it, please.

Code Geass: Awesome series. I haven't finished the second season yet, but I have enjoyed it. The twists and cliffhanger endings in almost every episode have kept me on edge with this show. I've heard complaints about the second season, but I don't understand it, as this is a kind of "rise and fall of the tragic hero" tale, and the first season alone doesn't quite do enough justice to Lelouch's morally gray character. The problem I could see with season two is that most of the mid-season becomes kind of "mech of the week" introducing a new character with a more powerful robot than the last and battling it out. Overall its a great series, highly recommended 9/10

Death Note: Okay, before I get complaints about this one, let me ask "have you actually watched it?" Sure, this has become a fanboy favorite with the hot topic goth crowd, and then you have the "OMG L IS SOOO SUPER KAWAII-DESU!!!1" fangirls, but hype aside, this is a truly brilliant and well written series. The plot is simple, a bored and highly intelligent high school boy discovers a book that kills people when you write their name in it. A brilliant detective catches on, and what we are left with is a very entertaining game of cat and mouse. The only problem with this show is towards the end, the introduction of some new characters kind of kills the tension that the first half of the series had. 9/10

Berserk: This one is a classic in its own right. This focuses on the character Guts (possibly the single most manly action hero of all time, at least in anime ) and his travels as a member of the Band of the Hawk mercenary army. This is a medieval war series with some of the best action I've seen. There plenty of depth here beyond the action, and the development of the main characters Guts and Griffith, and their relationship is well explored. This one unfortunately loses some points for having possibly THE single most definitive cliffhanger ending in anime, but no followup season or spinoff series to continue it 8/10

Basilisk: Someone mentioned this one earlier. This one is a pretty fun series. There is some depth to it, but many of the characters don't live long enough to be explored. This is what a show like Naruto would be like if Naruto was good. 24 episodes and not drawn out, intelligently done with more mature characters, and still pitting super powered ninjas against each other (the ninjas in this series border on X-men). There are a few layers to this tale, a bitter rivalry between two clans, a kind of romeo and juliet style love story, and the political manipulations of Japanese royalty. Since this is a metal site, I'm obligated to mention the intro song for this one (Koga Ninpoucho) comes from the Japanese metal band Onmyouza's Garyotensei album. Definitely worth checking out 8/10

Gantz: Nobody mentioned this one yet. One might complain about this being nothing more than fanservice and gore, but I disagree. On the surface, you have a show with an absolutely ridiculous plot, little character development outside of the main characters, and a seemingly endless string of nudity and gore. The plot is simple: When people die, they are transported to an apartment in Tokyo where a big black orb sends them on missions to kill aliens. The people who survive these missions are awarded points based on their performance, and if you get 100 points... well that is debatable because it never happens (I'd assume you get your life back?) Maybe the manga goes into more detail but I haven't read it. What you really have here is a very nihilistic view of human nature and the way people cope with bizarre circumstances in different ways. Don't go into this one for the story, but rather for the philisophical message it presents. 7/10

Noein: Interesting series revolving around the existence of parallel dimensions and time travel. The animation is a bit irritating at times (some of the hand drawn characters are bland, and a sharp contrast to some of the overly digitized backgrounds) but the story is superb. An elite group of operatives go back in time to track down their childhood friend in attempts to prevent their dimension from unravelling. There is some interesting quantum physics theory here, and the characters are well explored in both their past and future selves. Overall its a good sci fi series. 7/10

A few other ones that I've enjoyed and would recommend are Rurouni Kenshin (the series and the Samurai X OVAs), Samurai Gun, Hellsing (OVA), and Escaflowne. I don't have much to say about these ones though. Trinity Blood has been mentioned a few times, and I'd agree that it was pretty good until the ending, and I'm hoping they do a second season for it eventually. Recently I started watching Speed Grapher, but I haven't seen enough to post my thoughts on it, so maybe I'll get back to that one.

Sturgeon's Law applies here: 90% of everything sucks. But otherwise, I agree completely, especially about Evangelion.

I would also agree that Evangelion is way overhyped. Its pretty deep when you're an angsty emo teenager

That being said, I found the series to be entertaining back in the day, and I still enjoy the apocalyptic imagery in End of Evangelion

One Piece has always been my favourite I'm following the series since the early days when Italian TV still broadcasted it. it has a rather simple storyline, great charcters, and lots of action. now I read the manga, but I'm watching the anime on youtube of the Thriller Bark arc. it's too awesome to not watch it, zombies and skeletons and other sppooky things.

Dear sir, if you cared to read and comprehend my whole post you would note that I excepted a few films from my declaration of anime suckage.

I'm not too familiar with much anime. When I was young I had a friend who was obsessed with it, so he made me watch some of it. There was only one that I truly enjoyed, and it was called Trigun (I think). Anyone else familiar with this one? I can't remember hardly anything about it, sadly, except that it was really good, and it had some great characters. I can't even remember the storyline, though...

I'm a fan of the Ghibli Series but unfortunately haven't had a chance to branch out from there, as much as I'd love to. 'Spirited Away' and 'My Neighbor Totoro' are my favourites.

Yeah, most anime is horseshit. I liked Claymore and a few others, but as a general rule, if it doesn't have hardcore sex in it, and lots of it, I won't watch it. Someone commit genocide against the weeaboos for me.

Trigun is about a guy called Vash the Stampede, who's got spiked blonde hair, a long red coat and a kickass gun. he is followed by another cool guy who's a priest and carries a metal cross full of guns inside, and two random police girls. his arch enemy is his brother, who has a similar gun. them both are som e kind of aliens from a superior culture. the world is almost always covered with desert. is this what you're referring to? it rocks.



EDIT: image was too big

Duly noted. Is the film I mentioned one of those? If not and you want to actually watch a good, moving anime go watch that.

Here are a few favorites of mine:

AKIRA(Movie/Manga)– I find the film to be an excellent representation on how anime should be done. The storyline was interesting, the soundtrack was unique, the sound effects were spot on, the vocal performances (Japanese version) were emotional and realistic, and the animation was just outstanding. Even though the film was made in 1988, I still think the animation has stood the test of time. The animation has a lot of movement and details, and it looks better than 85% of modern anime today. Another reason I thought it was great was that it was a very good adaptation of the manga. The manga is longer and more complex, to the point that a film would be impossible, unless it was a short series. So the film makers took the story and shortened it, they rearranged many of the key events, and they simplified the story somewhat. But despite all these changes the film still had the overall outcome of the manga, the look and attitude of the characters were kept intact, the atmosphere was almost exactly the same, and the overall themes such as the horrors of war, human experimentation, the darkness of humanity, and growing up were kept intact as well. Both film and manga are equally good. 5/5

FLCL(Show) - A bizarre show that contains space pirates, aliens, and robots coming out of a kid’s head, all this taking place in modern day Japan. The story is excellent, but only when (if) you figure it out, for it is extremely vague and confusing. The animation was simple, but it had a lot of exaggerated movements, making the action sequences much more intense and badass. Also, I’m not a big fan of poppy j-rock, but the usage of songs made by the pop j-rock band The Pillows was AWSOME! It made many scenes much more intense, epic, and emotional. What solidifies this show as amazing to me however, is its overall theme of growing up. 5/5

Berserk(Manga) – I simply despised the show because of the cheap musical score, a story that felt rushed, and a cliffhanger ending that made me wonder just how the hell the main character escaped the situation he was in (The whole series is a flashback that explains the events of the first episode, which the main character was still alive and well). What was frustrating however was that the show had a few story elements that were cool, cool character designs, cool animation, and a badass main character, so it had tremendous potential on being amazing. So when I heard that the show was based on a manga and that the manga kept on going after that horrid ending of the show, I decided to read the manga. I was simply blown away. It’s probably my favorite anime of all, for I absolutely love the story, the characters, and the animation, which is one of the best if I may add. I realized that the show had taken out so much to the point that story barely made sense. But when you read the manga, everything makes sense, and it is simply fucking cool. Unfortunately, the manga has been running for 20 years now and it is still going, and there is no end in sight since there is still so much that needs to be resolved in the story. But the manga artist is extremely lazy, and he makes new chapters only when he feels like it, so there times when a chapter is not released for almost a year, and when it is released, its only 10 pages long and nothing really happens. At this rate it’ll take at least another twenty years for the manga to finish, that is, if the manga artist finishes it, for it seems he’s getting tired of making the series. But for what it is, it’s really fucking good. Another good representation on how anime should be done. 4/5

Cowboy Bebop(Show) - An anime show that also represents very well on how anime should be done. The show takes place in the future and it follows a group of bounty hunters and their adventures in space. This show is extremely atmospheric, emotional, realistic (sort of), and just overall depressing. The characters were always broke, they never succeeded in capturing their targets, the overall setting was almost always dark, gloomy, and bleak, and I really cared about the characters, so I kind of hated the ending. A depressing ending for a depressing show. Show was made in 1998 but it stands the test of time, and I think it will continue to stand the test of time for a while. Definitely one of the best. 4/5

Gundam Wing(Show) - A show with the usual giant robot action like Evangelion, except in Gundam Wing it is much slower and somewhat boring at times. But what really makes this show great is the story, which is filled with corrupted government systems, shadow organizations that call the shots behind the curtain, and themes such as the hardships of growing up, the hardships of accepting change, and the eternal struggles for peace and unity. However, the story may be confusing and hard to follow at times, for it is told very badly. But what really made me want to understand it were the memorable characters and their development through out the show, and of course the overall badass design of each of the Gundams. One last thing I love about this show is the feeling of nostalgia that I get whenever I watch it, for I first watched this show on Toonami when I was still in Elementary school. 4/5

Vampire Hunter D 2000(Movie)- Movie is not that special at all actually. But animation wise, it’s my favorite anime. The animation is simply beautiful and nearly perfect. The overall look and atmosphere of the film, with its designs, settings, and musical score, was nearly flawless. More anime should look like this film, and all vampire films should look like this film. 3/5

Dragonball Z(Show) - A show with a story that was somewhat stupid, repetitive, and predictable, fighting scenes that were cool but spaced apart greatly by useless dialogue and unnecessary events, and characters that were flat and never went anywhere, for character development was nonexistent. The only thing that was absolutely amazing and nearly flawless was the character designs, which were absolutely unique and badass. Despite the fact that the show technically sucked ass, I still love it purely for nostalgia, for it always reminds me of the good old days in Elementary school when I would rush home at 5:00PM to watch the episode for the day on Toonami. 3/5

Pokemon(Show) - A show based purely on a gimmick, nothing but an extremely long, sophisticated commercial advertisement for the addicting video game, the baseball-type cards, the toys, and the dolls. A show plagued with simple animation, simple character designs, idiotic villains, silly scenarios, and a predictable storyline that went absolutely nowhere, save a few episodes here and there when Ash won a badge or something. But still, I always say that my Elementary years were the best years of my life, and since this show always reminds me of the good old days when I would wake up in the morning to watch this show before going off to school, this stupid fucking show will always have a small special place in my heart. 2/5

I enjoy anime, but here are a few things I hate about it:
- Many anime shows/movies/mangas have too much style and absolutely no substance
- The constant need on being “deep” is ridiculous, since most of the time it’s absolutely unnecessary. Deep for deep sakes in other words.
- The constant need in characters over-explaining something and speaking in cryptic messages that’s hard to understand. For example: In the film The Matrix, which is heavily influenced by anime, that scene in which Morpheus takes Neo to The Matrix and they’re both in that white room with a single red chair. Neo touches the chair and asks, “Is this real?” To which Morpheus answers by saying, “What is real? How do you define real? If real is simply what you see, what you touch, what you taste, then real is just blah blah fucking blah,” when all he could’ve said was, “…….No.” This type of things could be cool and it is needed sometimes, but anime simply takes it to ridiculous extremes, and they do it almost all the time.

Some of my favorite animes are Gantz,
ghost in the shell , Trigun , Full Metal Alchemist , Trinity Blood and cowboy boots and that all i can remember i have not watch any anime in some time so i know i am forgetting some shows.

I'm surprised Death Note is so little mentioned here. Seriously the most awesome thing ever. I've watched the whole thing 3 times. It's genius.

I agree with the people who said Gantz, but I won't lie, it's for the violence. The action and gore is awesome, and the main reason I kept watching was to see who dies next, and how. Despite this, I was still upset by the bogus ending.

Most of what I've seen has been awful. I like the Miyazaki movies, though. I also really enjoyed Trigun and, to a lesser extent, Hellsing. The Ghost In the Shell movies were pretty good but tried a little too hard to be thought-provoking.

I suppose you could say I'm a fan of anime, but I really just treat it like any other genre. There are plenty of good and plenty of bad. I think people need to keep in mind Sturgeon's Law, "Ninety percent of everything is crap", really does apply to everything.

That said, one of my favorites is probably the Gunsmith Cats OVA. It's a solid, no bullshit entertaining show that doesn't try to cram hammy philosophy down your throat.

Excluding watching Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh when I was 8, the only anime that I've watched is Death Note and the first 2 episodes of Code Geass (I only started yesterday) I have a few friends who are slightly obsessed with anime and they give me a few recommendations. Oh, and the first episode of Mononoke.

Seconded. I love the show when it was so simple like that. All I had were 151 (counting Mew) and then three main characters, no more than that was needed to keep me hooked. Then bah here come another who batch and a convoluted story (not even a good one) and great now I could care less. All my friends still collected them, but I moved on after that.
quote]

Thirded.
I like Azumanga Daioh and Case Closed.
I used to watch Pokemon and Yugioh when I was younger.
I have also watched Death Note, and I thought it was weirdly cool.

Ha I used to love this show when I was little. I watched it on Toonami, along with Reboot and Sailor Moon. I actually just recently watched an episode on youtube for the hell of it. And I realised how badly it's aged, how the same animations are used over and over again, how bad the dialog is, how poor some of the voice actors are, all that stuff you don't notice when you're ten and just want to see robots blow stuff up, and it was almost painful to watch. The nostalgia factor is HIGH though; the second I heard all of the familiar blips and beeps the machines make, I was back in fifth grade again.

Hokuto No Ken/Fist of the north star all the way

For me, the show NEVER lived up to the addictive awesomeness of the Gameboy RPG.

Hell yeah, that's it. Ah, great memories. Only anime I've found worth a damn.

I really only seek out anime that I think I'll enjoy. I very rarely just watch stuff without a clue thinking I might like it. I've found I really only gravitate towards science fiction-centered anime. Ghost In The Shell, Ergo Proxy, Texhnolyze, Akira are all classics that I enjoy, particularly their dark atmospheres.

I suggest everybody goes out and watches Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. It's incredibly dark, haunting and interesting, and I've never seen anything so amazing before.

That's mostly what I look for in animes, a dark atmosphere and graphic style, not one of the likes of pokémon. I watched the whole Texhnolyze series, a little fucked up, particularly the ending, but highly enjoyable. Actually, it's the only series I've watched in its entirety, Ghost in the Shell looks interesting though. And the ffVII anime in the movie dvd is what I enjoyed the most on the whole package. The graphic style couldn't be better, script aside, making the whole movie as an anime would have greatly helped.

Jin Roh is a masterwork!

However, my all time favorites are Trigun, Noire, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Gundam Wing, Afro Samurai and well...a lot more

However, a lot of people just thought that Outlaw Star was just a Cowboy Bebop rip off, but I found the style and swagger to be just as good, if not superior at times, and the story telling was great. There was one episode where the young side kick (always forget his name) kills (unknowingly in a space ship duel) the woman that he really liked and was supposed to meet up with later and the audience only knows this by a close up of a rose she gave to him earlier that episode floating in space amidst the wreckage of her ship ....BRILLIANT!

I know what your saying it's one of these shows that sucks you in to the story i felt sorry for some of the characters when they died. And how they died was always fucked up but i did not like the ending there where just to many unanswered questions.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes, because it's better than Star Wars. And basically everything. Nothing will ever beat this show.

So go watch it.

FasterDisaster, do it! Thank me later.

Some other favorites...
- GITS: SAC
(I honestly did not like the movies at all until I watched the series. Watching SAC made me appreciate the world, the characters, etc, a lot and then when I went back to the original movie, I absolutely loved it. Not too big on the second movie though. A story mainly without Motoko? No! I like the second season of SAC the most, since it had more of an over-arching story. Solid State Society is cool too. I don't care for manga, but this is one series I'd like to look into someday).
- Armored Trooper Votoms
(People go to Gundam 08th MS Team for "realistic mecha" and that's just hilarious. Man up and go to fucking Votoms! The twist ending is hilariously epic).
- Monster
- Zeta Gundam

Space Adventure Cobra is pretty fucking awesome, for one I finished recently. Cobra > Bond. I'll leave it at that.

Ideon Be Invoked is probably my favorite film. Epic conclusion to a great series, one of the most tragic and fucked up endings I've ever seen next to Texhnolyze.
(Dragon Quest composer! lol...)