My first anime - 'Ghost in the Shell' (1 Viewer)

[Trevor H]

Also check out "Blood, The Last Vampire" from the creators of GitS, it is very good and the soundtrack will give your subwoofer and surrounds a good workout, it's a little short timewise though.

 

[Mark Lehmkuhl]

Thanks for all the replies. For now I think I need to get a few more movies, then I'll jump into a series. I do like Sci-Fi/horror, but am not against comedy, drama, etc. Medievel sounds good also.

Sounds like my next one will be between Akira, Metropolis, Vampire Hunter D, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies (probably wind up watching them all).

SO many titles, enough to keep one busy for a while!

 

[Woo Jae]

Mark:
Once upon a time, Anime was not released in such large quantities. There was a time when what you had to buy was limited and you could get all the releases for the year and count them on your fingers and toes. No Longer! Now we are awash in so many series and so many titles that well, collectors are falling behind. And if you are like me and started late, well that is an UPHILL battle. :frowning: But happy for all the anime lovers to have LOTS of choices
Eh. Can't help but choose between what to watch.
Seriously - try the Ghibli Titles. They are the cream of the crop in ANIMATION (all animation, not just disney or japanese) in general, involving great layered characters (usually heroines), stunning animation, and great music.
Another suggestion are a few more series:
1. Now and Then, Here and There Collector's Edition box - POWERFUL stuff - war and children set WAY into the future. Horribly depressing (at least for me). Watch something cheerful.
2. Cowboy Bebop - Great blend music and style. A bit episodic, but great nonetheless...
3. Trigun - Vash, the 60,000,000,000 $$ man...
4. Ruroni Kenshin TV - (GET THE FIRST 14 and the two OAVs)The tale of a redeemed assasin told with equal parts humor and drama. A MUST SEE, IMHO.
5. Ranma 1/2 TV Boxed sets - great gender bending comedy.
6. Video Girl Ai - A "Dateless" boy and a video girl changed by his "defective" VCR. Sweet love story....
7. Oh! My Goddess OAVs and Ah! My Goddess the Movie - Great tale of a trio of Goddesses (sisters, in fact) living on earth with a hapless boy name Keiichi Morisato. Touching romantic series....

 

[Todd_B]

I'll pop in and add another vote for Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.
I bought Hellsing on a whim and now I'm in for the long haul (I just pre-orderd the LE for V3)
Todd B

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Steve-

One episode of Evangelion doesn't give the show justice. You would most likely have to watch the whole series twice or three times in order to get everything (and even then you probably won't get EVERYTHING). It also depends on what episode you saw, some of them have nothing interesting in them besides some small character development.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

Another Todd, another vote for Hellsing. I'm hooked. I've also been enjoying Berserk.

 

[Derek Leath]

I'm also just getting into anime.
The one's I like so far seem to be, "Ghost in the shell"
"Vampire Hunter D", "Jin Rho", "Gundam Wing","Armitage","PatLabor".
I'm still finding more all the time.

 

[Woo Jae]

Cyberpunk Anime? Try these....
1. Try Bubblegum Crisis2040 Perfect Collection or BubblegumCrisis Megapack. Features attractive women in kick a$$ battlesuits beating the crap out of "Boomers" - robots/cyborgs gone wild.
2. Try Battle Angel as a teaser, then get the 10 part graphic novels by Viz for the complete story.
For cyberpunk, that's what came up in my mind (and also in my collection).
A good funny anime spoofing the space opera genre is
Irresponsible Captain Tylor. That will have you rolling on the floor.

 

[Steve Christou]

Morgan I watched the first episode of Evangelion a few months ago on the SF Channel, than watched part of the 2nd episode the following week before losing interest and switched channels, maybe I'm too old for episodic anime, they remind me too much of Robotech, there must have been hundreds of those episodes.
I enjoyed Spriggan which was also on SF channel, very good animation and spectacular action sequences, not a classic but good fun.
Oh yeah Wicked City is one of the great anime's IMO, stylish animation with some excellently creepy sequences, hugely enjoyable.

 

[Josh Lowe]

watched GitS for the fourth time this evening. such deep concepts presented in an animated movie, gotta love it. and the animation is gorgeous, the city reminds me so much of LA as portrayed in Blade Runner..

 

[Brian E]

Try Battle Angel

Battle Angel is good, however it's been OOP for quite awhile so I don't know how easy it'll be to find.

 

[Rob Lutter]

I have had the box for 2 days and I am already up to episode 7 of Neon Genesis Evangelion. This ranks up there with the best anime I have seen! (thanks Morgan )
I know it is a good series when I find myself feeling physically SAD when an episode ends and HAVING to watch the next episode
Here are some of my recommendations:
For movies:
-Grave of the Fireflies (sad sad depressing)
-Akira (THE BEST)
-Princess Mononoke (watch the original Japanese, the English makes the story have a TOTALLY different "feel" IMHO)
TV/OVA
-Tenchi series (OVA [aka: Tenchi Muyo!] is where ya wanna start. (there are also 2 TV series: Universe and Tenchi in Tokyo) The entire series is a sci-fi romantic comedy and never fails to make me laugh.
-Cowboy Bebop (my favorite series... science fiction story about bounty hunters in space, but it is really about MUCH more than that. You have to see the entire series to really take in the entire story)
and it looks as if Neon Genesis Evangelion may be entering this list pretty soon
Most importantly... experiment, buy the first disc of a series or borrow it from a friend to see if you like it. If you are in college, join an anime club! They are the best way to both find new things/see the newest stuff from Japan.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Most importantly... experiment, buy the first disc of a series or borrow it from a friend to see if you like it. If you are in college, join an anime club! They are the best way to both find new things/see the newest stuff from Japan.

Ugh, not this season's offerings. I've checked out quite a number of the new shows, all of them awful. I wish Harlock hadn't been held back and made an OVA :frowning:

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Rob-

I'm really happy you enjoy the series. I'm just sad that you'll be sitting there with that "huh?" look on your face just one more DVD from now.

 

[Chad Ferguson]

Maybe this is a little off topic but isn't there a Ghost in the Shell TV series out or being made?

 

[Rob Lutter]

Yes... and it is AWESOME
There are only a couple of episodes out in Japan so far, but it is supposed to be coming to DVD pretty damn soon here in the US (I believe they are dubbing the english at the same time as the japanese).

 

[Jim Peavy]

Hmmm, I really didn't think GotF was "depressing", and to me that wasn't the point. I actually think a movie just being "depressing" is something of a cop-out. Sure, it is heartbreaking, but it has a...transcendent (for lack of a better word) quality to it that leaves me with a sense of...peace, I guess. I mean, if something is just hopelessly depressing, who would want to watch it?
Don't let the reviews scare you off from watching this beautiful, patient, very worthwhile anime. NOT to bash anyone (and we're all entitled to our opinions, of course),
but Grave of the Fireflies is much more than just "depressing."

 

[Calvin_Su]

Morgan I watched the first episode of Evangelion a few months ago on the SF Channel, than watched part of the 2nd episode the following week before losing interest and switched channels, maybe I'm too old for episodic anime

Evangelion is NOT episodic. Watch the whole series and I guarantee that you will feel that it was all one long storyline.

Cowboy Bebop - now theres an episodic series.

 

[Elvie]

Had to add my 2 cents worth about "Grave of the Fireflies" ...

It isn't "depressing" in the hard terminology of the word, but is "heartbreaking" and I'd definately be sure to have a box of tissues handy. It is a very sad story set during war-time, but one well worth watching. What it will do, it make you think about it days after watching it.


Oh, and about watching anime in Japanese rather than English ... please don't throw anything at me, but that's how I got a couple of friends into watching anime (English language track on). They then re-watched the shows in Japanese with subtitles enjoying them more than the first run-through. They watched "Ghost in the Shell" in English, then again in Japanese a couple of weeks later. This started a couple of monsters runing around looking for anime after that. So it's not always a bad thing *shrug* ...

 

[Mark Lehmkuhl]

How do you pronounce anime?