I'm a bit new to anime and i was wondering what a good place to start was. If you could give the names + the basic plot of a few good films/series to start me off

Full Metal Alchemist is a great anime, so is Naruto.
If you want good anime/manga films, I recommend Ninja Scroll and Shadow skill.

Well it depends on what you like.

Fruits Bakset: Tohru Honda is 16 year old orphaned girl who gets invited to live in the house of her classmate, the handsome boy Sohma Yuki, and his cousins, 16 year old Kyo and 27 year old Shigure. However, these young men and parts of the rest of their family (both close and distant) hold a curse; if they are hugged by the opposite gender, they transform into animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Everyday is an adventure for sweet Tohru, as she gets to know everyone in the large family better (especially Yuki and Kyo), in both common and bizarre situations. But, the Sohma Family curse is certainly no laughing matter... it also holds horrible cruelity and heartbreak.

That's my suggestion.

Sounds cool. I'll just warm up my copy of kazza then

It would help if you said at all what you were looking for. I understand that you're looking for a good anime to start with, but if you could specify a specific genre, it'd make recommending stuff easier.

Also, I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but please buy licensed anime. It's really not that expensive if you get region 0 stuff.

Region 0 stuff is usually pirated though, right? =\

I never thought it was, but I don't really know anything about it, other then places to buy it. =/

I've always assumed it was legitimate because it's available on so many sites, and because I never hear people get up in arms about it.

But I could be wrong!

They're the hong kong DVDs right? It's not something I've looked into much, but back when I used to hear about them on fansubs.net and such, they were considered synonymous with bootlegging. So I've never gotten them and probably wouldn't ever unless it was the only way to get something with subs. Which is the case with a few series,as far as I know.

Hong Kong DVD was also a coverall term, so I don't know if that's where they all come from and such.

edit: There are stores in the mall near school that are stocked with pirated CDs as well. Websites too, so being widely available isn't really a sign that something is legit or not =\ I know some people that thought that Sonmay and the like were proper music distributors =\

So, I looked into it- or at least, I did a few google searches- and basically, it looks like some region 0 dvds are legit, and some are pirated.

I have no idea how to find out specific dvds are bootlegs, though.

All I'm really finding is lots of information on how the region 0 copies of Battle Royale are Bootlegs. =/

this (http://www.digital.anime.org.uk/piratefaq.html#dvd) has a short list of pirate companies.


* Animation International
* Animation Japan International
* Anime Cartoon
* Anime Cartoon International
* Anime Studio
* Another DVD Company
* Digital International
* DVD Ani
* fx
* Indian International
* K
* MAC (Manga Anime Cartoon)
* Manga International
* Video Animation


Usually if the price is too good to be true, it probably is. That's the normal saying, anyways. When I get stuff from that store I mentioned, I usually pick the CDs that have the normal high japanese price and aren't by everanime or some other pirate company I recognize... though last time I was there that was all they had. =\

But there are still deals in importing. I got the Trick movie for $12 since I bought the region 3 version. Most DVD players apparently have a secret password option that makes them region free, and you can find out if yours has one online. The japanese DVD was around $40, I think. And buying japanese CDs that are legitimately published in other asian countries usually gets you $10 off etc. Plus there are deals in the US to be found. I heard that the Escaflowne complete boxset was going for $60, which is a steal for a full series plus movie.

As for series, I'd recommend: Love Hina, Naruto and Neon Genesis Evangelion (maybe hold the last one back until you get a lil bit into anime)

Films: Akira, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, Urotsukidoji (once you're pretty into anime and have a goo dstomach =D)

OH! Buy .hack//Legend of the Twlight on DVD, you can find at your nearest Best Buy store.