I don't watch too much anime, I've heard good things but I've never got into it, can anyone recommend a good series. Not too retarded like flying ninjas striving to be the best flying ninja, but just one with a good story and graphical prowess. Only "anime" I watch is the boondocks.

Frankly, only a complete fool would try to give you a recommendation at this point. No one knows what genres you might be interested in, how you would be watching it, or even how much time you're willing to invest. You need to answer every one of those questions before anyone will be able to offer any useful recommendations.

Also, I just want to reiterate that if anyone pops up behind me with random recommendations, they're fools and should be ignored.

genres aren't a big deal, I'm here almost all my free time so I have a lot of free time to spare, I'd like to see some with fights, kind of like DBZ, but something with a indulgent story.

Cowboy Bebop fits that vague description.

Frasier!

...

/me summons his powers of empathic mind reading and understanding in order to delve into ultra's minde and find exactly what he's looking for...


......................RESULTS!...................


yah i totally recommend la blue girl man. right up your ally. :D



lol. no but seriously. i'm actually gonna go ahead and rely on movies again. imo there is no better starting ground than movies. if i'm going to make you watch a series at all, it'll be "wahtever's running on tv at the moment". not because i trust it's any good. but because the effort it takes to d/l anime never seems to justify...the effort! O_o

whatch whatevers on tv. stick with anything that tickles your fancy. and if your gonna make the effort at all with d/ls or purchases, i highly recommend the following MOVIES.


Akira

Ninja Scroll

Ghost in the Shell

Macross Plus the movie (or go ahead and find the 2 part dvd or the 4 part vhs thing lol) it's all the same thing in the end.) except the movie should have a titty shot that the 4 part doesn't. :(

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust


let me know when your done and i'll have more movies for ya.

Curses..one of my fav. anime movies was named already
(Ghost in the Shell) (also came out with a Anime series, 3 seasons to be specific)
as for shows Blood+, Trinity Blood, El Hazard, El Hazard 2 (2nd season), Brain Powered, Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro Chan (youtube), Full Metal Alchemist, Samurai Champloo, Eureka 7, Street Fighter 2, Tokko, Noein, Oh! My Goddes, Bleach, Naruto (Jap. w/eng sub found on youtube). that's abut all I can remember.... oh and most of these have their songs on the list..

Some animes that I really enjoyed were Hellsing and Elfen Lied. Its always up to what you personally like though

I heard about both of those, heard they were pretty good.

If your into more realistic action you should try Grappler Baki. Good luck finding it now though...

I'd like to point out to everyone who might consider replying from this point on that the last several posts have been an utter waste of everyone's time. The guy is not going to be able to make any kind of intelligent choices when you just ramble off some stuff you're familiar with. At the very least, give a description of the series/movie you're recommending.

I actually found these helpful, I'm gonna go from top to bottom to see which is best, thanks for all the replies but still keep them coming.

Okay, don't mind me then. I guess I'm no good at helping people, so I'll just stick to ripping you a new one when you step out of line.

All I asked were for some recommendations, I mean just tell me some you like, I may not like some, and I may like some. And it's not like I'm jumping in ass-forward, I do some research I go to wiki to get the plot/setting and youtube to watch clips. If after do said things I will continue to watch what was recommended.

Two words: Death Note

All I asked were for some recommendations, I mean just tell me some you like, I may not like some, and I may like some. And it's not like I'm jumping in ass-forward, I do some research I go to wiki to get the plot/setting and youtube to watch clips. If after do said things I will continue to watch what was recommended.

Don't get me wrong. I just didn't know you were willing to put in that much effort.

Also, ignore Miss Ermis there if you know what's good for you. After a few utterly magnificent episodes, Death Note completely degenerates. Its rapid pacing slows to a crawl and totally unnecessary plot elements are introduced one after another purely for the sake of extending the longevity of the cash cow.

Hint taken I gotta see these few episodes though:).

Never heard Prak call something utterly Magnificent.

Cowboy Bebop looks good. I'll look into that first.
Akira looks good that's up second, the whole psychic power thing entices me, that's the same reason I played Galerians
Ninja Scroll- From what I saw it was stunning the plot seems rough around the edges, but still just fine.
Ghost in the shell seems dull to me, I just didn't like what I saw or read.
Macross plus I couldn't find the story could someone tell me what it is?
Vampier Hunter D just looks like another, "kill all the DEMONZ!!11!" type anime

That's all I previewed so far, I'm working on watching them right now.

If you're gonna watch Vampire Hunter D. Watch the second one, Bloodlust. I saw the first one and well the animation is so outdated ("great for it's time") and the story isn't even all that great. Atleast the second one had some neat characters/better art. I don't really remember much about the storyline though, but it was decent I guess.

The first Ghost in the Shell movie is pretty dull compared to the Stand Alone/ 2ndGig series and of course the Solid State Society movie. Still it's not a bad movie...just maybe not to your liking? Not that much action through most of the series, but it wasn't really made for the action. It's more like a detective show dealing with social/political issues in a futuristic setting. BUT when the action does get going...I have to say it's worth the wait. Also A+ characters!

As for all the other ones you listed. I have to say that I believe it to be a good list. I've never seen Macross Plus, but I heard it was really good too. I could never find anything on it though...like torrents and stuff.

haha. ultra is getting me all excited cause theres nothing better than lowering your expectations for an anime. it's like almost a guarantee to enjoying something. :D

keep it up man. lowering it is the equivallent of having absolutely 0 bias and 0 sway so you can almost NEVER be dissaointed. it's like watching something with a clean slate. your not jaded. your not expecting "better" just honest to goodness innocent viewing. ;_; i remember those days... *cries*

i miss those days. :(

mm descriptions eh?
Well Furi Kuri(FlCl) is Insane Zany, and everything in between, I mean at one point it cut to the manga instead of animating it. anyways if you wanna know some basics I'll tlel you this. characters include a robot, a pyro/ high school dropout, many aliens, and the vespa woman. It has funny / awesome music often including rock guitars.

Street Fighter 2 Is senseless old school unadultarated plain and simple no explosions fighting. no plot what so ever except learn different ways of fighting and beat the $\-\1+ outta anything in your way. when the hadoken is found it's quite funny.

Full Metal Alchemist is Deep and funny as such it has a good plotline, many well developped characters, and of coarse the occastional but hilarious goof off moments. Ed is one of two main characters he is serious, short tempered, kind, caring, tenacious and inventive. His Brother Al is childish, caring, kind, non chillant, not quick to anger, and expressive. that's all I will say as I don't wish to spoil it for you, if anyone wnats to elaborate on any of the ones I posted they can. also these are just my views if you want to contractdict me do so, but just letting you know I won't care.

Lol Tact' always insightful ;)

and ranorath thanks for the post but, triple posting is unnecessary.

I was kind enough to splice them this time, but in the future, if you want to add more after making a post, just edit the previous one instead of posting several times in a row.

sorry bout that, I'll remember... I'm just usta being a bit more free with posting... ah well simple thing to remember thanks for the advice.

Noein - fan-sub. A sci-fi time traveling adventure. Has a little bit of everything. Comedy, action, angst, romance. Music just plain rocks, especially the fight music and theme music. Well written and smart. The group that subbed it where nice enough to explain the scientific aspects of quantum physics when its brought up. If you use it, it can be found at veoh.com.

I second the recommendation of Noein. It is amazing.

I haven't seen all that much of it, but I definitely have to recommend Black Lagoon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_lagoon) if you're in the mood for action anime. At the very least, the first couple episodes have plenty of awesome fight scenes. If the story goes south from that point on, I'm sorry. :(

I'm adddin g that to the list ;)

I'm gonna third the noein....
also I just recently watched the Ghost In the Shell Movie, it is really good, innovative, actiony but the voices are a bit different that those in the series... I think the major had a different English voice actor for the series and the movie but I'm not sure...Batto and The Cheif have the same ones...
so yeah watch it it is good.

If you're starting out on the road to anime obsession I'd suggest films over series. Less investment of cash or download time. The following are widely agreed upon as classics in terms of story and art...

Akira - Post-apocalyptic sci-fi action
Ghost In The Shell - Philosophical thriller and big influence on The Matrix
Spirited Away - Oscar-winning unique and beautiful film from Hayao Miyazaki
Castle in the Sky - Boys' own adventure; also from Miyazaki
Blood: The Last Vampire - Striking short horror from IG Studios who did the animation in Kill Bill. Bleh.
Tokyo Godfathers - Heartwarming, funny Christmas tale from Satoshi Kon
Pom Poko - ("Only in Japan") A comedy about flying raccoons with enormous testicles waging war on land developers who want to destroy their home.

Anything from the directors Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon or Mamoru Oshii is worth watching and almost all their films have superb production values. They also cover a wide range of genres and moods.

Edit, I finished Cowboy Bebop Series and Movies, sad to say, I is a fanboy now, great art, the music compliments the show nicely, the story is good, a bit of the loner fighting for his heart back, type thing. The only thing is the whole sense of story telling, it's like one episode will delve into one characters background, so there is no real centered plot, more like all in the day of the life of a bounty hunter type theme.

The movie, was just like a long episode, and seeing a the series is over:(, it was nice to see the characters again.

Ninja Scroll was great, nice art, nice story, all around great really, just wen the movie gets gory, it's looks like red confetti, I mean red streamers every where.

and now I'm going to watch Akira.

I don't know if it's been suggested, but you should really watch Fate/Stay Night

any reason in particular? strengths or weaknesses?

Here's more:

Lucky Star: It's funny, trust me.
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: It's pretty popular, so you should see why.
Kiddy Grade: Plenty of action and violence. xD

any reason in particular? strengths or weaknesses?
Well, it has quite a few fights, which is of course cool. But the coolest part is that it has a lot of mythological influences. I won't spoil any of them. But the servants are hero's from the past and future. Usually mythological heroes. The only weakness is that a lot of things are still a mystery...I might as well spoil one since the episodes don't mention it, but in the game (originally a hentai game) you find out that Rin and Sakura are sisters....biological sisters. And in the episodes you can only see they used to be close, but you'd expect them to be childhood friends rather than sisters...

Like Prak says, it's helpful to know what kind of stuff you are interested in. Judging from your opening post, I guess Anime like Naruto or Bleach frighten you because of the rampant amount of fans who give them a terrible name.

Except Bleach really isn't all that great at all, but hey.

Instead of suggesting something, I'll just give a few insights on what to avoid...

Popularity doesn't really mean good. Like I said, Bleach has lots of fans, but I do not like it. Same applies to Naruto. Personally, I am a fan, but it is not for everyone.

Miyazaki movies are generally good stuff, but if you have a short attention span, they may not keep your interest. Mononoke perhaps, but little others.

Do you like Romance, action, Development, smexiness, what? If you are so open to suggestion, you should experiment. A surprising thing about Anime, is that you are likely to find deep and engrossing plots where you wouldn't normally suspect it.

I totally lied up there, I'll make a few suggestions:
Action: Stick with the Basics. Hellsing(Vampire Anime, high quality animation and dubbing), Yu Yu Hakusho (Or as I like to call it, DBZ with Character)
Bebop: I think you watched it already when I posted this? But still, worth mentioning.

Romance/Comedy (they are pretty much the same category in Anime.)
FLCL: Complicated as it may seem, this is a fantastic show, with excellent story and characters, and a deep and warming message (About sex. Woo!)

Mech (Big Robots, really a category in it's own right)
Gundam 08th MS team: A fantastic Mech anime, by far my favorite in the Gundam Series. Chronicles a love story between soldiers on opposite sides of a war, with a main character who isn't a whiny little punk who can miraculously pilot a gundam.

My taste may not be as "High Quality" as other people who post might want you to think, but in the end, we are still talking about a subject that lends itself entirely up to the preference of the viewer.

Basically I like actions titles that actually have a good story take DBZ for instance that story was horrible, except for the first one, Cell and Freiza and all the rest of those crummy stories were lackluster at best.

I do like Gundam, though I haven't seen it in years, I would like stuff just like it I think that fits under action though.

Also thanks for all the post I'm about to watch Akira.

I'm looking for some reccomendations as well.

First, I'll say that I love comedy/action types and dramas that have really good characters and storyline.

I guess I'll go with what I've seen and enjoyed to give you an example. I think it gives a decent idea of what I'm looking for. I do not like long animes, however. Anything over 50 unless it's really good is just too much for me.

Cowboy Bebop (Loved)
Outlaw Star (Loved)
.hack//sign (one of my favorites)
Gundam Wing (Enjoyed a lot)
Naruto (The second part of the series is a lot more enjoyable. I really didn't like the first)
Chrno Crusade (Also liked, still want to finish it though.)

And that's about it, really. I've obviously seen some other mainstream ones, but I hated them.

Also, has anyone seen Gundam SEED? I was really intrigued by it and was wondering if it was any good.

Oh yeah I forgot about the .Hack series, I'll be checking that out now thanks byrd.

If you want action-oriented shows, consider giving .hack//SIGN a miss. It's pretty good stuff, but it's really slow-paced and almost entirely character-driven. I don't know anything about the more recent series though.

i'm currently struggling to make my brother like anime. he's only 13 (or was it 12) and he makes fun of me for liking anime and he always mimics the girls in the shows when they're being all happy and going "uh hum!" like when they're all perky and agreeing to do some good deed which then goes into a musical montage or something. O_o yah. i watch a lot of shoujo but that doesnt' mean that's all there is.

to him, that's all there is and he finds it funny that i, a grown man, would be into that stuff. i tell him, "dude, there some serious shit out there, you don't even know!" and hes like "whatever". i couldn't even get him into bleach because the episode they happend to show was some non action episode where they showed just too much of those girls at home cooking and eating breakfast and living life. -_-

idk what he wants. i think he wants a no bullshit anime. no happy go lucky girls with perky attitudes. no episodes. idk. i thought he liked dbz but he says he thinks that is crap too. (but a lot of times he'll just tease me and call everything crap so maybe he was joking)

all i can say is. i was only able to pull out like 5 or 6 movies from my collection to try to bring him over to the dark side. and so far, 1 of them worked. :D

i told him. here. pick the one you think you'd like. and i showed him the following.

"ninja scroll" (still not even sure if i should show him this cause of that yummie "rape" scene. :D)

akira

ghost in the shell

spriggan

vampire hunter D: bloodlust



he chose bloodlust and ended up liking it a lot. i'll see what he picks next and hopefully win his soul i mean, make him like anime. :D


i can't say for sure, but my guess is he definately doen'st want a series. i think even a 26 epper would be too long for him and he'd lose interest. so i'll try some 13 ep ones. or 3 episode ova's or whatever.

Should Have put him on the Bebop that's some no bullshit show right there... until Ed comes for comic relief... which they were better off without. tbh.

The movie shows some side-boobie, and cleavage though, but I wouldn't recommend ninja scroll, just yet, maybe a year or two later. Won't mom/dad be like you're poisoning his soul?

Also don't poison his impressionable mind with bleach, he'll most likely end up buying all the shirts, and become a fanboy. You don't know the power of the dark side[/star was pun]

I can't get no reccomendations?! :(

O well, I started re-watching Chrno Crusade after like 3 years of watching and never finishing. So that should be good, I hope. I'm thinking of downloading Full Metal Alchemist as well.


But anyone know anything about Gundam SEED?

Should Have put him on the Bebop that's some no bullshit show right there... until Ed comes for comic relief... which they were better off without. tbh.

The movie shows some side-boobie, and cleavage though, but I wouldn't recommend ninja scroll, just yet, maybe a year or two later. Won't mom/dad be like you're poisoning his soul?

Also don't poison his impressionable mind with bleach, he'll most likely end up buying all the shirts, and become a fanboy. You don't know the power of the dark side[/star was pun]

i'd rather have him obsess over bleach and naruto than have him mock anime the way he has been this whole time.

yesterday we saw Gits and..damn it all. noob fell asleep right at the end in the good part where motoko was going up against that spider tank. >.<

i had forgotten how much "fanservice" there was though. maybe i should have held back. even ninja scroll dind't have that much. just one short scene even though that one short scene is much much more suggestive than the massive ammounts of cyborg titties but still. i'm guessing i should hold back on fanservice in general. >.< my mistake. plus there were tons more dialouge than i remember and i could tell it was all just going in one ear and out the other for him. bad choice. >.<

i should have watched spriggan instead. :p


also i think your right. CowBe is definately no bull. but methinks he gets bored with any sort of dialouge. remember, he's only 13 and prolly short attention span. -_-

Then I'd sugest all the Gundams, I was nine/ten and understood very little, but man were those some kick ass robots.

edit I forgot to mention I watched spirited away, that was beautiful nice story, intriguing, truly magical, hate to sound like a paid critic but man was that a good 2hrs of my life.

i'm into action, comedy, romance/comedy, scifi anime.

and i like robot anime too.

i'm into action, comedy, romance/comedy, scifi anime.

You should recommend some then.


I can't get no reccomendations?!

O well, I started re-watching Chrno Crusade after like 3 years of watching and never finishing. So that should be good, I hope. I'm thinking of downloading Full Metal Alchemist as well.


SILB

Full Metal Alchemist is well worth the torrent time.
Rurouni Kenshin (aka Samurai X) is a classic actioner.

Leftfield choice:

King Of Bandits Jing is an interesting comedy/action/drama type thing.

Full Metal Alchemist is pretty good. Kind of depressing, but it has some great moments.

I wouldn't recommend all Gundam series, for those interested in an Action/war series. 08th MS team, STardust Memory, and the Original are all great, G-Gundam is brainless, but sometimes brainless=fun.

To Tact, I wouldn't stress too much about your younger brother. Like anything, you cant force your interests onto somebody else. You can just show him what you like about things, and maybe if he isn't a huge d-bag he could find something he identifies with as well.