Briareos H on 5/4/2012 at 09:43
Quote Posted by Sulphur
If you liked Beyond the Clouds, BH, I guess you'd want to see 5cm/sec if you haven't already. It's a similar tale - and quite frankly, all of Makoto Shinkai's stories follow the exact same patterns of love and loss - but sans the science fiction.
Yep. The lack of sci-fi is why I didn't include 5 centimeter in the list, as I found the scientific elements in Beyond the Clouds rather interesting and almost worth the watch on their own. Also agree that since Hoshi no Koe, Makoto Shinkai's stories of distance and love have been strikingly identical. But my soft-hearted, starry-eyed side makes them work all the time :[ I haven't seen his last film though, maybe it's a bit different.
june gloom on 5/4/2012 at 10:14
Seconded. Very understated compared to most other anime, largely because the director usually does live-action stuff.
demagogue on 5/4/2012 at 13:44
The anime they've had on Adult Swim are usually pretty good ... Wolf's Rain, Big O (only big robots one I like; I mean the show itself is good. It doesn't even need the robots), Full Metal Alchemist, Inuyasha (all of Rumiko Takahashi's anime are good: Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma ½). Gonzo makes good anime: Last Exile, Blue Submarine, Hellsing, Full Metal Panic. Ping Pong Club & Crayon Shin-chan are legitimately hilarious & vulgar. Uh, Neon Genesis Evangelion of course, Gantz, Ouran High School, Escaflowne, Le Petite Portrait de Cosette... Some classics like Lupin III, Space Battleship Yamato...
Kroakie on 5/4/2012 at 15:02
By Full Metal Alchemist, did you mean the first series or FMA: Brotherhood? If it's the first and you liked that, then I highly recommend Brotherhood. It follows the manga storyline, which is many times better than the anime original stuffs Bones made up for the second half of the first series.
Here's a list of series and movies that I think you will enjoy:
1. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. The very definition of
Epic. Eat your hearts out, Gundam.
2. Natsume Yuujinchou. About a boy who can see spirits and his love/hate relationship with them. Very heartwarming. There's 4 seasons of materials, so it should last you quite long.
3. Fate/Zero. Group of mages take part in a fight for the Holy Grail, each summoning a Heroic Spirit from ages past to act as their servants. So you get the likes of King Arthur fighting against Gilgamesh. The second season is starting this Sunday.
4. Rebuild of Evangelion. Movie remake of the TV Series, with less angst but more holy fucking crap awesome visuals. It's a wonder what differences technology, a huge budget, and a director who recovered from depression can do to a series. 2 movies are already out, with two more to go. The first was a fairly faithful remake of the first 6 episodes of the series, while the second one diverges quite a bit. It's much less, as you put it, self-indulgent, so if you found the original interesting, you should like this a lot more.
5.Mononoke. Not Princess Mononoke, the Miyazaki film, though that is good too. This is a spinoff from the last arc of Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales (which you should watch too, if you can find it), about a medicine seller who walks the earth, or at least Japan, exorcising supernatural spirits. To do that, he has to first learn the Shape, Truth, and Reason of the spirits, before he can unsheathe his sword and destroy the creature. What's interesting here is that (This might be a spoiler, so I'd tag it)
most of the time, the spirits themselves are not the monsters of the story. Very striking visuals, which might not be everyone's cup of tea.
6. Puella Magi Madoka Magica. A magical girl series that is quite different from what had came before. Saying anything more will be spoiling it, so just watch it.
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Seconded. Very understated compared to most other anime, largely because the director usually does live-action stuff.
Thirded.
Mr.Duck on 5/4/2012 at 20:30
A few charming and memorable anime films I highly reccomend:
* Tokyo Godfathers
* The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
* Summer Wars
Enjoy :)
Cheers!
Aerothorn on 5/4/2012 at 21:16
Honestly, I'd put Bebop, GITS:SAC, and Paranoia Agent in my top 3. FLCL would be 4. So...hard to find stuff to recommend.
Give GITS:SAC a chance, it definitely delves into issues, albeit in a very different way from the film. Which is good, because it's working with a different time frame and medium. GITS is basically a thoughtful philosophical exploration without a lot of "meat"; GITS:SAC is a legit police procedural, albeit one that is genuinely science fiction. To quote Lawrence Pearson:
"At its best, GitS:SAC is the most interesting, sustained postcyberpunk media work in existence, intellectually (if not visually) superior to the original movie, and almost worthy of direct comparison to the post/cyberpunk works which inspired it."
Also, FWIW, while initially disappointed with Paranoia Agent's ending, a re-viewing convinced me that it was actually the most sensible way to end it.
Yakoob on 6/4/2012 at 04:49
Quote Posted by Briareos H
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Quote Posted by Kroakie
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Sweet list, much appreciate the descriptions and proper formatting! Will be checking those out :)
Quote Posted by demagogue
Escaflowne
Ohohoho. It's been a while, but I watched it with my sister. All I remember is hating it immensely for the stupid characters and constantly teasing my sister about it since she did like it.
Oh and I also forgot to add I've seen
Grave of the Fireflies, a brilliant movie and a de-facto counter-argument to anyone claiming anime is for kids.
Koki on 6/4/2012 at 06:24
Just because something is animated and from Japan doesn't automatically make it anime. That's like saying all black and white movies from France are Noir. Anime is a genre and is thus "characterized by a particular style, form or content"(Merriam-Webster). Do try to point out similar styles, forms or contents in both Grave of the Fireflies and Naruto.
And Grave of the Fireflies is an overrated soccer mom tearjerker.
demagogue on 6/4/2012 at 08:37
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Ohohoho. It's been a while, but I watched it with my sister. All I remember is hating it immensely for the stupid characters and constantly teasing my sister about it since she did like it.
Ah no I was remembering it as something else. Well whatever, I was looking at another list and thought it was another one... then I don't remember what the one I was thinking of was.
Quote Posted by Koki
Anime is a genre and is thus "characterized by a particular style, form or content"(Merriam-Webster).
Anime is a contraction of the Japanese word for animated film, "animesho-n". In Japanese use (I mean day-to-day, person on the street use) it includes Disney movies, and they'll distinguish between Japanese and Western anime. Only in the West do we take their word and make up our own genre with it ... not that that's wrong. The Noir analogy makes sense. But at least there, it's what the French think that counts (back when what the French think was all that counted).
