What are some good anime to watch?

Although pretty old i'd say ARMITAGE III it's my favorite Anime.

For really old school Samurai action watch THE HAKKENDEN. Be awake on this one though or you might lose track of the story.

And if you want funny and cute try EL HAZARD. Laughed my ass of on this one. It's brilliant fantasy too.

And the previous posts are also full of cool stuff as far as i know, AKIRA is a must imo, SAMURAI CHAMPLOO, COWBOY BEBOP are definately worth watching and Miyazaki stuff is just another world completely.

Oh i almost forgot if you want really really weird stuff try GANTZ i only watched a few episodes but that's some sick shit.
 
The Kenshin (Samurai X) Trust and Betrayal OAVs. Watch it subbed, because the dub is painful.

Claymore.
 
Trust and Betrayal absolutely rocks

Also, Ninja Scroll. Best.Samurai.Anime.Ever.

Macross Plus OAV 1-4 is badass as well.
 
God damn... most anime watchers are complete morons. Don't ever listen to ANYONE who reviews anime (and ONLY anime). People who have anime podcasts or review websites don't have the taste, or the critical nature needed to give proper reviews. They tend to like anime because they are anime, not because they are genuinely good stories (in which most are not). Because of this, most (if not all) reviewers who review anime exclusively let big plot holes, poor direction of photography and plain old continuity problems go. They tend to care more about things being "bad ass", rather than care about any sort of character progression or build up.

But my favorites:
The Record of Lodoss War OVA (TV series was meh)
The Vision of Escaflowne TV Series (movie sucked)
Rurouni Kenshin OVA (also called Samurai X, TV series sucked)
Marmalade Boy TV Series
Hikaru no Go TV Series (frame by frame accurate to the Manga)
RahXephon TV Series
Avatar: The Last Airbender (water tribe!)
The Slayers TV Series (especially season 2)
Tenchi Muyo OVA (also called Ryo-ohki)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes (all of it!)
Azumanga Daioh TV Series

Bleach is crap. Naruto is crap. The original version of Akira was crap, the director's cut that added 30 minutes to it in 2001 actually made it decent. Akira is one of those animes that are popular because it advanced direction of photography in anime (often called art direction); even if before the director's cut the story had major plot holes and made little to no sense. Evangelion is much the same way, the only reason people talked about it so much was because of how little sense it made. RahXephon was far superior, with just as good art direction; but the story made sense and wrapped up neatly at the end, so no one had anything to talk about.

In the end, you can't really take ANYONE's reviews when it comes to anime; the medium just tends to garner a lot of unearned love and attention than even narnar films (at least narnar film fans KNOW the shit they are watching is bad). Really on these forums, the only one I have seen with any taste is Page. He tends to feel the same way I do about anime and he stated it already on this thread. "Good is good, bad is bad". Just because something is anime, doesn't make it good and isn't an excuse to ignore the obvious flaws that you would normally complain about in another medium.

For instance, lets take what Animefreak6969 said in another thread:
Animefreak6969 said:
See you're looking at it wrong. Highschool of the Deads direction may have been done in zombie flicks before, but it has NEVER been done well in anime or even animated form before. It doesn't matter that it's happened in film, it hasn't happened in toon form and it's doing it a solid.
Click to expand...
He's commenting on another user who was complaining about Highschool of the Dead (I've only read the manga myself), and how its nothing new or original. Its a through the paces, by the numbers zombie story. To which Animefreak defends the series, as even though it has obvious flaws, its never been done in anime form. Which is just wrong. The fact that its in anime form shouldn't be an excuse to a shitty story, shitty art direction and just plain being a shitty anime. Is it shitty? I don't know, as I haven't seen it... and I have no interest in seeing it because the manga was shitty. And if the source material is shitty, chances are the manga is also shitty as well.

Oh, and as usual... Archangel has no taste.

If you ask me though, the best anime you are going to find came out in the 90's. The 90's were basically the golden era of anime. This is still the time before digital graphics were the norm, and almost all anime was still being produced on hand drawn chroma cells, instead of computers. Lower quality animation meant that production houses had to focus more on story to make up for the animation faults. As well, when there are literally only 30 new animes produced a YEAR, you know you'll have an easier time of actually finding quality productions.

Now I think anime is starting to hit close to 100 new animes a year and because of it, funding is being spread too thin within shitty anime out there to simply make a buck. Everything is so concerned about graphics, "epicness" or "randomness" that story is often being ignored. Its so bad now, that often I look for anime with BAD graphics, because then I know the story will be good.
 
Juuni Kokki
Seirei no moribito
Full metal panic

That's what I would be inclined to recommend that hasn't been named already. Really though it is tough to give people good ideas without knowing their tastes.
 
So an observation I had-- I noticed that the OP hasn't replied yet, and discussion looks like it's heating up, which I half expected with a thread like this.

page said:
Not saying it would be a problem for a person to say that they want to watch a certain type of show, and yes, a lot of people have terrible taste. But if the request is for just good anime, then Azumanga has every right to be there next to FLCL and Samurai Champloo, without any qualifiers.
Click to expand...

Ah, fair enough.

On a related note, I've only seen 13/26 of AzuDai, but I wouldn't say it's the one of the best animes out there (I wouldn't say it's RECOMMENDABLE without question). I completely love Yotsuba&!, so it's not like I don't follow Kiyohiko Azuma's humor; I just have a hard time finding a pace for me to complete the series.

I'd make a recommendation, but I doubt the OP is following this thread, and I'd only be listing my favorite anime, which I could do in the other thread.
 
Blood+ (one of those stories that makes u go: *scratches head* lolwut??..what a fucked up family)

Baki the Grappler (amazing story..also a fucked up family)

Digimon (1st season) lol

Cowboy Bebop

Avatar: The Last Air Bender (Earth and Water Bending is BAWSE)

Fairy Tail (Currently watching this 1 and loving it)
 
hmm well I don't watch action anime..(If I want action I play video games!!) but if you like Slice of Life, Romance and other stuff like that..I have a good list of some I like.

Clannad
Clannad After Story
Kanon 2006
Higurashi (any of them is fine)
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien
True Tears
Ef A Tale of Memories
Ef A Tale of Melodies
Kimi Kiss Pure Rouge
Lucky Star (lol)
Azumanga Daioh
Minami Kei
Sketchbook ~Full colors~
Lamune (lol I like boring stuff...)
Lovely Complex
Ballad of a Shinigami
Mushishi
Hyakko
Kimi ni Todoke


I'd type more, but I am too lazy...besides..those should last you a while.
 
Wouldn't say that anime was in general better in the 90s as much as it's a lot easier to watch all the crap that's released now, whereas back in the 90s, getting anime was legitimately difficult. My guess is just as much crap was released back then, but Americans just had a smaller sample size to draw from. But who knows, I find cartoons in the 90s to be much more entertaining than cartoons today.

For me, anime started sucking horribly right around when Haruhi came out, causing the moe movement to boom out of control. Mind you, this happened about 1 year after I started watching anime. What it comes down to is that 90% of everything is crud (Sturgeon's law) and eventually one becomes disillusioned to it, sooner or later. With anime, and pretty much every other media form, it is because everything is recycled, and eventually you'll have seen it all and nothing will be feel as fresh as the first thing you saw because they are all imitations rather than products of original inspiration. Haruhiism just kicked the recycling into a gear never reached before due to how awesome a phenomenon it was, and how easy it was to market moe for big money.

That being said, 10% of everything is still pretty good, and there are shows that are still entertaining. Just means that I spend less time watching all the crap, and spend more time looking for that 10% of goodness. But I digress.

in no particular order:
R.O.D. OVA
AIR (first two arcs are slow and confusing for some, but the last two arcs are in my opinion the best story telling anime has to offer); in a related vein, Clannad, Kanon. Some people like these shows, some people don't, but in my general experience most people liked Air.
Nana
Toradora!
Angel Beats!
Working!! (haven't finished watching this, but it's quite frankly this and Angel Beats! are the best comedies I've seen in a very, very long time)

Focus on newer stuff, as older works have already been discussed to death, but special mention to Azumanga Daioh which I just assume that everyone who has watched anime has already seen.

And shows that I just found extremely entertaining, but hardly consider must see, guess Working!! would go here normally as I don't rate comedy that much, but w/e.

Beck, Nodame Cantabile
Nanoha
Saki

Could go on forever about shows I just like, but this is probably a sufficient sample.
 
so... what you folks are telling me is that this is more or less an anime discussion thread... something i'm pretty sure we have already. but that's okay... what's wrong with 2? 2 is better then 1 and if there ain't shit else to talk about, why not?

so since this is what it is and if its going to be that way, i just want to be clear on what this is... which is in fact an anime discussion thread. perfect.

thumbs up on jaxels list. i agreed with everything on there except rahxephon. that's not to say i didn't enjoy that series... i just found it to be boring? and i just lost interest in it by the end... i hate it when i have to force myself to watch through to the end. i'm one of those people who when they start a series, they have to finish it... and believe me... i've seen some crap but i've seen some genius shit as well.

also, can't really tell you how it is in japan.. but the animation industry here in korea is pretty cut throat. most of our funding comes from outsourced projects (other studios around the globe come send their projects to different studios to get their projects completed) we get our major funding from the government. and the government is shady as hell because they set up a contest in which whoever wins the contest gets the money and everyone else can more or less just suck a fat one. there other means of course in receiving income such as character licensing and the like but major money is from the govt. anyway.. if you lose you're pretty screwed as a company... there are months where i literally don't get paid and fuck... korea is just a fucking backwards ass nation.. god i hate this country. anyway.

how is that relevant to anything?

well. it's elemenatry. the reason why there's a lot of crap in this world of anime is probably due to trends and funding. if the industry in japan is anywhere near like how it is in korea then the reason for it is simple..

money. in pursuit of money people follow trends. they over saturate the market with this simply to see what sticks and makes money and then when it's all said and done, it's on to the next industry. because anime is currently booming in the states, japan is tryin to get your money by feeding you crap. don't get me wrong there are still gems out there but they're much harder to find. and me being much harder on things then when i used to be... i just don't have the patience for bull shit as much as i used to... i can only stomach one bullshit series right now and that's naruto. everything else if it's not at least a 7 on my radar it's getting dropped.

which brings me to my next subject... highschool of the dead.

tell me, what exactly can you bring to the table that's "new" and "innovative" with the zombie story? from World War Z to Shaun of the Dead to Zombieland... what's a new approach. don't give me crap about shit being a "by the numbers" story when you don't specify anything of note.. in this day and age where shit that's "new" and "innovative" and "changing perspectives" is getting harder to do, there's only 2 things you can do.

find enjoyment out of it... or don't.

if you like it, watch it. enjoy. if not.. don't. either watch it and not enjoy it while watching or just don't watch at all.

you know what i noticed and actually liked about highschool of the dead? by the second episode they rationalized and set up rules for the zombies in their universe. setting up those rules the kids have a fighting chance to survive in this zombie world.

first and foremost, the zombies don't run. second. they're blind or have limited eye sight. third they can't feel. and fourth they rely on hearing. and apparently they have very sensitive hearing.

but in all honesty, i'd say its a combination of dawn of the dead and 28 days/weeks later. so if you enjoyed those movies, chances are you'll find enjoyment out of this series. so it is a series i would recommend. and that's really all there is to say on that.

anyway, most everyone recommended the anime i would have recommended so there's nothing left for me to say but..

get enjoyment out of what you can.

ps... after reading the parenthesis in jaxel's titles list.. i just got to say..

dude.. you a picky motha fucka. wow. c'mon son... gethefuckoutofherewiththatbullshitinyourmouth.
 
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