Daioh is cool, as is LuckyStar which is very much a similar concept with way more meta references to other anime (especially Haruhi Suzumiya, which shares a lead voice actress)
Quick hits of stuff that didn't deserve my typical wall-o-text: Aoi Hana - I watched this show because it had lesbians, and people claimed it was a great slice-of-life anime. Let me summarize: boring girl meets older girl, starts dating older girl, older girl breaks up with her, she cries, lessons are learned(?). Boring as hell. Opening theme will increase your estrogen level. 5/10. Sasameki Koto - Another lesbian show, kind of blurred into the above, since I watched it right afterwards. Includes a Wholesome Crossdresser and some super-deformed comedy sequences. Better than Aoi Hana, not too hard to do that though. 7/10. Candy Boy - OVA about twin sisters with heavy romantic subtext. Originally just a 7-minute-video promoting some shitty J-pop, but spun off into its own OVA after gaining out-of-the-blue popularity. Much better than it has any right to be. 8/10. Gunsmith Cats - Lots of guns, cars, Chicago, and goofy voice acting. The creator is famous for doing his research. Basically the perfect lazy day OVA. 8/10. Otaku no Video - A tennis player quits the team to "work up a beating hand" (as Frank would say) and become a full-time otaku, the king of all nerds, the Otaking. Supposedly an autobiographical OVA about the creation of Studio Gainax. Randomly interspliced with a "documentary" on real-life otaku, which was jarring and dumb. But the actual anime is decent. 7/10. (Links to Baka Raptor because we share similar tastes in yuri. Also he is Indian, misanthropic and hates Indian food. The similarities are striking...)
...And I'll continue my quest to single-handedly keep this thread alive with some recommendations. (I changed my grading scheme to a more intuitive one. Grades go from ~~~ to +++.) First, Denpa Teki na Kanojo. This is the most riveting OVA I've yet seen. The plot moves forward relentlessly. A schoolgirl pledges her fealty to a schoolboy, saying he was a king in a past life? OK. Wait, people are being murdered left and right, and we have to find out the killer? Alright. What's that? Epic psycho schoolgirl murderer knife showdowns? Random rape and murder flashbacks? People losing their sanity left and right? Ohh shit. Seriously, this OVA has more psychotic characters than any other anime I've ever seen. And it fucking works - you can't stop watching, cause you never know when someone's going to burst through a window and try to stab you in the neck. Another criminally overlooked series, and knowing this place, I'd highly recommend it for the TiB crowd. Grade: +++ Another series you fuckers should love is Detroit Metal City. A kid from a small village moves to Tokyo to become a shitty J-Pop singer, but instead gets enlisted into a metal band. His metal persona, Krauser II, eventually begins to take over his life and ruin his nice-guy relationships. All you need to know about this show is: Rape jokes Foul language The funniest anime I've ever seen. Seriously, my stomach hurt after watching this. This is maybe the least funny joke in the whole show. Grade: +++ For something more artsy, try Kaiba. It's got a surreal visual style, very distinct from other anime, and very much influenced by Surrealist art and existentialist themes. I've seen it compared to Miyazaki and the Little Prince (I personally haven't seen either). The concept is basically that in this world, memories can be stored on chips, extracted, and altered. Bodies have become mere accessories, and can be switched or thrown away at a whim - but only for the rich. Kaiba is brilliant through 7 episodes, some of the most moving and depressing anime I've ever seen (seriously almost cried a couple of times) but then sacrifices that awesomeness and world-building to the necessities of plot. Pity too, the main plot is pretty incoherent both structurally and thematically. You know who the villain is going to be by episode 7 and the rest of the plot is an exercise in dot-connecting. But holy fuck is it fantastic and surreal and beautiful while it lasts, and massively overlooked. Great electronic soundtrack too. Grade: ++
Started watching Hajime no Ippo with some friends who are on the boxing team. Pretty good so far, but Ippo is a giant pussy. Can't wait for him to get ripped and start knocking some motherfuckers out.
Fullmetal Alchemist is a fantastic anime and the only one I was so into that I've seen every episode of both the original and Brotherhood and the movie. I think the #1 reason I fell for this show is that it's not soaked in Japanese culture like most other animes. It takes place in a sort of an alternate reality of WWI era Germany as opposed to feudal Japan. All of the characters have very western/German names and language. I've tried watching shows like Naruto but I cringe every time I hear a Japanese word or name that I can't even pronounce. Besides that, the character development and their back stories are all incredible. I've never been so interested in what happens to a cartoon character as I was with this show. Not to mention that this brod is frequently in it (spoiler for size): Spoiler (source: Deviant Artist <a class="postlink" href="http://saviooo.deviantart.com/art/Full-Metal-Alchemist-Lust-135038869" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://saviooo.deviantart.com/art/Full- ... -135038869</a> )
There's also one anime that I haven't seen mentioned here, and it should be in everyone's top 3. You may not think of it as one, but it is very much an anime, just not Japanese: Spoiler "Y'all niggas are gay!"
So the current season of anime (Fall 2011) has a couple of promising shows. First off is Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukanai (I Don't Have Many Friends). This is a show about a half-white transfer student who everyone thinks is an intimidating badass because of his blond hair. (The Japanese word for delinquent is "yankee". Go figure.) Actually, he's just a nice guy who wants to make friends, but can't. He meets a pretty ice queen who, deep down, feels the same way. She decides to start a club for this purpose, enlisting all sorts of people. On the face of it, this seems like a knockoff of Haruhi Suzumiya, but it's definitely got its own identity. For one thing, it's far more a comedy, and doesn't have any supernatural elements. It's also much more of a mature, adult show than I expected it to be. The characters have depth to them, and the show's not afraid to get explicit. Also, everyone is kind off of their rocker, including the main character. It makes for a pretty entertaining show so far. Spoiler The other show I like so far is Fate/Zero. If you ever watched Fate/stay night, this prequel is everything that show should have been. Epic fight scenes between historical figures like Alexander the Great & King Arthur, twisty turny plot, and characters that aren't wooden, but are all interesting in their own right. That last one is what my major knock against F/sn was, and it's majorly rectified. This series doesn't feel like a typical episodic anime - for how good the pacing is, it feels like a multi-part movie. Awesome action anime. Spoiler Oh yeah, it's got Yuki Kajiura, one of the two best composers in anime. Watch this show.
Best of this season so far though, through 3 episodes, is Mirai Nikki (Future Diary). A god of chaos gives a whole bunch of different people cell phones that can predict the future. And the last person alive gets the power of a god. This is very reminiscent of (and better so far than) Death Note, and that's high fucking praise from me. Spoiler The OVA, spoils parts of the first couple of episodes.
How did I miss this thread? Good lord... I will go into more detail later, but I will speak on what I'm currently watching. I'm trying really hard to like Noein. I honestly am. I like the pacing, the story, and most of the characters. But I hate Yu. I hate him so much. He is ruining the whole damn thing for me. Also, I've read on some forums a lot of dismissal for Ergo Proxy, and while I do find it a bit pretentious at times, I'm enjoying the ride. I really like the atmosphere and the AutoReiv subject, although done before, is handled well. I just wish they'd gone a different direction with Re-L's character design, but it's a small gripe.
If you're looking for a good yuri show, you could do a lot worse than Kannazuki no Miko. It's very reminiscent of My-HiME, but with more psycho lesbian and less characters. And just as many giant robots. And the last couple of episodes are amazing. Grade: ++ (awesome) Spoiler Godawful dub, but you get the idea.
I've recently gotten hooked on Eureka Seven*. It's a fairly solid Giant-Robots-Fighting series, but for better or worse, the romantic subplot is front and centre as opposed to having been kicked to the sidelines and offered no real resolution. Honestly, while Renton can still be the same kind of whiny tool most young protagonists can be, it's nice to see the fact he gives a shit about the female lead actually be a plot point and a defining character attribute instead of a 'shit or get off the pot' background event. It's got solid over-the-top action (It's not Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but the sky surfing is fun/ridiculous anyway), a good amount of intrigue and mystery without obfuscating shit just to be pretentious and confusing, and a very diverse and dynamic cast of characters. The references to 60s and 70s counterculture and music go from blatant (characters named Stoner and Moondoggie) to a bit smug (an area called Warsaw that everyone calls the Joy Division in a tongue in cheek sense), to "hey wait..." (the ships techs being named Woz* and Jobs*) I'm not sure how to sing the praises of the series but I'm 30 episodes in after only three days.. and that's with working full time, safe to say it's snared me. * get ready to have your pronounciations seriously weaboo'd up by the series "eh-oo-reh-ka", "joe-bs" and "woa-z"
Following up on this post now that I've finished the series - it gets a lot deeper and more introspective as it goes on - not as much so as something like Eva but it certainly develops its fair share of mindfuckery, and it's really well done. An all-and-all great series.
I've had Eureka Seven recommended to me before, I'll check it out. I started an anime blog a while ago. I just finished my first post. It's about Sword of the Stranger.
Welp, finally finished Noein. Great story, the dub is a bit forced but whatever. It also handles multiple timelines very well (and it explains it the way I always thought it would be). I still want to beat Yuu with a crowbar, plus his name did lead to some of the more hamfisted aspects of the dub, since they couldn't say "you" too often to refer to anyone, or it would sound like that old "Who's on first" skit. On to Darker Than Black.
Just watched Gurren Lagann (still working through my backlog of shows to watch). I thought it was actually pretty great. Really easy to get into, and it was the first show in a while to basically force me to marathon the damn thing. I also really appreciate a show that isn't afraid to let characters stay dead.
Spice and Wolf is fantastic, and if you haven't watched it you need to be smacked around a bit. Traveling merchant in the Middle Ages (?) meets a wolf goddess and agrees to take her to the north, where she's from. Lots of economics and backstabbing. (I wrote a blog post about it, link in sig) Don't let the ears and tail put you off.
Time for me to once again revive this thread. I finally finished Death Note. It was fantastic and you should all watch it. I also want to plug two anime movies that everyone's probably heard of: Akira: Fucking amazing. I don't want to hype it up too much, but it's got a gripping story and great pacing to go along with its amazing visuals. Plus Kanye likes it so you know it's good. Grade: ++ (94/100) Spoiler Half of the Stronger video is just shot-for-shot remakes of scenes from the movie. Spirited Away: ...It was good. I guess. I mean, the art and animation quality were undeniable, the character design was full of ideas, character interactions were pretty entertaining. But I can't help but feel that the underlying story is a little boring. Girl enters fantasy world and loses her parents, girl has to do various things to get back to reality, plus some implied romance. Eh. Still good enough to get the double plus. Grade: ++ (86/100)
Here's something I wrote on another board about anime. (Warning: It's a bit of a rant) Spoiler "The anime Luna6ix listed as enjoying is completely unrepresentative of what is made and is popular nowadays. Modern anime is mostly a jerk-off fantasy for basement-dwelling Tokyo losers featuring 8 year-old sex slave dolls who the audience is told are in the 16-18 year old range. ("Moe") It's completely vile, repulsive, derivative crap that anyone should be ashamed of liking or supporting. The films and series listed in this topic are either extreme exceptions, or much older anime, (notice how many works are from the 80s and 90s) before this trend became so pervasive and consumed the entire medium. Take a gander at this; <a class="postlink" href="http://www.fandompost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Summer-2011-Anime-Chart.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fandompost.com/wp-content/up ... -Chart.jpg</a> That's every single anime produced in Japan during the summer of 2011. The vast majority feature the "6 year-old, flat-chested girl with giant saucer eyes and no nose masquerading as a supposed teenager for Japanese basement-dwellers to jack off to. One of the main culprits here is "moe", which many people involved in the anime/manga industry in Japan see as a disturbing trend. Everyone from Shinichiro Watanabe (director of "Cowboy Bebop", "Samurai Champloo", etc.) to authors of books on manga/anime history. There is no fucking comparison to what things were like in the late 80s and early 90s to today. Back then, the animation style I put in quotes above was limited to a small minority of manga. It only became a major force in anime beginning in the mid 2000s, and now, if you look at the line-up for any given season, is present in at least 90% of the series, and the main appealing force in the vast majority. It also means many OVAs/series have no content besides its softcore porn, pedophilic undertones. Many series are now adopted from adult cartoon porn games (School Days) or anything else salacious and content-less. (like cartoon porn card games! Queen's Blade) Oh, and of course, there was a huge anime bestseller which featured 20 minutes of a big-breasted, teenage girl SLEEPING. I can't make shit like this up. Most series/OVA today are the most vile, disgusting, and mindless shit imaginable. Let's not kid ourselves." Enough negativity. Let's focus on the good stuff, which I have also written about on that board; "I've watched and enjoyed a bunch of anime, but honestly, the Miyazaki films I watched only stilted my enjoyment of the medium, since I believe they range from mediocre to absolute shit. Satoshi Kon is an amazing genius, however, and it's amusing that two of his films were basically re-made into major Hollywood blockbusters in 2010; Paprika into "Inception" and Perfect Blue into the relatively shitty "Black Swan". It was a tragedy when he died in August 2010, aged just 46. It goes without saying that Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, and Paranoia Agent are all awesome. Shinichiro Watanabe is incredible; Samurai Champloo is the best anime series I have seen, Cowboy Bebop is amazing, and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is the absolute best of anything the genre has to offer. It's my third highest rated film on this site. Yoshiaki Kawajiri is also phenomenal; I loved Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, Highlander: Vengeance, Ninja Scroll, and World Record. Among other series, I thought the original Vampire Hunter D, Berserk, Kaiji, Akagi, Death Note, and Grappler Baki 1 and 2 were all masterpieces, too. All that being said, I would agree that 98+% of anime is complete and utter shit. (Insert smilie face)" The only anime I have watched in the past year was the surrealist short Cat Soup, but it was really good. Watch it all starting from here.
Definitely. I'm an enormous fan of Naoki Urasawa, "The God of Manga". I'm kind of ashamed that among his longer series, I've only read part of 20th Century Boys and Yawara. Monster is very high on my list of series to eventually watch, along with Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Texhnolyze. All of those are supposed to be serious masterpieces in the genre.