Anime for a noobie?

[Carmilla]

Ok, ive seen pretty much the entire Trigun series on the Cartoon Network and i loved it. It had such a charm to it that made it enjoyable.
Ninja Scroll was awesome. Vampire D was simply ok.

Ive seen Fooly Cooly and was.... confused. I didnt care for that too much.
And Cowboy Bebop was ok but not as good as ive heard.

And thats my list of anime that ive seen...

So what else is good out there? Ive heard of Kenshin and Neon Genesis being good? Akira and Ghost in the Shell as good as they say?

Id like some 'adult' and 'dark' anime if possible. Oh, and please no romance anime or excessive girly ones like Chobits or Love Hina. :tongue:

Thanks in advance :choc2:

[Shoden]

Try Hellsing for dark and adult.

[LunarWeaver]

Watch Elfen Lied and enjoy all the yummy murder and gallons of blood.

[Roto13]

And boobs.

[edczxcvbnm]

Kind of dark you say? How about Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone complex 1st or 2nd Season. That is a good series(bad movies).

[Tasura]

ummmmm Chrno Crusade, Gunslinger Girl, Blood+, Black Cat. The last three have a fair amount of blood and killing, the first is about demons and such, so those are good ones =D

Edit: also Ayakashi-Japanese Classic Horror, Jigoku Shoujo and Ergo Proxy could fit the dark and adult line.

[Roto13]

Watch Serial Experiments Lain for a good mindfuck.

[Tasura]

Watch Serial Experiments Lain for a good mindsmurf.

Or Paranoia Agent.

[Slicksword45]

Full Meatle Alcamist.

really good. and dark. and bloody. and funny. and sad at times.

[escobert]

Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, .HACK//sign

[Lilliputian Hitcher]

Id like some 'adult' and 'dark' anime if possible. Oh, and please no romance anime or excessive girly ones like Chobits or Love Hina. :tongue:
Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rahxephon, Serial Experiments Lain and Elfen Lied spring straight to mind.

Also, staying away from romance anime is going to deprive you of some of the best anime out there. I would recommend you rectify this as soon as possibly by watching His and Her Circumstances. Staying away from girly anime will almost certainly keep you from Azumanga Daioh as well, which is in itself a crime on the scale of treason.

[starseeker]

You're also depriving yourself of Tenchi Muyo which is well good. DN Angel is also kinda cool.

[Zeromus_X]

If you like fighting anime, give Yu Yu Hakusho a shot. It's like DBZ, but with significantly less yelling, better characters, and great theme songs.

And Kurama.

[Ishin Ookami]

Rurouni Kenshin is a good series, the first season was hit and miss with a lot of filler and maybe half the episodes being taken directly from the manga, the others were filler, and often questionable. Also the first season did tone down the darker and more gritty tone of the manga considerably, also cleaning up some of the jokes. When we first meet yahiko in the anime, he kicks a good for insulting his parents in the junk. In the manga, he bites him in the junk just to be nasty.

Also, for a really good mindsmurf try evangelion. The series starts out normal, but gradually becomes really freaky. Just try to watch end of evangelion without feeling nauseous.

Also Hayo Miyazaki is a name you should know. The guy that made Spirited away, Princess Mononoke, Howls moving castle, and the like. He's pretty much king of the world as far as anime is concerned, and just about anything he's made is considered solid gold. Even light and breezy fare like Kiki's deliver service.

Ghost in the shell, the movies have their appeal. They are very intellectual and thought provoking. The series offers more laughs, and character development along with CSI style crime cases with a cyber-punk spin.

Witch hunter Robin is also a pretty good series, not outstanding, but worthwhile. It could have been great, but the final episodes do sorta drag and lead more to a anit-climax then a climax. But at least the journey was cool.

I'd also recommend Read or Die. The OVA starts out the series with a grand style that's a bit john woo, a bit x-men, and a bit james bond with a literary twist thrown in. Then comes the 26 episode animated series which starts out a little slow, but halfway through becomes the anime version of chocolate chip crack, you just can't stop watching it.

Great Teacher Onizuka is also a great 43 episode series. It's absoloutely hilarious with arguably the biggest and most lovable goof in all anime, Echiki Onizuka. Third degree black belt, first degree hoodlum, and world class clueless clown and lecher, deciding he's gonna set his life straight as well as meet and marry a hot and legal teenage girl by becoming the greatest teacher in the world. How could this series NOT be funny with a setup like that?

And if you want mecha, I'd check out the original mobile suit gundam series (you know, the one that features a guy called amuro ray). It was the first and it's largely considered the best for a reason. Other good gundam series I'd reccommend would be Zeta, War in the pocket, and stardust memory. And while your checking out mecha franchises, get around to viewing the actual maccross series that ADV is (finally) distributing and see just how much this series craps over Robotech.

Another good mecha series that I recommend would be Vandread. It's a bit Star Trek: Voyager with some gundam and Adams Rib thrown in. It can be very fluffy at times with all the scantly spandex clad women running around, but It does have it's charm and more dramatic moments that have made it a cult favorite.

Excel Saga I would recommend, but only after you have some more anime experience under your belt. Excel Saga is basically a parody series of all anime that has come before, except for the last few episodes where everything becomes very dramatic. Alot of the jokes will fly over your head if your an anime noob. But if you do get the jokes, then it is incredibly funny.

I think I'll stop with the exposition here. But other series you should check out follows.

Macross Plus
Record of Lodoss War (start with the 13 episode OVA, then move on to the 27 episode TV series)
X (I actually like the movie better then the series, but the series is pretty good too)
Street Fighter V
Street Fighter the Animated Movie
Fatal Fury I & 2 (stay away from the motion picture, it's mostly crap).
Ninja scroll: The series
Dragon Ball Z
Yuyu Hakusho
Vision of Escaflowne

[Mirage]

Anime is just like live action. There are a ton of different genres. What kind of movies do you usually like?
-edit- I better read posts fully before replying -_-.

I'll recommend Scrapped Princess (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1161,qjxwrf,scrapped_prince.html) regardless of genre though, it's just amazing. It's not a romance/schoolgirls series, it's pretty mystical and has a decent amount of fighting in it. I've used this series to turn anime-haters before, and it's always worked.

Fullmetal Alchemist (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1265,mybywf,fullmetal_alche.html) is another good anime. It's got action, humour, and a good story. The only bad thing about it is that it's a bit slow towards the middle of the series.

The 60 episodes I've seen of Bleach (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1582,wkkkkd,bleach.html) are also really good. I dunno how it has turned out now though

And remember; everything is better in its original language.

[Alive-Cat]

Akira, definitely. That is the most important Anime movie you could watch, in my opinion. There are two versions - the classic, and the remake. The classic has the original animation, and is great, but not of the best image quality. The remake is the same art, but completely redone animation, so it looks much better and smoother. The remake also has a completely different translation from the Japanese version, and different voice actors. There is not a better one out of the two, except maybe the remake has more straight forward lines, and maybe easier to understand for some people. Whichever version you watch first will hurt the other version. By which I mean you're used to the movie sounding a certain way. I suggest you watch the classic first, because it is the classic.

The Street Fighter movies, if you're interesting in action Animes. Fist of the North Star is pretty good, too.
Full Metal Alchemist is something you should definitely watch! But it's not too dark.
If you haven't seen the second Vampire Hunter D movie, "Bloodlust" then you should watch that. I'd say it's okay.
Twilight of the Dark Master is okay, but it's only about 45 minutes long and doesn't have a great storyline.
Wicked City is good, which is a lot like Twilight of the Dark Master, except with better voice acting, better characters and better storyline. Regular length, too.
The Cyberpunk collection, if you can find it. I've never seen it before, myself.
Grave of the Fireflies, is a very deep and interesting Anime about the Hiroshima bombings in Japan.
Legend of the Overfiend. It borders on Hentai, but has an amazing story, and excellent art.
If you're going to watch Anime, you might as well read Manga, too. Tokypop translates a bunch of Manga. Battle Royale is definitely Manga you should read.

[Dreddz]

I'd say you watch Ghost In The Shell, Samurai Champloo is good and so is Rahxephon.

Akira, definitely. That is the most important Anime movie you could watch, in my opinion. There are two versions - the classic, and the remake. The classic has the original animation, and is great, but not of the best image quality. The remake is the same art, but completely redone animation, so it looks much better and smoother. The remake also has a completely different translation from the Japanese version, and different voice actors. There is not a better one out of the two, except maybe the remake has more straight forward lines, and maybe easier to understand for some people. Whichever version you watch first will hurt the other version. By which I mean you're used to the movie sounding a certain way. I suggest you watch the classic first, because it is the classic.
The remake made alot more sense of the story, that was the main purpose of the remake, the best aspect of Akira is it's story, not knowing the story as well as you should will give you a different opinion of the movie, I'd say you steer clear of the original, the remake is alot more superior.

[Shoden]

Evangelion scared the hell out of me, it really turned out to be an extremely sickening anime series, it was pretty cool though. try a bit of LA blue girl (hentai) if you want to go deep into dark and adult

[Armisael]

So what else is good out there? Ive heard of Kenshin and Neon Genesis being good? Akira and Ghost in the Shell as good as they say?


Personally i love them! These two are on the list of my favs anime!
Kenshin is really enjoyable to watch! Cool fights, funny scenes, nice music!
Now, NGE is definitely one of the best anime ever! Just watch it and you'll understand! When you do send me a pm and tell me your impressions! ^_^

[AdVenT]

Yeah FMA and outlaw star would be the only ones i know that fit in with what you're lookin fer

[Alive-Cat]

The remake made alot more sense of the story, that was the main purpose of the remake, the best aspect of Akira is it's story, not knowing the story as well as you should will give you a different opinion of the movie, I'd say you steer clear of the original, the remake is alot more superior.
You can't steer clear of original, because it is the original. I just feel that you wouldn't be getting the full "Akira experience" if you just watched the remake. I'd feel the same if Square remade FFVII, and somebody said they would never play the original.
That's just what I think. :bigsmile:

[Cloudstrife4003]

Lets see....so much anime i like...cowboy bebop,trigun,inuyasha,big o is boring,FLCL or fooly cooly is funny,mar,DBZ,Dot hack:legend of the twilight bracelet,and many more-I thought final fantasy:unlimited was a big letdown...Oh yea...have any of u guys watched adult swim?

[Dreddz]

The remake made alot more sense of the story, that was the main purpose of the remake, the best aspect of Akira is it's story, not knowing the story as well as you should will give you a different opinion of the movie, I'd say you steer clear of the original, the remake is alot more superior.
You can't steer clear of original, because it is the original. I just feel that you wouldn't be getting the full "Akira experience" if you just watched the remake. I'd feel the same if Square remade FFVII, and somebody said they would never play the original.
That's just what I think. :bigsmile:
Its just older animation. If someone wanted to watch the original so much then I say they should download the movie and some subs from the net. The sub that came with its VHS release is the dodgy one. Some fans have done a pretty decent job making subs for the movie.
I do have to stick by one thing, stay clear of the original dubbed version, horrific, end of.

[The Unknown Guru]

Neon Genesis Evangelion gets pretty freaky and complex about 3/4ths of the way through. Just try to watch the last 2 episodes without thinking "What the hell..." more than 3 times.

Also, Blue Sub #6 is one of my favorite movies/miniseries. I haven't seen it in a while, but i remember that it was very thought-provoking.

Finally, Akira is incredibly good. Through the whole manga, theres always at least one unanswered question, at least one unsolved mystery. However, I've never seen the movie. Is it as good as the manga?