Anime/Manga Fans!

[Bizkit]

I've been watching quite a few anime/manga cartoons recently & i just wanted to know are there any other anime/manga fans here & if so which good anime/mangas have you seen?

At the moment i'm in the process of watching Bleach & Ikki Tousen i have already watched the Dragonball Z series obviously since it's so popular but not the Dragonball GT series... yet, Pokemon (same as DBZ), Yu Gi Oh (the 1st one couldn't really get into the others), Tenjho Tenge that's pretty good & a few others but i can't remember them right now if any lol (mind blank).

[draghkar]

im a big fan of anime and manga i watch them on animefreak.com has a very long list of old and new stuff as well as links to read the manga's

[CaptainSarathai]

Ooooouuuuch, that list makes me cringe! You may as well follow up with Naruto, Avatar (although it's technically Amerime) and Full Metal Alchemist.
You have a lot of the anime that was geared for the younger generations. Anime actually started as an alternative to Hollywood. The Japanese had a great live-action film market, just look at the stuff by Akira Kurosawa, and all of their martial arts films. However, in the 80's, America's steadily increasing budget for films meant that Japan just couldn't keep up with our special effects and the quality of our actors. So they turned to animation- think about it, it's much cheaper to draw an explosion than it is to create one in a filmed environment, and it's easier to find and hire "love-hotline" type girls for your sexy leading lady, than it is to go out and find an attractive female who can remember her lines.
If you look at anime from that perspective, that it's meant to replace live action films, and can therefore give you thought-provoking dramas and even documentaries, you can find some really good stuff out there. Here's my usual "go-to" list for anime.

'Gunslinger Girl' - takes place in Italy during political upheavals. Young girls with terminal illnesses or mortal wounds are taken in by a "Social Welfare Agency" that turns them into cyborg assassins. It has a weird dichotomy of adolescent girl-trouble and disturbingly violent roles. Definitely a grown-up anime, you won't see any chibi-faces or oversized expressions. Very well done. 'Il Teatrino', the second season, is a little less perfect, but still worth watching to finish out the story.

'Gundam 00' - the Gundam saga is notorious for re-using it's story line and putting it into different settings relevant for the real world at that time. '00' is one of the two that I feel takes the storyline in a fresh direction. Essentially, you have a band of heroes piloting big mechs and acting as a force for world peace. Their mission is to stop wars by providing a 3rd party who eliminates both aggressors. Set on Earth and dealing with modern Terrorism and Partisan-based warfare, the series makes a lot of good comments. Also a grown-up anime, they manage to kill off pretty much the whole cast by the end of each the two seasons.

'Gundam 08th MS Team' - another Gundam, and the other series which takes the Gundam Saga in a different direction. Set concurrently to the original Gundam series, this story focuses on the grunt fighters rather than the heroes. In fact, the heroes don't appear at all. The battleground is Thailand, lending a very 'Vietnam War' feel to the story, which focuses on a 'Romeo and Juliet' type love story between a Federation officer and a Xeon test pilot.

'Initial-D' - if you're into cars, the first 3 seasons of this, including the OVA, are the best picture you're going to get of what Drifting really is, and where it came from. If you're not into cars, skip it. It's essentially a TV drama about racing. There's no magic, no mechs, no gunplay, no fantasy.

'Cowboy Beebop' - take a traditional spaghetti western, set it in the future substituting open space for the lawless frontier, substitute a Mercenary for the ubiquitous Sheriff, add in some hot supporting ladies, slick gun fighting like only anime can, and then one of the most amazing jazz soundtracks ever written, and you have Cowboy Beebop. This one is just action, and while it still aims for an intelligent audience, it has a lot of slapstick and crude-humor fun as well.

'Ghost in the Shell' - the original cyberpunk anime. Set in the near future, where bionic replacements are common, a dying girl has her mind imported into a fully robotic body. She goes on to become a crime fighter (of course), but the whole story does a really good job with the action and the setting, as well as giving a look at where the world might be headed.

'Karas: The Prophecy' and 'Karas: The Revelation' - these are two movies that, in the simplest form, are the anime equivalent to the new Batman. You've got to watch both, and you have to wait until the end of the second one before the first one makes sense, because the writers knew they'd be making two films and thus the time lines go a bit wonky. Basically, it claims that every city has a protector spirit, made from the soul of a person who embodied that city in life, but was forgotten in death. For Karas's city though, the old Karas has deviated from his role because the city is forgetting the demon and spirit world, so he strikes back to protect the demons from phasing out (ceasing to exist because the belief system is gone). The duel between the two Karas spills into the real world in some of the coolest CGI animations ever- transitioning smoothly from hand-drawn to computer-generated. The story itself mixes supernatural thriller/horror, with scifi action and samurai swords. 'Batman' meets 'The Crow', just keeping thinking that.

'Afro Samurai' - a Samurai story based on the life of Musashi Miyamoto, except add in a few odd futuristic scenes, Darth-Vader as a Teddy Bear (I'm not kidding, and it is more awesome than you could imagine), and swap the typical Japanese Samurai for a 70's style Bronx/ghetto style black guy, and narrate/voice it by Samuel L. Jackson. Yep. It's pretty awesome. There are two seasons and OVA if I recall correctly.

There are definitely other animes I suggest picking up, but you might want to Wiki them first since I'm not giving another synopsis.

'Akira'
'Grave of the Fireflies' -careful, this documentary is brutal to watch. you have been warned.
'Robotech' - any
'Gundam' - any
'Elfen Leid'
'Straight Jacket' - OVA
'Eden of the East'
'Casshern Sins'
Any Miyazaki film through Studio Ghibli, meaning start with 'Castle in the Sky', and move to 'Ponyo'
'Cat Soup' OVA
'Dead Leaves' OVA
'Summer Wars' OVA
'Baccano'
'Darker than Black'
'Apple Seed' and 'Apple Seed: Deus ex Machina' OVAs
'Blue Sub 6' OVA
'Escaflowne'
'Samurai 7'

There, that should be enough anime to keep you watching the good stuff for the next 3 years or so. I got out of the whole anime thing when I was still in primary/elementary school, but practically every girlfriend I've had since then has been a serious anime geek (can't complain, it validates my Warhammer nerd-dom) and kept exposing me to some really good series, in addition to the stuff that I could find on Netflix.

[Deadstar_MRC]

I saw this thread earlier, and wasn't going to reply because I didn't think I knew anything about anime.

But reading through Captain Sarathai's list, I've actually seen a few of the ones he's cited. Not many, but a few;

'Cowboy Beebop' - some pretty clever and entertaining episodes in this one, now that I think back to it.

'Apple Seed' and 'Apple Seed: Deus ex Machina' OVAs - I saw the second one before I tracked down the first, which I think (at least in my opinion) is the better of the two (story-wise, at least - it just seemed to have more impact, somehow). The second one looks slightly better and has some killer Mecha action sequences in it, though, if that's your kind of thing!

'Afro Samurai' - I may or may not have seen some of this, I think I may be getting it confused with something else, maybe an episode of Cowboy Bebop!

There are one or two other titles that come to mind when I think of anime that haven't as yet been mentioned;

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - A pretty dark, intense story, but one that's well worth watching. And it has proper Vampires!

Trigun (the animated TV series) - Another space-western, which can somehow switch between ridiculous and deadly serious (often in the same scene!) and yet somehow it still works. Unfortunately I never finished this series, for some reason. I'd really like to go back to it and find out how it ends, as what I did see of it was great.

So, once you've worked your way through the Captain's list, maybe track those last two down and see how they compare?

[Certs]

Use to watch a bunch, but now just re-runs on Netflix. Here's a list of my top recommendations, will try to keep it mostly to 'action' but there's a few others in there as well.

Air Gears
Basilisk
Black Lagoon
Blue Gender
Casshern Sins
Corpse Princess
Cowboy Bebop
Coyote Ragtime Show
Darker Than Black
Desert Punk
Ergo Proxy
FLCL
Gantz
Gun X Sword
Heroic Age
High School of the Dead
Mushi Shi
Outlaw Star
Paranoia Agent
Pumpkin Scissors
Samurai Champloo
Sands of Destruction
Shigurui: Death Frenzy
Speed Grapher

Baccano!
Bleach
Code Geass
Eureka Seven
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C.
Gunslinger Girl
Gurren Lagann
Hellsing
InuYasha
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple
Naruto shippuden
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Soul Eater
Trigun
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle



Also, haven't seen them yet but: One Piece, Fairy Tail, and the Gundam Series.

[heretic marine]

I love mangas and Anime.

[CaptainSarathai]

Remember to check your post-dates Heretic. But this is a pretty dead section, and nobody really worries about it that much in here. What are your favorite animes, if you love them so much?

Also - to add to my list of things that I really like:

"Last Exile" : alright, I'm a real sucker for steampunk, but this also has a good story going, kinda like 08th MS Team. It's the typical "unwitting reluctant boy-age hero" stuff, but the action sequences between the massive airships are awesome, the fictional world is pretty sweet, and the plot isn't bad at all. The art is also some of the best that I've ever seen in an anime. No chibis here either.

"Trinity Blood" : great plot wretched voice acting. Typically japanese, it's flair for the melodramatic is ridiculous. However, the idea of the anime is awesome - a race of aliens who call themselves Methusela (and are known to humans as Vampires - yeah, bloodsucking, blah blah, not sparkly Vampires) have descended after mankind drives itself back into the age of the Byzantine Empire through nuclear warfare. The Vatican rules over civilization much like it did through the Dark Ages, and employs a special wing of assassins trained to keep the Vampire "Empire" at bay within the western human-controlled world. Good lookin' supporting ladies, and sweet action sequences. There's a bit of chibi-style shenanigans, attempts at comedy, and like I said, the dialogue can get pretty redundant (literally, "the only reason for revenge is to achieve vengeance!" is a f---ing line in this series).

"Shigurui: Death Frenzy" -- Oooooh s- this one blew my mind. This is by far one of the best anime series that I have seen. It's a short series based on the first few chapters of a [not graphic]novel. The entire series is a flashback leading up to a duel between a blind, insane samurai, and a one-armed samurai, in one of the last royal tournaments to use real blades. To spectators, the idea of making two crippled Samurai fight to the death is shameful, but for the Samurai, this is their chance to avenge themselves. It then flashes back to their lives growing up, training at the same school. The anime features lots of traditional Japanese singing (which is as terrifying alien as it is beautiful) and has a lot of connections to kabuki-theater. Granted, Kabuki literally means "shocking", so expect to see a lot of gory dismemberment, decapitation, and disembowelment, plenty of sex (consensual and otherwise, including a scene of homosexuality), and some just plain disturbing content and ideas. I like it though, as I have read a lot into Samurai culture, and I think that it is neat to see a Japanese writer focus on the madness and brutality of the Samurai way of life, moreso than the romanticized honor of it all.

Samurai Champloo - historical fiction which portrays two Samurai as b-boys, or hip-hop fans. Soundtrack to fit, and it's pretty good. The action is great, and the story is nice, mixing some historical references with comedy and aforementioned sexy action. No sex, this one's safe for work. No magic either, which is nice. I enjoyed this anime, which ran for one season before becoming a classic. It's good stuff, I advise it for anybody who likes the "outcast" type anime heroes (Cowboy Beebop, Afro Samurai, Trigun) and Samurai action flicks.

Area-88 : I almost thought that this had something to do with the same writer who did Gundam. It does not (as far as I can tell). It feels like 08th MS Team if it were even more realistic. The only fictional thing is the country in which it is set: the Kingdom of Aslan, which really just stands in for any "Phlegmistan" country in the Middle East. The country is at war, and has hired mercenary fighter pilots much like Chinese did during the Japanese invasion in WW2. These pilots are signed to a suicidal 3-year contract which holds a hefty 1.5million dollar buyout fee. They earn 15k per enemy plane shot down, plus any mission bonuses. The story follows a japanese fighter pilot (with strangely pale skin and blonde hair... it was the 80's, Japanese girls went all gooey for western guys) and a Japanese combat photographer. The story is real, no magic etc, no chibis in the art style, and the humor is subdued and black just like any military movie should be, the action reminds me of the dogfights from Robotech. It's an older anime but still an awesome one.

[nacho cheese]

Paranoia Agent and some of Case Closed is okay.