So I'm getting old and bored with... anime

[Bryf50]

you are finally seeing through the thin and poorly paced plots and characters?

good, it is time to drop it. most anime is so very sh**y

I agree but there are still dozens of anime that break the shit mold. Sadly almost everything made in the past year or two is garbage.

 

[gorobei]

cowboy bebop
escaflowne tv
initial D
big O s1
flcl
scryed
diebuster
read or die
macross F
tengan toppa gurren lagaan
seirei no moribito
gundam 00 s1 & s2
sword of the stranger
bakemonogatari
katanagatari
basquash
breakblade
star driver

 

[Fayd]

I agree but there are still dozens of anime that break the shit mold. Sadly almost everything made in the past year or two is garbage.

seitokai yakuindomo most definitely is not shit.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Anime is mostly garbage, I'm surprised it took you this time to realize it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

you are finally seeing through the thin and poorly paced plots and characters?

good, it is time to drop it. most anime is so very sh**y

"90% of everything is crap"
-- Sturgeon's Law.

90% of network television is disposable trash, same with music, books, art, movies, and something else that you like.

When looking back at that golden age when -X- was so much better than it is now, we remember the 10% that was good and gloss over the rest of it.

It's also true that for anime, 20 years ago a lot less of it was imported so the ratio of good to garbage that reached America was much higher than 10%. The success of the genre brought much more of the 90% to our shores.

 

[0roo0roo]

"90% of everything is crap"
-- Sturgeon's Law.

90% of network television is disposable trash, same with music, books, art, movies, and something else that you like.

When looking back at that golden age when -X- was so much better than it is now, we remember the 10% that was good and gloss over the rest of it.

It's also true that for anime, 20 years ago a lot less of it was imported so the ratio of good to garbage that reached America was much higher than 10%. The success of the genre brought much more of the 90% to our shores.

Yea but it seems with anime it is far more than 90%. I've given it a lot of chances to impress me over the years, and most everytime it is disappoint.
They take interesting concepts and just fail to deliver, yea big robots or sci fi is nice, but you gotta do something with them. Usually the character development/dialog is pretty poor, so it is like watching transformers 2 over and over again. I know there was a time when sci fi and other geeky interest stuff wasn't really being catered for in the us market so people had to look outside to anime, but now? Pretty much every comic book is now a movie, and you have stuff like scott pilgrim, inception and the rest, there isn't all that much reason to resort to anime anymore. Even the pseudo intellectual ones like ghost in the shell are mostly fail now. Instead of the matrix 1, mostly what they crank out are matrix 2-3

 

[DanDaManJC]

I'd go through anidb.net and just start watching anime that got 8+ ratings. avoid anime with tags that indicate cliche/formula/fan service and you'll find some gems.

one to check out would be:
Mushishi

you mentioned you really liked cowboy bebop too, samurai champloo was made by the same guy... has a similar feel to it too

 

[TecHNooB]

berserk + evangelion + kare kano

 

[Ninjahedge]

Paranoia Agent was quite amazing imo.

I recently watched the Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C series on Netflix. That was good stuff.

I've tried to watch Blood+ but I just can't get in to Animes where the main characters are highschool kids anymore.

I dont really know what youve watched already so Ill just throw out some of the "mature" animes I enjoyed the most followed by short description

Gungrave - Random delinquent and his friend rise from nothing to boss of the mafia (important: start on episode 2, youll thank me later)
Akagi - Underground mahjong, very psychological, with lots of narration and inner thoughts
Legend of Galactic Heroes - The star wars of anime
Casshern Sins - A robot awakens in a post-apocalyptic world with no memories, tries to find out who he is etc
Ergo Proxy - Post apocalyptic setting, humanity now live in "domes", HEAVILY philosophical, can get very confusing
Eve no Jikan - Set in a future where robots are commonplace, its about their relationship with humans
MS Gundam 0079 + Zeta - Yes, I know, whiny teenage lead etc, but if you can get past that, the two first Gundams are VERY worth watching
Monster - Renowned brain surgeon basically throws his life away because of one "wrong" decision
Samurai Champloo - Episodic in the style of Cowboy Bebop, great main characters, great setting
Terra e... - Probably the best space anime after LOGH
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 - Title says it all... Very emotional anime

I agree with most of these.

FMA And FMA Brotherhood are EXCELLENT, although Brotherhood is a bit more gritty.
Paranoia agent is trippy.
Baccano was fun
There was also one we saw recently that i forget the name of, it had one woman with a spear... Moribito. VERY good animation, slightly dissapointing ending.
Bleach is campy and can be fun, so long as you skip fillers, backstory and other inane parts.

I have a whole list at home that are pretty decent, depending on what you are looking for (what is the one about the two master pupils , one looses his sight, the other his arm, and they go on to duel at the end over the semi-vegetable like sadistic "master"?)

Anime is like all others, it has its good and bad. It is targeted at the 18-25 year old crowd though, and there are not many aimed at 40 year olds......


Still, it aint the Snorks.

 

[rasczak]

**cries** I feel so close to all of you now. Let's have a big group hug my otaku friends.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I haven't seen Now and Then, Here and There recommended.

It's a pretty fucking emotional and brutal series. The main characters are "kids" in the same sense that kids abducted in Sierra Leone and forced in to tribal warfare are "kids".

 

[NikolaeVarius]

**cries** I feel so close to all of you now. Let's have a big group hug my otaku friends.

So, its a solo hug for yourself I imagine.

 

[dpodblood]

Thanks for the thread OP. I've been looking for some series to get into myself. Here are my recommendations:

-Darker Than Black
-Hellsing
-Initial D
-Gunslinger Girls
-Trigun
-Ergo Proxy

 

[Aves]

I'm actually not that into anime at all but I would count Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood among my favorite shows period, including non-anime.

The original Fullmetal Alchemist series isn't bad but just not as good as Brotherhood. Since it was made only 2 years into the manga's 9 year run it necessarily took a totally different direction.

 

[smoothvirus]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I watched the first episode of Legend Of The Galactic Heroes last night. Seems to be definitely up my alley: character story arcs, political intrigue, military action. No ninja girls in bikinis with screechy voices flying across the screen.

It does fall into the whole "space warfare as 20th century naval combat in three dimensions" cliche but I can get past that. The size of the fleets is pretty uh.. amazing.

BTW the best website I've seen concerning what space combat would really be like is here: http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/spacewarintro.php

Remembered a non sci-fi one I liked, like the others it's old though:

Vampire Hunter D.

Ironically, my dad is 66 years old and he likes the Princess Nausicaa movie. I suspect he'd probably like LOGH too, come to think of it.

 

[corwin]

Haven't seen it suggested yet but Bastard is one I've enjoyed many times over...

 

[darkewaffle]

While I like Cowboy Bebop, I can't help but think it's overrated. The episodes are disjointed and it's more like watching a stylized sitcom than an actual story for the majority of the episodes. Samurai Champloo was the same way, but I think it was saved by a more unique look, more compelling characters and more emphasis on the backbone story beneath the individual arcs.

I recommend Big O and Blood+. And despite the incredibly annoying fanbases, both Full Metal Alchemist and Death Note I find to be really engrossing and enjoyable.

Ghost in the Shell is one I always have been "meaning to watch" but haven't gotten around to yet.

Yea I know it's all mainstream, but I'm just a guy who likes shows.

 

[LumbergTech]

I agree but there are still dozens of anime that break the shit mold. Sadly almost everything made in the past year or two is garbage.

i have never seen a single anime that i thought had a good story
they can be entertaining to watch for the animation, but to me its just like sci-fi...watered down rip offs of other stories that have already been told a zillion times

 

[DaveSimmons]

i have never seen a single anime that i thought had a good story
they can be entertaining to watch for the animation, but to me its just like sci-fi...watered down rip offs of other stories that have already been told a zillion times

"Homer did it"?

Almost everything new borrows from something old. Tell us about some movies or television that you think are fresh and original and there's a good chance we can pick them apart to find the allusions within.

 

[busydude]

i have never seen a single anime that i thought had a good story they can be entertaining to watch for the animation, but to me its just like sci-fi...watered down rip offs of other stories that have already been told a zillion times

We have been exposed to so much shit in our lifetime.. that nothing is truly original. That doesn't make me stop watching anime/movies.

 

[Ninjahedge]

Music is a biggie when you start talking about copying. It also gets more and more apparent the older you get and the more you listen to.

As for Anime, I would also go with Death Note. Excellent plot, although the ending was a bit off.

Cowboy bebop? Awsome music. 4 songs on it are great and I have in my MP3 mix (which is rather large, so I guess that is not such a great endorsement), but anyway. If you would like, simply Wiki it and find the episodes that pertain to the main story lines. About 1/2 to 2/3 of the series involves his past with the Yakuza and his own escape from it.

The only thing the fillers really provide is kind of a contrast from the broody mafioso that you see in the main story arc and the care-free skinny martial arts specialist/merc that prefers wearing the same purple suit everywhere.


Oh, the voice acting on it is also great if you get the english dub. Unfortunately his voice is not permanently etched in my head. Any time I hear another character being spoken by the same voice actor I picture Spike!

(FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_Bebop )

 

[smoothvirus]

Oh, the voice acting on it is also great if you get the english dub. Unfortunately his voice is not permanently etched in my head. Any time I hear another character being spoken by the same voice actor I picture Spike!

(FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_Bebop )

The guy who plays Spike is in a few video games as well. I think he was the drill sergeant in Call Of Duty 3.

More irony: the brother of a good friend of mine is a voice actor and plays a character called
"Raoul Contesta" on the Pokemon cartoon.

 

[DanDaManJC]

Here's another one, someone else mentioned it and didn't have the name down:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moribito:_Guardian_of_the_Spirit

excellent animation, in fact, it had some of the best choreographed sword fights ive seen in an anime to date. though only a handful of quality fights through the whole thing.