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Anime Recommendations
09-10-2012, 01:38 PM
Given that the silly buying season is coming up I am planning on this year saving my non-existant money and only getting stuff for myself. (HA!)
So far the Want/Need list includes
- Gaming Mouse
- Headset (Headphones with Mic)
- Bluray drive
- some decent Anime.
This is where you lot come in...
I'm fishing for recommendations for Anime.
I have most of the Ghost in the Shell stuff (the movies and the SAC series which I think are better), a copy of Gunslinger Girls, Bubble Gum Crisis (both versions), and watched Appleseed, Cowboy Bepop.
I like Space and Sci-Fi and Robots, so anything decent with them is a plus.
I use to watch Toonami and Adult Swim when it was showing down here in Aussie Land.
Oh... and I intensely dislike Pokemon, and Ponies. They will be killed with fire. Fire I Say!
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Planetes. Starship Operators. Dirty Pair (Original TV series) and Martian Successor Nadesico. That's just off the top of my head. Evangelion can be good if you're of the right mindset, but it's pretty polarising.
And I for one, also support the coming Ponycaust.
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I suspect Bob might get upset if I posted my entire "recommended" list, so I'll just link to the Anime Primer. Note that the list hasn't been updated in four years, so the good recent shows are missing.
Quote:I like Space and Sci-Fi ...
Have you seen Irresponsible Captain Tylor yet? Yes, it's old. Yes, the animation is nothing to write home about - it's old. But the story is excellent.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
For more recent anime, I recommend Durarara!! Sounds great in Japanese and even better in English, interesting plot, cool characters....better stop before I spoil anything.
Bonus: The anime covers the first three light novels of the franchise, and if you want to jump on to the fourth novel, you can do so after finishing the anime with very little trouble.
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The entire Macross franchise.
More recently, Moretsu Space Pirates. It's a bit slow-paced but very nice, and will almost certainly have a second season soon.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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Moldiver.
Tenchi Muyo - Ryo-Ohki (the original OVAs, including Mihoshi's Fairy Tale).
Rocket Girls.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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What Bob said. Especially Rocket Girls. That one is actually chock full of hard science - they had a lot of help from JAXA in the show's production. (If this doesn't sell you, I don't know what will: Japanese high school girl astronauts in skin-tight space suits.)
I can't recommend Eureka seveN enough. Colorful band of misfit freedom fighters, party music, sky surfing robots, young love, and a plot twist that will make you sit up and go 'NO FUCKING WAY!'
Another good one is Vandread, and it's all about a group of three men stuck on a ship full of women... and they're all from a couple of colony worlds where the women have been fighting the men for as long as their history books go back. But they set their differences aside when they find themselves under attack from machines that wish to harvest their body parts. The fanservice and innuendo abound in this one.
I don't know if you have Full Metal Panic, but if you don't... Kaname Chidori isn't your average girl... She has top scores in her school, mumbles about overtech in her sleep, is monitored by a secret military working for the UN, sought out by psychotic villainous types, and has a complete and total military-minded nutbar for a boyfriend. At least he is one of the good guys, but still... what's a girl to do?
For a change in setting, I'd recommend Utawarerumono. A strange man with a demon mask permanently affixed to his face wakes up in a small village with no memory of who or what he is. He soon becomes a part of the village, and after the village is wronged several times by the nobility, leads them in a revolution, and then several wars with neighboring countries as he tries to fight to protect what has quickly become precious to him.
Ok.... my turn.
Let's start with something 'Old-School' and say, Space Battleship Yamato. (the original version)
I'm surprised nobody suggested Gundam yet, so I'll suggest Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories.
Armored Troopers VOTOMS, Aura Battler Dunbine, Banner of the Stars, Birdy the Mighty, Bokurano, Bounen no Xamdou, Brain Powerd, Choujikuu Seiki Orguss, Coyote Ragtime Show, Crusher Joe Movies, Darker than Black, Eden of the East, Ergo Proxy, FLAG, FREEDOM, Gall Force (all of it), Genesis Climber Mospeda (a.k.a. Robotech the Last Generation), Genocyber, and... (heh) Giant Robo OVA.
I'll stop there for now...
Let me know If I should add more.
_____
DEATH is Certain. The hour, Uncertain...
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Find some of the classic HORRIBAD dubs.
Original US Release Akira, Tank Police, and so on. Machine Robo is a hoot, especially since the three lead hero robots in it... wound up the three main villains in Challenge of the GoBots.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
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I'll second Planetes, and almost anything by Ghibli (thought they are not very space focused).
More suggestions will be incoming once I get a chance to look at my collection
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
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No one has mentioned Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann yet, so I'll throw that out there. It's a hot blooded, manly mecha epic that starts out literally in Plato's Cave (being Gainax and all) before expanding to a science-fiction setting. It was the kind of show where every episode I would think "that is the most ridiculously awesome thing I have ever seen", only to have it topped by the next episode.
I'll second the recommendation for the original Dirty Pair (series + OVAs), which aren't exactly deep sci-fi, but were a lot of fun. Outlaw Star was cool too, but you've probably seen that already on [adult swim]. Gunbuster (Top o Nerae) uses the old "fighting space monsters with mecha" plot, but stays mostly in the realm of hard science with educational chibi bonus segments, and packs a heartbreaking plot into six short episodes.
And in the "something completely different" category, I'm going to recommend a couple just because: Azumanga Daioh (cute girls enjoying high school) and Revolutionary Girl Utena (elite high school, secret plots, roses, sword fights, fairy tales, deconstruction, roses, shadow girls, and more roses).
-- ∇×V
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Oh, yeah, heavy second on Utena.
On the movie side, Princess Mononoke and Summer Wars.
Back to series/OVAs:
The original Neon Genesis Evangelion (but you have to finish it with at least End of Evangelion). The recent remake in the form of feature films is also quite good, although clearly divergent from the original. And not all released in the US yet, as far as I know.
Sakura Taisen. Psychotronic mecha in a steampunk 1920s Japan fight demons and the sorcerous conspiracy behind them. The first couple OVA disks are good, but expect you to know the storyline of the original game on which they were based. The TV series has much lower quality animation but tells a more coherent story for the novice to the franchise.
Soukou no Strain, released in the US as StrAIn (Strategic Armored Infantry). Mecha warfare in a future with only relativistic interstellar travel, focusing on a young girl bred to be an elite mecha pilot who loses the ability to function as that elite in the same battle that reveals that her revered older brother, another elite pilot thought lost in battle, is now fighting on the side of the enemy, and the lengths she goes to in order to find out why he betrayed their side. For added fun, most of the character names come from Frances Hodgson Burnett's Victorian children's novels A Little Princess and The Secret Garden.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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If you can find it, I like Mighty Space Miners as a great example of What Could Have Been.
Decent-to-middling hard sci-fi, a fun character, and some great footage for AMVs 
--sofaspud
-- "Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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I'll second Full Metal Panic (all three seasons), Gurren Lagann and Rocket Girls. I'll also suggest School Rumble: a slice of life comedy, Full Metal Alchemist (I prefer Brotherhood but the older one is also pretty good), and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Revolution for some Mecha action. On the older side of things I'd suggest El Hazard: The Magnificent World.
You might want to take a look at JesuOtaku's reviews and see if there's anything you like: http://thatguywiththeglas...com/videolinks/ir/jo/jar
--
If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all.
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My many thanks for the suggestions.
Some of the suggestions I've already seen or heard about around the traps
- Utena thanks to Undocumented Features
- everyone's seen or knows about DBZ (It starts to get silly when you are strong enough to blow up planets, and it takes 30 minutes to do 5 minutes of combat/dialog)
- same with Neon Genesis Evangelion (Ugh... mindjob. Nice in parts, but ugh. I personally prefer what Eyrie Productions did with it and that Croft dude. Now -that- I will pay to watch.)
- and Gundam, in all its six four billion flavors never ending waltz. (Love the bots, wish progressed faster then a snail for anything significant to happen)
- Full Metal Panic, I've hired this out from the local video store and yeah it was fun to watch but scratched my head at all the build up they did about the Lamba Driver and then its basically a dud.
- Vandread, I've a few Halo fanfictions and one of them was a decent cross with Vandread, so its on my radar as potential.
Currently am investigating: Rocket Girls and Starship Operators.
Then onto Dirty Pair, Macross and Full Metal Alchemist
Will report back... if there was something with a dash of that cyberpunk from SAC... I'd be all over it.
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If you like the mecha Genre, you have got to watch Patlabor. (I'm actually surprised that no one's mentioned it).
It's basically about police in Giant robots.
However's it's actually about _police_ (As in - actually have to deal with the paperwork/fallout if you cause collateral damage) in giant robots, so the pace is a lot slower, but pleasantly so.
There's still a fair bit of action, but I wouldn't say it's the focus.
--
On the cyberpunk front, (And these aren't quite SAC at all), try Serial Experiments Lain (be wary, this is a mindscrew in the most classic sense of the word. But done well, as the Mindscrew is built up from the beginning and clearly intentional). Also, Silent Mobious is cyberpunk in the same way that Shadowrun is, IE, there's cyber _and_ there's magic.
---
And on the cutting new edge of Anime, I am personally enjoying the hell out of Sword Arts Online. Basic premise is that 10000 players are trapped in a MMORPG where you die if you 'die'.
---
On Full metal Panic: Try to see if you can find Full Metal Panic: Fumofuu.- it is still, to date, the anime that has me laugh out loud the most.
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If you thought Utena was too confusing but you liked the sword fights and the rose motif, check out Rose of Versailles when the box sets are released by Nozomi next year.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Just one problem with reccing Patlabor, a good percentage of it OOP, especially the TV series (11 discs) & OVAs as Central Park Media is dead? Bandai who's got the movies in the US is pulling out. Madman (AUS) currently has movies 1 & 2 still in print but has a indefinite hold on the first OVA series. It's a good show as it's where a number of the current crop learned their art and where the masters refined it. Does the name Mamoru Oshii ring a bell, he's the guy that herded the cats together to bring Patlabor to the screens & paper.
*screeeech*
Hold the fort, the OP is in the R4 DVD zone hole -the same as me- which means unless he's got an unlocked player, a virtual certainty with a local set top DVD/Bluray player, its factory-done(currently) to meet a bit of legislation the *IAA want squashed. He's officially* limited to whatever www.madman.com.au, http://www.sirenvisual.com.au/, http://www.beyondhomeentertainment.com.au/ offer to a place many a Aussie dreads to go.... JB Hi-Fi! What not Harvey Norman? No, they currently don't sell video DVDs.
Well, there's always torrents, youtube, iTunes or Amazon.
*According to a bit of legislation we(Australians) are not meant to watch/read anything that hasn't been presented to the Classification board, but officially it's nearly anything goes for personal use, provided it's not extreme fetish porn or anything deemed to have certain illegal overtones.(AKA to the best of my knowledge, the entire unedited first series of Nanoha & the Movie would be Refused Classification down here or they would be if someone ponied up the dosh & the video for classification)
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Rod, you got it in one.
Got to love Region locking and all that fun and games. Can't buy stuff from overseas as you run foul of the coding and its different from DVDs to Blue-Rays... don't get me started on the idiocy of the ratings board.
When I visited Hawaii, I found some DvDs selling for $5, over here in the Land of Oz at JB HiFi, same DvD: $30. (And 'you be grateful that you're getting it at such a discounted rate, freak')
I look longingly at the Cyber-Monday sales that have insane prices for DvDs and Blue-Rays. They are easy enough to get and ship over here... but don't have an unlocked player.
So you have to go through other means mostly... or save up a bit of loot.
Anyhow.. on the Anime:
I've watched a few episode of a copy of Rocket Girls. Problem was it was Japanese dub with no subtitles. The animation quality itself was good. Reminded much of SAC in parts. I can punch a couple of holes in it, but that's half the fun of anime Now on the look out for a English Version to see if my assumptions and guesses are right.
Also watched a couple of episodes of the English Dub of Starship Operators. Now this series I'll see through to the end, if only just to see what happens.
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.....how certain are you that your player's not region unlocked, all two of the brand name DVD & the blu-ray player I've bought have been factory unlocked although I bought the last one, last year. I know on the PC side of things it's been getting some what interesting in trying to get around regions....
Thoughts based on what I know's available here(Aus), Macross Plus, StarBlazers, anything from Studio Ghibli, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (a must see, yet it's not present in my library), Transformers Prime, My Little Pony  .
Imports: (.jp that I know are region-free & have some english) Nanoha the movie, Yamato 2199, Fate / Zero.
Oh an a new distro's started up down here called Hanabee, it apparently has Arakawa Under the Bridge & Toradora.
More recs might be sourced from here http://madboards.madman.com.au/
I know there's stuff I should be watching but since MAS folded & I've been forgetting to drop in on Manifest getting exposed to new interesting Anime's become difficult, plus I've got a backlog of stuff to watch & read.
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Oh, just thought of one:
El Hazard, The Magnificent World. The original OVAs, which come on two DVDs. There are various sequel series with different subtitles (which I've mostly found to be "meh") and a TV series subtitled "Wanderers" (which I've never seen), so be careful what you're buying -- the OVAs are the best of the lot, in my opinion.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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I've had exactly one Computer not be able to play 'outside-region' DvD's, even with VLC. And that was because the DVD drive's firmware prevented applications from getting raw access to the data (Which VLC needed to work at the time). All it required as a reflash with an RPC1 version and it worked fine.
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For Mecha-heads, "Gasaraki" did what I thought was one of the best near-real mecha portrayals, although it got all mixed up with "alien tech" and "economic warfare" sub-plots. Still, the mecha bits are very good. The English dub I found quite well-done, although running the subs in parallel it seemed like the translators took some liberties.
"Super Atragon" is horribad to the point it might actually be fun, although I hated it. Great soundtrack (done by the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Warsaw, IIRC), high-quality animation... but, the PLOT, it BURRRNNSSSS!
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SkyeFire Wrote:"Super Atragon" is horribad to the point it might actually be fun, although I hated it. Great soundtrack (done by the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Warsaw, IIRC), high-quality animation... but, the PLOT, it BURRRNNSSSS! If all it takes to make you happy is a Warsaw Symphony soundtrack, pick up Princess Nine. I can guarantee the story's better than the one in Super Atragon, too. On the flip side, it's a sports anime...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
If you're gonna suggest Gasaraki, you should check out FLAG, as well
_____
DEATH is Certain. The hour, Uncertain...
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