Thread: New to Anime ^^;

Hey guys,

I come asking guidance from you elder anime fans.

Well, I'm becoming interesed in anime, but I don't really know where to start... Any series that I should check out? I've heard FMA and Inyuasha are pretty good, but please share your opinions.

Fullmetal Alchemist is the best, in my opinion. In fact, read the manga too. You can Google it and find a million sites that have the scanlations available for your reading pleasure. Thus far, there is nothing better than FMA.

Samurai Champloo is turning out to be a pretty cool series. I'm about halfway through it now, and it's delightfully amusing while still managing to keep the dark style and mood in tact.

Of course, these are all commercialised anime that are now (or have previously) aired on Toonami or Adult Swim. If possible, try and find the original Japanese versions of the show. Trust me, they are way better.

I am also enjoying Bleach, in a throwback-to-DBZ-with-death-gods-and-big-swords kind of way. Naruto is the same idea, only on a smaller scale. It's a good series to watch through once, but I have absolutely no desire to sit down and watch it over and over.

Serial Experiments: Lain was pretty good, too, although a lot of people claim to not “get it”. I don’t know… maybe I’m just weird, but I understood it just fine.

Oh, but if you want to have a complete “WTF?” experience, go looking for the Japanese version of Furi Kuri. O.o

Above and beyond television shows, anything by Hayao Miyazaki is guaranteed to be a masterpiece. Of that there is no doubt. That man is a friggin genius and he puts so much feeling into his work.

If I think of anything else, I’ll be sure to list it down. Personally, I’m very, very selective when it comes to anime. I'm not as die-hard otaku as I used to be. Unlike a lot of my friends, I won’t just eat up anything and everything just because it’s drawn with big eyes and small mouths. They would watch anything, no matter how crappy it was, and if I didn’t enjoy it, I was the outcast. Thankfully high school is over and I can get back to watching anime with a more artistic eye.

Anyway, if I’ve forgotten anything, I’m sure someone will pick up my slack. **looks at Ramu nee-chan**

http://forums.boxtorrents.com/viewforum.php?f=18

Check out the sticky's at the top for peoples reviews and opinions of different anime series' and films
they are split up into different genres, which I think is fantastic
very much catered toward the new anime viewers

-------------------

my own personal recommendations for the new viewer

Akira
Most people's first introduction to anime

Cowboy Bebop
Great series, even better movie

Spirited Away
Not wanting to give too much away, it's just a nice story


Tony

PS.

Misc things you should know
(to avoid getting flamed on anime forums )

Most series' you'll come across
(should you decide to download them)
will be in japanese only

It is the english (or any other language, for that matter) anime fans who put together subtitles to go with the series
These are called fan-subs (ie. subtitles done by the fans of the series)

There are companies around that take japanese anime (usually only the popular / well known ones) and dub it into another language.
These are usually frowned upon

Most people prefer subtitled japanese anime to dubbed anime
people's reasons differ, but the general consensus is that in Japan, voice acting is a serious profession.
Anime producers will only employ good voice actors.
This means that the anime packs a lot of punch, when it comes to vocal emotions and style
contrary to this, western voice acting is not considered a big deal, so dubbed anime can lose a lot of the feel of the piece.
even worse, some american dubs will use different words, and some will change the entire feel of the dialog.

Me, personally, I'm lazy
after a hard day at work, the last thing I want to do is read subtitles for half an hour
but in all honesty, subbed anime is far, far superior to dubbed

Just thought I'd let you know

Thanks so much for the suggestions guys ^^ Although I didn't reply right away, I was keeping track of the thread.

So here's what I've been doing the past few days:
After I saw your posts, I was talking to a friend about some of the suggestions you guys gave, and it turns out he's a Bleach die-hard (I never really knew ), so he gave me a link to a site with fansubs for that, and now I love it and I've gone through about 7 episodes of that. I'm also really enjoying FMA, however I'm only starting episode 3, since the site I'm getting them from has a far slower server (although there's only a 30 MB difference, it takes over an hour to get the FMA episodes compared to 20 minutes for the Bleach).

And I really see what you two were saying about the fansubs being better, I caught some of the samples of FMA on the adult swim website.

Originally posted by A Lost Soul
Oh, but if you want to have a complete “WTF?” experience, go looking for the Japanese version of Furi Kuri. O.o

Now I gotta find that just to see what that means

Again, thanks so much to you two

Yeah, the FMA dubbing was pretty damn good for the first, maybe, twenty episodes of the show. They changed around some dialog, but it didn't deviate too much from the original Japanese. Not enough to annoy me, anyway. Then, suddenly, they started changing a whole bunch of stuff around... That irks me to no end. I hate that English dubbing companies automatically assume that the viewer is stupid, thus they dub in simple terms and add dialog that wasn’t there originally.

I fully support fansubs. I much prefer the original Japanese because they seem to take their viewers more seriously and treat us with more respect than the English dubbing companies do. Another thing is that you lose a lot in translation. For example, in the English version of FMA you’d never know that Al speaks very politely and Ed speaks a little lower on the politeness scale. Though I have to say, they picked pretty decent voice actors, except for Gluttony… he sounds like Gargamel from the Smurfs which made me go wtf? In the Japanese version, his voice and manner of speech is cropped and very child-like, not evil and gritty.

Anyway, waiting a few hours for FMA is well worth it, in my opinion. I suggest something like Limewire, though. I got all 51 episodes in less than two days. Yay for p2p pirating programs!

Oh, Tenkuu no Escaflowne was a good show, too. I forgot to mention that earlier.

And if you figure out Furi Kuri, please let me know. I think I'm just missing a lot of the humor because I wasn't born in Japan. I don't even know exactly what the title means. One of the characters said it meant "the fondling of breasts", although I'm not sure how true that is.

well i id have to say inuyasha is the best. i really like the story of it. But u have to see like the first 30 episodes or somthing to understand it. Spirited away is really good too i got that on dvd. And princess mononoke is another good movie.

heck yeah inuyasha is the ultimate anime!

Originally posted by Wee YaK
Spirited away is really good too i got that on dvd. *And princess mononoke is another good movie.

Like I said, anything by Hayao Miyazaki is gold. He's been my hero since I was a little girl. Another amazing film of his is the new one, Howl's Moving Castle. The guy is a damn genius.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Cowboy Bebop. That's another good series.

Trigun and Ranma 1/2

Ranma is a good date show. And there are so many episodes to keep you busy.

If you have a girlfriend who likes Hello Kitty and Sailor Moon, you couldn't do much wrong watching these with her, in order of importance:

Azumanga Daioh
Fruits Basket
Love Hina
Chobits

But if you want some more action techno noir, hit these

Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star

Oh oh... and if you're an artist, or your significant other is an artist, Comic Party. That's a classic. You'll be officially indoctrinated into the club of slobs that make up the western anime fanbase.

There are so many animes that I started watching and never finished, so I'm afraid I cannot faithfully recommend them. But DNAngel looks exquisite, Prince of Tennis is a knockdown drag out of high school athletic fantasia, Noir looks pretty deep, do check out Record of Lodoss War if you're into drago-dwarven fantasy, and Vampire Princess Miyu if you want to be spookified in that young vampire school girl sort of way.

God help me I kind of like the two episodes of Cardcaptors that I saw. There's a whole theme throughout anime of powerful children. I love that. I loved it when I was a child, I loved it when I was a teen, and I still think it's great. Like Gundam Wing? Five teenage boys starting a secret war against an Earth government, which is itself being overtaken by young group of hotshots in their 20s? And no parents? I'm in. That's the reason why these shows are so successful. They play off of both the child's need for independence and power, and their fantasies about being in a world where they can act like adults, and interact with adults on a level where they are taken seriously.

I might start thinking that's an unjust, exploitative thing when I get a little older.

Oh, Trigun. I could have sworn I mentioned that one... ah well. Vash the Stampede is quite the hero.

Ranma ½ is classic. It’s very old, but entertaining. I think that's the first anime I saw, aside from Dragonball (no damn ‘Z’ or ‘GT’, just plain ol’ Dragonball) and Sailor Moon which were just beginning to air in America (this was in the 80s, when they bombed the first time).

With all due respect, I started to watch Love Hina with my ex… but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t too shoujo even for me. And I’m a girl. But, if you or your significant other are into boy-meets-girl, boy-and-girl-have-continuous-misunderstandings, slapstick humor ensues, then Love Hina is right up that alley.

I am an artist myself, so I’ll have to check out Comic Party. I’ve actually never heard of that one before.

I’ve heard nothing but good things about Prince of Tennis, however I haven’t seen it myself so I can’t make a judgement.

Also, I think this is only available in manga form but I thought it was more than worth a mention: Death Note. My first impression: Wow. My second impression: Fucking wow. Death Note is an intelligently written suspense/thriller, something that’s unique in and of itself.

What makes it even more unique is the fact that from the beginning, you follow the antagonist rather than the protagonist. There isn’t a lot of action and the issues are short (they are released in Weekly Jump in Japan and scanlated soon after), but every week when you get to the end of the 20 pages, you feel both fulfilled and hungry for more. Honestly, I can’t express enough how awesome it is.

"This might sound funny coming from a god of death, but I didn't feel alive."

I kind of got a Meet Joe Black vibe going there. The combined boredom of both the gods and humans is a time honored impetus for a supernatural story, though. I think Death Note is manga for now, but I found a site where I could read most of it pretty easily. It could get very popular.

Who wouldn't want to literally play hero with a notebook?

Literally. Get it? Taking words into their exact meaning, writing in a death notebook? There's all sorts of deep looping irony there.


Comic Party is also abbreviated as "ComiPa," and it's just some wacky and some touching storytelling about kids doing fan art. But I'd watch it again just for Taishi.

"Comrades! My brother... AND ... my sister! --Yes! It's a doujinshi convention!!"


Oh shoot, no one said Evangelion. Probably best that you stay away from that one, anyway, unless you like a melodramatic existentialist mind fuck. Seriously, Eva, I get enough of that weirdness when I dream journal for a whole night.


Furi Kuri is just supposed to mean fooling around... something like "second base." That show is so much like poetry.

Oh shoot, no one said Evangelion. Probably best that you stay away from that one, anyway, unless you like a melodramatic existentialist mind fuck. Seriously, Eva, I get enough of that weirdness when I dream journal for a whole night.


you!...i just cant say it...evangelion is awsome leave it alone... please!as to the newbie (sorry if that offended you!) but evangelion is one of the best anime in my mind but not as good as some other anime thogh but still good! verry good!

Originally Posted by bradysimpson

Oh shoot, no one said Evangelion. Probably best that you stay away from that one, anyway, unless you like a melodramatic existentialist mind fuck. Seriously, Eva, I get enough of that weirdness when I dream journal for a whole night.


you!...i just cant say it...evangelion is awsome leave it alone... please!as to the newbie (sorry if that offended you!) but evangelion is one of the best anime in my mind but not as good as some other anime thogh but still good! verry good!

Necromancer class: Guild Wars

The last five episodes of evangelion are...

Nevermind.

Originally Posted by Scatterbrain

Originally Posted by Grod

Necromancer class: Guild Wars

Ownt.

I'll give you mine!! ^__^

First of all, I don't see why some of you here think that admitting that you use to like Pokemon is a bad thing. A lot of people liked it at some time or another. There's nothing wrong with that. Heck, I'm STILL into it! Ya know, just in case the trainer card in my sig didn't give it away.

Even though It's not on anymore, I'm still a die-hard Yu-Gi-Oh fan. (YES!!!!! NEW SPINOFF!!!!!! Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's BABY!!! )

Naruto is good, But I personally recommend Naruto: Shippuden. But I warn you now; IF YOU ONLY LIKE ACTION, AND YOU DON'T HAVE A LOT OF PATIENCE, DON'T WATCH IT. Seriously, I'm tired of all the whining bloody IDIOTS on every site I go to saying It has no action. It's called a storyline!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, The three above, everything else everyone said (especially Chobits), And these:

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Laugh out Loud, crap your pants funny

Potemayo - Again, Laugh out Loud, crap your pants funny...with a lot of cute

Jigoku Shoujo - Very dark and engaging. Respectfully dubbed "Hell Girl"

Gundam 00 - By far, the BEST Gundam series I've seen. But I warn you now. Every 2 to 5 minutes or so, you WILL hear "Celestial Being". (Really, EVERY 2 to 5 minutes)

Cyborg 009 - God, I miss this one. It use to be on Toonami (when it was on in the afternoon a.k.a the 90's) Just downright great

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni - if you like insane, homicidal, yet really cute girls, then you'll LOVE this one

Then there are others like D-Gray Man, Gin Tama, Buso Renkin, Code Geass, and others I can't remember right now. I'll find out what those are. Hey, it pays to be in an Anime Club. (The ones in bold and italics are the one I first watched in Anime Club)

EDIT: AHA!!! I remembered another one we saw the club; Fate Stay Night. All I'm telling you is that if you are going to watch the 1st episode, look for a scene with saber and her sword. An amazing screenshot, for sure.

Woez, blast from the past.

All you need is Shin Chan.

Comrade Kazuki! Back to school tomorrow... right... that's absolutely correct! But, being buried in such commonplace routines, are you satisfied with that?!

Fun! Yes, that's it, Comrade Kazuki! That's the most important element!

In the 20th century, the blockbuster movie expanded in America... and spread to countries all over the world! That stimulus which is worthy of being called "entertainism," brainwashed everyone on Earth! This I can say without any exaggeration.

And now in the 21st century, here in Japan, a revolutionary new art form is beginning... yes, that art form... is known as doujinshi!!

We may be high school seniors starting tomorrow... BUT... in this present life, is it okay to simply go up the escalator system to university?

Everyone! Now that is what I call severe degradation!

World domination by the new media known as doujinshi... to unify the world that even the Roman and British empires could not... so we can become supreme rulers of the world!

Now let's create our doujinshi together!!

edited

GITS? Meh.

I remember in high school, when I was known for being an anime enthusiast, one of my buddies came up to me and said, "Mick, I saw Ghost in the Shell the other day and I didn't think it was good at all," looking straight at me, expecting me to rebut him or something. There was some sort of assumption that anyone who was interested in anime had not only seen GITS but thought it was fantastic. So strong it was that when I told my friend I had never seen it, he was surprised and even considered me a bit of a poser.

What was that other bloody, freaky anime that kind of defined ... oh, Akira. Geez, I'd like my animation without rape scenes, thank you very much.

Maybe we should start telling you which animes to stay away from?

DNA^2 was looking really fun and interesting up until about 6 or 7 episodes in, when everything just went to hell, story-wise. Oh, what a screw-up that one was. Tragic. Don't watch that one unless you really like being grossly weirded out by obsessed guys who get off on transforming into girls they like so they can proceed in impossibly destroying their lives. Wow, I can't overstate how disappointing and creepy that show was. Makes me feel sick.

I hear the Final Fantasy series is really bad, especially for enthusiasts of the games. I tried watching a little bit of it myself, but couldn't hold it.


Oh, and let me just say, it's okay if you're a boy and watched Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer when you were about 3 or 4 years old. Unlike the TV series, it was made in Japan and was clearly of superior quality on all levels. Your family might have thought you were a little weird, but there are actually plenty of guys out there who did the same thing and grew up just fine.

Really. I might, uh, know one of them.

Gah...I wen't without posting for a while...again Sorry, for not replying earlier...

As for what I'm into right now, I've gotten thru the entire Bleach series, grabbing every episode as soon as it comes out. I'm also really absorbed in FMA, just under 20 episodes in. Naruto's also great, but like Lost Soul said, the story doesn't hold up as well as the others, although it's still great for a quick view

Hellsing is flat out awesome, and quickly rising to the top of my favorites list. As well, I'm a casual fan of Gundam Wing and Samurai Champloo, both great series, although I haven't seen enough of either to frankly decide where I'd rank them.

And Furi Kuri...o.O....I get some of the jokes, and the plotline, although other parts confuse the hell out of me I'll have to grab more of that I guess.

I'm still looking for places to download some of these (sadly, can't use p2p, blame teh parents...)..anyone know any good download locations, other than Reality Lapse? They've got a great deal, but I haven't been able to find some such as Cowboy Bebop, among some others (yah, they're listed on the side panel of the site, but no links to direct downloads).

Oh, and for those interested, my entire anime collection now I haven't been able to watch all of this yet, but here's what I've got:

Bleach 1 - 63
Full Metal Alchemist 1 - 17
Furi Kuri/FLCL 1
Gundam Wing 1 -3
Hellsing 1 -3 [dub] (I think a few got accidentally deleted or misplaced...coulda sworn I had more ;/)
Inuyasha 1 [dub]
Mai Hime 1
Naruto 1 -6
Samurai Champloo 1 -2
Serial Experiments: Lain 1
Trigun 1
Xenosaga 1

I really like pokemon and digimon - they really revolutionize the global anime scene on a universal scale.

I was so happy to see this thread! I am just starting to get into anime myself and had no idea where to begin.. I am making a list of the ones you guys have recommended.
But can someone tell me..where can download them from? Only a few you mentioned are shown on Adult Swim or the Cartoon Network.

I have to say too that "Spirited Away" was the first one I've ever watched and it was wonderful! For some reason it was on my mind for days afterward.

Look for programs like Azureus or Limewire

I use both of these programs regularly and I have had much success. The other option is to find IRC channels where you can download episodes. I've never used this method, I so can't speak for or against it.

I'd like to recommend, once again, that you download the original Japanese episodes whenever possible. The ones on Adult Swim are ok, but there's a lot that's lost in corporate translation. Also, they like to rescript stuff, editing and stupidfying it for American audiences. I hear they're messing up the storyline in FMA, which ticks me off because that's my favorite show. Oh well... the manga is a billion times better anyway.

Anyway, if you have any more questions, let me know. ^_^