If you plan on downloading it from mininova (what?) then I'd go for the big compilation downloads. The [Lunar] ones seem pretty good quality, and although I've been doing them in 20/25 ep batches, I think there is one that covers the whole first 100 episodes. You should be able to specify which specific files you download, so you don't have to do it all at once, but it means that it's all in one place and you can dip into it 5 at a time or something.

Not really a fan of anime, but I can certainly appreciate this affectionate send-up of the genre (and more specifically, dubbed versions). It also helps that the fight scenes are really cool and super-bloody, and it's got some great jokes. Behold! Kung Fu Jimmy Chow!

I've recently watched the first few episodes of Tokko because I was given the box set. It's dire. Basically, features school age police officers, demons, zombies and a special 'Tokko' squad that kills monsters with swords in seriously bloodys battles. It's USP seems to be massive over the top gore and gratuitously animated wounding and maiming. And a dickhead police chief with a gun fetish and a problem with being bettered by kids with swords.

I've gotten back into bleach in the last few weeks, and torn through episodes 80 to 150. Finished the Bount story arc and into the Arrancar arc, which is HUGE. Already about 40 episodes ito it, and there's another nearly 50 to go, and still being pushed out one a week. Bleach is consistently brilliant. Funny, emotional, deep, shallow, beautifully drawn, comicaly drawn, short fillers, massive story arcs, ludicrous levels of backstory and really long set ups for big payoffs, and the action is non-stop and brilliant. I've mentioned it before (on this page no less) but I can't recommend it enough.

On a related note, does anyone know a good free H.264 codec? I'd prefer not to use ffdshow. From ep 151 onwards they've switched from divx to H.264 and I need a codec to play them with.

Anyone know of a good Anime online store? Looking for a copy of Megazone 23 vol1-4 on dvd.

I have recently seen Street Fighter 2 and Alpha, both excellent!

Have also watched Hellsing (Normal series) and one or two episodes of Fruits Basket, which is... good, I think.

Looking into Bleach now.

I will say this: Avoid the Bounto/Bound story arch like the fucking plague. It is anime exclusive filler they created so the mangas could get ahead of the anime and it is fucking diabolical awfullness. It (obviously) has no bearing on any of the story before and after and the conclusion the arch is totally fucking pointless, it just sort of ends with no real resolution or anything, It was a real drag and such a shame as the proper story that starts after it is just awesome.

Thanks for the advice, any idea on the numbering there? I'll probably just go season by season to be honest.

I was just getting into that saga when my interest suddenly died for Bleach. It really was the most blatant and lazy filler I think I've ever seen. Shame really because up till then I was content to watch the show for what it is; the newest DBZ style show following the simple plot of -
"Ha! I'm stronger than you!"
"Ha! But I have trained for seven years in secret and ascended to level 4!"
"Ha! But you did not know that I have mastered these techniques, as well as those tought to me by master...yadayadayada..."


I watched Street Fighter 4: The Ties That Bind recently and it was a big pile of average from start to finish. Being a big Street Fighter geek it quickly became apparent that it wasn't following canon, though not in quite such a sacreligious way as SF:Alpha (seriously Ryu and Akuma being related?!), and wasn't all that fussed about making sense in the context of either the game narrative or the mangas.
Ryu travels searching for a greater power than that of the Satsui no Hadou (aka The Murderous Intent) that dwells within him. On the way he talks a lot to various other SF characters and by the end of the film fights twice. Akuma taunts him via the power of mind fuckery but never actually makes an appearance in "reality".
In the meantime some of the more well known characters from the SF franchise; Guile, Cammy, Chun Li, Sakura, and Ken, become embroiled in a plot orchestrated by the sinister SIN organisation. And they talk, a lot. Turns out the Satsui no Hadou is the final piece needed to make a weapon that makes peoples cells explode, making it the next big terrorist must have. SIN, controlled by SF4 main baddie Seth, have assigned the morally grey Crimson Viper to track Ryu down and help test this power with a fight.
This happens over half an hour into the movie. A movie called Street Fighter, based on a game that focuses squarely on fighting and it takes that long before fists are clenched. Admittedly the fight is pretty cool, with Ryu going all Dark Ryu and doing some Akuma style teleportation, it just took too long to arrive.
From there the gang end up tracking down a facility run by SIN, trash it and then Ryu has a fight with Seth that ends with Ryu attaining some kind of "pure" power and using a Shinku Hadoken to destroy Seths bio-generator thingy in his gut.
Seth escpaes somehow, is confronted by Vega (though you only see the claw) and told that Shadowloo has been controlling his company and in fact created him. Cut to Seth inexplicably in an office wearing a suit muttering to himself about how Shadowloo has in fact been controlled by SIN. Convoluted to say the least.
The ending makes no sense (even in the land of Satsui no Hadou and Hadokens) given that there's nothing from the game that this is based on. Not only that but there's no contest. There's no sign of Rufus, E. Honda, Blanka, Zangief, Dhalsim, Balrog, Sagat, M. Bison, El Fuerte, Rose, Gen, Fei-Long or most importantly Dan and that's over half the cast of the game.
Next to Street Fighter 2, still unbeaten as the best game to anime crossover to my mind, it's rendered average at best and I could really only recomend it on the basis of it being vaguely interesting to a Street Fighter geek such as myself.

Season 4 & 5 I believe are the Bount arc

I have recently started watching Azumanga Daioh. An anime style sketch show but with depth and a running story to each episode. It's clearly for younger girls but there's enough obscurity to keep me amused.

Still with Bleach at the moment. It's up to 260-something now I think, I'm a few episode behind the current right now. Get this though, I dented my hard drive recently and lost 240 episodes and 4 movies of downloaded bleach. Ouch. If anyone gave up on it, there's been some brilliantly choreographed and animated fight scenes recently. There was one between Hisagi and an Arrancar in the invasion of Karakura town episode 219, and then one just a few back between Byakuya and Kouga in the rogue zanpakuto arc episode 252. Even if you haven't been watching, if you like anime and you like fight scenes, those two episodes were top top notch.

Where exactly have they taken Bleach?

Well, after the bount story, they've got heavily into the Arrancar arc which follows the manga, basically Aizen has been usingthe King's Seal I think to turn hollow into Arrancar, as well as taking over the existing arrancar. They're basically the top hollow, way beyond Menos Grande, and they have swords and things like Shinigami. Also, they've brought in the Vizard, who are outcast shinigami that have hollow powers, like Ichigo, which gives some history on previous captains, and explains why Urahara lives in the real world.
There's also been some fillers, some good, some bad. There was a shinigami that had been trapped in hueco mundo for hundreds of years, and new captain who obviously turned out to be bad, and a rogue shinigami that materialized and brainwashed all the main characers zanpakuto into rebelling. That's ongoing, the rebellion is sorted but the zanpakuto are still materialised.
I like when they break the fourth wall at the start and end of filler seasons and have the characters completely bemused that they've just stopped fighting one bunch of baddies and are now happily at school or something :)Currently the main story has paused mid way through the main invasion of karakura by the arrancar. Coming up... The top arrancar has to do battle, and I'm guessing genryu will be going up against aizen, at which point tosen and gin should also get into some stuff.

Need to get back into Bleach. I was 10-20 episodes into when Ichiho and crew were invading the world of the Hollows.

Sounds... complex.

And Monkeyman, don't. The rescue of Ichigo's Death God mate is stretched and dragged into like the next 8 series. Such a drag.

Nah I've seen all that stuff. I'm talking about when tjey invade the Arancar world to rescue Orihime.

I'm 7 (of 13) episodes in to Serial Experiments: Lain.

What the fuck is going on? Is it ever "explained" (I've seen Paranoia Agent and Perfect Blue, so I'm not expecting this one to resolve in a perfectly sensible way)? It just seems like a collection of random scenes for the most part - the last episode I saw was the first one where it seemed to have any kind of plot at all.

I will go back and read through this thread, but a quick question for those in the know:

Is Bleach any good? (HMV have it for £15 a box set at the mo).

How many episodes per box set?!

I really like it except for the filler story arc that was created specifically for the anime after it had caught up to the manga. It has really good music and great characters/creature design. And I really like the story. It does suffer a but from Dragon ball syndrome though sometimes (people getting stronger but not revealing it to the enemy until the last minute only for the enemy to turn around and go "haha I secretly am stringer too haha"). Jubei can probably sell it better than I ever could though.

From what I can tell they are full series box sets (my local HMV had series 1 and 2).

Looks like each has 20 episodes, Raven.

There are 271 episodes in total... and counting.

Personally, there's just so much I don't think anyone could ever justify buying it all. The first series is 20 episodes and the second is 21 I think, but they're up to almost 270 now and it's still got a long way to go, and this story has pretty much been going since the second series when things were first set in motion. Obviously there's been a lot of filler in between. On the other hand, the first few series are some of the best. I say bring back Don Kanonji!

That's still much better than when they were asking £20 for 3-4 episodes at a time.

I'd say watch the first 10 or so episodes online to see if you're into it, as 270 eps at £15 per 20 is quite an investment!

God the music is good though.

Some is cheesy awesome

Some is just plain awesome (or at least I think so anyway)

The videos do give a little peek into what you can expect from the series, though I guess they're a bit spoilerish.

While I'm here I have to recommend Berserk:Its a bit old now I guess but it's dark, violent, fucked up and probably the most emotionally affecting thing I've ever watched. If you aren't moved by the finale then there's something wrong with you.
Don't be put off by the intro though, it is horrifficaly out of place and doesn't fit the tone of the series at all I love it because it's cheesy and Engrish but it's so out of place

On the flipside I can wholeheartedly not recommend Hack/sign. It's just so dull. Nothing happens. The premise is great but it's dull, the action is limited and unimaginative. Lame-o.

Just like the.hack games then, shame really because the concept is quite compelling given the rise of MMOs.

I'll throw my vote behind giving Berserk a look too. As an examination of the power of ones will I found it incredibly compelling. And damn is it tragic.

I've been given copies of Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, a reworking of the original series. Problem is the video is HD and my old graphics card just says no to that. Tis a bugger.

That's a shame dude. The original series was fantastic, I'd be interested to see what that version was like (and the reworking of Hellsing)

Thanks for the feedback all.

Hmm, 270 episodes and rising? Not sure I like the sound of committing to something that long!

I will continue to browse for now.

Ooh, if you've not seen it already get hold of Perfect Blue.

I recently watched Sky Blue, a Korean anime movie about a dystopian future with an ecologically ravaged earth and a toned down Eloi/Morlock style civilisation. It was by no means perfect but having picked it up for a fiver at HMV it was worth a watch, with pretty high production values, an interesting sub plot regarding the three main characters pasts and some excellent action sequences. Would recommend it.

Get Berserk and Full Metal Alchemist!

Or go for Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The box sets often come up for reasonable sums, although at the moment it's around £30 for series one, which is about 26 episodes I think. It is the all time best anime series ever, and there's only 2 series and a '3rd series' movie to get through. </carping on about GITS:SAC again>

Plus the Tachikoma side episodes are great fun!

I've already got the first part of the first series and I think HMV may have the full first series for £15 or £20.

To be honest I'm not that interested in buying series at the moment though, I'm looking more for films in the Studio Ghibli vein (or possibly Akira/Ghost in the Shell). I'm not that interested in the more violent stuff; live action films or anime about real life in Japan are of more interest to me.

Versus then. Real life in modern day Japan involves Zombies and Samurai. And Zombie Samurai.

Seriously though. Try Twilight Samurai. It's set at the end of the Samurai period, when they were really little more than clerks and accountants, and follows the story of a widower father of 2 trying to make ends meet and avoid drawing attention to himself. It's slow, quiet and introspective and a truly wonderful film.

I just watched the first episode of Time of Eve, which seems like it could be an interesting little short series. It's beautifully animated, and seems as though it will deal with humna/android relations in a society where they could be identical but have to indicate that hey're an android with a holographic ring.

Meant to say, all six episodes are available to stream for free on crunchyroll - http://www.crunchyroll.com/library/Time_of_Eve