Having just got the box-set of Serial Experiments: Lain (gawd bless eBay), I thought I'd open a thread about Anime.

Which stuff do you like, or would recommend?

My friend has the first few Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 videos, which are worth a look.

i'd go so far as to say that its well worth waking up at 5:00 to watch bubblegum crisis: tokyo 2040 on sci:fi, for the theme music alone!!!!!

yeah bgcrisis is like the greatest cyberpunk anime ever.

tho my fav anime is neon genesis evangelion and the day spaced has an eva ref i will wet myself with glee!

I saw Spirited Away recently, and couldn't get into it.

Of the rest, Akira ownz, as does Ghost In The Shell, obviously (would quite like to see the episodes).

I'm kinda partial to Cowboy Bebop too.

If you're after something a little different, Perfect Blue is worth a look.

EDIT: I saw the first few episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Liked it.

The first episodes are nothing, you have to watch it all and then moreso the movies, to see just how frickin cool it is, with the mysteries and the surprises and the awesome fight scenes. and the soundtrack is brilliant. please i urge any of you who have access to the series or the movies watch them!!!!!!

The music is good, but the translation of the opening track is a little bit strange. Here 'tis for all:


Hey, how are ya, Romeo-sama?
They're saying you're old-fashioned...
Clone dolls give their love in smart ways.
"Your DNA
is just what we've been looking for, the best."
Now we have to run a simulation
so a high-level second generation can be born


Running through it is a thousand times better
than doing it the virtual way, don't ya think?


Logic won't help us understand, you know,
what it is that our hearts want.
Noone can know what that is, you know.
There's no need for demonstration.
What's important is
loving with all the heart and soul
like you and Juliet did.


P.S... Come to think of it,
God disappeared this year.
Communication between dolls goes nowhere.
And by the way, with this I.D. card
and 5-digit barcode,
we can know the nature of your very soul.
That's right. It's completely high-tech.


It may seem like a tease
when our bare skin touches, but that's OK.


Logic won't help us understand, you know,
what it is that makes our hearts soar.
Noone can know what that is, you know.
We have no need for programmed dreams.
Brilliant scientists and children
have the same gleam in their eyes.
Strange, isn't it?


Logic won't help us understand, you know,
what it is that our hearts want.
Noone can know what that is, you know.
There's no need for demonstration.
What's important is
loving with all the heart and soul
like you and Juliet did.

Amusing, really.

Berserk! A+++

I remember when I was about 14 Channel 4 used to show Amine stuff reeeeeeeally late at night on a Saturday night... I miss those days...

Anyways, I loved 3x3 Eyes and Cyber City Oeon 808, which I'm still trying to bid for on eBay but it goes for ridiculous amounts of cash!

I was big into Sailor Moon when they used to show it on Fox Kids on Sky.

Those were the days. I was talking about this the other day with a friend. It's about time C4 started showing some anime again. It would be nice even if it's only once a week, late at night.


Oh and I have the Cyber Punk collection which includes Cyber City 808
But even from the copy, the animation look fantastic!


I also download Ghost in the Shell 2 last night, but the copy was really bad and unwatchable

Shall we start a campaign?

It's not like it's not feasible, I mean, have you seen what's on late at night on Channel 4 these days...? I want something decent to watch after coming back from clubbing drunk out of my skull!

i couldnt get into it either the first time i saw it as its a bit random, but then i saw it again when i was more in the mood and i really liked it.

What a great thread!!!

My favourites are, in no particular order:

GHOST IN THE SHELL. All of it! I've got all of the SAC 1st GiG and the first 14 episodes of the 2nd GiG. by the way, if any one wants it, and its ok to post this link (please remove if it isn't) go to Laughing Man Fansubs. This guy had translated all 40 episodes I've seen but you will need bitTorrent to get them. They only have 2nd GiG episodes on the site now but the 1st GiG episodes are out in the ether. Also, I believe they are coming out on DVD now, in US at least.

Neon Genesis Evangelion. Watched all of it, and can't say I really understood it at the end. I think my favourite bits were the hallucinations/dreams towards the end of the series, when Shinji was going a bit mad. Beautiful artwork.

Princess Mononoke. Predeccessor (sp?) to Spirited Away and I think a much better film (although I do like spirited away).

Metropolis. Much better than that crappy Astro Boy they're showing on telly at the moment.

Spriggan. i only mention this because I think it is relatively unheard of. Its like a cross between Bond, Indiana Jones and Metal Gear Solid. Very cool but a bit confusing.

Many more films: Kai Doh Maru (beautiful), Blood (also beautiful), Pat Labor (clever!!!), ABYTHING by Production IG really...

Patlabor was another of my favs. Must get round to buying the 3rd film and the series.


As for older series, Legends of the 4 kings was good, untill the last episode and also Devil Boy, The Guyver. there are a few more I could name, but I can't remember what there called .


*Goes to look through video collection*


Oh also, does anyone know if Manga Maina or Max as they changed it too is still going??

Patlabor 3? I must hunt this down with all possible haste.

Amazon

Well, I found it at Amazon, but its region 1, I shall continue hunting. But, why is it called WXIII?

I don't think Manga Max is still going - my site got featured in it once but I don't think it lasted very long after that, and that was years back now.

In terms of what I like, I'd probably have to say "all of the above" really - although Bubblegum Crash you might want to avoid. It's worth keeping an eye out for Anime deals at Sendit and Play - they go a little crazy sometimes and start selling titles half price which is handy if you want to get a whole series. HMV and Virgin are all well and good choice wise but you do pay through the nose, although I did get Spirited Away (yet to watch) in the HMV sale which was good.

Don't know why it has the WXIII. Might have something to do with the series, or that's what it might be called in Japan??

Try eBay, they always have loads of copies on there.

In exeter we have an MVC and that seems like a very good place to get anime, although again, prices are normally a little on the steep side. They seem to have a much wider range than HMV or Virgin, although Virgin here has improved lately.

I tried for ages to get 3 X 3 Eyes on video or dvd but can only ever find like 2 out of the (i think) four videos.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is brill, in my top 5. Unfortunatly I haven't seen all episodes but ive seen the first half and both movies (when I first saw the beginung of end of eva movie I nearly peed myself laughing)

At uni we have an anime society which I joined last year and managed to watch a few series's that Ive been after for ages.

Trigun is another one of my favorites. I really need to import this sometime. It has BIIIIG guns, humor and sencitivity. oh and of course theres Vash the stampead

Helling has just come out in a boxset in the UK which is a great series I watched last year(and now own half of) . Not Van Hellsing might I add, But its about fighting vampires in England. Its weird how London has been portraed in it, and Alucard as well as having a cool name, is the coolest vampire ever. (allthough the guy in Vampire d being half vampire comes close)

My favorite gender of anime is anything which makes me laugh. Dragon half is one of my favorites even though its only 2 episodes long its great fun. I have it on subbed vhs which I must replace soon as its falling apart. Excell saga is great too which has just come out in a box set in the US. FLCL is nuts too which I must get sometime.

A couple of anime that im looking forward to watching or getting is PANDA-Z, Dead leaves (comes out in a week here) and one amaing series which is based on the count of monte Cristo which is visually awsome.

Pucchu Pucchu Pucchu

There's a film that has just come out on dvd in Japan called Casshern. It isn't an anime film, but it is based on a anime story, although I can't tell you which cause I don't know. The film looks totaly fantastic! go to the web site and watch the trailer.

www.casshern.com.

Metropolis was on sky movies again today. Always good to watch, especially the end (with the music) very nice.

I forgot about Blood, saw it, loved it.

Yeah, that Casshern trailer is nice. If you like that you should see Storm Riders. Looks like you can get the Casshern DVD on E-bay for $50 (ouch) and it will arrive November 4th. You guys have good taste in Anime, the Trigun box set is selling at a store near my house for $160 (like 100 pounds I guess). Don't think I'll be getting that anytime soon hehe. I've recently been watching a lot of Inuyasha on Cartoon Network, its pretty good.

Thats one of my favourite movie moments of all types of film. With the building crashing down and that really upbeat, but slightly melancholic, jazz playing. Inspired.

i enjoyed 'Ninja Scroll'.
I was rather suprised to find myself enjoying 'Street Fighter II' so much aswell, seeing as i never really got into the game and the film had a virtually non-existant plot.

i don't suppose anyone has seen 'Howl's Moving Castle' yet?

FLCL is my favourite non-miyazaki anime.
mental and ace.
Naruto is fun as well but so slooooooow. One scene lasted longer than most films.
Patlabor 3 is a weird one. It's kind of a giant monster movie approached the same way the first two approached mecha. If that makes any sense.

Oh, lots o' stuff. Here's my recommends:

1st tier:

Blood: the Last Vampire
Cowboy Bebop
FLCL
Kino's Journey (similar feel to Lain, but I think much better)
pretty much anything by Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Totoro, etc)
Tokyo Godfathers

2nd tier:

Blue Submarine No. 6 (though the ending is kinda blah)
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
Detective Conan (known in the US as Case Closed)
Dirty Pair (classic)
Lupin III
Moldiver
Phantom Quest Corp.
Serial Experiments: Lain
Sherlock Hound

Stuff I've tried once and/or want to try:

Fullmetal Alchemist
Last Exile
Love Hina
Samurai Champloo

When I was in Japan this summer I saw Casshern - and it is simply the barmiest film I've seen in a while. The presentation is absolutely stunning with epic anime style backdrops but real-life actors, shot through a bizarre focus and loads of mad CGI. Of course, it was all in Japanese with no subtitles, so the plot made little sense, but I got a fair idea of what was going on. It got a bit tiresome, not being able to understand the dialogue and actually having little action, and overly-dramatic, lots of grand speeches in silly costumes, but the 2 big action set-pieces with Casshern fighting a colossal army of giant robots are stunning. So, its probably not worth getting the DVD unless its got English subs, and holding out for a UK cinema release, as it needs to be seen on a BIG screen.

Regarding anime, standard fare like Akira and Spirited Away are my favourites. I'm not a BIG fan in any respect, so visiting the Studio Ghibli museum in Tokyo wasn't as thrilling as it may have been for others. Plus, its mainly aimed at the under-10s. And they had a fricking Pixar exhibition taking up most of the museum, so when I wanted behind-the-scenes stuff on Howl's Moving Castle, I got Finding Nemo storyboards...as found on the DVD.

Oh, and I left Japan just before The Adventures of Steamboy, from the director of Akira, was released. If you like giant steam-powered machines destroying Victorian London, then it'll float your boat!

I bought a few manga titiles from a charity shop a couple of years ago. Apart from the usuals ;Akira, Fist of the nOrth Star theres one called Project AKO. A very peculiar film about lesbian men (I think).

Heh. Project A-KO and the rest of that series is just nuts, I picked them up as part of a massive job lot of anime vids someone was getting rid of on eBay. Bit of a bargain really. Yeah, funny series - I'm actually reading up a bit on the cultural background to anime at the moment and I think A-KO is based around something you find in the Japanese school system, a sort of mentoring system - so even if someone younger than you mentors you, they're supposed to get a lot of respect. Apparently a lot of anime play around with that.

I kinda wish they didn't turn CNX into Toonami. They showed some decent Anime, I saw Blue Sub 6 on there, as well as some great HK Action flicks (Heroic Trio anyone?)

My neighbour Totoro has to be the most non violent animated film ever made.

I love it.

It does seem to have turned into a Dragonball/Pokemon/Dragonball sort of channel. However, I do enjoy Justice League, Batman of the Future and Samurai Jack and Megas XLR (which did a great mickey take of Battle of the Planets at one point) so I suppose not being that into HK cinema I can forgive it. Personally I'm a little surprised there isn't demand for another sci-fi channel, although Sky One/Mix seems to have the rights to quite a few shows so perhaps it's not quite that straightforward.

Oh, I forgot to mention Sgt. Keroro (also known as Sgt. Frog). Very funny stuff.

I really want to see that, Ive been reading about it in Newtype magazine and watching a japanese trailer of it on a free dvd, It looks warped!

Really want to see Panda-Z

Me too! I have a Panda-Z obsession! Got toys and merchandise and have only been able to see little clips and stills of the TV series. It came out on DVD in Japan a month or two ago if you're interested (though there's no english subs and the whole DVD is about half an hour long).

It hasn't been mentioned a s much as I thought it might have been, but NINJA SCROLL is my favourite Anime.

I also loved Blood:The Last Vampire, and Ghost in the Shell.

yeah Ninja Scroll was pretty good actually.

anyone seen Vampire Wars.

It is - and very funny. I picked up the first manga volume from Tokyopop, and went out the next day and got the next three.

Also downloaded some episodes online. If it ever comes out on official dvd, I'll definitely purchase it.

Watched first episode of Panda Z at the anime society on tuesday, had a great day. We wtached episode 3+4 of Berserk (which is slashy beond belief) and the first episode of the brilliant GTO.

Oh and some AMV's with one using the audio of the LOTR TT trailer and using clips form anime (Krillen from DBZ was frodo)

Well, I obviously love Ninja Scroll, as I've named myself after the great Jubei Kimagami. However I started buying Ninja Scroll the series, and it was rather bad. Rather bad indeed. I may persevere and hope for the best though.

I've been talking about how to find quality new anime with more than one person recently, so I'm going to bump this rather ancient thread and see if anyone has any more suggestions.

Anyone? Or will it return to the depths of the board as fast as I resurrected it?

I really like the .hack series.

Akira..... so.... beautiful....

I'd second Akira, though i'm currently reading the comics so that I can understand the deeper parts of the movie which elude me sometimes.

Would The Clone Wars count? I know they aren't Japanese but they owe a massive debt to the visual style of anime and are fantastic. Can't wait for the second series, especially since it links up to Episode 3

Yea Akira is fantastic.

I watched the first 3 DVD's of .hack but it never really grabbed me, things happen very slowly and, although I love the premise - it reminds me a lot of a set of books called Otherland - it just doesn't go into enough detail.


It should do.

yeah, that is lunacy

Check out this site, Midlands Anime Club, It's based in the Midlands as the name implies but there are many people with a great knowledge of Anime and I'm sure you could find out about loads of stuff. For people in the midlands, they do meets once a week on a Monday at Birmingham uni and once a month people from further afield come on a saturday to watch Anime, role play, play computer games and have a drink (usually a trip to nostalgia or forbidden planet is scheduled for those who want to go as a big group). Me and the missus go every now and then and they do have quite a broad range of stuff, much of which I can never remember the name of.

I really wanna get into anime films, but dont have a clue were to start, i'm off to manchester tomorrow so does anyone have any recommendations of what a manga newbie should pick up?

Akira - the grand-daddy of them all

I'm looking forward to Steamboy

And also Ghost In the Shell, that and Akira are both great examples of futuristic anime, ooh and also Cowboy BeBop. Also look at Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. And also Metropolis.

Has anyone else seen Spriggan?