Excellent Anime Worth Watching?

[Fallen Seraph]

Desert Hare, if you like action and drama and sci-fi. As well as having good dubbing. I would highly, highly recommend Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

It is set in a Post-Cyberpunk Japan and deals with "Public Security Section 9" a anti-cyber terrorism organization. They deal with secret government plots, corporations, what it means to be human, etc.

Along with this you have awesome combat with fully cyborg humans, mecha, firearms, martial-arts. The animation is some of the best in television and shows during action scenes. There is some light romance in a bit of butting interest between the two main characters.

It also has some of the best English voice-work in anime.

There are two seasons of it with different plots. Each are around 25 episodes. There is also a Stand Alone Complex movie. As well as the original Ghost in The Shell movie (though not as good English dubbing I find) and a sequel to the original movie, though this isn't as good.

 

[babomb]

I guess one thing I can pinpoint that I don't like is having to watch something that has to be subtitled because the voice actors are speaking in a language other than English. I do like subtitles and captions as an aid to scenes in which the voice actors have to keep their voices low or are whispering.

I understand this, and to a certain extent I agree, if the dub is high quality. Unfortunately, in many dubbed versions of anime, the English voice acting is poor (though this has gotten somewhat better as anime has become bigger business in America). This is one reason many anime fans prefer dubs (some of them are quite snooty about it); other reasons are that the translations are often superior to dubs because the words don't have to match the mouths and the fact that one can get a fan subtitled version much sooner than an English dub, if the dub comes out at all.

We just have to find you interesting anime that have good dubs.

• Movies made by Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli are distributed in the US by Disney, and have pretty good dubs. They're also among the best anime there is. They tend to be very character-centric, rather than plot-centric. Some of these movies are:
  Princess Mononoke
  Howl's Moving Castle
  Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
  Castle in the Sky
  The Castle of Cagliostro (You should preferably see the Lupin III series before watching this, see below.)
  
• Cowboy Bebop is one of my favorite series. The dub is not bad. It's about bounty hunters in space. Music is an important theme in the series. It's not super sci-fi. There are space ships and jumpgates, but they still shoot people with pistols.
  
• Lupin III is about a gentleman thief, grandson of the famous gentleman thief Aresene Lupin, a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes. He and his team pull off daring capers that are undermined by Interpol or betrayal by Lupin's romantic interest Fujiko. There are actually three different Lupin series, usually referred to by the color of the jacket Lupin wears. The one you're most likely to find is the second (red jacket) series dubbed, and the dub is not bad. There are some serious moments, but it's mostly played for laughs.
  
• Ranma 1/2 is about a skilled male martial artist, who is cursed to change into a female in cold water and back to male in hot. His father is similarly cursed to turn into a panda, and they later meet other cursed characters. Although there's some martial arts stuff, this is really a romantic comedy. It gets a bit repetitive after a while, and it's very, very silly, but it's kind of fun, and the dub is tolerable.
  
• Ghost in the Shell is probably a good choice for you, with your stated interests. It's about a counter-terrorism unit in a cyberpunk world, and the dub is good.
  
• Monster is probably the best anime drama I've seen. It's not available dubbed yet, but I hear it will be soon. It's about a brilliant brain surgeon who has to choose between operating on one of two patients: an important politician and a young boy. He chooses the boy, and has to deal with the consequences of this choice as he learns the boy is a serial murderer.
  
• Metropolis is a movie loosely based on the 1927 Fritz Lang silent film. It's a dystopian future, with class warfare and a robot girl who is the key to controlling a weapon that will take over the world. The dub was pretty good, and there's a nice jazz soundtrack.
  
• FLCL is...well, it's different. I don't really know how to describe it to you. But it's worth seeing, and it eventually makes more sense than it initially appears. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGDhmJJ6ghw]Here it is on youtube[/ame].

 

[Krug]

Monster is probably the best anime drama I've seen. It's not available dubbed yet, but I hear it will be soon. It's about a brilliant brain surgeon who has to choose between operating on one of two patients: an important politician and a young boy. He chooses the boy, and has to deal with the consequences of this choice as he learns the boy is a serial murderer.

This had so much potential, but it dragged way too long, and kinda sputtered out in the end, like so many other anime series. Nonetheless there were some great episodes in there.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I like Lupin III but I appear to the only one.

I also like Lupin III. I also did like Ninja Scroll, though. (And beware Ninja Resurrection, which sucks and tries to pose as a sequel to scroll).


Have to recommend Record of Lodoss War, both the OVA and the tv series (chronicles of the heroic knight). Fantasy series, based off a campaign from a D&D offshoot, or something. I'm sure others could explain it better. But it has fantasy, magic, fighting, and romance.

The entire Gundam series is excellent, though some is more light-hearted, while most of it is serious. I've seen Gundam Wing, 00, half of Seed, 08th MS team, and G Gundam. Of them, they are all great mecha anime with lots of political maneuverings and character development. Except G Gundam (and I guess 08th MS somewhat). G Gundam is just a "street fighter" gundam, and pretty fun if you don't take it seriously. Haven't seen any of the original timeline yet, but I've heard all good things about those series.

Bastard is another fantasy anime set in a dystopian future. The main character is a cocky a-hole and very much an anti-hero, if a hero at all (until the end), but man is he entertaining to watch declare things like, "There's only one god, and his name is Dark Schneider!" (himself). Actually has character development. Some nudity.

Martian Successor Nadesico is a great sci-fi and mecha anime parody, eventually mocking even more subjects, liek anime otaku.

Trigun has good shoot outs, but it's a great series more for the character. The first half, the anime is kinda silly,and has a good amount of humor, but as the main character's past dominates the later episodes, it becomes much more dark and tragic. Setting is futuristic, yet western, on some other planet that a colonization ship crash lands on.

Also going to second Cowboy Bebop, Miyzaki, Metropolis, and FLCL.
I'll list more as I think of them.

 

[Rackhir]

I would check out these threads.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/media-lounge/241162-manga-anime-recommendations.html
http://www.enworld.org/forum/media-lounge/207469-anime-recommendations.html
http://www.enworld.org/forum/media-lounge/201886-point-me-anime.html

It has a bunch of manga recomendations as well. Anything I'd add would just be a retread of my recomendations in those threads.

For something a little different here's a thread on great anime opening/closing credit sequences.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/media-lounge/187493-favorite-anime-ops.html

Most of the Youtube links don't work anymore though.

 

[papa_laz]

If I had to choose one series to recommend to you it would be Neon Genesis Evangelion. One of the most original and gripping story lines you're ever likely to see.

As for movies Ninja Scroll is a fantastic piece of fantasy and has often inspired me when writing a campaign. Howls Moving Castle is also very fantastical and beautiful to watch.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Castle in the Sky

Just quoted to point out that these are two of my favourite movies of all time. I love them just as much now as when I first saw them.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Non-stop action, hard core sci-fi/soft fantasy, romance/love interest and lots of drama.

Okay, given that, it seems your tastes aren't too far off the kinds of things I watch. If only I knew what you thought of mecha... Oh well.

For pure non-stop action sci-fi/soft fantasy/romance stuff, one of my classic favorites is Outlaw Star.

Beyond that, I suggest giving almost any of the various Gundam series a try. They vary widely, but many are quite good. The original Mobile Suit Gundam shows its age, but isn't a bad place to start to the "Universal Century" saga (try to find the movie trilogy version if you want a quick start). Zeta Gundam, the sequel to the original Gundam, is considered the classic great of the franchise (though it is depressing and has its oddities). My personal favorite is Gundam Wing (it is self-contained), but the recent Gundam 00 is pretty good (but to warn you it starts slow, and I am still waiting for the second half of the English version).

I think I have to mention the classic Neon Genesis Evangelion, though I also think I should give you the required warning that this series can get very strange and has a more terrible ending than you can possibly imagine. It might be better to wait for the new theatrical version, I suppose. Also, the company that made this went on to create both the incredibly fun FLCL and Tenga Toppen Gurren Lagann, which are really good themselves.

Also, my current favorite anime is Code Geass: Lelouch of the Revolution. You can even see the first 15 episodes of this one for free at Bandai's Youtube Channel.

Actually, several anime companies have Youtube channels (like Funimation or host videos on services like Joost or Hulu, so you might want to go to one of those places yourself to see what is available that you may be interested in.

 

[qstor]

I'll second third etc the comments on Miyazaki's movies, Ghost in the Shell, Witch Hunter Robin, Berserker, Ninja Scroll and Akira.

I don't really care for Full Metal Alchemist but I know a lot of people that like it. I also dislike the anime with teen aged school girl typed characters with wide eyes. That turns me off.

Some other movies/series that I liked that I think weren't mentioned:

Jin-Roh, The Wolf Brigade,
Samurai Champloo
Wicked City
Samurai 7
Demon City Shinjuku

Mike

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Chrono crusade
Junni Kokki, the twelve kingdoms
and Outlaw star
are all worth checking out too.