non-cutsy anime

[Darth Shoju]

Question, do you mean the two movies or the two OAV series?

The movies. I didn't even know about the others. I'll have to check them out (or should I avoid them?)

 

[noretoc]

I will definatley check out cowboy beebop then. My neice loves witch hunter robin, but I have never had the chance to check it out. Thaks for the great suggestions! My neflix queue is filling. (If I can get to the site.)

 

[Nightfall]

I might disagree on Inuyasha.. Shippo is a walking cutsey crap character. There are a lot of slapstick moments as well.

Seconded and thirded. Inuyasha is WAY too cutesy to be considered "serious" save for the times Naraku actually DOES something smart and evil. Which isn't as often as one might think for the main villain of an near endless series.

Now SC, there are some great villains. Sure they are short lived, but man are they fun!

Lord T,

Thanks for the support.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Aside from the other very cool animes listed here, I will have to throw in my vote for AKIRA.

I completely agree with this. I loved it even more with the Special Edition.

I'd reiterate Miyazaki's stuff.

The Weathered Continent had a post-apocalypse D&D feel to it.

Blood: The Last Vampire was excellent. Same creator as Ghost in the Shell.

The same production studio did Kai Doh Maru, it blends in Japanese artwork of the Heian era into the anime. No cutsy stuff in that. Set in that era, it is about a young girl who flees the chaos of her city, rescued by defenders of a small mountain village, she learns martial arts and becomes a member of the towns warriors. Maybe a bit too much on the serious side, the animation was a splendid hybrid of typical anime.

I also have loved Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise. It won all sorts of Best Picture awards for animation in Japan when it came out. Its a story of an alternate, yet strangely familiar, Earth on the verge of launching its first man into space. I'm still impressed by the animation of the launch sequence.

 

[horacethegrey]

Blood: The Last Vampire was excellent. Same creator as Ghost in the Shell.

Not for me, sorry to say. Felt like an overblown TV pilot rather than the film it should have been. :\

I also have loved Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise. It won all sorts of Best Picture awards for animation in Japan when it came out. Its a story of an alternate, yet strangely familiar, Earth on the verge of launching its first man into space. I'm still impressed by the animation of the launch sequence.

Eh, I'm gonna come out and say that I find The Wings of Honneamise to be very overrated. Sure, the design work is great, the animation good for it's time, and has some generally entertaining moments. But the story is where it falters, as it is drawn out and very slow paced, leaving you bored in some places. It also suffers from the disease that I find in all the Gainax shows I've seen, that being their tendency to convey all these deep and profound themes and messages with all the subtlety of a brick thrown at a window. Now I don't mind if a movie has layers of meaning, but I'd preferred to be entertained rather than being preached to. The Gainax boys have all done this at one time or another in their stuff, and it just gets tiring.

 

[Klaus]

Crying Freeman.

Battleship Yamato.

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.

 

[Rackhir]

Hi-

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Outlaw Star and Inuyasha both are excellent Anime's with very little in the way of cutesie crap.


Scott

Outlaw Star has wrestling star ships... (no I'm not joking)

You might want to try some of the Mobile Suit Gundam OVA series.

MSG 0080 War in the Pocket is very highly regarded and the end is a kick in the guts. Focus is mainly on the characters though there is some mecha action.

MSG 0083 Stardust Memories is my favorite of the Gundam series. Some really cool mecha and terrific mecha fights (especially near the end). Plot does get a bit wonky in the last episode though.

Char's Counter Attack - Pretty much caps off the original Gundam time line. Magnificent orchestral sound track and a heroic ending make it a favorite of mine, but without watching any of the predecessor material it might not have the same impact. Still it does stand on it's own pretty well IMHO.

MSG Movie Trillogy - Condenses the orignal Mobile Suit Gundam TV series into three movies. Animation is very dated and a lot of stuff that was new at the time has gone on to be almost cliched. Still, not a bad watch and it is one of the essential pieces of anime history.

Non-Gundam

Macross Plus - One of my all time favorite pieces of anime. A stunningly good soundtrack, first rate animation, and some nail biters of battles. It's actually available in two slightly different versions. The first is the original 4 episode OVA series second is a movie compilation. The movie version changes some of the details and shifts some of the story elements, especially near the end. Not sure if the OVAs are available on DVD though.

 

[Nightfall]

Uhm I'm reasonable sure Masamune Shirow didn't create Blood the Last Vampire.

Now Blood+, that might be more up your ally.

 

[Rykion]

I think Jin-Roh the Wolf Brigade meets your criteria. It's not cutesy at all, and has some of the best animation I've ever seen.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Uhm I'm reasonable sure Masamune Shirow didn't create Blood the Last Vampire.

He didn't.

I wasn't referring to the manga, but the movie. Mamoru Oshii directed Ghost in the Shell, the movie, and Team Oshii worked on Blood: The Last Vampire. Whether that means anything for you or not, the cover of the Blood: The Last Vampire DVD says "From The Creators Of "Ghost In The Shell". I'm just saying because they are saying.