Top Five Anime Picks

[EternalNewbie]

Inspired by the 'Perfect 10' thread on movies and my desire to rent some quality Anime this weekend, I'd like to find out what people consider the best anime out there. I know its been done before but movies or series, what's your favourite anime? I'll get the ball rolling...

1. Cowboy Bebop - far and away the best anime I've seen. Excellent characters, quality animation and stories that range between hilarious and just down right cool.

2. Blood: The Last Vampire - combines CGI and traditional animation seemlessly, along with a story featuring secret government agencies, vampires and demons. Can't ask for more than that.

3. Ninja Scroll - a classic. Excellent fight scenes and awesome villians.

4. Spirited Away - I just love the variety of spirits that show up at the bath house...

5. Akira - Couldn't really be a top five list without Akira

Honorable mentions to Ghost in the Shell, Vampire Hunter D, Hellsing, Jin-Roh.

So, help me find something to watch this weekend...

 

[Krug]

1. Nausicaa - The world still blows me away. Vividly imagined.

2. Akira - Stunning.

3. Cowboy Bebop - I've only watched the movie, but man this has loads in style.

 

[Mog Elffoe]

Aside from the big ones that everyone that's into anime knows about (Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Miyazaki's stuff, etc,) these are my top picks, in no particular order:

Berserk--Very dark, very violent fantasy with some surprisingly good characterization. Killer finale. I kid you not--I watched the last two discs with my mouth hanging open.

Giant Robo--Fun stuff! Great characters, great design, great production value. Only available on VHS here in the States. I have my fingers crossed for a DVD release.

Lupin the 3rd--Now here's the GOOD stuff! Imagine the world's greatest cat burglar being portrayed by the love child of James Bond and Jerry Lewis. Some of these are better than others, but you absolutely must see Castle of Cagliostro which was directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It's probably my favorite anime picture ever. Other Lupin the 3rd movies worth checking out include Secret of Mamo, Pursuit of Harimaos' Treasure, and The Fuma Conspiracy.

Hey, Miyazaki fans have reason to celebrate--This August Disney is releasing 2 disc special editions of My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I'm pretty stoked for all of them, but especially NotVotW. I remember watching the butchered version (Called Warriors of the Wind) on VHS back in the 80s and thinking that it was neat but didn't seem to be quite all 'there'. Of course, I learned later that was indeed the case. This August release will be the full, uncut version. I can't wait!

 

[Cannibal_Kender]

My favs:

Berserk

Princess Mononoke

Spirited Away

 

[CrusaderX]

1) Cowboy Bebop. The characters, the music, the characters, the style, the characters, the great animation...and the characters.

2) Inuyasha. Again, I love these characters. This show is like a fun and neverending comic book come to life.

3) Ninja Scroll. This blew me away when I first saw it. After watching garbage like Fist of the North Star where the "action" scenes involved nothing more than weak fights and exploding heads, the action sequences in Ninja Scroll were just brilliant.

4) Akira. Another one that blew me away, simply because I had never before seen animation that looked so good.

5) Big O. As a series, it leaves something to be desired. But going back to characters, the android Dorothy is one of my all-time favorites. If she wasn't in it, this show wouldn't have made my list, but I loved watching her scenes every week.

 

[Wombat]

Princess Mononoke

Parts of Project A-Ko

And...

...that's it

 

[stevelabny]

see heres my problem.
the gf is into anime, mostly the "girlier' stuff

but every different anime i sit down and watch (or the occasional manga i read) is a mess.
but im a guy whos into gaming and sci-fi fantasy and comics, whats my problem? someone point me in the right direction.

akira: hated it. everyting that is wrong with anime if you ask me. strange kid gangs, inexplicable psychic monsters, sloooooow. (and i like slow when its done right,really)

vampire hunter d: watched it when i was younger, turned it off

ghost in the shell: disliked it.

princess mononoke: pretty to look at, more japanese strangeness.

spirited away: yikes. what is with the strangeness? its not even good strangeness like most of the Vertigo comic books. is something getting lost in translation?

ninja scroll: ok, but not as good as a bad american action movie

lodoss war: watched some of it, liked it, but its sooo slow and plodding and filled with those strange japanese tendencies of plot-wandering. will eventually sit down and watch it all.

trigun: watched the whole series. ranged from watchable to ok, to slightly good, but it really was all over the place.

lain: really loved the look and mood of this series. unfortunately, it NEVER decided to make any sense. still really nice to watch though

those who hunt elves: watched the first episode on a suggestion from Wizard magazine of all places. thought it wasnt half as funny as it should/could have been. didnt bother continuing

the gf really likes: fushigi yugi, fruits basket, slayers. full metal alchemist, and one or two others im forgetting.

i read the first two translated tpbs of fruits basket and thought that it showed potential for a second, and then quickly devolved into a repetitious cutesy book.

i've heard nothing but good things about bezerk, but heard the manga is better because they messed up the ending of the anime. i have the first disk in my netflix queue anyway.

so heres my question: whats the most american anime? thats the one i need to watch.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

A condition for me on all of these, for me, would be with subtitles only. I just prefer the original language, and I've found only a couple of shows that I don't get distracted by the English VAs.

1. Mobile Suit Gundam: I've always loved this one...the original, not the newer stuff, though Zeta and 0080 are also a couple of my favorites.

2. Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Mmmmm. Very dark series, but very good. It definitely gets the whole 'War is Hell' message across from the first espisode(

Spoiler

With Camille's mother being killed right in front of him

) to the last(

Spoiler

Camille being left as a vegetable and no real victory

)

3. Macross: The first anime I ever saw. Its the reason I love mecha anime so much, and got me into Gundam. This one always has a place in my heart...and shelf.

4. Akira: A classic. Simple as that.

5. Cowboy Bebop: One of the more recent shows that I really like. Also probably the only anime I don't mind watching the dub of.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I haven't watched a whole lot of anime, but I'll try to break down what I liked. I saw the first Berserk DVD, liked it but the local blockbuster happens to have volumes 1 to 5...less volume 2. Sigh. Lupin the 3rd rocks. I've read the first 2 Hellsing books (have you noticed that Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards?) and they are cool. Father Anderson rocks twice. I really liked Princess Mononoke. Spirited Away I liked mostly because it's one of the big classic fairy tale storylines. I've seen snatches of Dragonball Z, Pokemon, and Sailor Moon, they all suck. I've seen about 3 episodes of various Gundam shows, they seemed cool. Aaaand...that's about it.

 

[WayneLigon]

so heres my question: whats the most american anime? thats the one i need to watch.

I tihnk if you've watched that much anime and still don't like it, it's probably just not something you're going to like. The 'slow' pacing, well.. it's no more slow than some dramatic American productions. One of the things you have to pretty much accept in most Anime is that not every explanation is going to be laid out for you; some of it simply is not explained, period, where as in other cases it's simply assumed you've also seen the other movies or shows (which may or may not have made it over here), read the manga and/or prose novels, etc etc etc. Then sometimes a point will be explained 'eventually', maybe several episodes down the road.

Probably the most 'American' anime I can think of is Robotech, which is the name of the series produced when Harmony Gold took three unrelated anime series, spliced them together, took some themes and characters from all three, rewrote a lot of the dialog, and changed a lot of things for an American audience.

the gf really likes: fushigi yugi, fruits basket, slayers.

Slayers: I watched the first disc and was pleasently surprised. Usually I don't find 'funny' anime very funny at all, but I did laugh out loud at some points.

Fushigi Yugi: Oh man, I tried to watch this. People raved about it. But I couldn't stand the main character, period. Couldn't even finish the first disc, and I'm told she never gets any better.