Top Five Anime Picks

[Rackhir]

Never cared for UY. I guess my sense of humor always fell into the really wacky stuff like FLCL and Dr. Slump. Loved that NGN was subtitling the latter series in the 80s...

I always was a sucker for hopeless romances and Ataru and Lum is about as hopeless as it gets. So I got sucked into it through the movies.

Totoro was cute. Most of Chibili's animation is at least fair to very good. I liked Ponpoko a lot, but I always loved tanuki. Wanted to, but haven't seen Porco Roso, but that will be out on DVD later this year.

I've actually never been much of a Ghibili fan to be perfectly honest. Porco Roso I found to be terribly boring. Ponpoko (not a Miyazaki project iirc) was heartbreaking though.

Loved Macross Plus. Am also enjoying Macross Zero (too bad they don't make the Macintosh puns no more). I also like Yukikaze's approach (no transformables, but really cool airplane designs beautifully animated) to air animation.

The planes in Yukikaze look really cool, but I'm pretty dubious about the aerodynamics with all the fiddly bits on some of the designs (like the later craft the AI is in). I am eagerly looking forward to see Macross Zero though. I might be getting a copy of the japanese eps soon.

Funny, but I didn't care much for MSG. I did like Zeta a lot... probably my favorite series of the bunch. I was a bit peeved that 0083 out tech'd Zeta. I liked 0080 and CCA a lot too. Though I didn't care much for F91 (heard they may release that theatrically here in the US), I was surprised to have liked VGundam and am VERY surprised to be liking Seed (watching it on Cartoon Network) so far. I don't much care for non-UC series.

I never liked MSG too much either, I have to avoid it in my chinese food (joke). Bad animation and ugly mech designs for the most part. Still it demands respect simply for its place in history. I actually liked the second half of ZZ best of the series. They pulled out all the stops with cool mecha. The Quinn Mantha, a whole SQUADRON of Quebeley's, the greymalk, the Dorven Wolfs, etc...

The out teching actually started with 0080, most of the mechs in there way outperformed the OYW mechs. 0083 wasn't that bad, until they pulled out the Denobrium/Stamen and the Neuel Zeil. Those monstrosities would eat most of the ZZ mechs for lunch.

I would much rather they released CCA than F91. CCA was flat out better. F91 was just awful with only some pretty animation to recomend it. I am surprised that you liked V-Gundam. I am so sick of little kids saving the world and the mecha in it were the most hideously ugly and dumb mechs I've seen in a long time. I mean giant wheeled ships?

I would like Seed better if it wasn't simply a remake of MSG so far at least. But despite the cgi cheats in the animation, I'm at least willing to give it a shot. Actually remaking MSG has been most of what Bandai has been doing. Wing gundam essentially was a remake of MSG to CCA.

I am very much looking forward to the Area 88 tv series. I hope it will cover more of the manga stories. Stuff like this can probably be found on the file sharing networks. I'll have to look into that to slake my thirst until they release it in the US.

 

[babomb]

In no particular order,

1.) Everything by Miyazaki - The man's a genius. What can I say? The dubs are well done, also.
2.) Lupin the 3rd - Classic. The entertaining misadventures of a gentleman thief, the grandson of Arsene Lupin, the French gentleman thief who outwitted Sherlock Holmes (later changed to Herlock Sholmes to avoid a lawsuit). It's fun.
3.) Naruto - Man, this is great. It's got fast-paced action, but with characters you can actually care about and compelling story-telling, unlike, say, Dragon Ball Z.
4.) Ranma 1/2 - Guy falls into cursed springs. Now, cold water turns him into a girl, and warm water changes him back. Add some bizarre martial arts and a dad who's engaged him to numerous girls (and who changes into a panda), among other things, and you get a light, entertaining romantic comedy. It's fun, but it does get stuck in a sort of rut a few seasons in. One of the few series is a good dub.
5.) Cowboy Bebop - This show has tons of style. Bounty hunters; guns; space; things living in the fridge; a precocious, tomboyish child super hacker; music; crime syndicates; you name it. The dubs darned good, too.

Honorable Mentions: FLCL - the most insane anime I've ever seen
Slayers - really funny for a while, but gets old. Dub sucks.
Berserk - bloody, crazy, awesome

 

[Eli-kun]

1. Great Teacher Onizuka: Many start out hating the main character, then they start loving him at the end. It's an amusing show with interesting characters. The tributes to other anime are great.

2. Berserk: The one series that knitnerd(the one who spawned me) wanted me to get more of, though my favorite characters are the ones that only appear in the manga.

3. Tenjou Tenge: I admit, I like this one mainly for the pointless violence, the panty shots and the guy named Bob. The anime is new so I'm not sure how the plot will progress and how much it will deviate from the manga.

4. Streetfighter 2V: This was my favorite for a while. It's not that it's a great series. It's simply that Streefighter has been my obsession for over a decade. The third episode where Ryu and Ken were swimming together(sans clothing) amused me.

5. Yami no Matsuei: I liked the drama in this.

My top choices change around as I get exposed to more anime. If only there was an anime that featured more orcs.

 

[beta-ray]

I've actually never been much of a Ghibili fan to be perfectly honest. Porco Roso I found to be terribly boring. Ponpoko (not a Miyazaki project iirc) was heartbreaking though.

Yeah that's why I said Ghibli and not not Miyazaki. While I am not a SUPER fan of Ghibli, I do appreciate most of their work as a stamp of quality. Like Disney of old was not always to my taste, their animation was USUALLY marked by quality.

The planes in Yukikaze look really cool, but I'm pretty dubious about the aerodynamics with all the fiddly bits on some of the designs (like the later craft the AI is in). I am eagerly looking forward to see Macross Zero though. I might be getting a copy of the japanese eps soon.

That's cool... I've got some... *cough cough* Macross Zero episodes and they are pretty nice, though in the first two, I thought the blending of CG and cel was pretty weak (still cool though). I have volume 3, but haven't watched it yet. Yeah some of the aerodynamics of Yukikaze are dubious, but they are visually COOL and I will just let them tell me that the their tech is advanced enough to build such unstable vehicles to be controllable.

I never liked MSG too much either, I have to avoid it in my chinese food (joke). Bad animation and ugly mech designs for the most part. Still it demands respect simply for its place in history.

No doubt, no doubt. And without it, Zeta would be a much weaker series (if it would exist at all).

I actually liked the second half of ZZ best of the series. They pulled out all the stops with cool mecha. The Quinn Mantha, a whole SQUADRON of Quebeley's, the greymalk, the Dorven Wolfs, etc...

The out teching actually started with 0080, most of the mechs in there way outperformed the OYW mechs.

I guess I saw 0080 as just an upgrade to what was happening in 0079... and kind of imagined that is how things were in 0079 but just wasn't animated as well. The NT-1 was pretty excusable as being Amuro's baby, but yeah, the Kampfer was pretty powerful.

0083 wasn't that bad, until they pulled out the Denobrium/Stamen and the Neuel Zeil. Those monstrosities would eat most of the ZZ mechs for lunch.

Well although the GP02 wasn't THAT much of a beast (it was a beast though), yeah I was thinking of the Dendrobrium when i wrote that (besides the fact they had linear seats a lot earlier than originally introduced).

I would much rather they released CCA than F91. CCA was flat out better. F91 was just awful with only some pretty animation to recomend it. I am surprised that you liked V-Gundam. I am so sick of little kids saving the world and the mecha in it were the most hideously ugly and dumb mechs I've seen in a long time. I mean giant wheeled ships?

Yeah I agree about CCA. But at least that is on DVD... and at this point I understand why they wouldn't release it just yet. Just too much backstory for a theatre release.

I thought the same about V Gundam when I first heard about it (I was following Gundam a lot closer back then). The kids, the weird mecha... but it was a lot better than I though it would be (maybe my expectations were low), and the VGundams themselves grew on me.

I would like Seed better if it wasn't simply a remake of MSG so far at least. But despite the cgi cheats in the animation, I'm at least willing to give it a shot. Actually remaking MSG has been most of what Bandai has been doing. Wing gundam essentially was a remake of MSG to CCA.

I see it as a remake of MSG too... but one that is a bit more faithful to the original than the other weird variations they had previous. So it is okay with me.

I am very much looking forward to the Area 88 tv series. I hope it will cover more of the manga stories. Stuff like this can probably be found on the file sharing networks. I'll have to look into that to slake my thirst until they release it in the US.

Let us know when you end up seeing it... I wouldn't mind knowing more...

 

[gregweller]

In no particular order:

Cowboy Beebop
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend
La Blue Girl
Hellsing
Serial Experiments Lain