The Shattered Star

Which Anime series or flicks do you all think are essential, must-see for fans?

That's impossible to say, mostly due to the wide variety of anime out there, and everyone's individual taste. The Anime & Manga suggestion sticky, though somewhat out of date, I think still has a lot of merit and is a good compilation of great series & films.

Still, you can't go wrong with just about any movie by Hayao Miyazaki, I'd have to say they rank as my all-time favourite.

I like your split set of links there

I'm sneaky like that

Haha! Thanks!

I will start digging through all the lists for myself. The linkage really helps, Stracius. Great starting point. ty.

If you're starting out, you need to start out with the two original schools of thought.

The first one is Akira (1988), the second one is Ghost in the Shell (1991), both films.

When you do that, then you sort of select your preference and you go from there.

Also, linking to Miyazaki's films is like linking to shit done by Spielberg. Just a good director, who makes good movies, but nothing significantly "Must be" about them. They're more for the ignorant western audiences as entry level material, who don't really know what makes a good animated film. Then they see something Miyazaki did, and go "hey, that was good", as if animated films were never good before this film, but now upon seeing something he made, now it's good.

Not much to do with Anime as a genre. You want the genre, you go to the second sentence of this post.

But if you're not starting out (shit is hard to judge from one sentence OP) then you've got the link Fenavian posted. That just about has all the "must haves" if you filter each title through www.animenewsnetwork.com

Ah, but not all of us fall into an elitist opinion or preference for our anime. As I said, everyone's taste in style differs. Syro may really like them, or he may think they're piss, as you seem to. Ignoring their existance won't help figure out whether or not someone likes them.

But to each their own. Cut and dry, as always.

I said they're good. They're just not really related to genre, more to catering western audiences.

And there's really nothing elitist about what I said. The culture breaks the way it breaks. You just need to how and where. And it's not with Miyazaki, that's all. I was just offering proper alternatives. Miyazaki is an okay start, though not really the meat around the bone.

Cut and dry, as you said.

Ah, seems I mistranslated your post. My apologies.

As for the movies you mentioned, I can only agree. Oddly enough, Akira was the first anime I became aware of, and consequently was my introduction (I actually watched Totoro as a child, but didn't recognize it for what it was). Ghost in the Shell immediately followed.

I've been going through my list of anime I've watched over the years to try and find anything comparable, but have only drawing a blank. Blood: The last Vampire stirs some distant memories. And then there's FLCL (sometimes referred to as Furi Kuri), for the dementia aspect - gotta love it. Guess it's time for me to review the sticky thread and see about picking up a few.

Hard to say without knowing what you've seen so far, Syro, and what you've liked.

I must be the only one on the planet who didn't like Akira. I hold my head down in shame.

I didn't really like it either.

Well, not liking it is strong.

But I could appreciate what it was, and it was simply not the road for me. Ghost in the Shell was more my vibe, but there are those that swear by Akira equally.

It is one of the reasons why those two are the breaking point, it's because they're the ones that ushered us into the current golden age. Mostly everything you see today, has basis on one of those two (or both). Each one is a pillar, or an archetype of a specific school of thought, which a lot of the later stuff was based on.

Which is why everyone who's getting into anime today, should watch those two, liking them or disliking them.

But if you can't get anything ethereal or shall we say, potent, out of either one, then you just know anime's not for you.

These are all great ideas. I am currently watching Bleach. I looked at the long sticky with everyone's picks, and I had no idea where to start. I am enjoying Bleach but need some direction after that. I am a total Anime newb! I have been following the posts in Anime and finally decided to join the fun. So... here I am

Okay. Bleach. Not quite some of the best, but Bleach is good.

The problem with Bleach, as with some other anime out there, is that it has what is called "filler". Before Bleach was animated, it was written in comic form called "manga". The anime is a full transcription of what goes in that manga. However filler is what they come up with to buy time, make extra cash, and put the anime on hold, while they essentially masturbate. During the filler, all character development and all world-development has to stop, because it has to be at the same point where it stopped, when it resumes after the filler is done and it picks up from the manga again.

Out of the 207 episodes released so far, there are quite a lot of filler episodes in there, around 100 or so, but they're interspersed.

It's hard for me to give you the episode numbers.

About 1-63 is good.

63-110 is filler

And then it gets kind of muddy from there. 110-something it's good, then they start the filler again, then it stops, then you get a few good episodes, then more filler episodes, etc. etc.

Hard to know exactly how it breaks down, haven't seen anyone keep a strict list.

It's a minefield anime. Hopefully you'll be able to navigate well enough.

BlackDove wrote:If you're starting out, you need to start out with the two original schools of thought.

You forgot the DBZ school of thought.

Plenty of series out there that go for flashy action with little story and long drawn out fights

But hey! You might be the kind that goes for that sorta stuff

We forgot it on purpose. Because DBZ is not a school of thought. Mind numbing sure, but no thought.

Futile Resistance wrote:You forgot the DBZ school of thought.

Plenty of series out there that go for flashy action with little story and long drawn out fights

But hey! You might be the kind that goes for that sorta stuff

*sigh* As much as I hate to admit it, he kinda has a point . I'm sure you've an idea about how many DB and DBZ fanz there are out there. Sure, sure, I'll swear up and down every last one of 'em is an idjit, but hey: Simple minds are entertained by simple things. He could end up liking it

KAAAA MMMMEEEEEEEEEEE
......wait what?

There is quite a few styles/genres of anime though, the best thing to do really, is scroll through sites like MAL and AniDB and check out the highest-rated ones.

Most people will recommend you the 'classics' though;


Akira.
GitS.
Evangelion.
Ninja Scroll.
Macross Plus.
Laputa - Castle in the Sky.
Nausicaa.
Grave of the Fireflies.
Metropolis.
Appleseed.
Record of Lodoss War.
And so on.

Others will recommend you the more recently popular shows, but they're much easier to find.

Egads, we have no sticky linkage to Anidb or other relevant and hugely useful sites (not familiar with MAL though)? I don't see any problems as long as they don't contain links to torrents or other file downloads. Did our former arbiter keep something of a policy about that?

Stracius wrote:Egads, we have no sticky linkage to Anidb or other relevant and hugely useful sites (not familiar with MAL though)? I don't see any problems as long as they don't contain links to torrents or other file downloads. Did our former arbiter keep something of a policy about that?

The policy has always been, and remains, no links to torrents, warez, or other illegal means of obtaining copyrighted material. Links to webpages providing such links, and/or instructing users how/where to find such material are also prohibited.

If you guys want to post a link to a review site, or a ranking of series, I have no issue with that so long as it fits those criteria. But torrenting, or obtaining by other means, copyrighted material is illegal and we will not become a party to that through the forums, whatever members may choose to do away from the boards.

Whatever you link make sure it's clean, and we will have no problems

I don't think ANN needs a sticky. We can pretty much ship the link whenever we're giving out advice, like I did.

QuantumDelta wrote:KAAAA MMMMEEEEEEEEEEE
......wait what?

There is quite a few styles/genres of anime though, the best thing to do really, is scroll through sites like MAL and AniDB and check out the highest-rated ones.

Most people will recommend you the 'classics' though;


Akira.
GitS.
Evangelion.
Ninja Scroll.
Macross Plus.
Laputa - Castle in the Sky.
Nausicaa.
Grave of the Fireflies.
Metropolis.
Appleseed.
Record of Lodoss War.
And so on.

Others will recommend you the more recently popular shows, but they're much easier to find.

Thank you

Thanks for the heads-up, BlackDove.

I think BD and QD have been quite spot on in this thread.
Movie wise start with the classics listed.

Series wise tho can it get quite murky, because there are just sheer vast amounts of shows out there...
As Fen mentioned, we do have a running list already of recommendations for those

And thx QD for mentioning Appleseed, I keep forgetting to watch the new one (have only seen the original).

Hey Bro, I got both of the new Appleseed movies if you wanna borrow em. Just hit me up when your home and I will walk em out to ya.