Anime Fans?

ok i watch some anime and draw ALOT of it, i was wondering what are some "must have" anime movies or series. so far i have....
princess mononoke
vampire hunter D
ninja scrolls and a few others i cant remember atm. any help is appreciated.

Depends on what you're looking for. The Neon Genesis Evangelion series is a necessity, Cowboy Bebop kicks ass, Macross Plus, Now and Then Here and There... There is tons of good anime out there. Stay away from Dragonball Z whatever the cost!!! ^_~

theres the obligatory akira/ghost in the shell
also anything by hayao miyazaki, especially Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
though probably my favorite anime film is Perfect Blue... an AMAZING psychothriller
i still havent seen Spirited Away!!

In my opinion, most of the TV series anime just sucks... If you're looking for a story with some substance go with the feature length anime movies. In general they have a bigger budget so that means, they look better & have a lot more thought and preparation behind them. Of course there's exceptions. One of my fav's is Serial Exparaments Lain, and that's a series. And I really couldn't get into Jin-Roh the wolf brigade.. The animation was top notch and had a really realistic style, but the story left me kind of bored.
A sure bet is any of the Miyazaki films... If you have a chance to see Spirited Away, don't miss it! Let's see...
I really liked Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust and Ghost in the Shell... Metropolis is fantastic visually and has a retro feel.. Akira is a classic and a must see, but a little hard to understand on the first view unless you've read the manga... And another series that was great & has many immitators these days is Evangelion. Hmm hope that gives you some ideas.

Spirited Away is really cool. It will be a huge influence on you conceptually because it uses so many non-Occidental pre-Christ spirit and god references. The equivalent of having an introduction on what a Japanese fairy guidebook would contain. Lots of dragons, frogs and symbolism up to the eyeballs. It's also a very traditional story that is universal and every culture has it's own version. That of lost time, wisdom, love and self-sacrifice.
And there is a very strong injection of old Russian/Eurasian mythology involving the Baba Yaga. 'Baba' is near universal around Eurasia, South East Asia and Siberia as the word for 'Grandmother'. Yaga is a Russian name I believe. Essentially, it is the Russina/Japanese version of the 'Fairy Godmother' in fairytales more common to the west.

For other Anime:
Gasaraki - Cool realistic science-fiction robot anime with an excellent 'X-files' feeling concerning certain human beings who can summon a Demon from another dimension to create a super robot.

FLCL (Furikuri) - Wacky satire of science fiction anime. THE BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY AND ANIMATION DIRECTION EVER!!! It's character and mechnical design are unique. It's short, has under 20 episodes I think. The sidekick/comic relief/heroic robot figure has a Television for a head with a baseball bat stuck in the back of it. Everyone else, except the main guy, is just plain weird.

Dragon Half - The absolute funniest satire on all fantasy anime and concepts and all AD&D and bad storylines EVER!!! Unfortunately only 2 episodes ever made. You will piss your pants...NOTHING is sacred.

Any Hayao Miyazaki film, but my favourites are Princess Mononoke and Porco Rosso ('Red Pig' or Akai no Buta in Japanese).

GITS: Stand Alone Complex - Prequel series to Ghost In The Shell. I jut got the first 4 episodes and it ROCKS!!!

Mezzo Forte - Hyper violent action anime. I don't know how to describe this except to say that it will NEVER be shown on daytime OR night time television in the States. Or anywhere outside of Japan for that matter.

http://www.animenation.com is a good site to browse for supporting materials such as design books and OST's as well as DVD's.

************************************

OOOPS!!!

Nearly forgot some others.

Sol Bianca - Awesome futuristic pirate where all the pirates are sexy and female and have major issues.

VanDread - Just watch it...I can't explain it. Space opera with a big twist. It's hilarious.

[Edited on Feb 01, 2003 by vastad]

I have a real fondness for Demon City Senjoku and Ninja Scroll along with what already been mentioned. Maybe even get Record of the Lotus Wars too. OHH!! And Vampire Hunter D, the first one. I havent seen the new one.

Isn't it Record of Lodoss War? I've heard that's good, but haven't seen them yet.

I'm down with a lot of what's been mentioned above, particularly Ninja Scroll, Princess Mononoke, and Macross Plus... And how can you not love Ghost in the Shell? I also dig the Patlabor movies, 1 & 2.

The thing that turns me off with a lot of anime is the animation and art style. There's quite a range in the anime world, and I can only stand to watch certain styles. I do really enjoy the themes and the action in many of these movies - fun stuff...

Cowboy Bebop - One of my favourite series, slightly artsy, very cool, you simply HAVE to see Session 5: The Ballad of Fallen Angels

Trigun - Quite an entertaining post-apocalyptic anime with a western feel. Starts off a little slow but gets a lot more intense and serious later on. Wolfwood has to be one of the coolest characters ever

Hellsing - Not too bad I guess, fairly entertaining Vampires n guns series, the episode where he goes up against the guy from the Vatican is cool.

Noir - It's not bad, but it hasn't really captured my interest as much as some animes, good action and I love the soundtrack.

Doomed Megalopolis

'spirited away' is the best movie released in the united states in the last five years. hands down. it's THAT good.

i'm not at all a fan of anime. i admit that it's an uninformed generalization, but i think 95% of it is derivitave. guys with big eyes and blue hair shooting lasers at robots. booooooring. i like anything by miyazaki, i like 'grave of the fireflies', i like 'perfect blue' and i like the 'metropolis' remake (if you could call it a 'remake'). but yeah, that's my $0.02.

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Cowboy Bebop's fucking awesome if you like action, jazzy music with adult humor. If your into something a little more challenging to the mind, check out the LAIN series. Both are commercial and easy to find, local Suncoast always has them in stock. If you looking to start buying, try ebay first.

I don't think anyone else could have summed it up better.

Those who hunt elves.

Dude, whoever knocks DB and DBZ, needs to eat a dick.

Dragonball(Z,GT too) was the longest running anime series. Its funny, and its great if you watch subtitled ones. Americans edit all the good shit out. It was also one of the original series about martial arts.

I got started on DB, and now i watch other shows. not as many though. Akira Toriyama has a new show called "Naruto" thats pretty good.

i think i might go watch AKIRA again tonight.

you can keep calling me 'mr. orlando' if i can start calling you 'danger mouse' =P

aren't you from england?

Someone once told me I looked a lot like Penfold, whereupon I speedily implied their mother was a low-cost provider of sexual services.

I think they're right though :-\

when i was in high school, i played bass for a ska band. our one cover was a modified version of the 'danger mouse' theme song. come on, at least we weren't covering 'dancing with myself' or the 'captain planet' theme song or anything ghey like that.

cherry can take me home!


'danger mouse' is THE best.

what was penfold's first name? you have 5 minutes to answer or i am revoking your coolness. tick tock, mrs. mouse