Recommendations for Anime

Anyone got any suggestions for good anime? Not the usual plotless, boring, bunch of schoolgirls rampaging about town with guns and short skirts crap, but high quality, entertaining anime. Here’s a few recommendations of my own:

Series-

Cowboy Bebop:

My all-time favorite series. Excellent fight scenes, interesting characters, and engaging plot lines.

Nadia:

Can be a little silly sometimes, but is otherwise a decent series. Pretty good soundtrack too.

Ranma 1/2:

Despite the odd premise, actually a good show.

Movies-

All of the Miyazaki films, plus most of the other Studio Ghibil films that Miyazaki didn’t direct.

And…

A Wind Named Amnesia:

An excellent film. A group of aliens cast a wind over the entire earth which makes everyone forget all aspects of their lives, including language and technological skills. A boy and one of the aliens in human guise drive across the United States, observing how people act. It’s a philosophical, but still very entertaining anime.

Wizards:

And oldy but a goody. This was made back in the '70s, and was probably one of the first animated films. It’s about a battle between two powerful wizards in a post-holocaust type world.

Tentacle porn. In the wacky world of Japanese anime you can never go wrong with tentacle porn.

I’m afraid to even ask. I’m afraid to even google it.

Venus 5 and Legend of the Overfiend are classics in the tenticle porn genre.

Currently, I’m enjoying Claymore. It’s a nice TV series about beautiful girls in armor with big swords. Based on a Shouen Manga of the same name.

Movies I would recommend is Perfect Blue. A nice psycho drama about starlets and their stalkers.

Beserk! is another favorite. Starts off as a dark political drama about an army. But then this world of supernatural engulf the storyline. Manga is still on going, manga-ka reported to be near the end of the series.

Otaku no Video and Genshiken are two fav series the deals with the otaku culture. Quite funny and maybe a little too close to home for hardcore ota’s.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - The show is quirky. Sequence of episode is probably the most unique thing about it. But the execution of the standard plot is so on par that it’s quite a hit among fans.

You’ve already covered Miyazaki films, which aside from some old school classics (Gatchaman, 999) are about all that I find worthwhile in anime. Whenever these anime suggestion thread do come up though, it is my duty to recommend the following:

FLCL

This is one of the trippiest cartoons I have ever seen. It takes the standard big robot saves the day plot seen in countless series and turns it on its head. Literally. A definite MUST for any anime fan.

SERIES

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor Sci-fi Comedy about a fool who ends up getting promoted to Captain of a battleship… If you like Ranma 1 1/2, you may like this~ I have episodes 1,2 and 3… but have been having trouble finding the rest with English~

Trigun Cowboy Comedy… similar to the above, but it’s a cowboy theme and he’s wanted… saved all the time by luck~

Initial D … hey, I’m a hoon at heart, no matter how many wheels… the drift anime~

GTO - Great Teacher Onizuka comedy about an ex-gangster that becomes a high-school teacher… not the best, but a must for any high-school teacher :wink:

MOVIES

Akira … a classic… neo-tokyo, umm… just watch it…

Ghost in the Shell … the first anime I ever saw… Sci-fi action

Perfect Blue … as mentioned by ac_dropout above… great storyline~

Other good Satoshi Kon movies:

Millenium Actress - he mixes Don Quixote, History, movie making and that Japanese fetish for unconsummated love.
Tokyo Godfathers - one of the weirdest little Christmas movies you’ll ever see. Three homelss people find an abandoned baby.

Paprika is the latest one playing overseas - it’s getting good reviews, but I think it’s weak…Dreams can become real, Tokyo gets destroyed, blah blah blah… I think he did a much better job with some of the same themes in the TV series “Paranoia Agent”.

If you’re into Studio Ghibli films and haven’t seen “Grave of the Fireflies” yet, you should. It’s not for kids, and maybe not for parents, either…

If you liked Cowboy Bebop, you might like Samurai Champloo - A lot of the same people worked on that one.
Vampire Hunter D is good fun.

I only saw a couple of episodes of Kimo’s Journey, but it seemed pretty good - if anyone else has seen this, I would love to hear about it.

Has anyone out there seen Appleseed? I’ve been curious about that one, as well.

This is a classic series, animation may seem dated now. But it is a post apocalyptic setting like Mad Max….

Unless you’re talking about movie released 2 years ago. The animation to that is great. Opening fight scene is thrilling. The storyline is altered from the manga and the OVA series a little. Big Hollywood ending, could be a good or a bad thing, depending on your taste.

Kid and talking motorcycle rides into the sunset. :laughing: If you like those Galaxy 999 or The little princess or Mermaid Forest, new mystery to solve every episode, this is the show for you.

Sounds good, AC - thanks.