Myth's Anime Thread

Which FMA did you watch first? On a related note, which FMA did you like most? (I read the manga first, so I got really attached to its consistent and sensical worldbuilding--unusual in shonen, which tends to follow the Rule of Cool. The first anime started with consistent worldbuilding, but became more cool and less sensical the more it diverged from the manga, so I got kind of frustrated with it.)

It looks like you mostly watch shows targeted to young men (with a few surprising exceptions like Ouran), and my favorite shows are targeted to women or older men, so I'm not sure how much our tastes will overlap. If you are (or your child is) at all interested in trying girls' shows, Princess Tutu is a good place to start--it approaches complex ideas about fate, free will, and literary postmodernism in a simple fashion even a child can understand and enjoy. (Alternately, watch Madoka Magica, which I maintain is just Princess Tutu for people who like action and hate ballet--but don't let your kid see it, at least not after episode 3.)

 

I have watched more anime and read more manga than would be reasonable to list here. It's been a hobby of mine for a decade, and for a fair few of those years, I didn't watch much American or British telly to split up my entertainment time. A few of my favourites, though, and ones of yours that I've also seen.

• Fullmetal Alchemist, both series. I adore them both, but I prefer the 2003 series marginally. Mostly because I really adore the first 20-30 episodes or so, which are condensed into about 10 in Brotherhood.
• Sakamichi no Apollon
• Real Drive, fantastic series from Furuhashi Kazuhiro and the creator/studio of Ghost in the Shell. I'd really recommend it if you're a fan of that series, which I know many anime fans are.
• Kuragehime
• Ouran High School Host Club
• Fruits Basket
• Fairy Tale, I haven't started the anime yet but I do adore the manga from what I've read of it.
• Negima!?, one of my favourites back in high school and I still adore the characters.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, have you seen any of the remake movies? I haven't watched them yet, but I've seen screen shots and they look fantastic. I might watch them and go see the third one in theatres, since it's playing in the city.
• Kiki's Delivery Service, really everything by Miyazaki is at least good, but this one is my favourite both for the story and for the nostalgia. It's just a beautiful little film.
• Baccano!, possibly my favourite non-linear narrative of all time. Highly recommended to anyone, even if you're not a fan of anime.
• Kimi ni Todoke
• Revolutionary Girl Utena
  
  And a couple that are currently only manga, but are good enough to be worth mentioning.
• Uzumaki, you'll never look at a cinnabun, snails, or your fingertips the same way again.
• Vinland Saga, relatively historically accurate, gruesome Viking story.

 

@Phil: Does Monster count? It's not a fantasy series, but it certainly takes a walk on the unpleasant side of the human mind.

 

Vinland Saga is dark, bloody historical fiction, no fantasy, but who doesn't love Vikings? It gets compared to Berserk a lot, so if you liked that, you might like this. Not an anime yet, but they've been teasing an announcement, so maybe soon...

 

I've watched a few anime shows/movies. I usually check out the first few minutes in both Japanese and English to see which I prefer.

These are my top ones (no real order) :

FMA/FMA:B - I watched FMA first, and then Brotherhood, and loved them both, but I definitely prefer Brotherhood. (I went for English.)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - This is fantastic, and I don't see many people who've watched it here. Very fun and hilarious, with great characters, and it goes way over the top as it goes on, but it works well. This might be my favourite, I don't know. (I'd go for English on this.)

Death Note - The first anime I watched, and I loved it. (Jap/Eng, either or.)

Kara no Kyoukai - This is a series of anime films (7, I think) which are not in chronological order. They're really good, but the best is definitely #5 - Paradox Spiral. (You could watch #5 without seeing the rest, and not be confused at all. Great film.) (Only subbed.)

Perfect Blue - As if Gurren Lagann isn't crazy enough, this movie is crazy in a whole different way. If you want something to confuse and mess with your head, go with this. It's hard to keep track of which scenes are reality and which aren't. (I've only watched it in English so can't comment.)

Berserk - This was kinda "meh" for me for the most part, but the last 10 (I think, around 10, anyway) episodes were brilliant, so much so that for me, they made up for the rest of the series entirely. (The rest wasn't bad, but without those last episodes this wouldn't have made the list.) (I went for English, but for this I didn't give subbed too much of a try.)

 

If it's a manga you want, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne is cute and charming. It's probably the most morally centered thievery story since Robin Hood.

I will give one caveat: works based in a particular mythos often experiment quite a bit with the details of that mythos. Jeanne is very heavily Christian-influenced, so while it's quite respectful to Christian ideals, it reinterprets Genesis in a way that, to my knowledge, doesn't match any denomination's views. I'm not sure how much that sort of thing matters to you.

 

I skew towards stuff that's adult in focus for the most part (FMA being the exception), and I'm kinda snobby about only watching Anime in Japanese. English-dubbed Godzilla movies, English-dubbed Chinese and Korean movies have ruined it for me. I know the dubbing has gotten better, but I'd rather listen to something in its original language and read the subtitles than be left hanging by a mismatched sound track. (This has led me to being a bit confused by why Vic Mignogna is such a big deal at conventions.)

A few recommendations:

Witch Hunter Robin. One of the best story telling animes that I've seen. Great characters, great story, the only problem is that it was too short.

Helsing. This one comes with some interesting religious overtones, and interpretations of Catholicism. Overall, I liked the story and the characters.

Vampire Hunter D. The gateway anime of my generation, if you didn't get sucked in by Miyazaki as a kid. I enjoyed both movies, but prefer the first to the second.

Chobits. This is absolutely not suitable for kids. I enjoyed it, overall, but there were definitely bits that had me shaking my head and laughing at the absurdity. I should have figured that the boyfriend at the time had a good reason to be laughing hard when I asked what it was about. I can't even really describe it, other than to say it's the weirdest anime I've ever watched. And anime gets pretty darned odd, sometimes.

High School of the Dead. I don't know how many seasons of this are available now, but I watched the first one and got pretty hooked. This was before the Zombie thing exploded everywhere, so that may have something to do with my enjoyment factor. It does feature scantily clad women, but that's to be expected in anime.

 

Audience-wise, I think my preferences tend to fall firmly into my own demographic - my favourite is josei (older women), then seinen (older men), then shoujo (teenage girls). I used to watch shounen when I was younger and a bit more tomboy-ish, but only through nostalgia or exceptional writing am I likely to love it these days. Josei is a really under-targeted audience, but what few series the demographic does have are excellent.

 

Chobits does something unusual. It starts out as a wacky romantic comedy that happens to have a robot as the female lead. It's kind of odd for the genre--the male lead is much smarter than is expected, the female lead is genuinely robotic, and there are occasional hints that their relationship might not be entirely healthy--but most of the time, the things that happen and the jokes that are made are the same ones you'd see in any romantic comedy made in Japan. The thing is, every once in a while there's reference made to an in-universe manga called The Town With No People, and every time it shows up, the series starts to hint at serious questions about everything from the relationship between man and machine to objectification of women. Then a few minutes later, it's back to wacky comedy. And then in the final third of the show, The Town With No People starts appearing in the end credits, and the series transitions permanently to serious science fiction!

The question to determine "Will you be able to stand this show?" is "Can you stand this scene?" If you're okay with it, you'll probably find the show at least watchable.

Incidentally, I'm a big fan of the anime reviewer Jesu Otaku. She's done quite funny reviews of both the above shows, recommending them both to fans of the relevant genres. It could be worth looking into her reviews if you're interested in finding new shows.

 

I didn't mind all of the fanservice when I read the High School of the Dead manga, but I think seeing it animated pushed it from gratuitous to ridiculous for me. I haven't read the manga in years, but I did like seeing an anime!take on the zombie apocalypse genre despite its massive (bouncy) flaws. A manga recommendation if you're a fan of zombies, Mouryou no Yurikago. It's zombies on a sinking ship! Sort of like the Poseidon Adventure, but with the undead lurking around as well. It's got a lot of the same gratuitous fanservice, but I thought the premise was interesting and it's only six volumes, complete.

 

I cut anime a lot of slack. I understand that it will be the rare case where women are respectfully written (i.e. serve functions outside of a sex appeal role). Or find one doesn't require the female leads to have an abnormally large chest to hip ratio to be included in the show. And, it's part of the fun of deconstructing it. I do the same thing in superhero movies.

I also try to not bring a Western worldview into judging the representation of women. I may not like it, but it's not my culture, and I don't really have a right to say much about it. That said, I do avoid the worst of the bunch. Things like High School of the Dead are borderline territory for me, I by far prefer things like FMA and Witch Hunter Robin.

 

I feel the same way, if the story is compelling why not go along for the ride? It doesn't bother me that most animes are aimed towards teens as growing up is pretty befuddling and frustrating, and teenage angst mixes well with action. I think it would be neat to write a book that reads like an anime, heck, I'd love for it to become an anime lol!

You're right, western characters do seem a bit annoying and cocky, like Ben 10, Kim Possible, and Dexters Lab among other things...I realize most western shows are for entertainment and not that bent on telling a complex story (unless you read the comics), but then there were some that really surprised me like Batman Beyond. I haven't watched too much stuff on superheros, but that show hooked me. There are many western cartoons I like, but japanese narrative definitely has quirk, conflict, and depth that is masterfully done.

All-time favorites:
Naruto
One Piece
Berserk
Gantz

If you haven't heard of Berserk or Gantz, the manga is way, way, WAY better than the anime!

 

Gantz is kind of iffy. It's clear from the beginning that the author has some really, really good ideas, but for the first ninety chapters, they're constantly buried under a deluge of sex and violence. After ninety chapters, something major happens that redefines the story, new elements begin to be introduced, and the violence starts to feel like it means something--but it still swerves back and forth between brilliant and frustrating, to the point that I eventually gave up on it. (In particular, every time the author tries to write about women's sexuality, it gets really creepy and objectifying, even by Japanese standards--which is odd, because after chapter 90, he's becomes unusually good at writing likable female characters so long as they're not having or pondering sex at the moment.)

If you're at all interested in a Gantz-like manga, I think Cannon God Exaxxion is better in every way. The parts of Gantz that are good are great in Exaxxion, and the parts of Gantz that are horrible are merely bad in Exaxxion. I have no idea whether that makes Exaxxion good, but it's at least farther from being bad.

As for Berserk, I haven't read it, but I've read that this is what begins the series:

Courtesy of a parody series on Youtube: