HLEP (anime, lol)

[Risbyn]

Elfen Lied: Probably the most "gory" anime on the entire list ive given. Only spans 13 episodes which makes it a no brainer recommendation since its good. The best part would be the theme song, gives a great vibe to the entire show and its mood.

This is probably one of my favorite animes of all time along with Gungrave. Despite the gore, it has a really great story, and Nyuu is fucking adorable, much like Chi in Chobits.

No, just no but that's only my opinion. A lot of people like the series and that's fine. Gonna play the devil's advocate here. At first I -really- liked the series of Elfen Lied, but when I sat down and thought about it and watched it again, I didn't like the take on the story and the character actions and motivations don't make sense. At first watch, it was good, just don't think too hard on it or otherwise you'll end up hating the characters like I did. My anime list recommendations coming soon.

[Ploid]

/em picks up a stone. Although he never seen the show.

[Risbyn]

Here is a compilation of several recommendations broken down into categories. Hope you'll enjoy them as much as I have.

Comedy:

Welcome to the NHK
Yakitate Japan
Ichigo Mashimaro
Full Metal Panic
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya*
Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo!
Mahou Sensei Negima


Action/Drama:

Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars
Futakoi Alternative
Shakugan no Shana
Eureka Seven*
Black Lagoon*
Zegapain
Tenjou Tenge
Rozen Maiden*
Rozen Maiden Traumend*
Rozen Maiden Ouvertuere*
Air Gear
Noein
Elfen Lied (Yes, as much as I don't like the series, it still warrants a watch)
Monster
Death Note
Naruto (before the filler season)
Bleach (before and after the filler season, just started watching this and found it ok)
Speed Grapher*
Full Metal Panic - Second Raid
Fate/Stay Night (ok series, but ending was kinda meh)
Utawarerumono*
Ergo Proxy
Samurai 7*
RahXephon
Paranoia Agent*
The Twelve Kingdoms*
Cowboy Bebop
Kiddy Grade

Romance:

REC
Ah! My Goddess TV series 1&2
Bokura Ga Ita
Chobits*
Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na

These will get you started off. I marked the highly recommended ones with a *. You'll be able to find most of the torrents for these mostly at either Boxtorrents or animeyume.org

Enjoy

EDIT: Oh, btw, I have a fanatical hate for harem animes. I wish they and the creators would burn in hell. What is a harem anime? Take 1 loser/retard main guy and toss 4 or more chicks at him who all want to sleep with him and in the end, he never ever really picks one nor does he get to sleep with any of them. Que 14yr olds wet dreams. Burn in hell.

[Risbyn]

Ok ok, so I have a love/hate relationship with Elfen Lied. I think my main beef is that... IT WAS TOO FKN SHORT!

[Ploid]

lol too many anime, too little time. What about Paranoia Agent? It looked like it might be good but I never had time to look at it when it was on CN. Like weekend and late.

[Risbyn]

I really recommend Paranoia Agent if you feel like watching a show that makes you go wtf. Has several storylines but they ALL converge into one and connect them all. Kinda creepy, but in a good way. Recommended to watch at late night ^^v

[Aemora]

The level of geekiness in this thread amazes me.

Grow up and dream about Pokemon ffs.

[Risbyn]

The level of geekiness in this thread amazes me.

Grow up and dream about Pokemon ffs.

And yet here we are, wasting our lives away on a MMO, Aemora... >.>

If I was to compare Anime to something, it'd be more like... action and drama and story that isn't found in today's TV shows or movies. Comparatively, TV shows are a huge yawner. Hence why I don't watch TV other than Heroes or House.

btw, Pokemon/Digimon/Gtfomon are really... really... ugh. It's like saying video games are for kids only, you'd be surprised by the amount of sheer adult content in anime compared to kiddy shows.

[Ploid]

I remember racing home after school to watch pokemon (when it first started airing. I didn't continue to when they started evolving (anti evolver here. nq all the way I say). Pokemon red on gameboy brick, riding my bike in the rain to get to a store for batteries lol. Good times.

I want to be the very best.
Like no one ever was.
da daa da is my real quest.
To save them is my da.

I will travel across the land.
Searching far and wide.
... something something something da dah
(Hands Aemora the mic)

Edit: hah me to Ris. TV is doomed now. It's all about DVDs, you tube, theaters, and such. Dtv, cable, etc is just to have stuff going on in the background so the house don't seem so quiet.

[Jrx]

You honestly like Black Lagoon over elfen lied? To each his own but i thought black lagoon was really meh. We got the wanna be bad ass Tomb Raider chick, and the main character is just a huge snore.

I see you dont have Gungrave on your list. Watch it. Now.

I tried to get into Samurai 7 but found that it just doesnt do it for me since i like the real movie a ton better.

Also Aemora, i will admit there are WAY too many nerds that watch anime. Same way that nerds play videogames too. However there is alot of anime that is insightful and thought provoking, which is why i like it.

[Aemora]

Anime is cheap TV.

They get a pen, some paper, a few slides, and draw things that they would like to do on the big screen, but can't. It shortcuts the monitary department (Don't have to pay actors as much), quicker to produce, and is prettier on the eyes.

I'm not slaying Anime, I just find it extremely over the top. I suppose adults watch it because they lose their sense of imagination, and need to be fed it by Japanese people who can get away with doing the stuff they do because, well, they are Japanese, and make these featurettes for the (quote) "bland-minded American". Then again, Anime's are watched in Japan too, obviously, and as someone has already stated in this thread, when they go through the translation phase, they dumb the whole thing down for Americans. The same goes for any, ANY feature Film on the Big Screen that America thinks can do a good job of something that is as mindblowingly amazing as some Korean or Japanese films, put their own idiotic stereotype on it and call it 'original'.

Some of the best films I've seen are Korean.

Some of the best cartoons, however, are not.

[Aemora]

And you may now start the naming of 'shallow-mindedness' that I know will follow.

Seriously, I expect it.

You cannot make another post so soon after your last. x6

[Risbyn]

Eh? No, not really, Aemora. I'm not gonna shoot your points down, why should I? You don't like Anime, that's cool, a lot of people don't like it.

I don't watch it because I lost my sense of imagination... I watch it because it entertains me. Nothing more, nothing less. It's why I watch what I do. As for the whole dumbing things down through the translation phase... yes, I see that quite often and it's annoying lol. Like how they changed Harry Potter's title from Philosopher's Stone in the UK/EU to Sorcerer's Stone for the "dumber" Americans. Japanese aren't the only ones to do this, the rest of the world in general thinks of us an ignorant...

I watch fansubs so the translations are a lot more "accurate".

[Risbyn]

You honestly like Black Lagoon over elfen lied? To each his own but i thought black lagoon was really meh. We got the wanna be bad ass Tomb Raider chick, and the main character is just a huge snore.

I see you dont have Gungrave on your list. Watch it. Now.

I've watched Black Lagoon through the first season and the second season. I think because I stuck it out through the second season, I liked it a lot more. I thought it was quite refreshing that the main character wasn't some gun totting badass for a change. I've watched WAY to many of those and if he was, then to me would've been a huge snore. Too many anime out there are carbon copies of one another with same tired formula as the others.

I've honestly tried Gungrave but couldn't get into it... :/ Maybe I'll give it another shot though.

[Machdaddy]

Gungrave needs to be watched all the way through to properly appreciate it, it builds up quite nicely. My only beef with it is that the whole necro-rise bullshit was over the top and completely unnecessary. The story surrounding Brandon, Harry and the Syndicate was pretty top-notch imo.

I can *kinda* see your points about Elfen Lied. Certain behavioral patterns didn't quite add up, but as much of a macho asshole I am in life, I'm still a sucker for certain types of love stories. This was one of em.

And Aemo. Obviously you're free to dislike anime, lol. But the way you describe seems like the only anime you've actually experienced is poorly dubbed kiddy shows on TV, which I will agree, suck a big fat sweaty dick. The good shit is the totally adult oriented stuff. They tell stories in a way that you can't really do with normal TV, and also hit alot of subjects that you'd never see on standard cable. And srsly, fansubs ftw.

I also like it because I get a kick out of Japanese humor, everyone goes fucking insane over the smallest shit, makes me lol.

And thanks for the list there, Ris. There's a bunch there that I haven't seen, so I'll get to abusing my school's 100mbit line soon ;o

[Risbyn]

And thanks for the list there, Ris. There's a bunch there that I haven't seen, so I'll get to abusing my school's 100mbit line soon ;o

No problem man. I've got a bunch more I could recommend, but I figure these are a good start. I've pretty much watched almost everything there is to watch. Almost. I'm finishing up some series from last year and looking forward to this new years round of series. I've found that anime is 70% crap and 30% sum good shit. I've went and did the leg work for you and spared you some of the most annoying, ridiculously retarded anime out there. And I've seen some REALLY retarded/annoying ones.

I'll give Gungrave another shot though.

[Machdaddy]

I'd say one of the more retarded animes I've seen was Excel Saga. It did actually entertain me a bit, because it was so incredibly ridiculous, but you could only watch one episode before you started to get a headache.

I've only watched a couple episodes of it, actually. I have issues getting through the opening credits because the song is so god-awful.

[Risbyn]

Oh god, Excel Saga. I think they tried to hard to make it a parody of anime to make it actually "good". Some parts were funny, but in general, it was only funny in small doses... really small doses...

I hated anime like Shuffle!, Girls Bravo, Da Capo (1st and 2nd season), Kanon, Ichigo 100% (though the manga was 100x better), Wolf's Rain, Air TV, and the list goes on and on... lol

Oh, one god aweful series that started ok was Tokyo Underground, but the ending was soooo rushed, you could tell. Ruined the entire thing. I mean, the ending was a complete off the wall, not make any sense, no closure, nothing kind of ending. It was utter crap. And it wasn't that strong an anime to begin with.

[Machdaddy]

Yeah, it really annoys me when an anime ends and you just sit there thinking "what the FUCK?!"


There is one scene in Excel that still makes me lol my pants off, though. When she jumps up at her Master dude trying to embrace him or some shit... and he unloads a bazooka right in her face.

[Kaise]

Ergo Proxy is pretty good so is Elfin Lied. Elfin Lied has a ton of (and I by ton I mean shit load) of blood and gore so just a warning but it does have a good story to it.