Anime Recommedations?

[♛ Apher-Forte]

Too much Gurren Lagann and not enough Gunbuster.  Gunbuster is not only the better series, but it's also only six episodes so you don't have to spend too much time on it, and it's still incredibly relevant despite being made in the late eighties.  Also, you'll never really truly "get" Gurren Lagann or Evangelion if you haven't seen where it all came from, and pretty much most of the stuff Gainax has done can be traced back to Gunbuster.

Also it has a 250 meter tall robot doing alien armada crushing flying kicks, what more do you want?

Also, Magical Project S.  If you want to understand the magical girl genre, watch this and not Madoka.  Madoka's a good show, but it's not a very good representation of the genre as a whole. >.>

INAZUMMMMAAAA KIIIIICKKKKK

After you are done with Gunbuster, do not watch Gunbuster 2, it is not worth it, instead skip back to the currently running Rinne no Lagrange, AKA Gunbuster x Macross x Gundam.

Also, one of my choice watches for all years/all previous years seriously has to be Onegai Teacher, now this is a lighthearted, easy relax romance show between an alien teacher and a student (currently being copied to death/parallel story-telling by a similiar plot/character show called Ano Natsu). It has what I would call, for the first time in many anime I watched with a fresh and distinctive NOT in the city high school, a bunch of friends who gather for what I can only say not pretentious/some kinda generic sidekick/some kinda additional tsundere + a bunch of irrelevant characters friendship. It is a show where you can really like the characters for being natural as they were, somehow... it carried a different light hearted flavor quite unfounded in any of the romance/harem/dating sim based anime.

If you liked this I suppose the fan-servicey Onegai Twins is also worth a watch, but I don't like it as much as Onegai Teacher.

If we are talking about some oldie goldie, I think GTO the animation was considered one of the best in the old days, I would say it is entertaining and worth your time, although yes, the manga was clearly superior.

 Are we talking about action?blood? gore?
I have heard no mention in this thread so far of HELLSING ULTIMATE - the OVAs , there is nothing to say here, just why are you NOT FUCKING WATCHING ALUCARD RAPE DEATH IN THE FACE AND THEN RAPE REALITY IN THE ASS TWICE is kinda like asking why not let's breathe carbon monoxide instead of oxygen. It is kinda a must.

Aside from this, I highly recommend catching up with Black Lagoon, both Roberta's trail and the original series; also Darker than Black AKA Chinese Electric Batman - The Show.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

INAZUMMMMAAAA KIIIIICKKKKK

After you are done with Gunbuster, do not watch Gunbuster 2, it is not worth it, instead skip back to the currently running Rinne no Lagrange, AKA Gunbuster x Macross x Gundam.

ahahaha what are you talking about, Gunbuster 2 was fantastic and finished the story of the first-- you're throwing the impact of a 20-year split between series away if you just skip it

also grooooooooovin' magic ♫

[Amraphenson]

I'd recommend the Kara no Kyoukai movies. It's got a good mixture of talking+action. The atmosphere's really well done too.

If you follow this advice without prior knowledge of the Nasuverse, prepare to be mindfucked. Hard.

[HakureiSM]

I dropped Hayate on like episode twenty something

Was a bit ago so I don't quite remember, but I'm p sure it's becaus eit felt like so much potential down the drain

[♛ Apher-Forte]

ahahaha what are you talking about, Gunbuster 2 was fantastic and finished the story of the first-- you're throwing the impact of a 20-year split between series away if you just skip it

also grooooooooovin' magic ♫

you gotta admit it wasn't as good as the original.
or maybe you genuinely like it, I sure as hell didn't like it.

[Mr_Bob]

Berserk and Elfen Lied quickly come to mind.  Both very NSFW with gratuitous amounts of violence.  Berserk is nearly the epitome of badass, and Elfen Lied is somewhat of a slasher/drama/action if the philisophical subtexts are ignored (or maybe I'm reading too much into the whole, "What is a human?" thing.)

[MatsuriSakuragi]

you gotta admit it wasn't as good as the original.
or maybe you genuinely like it, I sure as hell didn't like it.

Not as good as the original? Maybe. Worth putting down someone's suggestion just because you didn't like it? Hell no.

[Power]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned fate zero.  Is that show good?

[Amraphenson]

I don't recommend anime adaptations of visual novels on principle. I always try to refer people to the original instead, but yeah. Fate Zero is good.

[♛ Apher-Forte]

 Yah well, sorry. But it really is a terrible follow up. I just didn't think it was worthy at all.
The again, I suppose tthere are few handful of shows that actually had a sequel 20 years later

but most importantly, I apologize, I didn't meant that quote in an offensive way, Mats,  I think it could have been worded as 'I just don't quite agree with it as a sequel, but it is fine if you like it, I am not gonna bite you for that.' head is in the gutter for working all day long. :<

[HakureiSM]

I don't recommend anime adaptations of visual novels on principle.

I hate this comparison. Visual novels and anime are each a different medium.
The comparison isn't valid as "how good an anime this is, compared to anime in general", only as "how good it is in relation to the original VN", thus only applicable to people who would both play the game and watch the anime.
In a conversation regarding anime recommendations, I guess the standalone quality of the anime regardless of whatever the hell it's an adaptation of, should take priority.

[Tengukami]

Yeah, I'd definitely agree with you there - reminds me of the ol' Book v. Movie arguments.

Of course, a bunch of people told me not to watch Fate Zero if I hadn't done the VN, due to references/things I would need to know to understand the anime. Which seems like a valid reason.

[Amraphenson]

Yeah, I'd definitely agree with you there - reminds me of the ol' Book v. Movie arguments.

Of course, a bunch of people told me not to watch Fate Zero if I hadn't done the VN, due to references/things I would need to know to understand the anime. Which seems like a valid reason.

More or less this. I don't have problems with adaptations, but it's just in my experience that animes don't have the feel of a VN. I had problems with the Harry Potter movies because I read the books before; the movies themselves were fine, but I just had problems watching them objectively. There's just a lot of crap that's easy to miss when you watch animated or live adaptations because of time constraints, and then pacing gets weireded up...

Well, yeah. My fault really. I shouldn't cut out Fate/Zero because it's an adaptation, but the point about references above is valid. There are lots of intricacies to nasuverse that are hard to get if you watch the anime. UBW movie for example was just plain fanservice for people who've played UBW, imo.

[Moerin]

Fate/Zero was never a visual novel anyways.  It was a regular paper-based novel.  And as a fan of the original novel, I have to say that if anything the anime stands up pretty well to it, even surpassing it at points.  I'm still waiting to see how it handles the insanity of the second half before I start saying that the anime is better than the novel, but if it keeps up the level of quality it had in the first series than thre's a good chance it might completely blow the original out of the water.  But we shall see.

[Tengukami]

Fate/Zero was never a visual novel anyways.  It was a regular paper-based novel.  And as a fan of the original novel, I have to say that if anything the anime stands up pretty well to it, even surpassing it at points.

Huh. Well, that's good to know. Might then have something to watch this dismal spring.

[Jana]

Ugghhh this spring. I was gonna watch Mono/Nisogonomanmgewgmatari (sp?) to pass the time, but I might pick up Fate/Zero too.

[n i c o l e]

everybody already mentioned pretty much everything I would have mentioned :c

still, gonna recommend Chi's Sweet Home and (first season only) of Minami-ke.

[Widermelonz]

Well, I would normally recommend Fate/Zero since I think it's fantastic, but if you haven't read or watched Fate/stay night you'd miss out on some things. The problem is, the fate/stay night anime adaption wasn't very good, and I don't want to recommend someone to sit through all 24 episodes of that. I know there's a 2-hour condense version of the FSN anime, so if you just want to get the gist of what happened you could watch that. Usually I'd recommend reading the FSN visual novel if you have some free time, but obviously not everyone does. If you really don't care about what happened in FSN, you could go straight into Fate/Zero itself; the first episode is a pretty good introduction for new viewers. But like I said, there'll be a few things you'd miss out on.

On another note, if you're looking for a show in the comedy/romance/high school genre, I'd recommend Toradora.

[Power]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Welcome to the NHK.  Is the show depressing or hilarious?  Or is it both?

[Tengukami]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Welcome to the NHK.  Is the show depressing or hilarious?  Or is it both?

It is both. It's an absolutely brilliant series. But you said you didn't want characters who were depressed. Well, the MC of this series has depression in spades. But he also has a tiny little ember of hope inside him that gets slowly fanned to life and- seriously, just watch it.

[Fetch()tirade]

It is both. It's an absolutely brilliant series. But you said you didn't want characters who were depressed. Well, the MC of this series has depression in spades. But he also has a tiny little ember of hope inside him that gets slowly fanned to life and- seriously, just watch it.

This.
Also the OP is ridiculously catchy.

[HakureiSM]

I tried NHK once, ages ago, dropped. I don't think I was in a very good mood then though.

Last year I started on the manga though, and was absolutely loving it. Then I ran out of money. FML.

[Red Frost]

Durarara!!.  It's a really quirky action/drama with a great story.  It's also got a headless rider, a bartender with the most amazing short temper you've ever seen, and a black guy... who's Russian... who lives in Japan... and works as a sushi shop advertiser.


If you want something that'll make you laugh, watch Sora no Otoshimono.  It's mostly a fanservice (there is a shit ton of fanservice) but I loved it.  I haven't seen all of Nichijou, but the first 3 episodes made me laugh harder than I had in a long time... I really have to get back to that.


(I know it's not an actual anime, but I'm bringing it up anyways because yes.)
If you want something really amazing with a great story, beautifully animated fight scenes, but still light-hearted and funny, go with Avatar: The Last Airbender.  I fell in love with the series all over again after I popped in the first dvd because nothing good was on TV.  I spent 4 days doing nothing else but rewatching the series.  I'm still amazed that something of that caliber was aired on Nickelodeon.  It's in English, yes, but I'm going to assume that's not a problem.  I found the voice acting to be top-notch, anyways.

[OncomingTraffic]

Well Toradora! is my personal favourite, so there's no reason I wouldn't recommend that, unless you hate the slice-of-life genre.

I definitely recommend Steins;Gate. It was easily the best anime of 2011 (in my opinion).
Fate/Zero is also pretty good, but you'll be waiting for the second half (Fate/Zero 2) until April.

If you're looking for something funny then Excel Saga and Nichijou are way out there.
Or if you've seen Fate/stay Night and Shigetsutan Tsukihime then Carnival Phantasm is really funny as well.

Of course it's easier to recommend something if I'm given a genre (or some basis).

[Power]

Wow nobody has mentioned American Animation at all.  Kind of makes me sad that America has no animation for teenagers and adults.  It's all for kids and there's no variety if it does get aired for older audiences.  Also what I find funny is that Avatar the Last Airbender is also in Japanese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BftVYrTSaZ0.   :V  Great series by the way only problem is have trouble finding the Japanese version as I believe it's only for people with special cable in Japanese.  I may have to check that series out as it is indeed awesome. 

Anybody out there to prove me wrong is there a American series that is awesome as Avatar out there?   :derp:

[HakureiSM]

Wow nobody has mentioned American Animation at all.

That is because the thread title is "Anime Recommendations" not "Cartoon Recommendations" or "Recommend me any form of animation"

[Power]

Oh come on it's the same in a way.  I still consider it the same since it's still animation.   Even Japanese people call our "cartoons" anime because that's what they call a moving cartoon since it's easier to say.  I thought other people would think the same thing but I guess my bad.   :V

[Tengukami]

Oh come on it's the same in a way.  I still consider it the same since it's still animation.  Even Japanese people call our "cartoons" anime because that's what they call a moving cartoon since it's easier to say.  I thought other people would think the same thing but I guess my bad.   :V

Yes, but you do know the standard usage; that if you ask for "anime recommendations", people are going to take this to mean animation from Japan, yeah? I mean it's not unreasonable to expect these are the recommendations you got.

[HakureiSM]

Especially since we're using the English language.

[Power]

Good point guess I'll remember that for next time.  anyways know any good "Cartoons" at all?   :derp: