What would any anime/manga fans suggest to a beginner?

stopyourshoppin

i am interested in this genre but i have never really watched any except for spirited away and howl's moving castle. i would like to see some more obscure stuff but where is a good place to start?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

cowboy bebop - just awesome.. cool, violent, funny and jazz. awesome.

trigun - funny sci-fi/wild west .. weird, but very worth watching

rah-xephon - almost perfect anime. fan-****ing tastic. bit slow in places, not as action packed as bebop or trigun, but just ungodly amounts of fantastic.

berserk - violent as hell. great story about a mad bastard with a huge sword who joins up with some mercanaries... then some **** happens, more **** happens and then a lot more **** happens. Definitely worth watching.

FLCL - six episodes of silliness. maybe not great to watch to get a taste of anime.. but still, great.

Sesshoumaru

I have a friend whom I introduced to anime recently. I tried cowboy bebop with him first but he didn't like it. But after watching 5 episodes of Death Note he was hooked. He even got his gilfriend into the series. Now he keeps asking me for more recommendations

My Recommendations

1. Death Note
2. Fruits Basket
3. Hack Sign
4. Gantz
5. Last Exile

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

fruit basket's great but it's a bit gay to show to someone who hasn't been watching anime for a while

whatever you do OP, do not watch chobits... do NOT.

Sesshoumaru

Mordeth wrote:

fruit basket's great but it's a bit gay to show to someone who hasn't been watching anime for a while

whatever you do OP, do not watch chobits... do NOT.

I think Fruits Basket was hilarious, if you wanna talk about gay anime then how about Ouran High School? I find the irony of having characters who are designed to appeal to girls but who actually engage in a club activity designed to swindle them out of money great!!

stopyourshoppin

Mordeth wrote:

fruit basket's great but it's a bit gay to show to someone who hasn't been watching anime for a while

whatever you do OP, do not watch chobits... do NOT.

now i'm going to watch chobits

Saruwatari

Here are some of my suggestions;
ANIME
Paranoia Agent
Memories
Metropolis
Robot Carnival
Akira
Neo Tokyo
Cowboy Bebop
Sgt. Frog
Steamboy
Ghost In The Shell
Blood : The Last Vampire

MANGA
Sgt. Frog
Akira
Domu : A Child's Dream
Cyborg 009
.hack//Legend of the Twilight
Bleach
Cowboy Bebop
Death Note
Memories
Jing : King of Bandits

Sesshoumaru

stopyourshoppin wrote:

now i'm going to watch chobits

I've watched chobits and enjoyed it. Although I did cringe a bit during the scene where he "activates" her.

tman

Cowboy Bebop is definitely one that I'd recommend.
Blood+, Elfen Lied, Basilisk and Death Note are all good.

And make sure that you check out Princess Mononoke, my fave Ghibli film...

Rodimus Prime

Bebop as already suggested
Captain Harlock(hard to find though)
Ghost in the Shell
Akira
Hellsing
Full Metal Panic
Full Metal Alchemist
FLCL
Last Exile
Initial D
Gungrave

thats enough for now.

Tar.Aldarion

DBZ, all you will ever need.

psicic

stopyourshoppin wrote:

i am interested in this genre but i have never really watched any except for spirited away and howl's moving castle. i would like to see some more obscure stuff but where is a good place to start?

When I returned to anime waaaaaay on back, the animes I started with were "Tenchi Muuyo!", "Outlaw Star" and "Vision of Escaflowne" - all were subtitled.

Amazingly good fortune as I chose them at random but they were genuinely 'good' shows that gave a broad overview of their respective genres:

Tenchi (the first OAVs) was comedy/romance/tiny bit of space opera. Great character design that both stole from Star Wars and, ironically, was copied by Star Wars in the prequels.

Outlaw Star was a standard-ish space show with a strong story arc and well developed characters.

Vision of Escaflowne had incredible scope for a story arc, incredibly well developed characters and was able to create a good atmosphere. However, might appear a tad girly.

Deleting the rest of my comment and adding shorter advice - avoid 'erotic horror' or anything that mentions 'tentacles' or 't&t' as a major feature. Avoid 'Ultimate Girls' like the plague. And try and watch subtitled anime rather then dubbed anime. (Tenchi was about the only tolerable dubbed anime I had seen until I saw Vampire Hunter D a year ago)

I have deliberately not mentioned animes others have mentioned, but I second almost all of what appear there - just highlighting that Cowboy Bebop was great, Berserk was very good, Ghost in the Shell was great and the spin off TV series Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone complex was brilliant. Paranoia Agent was great as well.

If you know you like a space theme to things, then Crest of Stars and Banner of Stars are excellent.

I have also seen at Chobits - and cringed at certain key moments. <shudders>

Don't kid yourselves though - one day you'll know what the 'activation' scene involved...and will shudder too...

stopyourshoppin

i think i'm gathering what 'activation' might be referring to!!! and yes i've heard about the tentacles...yeurgh.

thanks everyone for your suggestions, i appreciate it. will def be trying out a few of them

Smellyirishman

Em. Naruto and Bleach? (don't hurt me!)

Or are they not obscure enough?

The melancholy of what's her face is good too. (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)

nadir

imo the best intro to anime is the 'rurouni kenshin OVA'
then watch what Mordie said ..
then watch gits sac and 2nd gig at which stage your new life as a gaijin otaku should be well on its way.
Then you can start getting into stuff like 'welcome to the NHK.'

Zen 2nd

psicic wrote:

Tenchi was about the only tolerable dubbed anime I had seen until I saw Vampire Hunter D a year ago)

Thats because Vampire Hunter D was created with the English language in mind to be used first.

psicic

Zen 2nd wrote:

Thats because Vampire Hunter D was created with the English language in mind to be used first.

Exactly. It surprised me how good it was, to be honest.

mikeruurds

My choices:

Full Metal Alchemist
Bleach
Elfen Lied
Death Note
Ruruoni Kenshin

All great anime

kyenne

Just how is Fruits Basket gay? :eek: Gravitation (manga - yaoi, anime - shounen-ai level) is gay. Ai no Kusabi (anime - yaoi) is graphically and nastily gay. Yami no Matsuei can be considered gay if you have nothing else to do. But Fruits Basket?

@topic

I'd advise you to look up the genres (Wikipedia will help a lot). Then you can decide what you want to watch.
Anime:
Haibane Renmei (drama, fantasy, not widely known)
Dual! (mecha, comedy, somew people call it a satire on Evangelion but I think it's a lot of fun)
Azumanga Daiou (often misspelled as "Daioh", comedy, school. Another dimension of absurdity)
Shoujo Kakumeio Utena (that's a little more advanced, but so worth it. Drama, shoujo, may be consedered a little shoujo-ai. Welcome to a dreamworld of abstraction.)

Manga:
Full Metal Alchemist (shounen, fantasy, drama)
Saiyuki (action, drama, adventure, fantasy)
Naruto (shonen, action, 1000 times better than the lousy anime)

The rest of the manga I know might be to weird for you.


Ps: Why did you lot shudder at the activation of Chii?

stopyourshoppin

argh...looked at some recommendations...including chobits. one person said not to watch it but i figured it was one that some liked, some didn't and happened to have one dodgy scene...but jeez judging by the first episode the whole concept is pervy!
i like the other stuff though there's loads of anime on tv-links.co.uk

StarvedWriter

Try Death Note. Its a really good anime series. Then watch Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Bleach, and Honey & Clover and Love Hina (they're romantic comedies, but you'll like them).


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