Official NPF Anime Recommendation List: The Talk Thread
 

Hopefully with 90% less haterade. Let's not make this one all personal this time.

Just reposting my couple things from the last thread:

Black Lagoon

It's quite a good show. It plays with a lot of interesting themes (although in many places in a much more heavy-handed manner than I would prefer). It takes a basically random office drone, has him tossed / has him toss himself into a world of criminality, and plays out the consequences of him doing that. If you're the kind of person who likes existentialism, there's a whole lot of that. If you're the kind of person who likes dudes with swords cutting bullets in half while an ex-Russian Army paramilitary wages gang warfare against a Japanese corporation, there's that too. I happen to be both those kinds of people so it worked pretty well for me.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

reasons TTGL is good:

1. Characters with flaws who are not exclusively defined by those flaws.

Kamina is an awesome tough kind of dumb guy who isn't a dick to his people the way awesome tough guys so frequently / depressingly are and is smart enough to know that he's kind of dumb and trusts other people's judgement when his is in error. Simon is like Shinji except he actually makes an effort to stop being a weird little douche. Yuko, bless her heart she's The Chick with all the awful baggage that entails but she at least gets to be the moderately competent incarnation of that archetype who occasionally gets to be plot-relevant and interesting as a character.

Even describing them doesn't get the point across as TTGL just happens to be one of the rare series that understands about nuance and the little touches that differentiate a character and a caricature.

2. Giant robots like what.

You don't even know like what.

3. A coherent philosophical framework.

The show actually constitutes a surprisingly thoughtful analysis and critique of the motivations of totalitarians. And thoughtful in a way that doesn't totally beat you over the head with every single lesson, which was a welcome change of pace from the way most such animes go.

4. Seriously giant robots OMG.

I mean the moon I fucking what

I'll mainly include the ones that haven't been talked about much. Oh and I mainly read manga due to a lack of internet bandwith for video downloads, which is why say Azumanga Daioh and Gintama aren't here, read the manga still haven't gotten the anime.

Ghost in the ShellStand Alone Complex: Talky and thinky but with interesting enough characters and plots to carry it. At least the 1st Gig, 2nd less so. The scene with the Major crushing that jackass alive inside his own mech after paralyzing him with that piece of field artillery. Was really satisfying. Also the tachikomas are the best animal buddy/tagalong kid characters ever.

Trigun: I like action. Also Legato has one of the most appropriate leitmotifs ever, and many other characters also have great ones. And that spoiler song, you know the one.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: Found a link to an episode on youtube and ended up watching all of them cause I couldn't find the manga initially. Oddly twisted surreal school comedy. Think Azumanga Daioh, if Osaka was considered the normal one and all semblance of normal reality was thrown out the window and dragged off by Lovecraftian cultists to participate in horrible rites.

Ninja Scroll: Did I mention I like action?

Big O: I dunno why I like this one so much, but I do, maybe the atmosphere and setting syncs with me. I think the unique art style which somewhat reminds me of Tintin might help as well. Also GREAT music which is always a huge plus for me.

FLCL and Cowboy Bebop: Talked about a lot and I pretty much agree with the other points made about them. FLCL is fun and a drinking game I invented for calling out(using the Bill and Ted guitar riff) all the Freudian imagery is a great way to lose track of a night with nerdy psych students. Cowboy Bebop is just art. But as mentioned above in the Trigun and Big O entries, music is very important to me and Cowboy Bebop and FLCL have truly stunning soundtracks and musical direction by any standard.

Teknoman: Here mostly by sheer nostalgia, first anime I watched and it was good. Everyone I know who got introduced to anime by Teknoman rather than Sailor Moon, DBZ or Pokemon is still an anime fan. Haven't seen it in more than a decade so nostalgia's probably tinting the lens a bit(a lot), but fuck it, Blade took his mindrape like a man. When he was broken to absolutely nothing he didn't pull a Shinji, he retained one part of his brain, murderous hate and then went and killed some damn aliens.

Teknoman was a pretty sweet show. I liked the "30 minutes or you go insane with evil" limit on his powers, it was a nice way to maintain tension and keep the hero having to fight against the odds.

Thanks for reminding me about Big O. And I threw Zoids onto my list because I wanted to have a full 10 and that last fight between the sabretooth and the T-Rex is still pretty awesome.

Also, I forgot who said it, but the rampant Avatar fanbase on this forum (to say nothing of the horrors of those who say the word ship gleefully) shouldn't dissuade you from checking it out. I've read somewhere that a careful distinction has to be made while watching television to recognize whether a given show is 'great television' or merely 'television good'. For the most part, the first season is television good, but that's because it's mainly concerned with setting down the foundation of a fantastic and fully realized world while still nominally subscribing to the conventions of the medium and intended audience, akin somewhat to Samurai Jack with a deeper narrative thread.

The second season is unquestionably great television. David Mamet says that a great story is one where only the things that directly aid or hinder the protagonist are shown with nothing extraneous bogging the story down, and the second season hews pretty damn close to that ideal, all while introducing and integrating a completely new character and fleshing out the existing cast. By the finale you'll probably have cried at least once and come to fiercely hate the antagonist's prowess. It's a pretty amazing 20-episode accomplishment all things considered.

Big O's first season is lots better than it's second, but overall it's pretty neat.

Eyeshield 21 - Its (American) Football with anime sensibilities. It has a certain energy that really makes me like it a lot. Also, Hiruma has some of the best lines ever. "New slave, get!"

GA-GA-GA-GA-GA-GA-GAO-GAI-GAR!

One Piece - the only currently popular shonen anime that makes me feel like the characters are both likable and not horribly overpowered.

Samurai Champloo gets a nod mainly due to its insane style and awesome music. FLCL gets the same nod, although I did enjoy FLCL more because the stories were more or less linked, where in Champloo it was a lot more random. TTGL also gets these nods, it has manly style and the music is bitchin'.

Also, Lucky Star. I'm so ashamed.

Samurai Champloo

Ironically I am often hesitant to recommend this anime mainly due to my overwhelming embarassment at the thought of saying the second part of its name aloud. It's just a stupid-sounding word and I don't like it at all.

That said SC is a totally fantastic anime chock full of stylish action and captivating adventures. If you enjoy beautifully and inventively executed swordfights then this is definitely the show for you. The characters are charmingly unlikable and the plot also dabbles in some interesting bits of oh, government conspiracy and religious rebellion and things like that.

Best episode is when Mugen learns to write his name. Or the baseball episode.

Champloo is just full of random.

Puni Puni Poemy: Makes even less sense than Excel Saga, has more Nabeshin awesome, and you get to see Sailor Moon murdered. Very perverted in a funny way rather than a "sexy" way. Not for everyone, and I'd be worried about recommending it to a personal friend, but otherwise, pretty sweet.

Chobits:Sweet, and can be very sad at times. Basically, the robot-pet-girl-romance genre at it's finest. Or so I assume as it's the only one of that kind of show I have ever watched. Not for everyone, but it can be funny, and the characters are charming.

Trigun: Vash is a character I genuinely feel sorry for, and Legato Bluesummers is an excellent villain, even if he isn't the main one. Music is also pretty bitchin'.

Hellsing/Hellsing Ultimate: If you're watching this show for plot you're doing it wrong. Love the characters, especially the Millenium ones, even though they're Nazi's. The show is pure intense action and slowly shows more facets of Alucard's personality. If you like guns and ultraviolence, watch this. A lot.

Gurren Lagann: For those of you who have watched a few episodes and felt very meh, watch up to and including episode 10. Episode 8 was great, but episode 10 is where Simon starts coming into his own as a character and the show becomes much better at that point. Even still, the second story arc is much better than the first, though the first actually becomes more interesting if you have seen the second half.

I didn't even put most of these on my list :o