Anime Recommendations Thread

[Zoan]

Oooh. Thanks so much. I'm looking those up right now and I'll let you know how I find them.

[Tsukuyomi]

Do you also mind some mushy-ness ^^?

Fruits Basket has some humorous moments ^^ I heard Ouran High School Host Club has some as well ^^ I also heard FullMetal Panic Fumoffu ^__^

[Zoan]

I <3 Ouran. I was a little turned off by Fruits Basket because there's so many episodes. Lol. And it didn't seem like the storyline was that straightforward but I shoulddddd try it.

<3333 Thank you!

[blkmage]

Azumanga Daioh and Ouran are great choices. Ouran in particular isn't a straight comedy though. For comedies and gag series, there's K-ON!, Hidamari Sketch, Minami-ke, Kannagi, Lucky Star, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

[airichan623]

Can anybody tell me about what they think about Code Geass?

[S.M.O.G.]

Right now I'm hooked on Code Geass, and I'm also a huge Death Note fan. Are there any other similar anime?

And I've heard a lot about Gundam, but got confused with all the different series. Where do I start?



EDIT: lol, just saw Airichans post. Like I said, I'v watched what is probably an unhealthy amount of it the past couple days. If you like Death Note or (from what I've heard, like I said I haven't seen) Gundam, You'll like this. I'm only halway through season one, and I belive season two is complete and the end of the series. I'm assuming if your asking you know at least the basic premise(though I didn't when I started watching it), but tell me what you've heard and I might be able to help you.

[CrimsonRyu17]

And I've heard a lot about Gundam, but got confused with all the different series. Where do I start?

Here's the series anime timeline.

Universal Century

Mobile Suit Gundam (September, UC0079)
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (October, UC0079)
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: A War in the Pocket (December, UC0079)
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (UC0083)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (UC0087)
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (UC0088)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (UC0093)
Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (UC0123)
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (UC0153)

Alternate Universes

G-Gundam (Future Century)
Gundam Wing (After Colony)
Gundam X (After War)
Turn A Gundam (CC)
Gundam SEED(Cosmic Era)
Gundam 00 (Anno Domini)

I'd highly suggest watching the original or the epic 08th MS Team (my personal fave and what rly hooked me into Gundam) first. You don't need to see the original to get what's going on in 08th 'cause they're technically going on at the same time. But yes, you will need to see the original with the sequel series like Zeta, ZZ, Char's Counterattack, etc. You can pick up any of the alternative universes at any time.

If you're looking for an anime similar to Code Geass or Death Note instead of some real gundam, I'd say Gundam 00 or SEED.

[Zoan]

Azumanga Daioh and Ouran are great choices. Ouran in particular isn't a straight comedy though. For comedies and gag series, there's K-ON!, Hidamari Sketch, Minami-ke, Kannagi, Lucky Star, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

Wow! Thanks! Now I have *too* much to check out. Lol. It's great.

I started on School Rumble the other day, it was hilarious. In a really immature way like I like.

[blkmage]

Here's the series anime timeline.

Universal Century

Mobile Suit Gundam (September, UC0079)
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (October, UC0079)
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: A War in the Pocket (December, UC0079)
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (UC0083)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (UC0087)
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (UC0088)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (UC0093)
Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (UC0123)
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (UC0153)

Alternate Universes

G-Gundam (Future Century)
Gundam Wing (After Colony)
Gundam X (After War)
Turn A Gundam (CC)
Gundam SEED(Cosmic Era)
Gundam 00 (Anno Domini)

Just to add on to that, the main UC storyline goes Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta, ZZ, and Char's Counterattack. F91 and Victory take place way after all of those and can almost be considered their own thing. 08th MS Team, 0080, and 0083 are all sidestories to the main UC story.

If you're going to take a look at the UC timeline, I'll suggest considering the three Mobile Suit Gundam movies that summarize MSG over watching the original series and then proceeding on afterwards with Zeta or an OVA.

[Tsukuyomi]

[quote="Zoan (post: 1346288)"]Wow! Thanks! Now I have *too* much to check out. ]

Nothing wrong with that ^__^ It's great for laughs ^__^ I should pick back up on that series too ^__^

[Maokun]

Wow. 25 pages. And I see a lot of stuff. But since it's kinda crazy all around can someone shoot me a few of the best humorous anime/manga out there? I like to laugh.

Two more: Excel Saga and Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu. The latter is my fave anime comedy ever and I believe it needs more recognization.

[steenajack]

I would like to make another request, but this time it's not really for me. I'm looking for my mom, my sister, and my brother.

For my brother I'm looking for a good action anime with some comedy. Since he's only nine, it would be best if there was as little objectional content in it as possible. That means no gory or excessively bloody violence, no sexual content, homosexual stuff, or fanservice (please), no sexual nudity, and no bad language (minor language only as a last resort if any). In other words, anything similar to Hikaru no Go or Avatar the Last Airbender.

For my sister, she's not really into romance or anything like that. But she loves comedy and anything with a good storyline. she (all of us actually) loves the Miyazaki movies. She also likes adventure type anime. As for content, the same goes my sister as for my brother. But she can handle minor-mild language (minor innuendo as a last resort). She dosn't like depressing endings, or shallow-type shows. And romance kinda ruins it for her. A couple exeptions include the Miyazaki movies.

For my mom, she loves a good deep love story. I'm pretty sure she would like a sweet slice-of-life story too. She likes comedy too. She's not into action, and dosn't like sad endings. She probably could handle bittersweet like Haibane Renmai, but nothing depressing like Titanic. In reguards to content, my mom is pretty conservative, so nothing above PG level. And the good content has to outweigh the bad. No homosexual stuff, fanservice, sexual content, bloody or gory violence, and little to no bad language. (like everyone else, she loves the Miyazaki movies)

And that pretty much is it. I pretty much like anything with little to no objectional content, an awsome plot, great characters, and a good dub. Oh, and my family dosn't like to watch subtitles, so it would be nice if the movies/series you might recomend have good dubs.

Would any of these fit the descriptions I made?
Blue Dragon
5 cm per second
Someday's Dreamers

......that's all I can think of.

Anyway, any help would be neat.

[Wyntre Rose]

Whew....That's a rather tall order, Steenajack.

The only anime I can think of that immediately comes to mind for your sibs is Angelic Layer - it's "action" but the action is all between fighting dolls that the main characters control, so there's no real violence between humans at all. There's a teeny-weeny bit of romance in it (it is a CLAMP title, after all) but it's definitely not the main idea of the show. There's some cute comedy in it, though that's also not the main point. The dub...I don't think I'd recommend though...sorry. Granted, I only watched a few minutes of it, but it got on my nerves rather quickly so I switched. Other than that...absolutely no bloody violence or language in an action anime is going to be nigh on impossible...but Rurouni Kenshin is worth looking into. There's some swearing - d*** and b****** I do believe is as far as it goes - though honestly, what we translate as swearing very often isn't as bad in Japanese - and it's fighting with swords, so there IS blood, but considering the genre it's quite restrained, and the anime is much less "gory" than the manga. The main character, Kenshin, is a very sweet, loveable, goofy character who also happens to be the greatest swordsman in Japan. He used to be a lethal assassin, but to atone for that now wields his sword to protect the weak and vows to never take another human life again. You'd probably want to watch this one first, though, since it's quite a bit edgier than Angelic Layer...If you can handle the first few episodes, you're probably going to be ok.

5 centimeters per second I would higly recommend, as there is little if any objectionable content (that is par for the course for Makoto Shinkai, though, fortunately) though the ending isn't necessarily...happy. So if that would bother you...The Place Promised in Our Early Days, also by Makoto Shinkai, has a happier ending, though I do believe there's some (non explicit) violence in it, and some implied nudity. I'm almost certain nothing is actually shown, but it's been a while, sorry.

[MasterDias]

Well, generally speaking, series like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Rurouni Kenshin, and D.Gray-man would sort of be the anime equivalent of Avatar:The Last Airbender. The above named series all ran in the same manga anthrology as Hikaru no Go so they are initially aimed at the same demographic as that series as well. While I wouldn't really consider them gory however, they do have a fair amount of blood. And the english versions of them (at least from my experience, One Piece, Kenshin, and Bleach) do have a fair amount of (mostly mild, but frequent) swearing. So I'm not sure I could, in good conscience, recommend them to a 9-yr-old, at least with those criteria. However, you could check out a few episodes yourself and see.

Blue Dragon, in its original form, did have innuendo and mild fanservice despite being aimed at children. The English dub edited all of this out. However, I believe the English DVDs were pretty much discontinued after awhile, so I can't recommend an unfinished series.

Digimon might be a good series to show your brother. It was pretty much my entry anime. Unfortunately, it isn't (except for, I believe, the most recent season) available on DVD either.

Mysterious Cities of Gold is an old adventure anime that has recently been released in a boxset. It should be basically clean, or no more than PG.

Kekkaishi might be a possibility. It hasn't been released in English yet, although it's on the way. However, I don't really remember much offensive about it. It's a bit tamer than some of the ones I listed at the top.

One Piece, which I mentioned at the top, actually really strikes me as fitting your sister's tastes very closely. It's heavy on adventure and comedy, no romance at all, is very upbeat, and has an interesting plot and world setup once it gets going. But, again it's your call...

I suppose you could try Case Closed/Detective Conan, if either sibling likes mysteries. It does deal with murders, so there are a lot of dead bodies, however most of them, outside of a rather over-the-top one in the first episode, are not actually all that graphic. Although, some of the cases do deal with more "mature" themes like adultery. There is mild language in the dub, although not very much.

But yeah, anime/manga is pretty much a PG-13 affair for the most part.

[Maokun]

I support the reccomendation of One Piece. Among the shounen series MasterDias reccomended it is arguably the cleannest, funniest and less realistically violent. I think it would be a good choice for either your sister or your brother.

For your mother I would recommend the same anime that I recommended my own mother: Monster. It is deep, intelligent and mature, and although it has an overal sad tone, there are lots of sweet slice-of-life moments that counteract it.

5cms/s is awesome but I'm afraid that it would fly over the head of your 9 yo brother, your sister would find it too sappy romantic, and your mother, too depressing. In its stead, I support Wyntre Rose recommendation of "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" and add the family-friendly and equally awesome "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time".

[MasterDias]

For your mother I would recommend the same anime that I recommended my own mother: Monster. It is deep, intelligent and mature, and although it has an overal sad tone, there are lots of sweet slice-of-life moments that counteract it.

I'm not trying to call you out on stuff here, but Monster? Really?
It's not something I'd recommend to really conservative audiences, as it's by no means PG, unless the anime toned certain scenes and elements down considerably from the manga, which I doubt.
Or is there another Monster I'm not aware of?

[Maokun]

It's certainly not PG, but conservative =/= childlike. There is murder, there's child abuse, a couple of minor characters are prostitutes, yes. But everything "ugly" happens off-camera and it's clearly exposed as evil, which the good doctor tries to counteract. You see stuff 10 times worse in any given episode of CSI or whatever random show popular amongst adults and no one complains. I think Monster is right there at the same level of "House".

[Wyntre Rose]

This makes me curious, then. I was told there was a rather graphic rape scene in Monster - which was witnessed by a child, no less - but is it really just implied? Totally not trying to get on your case, Maokun, it's just that this one thing is what kept me from watching Monster, but if it's not as bad as I've been made to believe, I think I would really enjoy this series.

[Fish and Chips]

This makes me curious, then. I was told there was a rather graphic rape scene in Monster - which was witnessed by a child, no less - but is it really just implied? Totally not trying to get on your case, Maokun, it's just that this one thing is what kept me from watching Monster, but if it's not as bad as I've been made to believe, I think I would really enjoy this series.

Hmmm, sounds a little inflated, but not too far off. Basically, a child wanders into a dim and shabby red light district and gets lost down an alleyway where a man is having a time with a prostitute he hired. The woman sees the boy and tries to convince her client that they should move elsewhere, but the man won't hear it and continues anyway (so it's not rape per se). The scene itself is more implied than shown, but it's pretty heavily implied.

That's about all I remember. Sexual content is spread pretty evenly throughout Monster, but it's either in passing or in a distinctively repulsive light. It's up to your personal standards how that plays out on your sorting priorities.

I myself would not recommend Monster for anyone's mother, unless they were prepared for what kind of series it is beforehand. Don't just hand out copies on a street corner, "It's a psychological thriller, enjoy." Even comparing it with No Worse Than Television is kinda shaky in my opinion.

[steenajack]

Thank you guys for the help. I'll be sure to check and look for some of these.

[MasterDias]

It's certainly not PG, but conservative =/= childlike. There is murder, there's child abuse, a couple of minor characters are prostitutes, yes. But everything "ugly" happens off-camera and it's clearly exposed as evil, which the good doctor tries to counteract. You see stuff 10 times worse in any given episode of CSI or whatever random show popular amongst adults and no one complains. I think Monster is right there at the same level of "House".

But, CSI isn't PG....and I don't think House is either. You're making snap judgements based on what you think most adults are watching on TV. Why are you assuming steenajack's mother is watching a crime show and a medical drama? The genre's she listed are romance/comedy/slice-of-life.
Monster is a psychological suspense/thriller, and does not actually qualify for any of those. Neither does CSI, so I don't know where that came from...

Azumanga Daioh is slice-of-life. So, is Aria and A Little Snow Fairy Sugar.
I had refrained from making recommendations for her mother, since I haven't watched much in those genres, but I think the ones I listed there are pretty tame. Someone who's seen them can chime in with yay or nay, if they wish.

[blkmage]

I'd suggest 5 Centimeters per Second. I wouldn't say the ending is sad and it's definitely not True End tragedy like Clannad. It's definitely positive, but I wouldn't quite call it happy.

And Aria seems like the perfect slice-of-life show for what you need. It's relaxing, positive, and charming. It is a slice of life show that is slice of life and not half-comedy like Azumanga Daioh.

And Honey and Clover (and Honey and Clover II) would probably fit the bill quite nicely for either of those.

[Wyntre Rose]

I think Aria is a great recommendation. I haven't watched it all, but what I've seen is very wholesome and sweet, and beautiful animation.:thumb:

Azumanga Daioh...while very tame for the most part, DOES have a perverted teacher - he doesn't do anything, he just says some disturbing things - along with a girl who is crushing on Sakaki, who is also a girl, and I believe steenajack said no homosexuality whatsoever... Now, it needs to be said that nothing happens between the two girls, but it's pretty obvious that the feelings the girl has for Sakaki are more than just platonic admiration. Nothing sexual, she's just starry eyed and infatuated.

Air TV might also be a good choice for your mom, come to think of it, steenajack. The only questionable thing that comes to mind is that one character may - possibly - be shown in a situation of silhouette nudity, though I'm almost positive that her hair covers up anything that a bikini wouldn't, and there's a reason for it that is not sexual at all. It also, if it happens at all, is very brief. The ending is not exactly happy, but it's not depressing, and it leaves room for hope. Reincarnation is a major theme, though, so if that would bother her...

[Scarecrow]

For my brother I'm looking for a good action anime with some comedy. Since he's only nine, it would be best if there was as little objectional content in it as possible. That means no gory or excessively bloody violence, no sexual content, homosexual stuff, or fanservice (please), no sexual nudity, and no bad language (minor language only as a last resort if any). In other words, anything similar to Hikaru no Go or Avatar the Last Airbender.

D.N.Angel. Really clean, fun, no language, with quite a bit of action, especially as it gets towards the end but no blood or anything. Quite a bit of magic and stuff though.

Fate Stay/Night is pretty good too if I remember correctly. Lots of action but not particularly bloody and I don't remember any language or other objectionable content. DNAngel is better but it's a little slow starting out. FSN is pretty much action from the get go. Lots of magic used as well though.

For my mom, she loves a good deep love story. I'm pretty sure she would like a sweet slice-of-life story too. She likes comedy too. She's not into action, and dosn't like sad endings. She probably could handle bittersweet like Haibane Renmai, but nothing depressing like Titanic. In reguards to content, my mom is pretty conservative, so nothing above PG level. And the good content has to outweigh the bad. No homosexual stuff, fanservice, sexual content, bloody or gory violence, and little to no bad language. (like everyone else, she loves the Miyazaki movies)

I second Air TV although the ending is pretty sad (not depressing though and it does leave off on a hopeful/bittersweet note). Another recommendation would be Kanon which is similar but has a more happy/bittersweet ending rather than a sad/bittersweet ending. Totally clean, no objectionable content whatsoever. Kanon was one my mom really liked a lot so...

[blkmage]

Erm, I'm not seeing how Air's ending is considered anything but sad.

If we're going to be suggesting Air and Kanon, then I'll be pushing Clannad. Clannad is the best love story, because it follows the two romantic leads from their first meeting and to about nine or ten years after their marriage. The theme for Clannad is family: what a family is, who is part of your family, and how family influences you.

It is about 48 episodes. The first thirty or so episodes are the School Life arc and are about on par with anything from Air or Kanon. The final part of the story, the After Story arc, absolutely blows away everything else. Unlike in Air or Kanon, we experience the full weight of the tragedy and is much more real and tragic than an ancient curse or getting put into a coma.

And again, Clannad is Key's best story, no contest. Yes, it really is better than Air and it really is better than Kanon. It's even better than Planetarian (which I'd say comes second). It's certainly better than Little Busters!.

[uc pseudonym]

Is the Ninja Scroll tv series any good? I was on youtube and saw the opening sequence thing and I dunno, the music I thought was awesome ^_^ (It reminded me of like some kind of nintendo/SNES game tune) so I wanted to check it out. I've never saw Ninja Scroll the movie but I've heard about it... and people on here don't seem to be too favorable of that but what about the series?

Ninja Scroll is considered a major title due to a variety of factors including its animation quality and general impact on the industry. It gets bad press here due to the not inconsiderable sexual content. That's all mentioned in the review, and you'll find raving fans of it elsewhere, so I put that up to your discretion.

I haven't seen the series, myself, but I have often heard people say that if feels like a drop in quality. Conversely, I believe it was considerably tamer because it was actually broadcast. So take that for whatever it is worth, because I'm not thinking of anything else in a similar vein off the top of my head.

Sorry that's not much of an answer, but I hope it was better than none.

[Maokun]

Yes, I know I made a gross generalisation while trying to rest my case, but it seems it actually made it weaker. I obviously cannot pretend to know what any given person likes or not (my own mother does enjoy psychological thrillers and medical drama, so she'd be all over Monster), I was just trying to show that we should think on the terms of an adult woman, who's given birth thrice and that as far as we know has had no previous contact with anime. Wouldn't it be a surer bet to offer as an introduction to the genre a mature, serious drama akin to the series that are popular amongst the target group than to offer a deceptively childish and colorful world with fantastic settings, slapstick comedy and/or idealised romance as the other (undoubtedly great, especially for us, who embrace them without prejudice or untrustiness) series recommended for her here? In other words, and putting it succintly in a way that we probably don't like to put it ourselves oftenly: we are trying to convince an adult woman to watch japanese cartoons; what should serve as our invitation card?

@Wyntre Rose: Monster is sordid, no doubt of it. It recreates real life better than most anime, so it should be expected, especially when the protagonist is forced to wander the undergrounds of society. However, it is seldom explicit and as others have said, everything that is reproachable is clearly stated to be so and is fought against.

[MasterDias]

There is still a large gap between Miyazaki movies/romance/slice-of-life and Monster. For example, my own mother is pretty conservative in her viewing/reading habits. She doesn't watch shows like CSI (or any primetime dramas and such really), and wouldn't enjoy something dark and violent like Monster. She likes mysteries, but not really violent stuff.

There is some merit in your underlying logic certainly, but I think you are taking it to extremes here.

[steenajack]

O__O WOW! I've got some pretty good recommendations here! Thank you so much! I do have a question about Clannad though. It looks like it would be right up my mom's alley. How exactly is the content in there. It looks really good, but I'm just wondering if the content stays at least under a PG-13 or PG level. I know that there might be a couple suggestive jokes in there, but is there fanservice, yao, yuri, sexual content or anything like that? I heard that it was pretty clean of that spare for a few jokes and a minor scene....or somthing like that.

[Zoan]

Nothing wrong with that ^__^ It's great for laughs ^__^ I should pick back up on that series too ^__^

It's long finished isn't? Like the last manga was published a yr or so ago?

It's awesome though. Just finished with the anime. Soooo funny.

I'll have to try one of these other recommended ones. Yay!