So glorious. Well folks, as I stated in the other thread, the idea here is to find something that's accessible. Basically ask yourself "would I show this to someone who has never watched anime before" before you throw out a suggestion. All the standard tropes (fanservice, moe, UGUU and all that) don't really mean a lot to people who've been watching a while but it's likely to turn people off here. To give you an idea of what we're looking for I'll throw out a few suggestions (also assume everyone has seen all the old Toonami/AS stuff like Bebop, Outlaw Star, FLCL):
(After enough people chip in on this I'll throw up a poll)
THE LINEUP:
Baccano!
Themes: Action, Adventure, Crime, Comedy, 1930's Accents Rule
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Each of the stories in the series involves several unrelated plots intersecting and crossing each other as events spiral farther and farther out of control. Immortal alchemists, mafia operated speakeasies, and many other elements of pulp fiction mashed together for a world straight out of the movies.
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Holy balls that description sucks. Anyway Baccano is taken from a very amazing set of Light Novels by Ryohgo Narita. It's set in the US in 1930's (the prohibition era, specifically) and involves the happenings of a bunch of immortals, gangsters and thugs as their interests and involvement intersects. Everyone that has ever watched this show loved it. It's short (13 episodes with 3 OVA eps set after the series conclusion) and a little confusing at first, but when it all comes together it is literally the most amazing thing ever.
Trapeze
Themes: Comedy, Psychological, Is That A Fucking Bear
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Eleven people, each of them suffering from apparently groundless physical symptoms, land at psychiatrist Dr. Ichirō Irabu's consulting room, in the hope of finding there a sympathetic doctor, who listens to their troubles, gives them some pills, and with this, solves their problems once and for all. Instead, they find that Irabu is an eccentric person, with childish features and with little or no sympathy. He employs drastic and unheard-of treatments, and instead of counselling, he prefers to look at his patients' background personally. Despite his strange behavior and methods, he can always help his patients find the real causes behind their symptoms, while being amused at the awkward situations, which the patients get into by following his advice.
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I made a thread about it!
Black Lagoon
Themes: Guns, Mercenaries, Terrorists, Action,
Gratuitous usage of the word Fuck
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Okajima Rokuro is a Japanese businessman…in a town full of Japanese businessmen. His normal day consists of social drinking with clients and being kicked around by his bosses. He finally gets a break though, as he’s sent by his company to the tropical seas of Eastern China to deliver a disc…only his boat gets hijacked by a band of mercenaries that were hired to steal it. “Rock” (as he is newly dubbed by his captors) catches the interest of the only female merc “Revy” as she thinks he’s worth a ransom, taking him hostage. However, the disc turns out to be more trouble than its worth, and complicates things both for Rock, and the mercenaries known as Black Lagoon.
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Now this is a story all about how Rock’s life got flip turned upside down and I’d like to take a minute just sit right there and tell you how he became a member of the Lagoon Company. Doesn’t sound interesting? Well it is. Imagine everything that ruled about 90’s Hollywood action flicks and you’ve got this show. Explosions, Pirates, the Triad, the Russian Mafia, and Killer Maids. Hell, one of the main characters is based on Chow Yun Fat. It’s ridiculous.
Casshern Sins
Themes: Post-apocalyptic, Robots, Drama, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Now You Fucked Up
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A revamp of the classic anime series, the world is plagued by a decay of all life both natural and robotic. The light of the world, it's sun called the moon, Luna, was kill by the cyborg Casshern; bringing with him the end of the world called the Ruin. Now Casshern wanders in the wasting lands he created in an immortal body and no memories of his past; searching for clues to who he was, meaning to his life, and redemption. Casshern continues to fight against bandits and those who do wrong, as well as himself and those who desperately cling to life; driven by the legend that one can gain new life by consuming Casshern.
After the murder of Luna, the robot society that rules the planet starts to rust and decay. Death and despair spread through the land like wildfire. The only one unaffected by the affliction that becomes known as "The Ruin" is Luna's assassin, Casshern. Unable to remember if he really triggered this capital sin against the entire mechanized civilization, Casshern embarks on a journey to unravel the mystery that connects him, Luna, and the plague.
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Arguably one of the best shows to come out of 2008, Sins is an amazingly beautiful (arthouse as fuck) retake on a very old series. It's slow in some respects, but it takes plenty of time to flesh out Casshern and the horrors of the decaying world he inhabits. Plus who doesn't like seeing robots beat each other up?
Ghost in the Shell: SAC
Themes: Cyberpunk Mecha, Military, Police, Electronic Brain Pancake Crystal Elderly
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Stand Alone Complex takes place in the year 2030, in the fictional Japanese city of New Port. The series follows the exploits of Public Security Section 9, a special operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives. The series is a "police action drama" that comprises individual cases and the underlying mystery of the Laughing Man.
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Ghost in the Shell is pretty much
the cyberpunk show. There's the movies as well, and while I love Oshii the TV series' are better and if you disagree you are a faggot. I'm really not sure what to say about this one other than it rules.
One Outs
Themes: Baseball, Psychological, Just As Planned
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Hiromichi Kojima, the star batter of the Lycaons, heads to Okinawa to train and bring himself out of a slump. There, he meets Toua Tokuchi, a 134-kmph/83 mph pitcher and the undisputed king of a gambling form of baseball called "One Out." At Kojima's urging, Tokuchi signs up with the Lycaons. His contract differs form the usual, though, in that he gets 5,000,000 yen for every out he pitches, but loses 50,000,000 yen for every point he gives up.
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Baseball. The great American pastime. Shit is boring. But you know what’s not boring? Baseball with tons of money on the line. Toua, the world’s most fabulous pitcher ever joins up with quite possibly the worst team in Japan, and somehow hopes to come out of it with a fuckhuge wad of money. Basically imagine Death Note, but with Baseball and a whole lot less gay. That’s One Outs. It's by the same team that did Akagi and Kaiji. Soundtrack is extremely FUNK.
Kino no Tabi (Kino's Journey)
Themes: Fantasy, Adventure, Sci-Fi, What the fuck talking motorcycle
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In Kino's Journey, the protagonist, Kino, accompanied by a talking motorcycle, a Brough Superior motorcycle named Hermes, travels through a mystical world of many different countries and forests, each unique in its customs and people. Kino only spends three days and two nights in every town, without exception, on the principle that three days is enough time to learn almost everything important about a place, while leaving time to explore new lands. Kino says in The Land of Visible Pain that this principle is probably a lie, specifically noting "if I stay any longer, I'm afraid I will settle down." A phrase repeated in the anime and novels is "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is." Kino's Journey explores what the anime director Ryutaro Nakamura described as "a radical sense of 'beauty," and brutality, loneliness, nonsense, oppression and tragedy are often juxtaposed against compassion and a fairy-tale atmosphere.
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This one's actually new to me! But I hear plenty of people say it's good so why the fuck not.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Themes: Drama, Adventure, Earthquake Ruining Your Fucking Day
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After a massive earthquake in Tokyo 25 km under the sea at a magnitude of 8.0, siblings Mirai and Yūki, who were visiting a robot exhibition in Odaiba at the beginning of their summer vacation, struggle to reach their parents in their house in Setagaya assisted by a female motorcycle courier named Mari, who is striving to reach her own daughter and mother in Sangenjaya. While taking the journey home they encounter many problems caused by the earthquake, and meet others who have lost beloved ones due to the catastrophe.
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An unlikely strong candidate from the '09 selections, TM8.0 had a very down-to-earth presentation and an ending that had many of the watchers fooled (we never saw it coming). It's kind of a tearjerker, but in a good way.
Welcome to the N.H.K.!
Themes: Black Comedy, Romance, Conspiracies, Pururin
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Welcome to the N.H.K. revolves around the lives of several young-adults all living in or around the city of Tokyo. Many different lifestyles are shown though most of the time the story focuses on the concepts of being a hikikomori, anime otaku, and having most of the characters experience intense feelings of depression and loneliness.
The main protagonist is Tatsuhiro Satō, a university dropout entering his fourth year of unemployment. He leads a reclusive life as a hikikomori, ultimately coming to the conclusion that this happened due to some sort of conspiracy. One day just when his life seems entirely unchanging, he meets Misaki Nakahara, a mysterious girl who claims to be able to cure Tatsuhiro of his hikikomori ways.
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At times surreal, at times disturbing, and at others downright hilarious, N.H.K. is a sort of introspective look at the world of hikikomori/NEETs and what causes them to be. Think Genshiken, only much much darker and nowhere near as light-hearted. Also
the wackiest ED I have ever seen.
Jam it back in, in the dark.
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