School me on best Anime

[HTRN]

and the protagonist crying like a little bitch.

Some of the most entertaining fanfiction changes that - see Shinji & Warhammer 40K and How I learned to stop worrying, and learned to love the N2 mine

[JAG2955]

I don't like Anime, but I did enjoy Appleseed, even if one of the main characters reminded me of a giant robot bunny.

[SoupOrMan]

I don't like Anime, but I did enjoy Appleseed, even if one of the main characters reminded me of a giant robot bunny.

Now you see, Appleseed was what really got me into the genre when I was in high school. All the stuff I'd seen prior to that had cemented me into being a fan of the art, but Appleseed was awesome. Okay, Masamune Shirow couldn't lay out a story line to save his life, but he made an awesome batch of visuals.

That and there was a surprising amount of gratuitous nudity in the artwork. That helped.

[Mud_Dog]

I don't like Anime, but I did enjoy Appleseed, even if one of the main characters reminded me of a giant robot bunny.

Now you see, Appleseed was what really got me into the genre when I was in high school. All the stuff I'd seen prior to that had cemented me into being a fan of the art, but Appleseed was awesome. Okay, Masamune Shirow couldn't lay out a story line to save his life, but he made an awesome batch of visuals.

That and there was a surprising amount of gratuitous nudity in the artwork. That helped.

I haven't seen the 1986 OVA myself, but I loved the latest 2 movies. I assume that I should check it out then huh?

Thanks for the info. I'm looking more for stuff with strong transhumanist themes, and some decent emotional impact, while still encompassing headshots and explosions.

Been watching some Gunslinger Girl. Interesting story lines and emotional development, but man is it depressing. Does keep you watching though.

I'll check out Den Beste, haven't read much from him since his USS Clueless days.

Ok, Let me see...

I'm thinking maybe Trigun would be a decent one. It's kinda more comedy to begin with then it gets more serious the further in it gets. Now the main character is a pacifist gunslinger who destroyed an entire city by accident so now he has a huge bounty on his head, it's interesting to say the least. (Speaking of pacifist gunslingers: Grenadier LOL!)

If you liked Appleseed, then I highly recommend Vexille.

Also try out Outlaw Star, it's one of many the anime I got into when I was just getting started and it doesn't disappoint IMHO.

I haven't seen Gunslinger Girls but I have been told to check it out since I might like it.

On a side note, I will say that I cannot stand English voice acting. I have to watch anime in the original Japanese with subtitles if I'm going to enjoy it, otherwise I either make fun of it or groan over the usually poor dialogue(to match the lip synching). And thanks to the many fansub sites on the internet, I can watch a lot of it before it hits the States.

[SoupOrMan]

Trigun? Yes. VERY YES. The opening theme is what goes through my head before I step in the starting box at my IPSC matches.

As far as Masamune Shirow and his excessive boobage, that mostly in the manga and art books. I've got a couple of homage characters to Briareos (the full-body cyborg in Appleseed) in City of Heroes; one's a smartassed retired Chicago cop and the other is a grouchy Chief Master Sergeant from St. Charles, Missouri who got stuck as a chief enlisted adviser when he'd rather be out defusing bombs with his EOD crews. The retired copper has his own reality tv show and the Chief gets a little less grouchy when he's able to kill time at Paragon City's robots-and-cyborgs-only strip club.

They fight crime while doing this other stuff.

[Kommander]

I haven't really noticed a problem with poor dubs. The only dub I did not like was the one for the original GITS movie. The majors voice sounded way to corn fed American for the character. However all the rest of the dubs have been great. However I normally stick to just high profile so prehaps I could find some bad ones if I dug around a bit. The weirdest anime I have seen is Ergo Proxy. It started out well enough, a girl in black shooting things one handed with a SPAS-12. Then it got real weird real fast...

[Dub_James]

I haven't really noticed a problem with poor dubs.

For just a moment I thought you were referring to me

[Aglifter]

Not much to add, er, and not much of a fan - but, I did watch Trigun and Cowboy Bebop on occasion in college - both were entertaining. Most of the time, when anime stuff came on, I would watch it for awhile, decide it didn't make any sense, and change the channel.

[SoupOrMan]

Not much to add, er, and not much of a fan - but, I did watch Trigun and Cowboy Bebop on occasion in college - both were entertaining. Most of the time, when anime stuff came on, I would watch it for awhile, decide it didn't make any sense, and change the channel.

A lot of it doesn't make sense. A lot of it is "Why am I watching this, oh right, it's 3pm and I'm still trying to sober up into time to make it to at least one class today" crap. It's proof that other cultures produce as much crap entertainment product as we do.

[Jericho941]

WRT dubs: It's hit or miss with me. When I watch Ghost in the Shell, I prefer it in Japanese; the Major sounds like a really tough chick in Japanese while the English VA makes me think of an Elf queen. (Not the MHI version. She just seems too "regal" to voice lines about how the team will drown their sorrows in a nudie bar if the mission goes south. I like her in other stuff, just not this.) When it comes to Hellsing, I'll take English every time, because the English VAs are excellent, and Crispin Freeman's voicing of Alucard is absolutely brilliant, while I find the Japanse VAs too subdued.