Bebop is probably my favorite. The best part about anime is that you can find pretty much whatever you want. It's not all just tentacles and giant robots (although they do make up a large percentage of anime). Shoot, another of my favorites, Full Metal Panic has three completely different tones (season 1 = dramedy, midseason filler = straight comedy, season 3 = VERY serious drama). BTW, FMP has one of my favorite comedic episodes of all time. The Fumoffu (the between seasons miniseries) episode "The Warcry of Excessiveness" is absolutely hilarious. Never seen rugby mixed with Full Metal Jacket before, but it works.
I just finished watching the entire FMA series... 51 episodes. It was great. Interesting ending to say the least... I still haven't watched the movie that comes after though. Just wondering: is the Brotherhood series gonna go on like the manga? As in it'll go forever until the manga ends? How long do mangas usually last? And how many episodes do we expect Brotherhood to have in the end? THanks.
I really like Hitman Reborn as well but it's facing the exact same problem that every popular shonen anime series has. They make too many damn episodes and constantly threaten to overtake the mange unless they add filler eps (which usually sucks) or stretch the action out (which sucks even more). Why can't the Japanese learn the concept of tv seasons. Instead of doing 50 episode seasons that dilute your product, why not do a 26 episode season and allow your anime to naturally keep up with your manga.
I am a few episodes in, right when he passes the state exam. so far its pretty good and at 51 episodes its short enough no 300-400 episodes like naruto.
You know, I've always felt that the Japanese are much more conservative than the US in terms of tv show episodes. Most of them just run a single season, about 12-13 episodes. And then add sequels if the demand is there. In a way I like it much better than having a show end on a cliffhanging season finale, only to have the show canceled afterward. As for these long-running animes filled with fillers, look at it from the TV station's perspective. They either run fillers, re-runs(the American way), or put in a whole new anime at the same time slot. Using fillers seems like quite a reasonable decision.
I'd say the ending was a huge letdown. And if you're looking to get into that kind of stuff (I wouldn't call myself an anime fan but I've been exposed to enough thanks to my roommate), I definitely would not start with that show. Do Cowboy Bebop like others say, Trigun too, the other American friendly one I would say is Samurai Champloo, all the ones that are well-drawn and refrain from excessive Japanese culture references/jokes because they just come off corny to people on this side of the ocean. As soon as someone's face breaks into caricature with a single tear coming down the side you start to think of this guy: Do anime a favor, don't look like that guy. And don't watch shows like Naruto and One Piece because they start you down the path towards, looking like that guy.
No kidding. I'm trying to catch up with Naruto and it's a serious pain. I've seen all of Shippuuden and I'm about 110 episodes in to Naruto. The filler is TERRIBLE at some points (almost as bad as Bleach), although 101 (trying to unmask Kakashi) is pretty funny. Alchemist is going to be my next one I think. Heard a lot of good things about it.
Oh yeah, I'm guessing you're enjoying the latest Reborn episdoes with 15 minutes of material as much as I am. I'm not sure if that's better than a year's worth of fillers, but both gimmicks made me break down and read the mangas. One series that won't have a problem with that is Hajime no Ippo. That's another one that started up again and there's like 6-8 years of material to draw.
so i finished watching FMA earlier today and it was probably one of the better/best animes that I have seen. It wasnt sooo long which is a plus sometimes these animes that have like 200 episodes and 2/3 of them is filler episodes makes it terrible. 51 episodes there werent really any filler episodes if there were any it was probably 2-3 at most. the story line was interesting and there were some twists to it not all of them were surprises but there was one that was i found interesting Spoiler that there was an alternate world on the other side of the gate and whenever people in the alchemy world used alchemy the energy that was used to change objects came from someone dying in the other world. I liked that wrinkle. i do like the ending too while it was in someways it was a happy ending, it in some ways wasnt either. if anyone is interesting in watching something since the Rockets are not on the air anymore and most tv shows have concluded their seasons i would recommend this show
yeah its a good anime, it exploit the dark side of human kind and may i recommend code geass (really good)
It's random bump because Astro was reading old threads time. Anyway, here's a good Code Geass summary I found (I love this anime): One of the best things about the show is how many characters on different sides of the 11s/Brittania conflict are all freinds and members of the student council at the same high school (of course, they keep their extra cirricular activities secret from one another, or try to anyway). It's weird to see these soldiers/freedom fighters/terrorists at times getting together to plan a bake sale. There are a lot of really dramatic moments and significant deaths, as well. Also, the way Lelouch enacts his complex plans to take down Brittaina reminds me a lot of the Kira/L dynamic from "Death Note." Really entertaining.
Noir is a series i'd recommend to people who are looking for something that's not as mainstream. Great music, engaging story, girl assassins with guns. what's not to like? plus, the scene where she throws popcorn on the floor is probably one of the coolest ever. EVER. no exaggeration. 1 season long. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noir_(anime) For those of you that are into mystery and suspense - 'higurashi when they cry' is a great series too (higurash noi naku koro ni). 2 seasons long, the 1st one is noticeably better because of the way the plot arcs are set up...the 2nd season is the resolution arc which means things are more linear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higurashi_no_Naku_Koro_ni
You know, Cowboy Bebop had one of the most disappointing endings ever. So I'm not sure I'd tell him to watch that first either. Here's a handy reference that has some of the series generally accepted as 'good' anime:
Just an FYI that you can watch FMA: Brotherhood on Hulu <object width="512" height="296"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/yq_nHTwSYhqFLQJQThLQFQ"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/yq_nHTwSYhqFLQJQThLQFQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" width="512" height="296"></embed></object> So far, it's been blazing through what the previous series have already covered, but I believe its storyline will follow closer to manga.
I've watched a few episodes so far, and that's what I thought too - Death Note dropped into a typical mecha/war scenario. I'm watching Legend of Galactic Heroes now. I only watched 2 episodes before and jumped back onto it recently. You don't really watch it for the action, but you can tell early on the story and scope are epic in scale. It's over 100 episodes, a ton of characters, lots of dialogue, politics, etc.
I actually liked the dubbing for FMA, the voice-actors were good. It worked because FMA wasn't exactly a Japanese type-setting. Anyways FMA: Brotherhood has been disappointing to say the least
Galactic Heroes is one of my top 3. There's a lot of dialogue and the animation is dated, but it's a series a science fiction fan should watch. Sounds very good. Thanks for the recommendation.
