Anime Recommendations Thread (READ RULES BEFORE POSTING)

[Eva Yojimbo]

I was browsing through the thread and noticed HAIBANE RENMEI hadn't been recommended yet, so here's two reviews: One from Amazon (my favorite review of anything ever) and my own after it:

incredible, but incredibly sad
By: theskeptic
When you watch the first episode or two, you might think that you are in store for a light-hearted comedy like Azumanga Daioh... all the usual cute anime kids are there. But this is not a comedy. It gets deeper and darker, and you'll probably find yourself crying by the end. Although the AnimeNfo description makes it sound like some kind of a Matrix-style science fiction mystery, it really isn't. There's no Shyamalan-esque twist at the end with some dime-store revelation. It is much more of a spiritual and emotional journey that artfully plays on timeless themes of salvation, meaning, purpose, love, loss, and trust. In many ways it is a metaphor for our own experience: We come into this world from some unknown place, and try to figure out why we're here. Along the way, we have to say goodbye to people we love, knowing not where they are going, but certain that soon enough we ourselves will be following them, and having never really understood what anything was all about. And yet, we somehow find a meaning in all the confusion and sadness. I think that's what this series is about. And it's both saddening and uplifting, because that's what life is like.


"I Wanted to Be With You Much Longer."
by: Me :)

What a divine series this is - in every aspect of the word. I finished watching Haibane Renmei I began enthusiastically recommending it to my friends. When one asked "So what makes it so good?", funny thing was, I couldn't really answer it. There's almost no conflict or action in the series. There's no traditional good guys VS bad guys, no spellbinding magic, no science fiction - not a trace of computers, aliens or mecha. There are fantasy elements, but they're kept to such a small, human level that you can't really call this series a fantasy in the traditional sense. So what is Haibane Renmei?

It tells the story of a group of angel-like beings called Haibane. They're born from cocoons, grow wings, given halos, and have no memories of their past other than the dream each has in the cocoon. They all live in a protected city called Glie, where nobody is allowed to go beyond the walls. The Haibane are watched over and protected by a group called the Haibane Renmei. Haibane must each work to support themselves, and do their best to be a "good Haibane". It tells the story of one such Haibane - Rakka - coming into the world, and learning how to live in it. The supporting cast of Old Home (where they live) is equally essential. Towards the finale, much of the focus shifts from Rakka to Reki - one of the elder Haibane, who is a mother figure to those in Old Home. Then there's Kuu, Kana, Hikari, and Nemu whom all have very different, but likable personalities.

Haibane Renmei moves at life's pace. Slow and deliberately it moves through its stages - dealing with many humanistic themes along the way. Moving through seasons and emotions with dignity and grace. It would be very easy for fans of traditional anime to consider this series "boring", as it's certainly not exciting in any traditional sense. You really have to be in a certain mood to appreciate Haibane Renmei's charm. But for those who are, there are so many transcendent moments of visual and emotional bliss.

Yoshitoshi ABe (Original Story, Character Designs) said when he began Haibane Renmei that he had no set idea where he was going with it all, creating the story in the moment. In this light, Haibane Renmei becomes like a stream of conscious meditation on life. He also said that while Haibane Renmei has a religious feel, it is not about any particular religion. It is really a type of spiritual and emotional journey. There are anime series that that are very much allegorical. Haibane Renmei works more like CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia in that it deals more in allusions than strict allegory. This means its more open to personal interpretations - and all the better because of it.

In a way, this series reminds me of the anime equivalent of Yasujiro Ozu's films. Ozu is a director who focused on regular people in everyday life confronting life's small, but meaningful moments. His films, like Haibane Renmei, rarely have any big emotion or big drama. It's all about calm reflection as we move through life. The viewer is never forced into the story or the characters. Rather, we're given time to relate these characters to our own life. Their moments of sorrow, pain, joy and triumph has been our own, and their search for meaning has been our own. It's through this very human level that we're able to connect with the Haibane and share in their emotions. This makes moments like Rakka's monologue inside Kuu's room profoundly moving.

The animation is superb. It's easy to miss in such a quiet setting, but almost every frame reveals subtleties of the Haibane's world. They use a wealth of Earth hues - wonderful greens and browns - that provide a very warm and inviting tone. The animation itself is beautifully fluid as well. But it's probably the town itself that's best rendered. The world of Glie is so well conceived and drawn, giving a real sense of a heartwarming environment. The skies, for example, are almost always drawn like beautiful paintings - often reflecting the seasons. Beyond the animation, the direction and cinematography is superb as well. The ease at which the viewer can get lost in this beautiful world is astounding. Before working on animes, ABe was a Japanese-style artist, and his works show it. I think more than anyone working in anime, ABe understands what a visually powerful medium anime can be. The music is equally as accomplished; consisting of mostly simple, elegant orchestral pieces. The infusion of music in the series is adeptly applied as well - entering at all the right times and evoking all the right moods.

If there are flaws in the series, they are almost too insignificant to mention. The voice acting is not the best (sub or dub), but the cringe worthy moments are kept to a minimum. The finale perhaps comes too suddenly, making it perhaps less dramatic than it should have been. I also felt some of the characters could've been better developed, and a bit more history and background given about them. But these are minor grievances, and really not worth even subtracting a single star for.

I've seen Haibane Renmei three times, and each time I'm extremely saddened by the end. Not because the story is sad, but because theirs is a world I'd never want to leave. This series has a great, meditative "zen" like quality, and for those in the right frame of mind, you will become thoroughly engrossed in both the lives of its characters and the world in which they exist. You'll smile at their joys and triumphs, and you'll cry at their losses and sorrows. In the end you will be left with a wonderful feeling akin to a spiritual cleansing. The result is nothing short of divine.

[Razeil100]

Anyone here watch GANTZ? It's not super deep, but for a strange WTF Sci-Fi Exploding meat piles of gore and some decent mystery, it's good.
Well i'm not much for reviews so...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantz

Oh Gungrave is pretty good too. This show was spawned from a game, i've never heard of that happing with anything else. The fights were a bit on the short side though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gungrave_%28anime%29

[CorporalChaos]

I dunno if I posted this yet, but...

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni & Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai

Okay, so I've been watching this series for a while now, and its the only thing so far that has rivaled Eva for my favorite anime series.

Essentially, it is a story about six (or seven, later in the second season), growing up together in a backwoods town, pieced together with three to four episode arcs.

The story begins when the main protagonist, Keiichi Maebara, moves into the tiny town of Hinamizawa, and quickly makes friends with everybody (Mion, Shion, Sadoko, Rika, and Rena, all girls). For the first two episodes of each arc, the main event is set up. Each time is a little different story, culminating in the town festival of Watanagashi. However, there is a 'curse' on the town, which is either a true supernatural curse, or a human made one, which causes on of the main characters to go mad, and kill and maim some or all of the other characters.


The first season focuses on the events, and developing characters, and to me, it seems to focus mostly on things from Keiichi's point of view, as the audience puts together the pieces and hints of what is truly going on in the town during the festival night.


The second season (which started airing back in mid-July, and is currently to episode 9 or 10) so far has focused on telling the story from Rika's (who we learn is forced to relive the universe of Higurashi over and over until she finds a good conclusion), as she tries to piece everything together and prevent anyone from getting killed.


It's not nearly as deep as Eva, and is more of a detective show more than a psychological one. It has a good balance of comedy and horror, and the ending of the arcs are kind of creepy and/or gory, and sometimes it's hard to stomach. However, it is a really good show, and its kept my short-focus attention span on it since June, making me want to watch each new episode as it comes out.


In summary: Higurashi good.

[Sailor Star Dust]

@ HAIBANE review: I've seen some of it so good to see it's highly recommended. I didn't think the voices (sub) were that bad. It's also good to know the ending (which I kinda know what happens) isn't necessarily a "sad" one as one place claimed it was).

[BrikHaus]

The dub was quite excellent for Haibane, probably better than the original language. And who said it had a sad ending? It's definitely happy from my point of view.

[Trigger's Elysium]

Let's see.

Well guys, once again, I won't be expressly recommending ANIME. I will, however, be recommending VISUAL NOVELS. I have no idea how into these you guys are, but during the Great EMF Depression, I read two of them, and god, I loved both.

The first of which and the one I recommend the strongest to you guys (though both are excellent in their own merits, you guys'd get a kick out of this one) would be Ever17. It's not an ero novel at all, either, like a lot of these things. Anyway. Ever17 is a sci-fi mystery thriller, at it's core, with romance elements, but they aren't the main focus of the story.

The basic plotline is about a group of people who become trapped 102 - 150 feet under the Pacific ocean, in an advanced hybrid underwater theme park called LeMU. Basically, this theme park is located under a man made island called Insel Null, and has three levels to it, each separated by about 50 feet, if I recall correctly. The three levels are called Erste Boden (first level), Zweite Stock (second level) and Dritte Stock (bottom floor). Basically, an unknown accident occurs which ends up flooding the entirety of Erste Boden, and roughly one half each of the other two floors, keeping the 6 remaining people there trapped with no way out. All communication lines to the surface had been cut off. They've got about 7 days before the pressure caves in and the place implodes, so they need to find an escape route within that time.

And of course, the story isn't really as simple as it sounds. Once you get to the final route, things start getting really, really, REALLY interesting. Oh, and be prepared for a LOT of existentialism, particularily on the Kid scenario paths, also, it gets into fourth dimensional stuff. To be honest, the translators didn't do a very good spell checking job, so spelling errors are somewhat frequent, but it's not that bad. Story's nice and suspenseful, it keeps you guessing, it's incredibly involving and engaging, and it has a lot of depth. If you're scared of the whole romance thing, it's not terribly obnoxious or anything, and takes a backseat to it's awesome, awesome story, in most cases, the few exceptions being quite plot intensive. It's amazing, and as Eva fans, I think you guys would love it. The characters are great, the setting is intriguing and very well set up, the mystery elements and their answers are AMAZING. Coco's path is one of the most shocking things i've sat through. Soundtrack's good too, and has a couple really memorable tracks...I can't find enough good things to say about it. I know a good torrent that I can send to you, if you want, or you can get it legally like you should, as these things don't get translated without monies. Play Ever17, it's fantastic.

Also, a note if you should start playing the game; there's an FAQ on GameFAQs you can use to get the correct route and ending. I personally recommend this order; first, do Tsugumi's route (good endings, of course), then Sora's, then You's, then Sara's. After you get all four main good endings, you unlock the true path with the true ending, Coco's.

Wow, that was long. Anyway, my second recommendation is Tsukihime.

It's a different animal altogether than Ever17, but it's no less great. Anyway, this novel stars Shiki Tohno, a 17 year old with a special ability he recieved from a near fatal accident; the ability to see the "lines of death" on all objects, upon which if one is to trace or cut these lines, the object is destroyed or the living thing dies. Days after his accident, he runs into a travelling woman, claiming to be a mage, who gives him glasses that makes the lines dissapear, allowing him to live normally, so as long as he has his glasses on. After his accident, he was disowned by his original family, an ancient, wealthy family called the Tohnos, for unknown reasons, but upon hearing news of his father's death, he is called back to the mansion by the new head of the family, Akiha. This visual novel starts to involve him in the supernatural, the most prominent of which includes vampires, depending on which paths you take, of course, the inhuman, the mysterious, his family issues...I really can't say a terrible amount more.

Tsukihime is an ero novel, and has a few sex scenes; but it's plot is fantastic, and the sex scenes are so downplayed (about 2 short scenes per route) that it doesn't even matter; you can download a version while downloading the patch that trashes the ero scenes anyway. The characters are all very likable and well developped, which pull you into it's easily immersable universe and cast. It's fantastically written, with a very eclectic and fresh writing style (to say the least), that Mirror Moon did a excellent job translating. Not all of it relies on supernatural elements, and if vampires turn you off, because I admit that vampire themed stuff seems to generally suck with few exceptions, this is one of these exceptions. This is one of the few good vampire stories in anime, and that isn't even the real focus. To play it, all you need is the arc.sar file you can find on Rapidsearch, and the patch which you can get off Mirror Moon's website. They disliked the soundtrack, and removed it, but set up the directory so you can still add music, so you can download a soundtrack for it off Rapidsearch or something, or make one yourself, and follow the instructions to get the music to work.

If you're looking for a well written read with awesome, memorable characters, interesting universe, with a very good, original plot, look no further than Tsukihime. I can't recommend either visual novel enough.

[slothen]

So.. is it pretty much a no-brainer that i should see Nadia?

And maybe even azumanga daioh?

[THE Hal E. Burton 9000]

So.. is it pretty much a no-brainer that i should see Nadia?

And maybe even azumanga daioh?

You should also see Space Runaway Ideon.

[BrikHaus]

So.. is it pretty much a no-brainer that i should see Nadia?

Yes.

And maybe even azumanga daioh?

It was okay, but don't expect anything revolutionary.

[slothen]

Not entirely sure if this post is within thread rules, because I'm not yet fully endorsing it but here goes...

So I stopped by the first meeting of the "ah-ni-may" club today, and saw three episodes of Ouran High School Host Club


I felt almost obligated to hate it from the beginning, due to the vapid subject material, abundance of yaoi, and other such nonsense. Yet I couldn't keep myself from laughing. It was pretty much my first contact with this particular genre of anime.

So far, it seems to be set entirely on the campus of the Ouran Academy, a school for ridiculously wealthy and beautiful people. The protagonist is a first year student called Haruhi. Haruhi is at the academy on scholarship for being an excellent student, and is pretty much dirt poor and uncultured in comparison to the other characters. It all starts with Haruhi stumbling upon the Host club, accidently breaking an 8 million yen vase, and becoming indentured servant. The Host club is more or less a male escort service for the school's young women, who in turn seem to exist only to swoon over the supa-kawaii members of the host club.

The leader of the host club soon sees that Haruhi has an extrememly effeminate face, and promptly gives him a makeover and makes him a full member of the host club, because the host club is all about women swooning over effeminate men. Miraculously, hilarity ensues.

[sorry for this post being a complete train wreck of poor sentence structure.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouran_High ... _Host_Club

[BrikHaus]

"ah-ni-may" club

Ouran High School Host Club

I was certain I wouldn't like this show either, but it is actually pretty damn good. My only complaint was that it doesn't really have any kind of proper ending. If they made some kind of 3 to 6 episode long OVA to wrap it up, it would be close to perfection.

P.S. Haruhi is a girl.

[slothen]

P.S. Haruhi is a girl.

duh.

[BrikHaus]

duh.

Then why did you write:

The leader of the host club soon sees that Haruhi has an extrememly effeminate face, and promptly gives him a makeover and makes him a full member of the host club, because the host club is all about women swooning over effeminate men.

[Trigger's Elysium]

Yeah, I couldn't even get past Ouran's opening theme. Perhaps I should have given it a better chance.

Also, lol no one cares about Trigger and his recommendations. Are readan gaems only for the otaku? Am I that far gone? ._.

[Ornette]

I've seen the Tsukihime anime, and enjoyed it. It definitely wasted no time getting started.

[Trigger's Elysium]

From what I hear, the anime is an awful adaptation, left a lot of loose ends that it should have elaborated into that the novel does, and that the novel was way better in comparison. If you liked the anime, you'd really like the novel, if you can get into that kind of thing. It's fantabulous.

[BrikHaus]

Yeah, I couldn't even get past Ouran's opening theme. Perhaps I should have given it a better chance.

Protip: If you don't like the opening, skip it.

[the_seventh_child]

Did a search and found no match, so i thought i'd stop by and suggest La Corda D'oro. It's about a music academy and how can music affects your life. It's fun to watch and has nice characters.
I think it was originally based on a game, haven't played it though. Anyway i enjoyed watching it, you should give it a chance.

[slothen]

duh.

Then why did you write:

The leader of the host club soon sees that Haruhi has an extrememly effeminate face, and promptly gives him a makeover and makes him a full member of the host club, because the host club is all about women swooning over effeminate men.

for some reason i was under the impression that it was a spoiler. in retrospect.. yeah not so much.

[Trigger's Elysium]

So i'm watching the Tsukihime anime cuz I felt like it.

It's...very different. It's a Tsukihime-like thing. Like, Arc's death makes absolutely no sense in the anime, Yumizuka Satsuki acts as if she knows Shiki real well...it's fun to watch, cause it's not the same, but the novel is definately better, so far.