:;()$&@"\The Anime Pub/:;()$&@"

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tsunamikun wrote:

Still, time to watch old stuff yay :)

That's my plan for this season. Maybe this time I'll actually do it. I sure got enough on my long, LONG list.

Heya, anything engaging you'd recommend to a non-anime person? Since this thread is the most active one in off-topic I thought I'd ask. I'm looking for something that wouldn't depress me any futher, ha ha. Bonus points if they're on Netflix.

I've only seen absolute classics like Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Madoka Magica and a few random ones, including Hinamatsuri (s1, liked) and Violet Evergarden (not my thing). Planning to see Steins;Gate and Paprika [one day].

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Iangyratu wrote:

Heya, anything engaging you'd recommend to a non-anime person?

That's more difficult a request than you might think. Got any favourite genre? Action? Fantasy? Comedy? Psychological Horror? There's so SO much stuff, but without some preferences, giving a good recommendation will be difficult to say the least.

I don't have a favourite genre as I have seen almost no anime. It's difficult to narrow it down, but let's see... In non-anime, I avoid comedy, because I usually don't find them funny. I don't like cat ears and tails, and some sport-centered ones are not for me either. While I liked Evangelion, it didn't blow my mind. I hope to see something I won't find pretentious (not related to Eva). I'm okay with something not considered great, but entertaining (you know, like Dan Brown books which used to be widely loved but aren't considered the most ambitious literature). Fantasy, non-fantasy, sci-fi, all are fine. History or technology, either or neither, but not a fan of WW2-related themes. Both action or not, although for now I'd prefer something where I'd really want to know "what's next?" because of either the story or anime being SO great. I tend to watch everything with school themes, all kind of schools. Usual schools, magic schools, killer schools... I'll probably know more if I watch more anime, ha ha.

Schools, huh? You'll see more than your fair share of those in anime, since what feels like 60% of all anime have some sort of school setting (at least initially). Since you said you only watched fairly little anime so far, I thought it'd be better to leave the more fanservice or reference heavy shows out for now.



One of the safest options I could come up with for you to watch would be the ol' reliable of anime recommendations, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Fantasy setting, great story, good visuals, amazing characters. All around just a fantastic show. There's also the original Fullmetal Alchemist, but that one was made before the manga was finished so they differ a lot from the midway point on. There's also some slight differences at the beginning, but I'd say Brotherhood is the better series overall.


If you just want some fun and action, I'd recommend looking into some of the stuff studio Trigger made. They're pretty much known for that kind of thing and sometimes rely on the rule of cool a little too much, but at least it's a lot of fun. One of the best ones they made was Little Witch Academia. It's a fantasy slice of life comedy and a damn good one at that. I think it's also on netflix? It used to be at least.

If you want the most ridiculous over the top action you could ever imagine, go with Gurren Lagann instead. Any try to explain how ridiculous it gets pales in comparison to the show itself.


If you want what is essentially the mother of all rabbit holes when it comes to Anime, I'm gonna open Pandora's proverbial box and throw Fate out there. It's not easy to say where to start for various reasons, but the two most common starting points are Fate/Stay Night from 2006 by studio Deen or Fate/Zero by Ufotable. If you start with the former, I'd say move on to Zero next, then Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works after that. There's still more after that though. Much more. Oh god SO much more.


If, for whatever ungodly reason, you decided to go with something farily depressing after all, I recommend the double depresso royale with some horror sprinkled on top that is Shinsekai Yori. It's the greatest anime I've seen that I wouldn't ever want to watch again. It's absolutely amazing. But I refuse to watch even a single episode again.


Two other occasionally depressing anime would be Made in Abyss, one of the greatest anime of 2016 and Attack on Titan, which is currently airing it's last season. Both really make you want to watch the next episode.


Also, Demon Slayer. Made my the same studio who gave us the newer fate adaptations so the animations are GORGEOUS and it's overall one of the most popular anime there is currently.


Last, but most certainly not least, I heavily recommend you push Steins;Gate up on that priority list. It's amazing imo. It is one of the VERY few anime I've seen that handle time travel in a respectful and plausible manner. You'd be surprised how easy it is to mess that up.

Thnks for the detailed answer!

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FCK42 wrote:

I thought it'd be better to leave the more fanservice or reference heavy shows out for now.

Agreed, thanks.

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One of the safest options I could come up with for you to watch would be the ol' reliable of anime recommendations, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Fantasy setting, great story, good visuals, amazing characters. All around just a fantastic show. There's also the original Fullmetal Alchemist, but that one was made before the manga was finished so they differ a lot from the midway point on. There's also some slight differences at the beginning, but I'd say Brotherhood is the better series overall.

Oh, that one. I thought about it, since some people assumed one of my nicknames is from there. I hope I'm the coolest and most badass one there. And now I don't need to wonder which one to watch! Brotherhood, it is.

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If you just want some fun and action, I'd recommend looking into some of the stuff studio Trigger made. They're pretty much known for that kind of thing and sometimes rely on the rule of cool a little too much, but at least it's a lot of fun. One of the best ones they made was Little Witch Academia. It's a fantasy slice of life comedy and a damn good one at that. I think it's also on netflix? It used to be at least.

This I've never heard of. I'd probably mentally cancel it because of the name, whoops.

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If you want the most ridiculous over the top action you could ever imagine, go with Gurren Lagann instead. Any try to explain how ridiculous it gets pales in comparison to the show itself.

Noted.

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If you want what is essentially the mother of all rabbit holes when it comes to Anime, I'm gonna open Pandora's proverbial box and throw Fate out there. It's not easy to say where to start for various reasons, but the two most common starting points are Fate/Stay Night from 2006 by studio Deen or Fate/Zero by Ufotable. If you start with the former, I'd say move on to Zero next, then Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works after that. There's still more after that though. Much more. Oh god SO much more.

And thanks again for pointing the order. To this day I wonder if I watched the correct Evangelion. And did I watch everything?!
...I still don't remember the order of Star Wars movies. Maybe it's too late for me to watch all of 'em ;(

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If, for whatever ungodly reason, you decided to go with something farily depressing after all, I recommend the double depresso royale with some horror sprinkled on top that is Shinsekai Yori. It's the greatest anime I've seen that I wouldn't ever want to watch again. It's absolutely amazing. But I refuse to watch even a single episode again.

Darn you, your amazing piece of review has me sold. I'll likely watch it depending on theme. After all, what's the best thing to watch when you're depressed if not something depressing?

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Two other occasionally depressing anime would be Made in Abyss, one of the greatest anime of 2016 and Attack on Titan, which is currently airing it's last season. Both really make you want to watch the next episode.

Attack on Titan is one of these I constantly see everywhere, which made me think it's not good (unlike Steins;Gate which I also see everywhere, but it's a different everywhere)

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Also, Demon Slayer. Made my the same studio who gave us the newer fate adaptations so the animations are GORGEOUS and it's overall one of the most popular anime there is currently.

This name I also stumbled upon... Not only in the depths of PoE forum's GD or on rare axes :P

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Last, but most certainly not least, I heavily recommend you push Steins;Gate up on that priority list. It's amazing imo. It is one of the VERY few anime I've seen that handle time travel in a respectful and plausible manner. You'd be surprised how easy it is to mess that up.

Oh, it's already in the top. For some reason I thought it had a lot more episodes and I have a tendency to schedule such for later.

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Iangyratu wrote:

I don't like cat ears and tails

Well that's Steins;Gate ruled out -- also it has a fair bit of comedy in the mix. And Fate, beyond the core series. Is it cats specifically you don't like in terms of zoomorphisation or animals in general? Conversely, how do you feel about anthropomorphisation? Because those two things, Japan just can't stop doing. Swords imagined as pretty boys? Check. Trains? Check. Guns as girls? Check. Tanks as girls? Check. Racing horses as girls? Oh, just the most profitable mobile game ever with a two season anime leading the way.

Mostly your criteria reads as someone who wants to watch more anime but is bringing with them prejudices from those who don't or won't. You'll either get over those prejudices and hold your nose to watch some of the best anime out there, or you won't and you'll be left with a still not-inconsiderable catalogue. My guess is the former, but you won't notice it happening. If something's good, it's good. MOST great anime requires some measure of tolerance for things we don't like. The trick is not letting that tolerance for anime's baggage become a taste for it.

FMA:B also has some interesting tonal shifts where it'll suddenly go super cute, comedic and poorly animated to balance the astoundingly well animated action. Common trick in anime to save energy but you will notice it. I personally wouldn't put it at the top of any to-watch list simply because it sets an extremely high bar. It was a miracle production, legendary even now.

FCK42 is overselling Shinsekaiyori a bit because it can be quite slow. I'd recommend watching Mononoke Hime first: similar themes, more tightly handled. In fact, I'd recommend movies first anyway, since they tend to have far superior animation and still capture some of the best of the medium: Redline, Sword of the Stranger, Perfect Blue, Paprika, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Children, Summer Wars. These are all excellent productions that rely on some of the recurring themes in anime, such as: identity, heroism, reality vs dream, family, out of control technology, time travel. If you want those more heftily explored, then you can move onto Steins;Gate and Paranoia Agent and whatever else.

Something not considered great but entertaining. Dan Brown wrote/writes shitty page-turners, which to me is a contradiction in terms but I think I get the gist. Probably the most well-loved shitty page turner in anime is Sword Art Online. It's a very well animated 'stuck in an MMO' setup when it needs to be and has something of a huge following but no one who likes it would consider it great. Main character's a Mary Sue, it leans on the harem aspect, and the second arc of the first season is just unpleasant.

On second thought, I'd put Jojo's Bizarre Adventure on the same 'Dan Brown-like' shelf: it's very page turny, is beloved, can be trashy but for the most part is deeply entertaining if you can attune to the author's style. And it's all on Netflix now, which is convenient for non-anime folks who might not know how to sail the salty seas or sub to anime-specific services such as Crunchyroll, Hidive and Funimation.

In fact, that's my primary recommendation based on what you've said.

As for other entry-level anime series recommendations? Rahxephon for an Eva style show that actually made sense without psychological dissection, March Comes In Like a Lion for the best high school drama (it's ostensibly about 'sport' [Shogi] but that's just a scaffolding for much bigger themes, and cares about characters of all ages making it quite universal), Legend Of the Galactic Heroes for the best long-running sci-fi/war story ever animated (110 episodes original series/24ish so far in the remake), Shadow's House for intrigue and style, My Hero Academia for consistent quality, and Jujutsu Kaisen for supernatural action that doesn't compromise.

My favourite stand-alone fantasy anime is a bit of a dark horse: Record of Grancrest War. It doesn't have cat girls but it does have wolf kids. It's also fully self-contained, has some excellent action and, I think, two of the most interesting protagonist/antagonist couples in anime fantasy. Same author as the highly regarded Record of Lodoss War, but much less stuffy.

In terms of comedy, which you understandably avoid in 'normal' tv shows, try Slayers or Excel Saga. Both are older shows with pretty bad animation at times, but also stuff I remember my non-anime fan friends in the late 90s really enjoying nonetheless. Slayers is a fantasy genre parody and Excel Saga is an everything genre parody. You might find that anime comedy is...different to what you're used to.

None of those should be too steeped in anime's quirks to be inaccessible. Excel has quite a few but it's just as likely to go after Star Wars. It's funny even if you don't get every reference.

The same can be said for the greatest anime series ever made, but you aren't ready for that yet. After all, it has a cat girl.

Casual update: watched FGO Solomon twice so far. I ordered the limited ed JP Bluray earlier this month for stupid money so I don't feel bad watching it through less than legal means. I plan to catch Camelot 2 tonight, same method.

What's to be said? We watched it straight after a bluray rewatch of Babylonia, and in that regard it's fucking seamless: Babylonia was just below movie quality most of the time, and Solomon is just above series quality most of the time. Tastefully handled with the lack of seiyuu for all the Servants (and some that get voice you're not expecting, so that's good too). A few eye-wateringly good moments, one of which wasn't even in the game. A few disappointing music choices and played down moments, but overall it did an excellent job of capturing both the epic and the intimate sides of Nasu's apocalyptic take on Fate. Special shout out to the CG, and whoever thought we'd say that about a Cloverworks anime? I'm eager to see it without compression even if the incoming bluray has no subs.

Also, I'm pretty sure that's the most Sugita you'll ever hear in any 90 minute stretch, Gintama included.

Watched Lostroom again afterwards, and oh boy did it make a lot more sense.

Also caught the El Melloi special last night. It's amazing how Ufotable alike Troyca can be with the fate zero director AND composer. Not a bad little special with some nice larger references. Waver was never my favourite part of Zero but I love hearing his seiyuu handle both young and old versions of the character.

That's it for anime from me for now. It's a quiet season so I guess we'll catch up soon. Or at least try to. All the streaming services now belong to Sony and they've fucked over the Oceanic region pretty hard. Quality drops a lot, some titles have disappeared.

Oh, my steelbook of Interspecies Reviewers is in the air from the US. That'll be fun. Eventually.

Well, sounds like I have another anime film or three to add to my "plan to watch" list. FGO Camelot 1, FGO Camelot 2, FGO Solomon and NGE 3.0+1... should be enough to keep me occupied for a weekend. Oh, right, there was also a Lord El-Melloi movie (or special? special movie?). Hooray, even more fate (does it ever end?).

I do think that Mushoku Tensei has a decent chance at contesting that Sugita statement, but I haven't seen Solomon yet, so it's little more than an educated guess.

I also really gotta watch Ousama Ranking and Odd Taxi. And finish a bunch of series I'd started. So much to watch...




Iangyratu, should you at some point come to terms with animal ears and tails, there's one of the (imo) best fantasy anime that was ever made that has essentially a wolf girl as one of the two main characters. Spice and Wolf. It's absolutely amazing and goddamn I wish we could get more seasons of that. Maybe once Mushoku Tensei is over we can get Studio Bind to work on it with the same kind of budget? That'd be great.

Also, if you want a list of shows to watch as some sort of shock treatment for fancervice and/or any sort of combination of animals and humans, just ask. There's a lot. More than you'd ever think there was. And I've seen more of those than I'd be willing to admit.

Holy sakuga batman, Camelot 2 was fucking amazing.

BUT it also had less oversight than the cloverworks stuff so it's a lot looser at times. A few reeeaally crazy cuts but mostly clean and probably the best Production IG stuff Ive seen in ages.

Also this arrived today. Finally.



So the backstory is pretty funny. When this aired, every single service dropped it except Animelab here in Australia. But now the only way to get the home release is from America...and it's region locked.