Help me pick out my next anime boxset!

Trying to describe She: Ultimate weapon and do it justice is nigh on impossible. While set in a war situation it is simply a love story (or stories), how people deal with obstacles put in the path of loves true course, and how these relationships end. Given the war setting you can imaging how some end but it is a very human orientated depiction of war. The reasons for it war are never really mentions and even the enemies identity isn't really revealed.
The finale while not the happiest does do the series a great credit and is well worth watching till then end for, especially cause you can have a happier end if you stop watching at episode 10. A very Marmite animation and an awful dub, but well worth watching (with a lot of tissues and strong bottle of whiskey or what ever's you poison).
Out of the others suggested
Tenchi Muyo, Martian Sucessor Nadesico, Excel Saga - all good dumb fun, but would recommend latter two
Hellsing more action than horror, but good enought
Planetes- real science which l loved, but the series itself was a bit bitty. Could have done with a plot from beginning to end.
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 1st Gig, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig- Kinda Meh'ed about these two, they're not bad, but never really grabbed me. Highly episodic, and while you learn about the characters through the series they never really change.
Elfen Lied- Horror Harem... even just typing it cracks me up. Great series if your a fan of either genre.
 
hopeful_monster said:
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 1st Gig, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gigwhile you learn about the characters through the series they never really change.
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Rubbish. Using Motoko as an example she develops a fair bit. It's subtle and spread throughout both series and movie so far but she does change and it is noticeable.

Cowboy Bebop is episodic(like I care! As long as the episodes are good why should it matter?) but extremely fun. Since you liked Heat Guy J I can see you loving it. It's one of my top series not because it's got some of the best writing in a series but because it does what it does with style through the music, animation and characters. It does have a main story arc running through as well the series and it ties up nicely. If you want an exellent easy to watch series with plenty of action then this is the one to go for.
 
CitizenGeek said:
What's Excel Saga like?
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It's a very bizzare ( and excellent in my opinion ) comedy with an overall theme of - The ideological order of Across, ( which only consists of 3 people ), is trying to take over the world, but to begin with they are going to start small and take over the city of F which is located in F prefecture.

Each episode is a parody of one genre of anime or manga, and it rips the piss out of itself at every turn. :D

It's a bit like Marmite though, you either love it or hate it, there is no inbetween. :p



CitizenGeek said:
I'd love to watch from Full Metal Panic, but it's very, very expensive per volume. Too expensive, I think.
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Hmm, bit anoying that, i've just realised they've gone back up in price, Play were doing all of them for £7.99 at one point. Still expensive I know, but it would have worked out just a little more than a boxset. :?
 
I would recommend Cowboy Bebop, definitely one to see, basically Dave summed it up just right to be honest. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex too is one to watch.
Full Metal Panic is great, though i do agree, the DVD's do seem a bit high though the first volume is on amazon for £15 instead of the full £20, which reminds me i have a spare first volume, and FUMOFFU volume one is a tenner there too.
 
Bebop Bebop Bebop, like what the others have been saying you can't really call yourself an anime fan/otaku till you've watched it.
The music alone makes the series a great and while the episodes are mostly stand alone with a thin, very cliche plot to cling them together, it pulls off the entire thing with such style that they you just done care.
Just as Dave said, if you want some fun, easy viewing which you dont have to watch in quick succession in order to keep a hold of the plot go for Bebop.

Elfen Lied, although it isnt quite out yet (i think in about a month or two tops) is extremely violent......BUT if you can get past the gore (its pretty sporadic, after the first two episodes it calms down) you'll find a really unique story: horror, sci-fi, romance, psychological, it breezes through the genres very freely. Oh and the musical score is top notch as well.
Hehe i have to agree with you hopeful_monster, horror harem is a great thing to type. :lol:

Oh and if you're looking for some "thinking anime" go with Serial Experiments Lain. Apparently its very slow but i didnt get the same feeling; i did tear through the series in about 3 days though so go figure. Anyways its a real masterpiece, very atmospheric and dark (not through violence...its kinda hard to explain) which although it begins loses its way near the end comes to a great finish.
Hehe sorry for the vague description its really rather hard to describe. Quick answer is its journey of a girl taking her first steps into the internet, and how as time goes on the line between reality and the net begins to blur.

Have fun!
 
Well i might as well throw my two coins at this disscusion and see what bounces back.

Ghost in the shell 1st gig
A very good series you get a good number of minutes for <£30 a good mix of stand alone and series episodes. Mostly action and mystery with a couple of bits that'll make you laugh
Ghost in the shell 2nd gig
Same as the first series although a lot more serious and almost all of the episodes are conected
Trigun
I liked the series although i can see why some would dislike it (repetetive story premis)
Hellsing
I thought it was a good series although a bit slow, due to the fact that the manga is still ongoing the series goes off on a tangent. i wouldn't recommend this unless you've either already seen it or like the manga due to the pace and the number of episodes
Excel saga
I would have to rank this as one of the funniest animes that i have seen, very random and i would highly recommend it, has a lot of parodies (basicly at the begining of most of the episodes you have the author giving his permission to turn it into a different type of anime even japanimation).
Full metal panic
Good series and although not a boxset it's still worth a look (weren't there rumors of it being a boxset last august?)
Full metal panic fumofu
Same as above but with less action and more humour
 
CitizenGeek said:
I've just finished watching Evangelion, and now I'm trying to decide which series I should go for next. So far, the only series I've watched have been Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, Macross Plus, Heat Guy J and Evangelion - so that leaves a lot of series that I haven't seen! I want the next series I buy to be a boxset, that's available in the UK on R2.

So, I'm thinking of maybe She, the Ultimate Weapon, Paranoia Agent, Fruits Basket or Cowboy Bebop. Those are only the ones that come to my head right now, but more reccomedations would be great!

So please, Anime UK masses, help me out!
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Of the ones you mentioned, I'd go with Cowboy Bebop or Fruits Basket.

Also, I'd like to say to those that recommend Excel Saga, I think it sucks balls.
 
Maxon said:
Also, I'd like to say to those that recommend Excel Saga, I think it sucks balls.
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The humour is very hit-or-miss. I liked it, but I recommend renting (or... previewing by some other means) the first few episodes beofre buying it.
 
Maxon said:
Also, I'd like to say to those that recommend Excel Saga, I think it sucks balls.
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Which is why I said it was like Marmite. Sheesh, why do people not read other people's posts. :roll: :wink:
 
Wow, thanks for all your help, everyone!

I'vew watched some Elfen Lied, and though I enjoyed it, I don't think I'd buy the entire series, to be honest.

Excel Saga doesn't really sound like the kind of thing I'm after but I'll pick it up at some stage.

I would LOVE to get into Full Metal Panic but I couldn't justify spending that much money on it!

I guess I'd like a good action or mecha show, so suggestions there would be well apreciated! ^_^

I'm leaning very close to getting Cowboy Bebop! I watched my first Satoshi Kon movie, Tokyo Godfathers, last night and I loved it - so I'm thinking I might invest in Paranoia Agent?
 
CitizenGeek said:
I guess I'd like a good action or mecha show, so suggestions there would be well apreciated! ^_^ I'm leaning very close to getting Cowboy Bebop!
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The only mecha series that I'd really recommend that are out in the UK are FMP! and Nadesico, but I guess you're out of luck with them :( .

As to action - Cowboy Bebop is a good bet, as is Samurai Champloo by the same director (boxset out later this year). Also, anything by Masamune Shirow.
 
CitizenGeek said:
I would LOVE to get into Full Metal Panic but I couldn't justify spending that much money on it!

I guess I'd like a good action or mecha show, so suggestions there would be well apreciated! ^_^
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You just answered your own query. :p
Tasker said:
Maxon said:
Also, I'd like to say to those that recommend Excel Saga, I think it sucks balls.
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Which is why I said it was like Marmite. Sheesh, why do people not read other people's posts. :roll: :wink:
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Because, believe it or not, I don't read every post in these kinds of threads since it's a list thread rather than a discussion. There's little point in reading everything.
 
If you're after nadesico i would suggest waiting and seeing what happens with music zone (formerly music zone and mvc) at my local one they had the entire series at £5.95 a volume but at the moment they're closed until further notice (i heard somewhere that fopp bought them but they seem to be closing shops aswell)annoyingly they closed on the day i went to get the series
 
Just ordered the first boxset of Cowboy Bebop! Saw a trailer for it and I was like "That's awesome!", so I ordered! ^_^

Still have lots of anime money though, so keep those suggestions coming!

What's Patlabor like?
 
CitizenGeek said:
Just ordered the first boxset of Cowboy Bebop! Saw a trailer for it and I was like "That's awesome!", so I ordered! ^_^

Still have lots of anime money though, so keep those suggestions coming!

What's Patlabor like?
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Since you don't have access to a mutli region DVD player guess your talking about the movies. All are vrey reality based mecha series (makes Gundam look like a super robot series), the first is a very good dig at microsoft (maybe not intentionally, but since i'm struggling with Vista bugs at the moment that's my take), and the second is a very good look at governments, media and terrorism. Third went a bit off the track, but it's not availibe over here so.
While not boxsets you can get Rahxephon and Gasaraki cheap as individual DVD's. Gasaraki is a very slow, but methodical and political anime. While mecha the emphasis is more on the politics and psychological side rather than action. As for Rahxephon, well it's my favourite so I'll just gush about it, needless to say i think it's good.
 
I've heard RahXephon and Evangelion are very similiar and I absolutely loved Evangelion, so I might try out some RahXephon! The first few DVDs are cheap on Play.com so I think I'll check that out!

Can you tell me why you like it so much without any spoilers, hopeful_monster?
 
CitizenGeek said:
Can you tell me why you like it so much without any spoilers, hopeful_monster?
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Copypasta from a previous thread

Rahxephon- A more recent production that borrows/ pays homage/ rips off many anime series (Eva, Brain Powered, Riedeen, Macross, Nadesico to name a few) but lets be honest Eva did the same to it's predecessors. Rahxephon at it's core is about love trying to overcome life, death, time and reality. Mecha and music are thrown in to mix it up a little. It has a lot more thought and planning put into the plot with great use of foreshadowing and red herrings to draw you along. While the characters are more straight forward than in eva, they are no less complex, and all seem to have a wider range on emotions each. RahXephon has a lot slower pacing than Eva and action is not the main focus of the show (one fight with a dolem is reduced to 'And that it for out guest dolem of the day') with there being more humour (slap stick, puns and wit) and romance. The ending is also full of imagery but it is slightly clearer in it's meaning and tortures the characters less.
 
I watched the first 2 episodes of it a while ago and plan on continuing it, however, some of it had me saying "Wtf?" Blue blood?

Though it was the same with EVA, so you might like it, but there's no boxset of it... yet.
 
One thing I will add from my own experience with RahXephon.

I bought the first couple of disks on a whim, watched them and thought - 'My God this is soooo slow and boring!' - and never went back for the rest of the disks. :?

Then months later, I was going through one of my - 'should I or shouldn't I' go through my collection and complete the various series that I have on the go? - phases, and so I gave it another watch. This time however I really got into it and loved it so much that I ended up buying the rest of the disks straight after watching them. :D

Now it's one of my favourite series. :D

Where am I trying to go with all this rambling you might ask? :roll: :wink: Well, I just thought i'd point out, that due to it's pacing you can't watch RahXephon if you're in the wrong type of mood or you will find it too slow, possibly give up on it, and miss out on a great series as I nearly did. :?

Oh, also just so you know, the RahXephon movie is basicly a retelling of the series but really condenced down and with a slightly different plot and ending. If you like the series then watch the movie as despite the fact that the plot/ending is slightly different it helps you understand the series a little better. ( But then it should, about 90% of it's animation and scenes are from the series. :wink: )


-edit- Oh and you will be going WTF? a lot while watching this series. :p
 
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