What can you suggest for a newbie?

Sparrowsabre7 said:
It was one of the first I saw and it's only recently upon watching the Rebuilds that I've really appreciated how it deconstructs the typical anime genre.
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It doesn't deconstruct, beyond it's play on the heroic epic. It set the typical anime genre.
Anno does give quite some regard to kaiju though, and trains.

Eva isn't exactly easy to find any more though, I'd rather steer away from shows that are £100's due to being out of print, that way lies piracy.

Dived in at the deep end anime wise (so won't be much help), so hmm action-y or films:
No Shinkai suggested yet, so 5 centimetres per second.
Though it's a bit hardcore, the Mobile Suit Gundam Movie trilogy, dated animation but essential to that massive franchise.
Code Geass, crowd pleasing as anything but a bit stupid at times, season 2 is something else though (very fun if a total mess).

Anyone suggest some decent iyashikei shows, lots of Ghibli comes accross as such. Not Lucky Star, though that is what I saw first in the genre, needs too much background. Hidasketch?? (though Shinbo, so atypical)
 
Reaper gI said:
Eva isn't exactly easy to find any more though, I'd rather steer away from shows that are £100's due to being out of print, that way lies piracy.
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Yeah, too many people suggest old shows when these questions get asked.

I'll throw out some more recent suggestions that are easily found on Amazon:

Sengoku Basara
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Ouran High School Host Club
High School of the Dead
Eden Of The East
Tokyo Godfathers
Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex
Moribito

imo it is fairly standard to get into a new "thing" with contemporary series/games/books, and then go back to looking at older stuff later. The only hard exceptions would be shows like Reaper mentioned, Lucky Star or even Gurren Lagann to a decent extent, that actually use your assumed knowledge of other shows to their advantage.

Also, it is ridiculous how much good, cheap anime you can buy in this country these days.
 
Reaper gI said:
Sparrowsabre7 said:
It was one of the first I saw and it's only recently upon watching the Rebuilds that I've really appreciated how it deconstructs the typical anime genre.
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It doesn't deconstruct, beyond it's play on the heroic epic. It set the typical anime genre.
Anno does give quite some regard to kaiju though, and trains.
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I would disagree. It deconstructs mecha pretty well. The Eva are not only limited in their capabilities with regard to power supply, they're also wildly unreliable, often malfunctioning, not to mention the pilot's fragility.

Yes the Evas almost always win, but not without sustaining either heavy damage, or malfunctioning in some way (count the number of times the entry plug doesn't eject...)

There's also heavy emphasis on the damage battles using them cause and the sheer cost and repair effort that goes into maintaining the Eva and the city.

Yes Gundam shows have the odd "The exia is in repairs! Hold them off til it can fight again" episodes, but it doesn't show the cost of such a task.
 
Hmmm, for beginners?

I would perhaps suggest the following, although there's already some great suggestions previously:

Kanon -
'Key'/Kyoani-style drama. Kanon is excellent and still one of my favourites, it was also one of the first anime I actually bought the DVDs for. It also looks very good, especially in HD.
Kanon starts off a lil slow, but speeds up tremendously about half way through.
Air is older and shorter, but meant to be almost as good as Kanon so might be an easier watch?

I would recommend Kanon over Clannad, despite the critical acclaim, Clannad only really comes into its own when you combine it with After Story (the second season), and recommending something 50+ eps long at this stage might be daunting.


Bakemonogatari - Extremely unique style which'll make it different regardless of when you watch it; plus it mostly focuses on eastern folklore which most of us aren't too familiar with. It hits on more popular/net culture as well as 'otaku' culture (as an example one characters surname is Meme, and there are jokey discussions referencing things like DBZ which you don't need to know anime to get).
Has some good humour, some good theme music, fun characters and its one of my favourite series of the last few years.

Eden of the East - already mentioned, but great spy/thriller vibe going on, and the main characters have great chemistry.

Would also recommend for a newbie:

Higurashi - Slice of life, with a parallel universe and horror/psychological thriller vibe. Definately a good watch, and probably not something you need to have seen too much other stuff to appreciate. Season one and two, ignore the S3 OVAs.

Full Metal Panic - Great fun, that's all I can say. Also has a decent english dub which might be important. Guns, Action, Humour, Mecha. Lots too enjoy.

Elfen Lied - Action, Gore, More Gore, Adult Themes. Really good break-the-mould sort of show to demonstrate the genre has much more going for it than the more famous Shounen material. It won't be aired on TV anytime soon either (as confirmed by Adult Swim who *wanted to*)

Beck - Great slice of life drama about the trials and tribulations of a band forming, falling apart, reforming etc. Brilliant UK dub, I don't watch or even like many dubs but this one is great, probably the best I've seen (tying with Black Lagoon)

Black Lagoon - action show set in the indian ocean, a LOT of fun, and sometimes feels more like a western than eastern show. Great English dub, and I think its the one series I can think of the dub is possibly better than the original. The author actually went down on record and stated the series would be in english if he wasn't making it for an audience in Japan which says something.

Toradora! - Really good rom/com drama. Again one of my favourites, and not necessarily something you need to have seen much of previously. One of the best Rie Kugiyama 'Tsundere' shows.

When you've seen more shows and got used to some of the tropes, I'd recommend you checkout Genshiken and Lucky Star.
Also Spice and Wolf, but might be too slow for someone just starting to get into anime.

Shiki is a rather good, relatively dark Vampire drama, with a lot of moral shades of gray. It's only a few years old so it looks pretty good, and it's not the more normal vapid, pretty boy Eclipse style theme Vampires have been lumbered with recently, but the more traditional menacing form.
 
Thanks, I thought it seemed like a good layout of genres to try, I did have a few more suggestions I left off for fear the list was getting too long!
 
Thanks for all the suggestions, even ones that on the surface I wouldn't probably pick actually look pretty good when I've looked into them and other peoples reviews of them.

How about Dragonball Z? I remember it being talked about by guys at school in about Year 7, but is that something worth me trying out or is it a bit too childish? I know there's 9 series and each one costs about £20, but I quite like things with a bit of mythology to them - even if it's a made-up mythology.
 
I wouldn't bother personally, I'm not a mainstream shounen fan really, but other shounen like Naruto run just as long and have a better story AFAIK.
 
If you're gonna watch one long shounen show, you might as well make it Dragon Ball/Z. If you don't have a convenient way of watching it through, though, then well... it's hella long.
 
Oooh, another one I forgot I really should recommend here!

Chrno Crusade
Starts out as a more generic-style, shounen series set in the early half of last century with a monster-of-the-week vibe, which should make it easier for the OP to relate to.
However, half way through the series, it turns a 180, changes pacing and tone heavily, gets a lot darker and has a really strong ending that's stuck with me since watching it, and also asks a few strong questions when you think through the meaning.

One of those shows where if you've never heard of it, and never read up on it, where you really don't expect the ending to well...end up like that. I caught this series originally whilst looking through lovefilm and adding random stuff to my rentals, and I'm glad I did.

Well worth a watch, so yeah definately a recommend.
 
But that's the beauty of it; it starts off more like some of the shows the OP will feel comfortable with, and metamorphosises into something completely different by the ending, and it's a pretty strong ending at that.

I don't want to spoil too much incase the OP DOES watch it :)
 
alexrose1uk said:
But that's the beauty of it; it starts off more like some of the shows the OP will feel comfortable with, and metamorphosises into something completely different by the ending, and it's a pretty strong ending at that.

I don't want to spoil too much incase the OP DOES watch it :)
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ok thats understandable but really ...............,watch raman fighter miki ..........,,it was intended for girls but i disagree its awesome
 
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