Anime Recommendation and Suggestion Query

[Ryllharu]

High levels of cheesiness...

Both shinta and Dark Dragon's suggestions are good, Kenichi, Shaman King, and Law of Ueki are all right up there, so is GTO and Ranma 1/2.

Not going too deep into mecha, Vandread may be a good choice. Space, men and women separated for centuries, each thinking the opposite sex are 'aliens.'

Outlaw Star is always a series that reminds me of Trigun to some level or another. Another space series, but with ships that fight hand to hand, so there's just a little mecha involved too.

If you really liked Trigun, there is a good chance you will really like Gun x Sword. I didn't watch a lot of it, but it is the same post-apocalyptic, gun shooting kind of thing, and yes, there are even mechas.

Another you might like on the same lines is Coyote Ragtime Show. One master thief and crew and one orphaned girl with two interstellar police officers out to catpure him and 12 sociopathic andriod girls out to kill them.

Nurse Witch Komugi-chan is intentionally weird and cheesy. A strange magical girl spin on becoming an idol. Emphasis on strange. Pretty much straight up comedy since they never take it seriously.

Kaleido Star can be kind of cheesy. Details the rising stardom of Sora, a girl from Japan who moves to America to join the Kaleido Stage, a theatrical/acrobatic troupe similar to Cirque de Solei.

Hyper Police also had a certain cheesiness to it. It takes a world where there has been some sort of apocalypse, and now humans are far outnumbered by monster-people when the two worlds were combined. It follows a small team of bounty hunters (catgirl, werewolves, kitsune, etc) outsourced by the police to deal with issues that arise.

Dominion Tank Police: Whole new level of cheese. This an OVA, 4 episodes. an officer, Leona is transferred in from the motorcycle-division, and has a little problem getting used to the tanks (she crashes them, a lot), and destroys the personal tank of the units commander, Lt. Britain. She cobbles together a new tank out of what's left, and it barely exceeds the size of a SMART car. There's some plot about evil catgirls wanting to steal certain bodily fluids for some nefarious purpose, but I saw it years ago, and to be honest, really wasn't paying attention.

Ikkitousen (the whole franchise). It's all panty shots and martial arts. which brings me to...

Najica Blitz Tactics. Same thing, but replace martial arts with guns. This is the series whos box set infamously came with a pair of panties...so you can see where it is going (and no, I do not own it).

Busou Renkin Shonen series not unlike Bleach, who wrote in a considerable level of cheesiness into the storyline.

I'd suggest Team Medical Dragon, but it is only a manga and a live-action drama (that I've heard it quite good actually).

If you want cheesy romance series, that is a whole different list.

[Munsu]

Hajime no Ippo... classic shy guy becomes a badass.

[Vorlath]

WOW!!! Awesome suggestions. I'm going to check out MOST of what has been recommended. I'll start with History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. It looks exactly like what I'm into. I've been meaning to check out Hunter X Hunter and One Piece for a while. I may check those out soon.

Ranma is not my thing though some parts of it were to my liking.

I think I've already seen Dominion Tank Police way back. I remember enjoying it a lot.

I think I'll check out History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi (first), GTO (probably second), One Piece, Hunter X Hunter and possibly Vandread, all in random order. But I'll likely watch all the suggestions if I can.

Thanks for the amazing responses.

edit: I started watching Kenichi and I don't think you could find a better match for what I described. Thanks again!

edit2: I've watched Kenichi. Ok series. I enjoyed it. Wish Kenichi would have stood on his own a bit more during the series. The excessive giving up and running away was annoying. But the fights and training were cool.

Vandread (one season of it), animation was very good. But story-wise, it was boring. And not nearly enough cheeze or anything else to really grab my attention. And it's a shame because the premise seemed like a really cool idea. But I still managed to enjoy it anyhow.

I guess I'll move on to GTO next month or something.

[Idealistic]

So I heard of D.Gray-man a few times. What can you guys tell me about the anime? I hear the manga is still ongoing and either the anime ended or the season just ended recently.

[Dark Dragon]

So I heard of D.Gray-man a few times. What can you guys tell me about the anime? I hear the manga is still ongoing and either the anime ended or the season just ended recently.

I would say not to waste your time and just go read the manga. D.Gray Man is a story about an organization of exorcist who is trying to stop an entity known as "The Earl of Millennium" who is using the soul of of the dead to create weapons called "Akuma". The exorcist use "Innocence" which is a gift from god that grant them various powers.

The D. Gray Man manga is excellent and is a must read for any shounen fan, but the anime is a complete let down. The anime has already ended, and from what i've read it seems like they did a very rushed ending since the show rating was crap.

[Archangel]

I would say not to waste your time and just go read the manga. D.Gray Man is a story about an organization of exorcist who is trying to stop an entity known as "The Earl of Millennium" who is using the soul of of the dead to create weapons called "Akuma". The exorcist use "Innocence" which is a gift from god that grant them various powers.

The D. Gray Man manga is excellent and is a must read for any shounen fan, but the anime is a complete let down. The anime has already ended, and from what i've read it seems like they did a very rushed ending since the show rating was crap.

Actually if you remove the fillers the anime version is quite satisfactory.

As for the ending it wasn't rished at all, they just didn't have enough chapters to keep makiing episodes and another filler would probably kill the show.

As for rating, it wasn't doing great but it wasn't doing badly either.

[DDBen]

Actually if you remove the fillers the anime version is quite satisfactory.

As for the ending it wasn't rished at all, they just didn't have enough chapters to keep makiing episodes and another filler would probably kill the show.

As for rating, it wasn't doing great but it wasn't doing badly either.

I agree with everything Archangel said. In fact the manga pretty much has a break in it about where they ended the manga anyway they just blew through one not so great manga arch and left it at a perfect place to continue if they decide to do so.

The ratings were not crap at all either. Its simply for a shonen show running that long it wasn't competing favorably enough with the likes of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach to put it into years worth of fillers and honestly I'm thankful for that.

@Idealistic
D-gray man is a very dark series overall about a group of exorcists who are fighting a war against the Earl and the Akuma's he makes. Its different then some others though because the good guys don't win every battle. In fact they lose and get pushed to the brink constantly with no real down time to heal wounds between fights. The main story is that of Allen Walker a teenage British kid and his fight to save both the humans and the Akuma while he fights a a Exorcist in The Black Order.

I'd certainly recommend giving it a try if you like the other titles from WSJ and want something a little Darker and more Brutal then the average one.

[Lucifus]

Mr. HaruRyll,

I've been tring to find something new to watch, and since I have time due to Thanksgiving, I decided on an already completed series so I can one night em.

So that got me to thinking, what do I feel like seeing. My all time favorite completed series would have to be Kurau Phantom Memory. Beautiful music, absolutely adorable characters (Christmas), etc. The list goes on with the awesomeness of this series.

So, with a single series to work with, do you have anything in that huge memory of yours that rings any bells?

[Munsu]

Just throwing some out there:

Figure 17
Seirei no Moribito
Planetes
Twin Spica
Crest/Banner of the Stars (probably too long)
Kimagure Orange Road (probably too long)
Stellvia of the Universe

[Ryllharu]

Kurau Phantom Memory.

So, with a single series to work with, do you have anything in that huge memory of yours that rings any bells?

Well, Munsu has it pretty dead on with Stellvia. Cute characters (Shima), good music, space-scifi element, etc. Theme songs by angela, very memorable background music. 26 episodes.

If you want something with a bit more action than a "middle-school in space" experience, you may also want to try Kiddy Grade. Some disgustingly cute characters, some "elegant" cute characters, lots of action and intrigue, all in the wonderful setting of the many planets that fill the galaxy. Has a bit of the same feel, with supernatural powers and the like, but it is certainly faster paced that Kurau was. 24 episodes.

If you want something that is a bit more brutal and harsh, not to mention a delightfully twisted version of classic English literature, go no further than Soukou no Strain. This series has some good mecha combat, plenty of horrible angst, a loli voiced by Yukana, one determined lesbian and perhaps one of the greatest representations of relativistic flight I have ever seen. Political backstabbing, betrayal, redemption, this series covers a lot of themes in a fairly short amount of time. 13 episodes.

Should the 36 episodes and one movie of Crest of the Stars prove to be too much for you, you may want to look into a shorter alternative in Starship Operators. This series lacks the cute characters you may be looking for, however, it has the single greatest representation of realistic space naval strategy I have seen in anime. (Yes, better than most of the well known space operas). Battles can take hours, days, weeks, and almost always end in a single shot. Politics plays a large part in this series, and while the romances may be sudden, they never feel forced. The only downside is to this day I couldn't possibly tell you the names of half the characters even as I watched it. Most are only named directly once, so it's left to the viewer to sort out the less prominent characters. I loved the OP and ED of this series, but I couldn't honestly say much about the rest of the music at this point. 13 episodes.

Moving away from space, but possessing some of the same feel as the series above, there is Last Exile. Due to some cataclysm, people now live above the clouds. The ground is far too harsh a place to survive, and the world is divided by the mother of all storms. Follows the adventures of two children of famous pilots, now working as couriers. The two, while having an ambition to surpass their fathers, get caught up into a series of events far out of their league. The series culminates into lots of political intrigues, some excellent combat between armies (navys?). Beautiful character design and animation, excellent soundtrack, 26 episodes.

I'll second Munsu's recommendation of Planetes, though it doesn't really fit the theme you're asking for, it is a slice of life space series. One of my favorites to be sure, it just isn't as close as the others I've listed.

[hikkifan17]

Hmm,

Does anyone have any suggestions on any Samurai Or Mecha type animes? Newer versions not oldish ones.? Let me know Thanks

[Munsu]

Why not combine both worlds and watch Samurai 7?

[Kraco]

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto was a decent show.

[KrayZ33]

Hmm,

Does anyone have any suggestions on any Samurai Or Mecha type animes? Newer versions not oldish ones.? Let me know Thanks

movies: sword of the stranger, rebuild of evangelion

shows... Code Geass etc.

[Ryllharu]

Well, "recent" to me means anything from 2003 until now, given how much 90s anime I've seen, but I understand that most people mean the past year or two.

Hasn't been too much samurai series around recently:
Basilisk
Kurozuka (well...not really, but kind of)
Shigurui
Samurai Champloo
Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto
These range from 2004 to currently airing.

As for Mecha:
Gundam 00
Macross Frontier
Code Geass
IdolMaster Xenoglossia
Gurren Lagann
Heroic Age
Soukou no Strain
These range from 2006 to currently airing.


It is interesting how much you lose when you only want to see recent series. While I have some really excellent titles in there, you really end up missing out.

[The Heretic Azazel]

Basilisk and Shigurui are just amazing. Bakamatsu Kikansetsu I dropped midway in. It confused me with the fighting/playwrighting fused together.

Blade of the Immortal is also excellent but the subs are crazy slow, it's 7 episodes in. I've been waiting for number 8 for a long long time.

Xam'd Lost Memories doesn't distinctly fall into the mecha category but it's still a really fun, beautiful looking show, comparable to Eureka Seven. It's about 14 episodes in currently.

[Lucifus]

Out of all those recommendations. I found Seirei no Moribito the most interesting.

Granted I havnt tried most of them as I cant seem to find torrents with decent speeds, get an IRC link (For some reason i'm banned from Ani-Kraze, yet never been there before) or find any decent streams.

I did not, repeat did not like Stellvia, not my cup of tea, for too cute for more liking. Guess I should add in another ingredient. I like character depth and some realism to anime.

Loved Planetes, and didnt get past episode one of Kiddy Grade. Also 'greatly' enjoyed Last Exile. But I doubt any series can top the enjoyment I got from Kurau save maybe One Piece. -_-

The others I havn't mentioned, couldnt get ahold of em. I'll keep looking.
Anything else you gurus can churn out?

[KitKat]

It's hard to know what to recommend, Luci, without knowing what you've already seen. Seirei No Moribito is definitely an amazing series, and one of my absolute favourites.

If you feel like a character-based introspective type of anime, you might want to check out Haibane Renmei. It's about a girl who wakes up in a strange walled city with wings and a halo. But beneath the cute exterior of the series, they deal with some fairly serious issues relating to death, sin, and forgiveness. Maybe I'm not making it sound too appealing, but I liked this one a lot. It's one of those more mysterious animes that sticks in your mind long after you've finished it, because you realize you're still processing all of it. So yes, low on action, but high in being thought-provoking.

Now, if you watch Haibane, and you feel like a change, for instance, something ultra cute, but very very violent, there's no better anime than Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. To be honest, I thought Higurashi was ok, until I watched the sequel Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Kai, and that was when I realized it was brilliant. This is a top notch murder mystery anime. The soundtrack and the animation are nothing to write home about, but the OP of the first series is probably one of my favourite OPs of all time.

That's all I can think of. Most of the more recent ones I'd recommend, I know you've seen. I hope you can find some decent download links.

[Ryllharu]

Out of all those recommendations. I found Seirei no Moribito the most interesting.
...
I did not, repeat did not like Stellvia, not my cup of tea, for too cute for more liking. Guess I should add in another ingredient. I like character depth and some realism to anime.

Loved Planetes, and didnt get past episode one of Kiddy Grade. Also 'greatly' enjoyed Last Exile. But I doubt any series can top the enjoyment I got from Kurau save maybe One Piece. -_-

The others I havn't mentioned, couldnt get ahold of em. I'll keep looking.
Anything else you gurus can churn out?

Interestingly enough, as much as I love a lot of Production IG's work, I could never really get into Seirei no Moribito. Nothing grabbed me in the series. There was always too little development in either plot and/or characters, so it ended up feeling more like Grenadier at one point.

If you were after the character depth and realism, I definitely will reassert Starship Operators. Tough to find, I know, but if worst comes to worst, you can always buy/rent the box set. The only failing it has again, is that there are too many characters. The viewer is thrust into a ship with 20+ named characters, everyone knows each other, and outside of a major set of around 12 (again too many) there really isn't much time for character development in a short series like this. Balancing that out is the high focus on realism.

Soukou no Strain on the other hand, is the other way around. They sacrifice a little realism for a LOT of character development. But what made the series interesting is the focus on physics in the mech combat. Inertia matters, speed matters, and not drifting into space to your inevitable death all matter.

Kiddy Grade gets much better further in. The series doesn't really "start" until about a third of the way in. The rest is all character introductions.

That said and given your refined information, here are a few more recommendations:

The Daughter of Twenty Faces: 1960s postwar Japan with thrilling visits to other countries in the first half of the series. Given a little bit of the viewer's suspention of disbelief, this series takes a "realistic" approach to some of the horrors created when wartime R&D spending is unrestricted. Certainly falls into the Phantom Thief genre of series (here's where the suspention of disbelief falls in) with close saves, acrobatics, and thrilling chases down alleyways and rooftops. The series follows Chiko, a wealthy girl who lost her parents years ago and runs away with the master thief. Toss in one plucky and bored heiress, one well-endowed overly protective maid, and one moron detective and you have a full cast.

Paradise Kiss: While this series fails to fall into the category matching with Kurau, it certainly fits into your "realism and character development" requirement. A josei (shoujo, but considerably more mature) romance series with superb animation, this series is probably the most well known Ai Yazawa series turned into anime. One bored, apathetic and jaded high school student falls into the clutches of George and his fellow fashion major classmates, as a model for their final project.

Darker than Black: While I cannot claim to have seen this series, I believe this will also fit the bill. Given that KitKat suggested Higurashi (and an excellent choice that was), I was a little surprised she didn't suggest this one as well. Supernatural powers, much like Kurau, a hint of realism (the price to pay for those powers) and character development around. The ending was a bit weak, or so I was told, but the majority of the series should not disappoint.

Mnemosyne: Forewarning, this series is mature. You may not want someone looking over your shoulder and wondering what the hell you are watching with this one. Violent, very graphic, but also very good. A short OVA (6 episodes, but they are 45 minutes each) begins with the viewer meeting Rin, a woman who runs and owns a business doing odd jobs for people. We learn shortly thereafter that she is also immortal, she heals from apparently any injury, even death. There are others like her as well, and the series really begins when she meets a man who doesn't remember who he is, and then several men attempt to apprehend him. The series is certainly focused on Rin and others like her, and our view of the situation at hand gradual expands with each subsequent episode. Rin being immortal, there are time jumps between each episode.

Le Chevalier D`Eon (Chevalier): Gothic-horror/spy/period series. Herein, the story begins with D'Eon a 18th century knight in training finding his older sister dead, her body desecrated, and that she worked secretly for the king and queen of France as a spy and diplomat. He assumes her place, and discovers a conspiracy in the making. The supernatural catch to this one, is that his body has become a vessel for his sister's soul, and she possesses him in mind and spirit.

Since you seem to have a mild fondness for GONZO series (with the exception of Kiddy Grade), I will also throw out Pumpkin Scissors (post-war, remnants of experimental soldiers), Solty Rei (androids, powered-armor and mysterious atmospheric phenomenon), Speed Grapher (freak of the week, Duran Duran), and Chrno Crusade (demons and monsters, hot nuns, impending doom)

[Munsu]

Out of all those recommendations. I found Seirei no Moribito the most interesting.

Granted I havnt tried most of them as I cant seem to find torrents with decent speeds, get an IRC link (For some reason i'm banned from Ani-Kraze, yet never been there before) or find any decent streams.

I did not, repeat did not like Stellvia, not my cup of tea, for too cute for more liking. Guess I should add in another ingredient. I like character depth and some realism to anime.

Loved Planetes, and didnt get past episode one of Kiddy Grade. Also 'greatly' enjoyed Last Exile. But I doubt any series can top the enjoyment I got from Kurau save maybe One Piece. -_-

The others I havn't mentioned, couldnt get ahold of em. I'll keep looking.
Anything else you gurus can churn out?

Maybe you shouldn't have focused on that what you liked about Kurau was the music and the adorable characters, since clearly that's not really what you're looking for.

Maybe check some of these out:

Kaze no Yojimbo
Twelve Kingdoms
Now and Then, Here and There
Bounen no Xamdou
Fantastic Children
Kurenai
Infinite Ryvius
Tsukihime
Witch Hunter Robin
Wolf's Rain


And Seirei no Moribito is an awesome series. Some of the most awesome animation and artwork out there. Comparing it to Grenadier is a complete insult.

I still think you should give the Crest/Banner of the Stars a try.