Cream of the Crop: ================== Cowboy Bebop Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2ne Season Full Metal Panic! Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu? Recommended: ============ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- .hack/sign (3) Bleah - but a kick ass soundtrack. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ai Yori Aoshi Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi Slow paced - no plot. But I guess fun to watch. I mean it's sort of like Blue Crush (that surfer girl movie). Meaning wouldn't it be nice to meet a cute surfer chick in Hawaii and as a NFL quarterback? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arjuna (5) Environmentally conscious anime. Kind of on the preachy side but has some neat music. I also don't entirely buy some of the shows arguments. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avenger (4) Nothing special here at all ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azumanga Daioh (8) This is hilarious ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bakaretsu Tenshi - Burst Angel (4) Fan Service with Guns 100%. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boys Over Flowers () It's a old series and the animation shows it's age. But the storyline of high school bullying makes it kind of interesting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chobits ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cowboy Bebop (10) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crest of the Stars (8.0) Banner of the Stars I (8.0) Banner of the Stars II (8.0) Great series! Traditionally drawn anime with minimal CGI but well developed characters. This would be classified as "space drama" but it also revolves around Lafiel - an imperial princess of the "Abh" who are genentically engineered humans and Jinto - a human recently knighted into royalty after his home planet surrendered to the Abh. Based on Science Fiction novels written by Hiroyuki Morioka. Kind of wished I could read the original work. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Da Capo (5) Couldn't decide if it wanted to be a romantic comedy or a drama at times and half the episodes were really filler was kinda annoying. Obviously based on a dating sim. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elfen Lied (8) not for everyone. You can tell whether or not it's for you by watching the first fifteen minutes of the first episode. You'll either be incredibly grossed out or be slightly hooked. Because with a start like that where can they go with it? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Escaflowne (8) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excel Saga (2) This just wasn't my type of anime - couldn't get into it. I had to give up after watching two episodes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full Metal Alchemist (9) Soap Opera series - meaning it goes on for more than one season - but the twists and turns in this series are great. No One is who they seem to be. Don't get attached to any one character - they all have their own motivations that are not intially apparent. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full Metal Panic! (8) Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu! (9) Mecha comedy! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gasaraki (4) Featured the angstyness of Evangelion. Bleah. Enough Angst already. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gantz First Stage / Second Stage (3) I keep hearing the manga is better - but who the hell wants to read manga? Anyway they need to amp up the sex/violence/something here because all it is right now is a bunch of people whining. Don't you hate it when people are so passive in horror movies? Have a gun and facing a monster? Use it already! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GateKeepers (5) GateKeepers 21 (7) Ridding the series of comedic overtones and concentrating on the darker aspects of the show help - but one of the characters is really really annoying. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Geneshaft (5) Well good CG eyecandy but nothing special in terms of plot. Why is the "perfect" woman someone tall, stacked blue-eyed blonde. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (9) Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heat Guy J (8) Hmm well I liked it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ikki-Tousen (1) Hot girls fighting and getting their clothes ripped off all the time. Sounds like a great start eh? Wrong. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haibane Ranme (9) Slower paced, but beautifully crafted. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inuyasha One of the longer soap opera animes. But a great blend of romantic comedy with action. Kagome and Kaname from FMP are the same voice actress and she just kicks ass. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Key Metal Idol (3) Avoid - it's old and it shows it's age. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kiddy Grade (6) Starts off slow but finally gets somewhere after the first 10 epsiodes. Lumiere and Eclaire are elite teenage agents for the Global Organization of Trade and Tariffs (GOTT). But not all is good at GOTT and Eclaire has a secret past this is slowly unveiled through the episodes. Work your way through the obvious fan service fluff and you'll be awarded. Well... awarded sort of. The ending got kind of whack. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kimi Go Nozomu Eien (10) Best anime that could have been filmed in live action. Still tugs at the heart strings at how real it felt. Based on a dating sim? No way! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kare Kano - His and Her Circumstances (8) Hilarious - Gainax as usual is kind of weird. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kono Minikukumo Utsikushii Sekai (7) Gainax quirky, full of fan servce, but a cute short summer series. What happens when a teenage boy falls in love with the Apocalypse who just happens to be a cute teenage girl who's forgotten who she is? Cute OP and ED. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kyou Kyou Maou ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Exile (8) Gonzo's Tenth Anniversary project - and you can tell they went all out on the visuals of this project. The story and characters are only so so but the flying scenes are just amazing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Love Hina (7) Mildy amusing as it seemed to have spawned the modern harem anime. And the infamous "Naru Punch". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- L/R (3) Not a whole lot of tension in this whole series and the ending just pounds you on the head. WTF? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Macross Zero (8) Kick ass CG - how Robotech/Macross should have been! This is amazing and dropped my jaw when I first came across it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Madlax (6) Kick ass soundtrack - weird ass plot. Ultimately the whole series fell kind of short. I'm still not quite sure what happened in the end but whatever I guess they needed to tie things up somehow. Made by the same people who did Avenger and it feels very similar ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (7) Hilairous romp through 20 years of anime / film references. Watching this with only the subtitles will leave you very very confused. Thankfully the popup video style references help a lot. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mahoromatic Mahoromatic 2 (7) Gainax doing their usual of combining ecchi with just plain weird. Shocker of an ending and almost a downer unless you take the whole series in context. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mahou Shojotai - Tweeny Witches ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Miami Guns (4) Avoid everything after the first four episodes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Midori no Hibi (6) Starts off with a great premise - is pretty funny at times but the writing quality is patchy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Najica Blitz Tactics (2) Fanservice galore. Not very interesting storyline ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noir (8) Though the middle part could have been eliminated, watch the first and last 8 episodes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neon Genesis Evangelion (5) Dude. I want to beat the crap out of the director - biggest mindfuck ever. Add three points if you never watch the ending. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Onegai Teacher (Please Teacher) (8) Onegai Twins (Please Twins) (8) Ecchi / harem / male fantasy to the extreme but hilarious nonetheless. Onegai Twins you know is total fantasy because a software programmer gets to choose between two cute women? Gimme a break! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paranoia Agent ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peacemaker Kurogane ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planetes (9) Wow - a great drama about - of all things garbage collection (granted it was in space). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Puchi Puri Yucie (7) Specifically aimed for kids, but the characters are very interesting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- RahXephon (8) RahXephon The Movie (6) Less of a mindfuck then Evangelion. Keep in mind that it's full of Aztez / Mayan mythology and it'll keep you from wondering WTF? I have copied some comments/answers into anime_rahxephon.txt (has spoilers) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read or Die TV (7) Very original - interesting characters - good adventure romp. Who thought paper was so strong? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saikano - Saishuuheiki Kanojo (9) I'm not usually into these sentimental romances that make you cry but this one really got me. Shuu-Chan's girlfriend Chise is turned into the ultimate weapon as the last defense for Japan. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Samurai Champloo Hilarious so far! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Samurai 7 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scrapped Princess (8) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scryed (2) Ugh. Avoid. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stellvia of the Universe (9) Excellent in its genre. Also reccommended: Planetes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolf's Rain (5) Mixed feelings - this was no Bebop. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vandread Stage 1 (7) Vandread Stage 2 (7) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You're Under Arrest 2nd Season (5) Only mildy amusing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yumeria (7) Ecchi. But hey fun ecchi. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yukikaze You probably are going to watch this and think "Macross Zero" due to the high quality CG air combat work. Character development seemed to be a primary focus of this series - but unfortunately the characters aren't very interesting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zaion (3) This sucked.