Just as the title suggests! I’m on the hunt for some new material and I prefer to go by the boxset rather than fork out for overpriced individual volumes of shows. If there is a standard to be met then I’ll drop a few names of favouite series’ - Samurai Champloo, Paranoia Agent, Serial Experiments: Lain, Texhnolyze, FlCl and Wolf’s Rain. At the moment I’m considering Ergo Proxy, Desert Punk, Hell Girl and Black Lagoon. If you guys would care to share your impressions of any of those or indeed anything else in a similar vein that I’ve perhaps overlooked, I would appreciate it.
ergo proxy is something you would like based on your preferences. skip hell girl it is not very good. as the previous poster said anything done by studio 4c deserves to be seen so look into tekkonkinkreet and mind game and anything else by them. also check out anything by satoshi kon like paprika.
Personally I got a kick out of “Desert Punk” but do know a lot of people who do not appreciate the fact that there are no heroes whatsoever in it.
I liked “Black Lagoon” a lot, although it runs the risk at first of killing itself with fan service and violence idealization. But the moment they reach a nazi submarine filled with treasure it gets VERY interesting, as the characterization deepens far beyond stereotype and the viewer gets some intelligent ethical dilemmas placed in front of him/her.
I haven’t heard you mention them so I don’t know if they are on your to-do list or not, but the following series come very much recommended:
“Haibane Renmei”: more sedate than the favorites you mention, but some strong ideas and content are in here.
“The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”: very, very funny.
“Kino’s Journey”: like Haibane Renmei this one keeps a leisurely pace but doesn’t pull punches either.
Thanks Gents. Check on Tekkon and Haibane Renmei, definitely a Yoshi ABe fan though I’m yet to actually sit down with TK. Same goes for Satoshi Kon, I still have Millenium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers on my shelf unwatched. I’m halfway through Gantz at the moment and will probably go back to Speed Grapher afterwards since I stopped watching after disc 2 due to life interrupting me. I have Ergo Proxy, Desert Punk and Black Lagoon season one on the way so I’m not exactly short of material. Melancholy and Kino are on the backburner, but I’ll def remember them for future wallet whoring.
Pani Poni Dash is quite out there and extremely funny.
Highlights are the melancholy bunny who falls into even deeper bouts of depression due to his inability to hold things because of his lack of thumbs.
And the giant cat who lives in the vending machine and keeps all the drinks at body temperature.
i can only agree with the comments about Black Lagoon, it’s fast paced, hilarious and quite well animated, it also has some interesting comments about phylosophy in there.
I don’t think Seirei no moribito has been mentioned yet. Afaik it’s not out on dvd yet, but you can prolly find it online somewhere. It’s one of the few series that doesn’t try to make an episodic storyline but a continuing one, with interesting characters to boot. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029248/
Mirai shônen Konan, Future Boy Conan is an older series but still well worth checking out. It’s one of the first things Miyazaki and Takahata did before they created Ghibli. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077013/
Lets get the two obvious ones out of the way first, Akira and Ghost In The Shell…Perfect Blue, Grave Of The Fireflies (it actually made me cry), Ghibli in general…recently watched Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika, which I very much enjoyed.
I’m reposting this from the “recently watched” topic, as it continues something I said here earlier.
Ard Vijn - May 24, 2009, 11:37pm
Speaking of anime, I just finished “Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage” and the final storyline sort of stunned me. In the first series there was a tonal shift halfway through (it happens on board of the nazi sub), where Revi stopped being “crazy cool” and just became plain damaged crazy. Fanservice didn’t exactly stop but stayed at exactly the same level (which gets sort-of believable after a while, like most of the series in fact…), and her appetite for violence became more and more questionable.
Well, I was glad to see “The Second Barrage” followed this style even further. The series starts with two slaughterfests, of which the first one becomes a lot less fun the better you get acquainted with the (doomed) killers. The second is silly nonsense but when it arrives it is much needed. And thankfully it’s not only silly but witty as well.
But the final 5 episodes concern Rock’s return to Japan with Revi as his bodyguard and this is handled very impressively, with all characters continually asking themselves what they’re doing. The violence is serious, characterization is serious, fanservice nearly nonexistent (with Japan’s winter temperatures, Revi can’t don her usual Lara-Croft-on-a-budget-gear) and this is as good as the series is likely to get. Very much recommended.
Seriously, I have withdrawal symptoms. I hate it that the series ended here (even though it’s a good point to do so), and I cannot find any evidence of planning for a third season…
No hint at anymore Black Lagoon, Ard? That’s pretty depressing and I haven’t even watched season 1 yet.
Don’t pin me down on this (and I’d love to be proven wrong…), it’s just that I don’t see a sign of it happening yet.
But don’t let that interfere with your enjoyment: it’s not like they stop in mid-story arc or something. A lot of Japanese series are content to stop after 26 episodes instead of spreading out into infinity…
That’s what I’m here for. Seriously, I actually wrote that after watching Kemonozume - I gave up on it originally after the “ero” episode, watched Kaiba, was blown away, pretty much decided what I would later put down on paper - then thought “no, you really ought to give both series a chance”, went back, watched Kemonozume, decided I was right after all and felt like setting it all out in a review. Parts of his first series are absolutely fantastic; when Yuasa’s on top form with a great studio behind him he is way, way up there and Kemonozume on top form is riveting stuff. But it does go off the rails at episode #7, never quite gets back in gear, and the climax just throws too much narrative good will out of the window. Kaiba’s weird and playful and surreal, too, but it never loses sight of the story. They’re both worth watching but Kaiba’s a goddamned masterpiece that everyone who’s even vaguely broadminded about animation ought to have seen by now.
