Been away from anime since Aug 2008 - need suggestions! [long read]

[iwubanime]

Like the title says, I've been at an intense school program since August 2008 which I recently finished. I am in need of suggestions for anime. In particular I'd like the suggestions to be during that time, but I'm open to any suggestions at all.

What I like

Love interest - It's not needed, but I generally like the anime a lot more if there's a potential love interest in the series. Bonus points if the feelings are mutual from the start and the feelings sorta blossom from there.

Romance - Somewhat similar to the above interest. I used to love romance series. I searched far and wide and found many series. I've come to be very particular about this genre (although I'm still open to it). Here's what I don't like with examples:

Over-the-top-drama: the first few series this was ok. Marmalade Boy, Fushugi Yuugi (can never spell that), etc. However, by the time I finished Peach Girl I wanted to ring my neck out. Itzura na Kiss was a similar experience. Anyway, some drama is ok. Too much is annoying.

Wishy-washy-main-lead: Particularly toward the end. Hopefully I'm not spoliing anyone but if you've seen Maison Ikkoku or Orange Road you might know what I mean. Make a decision!! It bugs me even more when the decision is clear...

"Fizzle": Series like Touch have a strong opening set of episodes with lots of affection and whatnot but seem to dissipate toward the end...

Sports Anime - a genre I'm still looking into. I loved Hungry Heart Wild Striker and Major is very good too. Wasn't a big fan of Slam Dunk or Hajime no Ippo

Magical Girl Anime - for some reason it just makes me feel good. My 2nd favorite series is Card Captor Sakura. I also really enjoyed Kamichama Karin, Full Moon, Hime-chan's Ribbon, and Shugo Chara. I think I like the (often) simple romances and the school background.


What I don't like

Little or No Plot - In general I really can't stand anime that is what I call "slice-of-life" (King of Bandit Jing). I also put series like Gunslinger Girls, Cowboy Beebop here (please don't hurt me avid fans )

Wacky, "senseless" humor - Shows like Futakoi Alternative, Excel Saga, etc which revolve around random ideas that may or may not form a "plot" do not interest me.

Horror / Gorey / Super Bloody Series - Generally not a fan of bloody / gorey series or series that try to scare me. Elfen Lied annoyed the heck outta me with all its blood even though the story was good.

Series that don't feel "finished" - Obviously if a series will continue this doesn't matter. But Slam Dunk felt very unfinished when it ended. I can't remember that well, but I think Gauken Alice was a similar feeling. I hate that feeling.

OVA or Movie Series - For some reason when it comes to anime, it needs to be at least 12 / 13 episodes or I won't bother.

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Favorites
Full Metal Panic - doesn't do anything amazing, but does a lot of stuff well. Love the idea of the plot, and there's pretty good development (especially in the novels)
Card Captor Sakura - This one feels "slice-of-life" like but it has this plot wrapper around it. I feel like everyday I learn more about Sakura, but everything still feels very cohesive (if that makes sense)
Kaleido Star - I think I like this one because its idea is very different. Characters are all fairly likeable
Mahou Shoujo Tai - Artstyle is cool, sorta "magical girl"
History's Strongest Disciple - Love interest + comedy + action = win
D.N Angel - Probably one of my favorite side-romances. Story is simple but fun.
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne - Maybe I just have a thing for thief animes...
Cheeky Angel - Another awesome plotline, characters are all very interesting
Kaze no Stigma - Not a favorite per-se, but the male lead is awesome. He's exactly what I want in a male lead. Confident (to the point of being cocky), fun to watch, and good at teasing the female-lead.
Vandread - This was my favorite series for such a long time. Male lead isn't the best, but he grows on you. The females are similar. A good balance of action and comedy with a smidge of romance
Onegai Teacher - pretty good example of a romance I liked. Herikawa was annoying, but the Mizuho + Kei was fun to watch


For my full list of watched anime, please click here

[Qwey]

After looking at your MAL list, the biggest thing that is jumping out at me is Clannad is still on your Plan-to-watch list. Although the first season is mainly slice of life, the romance does steadily develop, and the second season is very, very good (though people's opinions on the endings differ, it is still very conclusive, and feels like its 100% done so no need to worry about that).

Ongoing Cross Game fits your description pretty much as well--I'll leave it to you to go look up the description.

Also, you mentioned Major, but you don't have season 5 on your list. Its still continues on with everything you like about Major, and there is some progression on the Romance front as well, so I would most definitely finish that off.

[iwubanime]

Originally Posted by yewq

After looking at your MAL list, the biggest thing that is jumping out at me is Clannad is still on your Plan-to-watch list. Although the first season is mainly slice of life, the romance does steadily develop, and the second season is very, very good (though people's opinions on the endings differ, it is still very conclusive, and feels like its 100% done so no need to worry about that).

Admittedly, I've been avoiding Clannad, but I suppose I should check it out. Those game based series are always so hit-or-miss with me. I guess what's really been holding me back is I didn't really like Kanon (2003). I'll check it out though, guess it's time

Originally Posted by yewq

Ongoing Cross Game fits your description pretty much as well--I'll leave it to you to go look up the description.

I saw this mentioned in some other topics. Isn't it from the same author as Touch. My worry here is it won't be different enough from that anime or that my gripes about that series will be repeated in Cross Game. Can someone shed some light on how comparable they are?

Originally Posted by yewq

Also, you mentioned Major, but you don't have season 5 on your list. Its still continues on with everything you like about Major, and there is some progression on the Romance front as well, so I would most definitely finish that off.

Oh geeze, need to update that! Started watching S5 of Major when it came out, but had to stop due to school. Will start it again soon, thanks for reminding me

[Ansalem]

The obvious choice would be Cross Game, another Adachi baseball show that is currently ongoing. The romance starts slow, but is central to the show where it is now (38/51 episodes aired).

I'd also recommend Bakemonogatari. It's a supernatural school show with a fair amount of romantic interaction. The plot is organized in short arcs, 2-4 episodes each, rather than a single overarching plotline, so I don't know if that is too limited for your plot needs.

Edit: Yewq beat me to CG while I was typing.

[Full Metal Coast]

Some you might enjoy are

ef- Tale of Melodies
ef - Tale of Memories
True Tears
Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
Bakemonogatari
Kampfer
Nyan Koi

[MeoTwister5]

Kanon 2003 was a mess. Go watch Kanon 2006 instead. Will also chime in for Clannad and Cross Game.

As for your question on the comparativeness of Touch and CG, I'll let a manga reader handle that.

[Sackett]

Hmmm... personally my feeling about Cross Game is that it is the best of Adachi's work so far. It's as if he's been perfecting his skill. Although I did like Touch quite a bit. (Only read the Touch manga so not sure of the difference).

I'd say that the characters are different enough and the plot different enough that it's worth seeing both. Of course it is Adachi. So it has similar themes. There's going to be a battle to get to Koshein. He's going to explore the conflict between love and childhood friendship. And in every series I've read by him he explores the effect of death.

Cross Game moves slowly, but it hasn't reached stagnation or anything. It's pretty solid development. This last episode I think most of us agree has reached the critical point. Sort of where the plot needs to start moving towards resolution instead of building tension (Maybe a couple more episodes of tension building, but that's it). Of course, there are only about 15 episodes left, and there is a lot of other things to resolve too, so I'm pretty sure that it's going to start resolving.

The other I'd suggest is Crest of The Stars. I notice that you have Banner of the Stars on hold after watching one episode. It is a big mistake to start with Banner. Start with Crest of the Stars aka Seikai no Monshou. Also, I've heard the dub is pretty bad, I've only seen the subs so can't say for sure.

My review of Crest is here. Crest develops a good romantic feel that is resolved by the end of the Banner series. (Banner III has weaknesses, but the final lines by Lafiel are amazing.) Oh and, the final episode in each season has several scenes that occur after the credits, so don't miss them.

Here is my anime list in case you want to compare. I think I tend to score lower. For me rank 6 is a decent show to watch.

One major difference is that I loved Maison Ikkoku- probably because I don't see Godai as indecisive at all.

Spoiler for Spoilers for Maison Ikkoku:

It was almost always Kyoko for him. At the beginning he was slightly tempted by Kozue, but other than that it was Kyoko all the way. It was Godai's awareness of his financial and social position that delayed things. And understandably so. This is not a high school romance. Godai is planning on proposing marriage. How can he do that without a way of supporting a wife? To me that is a believable obstacle that has to be overcome.

The other main complication was that Godai had a kind heart so he tried to let Kozue down gently, and he had a lot of patience with Yagami. I'll admit Yagami was rather trying, but Kyoko was almost as patient with her, so I don't think you can fully blame Godai.

[Sackett]

Since you liked Haruhi Suzumiya, you ought to watch Season 1.5

However, I must warn you about the Endless Eight nightmare.

Breaking the new season out from the old season (they were aired together in chronological order).

Episode 1: Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody occurs in between Boredom (baseball episode) and Mystérique Sign. Very important episode. Huge plot revelations.

Episode 2: Endless Eight occurs after Remote Island (the murder mystery two part episode). Important set up. Watch.

Episode 3: Endless Eight Important plot revelation. Best of the iterations. Must watch.

Episode 4: Endless Eight Unless you want to experience the pain Haruhi fans went through you can go ahead and skip to episode 9. And even then it won't be the same, cause we never knew when it was going to end.

Episode 5: Endless Eight

Episode 6: Endless Eight

Episode 7: Endless Eight

Episode 8: Endless Eight

Episode 9: Endless Eight Resolution, must watch.

Episode 10: Sighs I Occurs immediately after Endless Eight. Next 5 episode arc is the making of The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, surprisingly there is a lot of great character development, drama, and interesting revelations. Classic Haruhi.

Episode 11: Sighs II

Episode 12: Sighs III

Episode 13: Sighs IV

Episode 14: Sighs V

[Guardian Enzo]

It's become a cliche on this board generally and certainly in this thread, but I have to also rec Cross Game. I can't think of another series that meets as many of your likes and avoids as many of your dislikes.

[iwubanime]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm going to be reaching back into the depths of my memory for some of these responses so I apologize if I'm wrong about something...

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Kanon 2003 was a mess. Go watch Kanon 2006 instead. Will also chime in for Clannad and Cross Game.

As for your question on the comparativeness of Touch and CG, I'll let a manga reader handle that.

It has been such a long time since I've seen Kanon (2003) but I think my issue with it was it showed him with the orange?-haired girl with wings but I didn't really feel like there was much build up. It just kinda seemed to happen. Didn't really care for that very much.

Originally Posted by Sackett

Hmmm... personally my feeling about Cross Game is that it is the best of Adachi's work so far. It's as if he's been perfecting his skill. Although I did like Touch quite a bit. (Only read the Touch manga so not sure of the difference).

I'd say that the characters are different enough and the plot different enough that it's worth seeing both. Of course it is Adachi. So it has similar themes. There's going to be a battle to get to Koshein. He's going to explore the conflict between love and childhood friendship. And in every series I've read by him he explores the effect of death.

Cross Game moves slowly, but it hasn't reached stagnation or anything. It's pretty solid development. This last episode I think most of us agree has reached the critical point. Sort of where the plot needs to start moving towards resolution instead of building tension (Maybe a couple more episodes of tension building, but that's it). Of course, there are only about 15 episodes left, and there is a lot of other things to resolve too, so I'm pretty sure that it's going to start resolving.

The other I'd suggest is Crest of The Stars. I notice that you have Banner of the Stars on hold after watching one episode. It is a big mistake to start with Banner. Start with Crest of the Stars aka Seikai no Monshou. Also, I've heard the dub is pretty bad, I've only seen the subs so can't say for sure.

My review of Crest is here. Crest develops a good romantic feel that is resolved by the end of the Banner series. (Banner III has weaknesses, but the final lines by Lafiel are amazing.) Oh and, the final episode in each season has several scenes that occur after the credits, so don't miss them.

Here is my anime list in case you want to compare. I think I tend to score lower. For me rank 6 is a decent show to watch.

One major difference is that I loved Maison Ikkoku- probably because I don't see Godai as indecisive at all.

Spoiler for Spoilers for Maison Ikkoku:

It was almost always Kyoko for him. At the beginning he was slightly tempted by Kozue, but other than that it was Kyoko all the way. It was Godai's awareness of his financial and social position that delayed things. And understandably so. This is not a high school romance. Godai is planning on proposing marriage. How can he do that without a way of supporting a wife? To me that is a believable obstacle that has to be overcome.

The other main complication was that Godai had a kind heart so he tried to let Kozue down gently, and he had a lot of patience with Yagami. I'll admit Yagami was rather trying, but Kyoko was almost as patient with her, so I don't think you can fully blame Godai.

Hmm... let's see.

Good to hear you think Cross Game is Adachai's best work. How do you feel the romance is compared to Touch? Obviously you've read the manga which might be more in-depth (and better) than the anime, but I'm curious on your thoughts.

Wow, Banner of the Stars... that was a LONG time ago. I just remember it being very very slow. But if I jumped into it at the wrong point then, that could be why...

As for Maison Ikkoku:

Spoiler:

My main issue with it was, I think, after Godai had gotten all the other areas of his life figured out.. all he had left to do was turn down Kozue. It bothered me after ALL that, that it took him soo long to turn her down. I understand he is kind... but it still bugged me.

Originally Posted by Sackett

Since you liked Haruhi Suzumiya, you ought to watch Season 1.5

However, I must warn you about the Endless Eight nightmare.

Breaking the new season out from the old season (they were aired together in chronological order).

Episode 1: Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody occurs in between Boredom (baseball episode) and Mystérique Sign. Very important episode. Huge plot revelations.

Episode 2: Endless Eight occurs after Remote Island (the murder mystery two part episode). Important set up. Watch.

Episode 3: Endless Eight Important plot revelation. Best of the iterations. Must watch.

Episode 4: Endless Eight Unless you want to experience the pain Haruhi fans went through you can go ahead and skip to episode 9. And even then it won't be the same, cause we never knew when it was going to end.

Episode 5: Endless Eight

Episode 6: Endless Eight

Episode 7: Endless Eight

Episode 8: Endless Eight

Episode 9: Endless Eight Resolution, must watch.

Episode 10: Sighs I Occurs immediately after Endless Eight. Next 5 episode arc is the making of The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, surprisingly there is a lot of great character development, drama, and interesting revelations. Classic Haruhi.

Episode 11: Sighs II

Episode 12: Sighs III

Episode 13: Sighs IV

Episode 14: Sighs V

Ahh yes, keep forgetting that there's new content in this. Will have to check that out. I can't even imagine what is so bad about Endless Eight. Kinda curious now...

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

It's become a cliche on this board generally and certainly in this thread, but I have to also rec Cross Game. I can't think of another series that meets as many of your likes and avoids as many of your dislikes.

Yeah I've noticed lol.


Anyone have any other suggestions besides Cross Game

[MeoTwister5]

If you liked Itazura na Kiss then go and try Toradora! and Lovely Complex.

[Proto]

I was going to recommend Cross Game, but since you don't want that, I'll just leave my pretty sig in here

...

...


j/k About the Touch vs Cross Game comparison, you will be able to see that Adachi hasn't gained 20 years of experience for naught. Cross Game feels like a more polished work, and every bit, second and panel in Cross Game counts for something, unlike Touch were it gave the feeling that it was lacking some aim at times, specially during the middle.


On the suggestion side, and on the line of sports series that you seem to want to explore, how about Hikaru no go? Granted, it is more a board game series rather than a sports one, but I can vouch that its the best of its type.

Oh, and another vote for Clannad. And don't let people fool you. The Endless Eight arc is one of the most original and gutsy gimmicks you will find in any anime series ever. In more than one sense.

And now my pretty sig.

[Sackett]

Sorry for not getting back to you, I was incommunicado while on holiday with my family.

AS for your question about how the romance in Touch compares with Cross Game:

I'd say that Cross Game is more subtle. Touch mainly had the angst out in the open. In Cross Game it's a lot about what the characters don't say, rather than what they do say. Oh... and in Cross Game Adachi is doing a really good job of making all the different possible romances appear as real possibilities. In Touch you knew where it was going. In Cross Game, you're not so sure. Even although I have my favorites, I could still see it turn out the other way.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by iwubanime

Ahh yes, keep forgetting that there's new content in this. Will have to check that out. I can't even imagine what is so bad about Endless Eight. Kinda curious now...

Well let me "spoil" it for you: it's the exact same episode remade 7 times in a row. Every single episode is exactly the same apart from subtle differences in a certain number, clothes and other minor details whose only meaning was to keep people watching to pull out a major troll (imho).

What still surprises me is that they went to the trouble of animating and recording the voices for every single version! Virtually the exact same episode recorded 7 times! I'm sure even the seiyuus were tired of it.

[Sackett]

Originally Posted by Dextro

Well let me "spoil" it for you: it's the exact same episode remade 7 times in a row. Every single episode is exactly the same apart from subtle differences in a certain number, clothes and other minor details whose only meaning was to keep people watching to pull out a major troll (imho).

What still surprises me is that they went to the trouble of animating and recording the voices for every single version! Virtually the exact same episode recorded 7 times! I'm sure even the seiyuus were tired of it.

See that's the thing.

You can't really call it lazy or cost cutting, because each episode was completely re-animated. There was no re-using of previous animation or voice recordings.

It was just... weird.

[Boduar]

Im gonna suggest Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann assuming you dont mind mecha. Just rewatched it and was reminded of how amazing it is if you like bad assery and fighting (mostly in mechas).