Need An Anime Based On This List

[abdulmuhsee]

I've finally broken down and joined an anime forum because me and the wife are all out of things to watch and are looking for suggestions. The animes we have thoroughly enjoyed are:

Ergo Proxy
Death Note
Naruto Shippuden
Gungrave
Fullmetal Alchemist
Ghost in the Shell
Blood+
Kara no Kyoukai

To a lesser extent, things like Samurai 7, Samurai Champloo, and Utawaeramono were fun, though not nearly as entertaining to the mind and would have been not so great if not for some good fight scenes. Also, Kara no Kyoukai is extremely interesting, but we didn't much appreciate the nudity therein. Any suggestions would be welcome as we have nothing to watch!

[Azuma Denton]

From the list you mention, it seems that you like shounen action anime...


You may want to try
- Black Lagoon
- Darker than Black
- Soul Eater

[jedinat]

Cowboy Bebop, Noir, R.O.D: The TV, Witch Hunter Robin, and Trigun - Take a look at those.

[blewin]

Blood + - Vampire Knight
Fullmetal Alchemist - Eureka Seven (it looks different on the surface as it's mecha genre but the two series have many things in common such as awesome music and story, growing up characters etc)
Death Note - Durarara and Code Geass (similar in terms of genius in strategy)
Naruto - Fairy Tail and Soul Eater.

[Sackett]

You might try Crest of the Stars.

[SeijiSensei]

I'm going to stick to licensed shows on DVDs (or streaming) like the ones you listed.

I generally like shows with strong heroines, so here's a few of those:

Moribito - a female spear-wielding bodyguard is tasked with protecting a young prince
Twelve Kingdoms - a young women is mysteriously transported to an ancient Asian world and discovers her true destiny; starts slow but picks up steam quickly around episode six
Tale of Saiunkoku - an impoverished princess yearns to become her country's first imperial official; adventure and some romance with a feminist theme
Noein - heady science-fiction show with some spectacular fighting as well

Other choices:
Monster - a Japanese doctor practicing in Germany becomes involved with a serial killer and is himself accused of murder; only part of the series has yet been released on DVD; the first 42 (of 74) episodes are available at Hulu
Cross Game - lovely show about a boy and girl who love baseball; streaming weekly, now through episode nine of fifty
Oh! Edo Rocket - wacky "alternative history" story set in 1843-44 Japan about a young fireworks maker who encounters a mysterious woman who wants him to build a rocket to the moon

If you're willing to dip your toe in torrented, unlicensed shows, you should give Nodame Cantabile a try.

Finally, here are a few other threads to consult:
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=54868
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=62489
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=76230

[abdulmuhsee]

Thanks for the replies, and I've actually watched a few of the suggestions on the list, though it went a different direction than what i was looking for:

Cowboy Bebop/Trigun: They have action, but absolutely no interesting story to keep me involved, or any plot progression. Things like Ergo Proxy and Kara no Kyoukai are at the top of my list because more importantly than the great action scenes, there's believable otherworldly/futuristic politics, mystery, plot progression, and basically things to keep you guessing what's going on and what's going to happen next. Even Death Note, with a complete lack of action, is more interesting to me than fight scenes.

Fairy Tail: I couldn't stand this one. Every character to me was incredibly lame and the entire show seemed geared towards more of a saturday morning cartoon for kids. I hate when characters are given over-the-top, unbelievable and disparate personalities and dress like punk-rockers, vodoo priests, catholic schoolgirls, ect. The original Naruto was a bit like this, but not nearly as severe, and made up with it with good plot progression that led to Naruto Shippuden, where there's a decent story and things like Akatsuki to keep me interested.

Moribito: Maybe I'll give this one another chance, but it suffered from the same thing as Samurai 7 and Samurai Champloo; the story is that there's a female bodyguard who has to protect a prince because people want to kill him, and that's it. You've already figured out the entire show and what's going to happen from episode 1; there's no mystery, interesting characters, shady conspiracies, theological commentary, or anything else that would make me want to watch anything other than a 10-minute highlite of the entire show's fight scenes crammed together.

Thanks for the replies, and hope that helps in determining what I like.

Oh, and by the way, Monster does look interesting, and after reading another thread, me and the wife also loved Death Note despite the heavy-metal openings in the second half of the show annoying the crap out of us :-).

[Guardian Enzo]

You may think you have Seirei no Moribito figured out, but based on your your summary, you're not even close to having it figured out...

[kingburger]

try x'amd. good music. and nice animation.

[Theowne]

Originally Posted by abdulmuhsee

Moribito:...the story is that there's a female bodyguard who has to protect a prince because people want to kill him, and that's it.

...well, that's the premise of the initial episode....but there are 25 other episodes that build on it. I would say that Moribito is not the anime for you if you're looking for constant plot twists or revelations....but as for mystery or interesting characters, I don't think those are lacking at all.

[abdulmuhsee]

Like I said, maybe I'll give Moribito another chance; I watched the first 4 episodes before but didn't pick it up since then.

[Vantek]

Your analysis of Moribito was weird indeed... I would trust that if you didn't like the first four episodes, you're not going to like the rest of it, but maybe you went wrong with verbalising what you didn't like? If anything, it was a bit slow, and that's plenty of reason not to like it, but there's no way I would say that it's somehow with way less mystery or plot twists than some other titles in your list.

It's kinda hard to give recommendations based on that list, because there are so many different stuff in it!

Death Note --> Monster, Higurashi, mayybe Code Geass (I didn't like it, but many people think it's the best ever, and the plot twists every 5 minutes, I'll give it that)

Ergo Proxy --> Serial Experiments Lain comes to mind, though I haven't seen either yet lol. Maybe Paprika as well, I have seen that and liked it, it's an I feel more lighter-mood mystery/thriller that has pretty wacky stuff in it.

Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto Shippuuden --> Bleach is the obvious reccommendation, people are starting to get disgruntled now but the beginning was solid and it's easy to skip the fillers. Hunter x Hunter is also a member of this guild.

And of course, I am dying to recommend Claymore because it's my favourite anime... But there is no reason to based on the list :P Except I have watched less than 20 animes, and you only named 11, but I know 6 out of the few ones you named, and liked them.

[Haak]

I would have to recommend Casshern Sins.

[calebbeats]

if you like naruto try bleach or soul eater

soul eater is like naruto in the action catagory but its more along the lines of action/comdey/horror (and i only put horror in their cause of its multiple references to horror and no actually because its scary) revovles around 7 main characters one of em is annoying like fairy tail but the rest didnt get on my nerves so i do recommend this one

bleach..... i really dont wanna talk about a popular anime.... just google it!! haha ull find plenty of forums

good luck i hope i was of some help XD

[Reckoner]

HMMMM

I have one recommendation for you, and for recommendation only. All anime fans should be forced to watch it anyways.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

It's technically a mecha, but I'd ignore that. This story is more about the characters involved than anything, but the plot is still VERY intriguing. Do not watch REBUILD of EVANGELION until you have watched the original series.

[abdulmuhsee]

Well, I'll have to try some of those suggestions, but I still haven't had a chance to watch Monster.

And yes! I also did watch Claymore in the past and really did like it, but just didn't add it to the list.

As for Bleach, for whatever reason, I just couldn't stand it. I'm not a huge fan of 'high-school-kid goes superhero and easily takes on monsters 15x his size!' kind of thing. Definitely popular, but I didn't like it; I even went through 10 episodes waiting for it to interest me before I finally realized that it just wasn't my thing.

The same fate went to Casshern; a skinny megaman-like pretty-boy takes on giant metal-clad robots with ease and the show opens with him taking out a whole army of them..... I just couldn't latch on.

I'l definitely have to look up Serial Experiments Lain, since Ergo Proxy is my favorite anime to date, since it was the only anime that, in addition to a strong plot that keeps you guessing, believable characters with emotions and personalities that are developed, unique, and not cliche, also sported epic, uber-cool fight scenes that were extremely well animated and not lame, uninteresting battles like Bleach.

Thanks for the suggestions, and please don't take offense if I said something bad about an anime you happen to like, since everyone has different tastes.

[Vantek]

I don't know if Serial Experiments Lane is all too similar to Ergo Proxy, just an association pops up in my head. Don't have too high expectations :P

I think you might also like Berserk, considering you liked Claymore. It's also a swordfight anime with dark rather mature atmosphere. But be warned that the first episode is unlike the rest of it. I was at that time looking for animes exactly like the first episode of Berserk and got my hopes way too high based on first episode and then was disappointed that the rest of it wasn't similar.

[Haladflire65]

You have a lot of anime on your list that I like, so I'll give you some of my favourites...

Gundam 00, if you're willing to try out mecha.
Baccano! and Durarara!!, they both have action and good plots, but that's if you can get used to the puzzle-like storytelling
I second Monster.
BTW, have you watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood?

[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by abdulmuhsee

I'l definitely have to look up Serial Experiments Lain, since Ergo Proxy is my favorite anime to date, since it was the only anime that, in addition to a strong plot that keeps you guessing, believable characters with emotions and personalities that are developed, unique, and not cliche, also sported epic, uber-cool fight scenes that were extremely well animated and not lame, uninteresting battles like Bleach.

Thanks for the suggestions, and please don't take offense if I said something bad about an anime you happen to like, since everyone has different tastes.

Well I still say you should watch Evangelion... Ergo Proxy is my 2nd favorite anime, and it's 2nd for a reason .

But ignoring Evangelion, I'd also suggest Texhnolyze, another dystopia setting and not as much mind fuck as Lain is. It happens to be my third favorite show. It is a very slow show though, but considering your liking of Proxy, you probably wouldn't mind it. The main character doesn't even talk for at least 2 episodes if I remember .

And if those don't work out I suggest watching Paranoia Agent for a unique flavor.