Gateway Anime for ~25 Year Female

[DragoZERO]

Friend of a friend is interested in anime but I don't want to suggest something she will dislike and will turn her off to anime forever. She likes the Hunger Games, Twilight and Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood.

I was thinking something like Vampire Knight, but I have never seen it so I don't know if it's good or not (can't always go by the ratings).

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

[Haak]

She'll probably like Wolf's Rain. It has a good dub as well.

She might like Guilty Crown as well.

[MisaoFan]

Before giving my suggestions, which genres of anime she likes ?

Other than that, I'll give her Vampire Knight (because she likes vampire stuff)

[Sackett]

Seems to me she likes romance mixed with some dark action and a female lead:

Lacks the romance, but I bet Madoka Magica would be a huge hit with her- as long as you can get her to commit to three episodes.

Crest of the Stars isn't that dark, but it does have action, a strong female lead, and an undercurrent of romance.

Full Metal Alchemist would probably be a good choice, although it is a little light on the romance. (Definitely go with the Brotherhood version as it has more romance). It also has a very good English dub, which might be important for a newbie.

Soul Eater perhaps? The first few episodes are a bit ecchi, but that dies down after the first 6 episodes or so. Might want to preview it first and see if that would upset her.

Mirai Nikki might be an interesting choice, a dark romance with dark action, but I don't know if she'd like a dark romance.

Neon Genesis Evangelion should also be on the list considering her likes.

Cross Game would hit the romance angle more heavily, but without the dark action, so I probably wouldn't use it as an entry, but maybe a second show to watch to show her the breadth of anime.

Ano Hana would be another romance that might appeal to her, again no action though.

[Dhomochevsky]

Shiki

Has vampires, can be quite bloody at times. Perfect mix of Twilight and Hunger Games.

[Stealther]

Don't know about your friend, but as a general rule you wouldn't want to show anything on the ecchi side, there's enough prejudices about anime already.

Death Note
FMA
Shiki
Denpa Teki na Kanojo

[MisaoFan]

Given that she likes dark animes filled with action and romance, here's my list :

Black Butler : it's dark, has black comedy and a bit of action, sets in Victorian setting with some mystery/supernatural and a little bit of romance.

Pandora Hearts : looks less darker and more comical than Black Butler (but still), filled with some action, some romance, some mystery with loads of fantasy/supernatural elements.

[Eragon]

I will second Death Note - probably the best way to get her into anime if she doesn't have any preferences.
Blood+ maybe, but she may not like it. But then again if she likes Twilight then she probably won't mind this.
And I agree with the opinion of not showing her anything ecchi.

[Elegance]

*Death Note - good to start out with
*Clannad - for a romance
Cross Game - For sports
*Vampire Knight - for shoujo
*Steins;Gate - for Psychological
Fate Stay/Night and Fate Zero - for tournament like action (never read Hunger Games)
*Angel Beats - sounds enjoyable
Usagi Drop or Nodame Cantabile - relaxing
Amagami SS - for a light hearted romance

*Believe she will like by looking at the what she likes >.<

[Eragon]

^ Yeah, forgot Clannad - espscially if she likes romance without action

[MisaoFan]

I'll also show her Black Cat and Buso Renkin : both are typical shounen anime consisted of two-cour (24-26 episodes) but look better than most generic mainstream shounen.

[Drob_QB7]

Maybe you should suggest Soul Eater - Comedy,Action and a nice plot.

[SeijiSensei]

My first recommendation would be Hataraki Man, a comedy about a 28-yo female magazine editor. It takes a bit of work to find, but it's out there.

My next suggestion would be Kuragehime, or "Princess Jellyfish" in the English rendition, about a quintet of geeky women with a variety of otaku (in the broad sense) tastes.

Other strong recommendations include

Seirei no Moribito, a beautiful series about a 30-yo female bodyguard entrusted with the protection of a young prince;

Twelve Kingdoms, a fantasy drama about a young woman who is whisked off to find her true destiny in a mysterious kingdom;

Saiunkoku Monogatari, another fantasy drama about a young woman who aspires to become her country's first female official; and,

Nodame Cantabile, which stars a haughty young would-be conductor and a ditzy, but talented, female pianist.

If she's open to a more unusual show with a tragic bent, I'll suggest Bakeneko.

[Kirito]

Here's my list of favourites that your friend will like:

To Aru Majutsu no Index
Toradora
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Oreimo
Air

I think she'll really like these.

[xxanimefan4_ever]

Welcome to the NHK!
I personally love this anime (I liked it from the 1st ep and started loving it from ep 2 or 3 or something) and it sorta has an adult feel as in it's not chlidish. Like there's fanservice type stuff (is the word explicit better fitting but then by saying explicit it sounds like i'm talking about something else lol) in it but rather than fanservice it's more like it's there because it's rated R... and it's not unnecessary because it's the main character's delusions for the most part. This anime is weird and so it's sorta unclear who you should recommend it to. I just found it really interesting in general and very enjoyable to watch though if you told me about the anime before I watched it, I would be like why would i want to watch that. It has comedy and drama. It's the #1 anime for me out of 2006.

Oh and vampire knight sucks balls in my opinion (the anime at leasst... the anime thinks that they're developing romance by making the characters "accidentally" fall and trip into sex positions every other episode) and compared to twilight it's like less complicated??

I guess I second Death Note. It's sorta boring/slow at times but may be since it's her first one so maybe it won't really matter.

[tyranuus]

Kanon, Toradora and Shiki would be good shouts.

Kanon I recommend as better than Clannad. Although it starts off slow it really picks up second arc. Clannad is very good but you need to watch After Story to really appreciate it and 50 episodes might be too much for someone new to the medium. I've not seen it but the girl I'm seeing loves Chobits so that's also perhaps worth checking.

[Imako]

I don't know about Twilight/True Blood, but The Hunger Games and Mirai Nikki share the same basic "kill each other for survival" element, so chances are if she loved Katniss and Peeta, she'll love Yuno and Yukiteru. It can get spectacularly violent at times though.

Seconding all the recommendations for Shiki too.

[SeijiSensei]

I'll also suggest two movies, Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke and Kon's Millennium Actress. For someone relatively new to anime, a two-hour movie is often easier to handle than a multi-episode series.

Sadly neither of these has yet been released on Blu-ray in R1. I suspect we might see a new version of Mononoke Hime in the next couple of years, but Millennium Actress will probably only be available on DVD.

I'll also toss in REC, a lovely romance you can watch together in an evening.

[raduccio]

25 year old female.. can't you just recommend her some josei stuff.
Nana is pretty famous (never seen it myself).
Usagi Drop too and I have seen that and loved it.
If she's into classical music she can try Nodame Cantabile.

[kitten320]

Hate Twilight so I think Vampire Knight should go well, they have similar feeling.

True Blood is Vampire stuff, right? She can try Shiki though it is not romance strong.

If she wants drama and romance with some super natural stuff, Clannad is a good choice.

Didn't read Hunger Games nor have I seen the movie since it's not released here yet but as far as I know it is a survival game where everyone have to kill each other to survive?
Mirai Nikki is a good choice then. Fate/Stay Night is a good choice too though Fate/Zero is better but it still misses 12 episodes.

Death Note is famous since a lot of anime haters loved it so it is a good start.