Anime for people that have never watched anime

[kickyourass]

Recommendation AVOID FLCL, it's a good anime I can't stress that enough, but it's absolutely essential that you build up a strong tolerance for anime style insanity or you brain might melt out through your urinary tract.

Start with a few in each Genre to see what you like, there's alot of anime so be ready to experiment alittle.

 

[Hollock]

cowboy bebop, Trigun, or full metal alchemist

as a side note has anyone seen fairy tail? is it any good?

 

[Enigma6667]

Elfen Lied. I hate anime with a passion, and I'm gonna go so far to say that Elfen Lied is pretty much a masterpiece.

 

[A random person]

It's generally agreed that Cowboy Bebop and anything by Miyazaki/Ghibli are excellent gateway series. I'd also recommend Kino's Journey; it's kinda like the Twilight Zone, only with a (somewhat) connected world, a main character, and minus Rod Serling.

Oh, and Baccano, especially if you're a Taritino fan.

Elfen Lied. That's what I started with, and it got me hooked .

Elfen Lied. I hate anime with a passion, and I'm gonna go so far to say that Elfen Lied is pretty much a masterpiece.

I find this liking of Elfen Lied rather odd; the series almost plays out like a list of things people hate about anime.
Cutsy art style? Check.
Gratuitous violence and nudity (yes, this has been cited)? Check.
Rather creepy fanservice? Check (one of the traumatized characters wets her diaper somewhat fetishistically).
Dumb female characters who are essentially very moe housepets with high-pitched verbal tics? That's a big check!
Massive amounts of melodrama? Scratch that last one, this is a big check.

 

[Gigano]

I've recently introduced a friend to animé through Death Note, and she's loving it so far (28 episodes in). It's very accessable to western audiences, and a fine animé with a great dub to boot as far as I'm concerned.

Spice & Wolf may work out as well for some people. It's slow, character-driven, and has beautiful art, as well as pretty much only internationally applicable themes (Trade economy, religious oppression, interplay between the sexes). Best watched subbed though (the dub is actually pretty good, but the sub is simply sublime).

 

[Rensenhito]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned Samurai Champloo (and I can't be bothered to look), but it's an AMAZINGLY cool anime.

 

[leviathanmisha]

Is it weird that I started with Hellsing?

NOPE! I started with Inuyasha, but that was before I was gifted with the internet!

 

[KingKamor]

If you want normal samurai stuff and sword fighting, you can't go wrong with Rurouni Kenshin. But if you want something more recent, try the movie Sword of the Stranger or the series Samurai Champloo.

If you want guns and action, try Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, or even Baccano if you can stand the sometimes hard-to-follow storytelling.

For mecha, Gundam Wing would be the best place to start, but I don't know if it's on Netflix. But if you want the manliest mecha out there, go for Gurren Lagan or Getter Robo.

If you want to dive right into the weirdness anime can offer, just go and watch FLCL.

I'm not familiar with Netflix's library, though, so some of these might not be there.

 

[fearofthemind]

If your hoping for a good mind f*#k, then watch Akira. Seriously, that movies weird. That or Gurren Lagann is a good start.

 

[Spy Killer]

FLCL 1000 times over.

Do not listen to this person unless you want to see something that's so incoherent that it transcends random.

Samurai Champloo. Only anime so far that was able to hold my interest all the way through. It's fast paced, the fight scenes are cool, it's about 20 episodes long, and it's not extremely up its own ass in unnecessarily complicated mythology.

Hey now. The first time my uncle let me drink he gave me a bottle of scotch and said to have at it. If this uncle wants to get his kid hammered with a fucking guitar then that's his perogative.

 

[Spy Killer]

Is it weird that I started with Hellsing?

NOPE! I started with Inuyasha, but that was before I was gifted with the internet!

Me to. I really think that it is an amazing place to start at, that show has it all.

 

[rabidmidget]

The first anime I ever watched was Death Note and I would highly recommend it, especially for a first time watcher.

Other animes that I think would be suitable are: Cowboy Bebop, FLCL (funny, but is very fast paced and can be confusing), Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun, Soul Eater, Hellsing (there's two series, regular and ultimate, ultimate is better IMO but is incomplete).

As for movies, I would suggest ones by Hayao Miyazaki such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, they're not action filled but are very unique and entertaining.

 

[Yureina]

I'd start with Cowboy Bebop. My other personal favorites are (of course) Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd Gig.

 

[twasdfzxcv]

Like some other who have posted before, it really depends on your personal preference.

The problem with some of the anime is that you have to have some understanding of Japanese culture to appreciate it. I'd suggest you watch some US cartoon first to see if you even like the median or not, something on cartoon network probably. Then maybe you can start with all the Ghibli anime movie. Not just the miyasaki ones, but most of the old Ghibli movies are decent. Start with either Valley of the wind, totoro or graves of firefly, again depend on your personal preference. Castle in the sky and kiki's delivery are both fairly decent and have similar themes with other movies. These movies should cover a wide range of story and genre.

If you somehow dislike the art style and the median base on above movies, I'd really suggest you to steer away from anime. However if it's the story and theme that you don't like, but you have no problem with the median, then you'll probably get better suggestion when you post what you'd like to see story wise.

Edit: A word of caution is that don't blindly accept suggestions and watch a anime series base solely from this thread. Do some research first yourself.

Edit 2: The new ghibli movies are much inferior in my opinion to its earlier work.

 

[Catinks]

Fullmetal Alchemist: brotherhood
Chrono Crusade
Witchblade
Full Metal Panic!/Full Metal Panic! the second raid (if you iked the first one) and Full Metal Panic? Fummofu if you can stand both
and im probably gonna make a bunch of enemies saying this: Gurren Laggan, it isnt bad, its just... well like flcl, you have to get ur head around liking anime to wanna watch it

if you can get your head around Anime and start to enjoy it greatly THEN go flcl

also, why is death note so popular? i dislike it, like, it was alright until the love interest came into play and then everything went tits-up and the already confusing story became too much for me im sorry.

edit: also Love Hina is a good anime if you like slice of life and romance

 

[Zyxx]

A Lupin the III movie.
Like Castle of Cagliostro.
Or maybe a Miyazaki flick.

Castle of Cagliostro IS a Miyazaki flick (he directed it.)

OT:
Series suggestions:
Cowboy Bebop is a fine idea and one I heartily support. A few other suggestions:
I got my start in anime with Escaflowne. It's got a little something for everybody: action, drama, giant robots, magic, pondering the human condition. Prior to that, the only anime I'd ever really watched was Pokemon.

Wolf's Rain is very interesting, story-wise and aesthetically, and I think a first-timer could follow it pretty well.

I might tentatively suggest Noein: To Your Other Self. The elementary school drama gets a little silly, but it has a unique art style and mixes in a dose of quantum physics, if you like that sort of thing.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann IS awesome, but I recommend putting it off until you have a firm grasp of certain common anime stereotypes and concepts. A lot of the show explores/takes the piss out of these.
Similarly, the previously-suggested Lain, Evangelion and FLCL, while all fine shows, would probably be better reserved for when you have a bit more tolerance (for want of a better word.)

Movie-wise: Anything by Studio Ghibli, particularly if it's directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Princess Mononoke is my personal favorite, plenty of action and drama there, but Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Castle in the Sky, and most of the rest of the Ghibli library are all great. Sure, a lot of them are "aimed at a younger audience", but not watching them based on that only does yourself a disservice.

That's my two yen, anyway. Happy viewing!

 

[A Weary Exile]

Cowboy Bebop, Paranoia Agent, Evangelion, Samurai Champloo, and I enjoyed the first thirty or so episodes of Death Note, although there is a part where the plot just gets to ridiculous for me to bear (The last episode is good though).

I gave up on anime a long time ago, but these are the ones that I remember fondly.

EDIT: Heh, almost everyone put Cowboy Bebop first.

EDIT #2: Damn you, now I have to go watch Cowboy Bebop again! Thank the lord it's on youtube.

I agree, Death Note should have ended after the "duel" between Light and L, that's what made the show.

I don't remember that, but I gave up on the episode where they built a multi-billion dollar skyscraper for the sole purpose of catching Kira. That was just ten kinds of stupid.

 

[rayne117]

I am not responding much but I wanted to let everyone know that I'm reading every suggestion!

*Bookmarked