Cerebral Anime

[Jhereg42]

original movie is better than both series tho and they took a lot of liberties, albeit approved by masmune shirow and probly necessary, such as the cammo armour thing, cause i doubt we'd really want to see a naked bateau and all the rest

Original Masmune is a little hard on casual viewers. I loved GitS: Man Machine Interface in it's manga form, but my friend (a HUGE GitS fan) had a hard time wrapping his head around it.

That being said, yes the original movie was good. I personally thought that the first season of SAC one upped it, though. It spawned many a spirited debate amongst my circle of friends.

 

[ThaBenMan]

I don't watch many anime shows on tv, mostly just movies. I love all the Miyazaki movies, and those are pretty straightforward. One that warrants a rewatch or two is definitely Paprika.

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

Ah, excellent! Been needing a thread like this to rant about NGE. I loved that show, twas awesome in every sense of the word. Right up until The End Of Evangelion. Which just didn't make any sense. The end to the series was fine! Made far more sense to me than that ridiculous crazy shit that happened in End. If anyone would care to take a stab at telling me what the hell that bullshit ending was all about then feel free to tell me because it's been pissing me off since I watched it.

Aside from that...

Akira makes more sense the more you watch it and if you ignore the science-babble and some of the inconsistencies. Watching both versions (since they have different translations) also helps. Stand Alone Complex is very awesome and I'm also a huge fan of Miyazaki, especially Laputa: Castle In The Sky.

 

[Sylocat]

The only reason Neon Genesis Evangelion was confusing was because Hideaki Anno was making the whole thing up as he went along, and he didn't care enough to keep track of what he had said.

If you're looking for a trippy anime, I'd recommend Azumanga Daioh. It's got very surreal humor, even though there's nothing supernatural about it. I could also recommend The Vision of Escaflowne, that got real weird towards the end.

For a really moving experience, one that's both intellectual and emotionally gripping, I recommend the movie The Place Promised in our Early Days, by Makoto Shinkai, it's one of the most original movies I've ever seen in any genre of any country.