First Anime (Sortof)

[Ossian]

I've been really standoffish about Anime since as long as I can remember. Sure I watched Pokemon and Yogioh but they were just marketing for toys (can't believe I actually enjoyed them for a time...)
Anyways, I've watched Avatar the last Airbender and I believe it is probably in the top 3 of my favorite cartoons. What I want now is to actually watch a real Anime, the kind people normally are discussing when I avoid them like the plague.
Problem is I really don't like much spiritual stuff like demons and spirits, and wikipedia isn't much help so I'm relying on you lot to help me out.
The only clue I have so far is Full metal alchemist because it is about the only one I've heard of other than bleach, and I don't want to watch that.

So I have two questions.
1. What series to start off on. Please no pet series, something that I might enjoy being a first timer.

2. Dubbed or not dubbed? I heard some people think it is better to watch with subs. I like reading so this wouldn't be a problem if it is indeed better.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

My first was ether Dragon Ball Z or Gundam Wing on toonami.

 

[YoUnG205]

Claymore,
Hellsing,
or Death Note these are really popular and I think they would be good for some one to get into anime. All are dubbed if you need.

 

[CaptainAverage]

Dragon ball Z? I enjoyed, and the dubbing is awesome, voiices are believable and there are tons of stories easily accessible on the Internet.

 

[MikailCaboose]

I'll point you to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Great mech-warrior series, though very religious in reference material (especially Old-Testament stuff). Also has quite a bit of psychological plot bits as well. Although, it can get a bit...confusing. I'd also say that the English Dub isn't actually all that bad (although side-character voices can be a bit iffy). Plus the German used in the Japanese dub is...bad. Very bad. Then again, I'm kinda used to it as well, but if you get it from say...Netflix, you can make that decision on your own as the DVD they have is the Platinum set, which has both options.

Then there's Code Geass, but I haven't even watched that one yet so I can't say much about it.

EDIT: Oh, and Hellsing. Try to get the OVA, and I prefer the English dub. Because of setting, it feels more natural and proper that way.

 

[D0WNT0WN]

DragonBall Z on Toonami back in the day.

 

[monstersquad]

Full Metal Alchemist is actually a great place to start my friend. I went through that progression myself. I never watched anime series, only movies, then my friends and I got into Avatar. And when that went on like a year-long hiatus between episodes, we filled the void with Full Metal Alchemist. But here's a warning. Almost all anime will involve some sort of spiritualism. It's unavoidable, but usually handled pretty well. Just open your mind a little bit, and you should be okay. It generally doesnt bash you over the head with it.
But you should also check out Breach(Bleach), despite your intial misgivings. It gets so super-duper cool when they go into the Death God city, what with all the captain's super powers and sich. Ooh, also check out Gantz. It's super fucked up, but also very entertaining.

 

[The Procrastinated End]

Other then Pokemon and all that my first was probably Gundam Wing, but that was a long time ago.
You could go with Code Geass for a first, hell it was the first I watched after becoming a major fan of anime.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Cowboy Bebop

It's not my favourite show, but it's usually well loved even by people that dislike anime. No spiritual stuff or monsters, just sci-fi.

edit. Wait a tick, you don't like spiritual stuff but you like Avatar: The Last Airbender?.........Hmmm.

 

[Daemascus]

Moble Suit Gundam. Still my favorite gundam series.

 

[Matt_LRR]

I've been really standoffish about Anime since as long as I can remember. Sure I watched Pokemon and Yogioh but they were just marketing for toys (can't believe I actually enjoyed them for a time...)
Anyways, I've watched Avatar the last Airbender and I believe it is probably in the top 3 of my favorite cartoons. What I want now is to actually watch a real Anime, the kind people normally are discussing when I avoid them like the plague.
Problem is I really don't like much spiritual stuff like demons and spirits, and wikipedia isn't much help so I'm relying on you lot to help me out.
The only clue I have so far is Full metal alchemist because it is about the only one I've heard of other than bleach, and I don't want to watch that.

So I have two questions.
1. What series to start off on. Please no pet series, something that I might enjoy being a first timer.

2. Dubbed or not dubbed? I heard some people think it is better to watch with subs. I like reading so this wouldn't be a problem if it is indeed better.

Cowboy. Bebop.

It's only 26 episodes, it's straight up sci-fi action, and not too heavy on the convolution. Great Characters, Amazing soundtrack.

It's impossible to go wrong with Cowboy Bebop.

-m

 

[More Fun To Compute]

A lot of people were introduced with Cowboy Bebop since it isn't overloaded with Japanese pop culture references and has a good English dub.

 

[Ossian]

Okay, good suggestions all, I think I'll start um... aquiring some of them... uhm..

What about the dubbed vs sub thing? Not really getting much feedback in that department.

 

[Avayu]

I was in a similar situation until recently. I always thought Anime kind of strange, you know, the Japan stuff. But then, just a few weeks ago, I got to watch Ghost in the Shell. There are two movies which are both good (although the second one was a hell of a lot confusing for me), but what real got me was Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex.

It's about Japan in the near future, where more and more people are cyborgs and the line between man and machine blurs. It's a kind of political thriller following a special police unit called Section 9, and there is a lot of action but also relatively deep characters and it doesn't shy away from the philosophical question which arise in such a world of tomorrow.

From what I've hear and read so far, the dub for this series seems to be superb, so I don't see a reason to see it with subs, but I'm no specialist in this field.

 

[Leemaster777]

I really can't recommend Death Note enough... but it does include spiritual stuff (the focus of the series is on the humans, though, so maybe you'll still like it.)

Despite what others here are saying, you'd probably be better off starting with the original Dragonball, rather than Dragonball Z. I may be in the minority here, but I really do prefer the original over Z. I just found the original funnier, and the fights didn't take 20 freaking episodes to finish (okay, some of them did take multiple episodes, but those are in the minority).

Ranma 1/2 is another good place to consider. It's funny as hell, and it's... original, to say the least.

 

[One Seven One]

I recommend School Days if you like a serious tone kind of anime.

I don't think there's even a fandubbed version of it so go with subbed.