Sean Hollyman said:
Disregard everything, watch Dragon Ball Z.. Nothing else can compare
Did you even read the op? He said he didn't want a series in which everything ended with an explosion... I could see an argument for Dragon ball, and maybe Z up through the Frieza Arc, but the majority of Z after that is grunting, explosions and The Great Saiyaman.
Death Carr said:
Also, the obligatory anime guide I post every time one of these threads shows up.
That list lacks Lupin III, I are disappoint. >30 years and it's still chugging along, must be doing something right.
95spartans said:
Most people seem to like at least one of the big three shonen. Those are naruto, one piece and bleach with fairy tail arguably being a fourth. One piece supposedly gets a lot better as it goes on (haven't got past episode 12 yet), bleach is the opposite.
Also find out which arcs are filler's and don't bother watching them. Almost all filler's are awful.
As I understand it, Bleach was pushed out of the Big 3 in Japan. Who knew degenerating into a formulaic series where nothing happens would do that? Also, I have never actually seen anyone anywhere complain about the filler in One Piece. In fact, I've seen several people praise it as being better that the actual content in Bleach. I haven't viewed enough of either to make that call, but I can say this about One piece. Even when 4kids ripped One Piece in half and used the bits that fell out of the chest cavity to make a Frankenshow, I still found it to be watchable, though I guess not watching the real show first might have helped.
OT: It seems your problem is that you're watching the equivalent of Saturday morning cartoons. It used to be that that's all there was in America, but now we have options. Without knowing more of your interests, I'd say Durarara and Baccano fit your demand for character development. They takes the Game of Thrones style of storytelling, so every episode focuses on events from one character's perspective, and you gradually see how it all weaves together.
I'd also like to second The Big O. It's what you'd get if Batman piloted a giant robot in a noire-esque setting. The last episode is kinda wonky, but if you follow the advice of these people and can get through Evangelion, then it shouldn't be too bad.
(Seriously, due to fan complaints, the ending of EVA was changed, TWICE. I watched the series with the non-rewrite endings, and found it to be nothing special. My friends say that the movie that changes the ending totally makes it an awesome series, but I'm more inclined to judge the series based on the artists original vision, not something that was made to get fans to STFU. It's not a bad series, but my god, every character in that show was either a whiny ***** or a douchebag. I don't see how we're supposed to relate to any of them.)
All this being said, "character driven story" isn't exactly a sub-genre, could we get more specific demands? If you want to start with Giant Robots, let us know. If you want something more classic fantasy, tell us. (Escaflowne fits both of those genres and is a classic BTW). The point is, there is a metric shit-ton of good stuff out there, and narrowing the search would be helpful for you and us. (Us being the people who don't just see the thread asking about anime and drop their favorites in a post. They say the same things regardless of what the OP is asking for...)
). They're that popular for a reason. Like cyberpunk? Try Ghost in the Shell. A touch of magic? Maybe Full Metal Alchemist. Campy but cute kids' cartoons? (Come on, everyone loves some cheesy cartoons.) Maybe Digimon or Pokemon. Mecha? Evangelion, perhaps, though I'm less in touch with this area. Crazy tangled plot? Try some movies like Paprika or Akira, or a show like Baccano. Mystery/high tension modern setting sort of stuff? Death Note. Magical girls? Try Madoka.
