Recommend me and Anime... But not why you'd think.

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Infernai

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You could Always try Berserk that's not abou- err...actually, might not wanna show her that one.

Well, there's always Trigun, that's a fun series and Cowboy bebop's already been recommended.
 

Zoe Castillo

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Show her a Miyazaki film
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Howl's Moving Castle

All of them amazing and can be watched with family
 

Sunrider

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Fishehh said:
So I was watching "Wagnaria!!" earlier and my mother saw this and told me off about.

How can I convince her that not all anime is tentacle rape?

Anyone know of one? (I was thinking GOSICK but I don't know)
Maybe something along the lines of Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma [http://myanimelist.net/anime/345/Eikoku_Koi_Monogatari_Emma] (Emma: A Victorian Romance). It's not outrageous in any way, it's a fairly slow-paced love story. No violence, no superpowers. Perfect for the task if you ask me.

-Dragmire- said:
Nodame Cantabile, it's a comedy drama anime about learning and playing classical music.
This is another good example.
 

akibawall95

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Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, it has little to no sexual themes but does have some blood and gore.
 

GotMalkAvian

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PTSpyder said:
FLCL *Fooly Cooly*

Why you ask?

No tentacles, no rape, no directly or overtly or excessive sexual themes, no blood guts or gore. So what does it have? Great story, great action, great characters and complex symbolism and storytelling mechanisms. Plus, only 6 epps long. Full of win, no matter how many times you watch it.
Eh, that's a tricky one. Sure, no obvious sexual content, but the whole series is a metaphor for puberty and the sexual awakening that comes with it.
 

Iron Mal

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Fishehh said:
So I was watching "Wagnaria!!" earlier and my mother saw this and told me off about.
I'm assuming that would be because of something inappropriate or wrong in it? (hell, when I was 16 my Mum still flipped out about me playing Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy because you could make guards eat their own shotgun)

For the sake of making this easier, how old approximately are you? (if you'd prefer to keep it as a generic statement of 'teenager/adult/preteen' then that's understandable)

How can I convince her that not all anime is tentacle rape?
To be fair, there is a large section of anime that is tentacle rape (largely because of a legal loophole rather than any actual fan request).

But the best way to shake away a negative stereotype of something like this is to show examples of it simply not living up to that stereotype, these examples don't need to be magnum opuses or grand masterpieces, they just have to be fairly enjoyable (and preferably something a non-anime fan can get into) and free of any overtly sexual imagery.

Anyone know of one? (I was thinking GOSICK but I don't know)
I'm not sure what age group I'm reccomending for here and I'm not a huge anime fan myself but the following might help clear the air up a bit:

-Ghost in the Shell

-Pokemon (it is technically an anime)

-Berserk (if excessive gore and sadism isn't a problem)

-Cowboy Bebop

-Princess Mononoke

-Most anime shows that were adapted for TV broadcast

Not a very long list (again, I'm not really an anime fan) but those should hopefully be some good choices that are all tentacle rape free.
 

tahrey

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keideki said:
I should think the answer to this question is obvious. Any Studio Ghibli film would work in this situation. Try Spirited Away, or Kiki's Delivery Service.
This, very much so, as they are my usual counter argument to the "anime is bad and you're a pervert for watching it" arguments*...
...but, I'd start with Totoro and Laputa instead. Maybe Arriety if you can get hold of it. Or if you want something that's a little less explicitly "U(c)" rated, Cagliostro and Porco Rosso, which would have been cult hits if made live-action in hollywood.

They all have engaging stories, and some emotional parts, but are still about as family-friendly as it's possible to get. It's like Disney but with more intelligence, no cute talking pets, and far less twee singing.

Ordinarily I might have included Nausicaa, but... yknow. Ohmu. She might have a flashback. Also with the mud monster in Spirited Away, in fact. Mononoke has somewhat too much chopping-off of arms and all that, plus something that more or less IS a tentacle beast, but without the rape.

Kiki / Whisper / Cat Returns put you slightly at risk of being considered a bit ... girly. Even though they're brilliant movies when you actually come to watch them. Howl is a bit too out there. Ponyo, very babyish. Pom poko... TESTICLES EVERYWHERE. And all the others (Grave, Yamadas & so on...) too dry / sad / ethnocentric / etc to be an "easy" introduction.

Or if you need it condensed into a 4 minute pop video, tell her to search youtube for "On Your Mark Chage Aska" and to ignore the music.

And, OMG, there's so much more you could use from other studios, as demonstrated in the rest of this thread (CB would be a definite pick). Just be sure to pre-vet your choice, because there's a few dodgy ones come up.


(* though, I've recently been led to realise, they would all spontaneously combust in the face of an "anime is racist and exclusively full of white people" attack... I don't think I can name even one Ghibli character who's more than slightly tanned (aka redneck japanese) :-/ )
 

tahrey

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Iron Mal said:
-Ghost in the Shell
-Pokemon (it is technically an anime)
GitS is a good one if she can take a bit of slightly more hardcore sci-fi matrix type stuff (given that it was the basis for that, but it was of course dumbed down and toned down for hollywood release).

Pokémon IS an animé. Not technically, but through and through. It may have been dubbed and slightly edited for international syndication, but so was DBZ and Sailor Moon.
It's a fun cartoon, but I'd be wary about trying to use it to win an argument with your mother about the suitability of animé as sophisticated viewing material lest she check you in for remedial classes. There's a reasonable plotline and the odd joke thrown in for benefit of any parents that are watching, but it's definitely kids' stuff.

If we're going to go along the Technically Animé route, how about Avatar, or The Mysterious Cities of Gold? That last one leaps off a literary classic in the same way as Lupin or Laputa does (...or Nadia - which would be a good choice if only there was a tolerable dub available - or the more cartoony Adventures of Willy Fogg :D) and is decidedly not your usual saturday morning cartoon OR big eyed squeaky voice inscrutiable Weird Japanese Thing.
 

AttemptingReason

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GotMalkAvian said:
PTSpyder said:
FLCL *Fooly Cooly*

Why you ask?

No tentacles, no rape, no directly or overtly or excessive sexual themes, no blood guts or gore. So what does it have? Great story, great action, great characters and complex symbolism and storytelling mechanisms. Plus, only 6 epps long. Full of win, no matter how many times you watch it.
Eh, that's a tricky one. Sure, no obvious sexual content, but the whole series is a metaphor for puberty and the sexual awakening that comes with it.
I think you guys are missing the forest for the trees. Setting aside the sexual content (which isn't *that* subtle, btw) ask yourself if there's anything about FLCL that would appeal to a (presumably) middle age and (apparently) somewhat conservative woman who hasn't watched more than a few glances of her son's anime.
 

SckizoBoy

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Fishehh said:
So I was watching "Wagnaria!!" earlier and my mother saw this and told me off about.

How can I convince her that not all anime is tentacle rape?

Anyone know of one? (I was thinking GOSICK but I don't know)
By showing her Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (if someone watches through all that without blubbing even a little bit, well, fuck 'em...), Gankutsuou (essentially, le Comte de Monte Cristo... IN SPACE!! ... sort of, so you can play the Philistine card), Aria (fifty-three episodes of six girls doing a whole lot of nothing except relaxing), Hourou Musuko ([HEADING=1]pre-teens with gender identity issues[/HEADING], you can't get more anti-tentacle rape than that). Don't think any of these have been mentioned thus far... oops, lCdMC has been, but another recommendation wouldn't go amiss.

That ought to cover most bases... especially that last one...
 

Robert Ewing

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Ano Hana, baka to test. Urrrgh, too many to naaaame.

I suggest you look for a drama anime or a slice of life one, they're easy enough to find.

Alot of them are really hard hitting and meaningful, they're a good place to start.

And Anime's tenticle porn division is an incredibly small division of hentai, which in turn is an incredibly small division of 21+ anime (I forget what the category is called)

Seriously, there's loads.

Action, Martial arts, Shoujo, adventure, mecha, shoujo Ai, bishounen, music, shounen, comedy, mystery, shounen Ai, demons, ninja, slapstick, drama, parody, slice of life, ecchi, psychological, sports, fantasy, reverse harem, supernatural, harem, romance, thriller, horror, samurai, tragedy, josei, school life, vampire, magic, sci-fi, mahou shouju, seinen aaaaaand hentai.

And those are the ones I know off the top of my head.
 

Frost27

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Jun 3, 2011
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Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, or Fullmetal Alchemist (the original run) and if she likes those, Full Metal Panic.
 

ShindoL Shill

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Jul 11, 2011
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Death Note, Darker than Black, Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell spring to mind.
and if you browse the Anime section at HMV or whatever you have in [insert country] long enough you'll find ones that are totally different, like The Girl Who Leapt through Time (havent seen it but i'm curious about it)
 

CrazyGirl17

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Sep 11, 2009
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Lesee... how about Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note, Rahxephon, Digimon, and anything by Hayo Miyazaki.
 

BlackSaint09

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Fate Stay Night.
Fate /Zero(even if she hasnt the slightest clue about whats going on)
Clannad(and if you do by any chance then PLEASE send me a PM about her reaction)
GTO(for the lulz)
Angel Beats
Darker Than Black
xxxholic?

And thats all i got. Everything else is Tentacle rape essentially... Sort of.
You westerners call it Tentacle Rape we call it ecchi.
 

Fleaman

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Moe crap like K-On! and Lucky Star is out, 'cause that's "Japan's high school girl thing", and that's still creepy. In fact, I'd recommend against any high school anime. In the 90s, the popular stigmatization of anime was gory pornographic cyberpunk, but we've since shifted over to figurine upskirts and rampant pedophelia. You'll want to distance yourself from that.

Witch Hunter Robin and Ergo Proxy are good bets, since they're so undersexed they guard the Ottoman harem. They've both got a realistic, Western-influenced style; Robin is set on contemporary Earth and Ergo Proxy is SF. They're plot-driven and kind of drab, in contrast with the colorful, cute character-driven majority of today's shows. Not really for everyone, but decent enough. Wolf's Rain has a similar style and is better than either, but you might have to answer uncomfortable questions about why you're watching all these handsome young men.

FLCL is actually not a bad choice either. A coming of age story amidst suburban ennui and hyperactive aliens and psychotic robots. It's ridiculously sexual, but via innuendo rather than skin. It's coy and clever about how secretly raunchy it is and it's absolutely unique, and it's definitely worth your time either way. Since we're mostly talking about a walk-in situation, the amount of energy on screen should give your mom an epilleptic fit, so no danger there.

Cowboy Bebop. Integrates phenomenal music with sci fi noir action. Absolutely top tier anime, and highly accessible to Western audiences - I used this to get my English dad into anime. True, Faye is in it, and she's certainly very sexy, provided that she is not moving or talking or doing anything. http://youtu.be/b_K_fu-mPNU

Samurai Champloo is hip hop stuffed into anachronistic medieval Japan. And that's awesome. It occasionally uses sex for comedy, but the female lead is highly unsexy to the naked eye and is wedged between a pair of badass ronin. A great watch, with tons of action and no unfortunate implications. It also makes a good gateway drug for Western audiences, so, as with Bebop, consider trying to get your mom to actually watch it.
http://youtu.be/z-qhxMrxDz4
Here's episode one. Requires a Youtube account to watch, since it's TV-MA.

Monster. Horror/mystery by horror/mystery prophet Urasawa Naoki. A tense crime drama without moe or sex. Very mature themes, and ideal for presenting this side of anime. Also, it's completely great and will chill your very soul.
http://www.watchcartoononline.com/monster-episode-18-english-dubbed
Here's episode 18. To my memory, it doesn't need much context to operate, and it has a lot of what makes Monster good in it. Note that the security of online viewers may be dubious.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Okay, this is really mature and is probably the smartest anime I've ever watched, full of politics and transhuman philosophy, but it does have the Major in it, and she does wear whatever she wants. So it's really good, and it presents a good side of anime, but it might kind of communicate "even when they're really smart, Japan is still weird about women".

Anything by Ghibli. I like Laputa and Kiki, personally, and Totoro was my favorite movie as a kid. Combines childlike innocence with a maturity that can be taken seriously by adults. Good watching for all ages, but some can be a bit surreal for first-time viewers.

Nodame Cantabile. Shoujo romantic comedy at a musical college. Also pretty long, so I haven't actually watched all of it. At anime club, we watched this and Demonbane. We were laughing AT Demonbane, but we were laughing WITH Nodame Cantabile.

Kino no Tabi. A young traveller explores a surreal world and visits many unusual countries. Explicitly philosophical, like Ghost in the Shell or Serial Experiments Lain. Not as good as SAC by a long shot, but doesn't require explaining the Major's wardrobe.

Finally, Cromartie High School.
http://youtu.be/ceMMFjsLHlg
This is the opposite of sex.
 

Mailman

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Big O. It has a great soundtrack, a Twin Peaks-esque storyline, and giant fighting robots.
 

Asita

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I've got to second Fleaman's suggestion of Monster. If you want your parents to respect Anime as a medium, that's about as ideal as you can get. The show is done very realistically and could honestly have been done as a live action show and lost very little. Basically, it's one of the best examples I can think of for turning preconceptions about anime on their head.