So I'm about to get into Anime...

[Zakarath]

I'd suggest Last Exile. It's a pretty action-y series set in a world that's a bit of a blend between sci-fi and steampunk, and it follows around a young pilot and his copilot/navigator on their adventures. Has adventure, a little comedy and romance, and fleets of flying battleships blasting the hell out of each other.

 

[RedmistSM]

Everyone finds something they like in Cowboy Bebop, so that's definitely worth your time. Someone mentioned Steins;gate, and that's pretty good too, an exciting time traveling thriller with focus on a small group of characters. Not all are equally interesting, but the main character is, so that helps a lot. Gurren Lagann and FLCL are great fun, lighthearted, weird and very dumb with lots of robot action. Eureka Seven had a nice romance set to the backdrop of robots surfing on the wind. So I'll back those.

Someone recommended Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Welcome to the NHK, and while those aren't bad, they aren't amazing adaptations and you'd do better to read them instead. Maybe watch some of the fights scenes in the first two, they both did a good job with those. But both Soul Eater and NHK end prematurely and Brotherhood changes some stuff because they made an adaptation years ago that had a very similar beginning and they didn't want to do the same things again.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is pretty great, but has two horrible endings. One in the series, and then a movie sequel as a second ending. They've been remaking it in movies for a while, but that's not done yet, so maybe the third ending is equally as bad.

Also, try Wakfu. It's french, thus it's not considered anime, but it was a good show IMO.
It's arguably more fantasy, but it's that weird kind of "science fantasy" hybrid style.

I just saw the first season of that show, thought it was really nice. Between Rayman Origins and Wakfu, France has made me believe in Flash animation.

 

[Weaver]

Also, try Wakfu. It's french, thus it's not considered anime, but it was a good show IMO.
It's arguably more fantasy, but it's that weird kind of "science fantasy" hybrid style.

I just saw the first season of that show, thought it was really nice. Between Rayman Origins and Wakfu, France has made me believe in Flash animation.

I also thought Nox was a wonderfully written villain!

 

[Nubrain]

Well it seems that almost everything I was going to suggest is already listed Trigun, Full Metal alchemist, darker than black, Modica Magica, GTO ROD, Baccano!, Welcome to the NHK, persona4 and Sword art online are all in my top favorites but i do have two that I didn't seem mentioned.

Blue Exorcist: a 25 episode series about a set of twins, learning to be exorcists to destroy demons and their father is Satan. the subbed version is on both Hulu and Crunchy roll

Summer Wars: This one is a movie with two interwoven stores the first about a virus taking over the digital world of OZ that humanity uses to control just about everything and the chaos this virus is making as it gets more and more power. the second is about a guy having to pretend to be the boyfriend of one of his classmates at a gathering of her huge family. the two stores become interwoven together and movie has the most bad ass grandma ever and by far the most epic math put to film. I don't know anywhere where this is streaming legally but it is a funamation movie so getting a copy shouldn't' be hard or expensive.

Though Neither are action or Si-fi I'd also recommend Mushi-shi and Beck: Mongolian Chop squad the first one is a difficult to describe but is just beautiful in both art and story it's available on Hulu and Netflix streaming. Beck is about a band it's not real action heavy but has a few moments the music is great but just make sure you watch the dub not the sub. i know some people argue about which is better in general personally I prefer dubs but i tend to take each series on it's own and there are some BAD dubs out there but this is one of the few animes that most everyone agrees the dub is better mainly because there are characters in the story that are from or grew up in america and that speak English in the sub but do so poorly.

I hope that helps some.

 

[R4ptur3]

Darker than black. Why? Because CHINESE ELECTRIC BATMAN, that's why.

Also cowboy bebop. You can't go wrong watching it.

 

[King Kazma]

I'm gona go off and say one a lot of people probably don't know.

It's an anime called Cybersix.
Originally an Argentinean comic book from the early 90's, they made an anime of it that aired in 99' on Teletoon in Canada and in Argentina. I believe it did air in Japan and it was dubbed into a few different languages.
Amazing hand drawn animation, action, mystery, monsters and some comedy. Characters get real story development and fight scenes can turn damn epic.
The story takes place in a fictional city in Argentina. I don't want to actually spoil anything now, but you can watch it on youtube. Theres only 13 episodes made but they're damn good.

Spoiler: Heres the first episode on Youtube for those interested

 

[RedmistSM]

Also, try Wakfu. It's french, thus it's not considered anime, but it was a good show IMO.
It's arguably more fantasy, but it's that weird kind of "science fantasy" hybrid style.

I just saw the first season of that show, thought it was really nice. Between Rayman Origins and Wakfu, France has made me believe in Flash animation.

I also thought Nox was a wonderfully written villain!

He was very good! I hope he gets a small cameo or something in season 2, I'd like to see him again after dealing with his problems a little.

On topic, I forgot to back Paprika. It's a good sci-fi movie about machines that.. create dreams, I believe, it's been a while. Was compared a lot to Inception when that came out some years ago, but they are only similar in the basic premise. Paprika is a lot more bananas once the dream machines get weird, you've kind of got to go with the flow at the end.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

For Sci-Fi action I'd say:
Guilty crown
Steins;Gate
Full metal alchemist
or if you want a happy ending
Full metal alchemist brotherhood

 

[MysticToast]

Not to hijack OP's awesome thread, but I feel like this would be a good time to ask. I'm just about to finish Darker Than Black as my first anime (thanks to Fappy for indirectly recommending it to me), and I really like it. Which anime would be a good one to watch next that's similar to DTB?

 

[absulute]

I dunno, Appleseed?

I haven't really seen a lot because it all seems the same to me, and I've yet to find anything that I really enjoy.

 

[Gigano]

Psycho-Pass [http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=1559] and Mardock Scramble [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.351010-Mardock-Scramble-The-First-Compression-Anime-Review].

 

[NickKuroshi0]

I'm going to second To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index). It's a really good action series, and I've yet to find anything similar (except for the spin-off series, A Certain Scientific Railgun). Railgun is entirely focused on the whole science side of things, whereas Index tends to dabble in both science and magic affairs, so you might actually prefer Railgun.

I also recommend A Certain Magical Index/ Scientific Railgun Series Both have some fun action scenes and are a lot of fun. Although Railgun does get bogged down by some filler episodes sometimes but they are not that bad.

 

[Yuuki]

Oooh, I have this thing you will find interesting, it has most of the good manga and anime sorted by genre!

Spoiler: Huge image!!

edit: link edited!!

Holy BALLS whoever made that is insane. Thank you so much for this! I'm putting together an anime library (yay for 8TB of storage XD) and this will help IMMENSELY to help me cover everything I haven't got.

Again, thanks! <3

 

[njrk97]

sci fi action, well i'm surprised no one has mentioned zoids, chaotic century and new century are the best.

Scene from new century

 

[l3o2828]

Now is there a website I can go to to find this list? Cuz I cant make it big/clear enough to tell if there is a URL somewhere on it but I wanna give the list a better browse.

Is there a higher resolution version of that? It's too pixelated to see zoomed in.

Sheep! Wrong link!!
I'm so sorry, this is the right one >> http://images.wikia.com/animu-mango/images/0/04/1001066.jpg

I spent about 30 minutes scanning that picture with my brain, and i found this is perhaps the best compilation of anime and manga i have seen so far in my entire life.

Kudos for not adding any of those shitty anime Like gantz because LOL TITS AND GORE

 

[sextus the crazy]

Steins;gate & Puella Magi Madoka Magica are two of the best SF/Fantasy series to come out recently. Give 'em both a try.

 

[Zanderinfal]

Anime recommendations thread? What a novel and new idea for a thread.

I kid, I kid.

Haha, I love that sense of humor you got there.

I'll kill you last.

Oooh, I have this thing you will find interesting, it has most of the good manga and anime sorted by genre!

Spoiler: Huge image!!

edit: link edited!!

HOLY SHIT 0_0
Well, that's certainly got some substance to it. Time to find my reading glasses.

 

[MTNK]

I never see it in these threads. Granted its not the greatest Anime but, Scrapped Princess.

What starts out as a fairly run of the mill fantasy show becomes sci-fi and the world building is great, any significantly advanced technology appears as magic after all.


Its already been said but anyone that has watched Ghost in the Shell but hasn't watched Psycho-Pass is committing a crime, fantastic show.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Hey Escapists!
I have been shrugging off getting into anime for a while now, but with nothing left to do I decided now would be a good time to get invested into some. I have ordered a box set of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex and it's on it's way as we (metaphorically) speak. Give me some good recommendations for some action-y (preferably sci-fi) animes I can watch and give reasons why if possible. All posts are appreciated (besides flamebait, obviously.)

Thanks.

I imagine you're going to get a lot of this, but my recommendations are Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. They're pretty much the definition of action sci-fi, and are very good series to boot. Classic nineties anime, though Trigun is weaker in its anime form than in its manga form - the manga is much darker and more fleshed out, whereas the anime smooths over a lot of the details and important character texture.

Aside from that, Wolf's Rain is a more modern action anime concerning a group of shapeshifting sort-of-fugitives in a polluted, rusty future. I haven't seen a lot of it, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, but it does seem good.

In terms of movies, Summer Wars and Redline (both released in 2010) are definitely worth your while. The former is a tale of an awkward teenager who uses the powers of math and Facebook to win over a dysfunctional family, while the latter is basically Speed Racer on several kinds of acid. It's better than it sounds, trust me.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Having not watched too much anime myself, I recommend Code Geass and Psycho-Pass. Code Geass gets really involved and the characters keep turning up like motherf***ers, a lot of things are set up episodes in advance, and Psycho-Pass has a very interesting concept behind the world involving thought crime.

As for NGE, maybe it gets better later, but only having just started on it (about 15 episodes in), I find it pretty ridiculous. I can never take the characters seriously, Angels quickly go from being formidable to being the soup of the day, and in many cases blatant excuses for episodes based around something or another...anyway, I'll keep watching and maybe it'll get deeper.