The collective anime recommendation thread

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A random person

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As most of you know, there is a glut of anime recommendation threads around here. Regardless of your opinion on anime, these get rather annoying after awhile. To find a solution, I opted to make this thread and keep those searching for series to watch in a central location, which will hopefully clean up the off-topic board.

Instead of a bunch of people making a thread whenever they want a series, they can come here instead, and if this succeeds, we'll have a centralized location of people with plenty of recommendations, instead of several scattered, less-helpful threads that are more clutter than anything.

Basically, just list series you've seen and liked, what you generally want in a story, series you're contemplating starting, and other things like that here. Other users can then give you recommendations and advice based on what you say you like and/or are looking for. This way you can seek out series in a lower-profile, potentially more-helpful way.
 

delet

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Wonderful idea. Hopefully it works.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Mecha anime that is fairly standard for the first half, but shifts down a more psychological road in the second half. Though it's very hit and miss, it's widely considered required watching for any anime fan. If you're going to watch it, make sure to view the movie 'End of Evangelion' after finishing the series.

Welcome to the NHK - Slice of life about a Hikikimori - or someone who doesn't want to leave his house. It's very funny, though it can be serious.

Azumanga Daioh - Slice of life, focuses on school girls. Absolutely hilarious.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Would this classify as Slice of Life? It's a horror anime that has several arcs with no continuity to each other. It can be fairly gorey.

Just a few off the top of my head.
 

hyperhammy

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Haha, when I read the tilte, my first instinct was to write:
"OMG, use the search bar, I'm so sick of these threads!"
Guess someone is a fan of BonsaiK's work?
 

Naheal

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Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: First season starts out as a fairly typical magical girl series. Soon, though, it starts tossing out the notions that Nanoha's a completely nice character (See the OP's avatar? It's fan made, but a specific scene in the 2nd season inspired it). Once you hit the 3rd season, it's a magical girl anime in name only. At that point, it's become a blend of military drama, cyberpunk, and technomancer. My current avatar is from the 3rd season.

Lucky Star: It's Seinfeld with characters you can actually give a shit about.

Black Lagoon: It's a modern day pirate anime. I'm not even joking.
 

A random person

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hyperhammy said:
Haha, when I read the tilte, my first instinct was to write:
"OMG, use the search bar, I'm so sick of these threads!"
Guess someone is a fan of BonsaiK's work?
Note the word "collective" in the title.
And yes, BonsaiK's relationship advice thread was an inspiration here. If he's trying to make a centralized thread to clean up relationship threads (something considered even more annoying by many), then maybe I could try the same thing, just that people other than the OP will give advice.

Also, you're allowed to throw out general recommendations, which I'll do right now: Kino's Journey is a great series that avoids many aspects of anime people find annoying. It's kinda like the Twilight Zone in its premise of exploring strange countries with odd customs, not to mention surprisingly good art direction. A must-watch for anyone who thinks anime's all about power levels and tiny mini-skirts.
 

Serenegoose

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Mar 17, 2009
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This thread is a great idea, so hooray for you! :D

Series' I've seen and liked - this is a short, generic list, but here goes. :)

Ghost in the shell - quintessential cyberpunk story - a secret police branch chases down hackers, solves philosophical conundrums, and generally does cool stuff.

Cowboy bebop - usually fairly lighthearted sci-fi anime about a group of impoverished bounty-hunters on the lookout for that one big catch that sets them up for years and means they don't need to eat packs of noodles and nothing else.

Azumanga Daioh - one of the most well known slice of life animes about a group of schoolgirls (and occasionally their teachers) that manages to be absurd, surreal, and very, very funny.

Typically, I like stuff that isn't really fanservice based. Ideally it has a plot, and tries to focus on being believable (in its own world and constraints) rather than just being silly. My favourite stuff is when it focuses on a couple of characters and just watches them navigate the world, growing as people. But, I'm pretty contradictory. Azumanga has very little plot and I like that fine - some of my favourite cowboy bebop episodes are just plain silly, and if the Major's outfit in series 1 of Ghost in the Shell isn't fanservice, I don't know what is. :p
 

One Seven One

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School Days - A serious tone kind of anime that I consider to be very good.

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni - A thrilling, suspensful anime that will have you wanting more.

K-ON! - I comedic anime about a group of music lovers making a band.

I'm not good with descriptions...
 

Outright Villainy

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Full metal alchemist: My favourite anime ever, and one of the most well paced, well plotted shows, with amazing character development. I can't recommend it enough.

To contrast my recommendation of something extremely well known, I'll go with something not metnioned all that often: Claymore. It's another show that has some really great characterisation, and really kick ass female characters that never resort to any fan service.
The ending was one of those rush jobs to spin off from the manga, but other than it's near perfect, and genuinely touching in parts. And if you watch the first episode and don't like the main male character don't worry. The writers seem to become aware he sucks and give him less and less importance, and then it's all about clare. Woo!
 

Lord Devius

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I'd suggest Death Note for people who want to slowly ease into the more serious side of anime...

And Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann for over-the-top stuff.

I'm currently watching/trying to watch Speed Grapher, Code Geass, and Witchblade. Which is serious story, serious story, and semi-camp story, respectively.

So far all of them are good, but Speed Grapher is kinda weird/creepy.

Also recently watched School Days. Good, if you can deal with the tone and the last episode. Having issues with the last episode.
 

rekabdarb

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STOP WITH THE GOD DAMN ANIME THREADS FFS. Don't care if your trying to do an all encompassing one, just whenever someone asks, give a link to a prior list and/or to the anime group i'd personally guess we have.

here here is one piece. (It's dragonball but with characters that aren't 1 dimensional... and everyone besides goku actually gets stronger)

there aite he he i made a bad pun.
 

z121231211

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I am so glad to see Welcome to the NHK in the second post.

The Tatami Galaxy - Every episode goes through this guy's entire college career, him making a different decision every time. While the episodes are pretty formulaic, it's amazing to see what it all adds up to in the end.
 

Gigaguy64

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Apr 22, 2009
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Ohhh, nice idea.
Being a fan of Shonen Action and not a fan of Fanservice ill just leave a small list of great anime iv seen that focus more on Plot/Action than the Fanservice.

Tekkaman Blade:An excellent Tatsunoko series, it mixes Action, Drama, some Comedy, and Romance into a amazing 49 episode series that was way ahead of its time.
And it inspired many Tropes you see in Anime, even Anime still being made.
quite main character suddenly yelling at the top of his lunges and transforming into the ultimate badass?
Pegas... TEKK SETTER!

Rurouni Kenshin:My favorite manga, another great series that mixes Shonen Action with drama, Comedy and Tragedy.
easily one of the Best Shonen Manga iv ever read.

Baccano!:Still haven't finished it but, its been everything iv heard about it and more so far.
A really great series, its got a wonderful story featuring a lot of unique characters and a cool setting.

Vandread:This one is a rarity among Anime IMO.
Its a great Shonen Romance, mixing Action, Comedy, and Romance beautiful.
Its got Echi Fanservice but its not that much, and about halfway through the series it ditches it to make room for more plot and character development.
But it doesn't loose the humor and spirit that makes it a blast to watch.
 

KefkaCultist

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Jun 8, 2010
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Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni - (My favorite) It'll keep you watching more to find out whats going on; sometimes pretty violent. The english dubs aren't too good however
Elfen Lied- Cool anime and pretty violent
FLCL - short, weird, funny
Death Note - Good anime, but the loss of a character made it lose my interest a little bit
Slayers - It's kind of older. Fantasy based with some interesting characters
Inuyasha - It was my 1st anime and I haven't seen it in forever but I remember liking it

I don't really watch a lot of anime, but those are the ones I've seen a lot of.
Also, I hope the collective anime thread works out.
 

Jfswift

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I'll just give a brief description of my favorites to see if you'd like any of them:

Wolf's Rain: Very strange world (like earth, hundreds of years from now) where Nobles (powerful nobility with mystic powers and technology) and wolves (they're intelligent and can take the form of humans) clash, some seeking paradise, other's seeking love and power. It has a great soundtrack too (very moody and cool).

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The story of a kid named Shinja who lacks confidence and just wants attention from his cold father, who runs a secret military organization formed to combat Angels. Shinja finds out that he is one of the very few that can pilot an Eva and only does so initially to please his father. The show goes from typical mech battles to deeper psychological aspects (as mentioned by Aby_Z above).

Patlabor Mobile Police. I recommend seeing the Patlabor The Movie (1989), since it's the only one I own and it's pretty good. Basically it's slightly in the future and everyone uses mechs called "Labors" to help with work and stuff, only they all start going crazy and it's up the police force SV.2 to figure out why. It's actually a pretty cool movie with some eerie parts toward the end.
 

KefkaCultist

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Jfswift said:
Wolf's Rain: Very strange world (like earth, hundreds of years from now) where Nobles (powerful nobility with mystic powers and technology) and wolves (they're intelligent and can take the form of humans) clash, some seeking paradise, other's seeking love and power. It has a great soundtrack too (very moody and cool).
That one sounds cool. Ill have to look for it and watch it.

Also I recommend Trigun to people. Ive only seen a few episodes but my friend loves it and I liked what I saw
 

Gigano

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Oct 15, 2009
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Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When they Cry): Horror/mystery/Psychological. Some Ultraviolence. Simply sublime. 51 episodes (Rei does not exist)

Spice & Wolf: fantasy/romance/drama/economics(?). 26 episodes so far.

Baccano!: Ganster drama/action/horror/mystery/comedy. Much Ultraviolence. 16 episodes.

Monster: Noir thriller with plenty other themes done single episode or as underlying traces. Some violence. 74 episodes

These would be the one's I've enjoyed the most.
 

Au Naturel.

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Clannad - A show that centers entirely around the characters. It starts with an upperclassman named Okazaki Tomoya who doesn't care about his studies and is often considered a delinquent. But his life takes a dramatic turn when he meets a young girl named Nagisa Furukawa on the way to school. It's very funny and it's bound to make you teary eyed now and then. http://myanimelist.net/anime/2167/Clannad

Elfen Lied - A dark anime with a great story and great characters. It is about the Diclonius, an evolved human race that is said to be the end of humanity. It introduces many characters, all of which are very interesting, and it tells a very good story of betrayal, love, suffering and discrimination. It is very violent, dark, and sad. But it is very very good! http://myanimelist.net/anime/226/Elfen_Lied

Black Rock Shooter - A story of two friends. A story of two enemies. I can't think of a good way to describe it right now, but it has great action, great characters, great art design and was really fun to watch. It is all based on characters created by one of my favorite artists, huke. http://myanimelist.net/anime/7059/Black%E2%98%85Rock_Shooter

Serial Experiments Lain - A great psychological story about a young girl named Lain who, through a series of strange occurrences, realizes that nothing is what it seems to be, not even Lain herself... http://myanimelist.net/anime/339/Serial_Experiments_Lain

Azumanga Daioh - An amazingly hilarious slice of life anime. It's just so absurd and lovable! http://myanimelist.net/anime/66/Azumanga_Daioh