wanna get into anime but....

[spartan231490]

They shoulda just called it Samurai Bebop. Though, the rapping samurai turned me off for a bit when I watched it.

Haha- you ninja'd my edit, sort of. I always just skipped the opening theme. And come on, that's guy's only in ,like, one episode.

The opening theme is kinda cool after you get used to it. The ending theme called 'You' in one of the eps near the end is VERY touching though. As for the rapping samurai in the show... I guess that's just how much he stood out to impact my opinion of it.

Don't watch cowboy bebop, a lot of people like it, but in my mind, it is a horrible first anime to watch. the first few episodes (i lost interest very quickly because of this, although i'm told it changes later in) were completely disjointed and didn't have any overarching plot, this to me, is very not what most anime is like.

I'd like to point out that for the majority of anime, the first few eps are usually disjointed to allow people to get used to the setting, the overarching plot isn't usually introduced (or at least solidly) until at least the 5th episode (of a 'normal' 26 ep run) if it's not heavy (like higurashi).

True, but the first few eps of cowboy bebop are almost completely unrelated and have no overarching drive whatsoever. it's just, I'm a kickass bounty hunter, oo look pretty girl. I watched almost 10 episodes and there just wasn't anything even remotely story related, depressing.

 

[Konaerix]

Well, if you say it's not happening...Why ask?

Anyway, it depends on what you like in an anime.
Action? Romance? Comedy? Horror?
Anime is like games in the sense were every single one falls into certian catagories.
You need to know what you like and what you are looking for in order to start.

For example, if you're looking for action check out "Code: Geass" but if you like horror then "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" is a great start. Likewise, an awesome romance anime is "Toradora!" while "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yûutsu" (My personal favorite) is a show full of laughs.

I don't know what you like but I hope this helps. Seriously though, all of these are worth checking out.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Hmm, as everyone says it depends on your personal taste.
I'd say one of the best beginner anime series is Death Note, if you haven't seen it watch that.

I'd also recommend stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell SAC, Bleach, Soul Eater, Black Lagoon, D.Gray-Man, Claymore, Gankutsuou and Baccano.
Not all personal favourites, and not all childs-play, but all decent, and I think suitable for the beginner's western palette.

There are a lot of good, pretty simple anime you should watch, but until you have some understanding of japanese humour and culture I'd stick to stuff that keeps it fairly light. I see people have recommended stuff like Welcome to the NHK and FLCL. Although they are excellent anime, I think they'd scare most newcomers running for the hills

When you've seen a few try some stuff like Ergo proxy, Lain, Mushishi & Texhnolyze Good Stuff

...and also stuff like Seto No Hanayome, Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu and School rumble that are just awesome

Oh, and ignore everyone that recommends Avatar: the last airbender, because, for the 10000th time, IT ISN'T FREAKING ANIME!!!!!

 

[the lapalminator]

[quote\]

Gundam Wing was... well, cliche. I guess that works for a starter, but then when you look at almost all the other Gundam series, it's set apart. Besides, Wing's success brought us Seed and Kira Yamato so most fans have a mental block. And Hellsing was good (just got the dvds recently), but I would place it in one of those midlevel anime brackets instead of a starter.[/quote]

maybe its because i watched it near to its creation and even watching today the style and storylines still hold strong for me, the later gundams i just found harder to get into.

your right with hellsing probably but the brothers epsidoe in the original series is still one of my fave pieces of animation, so damn well done.

 

[00slash00]

-*POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR INUYASHA FANS*-
inuyasha is extremely long, about 90% filler episodes that have no reason for existing, and worst of all, it has no end. throughout the show they start about a dozen story archs and dont resolve a single one of them. its the most abrupt ending ive ever seen, its like they just ran out of money so they ended the series halfway through

SPOILERS: It ended in a 26 ep series that just finished airing recently. But good god, talk about a loooong anime. What was it, something like 8 seasons or so long?

wait they did another season so they could actually give it an ending? well thats not quite as bad. i still consider it a really annoying series though. i was just really pissed when i was watching it and it ended with "so we'll continue hunting down Nuraku" seriously?! i sat through over 100 episodes for that?! im glad they eventually provided some sort of conclusion. but if you cut out all the filler episodes im pretty sure that series would have been like a season and a half

 

[Nykal]

If your interested in a romantic-comedy then I would suggest one of my personal favorites, Please Teacher. Its really funny with great character development and a not to deep story that is not to serious but knows how to be when neccasary. Also its really short with only 12 episodes, 13 if you include the OVA

If action then I would recommend:
Hellsing-gory badassness
Historys stongest disciple kenichi-Martial arts to the extreme and very funny
Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn!-Funny with good action but kind of long
Phantom~Requiem for the phantom-amazing deep story with awsome gun fight scenes and extremely well developed characters, downside is that its only in subtitles
Afro Samurai-if you like boondocks then I say you definately need to watch this, Afro is voiced by Samuel L Jackson

Mind fuckery anime(not reccommend for newcomers)
Neon Genesis Evangelion-Mecha based with very intricate story that is considered one of the top anime of all time, though its usually hit or miss with most people
Elfin Lied-Very gory, Sadistic, and sad as hell but still a pretty amazing anime
Gantz-Gory, sadistic, big boobs, sci-fi pretty much some it up

Shounen anime
Dragon ball-One of the best animes ever, but extremely long and full of filler
Bleach-very long, starts off slow but just gets better and better but also has the filler problem
Naruto-same as previous except with ninjas
Visions of escaflowne-good anime but kind of old, not too long
Yu Yu Hakusho-kinda long but with great character devolopment

Classic mustsees
Berserk-One of the greatest stories ever with memorable characters but ends abrubtly, unless you feel like reading the manga
Fist of the North star-the father of all martail arts anime, great if you can put up with the dated graphics
Ninja Scroll-Father of all ninja anime
Vampire hunter D-Father of all vampire anime
Samurai deeper Kyo-starts out slow but well worth the watch
Rurouni Kenshin-argueably the best samurai anime out there, I recommend watching the samurai X movies first though
Great Teacher Onizuka-Really good comedy
Trigun-Just the greatest Gunslinger anime, EVER

This list should be enough to get you started, if are interested in more dont hesiatate to ask

 

[Comrade Mateo]

its just not happening asides from the boondocks

what anime should i watch to get into it?

FUCKING BACCANO. It's what got me into it, and it is my favorite anime of all time.

OF ALL TIME.

I want to summarize the story, but it would be too much. Basically, we got the 1930'es, immortals, two (yes two) groups of murderers, information brokers, Gandors, Martillos, Runoratas, sadists, pessimists, optomists, you name it.

Plus, awesome art/sound and you are left with a great anime.

Caution: It is difficult to keep up with the pace. The first four episodes will make very little sense, due to the disjointed story telling style, but once things come together (and ultimately end) you will be begging for more. Only 16 episodes.

 

[the lapalminator]

oh and samurai champloo, good soundtrack
very realistic fight scenes (and well animated)
and oddly my fave ep has no fighting in :O (graffiti battle for the win)

 

[Mr Pantomime]

One Piece. Its not that long....(Kidding, it is)

In all seriousness, I would say Trigun, Baccono!, Sengoku Basara.

Some of my obscure favourites are Peacemaker and Tokyo Underground (Not obscure like weird, just few people know them.)

 

[Upbeat Zombie]

Death Note is a great anime, I would also recommend Cowboy Bebop.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Cowboy Bebop just oozes brilliant. Brilliant English dub, brilliant characterization, brilliant action, brilliant plot, brilliant music - it's just brilliant.

But the best thing about Bebop, unlike it's action-anime contemporaries, is that it STOPS AFTER ONE SEASON, as apposed to going ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON. It has the sheer goodwill to be a neat self-contained story with small, interesting subplots every once in a while like sprinkles on a cake.

So yes, Cowboy Bebop, if not for the soundtrack, just for the fact that it has an ending.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Bleach is a good one if you really want to get into it. Inuyasha is a classic if your looking for something a bit older.

IGNORE THIS MAN.

Bleach is far from the thing you want to start off on (or watch, full stop) and InuYasha will just disappoint you.

Cowboy Bebop or Death Note are my recommendations. If you want to get into eastern stuff you'll want to ease in with western concepts.

Hellsing's all right as well (watch the OVA) if you want something awesome. And can handle gratuitous amounts of gore and then some.

EDIT: Or anything by Studio Ghibli. Spirited Away's a great place to start.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a touchy one; it's an excellent series but it's just too western in design to be considered a gateway anime. Art and mythos-wise, fine, but otherwise go with my prior recommendations.

IGNORE THIS MAN (to an extent, he has quite a few good suggestions)
Bleach is a great beginner anime if you can stand the lengthiness. Just skip the fillers and you're set! All the crap parts are taken out and the lengthiness is halved!
Bleach, unfortunately, cops a lot of crap because it's a popular multi-arc shonen. But it isn't bad!!
I definitely wouldn't say it's as bad as the other popular shonen jumps (naruto and one piece)! One piece is bearable, but naruto is the most overrated piece of turd that ever shouldn't have existed.

But I digress, watch Bleach.
And as I have also recommended and Lord Krunk also suggests, watch bebop and Death Note.
oh, also as Lord Krunk mentions, don't watch Avatar. At least not under the mask of 'anime'.


...and yeah. Inuyasha will only disappoint you...


Oh, and as I forgot to mention in my earlier post, ignore anyone that mentions the words 'English Dub'.
Dubbed 'anime' (i use quotation marks because in my opinion dubs erase all japanese-ness from anime, essentially making it a cartoon), is the most disgusting thing that ever happened to anything ever. There are VERY few bearable dubs, and I assure you, despite what people may say, Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop are not among them.
Unless we're talking DBZ or Pokemon, the 'D' word should not be uttered.

 

[LBringer]

-*POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR INUYASHA FANS*-
inuyasha is extremely long, about 90% filler episodes that have no reason for existing, and worst of all, it has no end. throughout the show they start about a dozen story archs and dont resolve a single one of them. its the most abrupt ending ive ever seen, its like they just ran out of money so they ended the series halfway through

SPOILERS: It ended in a 26 ep series that just finished airing recently. But good god, talk about a loooong anime. What was it, something like 8 seasons or so long?

wait they did another season so they could actually give it an ending? well thats not quite as bad. i still consider it a really annoying series though. i was just really pissed when i was watching it and it ended with "so we'll continue hunting down Nuraku" seriously?! i sat through over 100 episodes for that?! im glad they eventually provided some sort of conclusion. but if you cut out all the filler episodes im pretty sure that series would have been like a season and a half

Yeah,

Spoiler

Naraku's dead

Classic mustsees
Berserk-One of the greatest stories ever with memorable characters but ends abrubtly, unless you feel like reading the manga
Fist of the North star-the father of all martail arts anime, great if you can put up with the dated graphics
Ninja Scroll-Father of all ninja anime
Vampire hunter D-Father of all vampire anime
Samurai deeper Kyo-starts out slow but well worth the watch
Rurouni Kenshin-argueably the best samurai anime out there, I recommend watching the samurai X movies first though
Great Teacher Onizuka-Really good comedy
Trigun-Just the greatest Gunslinger anime, EVER

Berserk is pretty much just the prologue arc of the manga, so keep that in mind if you want to watch it as reading the manga is almost required for any kind of closure.
Fist of the North Star was quite long, and is still getting spinoff movies.
Ninja Scroll is flat out awesome, but dated if we're talking the movie.
Vampire Hunter D is an excellent recommendation, as is the sequel for it: Bloodlust.
Kenshin is another long series.
GTO I thought about, but again while not as long as the others, it has a decent length and has other series it branches into.

 

[Justanothergamer300]

The anime versions of full metal alchemist and Soul Eater.
Both are 51 episode series and easy to get into.
And Death Note you can never have enough death note

 

[00slash00]

Higurashi no naku koro ni.

You win dude. That was an awesome, abiet dark and creepy, series.
If your into supernatural then I suggest Ghost Hunt as well. It starts pretty tame but a few cases are damn scary.

i dunno, i got bored of it halfway through the first season. the first arch was one of the greatest things ive ever seen in an anime, but for me it just lost steam after that (though this scene, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Ag1TAR-jc, was fuckin badass).

besides, i think thats probably a little intense for someones first anime. its kinda weird and confusing (though it probably makes more sense if you actually finish it)

the american dub of ghost stories is amazing. the anime was so bad that the english voice actors knew the only was it would sell is if they made fun of it. so the english dub is all improvised. its hilarious

 

[Cameron Conway]

If your into Boondocks, try rocking Afro Samurai or Samurai Champloo. Boondocks creators got inspiration from both

 

[Chronarch]

Rurouni Kenshin and Yu Yu Hakusho are really good.

 

[CrazyMedic]

I would suggest something like air gear(if you hate the ending read the manga although that goes batshit loopy like 12 chapters after the anime ends) it is funny introduces a few of the less annoying anime cliches has great action and is just cool honestly my second favorite anime of all time other then one piece but that is a long long long long anime and it is kinda like moxie some people hate it with a passion other love it for it's flaws(be ready for a kick in the pants once luffy reaches impel down if you even remember this that far down the line, all hail the zombie ass kicker.)

once you have easied yourself try gantz it might be too much later down the line gantz is awesome although like air gear it doesn't end with the manga(it has a filler ending) so you will have to switch to the manga but holy jesus best anime ever.

 

[Capnrobert]

Id reccomend gungrave or cowboy bepop or samurai champloo

 

[DarkRyter]

Anime is just a medium, so which ones you'll enjoy is incredibly subjective. Think about stuff you enjoy, look around for something interesting, and just give everything a try.