Anime Primer
 

After watching Millenium Actress from a recommendation from Flippy Shark, I have to say I was blown away by the level of sophisitication of both story and imagry. Obviously this genre has exploded between my childhood viewing of Kimba, Speed Racer, and UFO Diapolon and today.

I've laready been delving into the Studiuo Ghibli offereings, but after a recent trip to Tokyo seeing stores stuffed full of animation action figures, I know there is sooo much I'm clueless about.

I know all genres have their good and bad represetations, so I'm asking help from those of you in the know - what do you consider the classics of Anime? What recommendations would you make to someone like me, who's just scratched the surface?

One of my favorite subjects. I'm more well versed in TV series than feature length, so that's where my recomendations lie, though they do take more of a time commitment to fully enjoy.

Chris, I think you specifically would enjoy Nadia: Secret of Blue Water. It's loosely based on 20,000 Leagues, and in turn Disney's Atlantis is loosely based on Nadia. Very entertaining adventure story.

A common theme in anime is the end of the Samurai age in Japan, as the government embraced the use of firearms and Samurai were being forced to give up their swords. My favorite series from that genre is Ruroni Kenshin. Beautifully animated, great characters. And it's fairly non-serial (there are some larger story elements that progress through the series as characters are introduced or written out but for the most part each episode is self contaiend), so it's easy to stop and start at your leisure.

The ever popular mech-suit genre is headlined by Macross. There's a lot of material in the Macross series, but Macross Plus is my favorite, an excellent movie.

That's the top of my head list.

Edit: Oh, and in terms of classics, Ghost in the Shell and Akira are two must-sees.

[quote=Ghoulish Delight] Christopher, I think you specifically would enjoy Nadia: Secret of Blue Water. It's loosely based on 20,000 Leagues, and in turn Disney's Atlantis is loosely based on Nadia.QUOTE]

Correction: I believe Disney's Atlantis was loosely based on The Adventures of Crappy Crap Craperson.

Those two are already in my queue!

I'm also interested in Lupin the Third but I can never remember which one I should see. I am not as interested in the TV series as I am the features.

Just a reminder to my honey - we still have Ghibli to watch.

Most of the popular TV series have feature film versions. But it's hit and miss whether they're good or not.

GD is right on with his recommendations. I'll add:

NOIR, FLCL, Serial Experiments LAIN, Jin-Roh... (descriptions to follow, perhaps)

My Youth in Arcadia.
Galaxy Express.
And as already referenced:
Akira.
Ghost in the Shell.
Steamboy looks good, but have not yet seen it.

I'm not well versed enough in anime to know what's good, but my favorite is Grave of the Fireflies. I also liked Lain, and if you want a super creepy anime, watch Perfect Blue. I'm glad you started this thread, Euro. I love anime, but haven't seen nearly enough of it.

Oh, I loved that film! :)

Grave of the Fireflies is a Ghibli film, just not a Miyazaki flick. It was directed by Isao Takahata. Heather and I just watched his Ghibli film "Only Yesterday" (1991) last week and enjoyed it immensely.

His other two Ghiblis - 'Pom Poko' and 'My Neighbors the Yamadas' are both released today in the US (thanks, Disney!).