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Say, why don't you check out La Blue Girl?

Sci-Fi anime...

Blue submarine number 6. A movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Submarine_No._6

Serial Experiment Lain. A series. This is kind of like The Matrix, but creepy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain

Neon Genesis Evangelion. DUH!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. A movie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_Roh

And the one of the best anime series ever: Captain Future

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Future#Anime

And, apparently, using one's ass as a weapon!

Bren wrote:

Just for that, I'm gonna add you to my prayer list!

So you are familiar with this work?

Tallgeese wrote:

Bren wrote:

Just for that, I'm gonna add you to my prayer list!

So you are familiar with this work?

Why would you think that!?



OK, I've even suffered through a few minutes of the live-action version.

Oh yeah. Certain things don't translate well to the medium of live action film-making.

Like tentacles, for example.

Some1 wrote:

http://www.tentaclegrape.com/about.php

Sweet zombie Jesus.

Sixteen dollars for a six pack!?



For that kind of money, tentacles had better be coming out of the bottle!

Warin, thanks for the suggestions, but half the stuff you've mentioned is exactly the type of anime I'm hoping to avoid:

Cowboy Bebop? What's good or interesting about Cowboy Bebop?

Miyazaki? Yes, I know he's critically acclaimed and his movies are "stunning" and "beautiful" and all that crap, but critically acclaimed, stunning, and beautiful usually makes for a damned boring film if you ask me. Worse yet, wasn't Miyazaki the criminal responsible for Naussica in the Valley of the Excruciating Boredom?

To this day, when I contemplate that time in the 1990s when I wasted an evening of my life trying to sit through Naussica, I still mourn for those precious hours which I will never get back.

Ranma 1/2? OK, what's it about, and howcome it has a fraction in the title?

Macross, Robotech, and Gundam? Do any of those titles between the three of them have anything interesting going on? I'm sure they do, but something tells me they could also be awfully inaccessible to somebody who's unfamiliar with their franchises. Worse yet, they could just be crud designed to sell toys and model kits to children.

Please don't take this personally, Warin. I'm sure some of those titles do have redeeming qualities. It's just that I tend to be very narrow-minded about certain things.

Quite honestly, if you don't watch certain anime because it's "popular" or you think the title just doesn't sound interesting, and outright ignore people who have watched a lot of anime, you're going to be cutting out a whole lot of quality entertainment. And then you're going to be watching stuff like.... that.

Anime is already a niche entertainment in the US. If an anime is already popular among anime fans, it's likely to be good. So do watch anime containing the names Naruto, Dragon Ball and Full Metal Alchemist.

You have to be a little bit careful, though. Usually anime is based on a manga, and as soon as they stray from that reference material with "original" episodes things tend to go downhill real fast. Therefore, for Naruto I suggest at episode 135 of the original series you switch straight to Naruto Shippuden, and for Dragon Ball you want to completely skip GT. This doesn't detract from the quality of the episodes you should watch, though.

Anime is varied in genera, though, so you have to choose based on what genera you want. In the case of Naruto, Dragon Ball, and Full Metal Alchemist, they're all fantasy action. If you don't like that kind of genera, don't bother. If you don't know, go ahead and try it out and see if you do. Other anime that I've watched that I would recommend:

Inuyasha (fantasy action and drama)
Slayers (fantasy/comedy based on Dungeons and Dragons. The three seasons are "Slayers", "Slayers Next" and "Slayers Try")
Great Teacher Onizuka (comedy/action)
Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai action)
Twelve Kingdoms (fantasy drama)
Deathnote (drama)

Just as a final note, if you want to get the "fullest" experience (without learning Japanese, of course) you'll probably want to watch with Japanese audio and English subtitles, since the English audio tends to be pretty bad. I think it's because of a couple of reasons: the amount of effort and money they're willing to put in the English translation, the fact that they have to keep the English dialog within a certain amount of time based on the Japanese audio (causing either awkward pauses or not enough time to say a more "proper" translation), and concepts that don't translate well between English and Japanese. There's nothing you can do for the last issue, but at least subtitles can help solve the first two.

Bren wrote:

akb825 wrote:

If an anime is already popular among anime fans, it's likely to be good.

Are you kidding? Anime fans are worse than sci-fi geeks!

By the way, I've got some original Ambassador Magma animation cells. I suppose I'd try to sell them if I wasn't so lazy.

If you're unwilling to try anything anybody recommends, especially from people who know about it, I doubt you'll find much that's good to watch. Your choice. 

Cowboy Beebop is great if you were ever into Heavy Metal Magazing.  It's gritty, psychedelic, and a bit melancholy.

Nothing will ever be as good as Akira.  Though Lain is close.

And I agree with you Bren, about Nausicca, but that was one of his earlier offerings from a more primitive era.  Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are fantastic IMO.

Cowboy Bebop: Like Star Wars, but instead of the Force, we've got Jazz.
Samurai Champloo: Medieval Japan with beat-boxing. Same guys as Cowboy Bebop.

I personally haven't watched much anime the last year or so, but Bebop is still my favorite. I haven't finished Champloo yet.