Recommend some anime classics

[Kim]

Lately I've been in the mood to experience anime classics. It's hard to put into words what I think an anime classic is, but I'd say it's mostly older shows, 90s and earlier, that were extremely popular and/or had a major impact on anime as a medium.

This does not require that these series necessarily be good. Just that they are important. A good example of this is Evangelion, which I think is highly overrated, but also think every anime fan should watch at least once.

Here are some various anime I would say are classics or close enough and how I feel about them. (One or two I might have crammed in just because I really dug them)

Evangelion - Overrated. Crappy pacing at times and a shitty ending in both series and movie. Not all bad, just not as good as it's built up to be.

Gunbuster - Absolutely amazing in every way. The best show Gainax ever put out.

Captain Harlock: Endless Odyssey - Haven't finished. Intend to. Love what I've seen so far.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - Haven't finished. Will have finished soon. Pretty good show!

Ghibli movies - Ghibli movies are the best movies

Slayers - I can't get past the art style and if you recommend this I won't watch it.

Card Captor Sakura - I'm generally not fond of magical girl anime, with notable exceptions, and my previous attempt to watch this died tragically.

Wings of Honneamise - This movie is an awful piece of shit that should die in a fire and never be spoken of again.

Serial Experiments Lain - Haven't watched in a long time, but it was weird and interesting. I dug it. Great opening, too.

Cowboy Bebop - Of course I've watched this I'm not an idiot.

Trigun - Of course I've watched this I'm not an idiot.

Princess Tutu - Surprisingly aces. Not ho-shits-amazing, but I really dug it and I like the soundtrack.


Those are all the ones I can come up with off the top of my head. All ones I've watched with the exception of Slayers. I can't do it guys. I'm sorry. Also, I don't know how old Nanoha is, but if that's considered a classic it can fuck off.

[Krylo]

A good example of this is Evangelion, which I think is highly overrated, but also think every anime fan should watch at least once.Do you just hate anime fans? Is that what this is?

Why would you wish this on them?


OT: Classic shit?

How about Record of Lodoss War to go way back? Or Vampire Hunter D... which isn't all that good, but if you could stomach Eva you should be able to deal with this.

[Satan's Onion]

I see no Pretty Soldier Sailormoon on your list. Your list is, therefore, incomplete :crossarms: .

(Really, that series helped make me the nerd I am today. That, and watching just enough Dragonball Z to realize that I didn't particularly prefer to watch Dragonball Z.)

edit: Aw, no magical girl stuff? Then I dunno what to suggest for you.

[Kim]

I see no Pretty Soldier Sailormoon on your list. Your list is, therefore, incomplete :crossarms: .

(Really, that series helped make me the nerd I am today. That, and watching just enough Dragonball Z to realize that I didn't particularly prefer to watch Dragonball Z.)

edit: Aw, no magical girl stuff? Then I dunno what to suggest for you.

Wasn't Sailor Moon by the same guy who did Utena? I might give it a chance based on that. Was actually considering making an exception for Sailor Moon anyways.

Other shows I've been considering: Astro Boy, 8 Man, 8 Man After, original flavor Casshern, original flavor Captain Harlock, original flavor Gundam.

[Satan's Onion]

Pretty Soldier Sailormoon is by Naoko Takeuchi, and I don't believe she's responsible for Utena. (I may be mistaken, as the anime center of my brain is somewhat underdeveloped from disuse, but still.) Nevertheless, in its day it did bring some interesting innovation to the magical girl genre.

[Kim]

The Utena anime was created by Kunihiko Ikuhara.

Just checked Wikipedia and...

Ikuhara's most famous work with Toei was on the anime version of Sailor Moon. He served as director of many episodes over the course of the series' run, and took over the position of series director from Junichi Sato during the second season, Sailor Moon R. Additionally, Ikuhara served as the director of the first Sailor Moon theatrical movie, also called Sailor Moon R.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

Rurouni Kenshin. It don't get better than that.

[Kim]

I got to watch a Rurouni Kenshi OVA thing in a theater recently and that was pretty good so I'll give it a shot.

[phil_]

If you don't care about things like continuity or having a relatable hero, watch Fist of the North Star. It starts out stupid, then it stays pretty stupid, then you finish watching it and you're like, "That was one of the greatest things I ever watched."

Krylo recommended watching Record of Lodoss War without specifying whether he meant the OVA series or the goofy TV series. I haven't watched the TV series, but the shorter OVA series was pretty decent. It won't use up much of your time, either. I'm not sure what influence either has had on "anime history," though.

Honestly, if you want to watch historically important cartoons, you're going to watch a bunch of crap. Rule of human nature: the stuff everyone watched tends to be crap. But, since everyone watched it, it's more influential. In that vein, may I suggest anything by Takahashi Rumiko, particularly Maison Ikkoku and Urusei Yatsura? I haven't watched either, but I know far too much about them because they're referenced constantly.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Yu Yu Hakushou and Ruroni Kenshin were pretty good.

[Magni]

Seconding Yu Yu Hakusho.

Older stuff I'm familiar with would be Tenchi Muyo, Outlaw Star, and Grand Teacher Onizuka.

Lupin the 3rd is a good classic, also.

People talk about Ranma 1/2 a lot but I never really saw the attraction.

Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure is one I always forget that I've been meaning to watch. For about 10 years now.

[Gregness]

As far as classics and influentials go, Gundam Wing was the first gundam series to really make it big in the west, right?

Also: Robotech. I have a hunch (based on what little I know of you) that you'd be one to hate on all the Americanizations and shit, but it was more or less the first successful anime in the US and it's sort of hard to get more influential than that. I mean, the show itself is pretty good too (aside from the narration which was heavy handed and hasn't really aged well). Alternately, you could track down the Japanese versions of Macross MOSPEDA and whatever the hell the Master's saga was originally.

Edit: +1 for outlaw star

[Donomni]

I think both Yu Yu Hakusho and Ruruoni Kenshin's TV series got canned before they could end properly. You should still watch them, for sure, but you'd probably also like reading the manga for them as well.

I will likely always suggest G Gundam as an older anime to watch. It's really different from the rest of the Gundam series, and it's stupidly fantastic(As in it's kinda stupid, but FANTASTIC).

Oh, and you might want to look up Shaman King... although the english dub was made by 4Kids, so you may want to avoid that particular version.

[Menarker]

If you want old ones, try this website for some help.

http://www.animeacademy.com/ EDIT: (Sadly a defunct site now. I am sad) /EDIT

I used to go there so many times when I was younger. Agreed with most of the articles.

Basically, search the "library" by name or by "ranking" (The shows are viewed and given a rating in their short essay about it.)

Learned about several gems this way. ^^
However, this site is so long past its peak, you don't really want to wait for it to do any meaningful update. Just enjoy what's there. :3

[Magus]

How about Record of Lodoss War to go way back?

I was going to recommend this.

The original OAV of 13 episodes, I haven't seen the newer one.

Anyway, when I was a kid we used to watch Sailor Moon, Uresei Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens!), uhh, Ranma 1/3 (I think it was 1/3 or 1/2 or something), R.G. Veda, Slayers, Dragonball, and a few other ones...I recommend Slayers and Lodoss War, Uresei Yatsura and Ranma were okay.

[Ramary]

G Gundam is my good pick for watching a 90s anime, its just so joyously over the top and fantastic.

Yu Yu Hakusho is also really good if you just want a punch-up.

Karesh would probley want me to mention Legend of Galactic Heroes as well, although I have yet to watch it myself for 2 big reasons, it is over 100 episodes long, and it is one hell of a slow burner at the start. Although Karesh adores the hell out of it and it is NOT mecha, so it must mean it is good.

[Fifthfiend]

Speed Racer.

[phil_]

Speed Racer.God, no. Even I couldn't watch Speed Racer, and I like everything.

[Fifthfiend]

Speed.

Racer.

[Fifthfiend]

http://i56.tinypic.com/25somd5.gif

[akaSM]

I watched Vision of Escaflowne about a year ago, it was nice

Samurai Pizza cats was quite amusing, yeah, it's something like a gagdub of Kyattou Ninden Teyande but it's still anime :P

I've trying to watch Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, mostly since I only watched G Force (not the movie with gerbils). Watch it and tell me if it's any good :3

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Karesh would probley want me to mention Legend of Galactic Heroes as well, although I have yet to watch it myself for 2 big reasons, it is over 100 episodes long, and it is one hell of a slow burner at the start. Although Karesh adores the hell out of it and it is NOT mecha, so it must mean it is good.

"In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same."

[Magus]

Oh, I forgot about Kamigure Orange Road. Man, I watched a lot of iffy anime back in the day, but that was when it was first catching on over here and we watched every series that we managed to find bootleg copies of.

[BitVyper]

I'll reccomend any given Mazinger series for being kind of awful but kind of great too.

Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still is a seven episode OVA series that is just absolutely fantastic in every way.

Space Runaway Ideon is very interesting. Kind of bad at times, but I like the basic premise of the series. Super robot + real world consequences. Also it's made by the guy who made Gundam, but more in the vein of what he actually wanted to make.

All the stuff that US Manga Corps was involved in back in the 90s is pretty decent. I love MD Geist just... for being MD Geist.

[phil_]

Space Runaway Ideon is very interesting. Kind of bad at times, but I like the basic premise of the series. Super robot + real world consequences. Also it's made by the guy who made Gundam, but more in the vein of what he actually wanted to make.Or, if you want Super robot + real world consequences - a kill'em all attitude, then watch Daiguard. It's another short series, it's pretty funny, and it has a happy ending. It's about a giant robot that doesn't really work because giant robots are insanely impractical and the office workers who pilot it.

[BitVyper]

Well, that's more realrobot than super robot then. Ideon is like if Kabuto Kouji had to actually deal with the fact that his Mazinger's special attack just levelled half a city. The Ideon is crazy super, but the characters don't get all the little things handwaved that super robot heroes normally do.

Edit: You might wanna spoiler the everyone dies bit. It IS an old series, but not a lot of people have seen it.

Edit: Martian Successor Nadesico is also pretty fantastic. Especially if you've seen Evangelion or Getter Robo.

[Kim]

Whelp, just finished Utena and the Utena movie. I won't even try to make sense of how the latter ended. (I probably will.)

Will probably finish up Captain Harlock: Endless Odyssey, watch Perfect Blue, and then maybe Gundam Wing or something. Want to watch Sailor Moon, but I'm not sure I'd finish it if I started watching it now.

[BitVyper]

If you've seen much of the original series, Char's Counterattack is a pretty cool Gundam movie. I love Sailor Moon's first season, but it kind of lost it for me after that.

[Kim]

Gundam Wing would be my first Gundam series. Should I start with another?

[Ramary]

Nah wing is good for the first one, then right after watch G Gundam.

G is nothing like the other ones....in fact you could watch it first but it will give you the wrong impression of what gundam is usually like.

[Osterbaum]

Ginga: Nagareaboshi Gin aka Silver Fang.

[BitVyper]

Gundam Wing would be my first Gundam series. Should I start with another?

Gundam Wing isn't a bad start, but personally, I'd go for the older ones. Depends on what you want though. Gundam Wing is closer to super robot, but it still explores the themes that make Gundam Gundam fairly well. I think the older ones do it better though (although the oldest ones show their age).

G Gundam is a violent departure from typical Gundam fare. It's GOOD, don't get me wrong, but not the one I'd reccomend if you're looking for a purer Gundam show. It does still explore more less the same themes as every other Gundam series though.

[Kim]

So, I finished Utena, the Utena movie (which is vastly superior in every way), Harlock Endless Odyssey, Harlock Arcadia of my Youth (EO was better), and am now starting the original Gundam series. Damn this music is cheesy hahaha.