New Anime Season

[Klaudandus]

Just watch it, it's really good! It starts a bit slow, and is a 23 episode anime... but it really drags you in!

They also mention John Titor, CERN, the Large Hadron Collider, the famous IBM 5100, (and are actually plot points).

Like I said, it deals a lot with cause and effect and whatnot, really good for those that like time travelling/sci-fi stories.

Here's a bit of a summary by those manga websites

"Steins;Gate is a sci-fi series that explores the possibility, dangers and complications of time travel. The concept of cause and effect is featured prominently as the protagonist travels back in time numerous times to perform different actions in an attempt to alter what has happened in the future"

In fact, the last episode is supposed to air tomorrow.

[Klaudandus]

Correction, Steins;Gate is a 24 episode anime. Tomorrow is the 2nd to last episode.

[Sabindeus]

So Nichijou is bat-shit crazy, amazingly adorable, and hilarious. I recommend it.

[Klaudandus]

Steins;Gate was an awesome series. I'd really recommend it.

[Snake-Aes]

So Nichijou is bat-shit crazy, amazingly adorable, and hilarious. I recommend it.

The way the three girls overreact to just about anything (particularly Mio) alone is enough to be worth watching.

[Xenix]

So Nichijou is bat-shit crazy, amazingly adorable, and hilarious. I recommend it.

Heh - ironic, with that name (which was probably intended).

[Sabindeus]

Heh - ironic, with that name (which was probably intended).

Indeed, that is the joke

[Petrus]

Having been sent here from the other thread explicitly to discuss anime:

I like Outlaw Star. I wish it were more than one season long.

I've watched very little anime beyond a few films and things like DB/DBZ. Stuff like Gundam, with multiple series, got really confusing when I tried to only see a handful of episodes. How do you guys keep that stuff straight?

[Klaudandus]

I dunno, its really hard for me to jump into an anime halfway thru its season, which is why I dont watch many tv shows either -- and with series with several spinoffs is even worse.

Just look for things that have themes you like -- like Steins;Gate is awesome for me because it's about casuality, the butterfly effect, time travel, string theory and the likes -- but because of its episode arc nature, you gotta watch it from the start or you'll be lost.

There are other anime that are more episodic, where you can watch episodes on basically whichever order you want without missing a beat, but with a general story arc basically in the background -- so you still feel the story move forward if you actually watch the series in order.

I'd say go to tvtropes.org and look at the anime section, and see which anime series deal with topics of interests.

Planetes if you like super-hard sci-fi (as in completely plausible) would be a good series.
Naoki Urusawa's Monster is really really good if you prefer a thriller, about a doctor who must hunt down a serial killer he feels responsible for letting loose on the world as a child.

Some shows have better plots/drama than actual tv series.

[fuzzygeek]

Stuff like Gundam, with multiple series, got really confusing when I tried to only see a handful of episodes. How do you guys keep that stuff straight?

The Mega Franchises with several series and universes and whatnot are really the exception, rather than the rule, and some of these can be hard to break into. For people new to anime I usually recommend they avoid these at first, but it really depends on the person.

Personally, I tend to prefer series that are more self-contained. Most other shows tend to be packed into smaller, more manageable 12 or 26 episode chunks, with exceptionally popular series (or anime adaptations of exceptionally popular manga or light novel series) getting additional seasons.

There's a whole host of stuff being fan subbed and distributed via bit torrent -- my primary source is bakabt.com -- and it is relatively easy to grab entire series in chunks. I tend to wait to watch something until it's finished and packaged by a group. This lets us mainline it over a weekend if it's particularly good, and avoid wasting our time on series that fail spectacularly at the end, even if they seemed promising to start.

[Sabindeus]

Having been sent here from the other thread explicitly to discuss anime:

I like Outlaw Star. I wish it were more than one season long.

I've watched very little anime beyond a few films and things like DB/DBZ. Stuff like Gundam, with multiple series, got really confusing when I tried to only see a handful of episodes. How do you guys keep that stuff straight?

So based on the titles you listed I am going to guess you enjoyed Toonami back in the day. The problem with watching on TV is, if you don't catch a series when it starts airing, and then watch it all the way through without missing an episode, you're fucked. The real key to enjoying a plot-based anime is not to watch it when it's on TV every so often but to obtain an entire series and watch it straight through from episode 1 to the end. It's easy to keep stuff straight when you're only watching one series at a time instead of 4 different series back to back with one episode per week.

[Skye1013]

I fall into the category of having started my anime stint via toonami and its predecessors, with a few exceptions (my Saturday morning cartoons included Sailor Moon, WAY back when...on the WB, but that was pre-Cartoon Network.)

That being said, I agree it's definitely easier to watch the episodes by obtaining a series (or DVR/Tivoing them from the beginning.)

Some anime I've watched that I enjoyed (no particular order):
Arc the Lad
Full Metal Alchemist (the original series, haven't watched the "remake")
Trinity Blood
Blue Seed
Neon Genesis: Evangelion (still need to get the movie, but bought the series)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Noir

Series that I've seen a few episodes/read bits of the manga and would like to eventually watch in full:
One Piece
Card Captors
Tsubasa
Magister Negi Magi

There are others, but those are ones I remember off the top of my head.

[Klaudandus]

I should say that FMA:Brotherhood is faithful to the manga, and in my opinion, many many times better than the first anime series

[Snake-Aes]

I should say that FMA:Brotherhood is faithful to the manga, and in my opinion, many many times better than the first anime series

Ditto.

[Skye1013]

I've heard different opinions about it, and honestly the only reason I haven't watched it is because I haven't taken the time to hunt for downloads.

[Klaudandus]

bummer, just noticed that yer in Germany. It's available to watch on hulu.com but don't think it will let you watch them from overseas.

Hulu actually has a bunch of series, including one of my favorite american cartoons ever -- Exosquad.

[Skye1013]

Yeah, I've looked into Hulu, and it is indeed not available. Also, thanks to various laws and whatnot, a lot of stuff that gets put on youtube (like some series I've watched on there back in the states) are blocked.

[aureon]

For things unlicensed in your country, more often than not torrents and fansubbers will serve you right.
For things licensed, avaiability and legality of the whole thing drops down significantly D:

[Skye1013]

Aye, I'm sure with minimal digging I could find them, I just haven't taken the time to do so. Hulu would just have been an easy source.

[Fivelives]

I've heard different opinions about it, and honestly the only reason I haven't watched it is because I haven't taken the time to hunt for downloads.

It's on Netflix.

[Sabindeus]

I've heard different opinions about it, and honestly the only reason I haven't watched it is because I haven't taken the time to hunt for downloads.

It's on Netflix.

Netflix is another thing that doesn't work everywhere

[Fivelives]

Yeah, I know. I thought Skye1013 was in the US though.

http://www.funimation.com/fullmetal-alc ... rotherhood - watch it (dubbed) online. Funimation usually has pretty good reversions of anime, and I'm pretty sure it's available worldwide.

http://www.sidereel.com/Fullmetal_Alchemist_Brotherhood - another place to watch it online. Not sure if it's available outside the US, though.

http://www.animeseason.com/hagane-no-renkinjutsushi/ - not sure if it's available outside the US, but if you're a sub snob, here it is subtitled instead of dubbed.

[fuzzygeek]

but if you're a sub snob,

...

There's a lot I could write about this having had this conversation about a thousand times dating back to rec.arts.anime on Usenet, but let's just agree there is no call for pejoratives on either side of the debate.

[Skye1013]

If it's not obvious that it's dubbed (ie. mouths not lining up with the words) then I don't have an issue with it (unless there are annoying voices, but that can work both ways.) Subs are fine as well.

[Fivelives]

but if you're a sub snob,

...

There's a lot I could write about this having had this conversation about a thousand times dating back to rec.arts.anime on Usenet, but let's just agree there is no call for pejoratives on either side of the debate.

It wasn't meant as a pejorative.