The Anime Thread: Finding Good Anime

[ClodBuster]

I'm still waiting for the upcoming Robot Carnival and Orguss releases.

[SignOfZeta]

It's great that Robot Carnival is going to be easily available again. New anime by and large is so totally f*cking terrible that it would be great for the new generation to have something decent to watch once in a while.

According to Hulu, "Tourniment" is now a genre. That's where we're at currently.

I probably mentioned excellent Space Brothers in this thread or someplace else on the form. That was a couple of years ago now but I haven't seen much else new that was actually watchable. The newer Gundam OVAs are good, but since they are based on preexisting properties (to say the least) it's not as interesting as something new.

I wonder what it's like to even be a younger anime fan now. Since tape trading doesn't exist and nobody imports discs anymore I suppose they just torrent everything? There are a lot of shows on Crunchyroll and Hulu but 9/10 are totally unwatchable hyper derivative horse shit. Those places don't seem like anywhere for broad minded people to hang out except for when they need a high school show which is EVERYTHING THEY HAVE.

Here is my list of criteria for anime I want to see:

A main character over the age of 20.

A setting that is not Japan, but also not a magical parallel fairy world with a bunch of Japanese stuff in it.

Nobody is in high school except maybe some sub charactor.

No collecting magical crippity crap in order to activate/summon the whatever.

Giant robots are OK, but not if they are disgusting and totally impractical garbage such as Eva units, things that require impossibly intense mental focus (which nobody has as the thing goes nuts with the semi-conscious pilot inside) or some giant pealed human (Attack on Titan). Anyone who knows anything about the development of weapons of war knows they don't build stuff that only one guy can use that never works. Even Fa can pilot the Zeta Gundam, even though she stinks at it. It will not turn her brain into mush or eat her.

No "omni-hobbies" or nuclear plot devices such as Pokemon, YuGiOh, or anything else where the is some...thing...like a sport or some shit that for some reason is more popular than European and American style football combined. The other side of this would be impossibly significant plot devices that are only used to justify some weird agenda on behalf of the creator. The ultimate example of this is Evengelion. The entire mecha science in that show is predicated on the creators psychological problems. You need a ATF because you want to have millions of gallons of blood dripping from trafic lights. There is high concept and then there is just wankery. Know the difference.

Unless there is a really good reason, no shows that are more than a season. There are very few decent stores that require 100 hours to tell. An anime should not take 10 times as long to watch as it takes to read a Thomas Pynchon book. Honestly, the shorter the better.

As little "humor" regarding panties and rack size. I have no problem with sexual content, but I do have a problem with shows that have the same dumb "jokes" I heard on the playground when I was 11. People f*ck. They just do. If you need that in the story, fine, but seeing an endless river of  Ataru clones getting smashed in the face with a giant hammer after walking into the lady's onsen for the 100th time is some SERIOUSLY PLAYED OUT SHIT is what I'm trying to say.

NO ONLINE VIRTUAL REALITY GAMES.

So, does anyone have any suggestions within this narrow criteria?

[esteban]

It's great that Robot Carnival is going to be easily available again. New anime by and large is so totally f*cking terrible that it would be great for the new generation to have something decent to watch once in a while.

According to Hulu, "Tourniment" is now a genre. That's where we're at currently.

I probably mentioned excellent Space Brothers in this thread or someplace else on the form. That was a couple of years ago now but I haven't seen much else new that was actually watchable. The newer Gundam OVAs are good, but since they are based on preexisting properties (to say the least) it's not as interesting as something new.

I wonder what it's like to even be a younger anime fan now. Since tape trading doesn't exist and nobody imports discs anymore I suppose they just torrent everything? There are a lot of shows on Crunchyroll and Hulu but 9/10 are totally unwatchable hyper derivative horse shit. Those places don't seem like anywhere for broad minded people to hang out except for when they need a high school show which is EVERYTHING THEY HAVE.

Here is my list of criteria for anime I want to see:

A main character over the age of 20.

A setting that is not Japan, but also not a magical parallel fairy world with a bunch of Japanese stuff in it.

Nobody is in high school except maybe some sub charactor.

No collecting magical crippity crap in order to activate/summon the whatever.

Giant robots are OK, but not if they are disgusting and totally impractical garbage such as Eva units, things that require impossibly intense mental focus (which nobody has as the thing goes nuts with the semi-conscious pilot inside) or some giant pealed human (Attack on Titan). Anyone who knows anything about the development of weapons of war knows they don't build stuff that only one guy can use that never works. Even Fa can pilot the Zeta Gundam, even though she stinks at it. It will not turn her brain into mush or eat her.

No "omni-hobbies" or nuclear plot devices such as Pokemon, YuGiOh, or anything else where the is some...thing...like a sport or some shit that for some reason is more popular than European and American style football combined. The other side of this would be impossibly significant plot devices that are only used to justify some weird agenda on behalf of the creator. The ultimate example of this is Evengelion. The entire mecha science in that show is predicated on the creators psychological problems. You need a ATF because you want to have millions of gallons of blood dripping from trafic lights. There is high concept and then there is just wankery. Know the difference.

Unless there is a really good reason, no shows that are more than a season. There are very few decent stores that require 100 hours to tell. An anime should not take 10 times as long to watch as it takes to read a Thomas Pinchon book. Honestly, the shorter the better.

As little "humor" regarding panties and rack size. I have no problem with sexual content, but I do have a problem with shows that have the same dumb "jokes" I heard on the playground when I was 11. People f*ck. They just do. If you need that in the story, fine, but seeing an endless river of  Ataru clones getting smashed in the face with a giant hammer after walking into the lady's onsen for the 100th time is some SERIOUSLY PLAYED OUT SHIT is what I'm trying to say.

So, does anyone have any suggestions within this narrow criteria?

Ha! I haven't watched much stuff from the last 20 years, but this was still hilarious to read.

I watched a bunch of episodes of some detective dog show...I thought it was entertaining.

Otherwise, I'm still watching old stuff I (1) never saw, (2) want to see again.

Since I don't have much free time, I have a long list of old stuff to catch-up on.

[ClodBuster]

You know, Signofzeta, both of us belong to an extinct species.


Today's Anime "fans" neither do tape, DVD or torrent. They just stream: Watch & forget.

[Digi.k]

I'm still waiting for the upcoming Robot Carnival and Orguss releases.

I completely forgot about Robot Carnival something I've always been eager to see and that just reminded me of another .. Twilight of the cockroaches

[xelement5x]

I tried to think of a good anime I watched relatively recently that fits the Zeta bill, one of the first that I thought of was Kino no Tabi, although the greater than 20 years old main character criteria was met, it hits everything else I think.  It's good watch, only 13 episodes, and one of those where each episode can kind of stand separate but link back to a general theme/story. 

Anyway, I'm going to start Sora no Woto probably next week and see how that goes. 

[DragonmasterDan]

I completely forgot about Robot Carnival something I've always been eager to see and that just reminded me of another .. Twilight of the cockroaches

I have a tremendous amount of nostalgia for those old Streamline pictures releases. Robot Carnival in particular.

[SignOfZeta]

Streamline didn't handle their licenses the way I would have liked, but they sure knew how to pick them.

[DragonmasterDan]

Streamline didn't handle their licenses the way I would have liked, but they sure knew how to pick them.

In that they released mostly dubbed movies and removed Japanese text and intro scenes where possible? Or other reasons?

[SignOfZeta]

In that they had to put their stank on everything, more "localization" than the pure product most OGs wanted. They had their sights set on as wide of an audience as possible so they dubbed everything (using a cassette deck, from the sounds of it) and sold it at ultra cheap prices when people like me would have gladly paid double for a subtitled version that would have cost less to produce. They didn't see it that way, they also decided to package Nadia at one EP per tape at $8 each. People weren't exited about devoting a huge wall to 39 VHS tapes for one series so it didn't sell, and then they abandoned the series completely shafting the supporters it had despite the stupid packaging.

To say something nice. They did manage to release a couple of nice LDs, including Lensman, which is really handy today since that movie seems to be nowhere near release in any format since.

It's actually pretty amazing how long a lot of these titles had been out of print, even in Japan.

[DragonmasterDan]

To say something nice. They did manage to release a couple of nice LDs, including Lensman, which is really handy today since that movie seems to be nowhere near release in any format since.

It's actually pretty amazing how long a lot of these titles had been out of print, even in Japan.

Yep, I've got quite a few Streamline LDs, Lensman, Twilight of the Cockroaches being a pair of them that at least in the US were never released on DVD.

[elmer]

So, does anyone have any suggestions within this narrow criteria?

Haha ... you've really narrowed down the window there! 

I've turned a lot of crap off after only 3 or 4 minutes recently, but there have been a couple of shows that have pleasantly surprised me.

One of those is "The Devil is a Part Timer", but it fails on your "not in Japan" criteria.

It's a cute and funny (to me, at least) take on transporting a "sword and sorcery" hero and villain into modern Japan where they end up working in McRonald's and a Call Center to make ends meet, and slowly becoming almost-friends.

Using nano.RIPE's beautiful "Gekka" as the end music (after the first few episodes) is a nice bonus.

Another thing that seems to have recently turned up on Netflix that I'm enjoying is "Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet".

That's about a teen born-to-be-a-soldier from the space-faring decedents of an abandoned Earth, crash landing back on the now-mythical planet, only to find a flourishing society of people still living there and scavenging off the submerged remains of old cities.

I'm about half way through, and it's managed to be completely enjoyable without insulting my intelligence yet.

But ... the main 2 characters are teen aged ... so that misses your criteria, too (although there's a sizable cast of adults in there, as well).

So, really ... "no", I can't think of anything that actually fits 100% within your criteria ... but I did get to mention a couple of shows that I like that don't seem to have been mentioned, yet. 

[SignOfZeta]

I started watching Gargantua just because its in the new Super Robot Wars. I had extremely nice animation and some fun scenes, but it's SUPER cliche ridden, almost like some f*cked up Ender's Game fanfic.

The thing is, although my criteria seems extremely narrow, I can name dozens of older shows that fit.

Legend of Galactic Heroes
Bubblegum Crisis
The Royal Space Force
Legend of the Forest
Ghost in the Shell
Dagger of Kamui (likely fails on age of main character, but I don't recall it being mentioned)
Cowboy Beebop
Melos (aka: Run Melos)
Jin Roh
Memories
The previously mentioned Space Brothers, Robot Carnival and Twilight of the Cockroaches
The Violinist Hamlin
Cleopatra (the Tezuka one)
Jungle Emperor
Record of Lodus War
Howl's Moving Castle
Macross Plus
Captain Harlock
Dirty Pair
Gundam 0083
Locke the Superman
Unico and the Isle of Magic
Only Yesterday
Patlabor

Shitloads. And stuff that fails only one criteria would include stuff like Otaku no Video, The Wind Rises, Aim for the Top! and Giant Robo, and nearly all of Gundam so you can get some great stuff with young main characters. What's fuct to me is that nearly every new series I attempt to watch fails on many or sometimes ALL of those criteria. This is what makes me realize that it's not my tastes that are changing as much as it is that new anime is really garbage most of the time.

[elmer]

I started watching Gargantua just because its in the new Super Robot Wars. I had extremely nice animation and some fun scenes, but it's SUPER cliche ridden, almost like some f*cked up Ender's Game fanfic.

I might have said "Soldier" meets "WaterWorld" ... but basically, "yes", it's not breaking any new ground, just doing what it does very nicely.

With some of the utter crap that's been released recently, I'm pretty happy to find some new anime on NetFlix that rises as high as derivative-but-decent.

I know some of the older stuff that you mention, but there's still lots there that I've not seen and will now look for ... so "thank you" for the list.

But first, I'll have to go and drag the Bubblegum Crisis dvd's out of whatever box they're in.

[SignOfZeta]

I didn't mention Lupin III.