Any anime fans?

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I have been into anime (As something uniquely Japanese) since the mid 90's. As a child I watched a lot of dubbed shows such as The Adventures of the Little Koala, Mysterious Cities of Gold, Robotech, Voltron, Belle and Sebastian, etc... My tastes have refined over the years. I tend to gravitate toward older titles. I feel a lot of the stuff coming out of Japan in recent years has been rather generic. Despite that, there still are good things. Favorites include Mobile Suit Gundam, Z-Gundam, Kimagure Orange Road, Nadia, Evangelion, Hime-chan's Ribbon, Robot Carnival, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Clannad, and World Masterpiece Theater (Heidi, Marco, etc...).

If you read the previous pages, you'll see that I fiercely defend people's right to like what they want, MrBear, but I take issue with you calling modern anime generic. With more companies importing anime, we have a vast, diverse array of choices, Sturgeon's Law nonwithstanding.

I don't recognize a lot of your favorites, but I see a few giant battle robot shows. I haven't found a lot to like lately in that genre. Infinite Stratos kind of got on my nerves, and I didn't make it past episode 2 of Majestic Prince. I did like Idolm@ster Xenoglossia, though.

I keep meaning to watch Clannad. People have suggested it when I said how much I liked Little Busters.

On another note, yes, chorizo proscuitto is an epic finishing move.

They are part of the genre of anime based on visual novels, and to be exact those written by Key, which tend to be quality with a strong comedy and emotions. Although Air, Kanon 2006, and Clannad, are better than Little Busters, likely in partial help that their studio is Kyoto Animation that does quality work. Kanon is my favourite, although it might be that I saw it first, while Clannad is altogether one of the best anime. I will say that Little Busters managed to equal out gender a bit better with some bromance, but I don't think it is a huge problem.

And on the front of this genre there is also The Fruit of Grisaia, a pretty dark version, which sounds pretty hard to believe since you would have seen that Little Busters has some pretty dark parts, but I would say that it is not like how the at first seen normal anime characteristics are products of their past. The second season is currently airing, starting with focus on the main character for once.

I preferred the character art in Little Busters to Kanon, although the backgrounds in Kanon did impress me a lot.

And yes, lazershow, SNAFU is crushing it in the second season. Hikigaya is a tough nut to crack.

You may not recognize many because they are older. You can take issue but that is my observation and the internet is 90% about opinions. You will find that people like Hayao Miyazaki are harder on the current anime industry than I. You have to keep in mind that I have been into this for a long time. I have over 1000 DVD's/BD's and about 2 TBs of fansubs. I find too much modern anime panders too heavily to the otaku subculture. As I mentioned, Miyazaki really hates that fact and believes it has limited the realism as characters are so 2 dimensional. The prevalence of fads in which everyone is doing the same thing is another problem. The Moe fad that started in the mid 2000's lead to a lot of shows that relied heavily on "cute girls" in favor of substance. Harem anime beyond more generic that it ever was has been another issue. Some of them are so similar it is frightening. Not all Moe or Harem anime are bad but both have fallen into a mold that is stiff. Another formula which has been a quick go to is "Ordinary teen encounters monsters/demons/etc.. and finds out he/she is the chosen one who can wield massive power to defeat them. If male, they usually encounter a girl who needs to be saved which awakens powers."

Not all titles with these cliches are bad but I find you have to dig for the ones that are legitimately good. Recent titles I have found entertaining include Madoka, Oreimo, Gundam Unicorn, Wooser's Hand to Mouth Life, Anohana, Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works, The Tales of Princess Kaguya, Sword Art Online, what I watched of it, was interesting. Even of the titles that are more mediocre I can find entertainment but I get more excited when somebody fansubs (or Discotek licenses) what is considered a classic in Japan. I feel like we have traded talented storytellers for otaku. It is like fanfiction, just because you are passionate about it does not mean you can produce something that is good. I actually do want to watch Little Busters as Key is actually very good at doing romance/harem stories.

We, in the US, actually have fewer companies now releasing anime than 10/11 years ago. Not counting Hentai specific companies (there were several of those) there were 14 distributors. Today there are 10, arguably 12. We have gained Aniplex (Their prices make me think it more a loss than a gain), NISA, and Crunchyroll if you want to count it. We have lost Pioneer/Geneon, Bandai Entertainment, Bandai Visual USA, Central Park Media/US Manga Corps, AnimEigo (mostly samurai films now), Urban Vision, Synchpoint, ADV (split into Sentai and Section 23), and Tokyopop. Manga is still around but doesn't do anything. Anime is actually not at it's peak anymore. There was a time when it made a lot more money and companies more actively went after licenses. A lot of companies ended up bankrupt due to drops in sales and interest. It has been argued that the mindset of fans who got into the medium in the past 7 or so years is greatly different from those who were into it during the bubble in the early 2000's. A major reason why we still get as much as we do is because the licensing costs have fallen considerably and US companies are more likely to invest in a show before/during development. There was a time when licenses were up 10 times higher than today but sales were strong enough that companies could stay in business and continue picking things up left and right. It is more "mainstream" but not as strong or lucrative.

On the Mecha genre... One of the strengths for a long time was the depth of ideas. Mobile Suit Gundam and the first sequel Zeta are both excellent anti-war stories. Most of the Gundam title set in the Universal Century fit in this category. Mecha has gotten kind of flashy. Or, in the case with Gurren Lagann, tries to be deep but falls on it's face.

Watching Noucome again, and enjoying it just as much the second time.

Hello. I'm denpajin and I like anime.

What is a good anime to watch while high on LSD?

Posts about recreational drug use need to go in the Adult forum.

Anybody seen Doraemon?

Gurann Lagann.

I've heard of it, but i never found a place to legally watch it. I've seen so many references to it in other shows, though, that I sometimes recognize the reference anyway, despite having never seen a single episode. It seems odd that such a popular show never got licensed, but maybe the sheer volume of episodes is a barrier.

Just want to add that I have been happily surprised with the recent episode of Punch Line. Punch Line has been something I have only barely been watching because I really could not stand the addition of the teenage male main character who has nosebleed arousal from seeing lady underwear, kind of pervert thing that gave no surprise, or being actually interesting. Despite that it was gaining a bit of a reputation of having new twists and revelations, which I think is what the title perhaps refers to. The recent episode had a twist I expected, one that makes me interested to watch more, and one that makes me totally rethink how perceive a character, and in return the series as a whole.

I don't know if there is going to be a big leap, but I really got interested from the reveal that

I've recently been getting more and more into anime... I watched the entire Sailor Moon anime, and recently I've been watching Sailor Moon Crystal.

Anyone seen ''Show by Rock''? I thought it's pretty cute.

Yeah, it was one of my major shows to watch this season, and it just ended. At least it ended well. I really liked the CG forms in that one, although Etotama and Sidonia also meant it was good CG in general this season.