CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Hello, looking for a suggestion or two. I guess I'm kind of assuming the suggestion will be a newer series because I've been big into anime for some years now but I've basically stopped following fansubs for a year or two, other than Eureka Seven. (All I'm really trying to communicate here is that, yes, I've seen RahXephon ) But, maybe you're thinking of a series I haven't seen, eh? I'd appreciate the suggestions.

I guess I'm a big 'slice of life' kind of guy. I absolutely love Evangelion, Fruits Basket and His & Her Circumstances.

Sticking to more recent stuff here.

Based on the items you mention, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" should work well for you.

Also, definitely watch Noein. It's a sci-fi fantasy, but interwoven with a current-day world and has a strong dramatic storyline as well.

You might enjoy Saikano as well.

The Familiar of Zero (Zero no Tsukaima) goes farther afield. It's a good series, but not as much along the lines you mentioned.

~IYQ wrote:I guess I'm a big 'slice of life' kind of guy. I absolutely love Evangelion, Fruits Basket and His & Her Circumstances.

I recommend Beck it is real to life and about a interesting cast of characters trying to form an indie band.

IYQ, I'm going to recommend to you what I would argue might be the best slice of life anime in the history of earth: Honey and Clover. You can read my rave/glowing review of it in the anime reviews section, but it's slice of life gold.

IYQ, I second The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and i also suggest that you give Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) a try.

Well, if you liked FLCL, then you very well might like Noein. Very similar feel to it, except Noein is much more serious than FLCL was. But still has the same sense of "OK, what the heck just happened?"

I would recommend InuYasha, but that would probably fall into the category of "Too Long," as the anime goes for 167 episodes, and the manga is still going strong.

Your tastes seem to be toward mahou, yes?

If so, my absolute favorite is Princess Tutu. Don't let the title fool you; it's probably one of the biggest misnomers. It's a great, deep show, 26 episodes and only falls into the monster of the week thing a little bit.

If not, my favorite comedy is Jungle wa Itsume Hale nochi Guu. It's hi-larious and quite bizarre. Fanservice is not bad at all. That is also about 26 episodes.

That's about all I can muster, because I don't watch much anime anyway, lol.

I think Higurashi is out of the question if you don't like icky gore. If you liked FLCL you would like Bobobo-Bobobobo. But it's 76 eps long, so that's "too long". Have you seen Comic Party yet? If not i highly recommend it. There's only a little bit of sexual content despite the fact that it's based on an adult game. VERY mild fanservice, slapstick violence, and some mild language. But the Mini episodes on the bonus features of the 4 DVDs have Love Hina-equivalent fanservice ahoy. If you don't watch those, ComiPa's okay for you. Cheers!

Recently I've been browsing into a series, Lupin III. Being a major Bond film aficionado, this Anime appears to inhabit a similar vein, and so it caught my attention. The problem is that the series itself is too long for my usual standards for checking out a given series, so I've decided to look into the numerous movies instead.

If anyone here familiar with the Lupin III series could pull some movie-viewing tips out of a hat? So far, my money is on Castle of Cagliostro, but further recommendations are appreciated.

Juxander wrote:Puguni : I don't know what mahou is.
Princess Tutu sounds like a good recommendation, -J

Mahou translates as "Magic" in most cases. Usually used in terms of more innocent stuff (as opposed to things you might term "occult" or such, where other words such as "Majin" start getting involved instead.) Thus, "Mahou Shoujou" is translated as "Magical Girl" instead of something more sinister sounding like "Witch".

In that context, I second the motion on "Princess Tutu", and add "Princess Yucie". You commented on "Rayearth", but I couldn't tell if you meant you had seen it. It would also be a good choice. Another CLAMP that fits this mold is "Cardcaptor Sakura".

I would bet on the following as well:

Slayers, but the first series may have too much fanservice (and the movie almost certainly does.) The second season is cleaner, probably just right, in fact.

Orphen and Orphen:Revenge. Both good stuff.

The various versions of "Oh, My Goddess." Sweet, silly stuff, moderate fanservice here and there.

Getting away from the Mahou theme somewhat:

I'm going to second Noein, if getting a little more serious is okay. It's spectacular.

Haruhi Suzumiya. Moderate fanservice in places, but a fantastic series.

If moderate horror (not slasher stuff, but ghosts and spirits) is okay, then check out "Ghost Hunt" and "xxxHolic" (the xxx stands for 'fill-in-the-blank', not sex) when you can get them (not yet in English. Watch for them.) I'm trying to think of some good series that are already in English and fit this same level. The only one I can think of offhand is "Ghost Stories in School". Make sure you don't mind that there is a caricature over-the-top Christian character. She's hilarious if you don't mind having a little fun poked at us.

GetBackers is long-ish, but pretty good.

Samurai Champloo may or may not work for someone who likes Fushigi Yuugi.

EricTheFred wrote:GetBackers is long-ish, but pretty good.

Samurai Champloo may or may not work for someone who likes Fushigi Yuugi.

Getbackers is one of my top animes but yes, it is somewhat longish (49 episodes). also, the ending is pretty disappointing.

I would disapprove of Samurai Champloo because it contains a fairly moderate amount of sexual content, language, and violence. probably more than any of the anime series that you mentioned (with the exception of MAYBE Cowboy Bebop...)

To me, FLCL and Bebop both have more sexual content. I was using those as a cutoff point, and the comment about 'blood okay, no icky gore' to rank violence. The numbers are too subjective to my mind, so I went according to the examples.

But, yes, Samurai Champloo has a moderate degree of sex and violence, albeit much more tastefully done than many, many other shows.

I'm looking for an anime that has horror and mystery elements like Higurashi. It seems like most animes have either horror or mystery elements. Not both unfortunutly.

Kura Ookami wrote:I'm looking for an anime that has horror and mystery elements like Higurashi. It seems like most animes have either horror or mystery elements. Not both unfortunutly.

"Ghost Hunt" is my first vote. Very, very good stuff. Same vintage as Higurashi.

"Black Jack" is mostly mystery, but with supernatural elements often cropping up.

I'll try to think of a few more.

Blood+ is a good combination of mystery and horror.The mystery of course being Saya's past.If you don't mind some fanservice and a lot of gore there's also Tokko.

Juxander wrote:Puguni : I don't know what mahou is.
Princess Tutu sounds like a good recommendation, but I read up on HareGuu on Wikipedia. FTA:
"Dr. Clive
The doctor of the school, Clive is apathetic towards everyone in the jungle, unless they happen to be female. He came in from the city shortly after the series began, and had a 'relationship' with Weda while she was 14 years old, which, as Weda admits, resulted in Haré's birth. The anime and manga state that Dr. Clive is Haré's biological father but despite this, he engages in violent arguments with Haré (most of the time the center of it being Weda). Highly perverted, he uses every opportunity to "reignite his old relationship" with Weda, which ends in failure. "

That is the sort of thing I'm trying to avoid.
-J

If you're really concerned, he's a side character. The focus is mainly on Guu. I've only seen up to 13 episodes, but at least up to that point, he doesn't do much at all except express lust. A stickler for fanservice myself, I really didn't focus on the doctor at all. Actually, it's more like, what's done to the doctor, lol. There's an old lady who think he's her dead husband and is enamored with him. That's was a little disturbing.

Thanks for the recomendations. I'll be sure to check them out.

Another mystery plus supernatural series occurred to me, although it often is just mystery: "KIndaichi Case Files". It's a detective genre, kind of a Japanese Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, but sometimes the mysteries get supernatural. Don't know if that works for you or not.

Kura Ookami, if you're willing to go through a major process of confusion and frustration, i'd suggest Satoshi Kon's 'Paranoia Agent'. it may require multiple reviewings but it's a very good mystery/suspense/horror anime.

This may not fit the requirements for this thread, but something I recommend to EVERYONE regardless of tastes is Haibane Renmei... Besides that, Grave of the Fireflies, which every anime fan has a duty of watching and showing to at least one non-anime fan... Both are very slow and both are sad (Fireflies much more than Haibane Renmei, on both counts) but these are potentially life altering.

Bobtheduck wrote:This may not fit the requirements for this thread, but something I recommend to EVERYONE regardless of tastes is Haibane Renmei... Besides that, Grave of the Fireflies, which every anime fan has a duty of watching and showing to at least one non-anime fan... Both are very slow and both are sad (Fireflies much more than Haibane Renmei, on both counts) but these are potentially life altering.

+1 for Fireflies. Tonight, I had both parents, my sister and her husband watch it. I'm pretty sure all of them(and my brother and I =P) cried at one point or another. Amazing movie.

Years ago I blindly bought Grave with hearing all the amazing stuff about it. I ended up selling it soon after :/ I know most people (like me) enjoy a happy ending, or at least a good one, but one with such melancholy as that made me feeling as "..." as when I watched Evangelion (although, even Eva had a tingle of hope at the end), as well as Saikano (which also had 'hope' in it I guess... either way the live action movie actually pulled it off better methought...)

I know it's on many top lists of anime fans, but I wouldn't recommend it myself^^

Tenshi no Ai wrote:Years ago I blindly bought Grave with hearing all the amazing stuff about it. I ended up selling it soon after :/ I know most people (like me) enjoy a happy ending, or at least a good one, but one with such melancholy as that made me feeling as "..." as when I watched Evangelion (although, even Eva had a tingle of hope at the end), as well as Saikano (which also had 'hope' in it I guess... either way the live action movie actually pulled it off better methought...)

I know it's on many top lists of anime fans, but I wouldn't recommend it myself^^

That's really where personal tastes come in again. I personally put Grave on the list of greatest anything. It's really a one of a kind film, but one of a kind won't always appeal to everyone.

Alexander, thanks to another thread regarding a newly posted review, I just realized a very obvious answer to your recent request is "Princess Tutu". Surreal, yup. Strong characters, yup. Plot, yup. Reliance on blood, gore and horror... not at all. And it's a wonderful story.

One thing. The first one or two episodes may have you thinking I'm completely mad. Keep watching.

Anton Newen wrote:Hello All! ^_^ I'm looking for a new anime to watch, blood isn't to much of a problem, romance is fine, as long as its not two frequent and well spread out. Not really looking for nudity though O_O. Here is a list of some anime i've seen and enjoyed:

Naruto
Bleach
Full Metal Alchemist
Yu Yu Hakashu
Dragonball Z
Dragonball
Avatar (dunno if you could really call that an anime but still....)
Claymore (a little gory, but still awsome)
A little bit of "DN Angel" but not really enough to figure out the plot.
Spirited Away


Anywaz, Thanks for the Help XD

Looking over your list of preferred series, I'd suggest Rurouni Kenshin. It seems to match up with your content requirements quite well, and it's a fun series with an engaging plot. Also, while I'm at it, I'll go ahead and recommend the manga along with the anime, as the manga's third and final arc is universally known as "better than" the anime's third and final arc. Hope that helps!

I'll offer a few suggestions:
Slayers (multiple series)
Orphen (multiple series)
Shakugan no Shana
The first Fushigi Yugi series. Forget the second series (wish that I could).
Samurai Champloo
Sakura Wars
When it comes out, catch "Tokyo Majin", or find the fansubs now.

Anton Newen wrote:Hello All! ^_^ I'm looking for a new anime to watch, blood isn't to much of a problem, romance is fine, as long as its not two frequent and well spread out. Not really looking for nudity though O_O. Here is a list of some anime i've seen and enjoyed:

Naruto
Bleach
Full Metal Alchemist
Yu Yu Hakashu
Dragonball Z
Dragonball
Avatar (dunno if you could really call that an anime but still....)
Claymore (a little gory, but still awsome)
A little bit of "DN Angel" but not really enough to figure out the plot.
Spirited Away


Anywaz, Thanks for the Help XD

you seem to be into action animes. perfect. here are my suggestions:

Getbackers
Samurai 7
Hunter x Hunter
One Piece
Samurai Champloo (MAYBE)
Cowboy Bebop (MAYBE)

Anton Newen wrote:When you say ill maybe like Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop you're actually, in a sense, wrong, because, iv seen some of Samuri Champloo andCowboy Bebop and i like them, forgot to put them on my seen list though.

actually, the reason i mentioned "maybe" for champloo and bebop was because they both feature some nudity...

Pasted in from a separate thread, to relocate it to here:

Godly Paladin wrote:Hehe - I've seen pretty much all the Gundams at one time or another, and to be honest I'm tiring of giant mecha. That said, I've heard Rahxephon is really good. True?

EDIT: I'll check Slayers out, Eric. Like I said, I'm not as into giant robots as I once was, and would be more interested in seeing some genres other than your typical action/sci-fi. (Gundam, Outlaw Star, etc.) We both enjoyed the charming characters (the kids, Kaoru, etc.) in Rurouni Kenshin, and the action was good for me but not so bloody as to turn her off. It struck a good balance, and again the big selling point was the characters. They were very well defined and a lot of fun to watch in their interactions with each other.

Bebop was perfect in nearly every way for both of us, thanks to Ed, Ein, and the spectacularly smooth animation and gunfights. Another thing was the stupendous dub job - she's not hardcore and dislikes watching subtitled stuff. I should point out that I'm 18 and she's 21, so more intelligent, less slapstick humor would be very welcome.

So, let me summarize:
- No stereotypical mecha/sci-fi.
- More mature humor.
- Real, deep, fun characters.
- Happiness. I don't think she's ever seen a dark/extremely serious anime she liked. This is probably the number one thing. And to be honest, I just realized that I'd rather make her happy than get a show that I would go ape over. There's plenty of anime I watch on my own. It really needs to be something she would like.

Thanks for the detailed help!

I second the recommendations by others for Haruhi Suzumiya and Samurai Champloo. In addition:

Noein, even though it has plenty of sadness in places, is a great, non-stereotypical Sci-Fi with really well-done characters and a solid story.

Sakura Wars: Very fun version of the "steam punk" genre. If you are familiar with steam punk, just imagine if someone decided to mix the samurai show, the 'harem' show, and the mecha show all up in a steam-punk setting. If you can't imagine that, then go to the bookstore and flip through a volume of "Sakura Taisen" (same story in manga form) before investing.

Mezzo and Getbackers are both good action shows with engaging characters and plots (and no mecha). Mezzo is episodic (not much long term arc) while Getbackers is very much a single, continuing story.

And, you have a couple years to wait for the English versions, but catch Gintama and Oh! Edo Rocket! when they come out in the US. They are both very, very non-stereotypical Sci-Fi that fit your specifications very well.

If you are tired of Gundam etc. mecha, I am going to reiterate Patlabor for a look at a completely different kind of mecha show, and Go-Dannar, for a show that pokes unabashed fun at Mecha shows.

And finally, for a couple completely different takes: Yes, it gets called a Mecha show, but it isn't, and it has some tough parts, especially in the first season, but Full Metal Panic is a brilliant show with great characters.

And just in case your sister has a secret cutesy streak she will admit to:

Angelic Layer - The show that answers the question, "what if girls liked to animate their barbie dolls and stage arena fights with them?"

Kamichu - The show that answers the question "if a Japanese middle-school student suddenly turned into a god, would she still have to worry about keeping up her grades and finding the courage to confess to the boy she likes?"

Princess Tutu - I'm not sure what question this one answers (other than "what if a duck attended ballet school?"), but it's a darned good show.

ErictheFred, I think that's good enough to go on for now. I'm glad to have found someone so willing to help me out - I'll get back to you on what we go with and what the results are.

You sir, rock.