NationStates Jolt Archive

What are some good action anime movies? I need some recommendations to expand my collection. They don't need to be limited to action movies. Heck they can even be adult titles too.

I haven't seen as much anime as I probably should have, a slow internet connection and little money are to blame. I'd recommend Ghost in the Shell, though. It's a very deep, philosophical movie, though creepy.

dont yell at me if these dont qualify, im no expert on anime

princess mononoke -- excellent english voice acting. so rare for translations

metropolis

revolutionary girl -- 39 episodes of very odd interpersonal relationships at a boarding school

im trying to think of another i saw at the movie theater. ill add it if the name comes to me.

All of Gundam IMO has some great philosophy (Minus SD and G Gundam, they both were terrible IMO)

Mobile Suit Gundam - *the* original Gundam, only problem was early 80s-quality animation.

Gundam: the 08th MS Team - interesting look at war, whether love or duty is more important, and the life of ur average Gundam pilot (not the aces).

Gundam SEED: Interesting look at things like genetic modification (and I guess one could imply cloning from that as well), war, and where one's alliances should be. One thing that got on my nerves tho was the fact some ships were CG animated.

Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (movie): While I thought Wing wasn't great or terrible, it gave me an interesting look at whether or not humanity should outgrow war.

Knockin' on Heaven's Door if you dont have that.

I already have Ghost in the Shell and Metropolis.

I also have Akira, and the entire Robotech Series as well as Vampire Hunter D. I have a few others, but they’re not worth mentioning.

princess mononoke -- excellent english voice acting. so rare for translations


I have that too and it is great... Really violent and bloody so don't watch this one with a young one... Great meaning to the plot

spirited away was the one i couldnt remember.

grave of the fireflies is about orphans at the end of world war 2. fairly intense.

Trigun, I love that series.

Fooly Cooly's pretty decent.

Fullmetal Alchemist.

I'd recommend both the series and movie of Escaflowne. The movie is very loosely based on the series and can be seen and be very entertaining without knowing anything about the series. The series, though, I just find to be very nice plot-wise and in terms of animation. It's well worth your time to check it out. A boxed set of the series is coming out soon (there is one already, but it's about $200, this one is about $60-$70) on DVD which includes the movie, so try renting the movie, and if you like it, I'd recommend the series for you.

Hellsing, though its gothic, its got vampires.

Jin-Roh, though rather politcal and confusing.

Right now I'm watching 'The Last Exile" on winamp, and it's really good.

Here are my choices, though for me the animation smoothness, quality and perspective or "camera" usage is very important, so these will have a heavy visual slant.
In rank as to how easy it is to understand and enjoy them:

1. Get as many of the Miyazaki anime as possible, they are all really well animated, and tell a good adventure store with excellent art direction and design, right now those would be My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. On the way are Porco Rosso and Nausicaa. They are the gold stand in Japanese anime, in that they tell a good story and never tries to dumb down to the audience. They also have the benefit of not having many ties to Japanese pop culture/market trends so they are easy to pick up without having any sort of giant robot/cyberpunk/RPG background.

2. Last Exile: well animed, still sticks to the theme of a coming of age and adventure kind of theme. This also has the benefit of a very unique "universe" setting kind of like the Miyazaki films, but it also give you a taste of the more modern anime style, and how they are effective at telling a serialized story.

3. Cowboy Bepop: A strangely Americanized animation series about a bunch of bounty hunters's misadventures in space , it has a very 70's cops and robbers TV show kind of feel to it, as well as some Starsky and Hutch goofy humor. There are numerous Tarantino style society underbelly criminal storylines, as well as some homage to the exploitation genre. If you like the American pop culture counterparts referenced here, you will probably like it.

4. Big O: Very stylishly illustrated, Big O is probably one of the most distinctive animation series, again a it has a Americanized influence. In fact, the whole series is done with an Art Deco/Film Noir style. Men with impeccable suits, buildings that look like machine age cathedrals and cars with elegant curves populate the visual in Big O. A giant robot anime, each episode ends with a spectacular showdown. Another added point is that appropriately going with the art deco theme, the series has a an almost Atlas Shrugged kind of "individual must stand alone" morality to it.

5. Akira: finally, the big name in action anime. very finely animinated, good story like, and it is a very good jump off point to other anime movies because it has so many themes that branch off into genres in anime. It has the flesh vs machine struggle, lone hero vs. military conspiracy, human enhancements, youth and violence, and the quality/limitation of humanity vs. unlimited, godlike power. worth watching just for the mosaic of theme so you can pick up other things that more narrowly fit your taste.

6. Ghost in the Shell: a great anime take on the machine consciouness/amorphous conspiracy thread of cyberpunk storylines, it also features lots of groundbreaking, pre-Matrix visual effects that include splashy bullet impacts, gunfight/martial arts mix, motion sway of the camera, and pillar/wall dodging. I think GitS 2 is in select theaters now, so go and see it for the post-Matrix, digital hall of mirrors kind of atmosphere.

whew! anime can get expensive in a hurry, doesn't it?

Jesus H Christ, this thread is horrifically dated.

Keroro Gunso = Funny + a leetle fanservice
NinNin ga Shinobuden = Ninja + funny + fanservice
Hagane no Renkinjitsushi = Drama + a little funny + kickass
RE: Cute Honey = Gainax not sucking the faux-drama cock. Funny, fanservice.

I heard Ninja Scroll was good, why with the Ninjas and the amount of sex in it anyway...

Then again I know nothing of anime and I absolutely hate it, just what a friend told me.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is one of my favorite movies anime or not.

I'll list series (in no real order):

1) Fullmetal Alchemist (best anime story ever)
2) Naruto (Damn straight!)
3) One Piece (not the crappy dubbed and edited verion on Fox Box)
4) Samurai 7
5) Hunter x Hunter
6) Bakurestsu Tenshi (fanservice-ridden speghetti western)
7) Tenjou Tenge
8) Rurouni Kenshin
9) Re: Cutey Honey
10) Galaxy Angels (funny and underrated. Girls are cute too ;) In its 4th season)
11) Monster ('The Fugitive' in Germany)
12) Juuni Kokki
13) Gantz (too cool. get the unedited DVD version)
14) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (yes, its a series now. 2nd season in progress)
15) Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu (too funny for words)
16) Trigun
17) Gundam Seed (again, get the unedited versions)
18) Witch Hunter Robin
19) Ebichu (funny and full of sexual content)
20) Paranoia Agent
21) Cowboy Bebop
22) Kiddy Grade
23) Great Teacher Onizuka (damn good series)
24) Scrapped Princess
25) Kimi ga Nozumo Eien (based on a H-Game. Very well done)
26) Shingetsutan Tsukihime (also based on an H-Game. Very well done)
27) X
28) Get Backers
29) Berzerk
30) Slayers, Slayers NEXT, Slayers TRY
31) Excel Saga
32) Hellsing
33) RahXephon
34) Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
35) Onegai Sensei, Onegai Twins
36) Fruits Basket
37) Neon Genesis Evangelion (a classic, if you haven't seen it shame on you)
38) Last Exile
39) Stellvia
40) Nadesico

(Jesus Christ I've watched a lot of series. Yes I have watched - or am watching - all of these)

Movies (in no real order):

1) Ghost In The Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (brand spanking new)
2) Any Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli Film
3) Akira
4) Vampire Hunter D: BloodLust
5) X: The Movie
6) Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness
7) The New Naruto Movie (though I haven't seen it yet. ITS NARUTO! 'Nuff Said.)

I really could go on.

Ok, this list includes movies and series.

(and this is just a short list because I own more than this. including manga; I've seen these ones... I've seen others, which names I can't recall right now)

- Fushigi Yuugi
- Ayashi no Ceres
- Ai no Kusabi
- Gravitation
- Enzai
- Chobits
- .hack//sign
- FAKE
- Chance Pop Session
- Angel Sanctuary
- Ranma 1/2
- Animation Runner
- Project A-ko
- Rurnonin Kenshin OAV: Romantic Tales from the Meiji Era
- Noir
- Matantei Loki Ragnarok
- Ragnarok
- Gunbuster
- Vision of Escaflowne
- Tokyo Underground
- YunaSaishu Heiki Kanajo
- 3x3 Eyes
- Princess Mononoke
- Come Here Junkers
- X/1999
- Yami no Matseui
- Pet Shop of Horrors
- Please Save My Earth
- Legend of Basara
- Hamnlin the Violinist
- Maico 2010
- Kiki's Delivery Service

Yu Yu Hakusho is very much worth watching if you skip over some of the "interim sagas" like the first Tugoru episodes. Its not too well animated or dubbed but the fighting is sort of like a fast paced mystery if you research character techniques beforehand. You will end up trying to tell what each character is about to do.

Give Grave of the Fireflies a try.

After that, give...hmm.

Ghost in the Shell 2 is in theatres now...

I forgot Read or Die :p

I really really could go on forever.

Just go to http://www.animenfo.com and find their top 100 list. Its a good list.

Find torrent downloads (in case you didn't know) at:

http://www.animesuki.com

http://www.boxtorrents.com

(has been having trouble thanks to ADV and has been trying to find a decent server. Likely down but it is a god send to anime fans. Anyone know the Boxtorrent forum URL?)

http://www.downloadanime.org

17) Gundam Seed (again, get the unedited versions)
SEED is great - so is most of Gundam.

I've heard rumors about this UC Gundam series back from the 80s known as Zeta Gundam that may come over soon. Many people who have seen it think Zeta Gundam is one of the greatest Gundam series period. Can anybody confirm this for me?

Just go to http://www.animenfo.com and find their top 100 list. Its a good list.

Find torrent downloads (in case you didn't know) at:

http://www.animesuki.com

http://www.boxtorrents.com

(has been having trouble thanks to ADV and has been trying to find a decent server. Likely down but it is a god send to anime fans. Anyone know the Boxtorrent forum URL?)

http://www.downloadanime.org

Won't that get you in jail?

the only gundam series i ever really liked was gundam wing

Record of Lodoss War, Armitage - Cybermatrix, Princess Mononoke is a good pro-environment movie :)

I can't believe no-one listed "Fist of the North Star" yet!
Very, very, very violent, with a strange post-apocalyptic plot, and a guy who hits people, and then their heads explode!
Catgirl Nuku-Nuku was fun too (surprisingly, no sex, just fighting interspersed in a thin plot).

I think everything said so far is good, especially the Miyazaki (Grave of the Fireflies, Princess Mononoke), if you haven't seen a lot of anime then you might like those more. They're more like other "art" films than a lot of the formula, Hollywood-style anime that clutter it up. I also didn't like any of the Gundams other than 8th MS but thats just a personal thing.

If you want to check out old school, one of the best is Gainax's Wings of Honneamise, its a little slow but basically about the race to get a man into space, in a sort of alternate reality. Very cool, it actually came out shortly before Akira (another must-see old school) if I remember right, and the second to last scene is probably the coolest spacecraft launch sequence in all of anime, even beating out Outlaw Star (another one you should see.)

What else? I think you've just about covered the really great ones already, if you want to try something new then check out the Gunsmith Cats anime (only 3 episodes, but made me start buying the manga!) and the dark horse of 1990's anime, Irresponsible Captain Tylor.

Have fun!

Won't that get you in jail?

Nope, because they are no copyrighted in the US. They are fan subs so they are not owned by a company

Haibane Renmei and Witch Hunter Robin are both really good. And Upitatanium your right about Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu. It is too funny for words. The only Gundam series I've had the pleasure of seeing was Gundam Wing. Hope that helps.

Hey you guys should watch Samurai X thats possibly the best one that i've seen, better than Princess Monoke, Spirited Away,Endless Waltz...Etc.

but hey what do i know?

I'm really more into the Sci-fi anime series, myself.

Ebi-Chu is great fun. But it will most likely scar you.
It's just kinda weird to have a scene where OfficeLady is beating the crap out of her boyfriend and the the next scene they are fucking like animals.

Patlabor 2

Story line (!!!!), brilliant character development, currently very relevent (terrorist threats and a more subtle way of dealing with them...taking notes anybody?!?!) and the score is excellent.

If you get the box set with Patlabor, Patlabor:The Movie and W:XIII you will find so rediculosly funny stuff after W:XIII where they basically just take the mick outta themselves etc etc. In anycase, although its more of a thriller than action, its still a really amazing film. some people find it a little slow, but i guess they were expecting something else....

I can't believe no-one listed "Fist of the North Star" yet!

Deffinately the most violent anime I have ever seen. The series was a lot better than the movie, but it was an interesting watch.

Mobile Suit Gundam - *the* original Gundam, only problem was early 80s-quality animation.
YES. And an anime where the movies are better than the series. I bought the Hong Kong bootleg of the three-movie boxset.