Toooooooooooooons!

Heh. I considered doing the promised piece on less known webcomics, but decided it would be too much work and too bitty. Then I started listing all of the (good) anime I have seen and began to regret that decision.

Ok. Most of what I'm going to list can be imported on DVD. Some of it can even be found locally. It goes without saying that subtitled versions are universally preferable to dubbed versions. I won't mention streamload.

Note that I am talking here about the series, not the movies (where such exist) The movies are, in general, worse.

Right, without further ado - on to the moster list of 'must see' stuff.

Noir

The single largest outpouring of pure unadulterated style that you will ever have the fortune to watch. (Admittedly, sometimes it goes a little bit too far - such as the main character waiting for the musical theme to end before shooting her victim) The plot follows a pair of assasins, who take on the name of noir and do what assassins do best. The plot gets a bit mystical towards the end, but there's no overt supernatural (which makes a change) just a legend and a powerful conspiracy who try to make it come to pass. I was a bit dissapointed by the ending, but I think that is mainly because I didn't want it to end. Wonderful music - this does is absolute best to be a french art-house film. Heck, one of the assasins even has a houseplant. Twenty six episodes of gorgeousness.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

One of the well acknowledged classics of anime. Neon genesis charts the progress of a small boy who has to pilot a giant robot and save the city. Ok, I just managed to make it sound bad. It actually charts his descent into madness quite well - and is filled with wonderful choreography and familiar legend. The dubbed version is running on sci-fi saturday mornings, repeated sunday morning and thursday night. Damn - why can't I write anything good about this series? Mainly because doing so would reveal the plot. One thing - it is almost worth watching this series from episode eleven, then going back and watching episodes one to ten - there's a lot in the starting episodes that is only revealed on a second playthough. It also has, oddly, no less than three different attempts to end the series - of which the double episode 'end of eva' is the best, although it does give in rather to the "Blow up the universe so that no one can ever take over and wreck it" theory.

Exile Saga

With the full title of "Wierd Anime Exile Saga" episodes numbered "3.1415926" and "I like Pie" (although that might just be the fansubbers having fun) there is no way I could fail to love this series. What more can I say? menchi (a little dog who looks kinda like a cat) gets his own episodes, and a chaingun. The main character dies three times in the first episode; her partner dies in almost every episode. The subplot revolves around the great will of the universe falling in love with a random guy exile kills in the firts episode. A random "That Guy" becomes such a hit with the crew that they make him a main villain - the people making this clearly had as much fun as you will have watching it. Each episode (for the first half of the series anyway) parodies an entirely different anime style. This does mean, unfortuantely, that there are some you own't enjoy (either due to liking that style too much, or hating it (sports anime) with a passion) but for each of those there wil lbe several that have you rolling in the aisles.

Nadesico

We've assembled the very best possible crew for you - of course, they do have some slight personality problems - and with that award winning understatement the crew of the Martian Successor / Mobile Battleship Nadesico go forth to, uh... they're not quite sure what they're gonna do actually. Betrayal, plot twists and parodies and homages to everything (but especially to 'battle of the planets') bring this together into a wonderful statement on the self-referential nature of most anime comedy. It's so bent, it's straight again - it's slightly simplified techno-babble is explained in handy 'naze-nani' segments, which are the most memorable and most often parodied moments of this classic space-opera. Dubbed version is screened right after eva right now, so you've got no excuse to miss it. You Idiot.

FLCL

Deliberately named so as to take advantage of the lack of seperate characters for 'l' and 'r' the pronunciation of this varies - but however you pronounce it, it's still about an insane girl chasing a boy on a motorcycle and teaching him how to protect the giant steam iron by using the power of guitar-rock. No, it makes no sense - but it is wonderful to watch and pretty fun to listen to as well. don't even try to understand what is going on, the 'plot' is simpler than it appears.

Ruroni Kenshin

For some unknown reason, this was also titled 'Samurai X' - they're both the same thing. A total classic. The tale of a troubled ronin who has given up his lifestyle of killing, and lives now only to protect those he loves. Too sappy? Perhaps you'll prefer what can only be described as the most perfect sword-fights ever put down on paper. This anime really does cover all the bases, and cover them well. With a small enough cast that you can actually begin to care about most of them this series combines beautiful art and music to a plot which you will carry with you forever. Ye gods, I get sappy when writing about the few things I actually like. I feel honour bound to point out that it does get a bit 'monster of the week' in the middle and after the kyoto arc - but you won't mind much, I'm sure.

Vampire Princess Miyu

Yet again, another anime with wonderful music. I think possibly that's the main thing i look for. Oh well. Vampire princess miyu brings a thousand different legends to life at once, as it tells the story of a guardian spirit charged with sending demons back to the darkness they spawned from. And, this being a japanese cartoon naturally the guardian is a schoolgirl. Oh, and a vampire. You'll fall in love the moment you watch the end of the first episode - where she has to deal with an anne-rice fan; infatuated with the idea of becoming a vampire. "I told you that you shouldn't follow me" ... {shiver} ... Sorry, I don't want to give too much away. Suffice to say that this series is dark. Sadly, it really does suffer from scooby-doo 'monster of the week' problems - although the slow thread revealing her background continues throughout. Some complain that the makers of this didn't actually know what was going on either; and while I agree that the truths are kept somewhat hidden, I think those people just need to think a bit. Classic, dark, classical and full of twists on familiar legends. Wonderful.

You're Under Arrest

A cop show. A pretty damn good one. It does tend to focus a bit too much on the cars and the guns for my taste; but that would be down to the obsessions of the main characters I suppose. Well animated, with a plot that starts off downright hilarious (late for work, the main character has to take stupid shortcuts to get in on time) and gets, well, even more stupidly hilarious (I am... Christmas Man! Villains tremble at my feet!) The cars and guns are practically characters in their own right. (Though, thankfully, they don't talk) The animation quality does drop off after the first four episodes (which were actually stand-alone videos) but it recovers fairly quickly.

His and Hers Cirscumstances

Ok, this one is kinda hard to describe. I suppose that if I had to [Ed. You do] I would talk about it as grange hill with every insane video editing trick you could concieve of. You will need to be able to read QUICKLY to get the most out of this - often there will be three different things on screen at once. Both main characters are hopelessly twisted, and hopelessly in love and, well, things progress. The entirety of tokyo only gets destroyed once in the process. I'm sorry, I can't talk about this and make it sound good - you'll just have to take my word for it. For pure insanity, one of the recap episodes runs every episode up to that point simultaneously in little windows - while the characters talk over the top of it and explain a completely different plot.

Fruits Basket

Ok, excesisve cuteness abounds. Sadly, I've not watched enough of this to know where it is headed. Members of a family are cursed with the chinese zodiac, and turn into their respective animals (cat, rabbit, dog etc.) when hugged. Then they all go to school together with a mysterious ditz-of-plot who has a tendancy to forget, and hug them. Turn on the cute, turn off the brain, and let the plot unfold at its own pace.

Blue Gender

Mentioned only here because it is being shown thursday nights just before eva. Dunno how good it is, it looks like a basic "retake the earth" plot.

Silent Mobius

Designed for RPG, it even shows each of the main characters classes during the intro. Monsters are invading, and a branch of the police is set up to blow them away. Naturally, this police branch gets all the best guns as well as all of the psychic, psychotic, angsty and back-plot-driven personell. Plot is fun, visuals are fun, fight scenes fall down go boom. I'm not a great fan myself, but enough other people whose views I usually approve of like it for me to mention it here.

Slayers

Here we come back to one of the all time greats. Lina Inverse is a sorcerer in a land of cliche. She enjoys eating, blowing stuff up and eating. Gourry is her idiot companion who happens to be the owner of the 'sword of light' Together, they blow stuff up. Full of jokes, references to the genre and more jokes - you can almost pretend that the awful animation is deliberate. (You remember the bad old days of a single frame of explosion while the camera wobbled a bit right?) As the series progresses, the art gets better, the plot gets sillier and the explosions get bigger. And lina starts out the series by blowing up the village she is supposed to save. A true classic, nice and simple - you will laugh all the way through. But why do I really like it? That's a secret.

Utena

Revolutionary Utena gets honourary mention here. I loathe it with a passion I reserve only for things that have to be good in some way. Bad points first - Utena must duel her way through the entire school for no well defined reason. Then she does it again, only this time they wear black roses. Then she does it again, only this time in a car. Then the writers got the hint, and carried on the plot. Far too many rose petals flying about, far too much cuteness, and roses colour-co-ordinated to hair. There we go. Now the good points. The fencing is actually pretty good; when Utena wins by luck you can tell, and when she wins by skill, you can tell. The psychology is good too - if you regard the whole thing as the mental anguish of someone growing up then it does all make a strange kind of sense. And if you forget the series and watch the movie, you get the entire thing compressed into under two hours of beauty that will leave you reeling and STILL convey the entire plot. But the series has its moments too - nanasi and the elephants being such a favorite that even the writers give it a second shot. Oh, and the single line (from the film) that ensures that you will watch this: "What, you thought you were the only one cool enough to turn into a car?" {no, people turning into cars is NOT normal, even for this series. Thanks a bunch transformers for making me spoil the end of my description}

Outlaw Star

Someone or Other (the name changes in the dub) is a trouble contractor. Allegedly, this means a guy you pay to solve any sort of problem; but which - of course - actually means a guy who causes trouble. He's got his own (stolen) better-than-state-of-the-art spaceship. He's being chased across the galaxy by shadowy forces. He needs to raise some cash quick! Some wonderful innovations in space combat, some very pretty CGI effects and some truly memorable supporting characters - this series really hits the spot around episode eight when the plot starts to come together and you realise that you actually care about the fate of the characters. I won't give away the plot, but when you sit back after the episode with the cats and think "But, he'll never know..." you'll know what I was talking about when I hinted about the hidden tragedies.

Phew. I watch too much anime for my own good. That was only a taster of a few of the series I have seen - and I still want to see again. So a 'best of the best' really. No particular order up there, and I'm absolutely certain that I have forgotten some of the other bests. I'm hoping (hint hint Tristan) to get another viewpoint up there from someone with almost diametrically opposed tastes (he likes shojo) soon - so watch for that, since it will undoubtably cover some gems that I've been too scared to mention. ('Angelic layer' and 'Kurumi' spring to mind. Aaargh! Now I have the Kurumi soundtrack in my head again!)