I'd also add to my suggestions Martian Sucessor Nadesico. It makes fun of mecha cliches, both past and present. It's kind of the mecha anime equavilent of Galaxy Quest.
It's hard to recommend an anime parody though. As hilarious as Nadesico is, I think you have to have had seen a fair amount of mecha to get the full impact of some of the jokes. On the other hand it's funny enough that you might not need to either. I know I wouldn't recommend something like Excel Saga to someone who isn't a fairly experienced fan for instance. I also would avoid recommending things that throw you in the philosophical and psychological deep end like Serial Experiments Lain or Perfect Blue unless they ask for that type.
The op listed eva as one of the thing's he/she has seen Its not misleading at all. Having seen the first 2, yes they are most definitely worth recommending. Even if parts 3 and 4 are terrible, it will never change the fact that parts 1 and 2 were great movies
Ah! So they have. Thought they'd only seen a few episodes along with Lupin rather than all of NGE. You raise a compelling point, but I still disagree. I've seen both as well (well, what little I could see during the second one! Will definitely re-watch once the DVD is finally released) and I'm still on the fence. So far they've been great spectacles (like Avatar is), but as far as the story goes... There's still plenty of time for Anno to fuck up. I guess I view these Rebuild movies differently than you. I don't think of 1.0 and 2.0 as movies unto themselves, I very much think of them as parts of a story. I can't rightly judge how they work until I've seen them all work in tandem, then I can pick what was good and bad about each so far as how they related to the story they're telling. You know, maybe I'm particularly reluctant to judge the movies before seeing all 4 because I'm not very impressed so far and I desperately want to sing Anno's praises. I might just be holding out hope that the last 2 reel me back in. Like I said, I think these movies look fantastic, but right now I just feel as if NGE was the awesome novel that I've read a thousand times and Rebuild is the watered down, blah film adaptation where all the nuance, subtlety, and brilliance had to be cut out in order to make a coherent work in a shorter amount of time.
I have to say I'm extremely skeptical about the new films, because I've been burned by Eva twice, and thus far I'll I've seen is just them remaking the same old thing with a new coat of fancy CG. Granted it looks awesome, but so far I've only seen 1.0 where the changes are minuscule. I only got on board for these because they were supposed to be different from the previous universe and less nonsensical and pretentious; like an Eva-lite. Maybe 2.0 will change my mind but that'll have to wait for the DVD release. I really want to like the franchise since it has such good characters but it's just frustrating the way it just keeps dropping the ball.
I love mindfucks so don't be afraid to reccomend that kind of stuff. I love movies like the Matrix, Fight Club, and Swimming Pool (I watched that movie twice in two days and I still wasn't entirely sure how it all fit together). I forgot to mention that when I was doing anime before I also watched a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop (which I loved) and I watched both movies for Evangelion. This was pre-Netflix so I wasn't able to watch the last couple episodes that Blockbuster didn't have, before I watched the movies. I don't know if that was why, but the second movie made no sense to me whatsoever. As for stuff I like, I'm mainly into fantasy, Sci-Fi, I'm open to mecha, and ninja/samurai stuff. As for the stuff I'm watching now, based on what I've seen Bleach has been my favorite, with Naruto and Ghost in the Shell: SAC close behind. I've only seen one DtB so I can't really judge it yet. What about the Blood stuff? (Blood: THe Last Vampire, and Blood+) I have them in my queue, but I haven't gotten around to watching them. I also have the GiTS movie, and Ninja Scroll. Several of you mentioned Fullmetal Alchemist, but Hulu only has FA:Brotherhood. So I was wondering if I could watch Brotherhood without the first series? I also wanted to know what you guys think of Devil May Cry ( I love the games and want to see if the show is good), Burst Angel, and Samurai Champloo. I found those three on Funimation, and was thinking about checking them out.
You can watch brotherhood without watching the first series. What happened with Full Metal Alchemist is that the first series was made when there were only a few volumes of the manga out, so they sort of took what manga was out there and made a story based off of that. Now that the manga series is almost completed (or possibly fully completed, im not sure) they have the chance to make an anime the way author intended. They're really 2 different stories that arent dependent on each other. The Devil may cry anime was really pretty and I really wanted it to be awesome...but it wasn't Same goes for Burt Angel. Samurai Champloo was really awesome, I highly recommend it. Blood The Last Vampire is a decent movie, the most interesting thing about it is that it is mostly in English despite being produced in Japan. Blood + is an awesome anime, though I get the feeling I like it more than most people lol. I was hooked from the start, but it is slow moving so its best to watch it in bulk
Hmm, yeah, Burst Angel and Devil May Cry are pretty much style over substance type series. Entertaining enough, but not outstanding. Plus I've heard fans of the games tend to find the DMC anime pretty lame in comparison. Blood: the Last Vampire and Blood+ I also found to be similar mid-range titles. Okay but not eitirely without their share of flaws either. The series was better than the movie though.
Personally, I wouldn't call Aria SF because it sets up expectations that the show will utterly fail to fulfil. What little SF is in there is pretty irrelevant, and it seems as much fantasy as SF to me, what with some of the more supernatural goings-on. Either way, it sure is a soothing balm if you're feeling world-weary; unless you find it unbearably twee, which, I have to admit, would be pretty hard to argue against, though I love the show myself. I'm not going to suggest a massive list, I'll just suggest Shion no Ou: a thriller set in the world of shogi (a board game similar to chess). Murder and Japanese chess: you can't go wrong.
I just watched the first episodes of Blood+, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Samurai Champloo. I really liked all three, and will definitely be keeping up with them. I also watched the third episode of GitS:SAC, and I have to admit the ending confused me. What was up with the Jeri grabbing the guy and quoting the movie? I have to admit I've actually had this same problem with the other two episodes too, I've been having alot of trouble keeping up with it.
Basically, that it was supposed to be just a run of the mill basic doll that only did what you programmed it to do, however, it went beyond that and acted on it's own will. Also expect a lot more of that to come as the philosophical and psychological exploration of the boundary between man and machine is one of the central themes of the franchise. GITS: SAC is a pretty good balance of a thinking man's series and some not so sophisticated violence which is one of the reasons why it's one of my absolute favorites.
Ok, that's what I thought. I'm usually pretty good at picking up on this kind of stuff, I don't know what my problem has been with SAC.
While the series is mostly episodic, there is a great story arc for the first season too, which begins with the events of episode 4 and sets up the stage for some major future events.
JD, first of all I'd recommend sticking with GiTS. My favorite was the 2nd season (2nd gig as its called) and the movie after the 2nd season (solid state society) was good as well and it continues after the events of the 2nd season. So hang in there with it. I loved Blood+ as well. Thats another long running series (50 eps if im not mistaken) so just hang in there with it. It does have a few weaker episodes here and there but overall its a great series. It does some great character building. As for Fullmetal Alchemist you might want to try Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It's premiering this weekend (Saturday night at 12am) on adult swim. It's a "re-do" in effect that follows the mangas storyline. The original anime strayed around 12 episodes in and it took a different path from the manga's story. They just recently last year reanimated it with this new series. Check it out if you can. From what i've seen its animated beautifully.
It sometimes takes a slightly oblique approach, I think. Also it often drops complex ideas in your lap with little exposition, such as the "stand alone complex" idea itself, which seems to be related to chaos theory and emergent phenomena, or perhaps antichaos instead. Must admit, I found myself scratching my head a few times when the main story got going (the second season as well, for that matter). Seems to me the Japanese approach to telling stories in general is to leave out a lot of the expository detail and let the viewer fill in the blanks; much more so than in the west. I base this observation on the viewing of many anime and a handful of Japanese horror films, so it must be true. Edit: of course, GitSAC is like a straightforward, dumb harem show compared to Serial Experiments Lain.
Serial Experiments Lain is also a pretty bad show. Half kidding, I've seen it once and thought it was confused and bad. I should give it another shot someday, given the praise it receives.