Neon genesis evangelion-by several thousand light years. I'm surprised it's not that popular on this thread, considering two of the main characters are loners; an avoidant and a schizoid. I strongly recommend it to hikikomori type people. I have Rebuild of evangelion but never got around to watching it. The creator of the show based his personality on the avoidant character and attempted to use the show as a form of catharsis to overcome his depression. He regarded Otaku culture as a form of "self induced autism". Elfen Lied and Ghost in the shell are also very good. I'm not a big fan of anime, bar the aforementioned.

i just finished "Dance in the Vampire Bund". Its such a great vampire story, and im very picky in vampire stories! too bad its very short and theres still much story left untold, but maybe thats exactly the good point. adding it to my absolute favourites.

i watched it and i guess the picture was telling the truth somehow. i was very into it but the end it was very unstatisfying. but i couldnt relate much to the topic so it should be a white box just with the words "minus the girl" at the end


edit: damn sorry for the double post i forgot to edit -.-

The ending had to be unsatisfying. A happy ending would have seemed so fake.

Anyway Legend of the Galactic Heroes is fucking awesome! It goes into the list of my favorite anime and my favorite sci-fi which I usually keep seperate.

well i think it was a happy ending - he got over being a hiki and also coupled up with the girl. it was unstatisfying in another way.

the main character was so stupid -.-

i've seen that one

My top favorite anime is Death Note.. Second place goes to Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex..

...Does the Touhou one-episode anime count?

I'm loving High School of the Dead. This has to be the most jiggly anime ever!

Not sure if I have a favourite anime but I have watched Samurai Champloo and Azumanga Daioh just recently.
I found both of them quite enjoyable even though they're both completely different.
Osaka from Azumanga Daioh could possibly be one of my favourite characters. It's abit mean to call someone thick but she thinks in such a weird and demented way that I just found quite amusing.

Osaka: Sometime last night, I was all alone in my room, when suddenly...out of no where.......the smell of a fart that wasn't mine wafted into my nose.
[complete dumbfounded silence]
Tomo: [scared] Erh! Spooky!
Osaka: Isn't it?

Didn't expect that at all.

My favorite anime by far is FMA (the first series and not Brotherhood. FMA B is just too corny for me). It's the first anime that totally affected me. I watched each epsiode with vigor and I cried at the last episode. It was really awesome that I've watched its 51 eps 5 times now. The characters felt real and alive and the plot was over the top. I have watched a lot of good animes since my FMA experience like Eureka 7 (which was from the same studio who made FMA), Death Note, Monster, Gurren Laggann, RahXephon, Cowboy Bebop, Xam'd, Planetes, BECK, Nodame Cantabile, Ghibli movies... but overall, nothing beats the way I felt toward FMA.

NGE is special mention. It was aired in 1997 but I just got to watch it last month. I have heard a lot about it and know that it has created a fuzz in the anime community. I only knew it was about a boy piloting a giant mecha which is similar to RahXephon which I've watched and liked a lot. Actually, I watched the Rebuild first and thought it was okay. I only had the determination to watch the whole series after seeing 2.22. My mind was blown away and I knew that this is something that I just have to watch. I marathoned the series in 3 days and I felt like Ikari Shinji after. End of Eva was the bomb.

My favorite anime--

Axis Powers Hetalia
I love this anime so much, even if the length is 5 minutes per episode. It is a good thing my attention span is short anyways. And the subject of this anime? World History. I love it. I am incoherent at this moment in time, so explaining the point of it is a little difficult in my dizzy state, but the characters are personified as countries and it has fun with stereotypes and culture. It's hilarious and cute. It will always remain in a special place within my heart, since I discovered it during a really hard time in my life.

Other anime that are amazing in my opinion. Honorable mentions.


Kuroshitsuji
Pandora Hearts
Durarara!!
Ouran High School Host Club
Junjou Romantica
Loveless
Fullmetal Alchemist

Death Note (by far the best in my opion. Very absorbing, intelligent, and original. Besides it doesn't have all the filler crap, nor does it have 500 episodes, god. I don't know, but in my opinion it took anime to a whole other level- an adult level.)

Gantz (this anime really makes you talk about the situations and choices the characters are faced with, like great horror films do)

Detroit Metal City (one of the most original, fast paced, and hilarious anime out there about a college grad who wants to make Sweedish pop music, but gets stuck performing in a death metal band as vocalist/lead guitarist/alter persona Krauser.)

I watched a few anime series this year. The best one I watched was Haibane Renmei, with Eden of the East being a close second. I need to finish a few other series, Texhnolyze being one of them. I didn't care much for the first few episodes of Texhnolyze, but it seems like most people, even fans of the series, don't like them. Not enough dialogue and you're completely oblivious to what's going on. I usually like to know, quite early on, what's going on in films/series I watch.

I should get a spindle of 50 DVD-Rs and burn some more anime series. If I like any of them enough, I'll buy them on Blu-Ray eventually.

I'm going to make this list incredibly short out of the 700+ that happens to be my favorite. FLCL (Fooly Cooly). It's short, 6 episodes, but it seems so much longer. I've seen it about 6 times every summer since it aired, so once a year i get to see it and enjoy it.

Lucky Star

desert punk outlaw star fullmetal alch brotherhood.......poke- monz......gundam (all series) gurren lagann...i got more i just can't remember them

my favorite series would have to be either Chobits or cowboy bebop.

films.. princess mononoke, howls moving castle, and ghost in the shell are my favorites.

My favorite anime... I can't seem to pick one... but heres a few I thought were outstanding.

Serial Experiments Lain

Haibane Renmei

Boogiepop Phantom

Paranoia Agent

Then there are several other I really enjoyed as well, either because the story was great or I could relate to certain characters, or both:

NHK (Obligatory)
Evangelion (Of course)
GitS (especially SAC involving the Laughing Man)
Kino's Journey
Bokurano
.hack//sign (first anime that made me cry - which doesn't happen often)
Texhnolyze (the beginning is slow, but that ending... wow)

As for NHK's ending ... in the anime anyways, it fit quite well... Satou is still not "cured" but he certainly is in a better position than he was in before... It would be way too naive to conclude a series like this with "happily ever after". The characters still have to deal with their problems and nothing is really resolved but that's how it is in real life usually as well, people don't change "overnight" (especially someone like Satou).

The novel's ending gives it a more realistic twist, while I must admit the anime tries to make it seem all "fine and dandy". The novel is also great because it shows us all of satou's crazy thoughts and rationalizations in a way that kind of allows us to understand him so we dont see him as just "the crazy guy" like someone mentioned earlier. This was probably done in the anime to provide comedic relief as well as all his other shenanigans (most of which came from the manga - the novel is short and only has the main plot, besides one unique scene where Satou and Yamazaki infiltrate Misaki's religious meeting).

I can tell we have similar tastes in anime since we share many Have you watched FLCL? If you haven't watched it, I recommend it because I'm sure you'd like it.

Yeah, I have, it was a comedy that was well made, but I didnt really list my favorite comedies in that list because comedies are just there for entertainment, though its enjoyable to watch for the moment, they dont really "make me think" ... Though Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei would probably be my favorite comedy...

Also, I enjoy shows that cause despair. I dont know why, I'm just so fascinated by shows like that... I tend to pay attention to many of the negative aspects of shows and ignore their "positive" messages well I guess it makes sense since I'm a pretty negative-minded person overall...

For example one part of Paranoia Agent depicts the mental breakdown of a girl who absolutely despises her father... when she has nowhere to escape to after running away from home she falls deeper and deeper into despair until at the very end she ends up losing her memories and driving her father into a similar state of despair/amnesia/disbelief when he realizes she doesnt know who he is at all anymore!

I dunno... I guess that's why I enjoy anime since usually western films don't go that far into the realm of inducing despair in their characters, or at least I've never bothered looking for any that do...

See? that makes me sound like a really horrible person now doesnt it? , I still cant deny that some part of me does get a feeling of excitement from situations like this in shows and it's one of my few forms of enjoyment I can find... But I cant help it...

No no it's actually understandable to me. For instance I usually only watch series that have themes related to the human mind, especially personality disorders. I also enjoy darker themes than light themes because they're a hell of a lot more interesting.
I think FLCL is more than a comedy though considering the massive use of symbolism throughout the series. But I guess it fits in with "series about the mind" than "series with dark themes".
And It does seem like serious themes are far less common in western animation than it is in Japanese animation.

Well FLCL is basically "lolsymbolism" (I HAVE A DICK ON MY FOREHEAD) comedy/coming of age story about a kid going through puberty and "growing up". Of course Gainax had to throw in its usual weirdness which makes it unique.

I think America is just better at "bread and circuses" than Japan... I also heard a theory that Japan has a unique culture because it's been the only real civilization to have been "nuked", two times even.

GiTs......all gundam....monster....black lagoon...outlaw star......trigun....dragonaut....darker than black....gurren lagann....and many many more......oh and death note!.......code geass too!