Thread: Anime for Beginners

a good way to start watching anime is by trying to look it up online or going to the library. if this doesnt work than im sorry its worked for me.

Look for good deals when buying anime. A lot of the cheaper anime is better than some of the new ones. Remember just becasue its old does'nt mean it isn't good. I save a lot of money by buying older anime.

Originally Posted by TetsuoShima9

Look for good deals when buying anime. A lot of the cheaper anime is better than some of the new ones. Remember just becasue its old does'nt mean it isn't good. I save a lot of money by buying older anime.

Good advice. Where do people typically go to buy their anime? I was thinking of going to rent a few as there is this Japanese video store close to my house that has a decent selection. Does anyone have any favorites they might suggest I start with. Think of me as a blank slate and wanting to build up my anime knowlege, what is the most important building block I should start with? I assume a classic?

Think you should go here and look at your individual tastes. The guy who does the rating isn't very biased, though everyone is on some level.

The Anime Review

Usually what will happen is you will find one anime that you REALLY like and then you will watch it and you will begin to branch out toward other anime series. That's the way it happened for me at least.
The first anime I ever watched was Speed Racer...from there I went to Sailor Moon then I went to Inuyasha and then I just couldn't get enough. My taste for Manga also developed. Manga may also be something that you might be interested in because manga always has more in it than the TV or DVD epsiodes do.
It really all depends on what kind of anime you like...some people like romantic type anime, some like gay/lesbian anime, others prefer sci-fi anime or perhaps fighting style anime...or maybe even anime set in a traditional atmosphere.
The internet is a very good place to start.
Like people have said above new series are okay but older ones are usually better, in my opinion anyway.
Some series I suggest would be:

Sailor Moon
Inuyasha
FLCL
Loveless
Chobits
Yu Yu Hakusho
Gate Keepers
Witch Hunter Robin
Tenchi Muyo
Ruroni Kenshin
also anything by the all female group CLAMP is great...Chobits was actually created by them.
I hope I was able to help you ^-^
If you have any questions feel free to send me a message or add me if you wish :]

If you're looking for a long series, I'd check these out:

Rurouni Kenshin (If you like Samurai stuff, this is pretty great. It's about a samurai who killed millions of people in wars, but now vows never to kill anyone ever again. can he stick to the promise? OHHH guess you'll have to watch it! )

Naruto (This anime is all about ninja's. well mainly.)

Bleach (I haven't really seen much of this, but it's pretty good from what I have read, I dunno if it's all samurai or not. it's about a high school student with the ability to see ghosts, that's all I really know)

If you're looking for shorter series.

Death Note (My favorite anime/manga so far. really good, It's about a Shinigami who drops his death note, and a high school student called Light gets it, and whoevers name you write in the book dies. it's really suspenseful and dark)

.Hack//GU (This one is a MMORPG anime, yeah. the main character is trapped in "The World" and can't log out. and has no clue where he is, it's pretty good.)

Wolf's Rain (Wolves are believed to be extinct, not true, they hide in human forms. But the end of the world happens, and wolves are the only ones who know how to get to paradise. so the remaining wolves go in search for paradise)


Well, their is some animes you might like, or not. XD

One of the ways that served me well (in the money department) was going to ADVs website. True ADV does not have a market on all the great hits, but it does have some really good anime... And ADV seems to find any excuse to run giant sales. I was able to get a lot of series by just waiting it out and buying them when the sales hit, for a lot cheaper then I would have otherwise.

Going to the library and looking online are also great ideas.... And should serve you very well.

Some Anime Ideas:
-Cowboy Bebop... In all honesty I think it's one of the great "modern" classics... I think all anime fans should see this at some point....

-Trigun it has a feel like Bebop but is a lot more goofy..

-If you want a classic that you won't want to watch the whole thing but is good for getting an idea of what older anime was all about Lupin the 3rd is funny and since it ran for so long (breaks inbetween but crossed many different decades) It can give you a feel for the shift in anime

-Studio Ghibili films, any of them you can see you should... They don't own the market on anime movies, or even the best anime movies... But they do own the market on consistantly putting out good films, with a great number of GREAT ones mixed in.

-Chobits seems to be a classic that most people have seen... I have not and I am not that intrested, but it really does seem like a "classic"

-.hack//sign, the person above wrote it as GU, however GU is a game, sign is the anime (the .hack universe has about 10 different parts in the forms of anime, manga, novels, games, etc to it so it can get confusing)... Other then that the plot summary is correct, and it's really a good anime. It's slow though be warned... I think honestly it's the only .hack anime (other then roots I have not seen it so no idea) that is worth watching

-Ghost in the Shell at least the first movie if not the whole series of movies and shows. It's cyberpunk and amazing.

NGE- I hated it, with a passion... It's another classic though so....

I mostly listed some more "classic" anime titles... Ones that it seems a broad spectrum of anime fans have seen... Honestly I think that's one of the best places to start... When I got into anime I watched what was considered to be classics and must watch animes in order to get a feel for what genres I liked.....

I think it was the easiest place for me to start because without a comparison to anime that I knew a lot of people had seen it was hard for me to ask for suggestions on what to watch.

If you can say "I loved NGE" or something of the alike then people will A) mostly likely have seen it so know what they are talking about and B) will be better able to steer you in the right direction of like anime.

Hoped this helped ^_^