Fenxy

Me love Dead Leaves long time.

Haha, forgot I watched it with you. Craziness.

Yeah your anime collection is the most impressive collection of anything I've ever seen.

It seems to grow weekly, just can't get enough of the juice. It helps to keep me sane.

Oh boy let's see. Fullmetal Alchemist, Planetes, Mushishi, Honey and Clover, Gunbusters 2.... The list could go on.

Full Metal Alchemist, Azumanga Daioh, Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain, etc, etc, etc. ;)

Damn next time remind to only limit your pick to one. Definitely gonna have to get up to date on some of these. Bryan you seem to get the more eclectic ones so I might have to hit you up for a full list of what you got.

For me it's a mixture of old and new:

Akira
Innocence
Princess Mononoke

I'm afraid I'm what you could call a post internet anime person. I was too young to know about the old stuff and only found out about the new stuff through the internet.

That's the beauty of Anime though Michael, you will never catch up and therefore you will never run out of new stuff to see.

That's one of looking at it.

The way I see it, anime is such a broad form of media (shojo, action, weird cooking shows) that there's show for everyone.

I like ninja anime. This'll include Naruto, Kage Kara Mamoru, Himawari, etc.

Azumanga Daioh is a classic, and Excel Saga is pretty crazy too.

I could probably go on for a while, so let's just leave it at that for now.

Azumanga Diaoh, Full Metal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lain: Serial Experiments and who could forget the classic I grew up with...Doraemon.

I could name all the great ones...but these have to be my favourite.

I love anime films especially the Studio Ghibli productions (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro), Ghost In The Shell and Jin Roh.

1. Blood the last vampire - will always have a place at top for me just for the quality of the illustration.
2. Serial Experiments Lain - my whenever I feel in need of a animation kick option and the box sets are gorgeous.
3. Cowboy bebop and Ghost in the shell are joint winners for me
4. Animatrix for the variety and dip in qaulity for me.

Choosing favourites is hard fo rme as there as so many I love and I am finding. I love Spirted away but the soundtrack caused me issues - got to love the characterisation of that film. Akira and Ninja Scroll along with Vampire Hunter D are oldie but goodie repeats in our house. The Itchi the Killer animation is also harder on the eyes but well worth a look.

I think Akira has to be the quintessential reference in anime, it influenced so much of the stuff that came after in design, animation, storyline etc, and it was one of the first to give credibility to anime as a cinema genre.

It's a bit like the old Star Wars vs the new Star Wars debate, has the progress made in cgi and special fx brought anything new to these films and made them any better? I'm not sure it has because at the root it's all about telling a good story regardless of the medium used to tell it.

Sonic X is my favorite show, and Galaxy Express 999 is my favorite movie.

My favs...

Escaflowne
Trigun
Samurai 7
Princess Mononoke
s-CRY-ed

A lot of you seem to like Blood: the last vampire. Did you know there's a blood+ anime? I think it's licensed now, but I believe a group is still subbing it.

@hungtruong - Oddly enough, Sony licensed it. They could sub-license to another company, but I'm guessing they'll handle it themselves (like they did with Metropolis, Steamboy, new Astroboy series, etc).

If I remember properly, wasn't blood supposed to be a knock off of Death Note and all of the subsequent vampire anime's a knock off of Gungrave? My friend raves abot Gungrave.

Blood is brilliant. Easily one of the greatest works of animation ever created. The visuals are just stunning.

So looking at this discussion we have basically come to the conclusion that if you love Anime, it's damn near impossible to just pick one.

Oh no wait it wasn't Gungrave it was Hellsing. My bad.

Haha surprised I didn't catch that. Both are great series, but I would pick Gungrave over Hellsing due to its emotional draw.

Actually I'm surpised that no one mentioned the Gundam saga since it is a must watch for any Otaku. Wing (including the Death Scythe Saga), X and Seed are addictively my favourite ones.

Galaxy Express 999
Serial Experiments Lain
Everything by Hayao Miyazaki

Maybe I need to rewatch Lain, but I just wasn't feeling it the first time I watched. Guess I got myself a new weekend project.

Serial Experiment Lain was really strange.

Which Gundam are you refering to? I hear that many people actually like Gundam Wing. Gundam the 8th MS was the only Gundam series that I could really stand.

The entire Gundam series. It's a classic and a must to have at least one Gundam series that you liked. Hallmark of a true otaku I guess. :)

It's funny to hear people talking about 'otaku' with praise when it has such a negative connotation in Japan.

What's the negative connotation involve?

Didn't get to watch Lain like I wanted to, but did finally see Howl's Moving Castle and it was another classic. I recommend it.

Otaku literally translates into "stays in house".

Then I am Super Otaku!

お宅 (おたく) usually just means 'house' or sometimes it's used to mean 'family'. The prefix 'o' is a form of politeness. In modern colloquial Japanese, otaku is often put before an activity/hobby like anime so it becomes anime-otaku or manga-otaku etc and in this sense it usually means 'fanatic', though as with all words there are variations and multiple interpretations. But generally speaking it's someone with an unhealthy obsession about something, and in some cases it is the manifestation of a deeper psychological issue. Staying at home and refusing social interaction is often part and parcel of this.

Lain is great!

I haven't seen moving castle yet, but I'd love to. I have zero free time lately.

Sometimes it can refer to "at home". Japanese translations can be a little funny.

Full Metal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lain: Serial Experiments and Noir. I just recently got into Eureka Seven loaned from a friend; they're showing it now on [adult swim].

The music for Noir was awesome, I just couldn't get over the fact that the story was so awful. Was the ending any good? I couldn't make it past the first half.

Oh, the music was definitely on point. The ending however? Eh...lukewarm. Kirika ends up getting her memory back and was the one who killed Mireille's family. Kirika reunites with Chloe and Altena. Mireille goes back to the "vineyard" where Chloe and Altena is, rescues Kirika, kills Altena and Chloe. The end was actually kinda good, but the episodes leading up to it? Eh...not so much.

Witch Hunter Robin was actually kind of interesting too. Slightly more consistent than Noir. I liked the idea of the witches being forced to hunt or be hunted.

I love Serial Experiments: Lain--though it does take time to get into, and never fully resolves itself. (That, in my mind, is a compliment.)

I'm a big Miyazaki fan too--My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke in particular. I really enjoyed Spirited Away (haven't yet seen Howl's Moving Castle) but it wasn't the same kind of revelation that his earlier films have been.

Dead Leaves is fun, and Samurai Champloo is pretty cool. Avalon is the best non-anime anime ever (you have to see it to understand), by the director of Ghost in the Shell, which I also enjoyed. I have Perfect Blue sitting on the shelf but I've yet to be in the right mood to watch it. Same with Millennium Actress.

And a store nearby keeps playing Final Fantasy: Advent's Children in its window--it looks amazing, but I don't think I got more than a third of the way through Final Fantasy VII, so I'm afraid I won't be able to make sense of the film.

Scrapped Princess (epic fantasy/sci-fi)
Kino No Tabi (laid back vignette stylings)
School Rumble (Absolutly ridiculous)
Honey And Clover (semi serious semi hilarious romantic drama)

School Rumble is an absolute riot. I wonder if I'm the only one who actually likes Tenma as a character?

I've been really attracted to Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle as of late, so I guess you could say that's my favorite. Some other favorites off the top of my head are Bleach, Makai Senki Disgaea, and Air. Can't remember any older ones off the top of my head that were awesome. Do the good ol' DBZ days count? :P

I didn't like Howls Moving Castle, I just didn't find it as good as his previous works like Mononoke-Hime and Castle in the Sky.

And yeah...DBZ does count as anime. But I never liked the long draggy ones like Naruto, Bleach or even DBZ. Heck...Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin) was pushing it alot as well. It just drags a 5 minute fight to 4 episodes, it's ridiculous.

26-50 episodes. That's prime anime length don't you think?

Don't even get me started on this. I can't stand shows that simply drags on into eternity. Take for example Inuyasha, the manga's still going...now as we speak! (Although I hear that it's not entirely the author's fault.)

With that said, I hear that Honey and Clover manga just recently came out with their final chapter. I can't wait for the anime to come out.

I can't stand those kinds of shows either, except for Bleach. Just about every episode is worth it and rarely there are filler for the most part (save it for the Bounts subplot which they are doing right now... that's slowing it down to a stall). I absolutely hate Naruto because of how long it drags on with its fillers. It gets sickening after awhile.

I prefer 12 - 24 episodes max myself, but I have exceptions for some that are really good. :P

FLCL
samurai champloo
beck
gundamn 0083 (only version where most of the characters get killed)
naruto (only when rock lee fights)
midori no hibi
spirited away
and the stadard... akira (duh)