Anime is Japanese animation, usually in the form of TV shows and Movies. It has a much wider range of target audiences than most American animated multimedia. Where series haven’t been officially released/distributed on this side of the world, ‘fansubs’ (episodes subtitled by fans) are often available through unofficial channels.
Popular themes are the nature of humanity (and its interaction with technology), giant mecha (robots) and the morality of pacifism/violence/war. Also, romance and comedy — often quite slapstick.
A good place to start, if you’re not familiar with anime, are the films of Hayao Miyazaki, especially Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.
Some anime series worth watching are:
Now ordered roughly by rating; feel free to adjust the order as you adjust the ratings.
Fantasy
Mythical beasts, vampires, homunculi and magical powers.
Action
Giant mecha suits, military action, fights, space battles, high technology and science fiction.
Psychological
Thrillers, surreal explorations, people hallucinating, psychological head-trips.
As-of-yet uncategorised
- Bleach currently the best of the big long running shows (100+ eps)
Somewhat lighter series/Harem Anime
Love Hina — A boy is caretaker/manager of an all-girls hostel. Hilarity ensues.
Happy Lesson Advance — A boy has been adopted by, and lives with, five of his female school-teachers. Hilarity ensues.
Comments
To be fair Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle aren’t like that at all and are awesome. Comic yoinked from the great Dork Tower — brehaut
lol a pitty that none of the series so far posted are even close to any of the above types of anime, especially seeing the last bit’s more of a hentai reference -eonsim :)
