Recommended Anime/Manga?

[wgogh]

Just saw トツプをネラエ！Gunbuster! and its one of the best animes that I know. Watched everything in one day, not that it takes too long for that anyway -only six episodes-. I know Gainax did cut some parts and made it fit in a movie, but I dont think theres any reason to watch that if you can watch the OVAs.

[Steamflogger Boss]

The movie cut is rubbish. The OAV is great.

[GaijinPunch]

Just saw トツプをネラエ！Gunbuster! and its one of the best animes that I know. Watched everything in one day, not that it takes too long for that anyway -only six episodes-. I know Gainax did cut some parts and made it fit in a movie, but I dont think theres any reason to watch that if you can watch the OVAs.

It's awesome -- fucking amazing encapsulation of the 80s. And what an ending! Starts off as such a goof off, but so rewarding. I think it's one of the few I can still sit down now and find the story actually engaging. All the killer action helps too.

Fun Fact: Not sure what dip shit came up w/ the translation for the last episode of more recent subs, but "At the End of the Endless Stream" is not only far more accurate, but it is how the book that the title was inspired by (stolen from?) has been translated through the years. Man, if there was ever a Japanese novel that needed localization, this is it.

[wgogh]

Yeah, I believe the story getting more serious with time is certainly intentional.

I'm still far from being able to read a novel in japanese, but it seems like "At the End of the Endless Stream" is basically a literal translation and they probably thought that "At the End of Eternity..." is better to express the meaning of the sentence in english. Well, the japanese language sure gives room for interpretations. If it was a reference to the book, maybe you can blame on lack of cultural background. Btw, I would go for "At the End of the Endless Stream" tho.

[ryu]

Just saw トツプをネラエ！Gunbuster! and its one of the best animes that I know. Watched everything in one day, not that it takes too long for that anyway -only six episodes-. I know Gainax did cut some parts and made it fit in a movie, but I dont think theres any reason to watch that if you can watch the OVAs.

It's awesome -- fucking amazing encapsulation of the 80s. And what an ending! Starts off as such a goof off, but so rewarding. I think it's one of the few I can still sit down now and find the story actually engaging. All the killer action helps too.

Fun Fact: Not sure what dip shit came up w/ the translation for the last episode of more recent subs, but "At the End of the Endless Stream" is not only far more accurate, but it is how the book that the title was inspired by (stolen from?) has been translated through the years. Man, if there was ever a Japanese novel that needed localization, this is it.

A few days earlier and I'd have bought this with a recent order there. As if I don't have enough unread novels on my shelves.

Time to rewatch Gunbuster, thanks for the reminder.

[FinalBaton]

Gunbuster is rad as fuck! Lots of stuff to like, and the deep sci-fi of episodes 5 and 6 is delicious.

I should watch it with better subs than the one on my U.S. Renditions VHS tapes though, lol. Pretty sure it's trash (I can already tell they got a couple words wrong : and I don't even speak japanese! Hopefully they haven't messed up the meanings too much...).

Gaijin Punch, do you have a translation to recommend for it? (did you make one, by any chance and still have it online somewhere?)

[Steamflogger Boss]

There was an official R1 DVD release that is probably fine. It's a bit pricey now, but assuming it used different subs than the VHS those should be floating around online.

[FinalBaton]

Cool thanks.
Supposedly, the VHS and Laserdisc versions have some tidbits that are unique to those versions, like the Chariot of Fire song being taken out in later releases etc. Someone on here was telling me about this but I can't remember who and I wish I did.
Guess I should rewatch it online, with the translation you mentionned

[GaijinPunch]

Yeah, I believe the story getting more serious with time is certainly intentional.

I'm still far from being able to read a novel in japanese, but it seems like "At the End of the Endless Stream" is basically a literal translation and they probably thought that "At the End of Eternity..." is better to express the meaning of the sentence in english. Well, the japanese language sure gives room for interpretations. If it was a reference to the book, maybe you can blame on lack of cultural background. Btw, I would go for "At the End of the Endless Stream" tho.

Indeed, it does give room for interpretation. If you want help w/ novels, reading on a Kindle (app) is a game changer. Dictionary right here. I do not recommend reading Komatsu Sakyo as a starter though. He makes up a lot of his own words. Honestly, I miss a lot of some of the bells and whistles. At about 80% through, I checked with an online summary (the author of which had read it twice as it is admittedly quite hard to follow) and was kind of amazed. If I ever win the lottery I'll buy the rights and pay someone to localize it, just as a passion project.

Gaijin Punch, do you have a translation to recommend for it? (did you make one, by any chance and still have it online somewhere?)

Unfortunately, no. THere was fan subs of it before the US Renditions but finding those scripts these days is basically impossible.

[wgogh]

Yeah, I believe the story getting more serious with time is certainly intentional.

I'm still far from being able to read a novel in japanese, but it seems like "At the End of the Endless Stream" is basically a literal translation and they probably thought that "At the End of Eternity..." is better to express the meaning of the sentence in english. Well, the japanese language sure gives room for interpretations. If it was a reference to the book, maybe you can blame on lack of cultural background. Btw, I would go for "At the End of the Endless Stream" tho.

Indeed, it does give room for interpretation. If you want help w/ novels, reading on a Kindle (app) is a game changer. Dictionary right here. I do not recommend reading Komatsu Sakyo as a starter though. He makes up a lot of his own words. Honestly, I miss a lot of some of the bells and whistles. At about 80% through, I checked with an online summary (the author of which had read it twice as it is admittedly quite hard to follow) and was kind of amazed. If I ever win the lottery I'll buy the rights and pay someone to localize it, just as a passion project.

Gaijin Punch, do you have a translation to recommend for it? (did you make one, by any chance and still have it online somewhere?)

Unfortunately, no. THere was fan subs of it before the US Renditions but finding those scripts these days is basically impossible.

I believe I have the Kindle app installed.
If not Komatsu, is there anything that you recommend then?

[GaijinPunch]

I believe I have the Kindle app installed.
If not Komatsu, is there anything that you recommend then?

Unfortunately, no. I am trying to find something else but the number of nerds that actually read Japanese books is pretty small. I recently connected with Neil Nadelman on LinkedIn. I had met him a couple of times at anime cons years ago, and even used some of his scripts to subtitle stuff. Perusing Japanese SciFi on Amazon (US) I saw that he translated a book by an author I was unfamiliar with. I gave him the old intro of where I was coming from, the translation market, and also asked if he had any recs for books. Guess he gets inundated w/ unwanted mail as I do, and didn't reply.

On that note, if you wanted to start off w/ a book by Komatsu, I would try one of this short story compilations. I have read Kami he no Nagai Michi which is definitely worth a go - the titular story (which is by far the longest at about 100 pages) is technically part of his "post-human" themed works, of which Hateshinaki Nagare no Hate ni was the first, and his unfinished (WTF?) Kyomu Kairo was the last. I believe there are 5 stories in it, of which some are quite short. The last one (by far the best) - follows a group of cryogenically frozen humans that were in stasis until around the year 5600 or there about. Going back to Earth, they realize they are basically useless. For one reason or another they are given the opportunity to travel to some distant planet from which Earth has received many signals, and where many ships have gone but none returned. Clocking in at about 100 pages, it's nothing compared to the other two aforementioned books which are about 400 each. Also note that Hateshinaki was a serialized book, with one chapter per month being printed in Sci Fi magazine. (Kyomu Kairo started that way as well, in another publication, that went bust).

I believe it's safe to say that Hateshinaki Nagare no Hate ni, despite coming out so early in his career, was his Magnum Opus. It covers such a grand scale of time, and all through the eyes of someone in 1965 - starting in that year, coming up to somewhere around now, and even a few decades beyond, all in the first act. However, had he finished Kyomu Kairo, it probably would have displaced it. Some people have said they believe he was somewhere around halfway finished, and similarly, the story had covered many different times and settings. But for whatever reason, he decided he didn't want to touch it, as it sat there for some 10 years before his death.

The next on my list is Kesshou Seidan. Not familiar with it other than it's 4 short stories, and is rated quite highly.

I should try another author, but honestly I've only really read 3 thus far and I've enjoyed them all. You might want to try his two English publications (Virus, and Japan Sinks) first to see if you like his writing style. He can be quite detailed, and for someone like myself that has a hard time concentrating, it can be quite daunting.

[Randorama]

Since everybody has been talking about Berserk for a while...

This series started when I was in elementary school. I read the the Golden Age when I was a teen, playing RPGs (the dice and paper variety), and reading Moorcock's books.
The dream sequence featuring Griffith and his dreams is superb, most of the arc is good but the sources of inspiration are at times too obvious.
Every story released onwards is about Miura accumulating a pension by continuing a series that should have been closed after the first cycle (well, like 110% of manga out there, really).
There is something mildly offensive about a series going nowhere in 30 years of publication.
5 years should be enough for anyone, let alone for someone who is an average writer at best.
Miura should have published illustration books.

[Steamflogger Boss]

There is no real excuse for something to run that long, unless it's episodic and even then it should be more akin to something like Star Trek, Lupin, Dr Who, James Bond etc... with different iterations.

[wgogh]

I believe I have the Kindle app installed.
If not Komatsu, is there anything that you recommend then?

Unfortunately, no. I am trying to find something else but the number of nerds that actually read Japanese books is pretty small. I recently connected with Neil Nadelman on LinkedIn. I had met him a couple of times at anime cons years ago, and even used some of his scripts to subtitle stuff. Perusing Japanese SciFi on Amazon (US) I saw that he translated a book by an author I was unfamiliar with. I gave him the old intro of where I was coming from, the translation market, and also asked if he had any recs for books. Guess he gets inundated w/ unwanted mail as I do, and didn't reply.

On that note, if you wanted to start off w/ a book by Komatsu, I would try one of this short story compilations. I have read Kami he no Nagai Michi which is definitely worth a go - the titular story (which is by far the longest at about 100 pages) is technically part of his "post-human" themed works, of which Hateshinaki Nagare no Hate ni was the first, and his unfinished (WTF?) Kyomu Kairo was the last. I believe there are 5 stories in it, of which some are quite short. The last one (by far the best) - follows a group of cryogenically frozen humans that were in stasis until around the year 5600 or there about. Going back to Earth, they realize they are basically useless. For one reason or another they are given the opportunity to travel to some distant planet from which Earth has received many signals, and where many ships have gone but none returned. Clocking in at about 100 pages, it's nothing compared to the other two aforementioned books which are about 400 each. Also note that Hateshinaki was a serialized book, with one chapter per month being printed in Sci Fi magazine. (Kyomu Kairo started that way as well, in another publication, that went bust).

I believe it's safe to say that Hateshinaki Nagare no Hate ni, despite coming out so early in his career, was his Magnum Opus. It covers such a grand scale of time, and all through the eyes of someone in 1965 - starting in that year, coming up to somewhere around now, and even a few decades beyond, all in the first act. However, had he finished Kyomu Kairo, it probably would have displaced it. Some people have said they believe he was somewhere around halfway finished, and similarly, the story had covered many different times and settings. But for whatever reason, he decided he didn't want to touch it, as it sat there for some 10 years before his death.

The next on my list is Kesshou Seidan. Not familiar with it other than it's 4 short stories, and is rated quite highly.

I should try another author, but honestly I've only really read 3 thus far and I've enjoyed them all. You might want to try his two English publications (Virus, and Japan Sinks) first to see if you like his writing style. He can be quite detailed, and for someone like myself that has a hard time concentrating, it can be quite daunting.

I hope to be one to increase that number in the future. It already took me a while to be able to read books in english, but for that I didnt took any english classes and learned naturally through the years. Since I'm acutally studiyng japonese, maybe I wont take too long. For now, I read the NHK Easy sometimes. Anyway, better to read something that is interesting but takes longer to assimilate than boring stuff thats easy to read, so I'll look for some books in the future.
Going back to topic, some good raw manga could be nice, but then I would have to import.

[Durandal]

As predicted, Darling in the FranXX started going into full overdrive with batshit Gurren Lagann plot development and exposition dumps really fucking late into the series, so now everything feels stupidly rushed. Everyone's who's watched a Trigger show should have been able to see this coming, but I hoped they'd space the developments out across the series instead of jamming everything into the last 5 episodes, now the earlier episodes just feel unnecessarily slow in comparison.

[ryu]

The plot in Trigger series starts happening right at the start of the second cour. Franxx is just even worse.

[M.Knight]

Don't plan on watching Franxx but that's one of the things I can't usually stand with Trigger shows, especially when they throw out everything that made the first part enjoyable in order to escalate stuff just for the sake of escalating. It can work if the show is absurd and not serious like Inferno Cop, and in the case of Gurren Lagann I felt it kinda worked nonetheless, but Kill la Kill and Luluco suffered a lot due to this IMO.

KLK :

Spoiler

The second half where everybody has to save the world against the absolutely evil wooly enemies is garbage compared to how tight and nicely restrained the first part was. There was a lot of wackiness and quirkiness but it shined because it was in this restricted environment with the school elite, rules and stuff. It was a simple story of revenge that was enjoyable and interesting. But then, when you have to save the world, all of this becomes completely irrelevant and you just keep on escalating the stakes to hide how vapid and boring the plot has become.

My favorite episode was by far the 4th one (the one where they have to go to school on time) because it was so goofy, hilarous and cartoony yet also encapsulated many of the elements that characterized how brutal the school was and how insanely harsh it actually is towards its lower-class students.

Luluco :

Spoiler

Same deal here. First episode with the goofy gags was hilarous! Over Justice's character is amazingly funny, and the cop show vibe the anime had was a great fit for the humour. And then we have to save the goddamn world and fight against the ultimate evil once again. Uuuurgh.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Exposition dumps and pacing are kind of a Japanese issue in general. I notice it a lot in JRPGs as well.

[Randorama]

Just to be pedantic....isn't FranXXX a join A-1 pictures/TRIGGER collaboration?
I think that there are two studios to be blamed for this train-wreck of a series.

For Kill la Kill, I know that they had a good excuse: they planned one cours focused on battles but were asked to do a second one with an actual plot around episode 5. This meant that they could go all out with ridiculous ideas, because anyway the budget was there.

There are quite a few shows that show pacing problems because there were changes in the overall planning of the series (say, Utena).
More in general, the extremely volatile attitude to series planning in anime can be traced to the fact that anime can be extended if successful, but must be cut down to one cours if not.
The inverse problem is that some series are stretched to 2 full courses (or even more...), when it is obvious that the full original plot was shorter.
I understand that the Yamato 2199 remake (which is a great series, I believe) was originally meant to be 18 episodes. A few episodes were filler, although well-written ones.

Manga suffer from a similar problem, as I mentioned with Berserk. Even masterpieces such as Monster have short stories that served the purpose to simply extend the original run.
I am not sure that I would call 20th century boys a masterpiece, but it shares with Naruto (of all series) the creation of the "matrioska final boss" for the sole purpose of, well, keep selling.

There is then the whole problem of shows and series (and games) which spend an entire initial bloc/course to just introduce the characters, without any plot progression. I understand that for manga/series it is a cheap way to see if the characters/story world can sell (12 episodes of people talking are not too expensive to produce), before spending actual budget money on having characters to do things outside place X.

I am not a writer, but writers who have commented on the production process usually say that once a serial work's structure is changed, keeping any semblance of narrative coherence requires god-like experience and an ability to learn from previous fuck-ups...TRIGGER authors clearly don't think they are doing anything wrong, I guess.

[Udderdude]

More stuff on the recently watched 80's/90's list:

A.D. Police Files: The original 3 episode OVA, which was a spin-off of Bubblegum Crisis, focusing on the A.D. Police Force. Personally I feel it's better than the original was. Cyberpunk/detective/police goodness.
Parasite Dolls: Another OVA based on A.D. Police. This one is definitely a must-watch. Don't know if it's on the level of Ghost in the Shell, but it's damn close.
Mobile Suit Gundam F91: It's a Gundam movie! Ok, not much exciting or special going on here. But there's some pretty bruital violence at the start. It was worth a watch and it's a self-contained story.
Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team: Definitely one of the best Gundam-related OVAs I've seen. Maybe because I can't stand the TV series, that might be part of the reason why I like this one so much. It takes place almost entirely on Earth, and the usual Gundam heavy-handed politics are nowhere to be seen, viewing everything from a soldier's point of view.

[FinalBaton]

Damn! you like A.D. Police Files that much? Now I gotta watch that. I love BGC

[soprano1]

Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team: Definitely one of the best Gundam-related OVAs I've seen. Maybe because I can't stand the TV series, that might be part of the reason why I like this one so much. It takes place almost entirely on Earth, and the usual Gundam heavy-handed politics are nowhere to be seen, viewing everything from a soldier's point of view.

Fucking good indeed. Nobuyuki Hiyama is a fucking voice god, if you think he did Shiro while also voicing Gai in GaoGaiGar during the same period. Also, Aina is love.
Have you watched Mobile Suit Gundam 0080? It has Bernie and delicious Haruhiko Mikimoto character designs. Sad as fuck, though.

[Skykid]

Exposition dumps and pacing are kind of a Japanese issue in general. I notice it a lot in JRPGs as well.

Absolutely true.

[Xyga]

Redman Princess: Akuryou Koujo

If you like fucked up trashy manga that one ticks a lot of points, and it gets more WTF as you read.
It's low q, z material, but packing a fair amount of funny/memorable moments.

Too bad there's only the first 'arc' translated afaik, it' fairly recent anyway, looking forward to read more.
Until then I'll try more of Takatou Rui's manga.

[GaijinPunch]

Exposition dumps and pacing are kind of a Japanese issue in general. I notice it a lot in JRPGs as well.

Absolutely true.

Try doing business with Japanese. The same pacing issues are there.

[Steamflogger Boss]

More stuff on the recently watched 80's/90's list:

A.D. Police Files: The original 3 episode OVA, which was a spin-off of Bubblegum Crisis, focusing on the A.D. Police Force. Personally I feel it's better than the original was. Cyberpunk/detective/police goodness.
Parasite Dolls: Another OVA based on A.D. Police. This one is definitely a must-watch. Don't know if it's on the level of Ghost in the Shell, but it's damn close.
Mobile Suit Gundam F91: It's a Gundam movie! Ok, not much exciting or special going on here. But there's some pretty bruital violence at the start. It was worth a watch and it's a self-contained story.
Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team: Definitely one of the best Gundam-related OVAs I've seen. Maybe because I can't stand the TV series, that might be part of the reason why I like this one so much. It takes place almost entirely on Earth, and the usual Gundam heavy-handed politics are nowhere to be seen, viewing everything from a soldier's point of view.

I'd like to see AD Police Files and Parasite Dolls get a BD release. I definitely wouldn't say PD is as good as GitS but it is solid.

08th MS Team is very good. It's definitely a step away from the typical Gundam show, so it has a different appeal. The first TV series is very dated, at this point I would recommend just watching the movies there to all but the most hardened Gundam fans. I think Zeta is a big stuff up but of course a lot of the same tropes are there. All the early long series follow the same general structure lol.

Haven't got to F91 yet. I know it was originally meant to be a series but the budget wasn't there or something like that. Can't say that's even a bad thing, 2 hours is likely much more palatable.

Exposition dumps and pacing are kind of a Japanese issue in general. I notice it a lot in JRPGs as well.

Absolutely true.

Try doing business with Japanese. The same pacing issues are there.

XD

[FinalBaton]

Do I need to watch/read the plot to previous Gundam stuff if I wanna watch any of them? I think I'd like to watch 0080, 0083, 08th MS Team, and Char's counterattack. Or anything you guys recommend.

This series is so sprawling, it's legit intimidating to get into. lol

[Steamflogger Boss]

08 MS Team and 0083 are pretty watchable standalone, in fact 08 MS Team is basically 100% self contained, though it is UC. Char's Counterattack is like, the original culmination of the UC storyline. It's already haphazard but it would make even less sense with no knowledge of the first few series.

[FinalBaton]

Thanks for the input. I'll start with these 2 I think!

[null1024]

This series is so sprawling, it's legit intimidating to get into. lol

Yeah, there's a lot. I've got a buddy who's watching everything in production order. He's finally made it to Gundam 00.
But really, the place where order matters most is the classic Universal Century trilogy: watch the original '79 series [aka 0079] then Zeta then ZZ.

Beyond that, many other shows in the series are either a: entirely in their own self-contained continuity [G-Gundam, Wing, 00, SEED, Gundam X, etc], and are standalone by definition, or otherwise b: despite being connected to past series, still standalone enough to enjoy without having seen any other piece of Gundam media [like Turn-A -- it has a connection to just about every Gundam show made before it -- but you don't need to watch any of them before it to enjoy it].
Victory takes place in the UC timeline, but you don't need to have watched anything else to enjoy it.

Also, you really should watch 0079 -- it's a bit clunky in parts [you can describe all of Gundam like this, although 0079 also has the fact that it's a show from 1979 with various budget and production issues], but it's a great show overall. I dunno about the compilation movies for it, haven't seen 'em.
I'm actively dis-recommending the Zeta movies due to how much shit gets changed, especially if you're going to watch ZZ.

tl;dr: other than the original three shows, order barely matters, jump in