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If you come in here looking for "anime recommendations" then please refer to this chart before posting: Anime Recommendations (as of may 2014). We also have an IRC channel called #tladt where we all hang out. The channel is on Rizon, not QuakeNet! Feel free to check it out. TLADT discord is Discord.ggFor currently airing anime, please see Anichart.net |
On June 13 2010 14:40 eMbrace wrote:Show nested quote +On June 13 2010 12:36 shadesofkarma wrote: Hi, can anyone recommend me some good film noir style anime? I have watched Darker Than Black S1 and S2 (loved S1, didn't think S2 lived up to it as a sequel), Requiem for a Phantom, and Death Note. What I'm looking for is a dark atmosphere and animation and a mature plot (preferably set in a crime setting). I also thought it was really cool how in all three of those series, the protagonist was an average nice guy but with a badass alter ego.
Thanks ^^ I think you would absolutely love Ergo Proxy. The english dub for it is on Hulu (sounds a bit off sometimes, but it's not half bad) if you can't find it elsewhere.
The two... Madhouse? anime, Noir (lol) and Madlax come to mind.
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nothing says dark like ergo proxy.
of course, nothing says shallow quite like it either.
when you say mature, do you want "mature rated" or something that is actually classy? what I can offer you for the first are two pretty good, but older OAVs that both revolve around demons in Demon City Shinjuku and Twilight of the Dark Master both of which are crazy, dark and gory as hell. If you want the latter you might check out Sanctuary.
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Ergo Proxy is shallow? 0_o
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On June 13 2010 14:53 eMbrace wrote: Ergo Proxy is shallow? 0_o
the distinction between purposefully obtuse and deep/thoughtful is often misunderstood.
It's a matter of perspectice, I suppose. If you compare it to the typical Kyo-Ani original IP it seems as deep as the Mariana Trench, but IMO it's pretty one dimensional and the characters are quite flat, especially. If you're in the mood for something deep but at the same time dark and moody, the works of Yoshitoshi ABe are where you need to look.
Please dont mistake me for suggesting that Ergo Proxy is not good. In fact, that studio happens to put out almost entirely quality work. But again, good is not deep.
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If you're referring to how it delves into complex philosophical ideas in a fairly contrive manner as being shallow I'd understand you're perspective. Although, I don't think that's a failure more so than it is trying to reach out to a broader audience.
It makes for a pretty suspenseful and interesting plot, nothing to make you rethink your life but this anime is entertaining in a way unique to anything else I've seen. And personally I loved the characters. It's such a character focused show it'd be hard to not enjoy it otherwise. Believe me after the first episode I thought it was going to be another "oh hey another dark, emotionless/badass female lead anime, oh boy " But yeah, like I said, turned out to be something that felt really unique. and to be honest I don't watch a whole lot of anime because many I try to watch share these tendencies that always turn me off, or make me feel way too old to be watching them.
If you have any recommendations for something mature like Ergo Proxy, I'd greatly appreciate it. Last time I asked I got tons of people saying Elfen Lied which was one of the worst shows I've seen in my entire life.
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On June 13 2010 15:20 eMbrace wrote:
If you have any recommendations for something mature like Ergo Proxy, I'd greatly appreciate it. Last time I asked I got tons of people saying Elfen Lied which was one of the worst shows I've seen in my entire life.
Again ABe is a good starting place. Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, Neia_7, Haibane Renmei and Welcome to the NHK are all great. Haibane Renmei especially.
Series that stand out in recent memory to me are Kaiba and the Aria series. Aria isnt exactly mature, I suppose. I dont think children would be able to enjoy it, however. For movies released recently, The Sky Crawlers is probably my favorite although its a few years old by now isnt it?
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Mystlord
United States10264 Posts
@Ecael: Angel Beats trying to be a drama with (as you admit), pretty much crazy characters? That's no good! Durarara!! trying to be a semi-serious show with unbelievable characters? That's also no good! If those shows were more of slapstick comedies like Arakawa, then the unbelievable characters are excusable, or even essential to the series.
@red_b: I didn't find Ergo Proxy one dimensional at all. It can be a little straightforward at times in its presentation, but it still says a lot more than most other animes out there.
And the anime in and of itself does little in terms of character development sure, but the focus wasn't supposed to be on character development.
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Last time I asked I got tons of people saying Elfen Lied which was one of the worst shows I've seen in my entire life. Elfen Lied seems to be one of the most divisive shows out there... half the people who watch it just despise it, for reasons I've never fully understood.
That said, it's very much a "mature" show in the sense that there's blood and boobs everywhere, not mature as in intelligent at all.
I basically echo everything red_b said, like, to the letter. ABe is your friend, start with Haibane Renmei since it is his most accessible show.
If you liked Ergo Proxy, you'll love Ghost in the Shell.
Anyway, I'm watching Kino's Journey right now, and am enjoying it a fair bit. Work is severely cutting down on my anime watching time, I meant to have finished Monster by now but I'm still 30 episodes away
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My bias towards FMA: Brotherhood is probably because I have not, and do not intend to read the manga until I finish the anime.
Probably one of the best anime I have ever seen. I think I actually like it as much as Death Note (didn't read the manga either, I just found it on some stream site one summer morning) and GitS.
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On June 13 2010 15:00 red_b wrote:the distinction between purposefully obtuse and deep/thoughtful is often misunderstood. It's a matter of perspectice, I suppose. If you compare it to the typical Kyo-Ani original IP it seems as deep as the Mariana Trench, but IMO it's pretty one dimensional and the characters are quite flat, especially. If you're in the mood for something deep but at the same time dark and moody, the works of Yoshitoshi ABe are where you need to look. Please dont mistake me for suggesting that Ergo Proxy is not good. In fact, that studio happens to put out almost entirely quality work. But again, good is not deep.
I kind of thought this as well, but refused to think too much of my own opinion of a series I didn't fully understand. I was probably 15 or 16 when I saw it, half the time, in a sleep-deprived stupor.
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On June 13 2010 15:31 red_b wrote:Show nested quote +On June 13 2010 15:20 eMbrace wrote:
If you have any recommendations for something mature like Ergo Proxy, I'd greatly appreciate it. Last time I asked I got tons of people saying Elfen Lied which was one of the worst shows I've seen in my entire life. Again ABe is a good starting place. Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, Neia_7, Haibane Renmei and Welcome to the NHK are all great. Haibane Renmei especially. Series that stand out in recent memory to me are Kaiba and the Aria series. Aria isnt exactly mature, I suppose. I dont think children would be able to enjoy it, however. For movies released recently, The Sky Crawlers is probably my favorite although its a few years old by now isnt it?
What's Neia_7?
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Don't forget Casshern Sins, in the same vein but not quite on the level of the others.
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On June 13 2010 15:36 Mystlord wrote: @Ecael: Angel Beats trying to be a drama with (as you admit), pretty much crazy characters? That's no good! Durarara!! trying to be a semi-serious show with unbelievable characters? That's also no good! If those shows were more of slapstick comedies like Arakawa, then the unbelievable characters are excusable, or even essential to the series.
@red_b: I didn't find Ergo Proxy one dimensional at all. It can be a little straightforward at times in its presentation, but it still says a lot more than most other animes out there.
And the anime in and of itself does little in terms of character development sure, but the focus wasn't supposed to be on character development. Why does that make it no good? This might just be personal opinion, but most dramas out there have crazy characters. Most things trying to be serious don't have believable characters. A matter of interpretation, perhaps. It feels to me that there are aspects of characters that's simply impossible for you to take too seriously and aspects meant to be more realistic, and those are to be looked at separately depending on circumstances.
In the case of DRRR, the serious parts can in fact be looked at solely in terms of just parts of the character. In the case of AB, the characters might as well as be bipolar or suffer multiple personalities, but in all things still follow after a fashion. Consistency is a rather different matter than how believable a character is if we can accept the idea of allowing them that wide swing from aspect to aspect. Looking at AB characters as a whole, parts of them are just completely inconsistent. It isn't so much that there are contradictions as that there are just random gaps that feels unfilled. But I don't think that is something we can particularly fault creators for. In all honesty, we just don't see all that many characters that are consistent yet evoke passion from the audience.
It is really kind of a balance, in search of realism you lose on drama potential, in adding onto their believability, you make it harder for the character to be interesting. More often then not, we'll see creators try to completely ignore how likely traits are to mix and mash all that together.
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On June 14 2010 07:59 Shauni wrote: What's Neia_7? Yoshitoshi ABe's "other" anime, that isn't Haibane Renmei, Lain, or Texhnolyze. I've heard it's mediocre.
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On June 14 2010 10:07 triangle wrote: Yoshitoshi ABe's "other" anime, that isn't Haibane Renmei, Lain, or Texhnolyze. I've heard it's mediocre.
Have you actually seen it? I thought it was quite good.
It may very well be his worst, but ABe's worst is better than what most studios do with their best efforts.
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9 episodes into Haibane Renmei, following your recommendation.
It's definitely a really cool show, feels like it's based off of some award winning novel (or should be made into one, rather). I don't think the climatic moments are having a very powerful effect with me, and I'm honestly happy to learn that it's a short series. But it's getting much more interesting right now and I'm really curious to see how it all turns out.
I'll be back, perhaps later tonight. Thanks for mentioning the show by the way. I'll probably check out the others as well.
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On June 13 2010 23:16 triangle wrote:Show nested quote +Last time I asked I got tons of people saying Elfen Lied which was one of the worst shows I've seen in my entire life. Elfen Lied seems to be one of the most divisive shows out there... half the people who watch it just despise it, for reasons I've never fully understood. That said, it's very much a "mature" show in the sense that there's blood and boobs everywhere, not mature as in intelligent at all. I basically echo everything red_b said, like, to the letter. ABe is your friend, start with Haibane Renmei since it is his most accessible show. If you liked Ergo Proxy, you'll love Ghost in the Shell. Anyway, I'm watching Kino's Journey right now, and am enjoying it a fair bit. Work is severely cutting down on my anime watching time, I meant to have finished Monster by now but I'm still 30 episodes away  Thats weird. I loved ghost in the shell but i gave up on Ergo Proxy about half way because i was getting bored with it.
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Have you actually seen it? I thought it was quite good.
It may very well be his worst, but ABe's worst is better than what most studios do with their best efforts. I haven't, been meaning to watch it for a while, but it's like 5th on deck for me right now, and considering I'm adding new shows to watch faster than I'm finishing old ones, I'm not sure when I'll ever get to it. I've loved ABe's other stuff, so I really want to watch it for completeness sake, if no other reason.
Thats weird. I loved ghost in the shell but i gave up on Ergo Proxy about half way because i was getting bored with it. Yeah, I said if you liked Ergo Proxy you'd love GItS, not that it would work the other way around.
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On June 13 2010 15:31 red_b wrote:Show nested quote +On June 13 2010 15:20 eMbrace wrote:
If you have any recommendations for something mature like Ergo Proxy, I'd greatly appreciate it. Last time I asked I got tons of people saying Elfen Lied which was one of the worst shows I've seen in my entire life. Again ABe is a good starting place. Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, Neia_7, Haibane Renmei and Welcome to the NHK are all great. Haibane Renmei especially. Series that stand out in recent memory to me are Kaiba and the Aria series. Aria isnt exactly mature, I suppose. I dont think children would be able to enjoy it, however. For movies released recently, The Sky Crawlers is probably my favorite although its a few years old by now isnt it?
Ok Haibane Renmei ended really well, good stuff. I just watched a few Sky Crawler vid and I'm very interested, I might bite on the blu-ray.
Thanks for everything.
edit: also i'm interested in Ghost in the Shell as well, I remember starting it a long time ago and thinking it was really cool. Although, there are several movies out there of it and I'm not sure what the difference is between all of them, which ones are worth getting, or if I need to watch the series first.
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Got some new recommendations
Time of eve: this has come up before but I want to back up the recommendations. It's super class, short enough to watch in one hit, funny, deep and original. Certainly worth a look for anyone
Summer wars: the girl who leaped through time is generally in competition for the best anime film in recent years, even over miyazaki's output. Summer wars is the next in that vein. Same studio, same style of animation and emotion, same excelent music. For those who like the cute soft romances it's probably a bit of smack in the face, but honestly as far as anime watching goes, you cannot go better than this. I mean it. It is beautifully drawn, amazingly well scripted, has a huge amount of in-jokes and references as well as kickass general humor. The dramatic part of the plot is genuinely moving, at once tragic and heartwarming, in the same vein as the girl who leaped through time, but this movie is saturated with an energy and vitality that eclipses its predecessor (note: the two aren't related other than that they're the same studio). If you watch nothing else this year, watch this.
Library wars: Similar style of animation again to the above, a bit lower class though. This one is a full season series, and has one of the most awesome premises I've seen yet, that libraries are the last bastion against media censorship and maintain their own paramilitary defense organisations. Book worm by day, dirt worm by night. It's ultimately a standard anime romance, with a character who is as alike to Sausuke from FMP as is humanly possible combined with a miyazaki style determined girl for the leads. It's not revolutionary, but it's well thought out, nicely executed and definitely worth a watch if you're in that crowd that like the bridger animes between hard mech/combat animes and school days/romances.
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