Fantasy, historical, etc., based anime suggestions

Television, Movies Games and Books Anime/Manga
#1

Ok. We have a Mecha suggestion thread that’s going very well. It’s turning into a Mech/Sci Fi/Military suggestion thread, and that squeezes out many genres of anime. So, let’s hear from the other crowds. I’ll start.

I’m going to list these in priority of movies and short series, must watch, then low priorities.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (“Complete” is important, it’s the director’s cut)
Tokyo Godfathers
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Giniro No Kami No Agito
Please Save My Earth (great series, but incomplete, continued in manga)
Munto TV AKA Sora o Miageru Sho-jo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai
Ga-Rei -Zero-
Wolf and Spice
Asatte no Houkou
Claymore (Omg! This is a great series)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (I have not seen the current on-going series yet, don’t be put off by it’s non-linear order)
Seirei no Moribito AKA Guardian of the Sacred Spirit (Strongly recommend)
Air TV, The Movie, and Summer Special
Clannad 1 and 2 (just looks gorgeous)
Chrno Crusade
.Hack//SIGN (the original and best, think of it as Matrix meet WoW)
Read or Die (OAV)
R.O.D -The TV- (sequel to Read or Die)
Record of Lodoss War (don’t be thrown by first episode)
Shakugan no Shana 1 and 2
Fate-Stay Night
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OAVs 1, 2, and 3 (not Universe, TV, movies or the other variants because they are money, and time sinks)
El Hazard - The Magnificent World OAVs 1 and 2 (not Wanderers, but Alternative is a sequel)
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, A’s, and StrikerS (3 separate series, mixes magic and sci fi)
Witch Hunter Robin

Genre Subsection -

Belongs in the Mecha thread under Sci Fi/Military:
Memories (1995 movie, not to be confused with other Memories titles)
Jin-Roh
Animatrix (some parts are better than others)
Black Lagoon and Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye
Gunslinger Girls
Angel Heart (too melodramatic in some places)
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (I haven’t finished this series yet)

Horror/Thriller:
Blood OAV
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (not the first movie, the 2000 one)
Kara no Kyoukai - the Garden of sinners (1-6 is out, I think it’ll stop at 7)
Denpa teki na Kanojo
Hellsing Ultimate
Blood+ (Blood OAV sequel)
Berserk

Highschool/Slice of Life
Hanbun No Tsuki ga Noboru Sora (short and sweet)
Azumanga Daioh (hilarious)
Honey and Clover
Lucky Star (hilarious)

Kenshin
Rurouni Kenshin AKA Samurai X (up to, but not including the Christian arc)
Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal (OAV) (Kenshin prequel)
Samurai X: Reflection (OAV) (Kenshin sequel)

Studio Subsection -

Clamp:
Tokyo Babylon OAV (Prequel to X)
Card Captor Sakura (I liked Nanoha better)
Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (TV) (there are OAV sequels)
XXXHOLiC (TV) (there are OAV sequels)
X (TV) (Sequel to Tokyo Babylon)
X OAV (TV prequel)
X: Movie (Alternate retelling, the TV series makes way more sense, the movie is too rushed)
Magic Knight Rayearth (TV) 1 and 2 (there is an OAV retelling)
CLAMP in Wonderland (OAV) 1 (link) and 2 (link) (watch after you’ve seen a bunch of Clamp titles)

Clover (two links)
Clover (Outdated link, see below)
This youtube version absolutely fails to do this video any justice, but it’s subtitled. It’s based on a manga, so it’s ok if it doesn’t make sense to you. ^^ Watch this version before the excellent quality, unsubbed one.

Official CLOVER Music Video (HD Version) (Outdated link, see below)
Excellent quality, but not subbed. Watch the subbed version first this watch this in all it’s glory. Plus, the uploader of this link puts a synopsis of clover in his description. Yay!

//youtu.be/01xbvbbSyvc

Clover
One of the videos above no longer exists. But thankfully, I found a high quality subbed version

X-1999

//youtu.be/trkgJjYpuVU

Sort of a teaser/promo for the X movie. Watch in HQ for best experience.

Wish

//youtu.be/YrarLd7RvYg

Kawaii!

Miyazaki/Ghibli (listed mostly in alphabetical order because it’s all good):
Every frakkin’ thing!! (Not a title, just a suggestion)
Castle in the Sky, Laputa
Kiki’s Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Porco Rosso
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Grave of the Fireflies (do not watch if you’re depressed or suicidal)
Howl’s Moving Castle
Whisper of the Heart
The Cat Returns
Ocean Waves
Only Yesterday

On Your Mark

//youtu.be/CAscF0oT1X4&hd=1

Watch in HQ if possible.

Random Short:
ANIMATRIX FINAL FLIGHT of OSIRIS

//youtu.be/NkRMpMLzkYs

#2

After listing these and the titles in the Mecha thread, my goodness I’ve seen a lot of anime!!

Oh well, feel free to suggest others or argue with some of my recommendations. Don’t let the fact that it took me 4 hrs to type and organize all that (especially the Youtube links) stop you. d:

deserves an anime otaku geek card ^^

#3

Well I was especially fond of Basilisk when I first watched it from start to finish. It’s a (somewhat) historical look at two ninja clans that actually existed at one point and the imperial plot to have them eliminate one another. I really recommend the Japanese version, as I find (with all anime) that the English dialogue is just too watered down for my liking.

Samurai 7 was also a phenomenal rehash of the classic movie “7 Samurai,” abet with a new steampunk theme and a much deeper plot.

#4

Huh, I’d have thought this thread would get some chatter. I can’t tell if the lack of interest is from people agreeing with my picks or not caring. d:

I thought Basilisk was interesting. I don’t have any complaints about it, but it failed to make an impact on me I guess.

I never fnished Samurai 7. I saw up to episode 16 and liked what I saw, then my hard drive crashed and never got around to finishing it. If it’s ending is anything like the original, I’m not sure I’d want to finish.

#5

As someone reminded me, Fruit Basket is worth checking out. The anime series is incomplete. Not as in it ends in a cliffhanger, but as it’s rushed to end prematurely. It’s based on a manga, and for whatever reason (ratings, costs, lack of written storyline), the anime ends sooner than the manga.

I classify it as a high school fantasy.

#6

Tears to Tiara. Good series, worth watching. More like Lodoss War (the OAV not TV series) and Seirei no Moribito than Claymore and Berserk. Once they get the character introductions out of the way (not the best episodes of the series), the series stay above par from then on.

FC recommendation.

#7

okay i’m pretty anime ignorant but i’ll throw in my two uninformed cents if your looking for good anime from a historical genre well “grave of fireflies” is a truly powerful film by any standard, it ranks as one of the greatest movies on war i’ve ever watched.

#8

That is a good movie from a cinematic stand point. I left it of because it’s so depressing. First time an actual tear streamed from my eye in years and since because of that movie.

#9

Ever see Blue Gender? Depressing, dystopian, horrific…

I loved it. :stuck_out_tongue:

//youtu.be/O65mD3Pt-pY

#10

Fumiko’s Confession by Ishida Hiroyasu (English subtitles & credits)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Wnf7DsQng

Webcast, I made it a link since embedded video doesn’t show captions.

Description (Source: AniDB)
A short, independent 143-second anime featuring a schoolgirl named Fumiko who just confessed love to the boy she likes. She gets turned down, because he wants to train baseball and runs off crying, soon she runs so fast that she can’t stop.

Ishida Hiroyasu directed, animated, edited, and recorded the whole thing.

Kinda reminds me of how Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star) was made. Maybe I’ll link that later.

#11

Did I just read through that entire list and not see “Twelve Kingdoms.” This is an awesome show. Really. I swear. As long as you can get through the first four episodes and then it’s really awesome.

Also I agree Ga-Rei Zero was pretty good. I’d throw “Shakugan no Shana” on there just for fun. Oh and “Blue Seed” and “Escaflowne.” I don’t like it, but a lot of people enjoy “Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water.”

Does “Paranoia Agent” count?

#12

Oh snap! I just finished rewatching Juuni Kokki too! Must not have included it because of the ending, but the overall story more than makes up for it.

Shana may be a little Loli for some folks. I enjoyed the series myself too, though. Nadia has props for being a Gainax series.

Not sure I’ve seen Paranoia Agent. Heard of it though.

#13

Yeah, I never watched the last disk because I figured they weren’t going to really wrap up the ending, but that third arc was “OMG! Fantastic!” I loved how every character in that series went seriously crazy at least once.

Shana actually reminded me of 3X3 Eyes, which was good when I watched it back in 1997, but I haven’t seen it since, so… (Wow, that just dated me.)

Paranoia Agent is by the same director that did Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika. It’s one of the few kind of surrealistic anime series that doesn’t get so wierd you can’t understand what’s going on.

#14

You should still watch the last disk. It has a complete arc. Just as a whole, it leaves you wanting more.

3X3 Eyes. There’s a flash back… I wonder if it ages well?

I’m personally not a fan of Paprika or Perfect Blue. They may be visually stunning, but the stories weren’t something I enjoyed. shrugs Tokyo Godfathers was just pure win though. Great story, action, and comedy. A full package.

#15

I heartily second any and all recommendations for Studio Ghibli, though I have to plug Princess Mononoke most of all as fantasy/historical. I’m slowly working my way through Kenshin, though I have to find a time when I just want to sit down and watch it, since I’ve got it subbed and I can’t go half-way.

Kind of surprised me to not see Outlaw Star or Cowboy Bebop mentioned. They’re kind of less mecha and more sci-fi, unless they should get mentioned more over there.

Really, I’m only slowly working my way through things in general, playing a mix between what is popular and available, and what else people reccomend that I can find. Unfortunately, I don’t know where to find things, save with DVDs and E-Bay

oh, and PS, if anybody is fluent in Japanese and wants cheap anime without needing it subbed, DVDs are cheap in China (probably because they’re questionable), but I will buy and mail to people who will reimburse me somehow. It kind of annoys me how much anime i can find here, but not buy, because it isn’t subbed in English, just Chinese.

#16

Kobato, another Clamp series, is worth a watch. There’s no action. No explosions or real fights. It’s character driven.

That said, I’ve finally learned to swear off wikipedia while watching a series. I wanted some irrelevant info and immediately wished I had mind bleach. Third sentence I read spoiled the whole series.

I enjoyed it nonetheless.

#17

Major recommendation to everyone for Angel Beats.

Before watching, I didn’t know Angel Beats was a Key title (Air, Clannad, etc.). I love Key series, and I watched this all in one sitting. Awesome series. Best series I’ve seen in a while. In spite of my bias towards Key titles, many people say Angel Beats was the best series of that season. I’ll definitely rewatch when the Blu-rays are all out. Very strong, super duper FC recommendation here.

http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/angel-beats
Ranked #40

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10885
Excellent (almost Masterpiece) rating

Do yourselves a favor and try not to youtube any of the music until after episode ten. Youtube has tons of spoilers there just trying to look up music.

Edit: P.S. Pay attention to the endings after each episode. The observant viewer will find a few to be hilarious.

#18

Hmm… They’re probably all mentioned already, but…

Gundam
Yuu Yuu Hakushu
Cowboy Bebob
Ranma 1/2
Monster
Akira

Let’s Go! Inachu Ping Pong Club (which probably doesn’t fall into any of the categories, but I’m curious if anyone else has read/seen it?)

ETA: I also was a huge fan of a lot of sport related high school anime when I was young, like Slam Dunk or Touch (and a whole bunch of others, like the one with the kid who pitches for the Japan Giants with this crazy fast ball, or another one with a kid who gets all hole in ones by aiming for the flag of the pole instead of the hole in golf. Oh, and he uses this wooden carved stick instead of an actual golf club).

#19

Gundam and Cowboy Bebop probably (definitely) belong in the Mecha based anime suggestions thread, but yeah.

#20

On a more comedic note, I have to recommend

The Slayers - new series here:

//youtu.be/CZDxy1RET9c

Rune Soldier Louie

//youtu.be/j1LlGQ3pO88

Both of these are firmly in the fantasy genre!