Dont Know Where to Begin.....

[ReMinD]

hey everyone, im new to the forums, ive collected comics most of my life but normally just stuck with the big names such as spider-man, x-men etc.. but i fancy a change this time around.

im considering anime/manga but i have no clue where to start. ive seen guyver a few times and love it but other than that all ive watched is pokemon(still like it lol) :).

Could anyone point me in the right direction? thanks alot

[Froggy]

Hmm, try guyver first, then maybe JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (it's really odd but fun).

[Sparda]

Ok this depends on your taste completely if you need help. Maybe for starter's, I'll presume you like samurai's? Well go to a local Border's or whatever and try out the manga's there. I would recommend for good feeling fun/romance/action/samurai Rurouni Kenshin. It's a heart felt manga and your gonna love the charactization's.

Rurouni Kenshin is basically about a samurai who helped brought in the Meji Era in japan and was feared as the Battasua. When the Chao's was over, he vowed never to kill again by using a unigue sword that's reversed (the usual sharp side is reversed) and become's a wanderer. He arrive's in tokyo, meet's a girl who's master of a dojo and thing's start from there. In the beginning your going to get introduction's to characters, going into thier history, and warm up to them. Then 2 really good arcs that I don't wanna spoil it for you.

There are around 28 volumes in total.

Hope this helps you out in your liking. If you have more taste's let us all know and we'll help you out. Huge varietie's of manga so enjoy :)

[Arilou]

If you come from comics I suggest you try Witch Hunter: Robin it was my second animé (my first was Shadow Skill....) and it is a very good series that isn't too "anime-ish", IE: It's not too outlandish or too many animé conventions. Relatively realistic art, etc. etc.

From there you might check out some shounen series like Bleach or Naruto, these generally run (almost) forever, have huge fights, and sometimes some drama: So prety much the same formula as a good superhero story but with a bunch of different clichés.

From there.... It depends. There's a lot of stuff out there, spanning over a huge range of subjects and genrés.

[The Xenos]

Now consider that anime is different from manga. I know it sounds obvious, but for some reason fans tend to blur the line. Manga is just plain cheaper than anime. Though even then we get anime cheaper here than in Japan.

For manga, I suggest One Piece for a really fun cartoony pirate adventure, but still with some good drama and characters. Avoid the anime until it gets rereleased uncut by Funimation. 4kids got it first and edited the hell out of it.

JoJo's Bizzare Adventure is good. It's a bit dated, but very infulenced by superhero comics. The anime is rare and expensive, so the manga is easier to find.

Monster, by Naoki Urasawa, is excellent. It's like the Fugitive. It's about a doctor framed for murder being framed by one of his patients. Very real, set in Europe. Plus you see some interesting workings inside a hospital, then he goes on the run.

Fullmetal Alchemist, both the anime and manga are amazing. Two brothers trying to be Alchemists in a world where alchemy replaces science. They try to bring back their mother, but by breaking the laws of alchemy, they pay a heavy price. Years later they're on the road, one of them training to be a state alchemist. It seems like typical shonen fare, but it gets really dark at times.

(Shonen is a genre within manga. I think it's comparable to superheros. It's manga targeted for young males, teens and early teens generally. You generally see someone say, "I'm going to be the best in the world." and then they go on a quest. They can be ninjas, or pirates, or alchemists, or even work in a bakery. Yes, there's a shonen manga about baking bread (Yakitate Japan).)

For something more mature and violent, I suggest either the far future cyberpunk manga Blame! or the dark medevil fantasy Berserk. Also, Hellsing is an interesting and ultraviolent vampire epic. Those are some of the more mature of my personal favorites.

For anime, one of my first and favorite was Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's the Watchmen of the mecha genre. Giant robot deconstruction, a philisophical view on loniness and the human condition, Freud, Kaballah and other mysticism, giant robots killing 'angels', secret govenment conspiraces and more, all in one anime. It's still one of my favorite anime.

If you come from comics I suggest you try [I]Witch Hunter: Robin it was my second animé (my first was Shadow Skill....) and it is a very good series that isn't too "anime-ish", IE: It's not too outlandish or too many animé conventions. Relatively realistic art, etc. etc.

From there you might check out some shounen series like Bleach or Naruto, these generally run (almost) forever, have huge fights, and sometimes some drama: So prety much the same formula as a good superhero story but with a bunch of different clichés.

I loved Witch Hunter Robin, but it can be a bit slow. It's somewhat like X-Files, in both pacing, dark scenes, and freak of the week vs mythology eps. Also, I don't know what you mean by Withc Hunter Robin avoiding anime conventions. I went to one last weekend and saw a bunch of girls dressed as Robin. :rolleyes:

Another neat, but slow, series is Kino's Journeys. It's a waxing philosophic series about a traveller and the talking motocycle that goes along on the trip.

Also, Serial Experiments Lain is a pretty trippy somewhat cyberpunk conspiracy anime along the lines of Pi or a David Lynch film. It follows a teenage girl who is enveloped into 'the wired' and is full of trippy paranoia. Niea under 7 (Niea_7) is done by the same character designer, but is a more down to earth, slice of life anime, even if it does have aliens living in Japan.


Bleach looks pretty good. I just haven't gotten into it. I saw some of Naruto years ago at an anime club showing fansubs of it. It seems to drag on too much. I gave up on it after the bridge fight with Zabuza (which was the most recent finished arc of the anime). Plus I prefer my One Piece pirates over them ninjas. (Though I have friends cosplay as characters from either series.)

[Sanagi]

Studio Ghibli. (http://nausicaa.net/miyazaki/films/)

[Arilou]

I loved Witch Hunter Robin, but it can be a bit slow. It's somewhat like X-Files, in both pacing, dark scenes, and freak of the week vs mythology eps. Also, I don't know what you mean by Withc Hunter Robin avoiding anime conventions. I went to one last weekend and saw a bunch of girls dressed as Robin.


I meant conventions as in "standards, customs", not "cons" :p As in, WHR doesen't have much super-deformed animation or lots of cultural references or general weirdness. IE: From a "New to Animé" perspective it is pretty "easy".

Of course, that might not be what you want. As said, my first Animé was Shadow Skill....

[Thorlief]

Anime? Get Miyazaki's works. Start with Lupin the Third and the castle of Cagliostro and get Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Nausicaa

Manga: Hokuto no Ken( Fist of the North Star) and Jojo, both are like the best superhero comics in full Japanese taste, art and style. Plus, they have excellent stories. City Hunter is also a good choice.

if you want something more romantic (why shouldnt you?) get Video Girl Ai, really awesome story and art

[Alex L]

While it doesn't top my Favorites list, Cowboy Bebop brought a lot of fans into anime, IMO partly because it's based on Westernized culture. It's foreign, yet familiar -- so it's like sticking your foot in the pool.

Naruto is the new hotness, but it's also a cartoon aimed at tween-to-teenage boys -- so while it's good, it's not particularly deep or groundbreaking. Doubt there's a current anime fan in the country who hasn't at least heard of it.