Infernalmiko

For samurai anime, I suppose my favs would be Kenshin and Samurai Champloo. Kenshin is classic swordplay samurai stories from the time of the Meiji Restoration and most of the action focus is on fighting with swords and other weapons. Samnurai Champloo is much more quirky and off beat, with some hip hop influences, but was still alot of fun. @OctoberRaven I'll talk more about Black Lagoon later, but you'll be happy to know Rotten the Wizard makes his triumphant return in the OVA series Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail. No idea when it'll be released in the US, though.

Agreed. It helps that he's dead sexy. I avoided looking him up on the interwebs for a while because I imagined him looking like Alucard and didn't want reality to ruin my little dream. Luckily I got over that. Hyakka Ryouran- Samurai Girls However the Master Samurai have been in decline for years..... It's so hard to find maidens in the 21st century, for one thing. Samurai Girls does have a plot, But the main characters are mostly unaware of it. Sorry, could not resist. I've only seen a little of this and it struck me as pretty average, aside from the gimmick of having a bunch of samurai girls named after famous warriors and generals of the Feuding States period in Japan.

It's also worth noting that the Hellsing dub is pretty decent. Especially Crispin Freeman, who is consistently awesome in everything I've heard him in. He's easily one of my favorite voice actors.

My next anime to discuss. I can kill them all. I can massacre them without even a bit of hesitation, an ounce of regret. Because I am a monster. – Alucard Hellsing. Hellsing started as a manga series by Kouta Hirano and was adapted into anime twice. the first time was a brief TV series by Studio Gonzo. This went for 13 episodes and following Gonzo's usual practice, they early on let the manga creator know they didn't need his input, since they could do a far better story on their own. They were wrong, so I won't bother discussing the TV series further. The Hellsing Ultimate OVA series is a striking faithful adaptation of the original manga. The animation styhle has bee interesting, capturing the dark mood and gothic style of the series very well. Hellsing is predominantely an action series. The action tends to be bloody and the pace is kept fast. The basic premise is a world where vampires and other dark creatures exist, but most people don't know about them. In the UK vampires are fought by the Hellsing Organization, lead by Intagra Hellsing, with Alucard (yes, Dracula backwards) as their chief vampire hunter. He 'saves' a policegirl named Seras Victoria from a vampire by turning her into a vampire himself. Seras becomes the main point of view character, as the newbie to whom things are explained and who experiences to greatest character growth and change. Hellsing are opposed by the mysterious Millenium, who's composition and aims are initially unknown. And rivaled by Section XIII: Iscariot, the vampire fighting branch of the Catholic church, who are just as happy killing heretics as vampires. The pacing is tight and fast, but as expected from an action series the plot is not terribly deep. There are some really bad guys who want to do really bad stuff and our heroes have to stop them. Even if our heroes aren't always the nicest guys either. The series makes ample use of Rule of Cool and other less than realistic tropes, but the characters were for me highly memorable and fun. Especially the rivalry between Alucard and Iscariot's Paladin Alexander Anderson. They make the best of enemies. The series doens't have a noteworthy opening song or sequence, unlike the awful TV series which at least had a seriously cool bluesy opening. There is also plenty of use of music for big moments. From Van Winkle's delight in opera, to great songs like Broken English and Akuma Stocking, on to an old pre WW I german song about invading England, there is alot to enjoy. There are almost no moe elements, unless you count the huggable Schroedinger. Fan service is provided by Seras Victoria and her bust, though she's always fully clothed. Not the deepest, more in depth anime I've ever seen. But when it comes to style and cool, it's very hard to beat. 8.5/10

Another anime I'd recommend conditionally is Souleater. There is quite a bit going for it. An awesome opening sequence. PLenty of lighthearted action. The animation is generally strong and the characters interesting. There were a number of nice touches in the details that would be easy to miss, like when Maka tries to see the soul of the Grim Reaper. Basically, the Grim Reaper (portrayed in a rather silly/amjsing fashion mos tof the time) heads up a school that teaches Weapon Masters to fight evil. The twist being that half the students are people who can turn into weapons, so they are partnered with a weaponmaster to form a team. Despite how this sounds, the weapons are more active in fights than you would think. The main characters are Maka and Soul, though Black*Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, Liz and Patti play roles nearly as big. The villainess is excellent and evil, the supporting characters like Dr. Stein are well developed. There is plenty of comedy elements. There is a witch named Blair, a mad scientist names Dr. Frank Stein. Coffe is served at DeathBucks and money is Death Notes. It's a series I would unreservedly recommend until the final arc. The final story arc came about because they had caught up with the manga and apparently had literally no clue where to go so they started flailing around. Aside from the final fight between the Grim Reaper and Asura, the final arc is so bad Gainax wishes they could end a series this bad. Even characters in the series recognize things get stupid by the end. Aside from that, it's a great series.

Kind of. It takes the characters from the Read or Dream manga and crosses them to the ROD universe, if I remember correctly. Looking forward to the review!

I'm fond of Bamboo Blade is a decent fun series. Not awesome, but I enjoyed it. I had been considering posting on ROD. Tiger is way too hard on it, especially since it fits his desire for short series to a T. It's an awesome, fun quirky series featuring a character who's only power is absolute control of paper. This is much cooler and more useful than it sounds. When Tiger says Dumb Fun, he means light hearted, very fun, charming and well worth watching.

Hey Tiger, no grenade fishing for comments. I already killed the discussion once by posting about horror. Escaflowne is a series that has to grow on you. I started off feeling it was pretty average but it grew on me over time. Not to the degree El Hazard did, but I still enjoyed Escaflowne quite a bit, especially the big bad. The mecha are well done, they are more reminiscent of knights in armor on steroids than anything else, so it fits the theme surprisingly well.

Well, since this is an anime discussion thread now. Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales was an experiment in reviving old horror tales that had been featured in kabuki plays. It ran for 11 episodes (ie, short enough for Tiger to watch) and featured three main story arcs, each done by a different person. The opening theme is Heat Island by Rhymester. The same song is used for all three story arcs, but the opening animation changes to match the story and the style. This is a horror series, so no moe elements, fan service and little comedy. The first story arc is based on the famous kabuki Yotsuya Kaidan, written by Nanboku Tsuruya IV in 1825. It's a tale of scorned love, poisoning, revenge and haunting that has been very popular. The arc is narrated by Nanboku Tsuruya IV and combines both the tale itself and a story about the cursed element of the play itself as well as thje curse of the story falling on Nanboku Tsuruya IV for creating it. The animation is good but not special, though as the story of the worse works toward modern times some real life shots are added as well. The second arc is a traditional tragic love story based on a kabuki by Kyōka Izumi and it the most conventional arc of the anime. The anime occasionally has issues but is generally good. A young samurai falls in love with a princess of the Forgotten Gods and what follows is a mix of Beauty and the Beast meets Romeo and Juliet. Decent but the weakest of the three arcs. Samurai: You're an interesting guy. Medicine Seller: But not an interesting human. The last arc is the most interesting for me. It's an original story from Kenji Nakamura that serves as a pilot for his later series Mononoke. The story features a mysterious 'Humble Medicine Seller', a marriage day, a ghost cat and much death filled revenge. The art is pretty unique, based on Japanese woodcut designs and filled with a range of vivid, sometimes garish, colors in a style popular in Japan at times during the Edo Period. This is easily the best of the three story arcs as well as the most disturbing and creepy. Miko Rating: 7.5.

A fairly famous anime, with a number of awesome (and silly) elements. I have a plush Ryo-ohki. It also has the distinction of having the worst dub I have ever heard in my life. Utterly atrocious. A twist on the harem anime, that ended up with it's own ending at TV Tropes for the unique ending. Definitely anime, unless you are talking about the manga or light novels. I have a friend who loves this to death. I personally thought it was pretty cool. For sheer fun, The Legend of Koizumi is one of my all time favorites. (ok, it's really just goofy fun) Mononoke (not to be confused with Princess Mononoke) really is utterly awesome and unique. The licensing for Mononoke got caught up in a bankruptcy by the American distributor and it remains in limbo, so I had to settle for buying it off Amazon Japan.

So will this be NGE+End, and then the reboot? You can't do the TV series without EoE, IMHO. NGE+End was difficult for me to watch at times. It's highly emotional. Komm, susser tod remains one of my favorite depressing songs. And for DtB, I did watch Gaiden and thought it was good. It's mostly build up for the 2nd season and the introduction of the new mystery, but there were interesting characters and you really need to watch this first for season 2 to make (some) sense. But seriously, what did happen in the ending to S2? I was less confused by Mass Effect 3's ending.

Regarding DtB the second season. Tiger liked it much more than I did. Strengths: They actually go to Sapporo for a while, a city rarely used in anime. If they had made it to Hakodate I would have fainted. Kiko's awesome entrance while talking about how annoying it is when a comedy character enters an otherwise serious anime. More creative contractors. Hei. Kirihara. Weaknesses: Some lack of direction in plot. The way they brought back a character from season one for no better reason than to kill them in the first episode as a shock. The ending. The WTF Gainax ending. Did I mention the incomprehensible, massively rushed ending? Overall the season was still good. But the ending brought it way down for me.

Darker than Black I started a couple of times before finally seeing it through and finishing. It does get better and better as it goes along and you grow attached to the characters. 'Chinese Electric Batman' Hei is awesome. And over time we get backstory on most of the main character that help to understand them. It's definitely a series that won't just tell you things, you have to pay attention to see what is going on. The anime is not really a comedy, but there are some nice change of pace comedic touches. Guy Kurosawa and sidekick are amusing. The episode that starts with Mao explaining how contractors are calm, utterly rational beings who always make the practical choice contrasts well with how he's really acting through the monologue. Funny. I'd recommend the series.

If Death Note had ended as originally planned, this would be an easy 10/10. Luckily the live action movies were able to use this ending. I've been watching anime since I was a little girl and Death Note is easily one of my top five favorites. I like the contrast in the series. There's no question who the good guy and bad guy is. But Light despite his overbearing arrogance does sincerely feel like he's making the world a better place. And L, despite his sense of justice and endearing mannerisms, can be ruthlessly manipulative. L also has one of the best intellectual badass introductions of all time. Just outstanding.

Just a few comments on HOTD. I'm quite sure the creators (Daisuke Satō and Shōji Satō) know what they were doing with this. The brothers are friends with Koushi Rikudou of Excel Saga fame, the king of Going Too Far. The characters are fairly stock, but still interesting. Kouta Hirano is pretty clearly based on Kōta Hirano, creator of Hellsing, both in appearance and love of firearms. Saeko Busujima is a Rule 63 version of Kyūzō from Seven Samurai with some deep seated issues added in. It's definitely a 'check your brain at the door' type of anime, like most zombie horror, but alot of fun. A second season was confirmed though I've not seen air dates yet.

<p>Tiger is just a slacker. Running away from so many great long series.</p><p> </p><p> DBZ was only 291 episodes.<img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

Ramu-chan was alot of fun. She wrestled for 666, though I think she's out of pro wrestling now. My favorite match was her against Riho, another very young wrestler. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lC88Op6cJo This music video shows 12 year old Riho's title defense against Emi Sakura as well as some of the other strangeness common in Ice Ribbon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGBibG6WRsY

I'd agree on checking out AJPW during the mid 90's. The undercards were so so but the main events were off the charts. the very peak of King's Road style before it finally started imploding in the late 90's. I'd also highly recommend All Japan Women's Wrestling (AJW-Victory through guts!) in the early-mid 90s. Even Meltzer admitted AJW during this time had possibly the best top to bottom shows in the world. Personally I've been loving NJPW of the last couple years as well. They've recovered from rock bottom and have been putting on some very entertaining shows.

To be honest, I'd love to see Burning Hammer titles, but I have ulterior motives for that. ^_^

Masters of Pain Qualifier Eddie Guerrero vs. Juventud Guerrera Pretty sure that should be Chris Jericho. ^-^