Any anime fans?

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Someone watching Shinsekai Yori, yay!! ! This serie is way underated and really pay off in the end. It goe way beyond what we usually see in dystopia stories.

Its's adapted from quite a heavy novel but what A-1 Pictures left in makes it solid gold; it doesn't talk down to its audience, that's for sure Love it!

i like anime but i feel like i have a hard time starting new ones, even ones i am interested in. so a lot of the time i go back and rewatch things i've really enjoyed like flcl, kaiba, evangelion (not obvious ), alien 9. i just realized as i typed this out that i really like sci-fi ish stuff huh. any suggestions??

Have you watched Madoka Magica? It's not exactly sci-fi, but I'd recommend it for people who liked flcl. I'd also recommend Bakemonogatari. I think those two are widely regarded as some of the best shows of recent years. You can stream both on Crunchyroll.

I hadn't thought about it, but I guess I've kind of moved away from my interest in sci-fi toward more of a focus on fantasy. Another recent favorite of mine was Kokoro Connect. I don't even know how to classify that one, but it has elements of either. I'd call it speculative fiction, which sort of transcends both categories.

I probably need to revisit my top five list of anime, since none of those three made the last iteration a few years ago.

So glad you enjoyed Kaiba -- that was a rather outlandish but excellent project, wasn't it?

Anyway, Dennō Coil is definetely an underrated sci-fi anime I'd recommend. Rather scarily ahead of its time (it was produced in 2007), it deals with several young children who are already well-immersed in a Google Glasses-esque augmented reality video game/social media interface. What starts out as a fairly innocent comedy/slice-of-life-esque anime following the children hack, "farm gold" and generally manipulate the AR video game to their own end gradually darkens its tone to the point that someone may be using the system to contact them from beyond the grave...

Definetely an old-school anime (no preoccupations with romance or setting up couples!) with almost movie-like animation in places provided by Madhouse (think along the lines of Summer Wars). But with Mitsuo Iso as originator, it's no surprise --- he was behind the key animation for Ghibli's Porco Rosso and the invasion of NERV/Asuka's comeback (End of Evangelion) after all... Anyway, see what you think.

Other recommendations:

- Jikan no Eve (Time of Eve) -- a very thought-provoking short anime examining artificial intelligence in robots and how far it has to go before we can consider them human. Sort of like Tetsuwan Atom but for grown-ups.

- Bokurano (Ours) -- similar to Evangelion in the sense that several children are forcibly recruited into pilot a giant robot to save the world. But much much darker, and it better balances action and introspection. Warning: the events depicted will tug at your heartstrings! And there's a rather Kyubey-esque character involved...

- Steins;Gate -- probably the best time-travel-cenetred series I have ever seen, and rarely, I think it's one of those anime that actually flows much better in English than in its native Japanese (definetely aimed at sci-fi fans with its conversational references!). J. Michael Tatum of Funimation really did an excellent job adapting the story. Anyway, the synopsis is that college drop-out Okube Rinatro stumbles across the corpse of young American-Japanese neuroscience researcher Kurisu Makise; a sudden jolt later, Kurisu is mysteriously alive and Okube has found he has travelled back in time. So begins Okube's quest to find out how it is he has jumped in time (to a seemingly parallel world where Kurisu doesn't die), and why it is Kurisu was killed in the first place. Steins;Gate is slightly slice-of-life-esque in the beginning with the Lab Members being introduced and to better understand Okube, but things heat up quickly as a very dark truth emerges...

- If Steins;Gate is a little too much, you may prefer the sister series Robotics;Notes -- much lighter in tone and content than Steins;Gate in that it follows a crew of high school kids wanting to build a giant fighting robot. A conspiracy pops up somewhere that unnervingly strikes close to home but I really didn't like how bland the set-up was (two unremarkable boys with four cutesy girls).

- Or alternatively you may prefer Chaos;Head -- in short high school hikkomori (reclusive shut-in, only interested in games) Takumi Nishijō finds himself at the centre of a murder investigation, having been sent images of the victim by an anonymous user in a chatroom. I didn't see this one all the way through myself though; but only because I personally disliked the harem-esque tones the anime suddenly took to (one boy to seven cutesy girls, who all play a part in the mystery; is the murder real, a bad internet meme, or part of something much bigger?)

By the way, the only thing Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes and Chaos;Head share in common is that they were all originally visual novel-style games published by .5pb in Japan. The anime adaptations are purely stand alone, and can be totally watched independently.

In any event, see what you think and I hope all that helps!

@jrjones9933: hmm, yes i started both madoka and bakemonogatari and to be honest i just couldn't get into either one/care. i have never heard of kokoro connect, i might give that one a try. thanks for the suggestions!

@blankcanvas: yes i enjoyed it a lot! i am a big fan of masaaki yuasa. i have been meaning to pick up denno coil and bokurano for a while, they seem like things i will enjoy. i will also look into the other things you recommended, thank you!

You're very welcome. If you're a fan of Masaaki Yuasa, you may want to check out Tatami Galaxy; it's a bit of a stretch to call it sci-fi but I suppose it can deemed as having a sci-fi-esque element in the plot. In short, it's a very arthouse-y experimental anime like Kaiba, only in this instance it follows an unnamed third-year university student ruminating on his first two years in Kyoto.

A shy reclusive fellow (but not a hikkomori), the protagonist tries to engage socially by joining clubs and takes an attraction to Akashi, a raven-haired unapproachable girl. However, the anime does take a rather sci-fi-esque route in that by the next episode, the protagonist has found himself seemingly jumping back in time and trying out an a different club, contrary to the one he chose to the episode before. Eventually, the protagonist becomes aware of and is frustrated by the reset-button nature of events. And... well, it gets kind of meta-physical from there.

Apparently, Yuasa wrote that series based on his own experiences at university, and of course, living a life of regret is really a big deal in Japan...

At any rate, see what you think. Tatami Galaxy is a short one at 11 episodes like Kaiba, but could prove as interesting for you especially as each episode has a different director and therefore has its own stylised tone (two of them, Akitoshi Yokoyama and Ryōtarō Makihara, previouly worked on Kaiba). And although slightly slice-of-life-esque, Tatami Galaxy is more a social commentary on human interaction (or the lack of), unspoken (non-sexual) desires, and whether it's worthwhile trying to fit in with folks at the cost of losing one's sense of individualism. Quite thought-provoking stuff really.

oh yes, tatami galaxy! a few years back i watched most of it, but that was a weird/stressful time so i don't really remember much of it. i will start with that first, as it's shorter and then maybe i'll try bokurano. also, i really like how you describe the shows so well, helps me decide easier. you have a good way with words.

So I've tried out Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (The Irregular at Magic High School) but 4 episodes in, I couldn't get into it at all.

For something that was adapted from a series of novels and Square-Enix-sponsored manga, there seems to be a serious lack of exposition and characterisation in this anime. Manabu Ono and his "you must be familiar with the novel/manga to watch this" directing strikes again... grrrrr.

And whilst Madhouse have done their best with the limited budget and experience available to them* the incest and fanservice got too much for me and there weren't any signs of a real plot developing beyond "Tatsuya is near-universally hated for reasons unexplained and is trying to work his way up the social standing ladder with his 1-dimensional sister cheering him on."

So I'm sorry, but dropped as it's just ticking the wrong boxes for me.

My kingdom for an anime that focuses on plot and not cheap tactics to grab otaku attention...

* Yoshihiro Ishimoto's inexperience with character design glares here - every girl looks far younger than she's supposed to be whilst the males all have narrow 'bad boy' eyes.

No problem. I've grown up with vague "Show X is cool/cute/awesome" statements so I make a habit of pointing out exactly what it is that makes a show interesting in my opinion. Life is so much easier when people communicate with each other clearly - less reason to misconstrue statements, right?

In response to this, I am more into the classics from the mid 80s to late 90s, such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, Ranma ½, and InuYasha. Though, I have been watching some recent shows like Vividred Operation, Silver Spoon, and Excel Saga.

I finished Moritasan wa Mukuchi (Moritasan is so quiet), a short-form, slice of life anime with cute girls doing cute things. I enjoyed it at times when I didn't have half an hour to watch a full-length episode of something else. I could count on it to lighten my mood in under 4 minutes, which I found very useful.

I started The Comic Artist and His Assistants. Those episodes last about 15 minutes, and I find them pretty amusing. The artist's sexual harassment of his assistants makes me a little uncomfortable at times, but he's the butt of almost all the jokes, so it doesn't bother me enough to put me off the show.

Sup, into Akira, Bubblegum Crisis, Magic Knight Rayearth, Neon Genesis Evaqngelion, Sailor Moon just to name a few. I mostly got these on VHS.

Well, trying out xxxHolic up to episode 7 in English proved to be an experience. There are some really great moments of writing in this show but even watching it in English, xxxHolic seems unable to find its footing between generic slice-of-life, supernatural/psychological drama and (badly-written) romance-comedy. When xxxHolic gets it right, it really does (re: the adaptation of Japanese folklore and superstitions; managing to set up some really atmospheric scenes).

But when it falls flat (the attempts at comedy with Watanuki over-reacting to every single thing; the Doumeki-Himawari-Watanuki triangle; the creepy little girls who add nothing whatsoever to the plot; Mokona!), it makes me wonder if there were too many cooks spoiling the broth. I’ve never seen an anime have so many producers behind it...

Alas, I’m dropping xxxHolic the anime for its wildly inconsistent screenplay and being unable to tolerate its strange humour. I think maybe after being spoiled by Mushi-shi and Natsume Yuujinchou , I find XxXHolic a very muddled confused project.

Far more positively, I’ve high hopes for Seirei no Morbito -- how refreshing to see a middle-aged (modestly dressed) female warrior as a lead character. And with Production I.G. adapting from a grown-up fantasy novel (Yes! A plot that’ll go somewhere!), I bet it’ll be fantastic art and animation-wise; episode 1 seems to have proved me right at the time of writing this. Nice.

I finished Witchblade. It had a fair amount of exciting action and some interesting characters, but I never felt attached to it and I couldn't recommend it with so much other great stuff available to watch.

I started watching Dog Days again. I would like to buy it, but it's distributed by Aniplex, possibly the worst distributor, but who sadly have some of the best shows. The show hasn't been around that long but the discs are out of print and if they were available they'd cost three times as much as anyone else charges for a series.

Me and a friend just started Gallery Fake. Nice little seinen series about a Japanese art dealer by the name of Reiji Fujita, who was once curator at the Metropolitan Museum in New York until a certain incident saw him fired in disgrace. However, Fujika continues to delve in the world of art with Gallery Fake on Tokyo Wharf, selling both originals and fakes alike using slightly Robin Hood-esque underhand methods. This infuriates Sayoko Mitamura, curator of the Takada Art Museum who believes Fujita's actions are dirtying the art world, But the 'jerk with the heart of gold' has earned the wavering respect of young assistant Sara Halifa and professional jewel theif Fei Cui (though she'd never admit it).

Kind of reminds me of the BBC series Hustle (adopted as Leverage in the US) but I like this. What a treat seeing real art talked about so expertly; it's like being back in university.