The anime / manga thread

[Antimatter]

Just stumbled upon this wonderful cover of a song from Naruto by Alina Gingertail.



The melody itself brought back the memories of how I first had been watching Naruto many years ago. Which made me think: what's everyone's favourite anime and why? Has your opinion about this or that animation series or movie changed over the years?

Edit: The title now includes manga as well.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Beautiful music. I'm going to read with great attention what people will post here, but can't add anything myself. I know it's an embarrassiing confession to make, but anime is something I have missed out on completely until very recently, until my children started and I watch with them occasionally to make sure some things are age appropriate.
So I'll keep an eye on this thread to pick up suggestions. (For myself, not the children)

And Naruto is actually one of the few series that I have watched a few episodes of and liked, but of course it's a very long series and there's so little time. I started watching because my children were watching Boruto and I wanted to start from where it all began. Couldn't convince the kids, though, because simply counting how many episodes Naruto and Naruto Shippuden have already scared them off .

 

[m7600]

I'm not that much into anime either, but there's a few things here and there that I do like. I'd say the movie Akira from 1988 is the best one. It's a sort of cyberpunk film with some very strange elements. And a lot of violence. It's definitely for adults only.

 

[O_Bruce]

I would have problems with stating my favourite anime, unless I can include mangas into the definition as well.

If I can, then I would say Fullmetal Alchemist (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood being its anime adaptation). To this day I haven't read/watch the series that would satisfy me quite to that extent. From the premise to characters, to a well-structured plot and a very, albeit purposefully not perfect, ending. Everything there just works for me. This series is also why I mentioned I want to include manga when speaking about anime as well - the anime adaptation kinda isn't at it best at the beginning.

There are other series I do like (my current profile picture is Guts from Berserk), we were meant to state our favourite, so I did.

@Urdnot_Wrex Not that I encourage people to sail on the high seas, but there are several fan edits of Naruto series as a whole that cuts of much of the filler episodes and non-source material content. Naruto Kai is one of those fan projects. I think it would be much less daunting to watch.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

The melody itself brought back the memories of how I first had been watching Naruto many years ago. Which made me think: what's everyone's favourite anime and why? Has your opinion about this or that animation series or movie changed over the years?

Edit: The title now includes manga as well.

Still waiting for your own opinion on your topic!

 

[Antimatter]

There are so many good choices over there!

I would agree with @O_Bruce that Fullmetal Alchemist might be a good starting pick for someone who hasn't watched anime much. In reality, it was one of the first I've watched myself.

I would also recommend the following:

Death Note



This will be a great anime to watch for every detective fan! Also, the Japanese mythology at its finest!

GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka



It might seem pretty odd at first, but it's a deep story with well-written characters. You will cry - and also laugh - a lot here.

BECK: : Mongolian Chop Squad



If music plays a big part in your life, this one will be even better.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Death Note


This will be a great anime to watch for every detective fan! Also, the Japanese mythology at its finest!

I know you're all adults here (or at least I think so), but any idea if this is okay to watch with a (mature and smart) 13-year-old?
My daughter is a huge anime fan and suggested watching something together, but was unsure what I might like, so I mentioned what was shared here and she said some folks from her school mentioned Death Note too, and it sounded cool to her.

 

[O_Bruce]

Death Note probably would be okay from my point of view. If your daughter is mature and smart for her age, then I think it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[mlnevese]

I don't remember any gruesome deaths in Deathnote but the story is quite heavy at some points.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

The closest I've been to anime was playing Final Fantasy XIV. Something about that art style, with exaggerated features (eyes, hair), and anthropomorphized animals or sometimes human-animal hybrids, doesn't appeal to me.

When I was a child, I watched a black and white cartoon about a giant robot. The show was called "Gigantor", which was also the name of the robot giant, and I'm pretty sure it was dubbed from Japanese and was an early anime. Although it didn't have the animals element (not all anime does), it had the artistic style of it.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

I don't remember any gruesome deaths in Deathnote but the story is quite heavy at some points.

Heavy story is alright, I think. When I said I'd have to check first if it's age appropriate, she snickered and said that when watching movies or shows, she probably has less sensitivity issues than me. She might not be entirely wrong.

 

[Chronicler]

Death note's probably fine?

If I recall the points of interest are that the fundamental premise has him killing people in all sorts of creative ways. That being said, it's not especailly bloody, and any time it could get super graphic the camera shies away from it.

There's one scene early on where it's implied some thugs are going to attempt to rape somebody. They never get a chance to try. The dude kills them with his Death Note. But that might also warrant a content warning.

Beyond that mostly I think the real worry is it putting bad ideas in a kids head. The point of view character has a lot to say about how he'll create his perfect world through wanton slaughter of the "undesirables", and of course he's a monster, he's a villain, that's the point, but a lot of that sort of stuff can fly over a young mind, or honestly even a lot of older minds, leading to "Who's the bad guy in Death Note? The murderer or the dude stopping him?" becoming a sort of classic schoolyard and forum debate. But if she's watching it with you you'll have some ability to contextualize it at least.

 

[mlnevese]

Well, if we consider Deathnote actually portrays killing making the kid an egomaniac monster and not actually solving anything, it has a positive message delivered in a strange way

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Thanks for the insights. She's definitely mature enough not to turn into a murderer to solve her problems

 

[O_Bruce]

I said Death Note would be okay for 13 years old, even with all the things Chronicler mentioned. For one, as they said, the 13-year-old will be watching with her parent. Second, I think it is a fair assessment that she is capable of thinking critically. Typically, that ability starts developing at about age of 11-12. And finally, even with some events in the story that some sad people could describe as "requiring a trigger warning" or something like that, I think it is good to experience the story with those elements. I think that pretending that some things don't happen or don't exist is harmful in a long way.

About Light Yagami, with me having master's degree in psychology, and being interested in criminal podcasts, I can definitely say that

Spoiler

Light Yagami is pretty much a sociopath from the start, before even he starts using Death Note and crossing his boundries.

 

[Chronicler]

About Light Yagami, with me having master's degree in psychology, and being interested in criminal podcasts, I can definitely say that

Spoiler

Light Yagami is pretty much a sociopath from the start, before even he starts using Death Note and crossing his boundries.

Without getting too deep into this around somebody looking to pick up the series for the first time, I feel like that's pretty textual, even without a psychological educational backing.

Spoiler

"The whole thing is that Light is like this Model Citizen. He's everything society considers goodly and praiseworthy. But as you see what he does with the power he's given it brings into question whether these are the traits that society should value. The Model Citizen is kind of a monster. The same kind of theme was covered in American Psycho, though that was of course a different culture's Model Citizen

 

[O_Bruce]

It is true that you don't need that educational backing to see Light Yagami in that way. Then again, the discourse about this series among fans shows that it isn't obvious to everyone.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Well, after watching 3 or 4 episodes of Death Note during a free trial period of a streaming subscription, my daughter wanted to watch other stuff, and now it's no longer available in my area. So I'll probably have to find it somewhere else and continue on my own eventually, because it seemed interesting.

Instead she convinced me to watch The Promised Neverland with her. She had already finished the first season a while ago and now wanted to rewatch it with me, we saw the first 5 episodes this evening.
It's a bit dark, but sufficiently absurd to make the horror parts less scary (for the age 12+ rating it has, I mean), and full of complicated suspicions and a very grim having-to-grow-up-fast topic.
(It's about an orphanage where children find out the horrible truth about what actually happens to those who leave)

I'm not quite sure if it's age appropriate no matter the rating, but since she has seen it already, it's pointless to think about, and now I really want to know how it continues, if the ones who wrote the story actually came up with something unique or just follow some horror tropes, if it takes the hopeful or the grim direction or a bit of both... we'll see.

I haven't watched a lot of anime before, but I'm quickly getting used to the very expressive style, with the typical exaggerated facial expressions and all that, and can appreciate now that it is just a certain stylized way to create an atmosphere and to transmit information, especially emotion, while I used to think years ago that it's, well, for children, no matter the topic.

 

[Chronicler]

I've never read The Promised Neverland, but I hear people weren't happy with the ending of the manga. No idea the anime ever got far enough to adapt that part, and I didn't hear that from somebody I respect to have intelligent opinions or anything. Just some online stranger. Who knows what they were about.

 

[mlnevese]

Well, after watching 3 or 4 episodes of Death Note during a free trial period of a streaming subscription, my daughter wanted to watch other stuff, and now it's no longer available in my area. So I'll probably have to find it somewhere else and continue on my own eventually, because it seemed interesting.

Instead she convinced me to watch The Promised Neverland with her. She had already finished the first season a while ago and now wanted to rewatch it with me, we saw the first 5 episodes this evening.
It's a bit dark, but sufficiently absurd to make the horror parts less scary (for the age 12+ rating it has, I mean), and full of complicated suspicions and a very grim having-to-grow-up-fast topic.
(It's about an orphanage where children find out the horrible truth about what actually happens to those who leave)

I'm not quite sure if it's age appropriate no matter the rating, but since she has seen it already, it's pointless to think about, and now I really want to know how it continues, if the ones who wrote the story actually came up with something unique or just follow some horror tropes, if it takes the hopeful or the grim direction or a bit of both... we'll see.

I haven't watched a lot of anime before, but I'm quickly getting used to the very expressive style, with the typical exaggerated facial expressions and all that, and can appreciate now that it is just a certain stylized way to create an atmosphere and to transmit information, especially emotion, while I used to think years ago that it's, well, for children, no matter the topic.

If you want to know wich services are streaming any title, you may try https://www.justwatch.com/

Just inform your country and search, it's free.