Anime, not just what we remember from TV in 80s anymore

So I decided to write this after a conversation I had with a friend of mine last week. I know I don't post often, I'm a busy guy with working 2 jobs like I do, but I feel this is a subject a lot of people should know about. See I am someone who used to hate anime, I thought it was stupid and all the same. Than as I got a bit older, and I got to be about 15 or 16 I saw two movies that started a change of mind for me. They were called "Ghost In The Shell" and "Akira". These two movies if they were live action and made today, they would have had blockbuster budgets and would have been directed by someone like Stephen Spielberg or at the very least James Cameron. Check out their descriptions on Amazon.com if you'd like to know what they are about. I'm not doing this one as a review this time. Maybe in another post. So I saw these movies, and I was blown away by their stories and their quality. They opened my mind to cartoons being for adults as well as kids even.

But I ignored anime after that, assuming that they were rarities. I watched a few here and there, mostly the stock stuff that teenagers watch like "Dragonball Z" or "Transformers" (yes, I don't care what anyone says, "Transformers" is technically anime. Sorry people out there who don't see it that way.). Than a few years ago I gave it another chance and I watched something called "Spirited Away", and I was very very surprised. It was good. Not only was it good, but it was for all ages. Anything by Hayao Miyazaki is essentially high quality. That was it, after that I was hooked again.

So yeah, after that I thought maybe there are a few good ones out there. I watched so many after that that I saw whatever I could. "Neon Genesis: Evangelion" in particular being excellent, it has a mysterious story, giant robots, and tons of action. Lots of anime are not exactly what we would call good. Yes, that is true. You have to sift through lots that are horrible to find the good ones. However, the good ones are well worth the looking. A few for everyone to look at are as follows. Give them a shot, see what you think. Not all are perfect, but plenty are good, even great in some cases. My taste varies quite a lot, and plenty of them can be seen for free on the internet somewhere or other. The ones you can't find there, most you can find on something like Netflix for rental or amazon.com for purchase. Most of them are well worth seeing at least once or twice. Some you will watch once, forget all about for a while, and than all of a sudden want to watch again. Others, like "Akira", or "Ghost In The Shell" after watching once, you might end up wanting to just watch them again and again. So have fun! Give some of these a real chance. You won't regret it. Remember, anime isn't just for kids, and it isn't just for perverts either.

Fullmetal Alchemist (The series is far better than the movie, which takes place afterwards); Howl's Moving Castle; Neon Genesis: Evangelion (Show and than watch the movie); Nausica Valley Of The Wind; Ghost In The Shell (The movie is the only thing worth it not the series at all); Akira; Hellsing (The shorter run of the series is better than the longer one); Perfect Blue; Vampire Hunter D; Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust; Ninja Scroll; Afro Samurai; Cowboy Bebop; The Animatrix; Lupin III (kind of silly, and a bit raunchy but not bad); Naruto Shippuden (a sequel to its predecessor, Naruto, and is far superior to it. Where Naruto was for kids mostly, this one is mostly for late teens or older)