Lord Foul wrote:So if anyone's new to anime, I'd definitely recommend Love Hina as their "first step."
Argh! I wouldn't recommend it as
any step, never mind the first!
I've had a couple of bits of anime for a while, and recently I was prompted to begin trying to expand my collection. At the weeked, a friend lent me a box set containing the first few episodes of various series, one of which was Love Hina. Seriously, Love Hina was the only one I couldn't stick out for the full disc (in this case, four episodes).
Trigun surprised me. Somehow I was expecting something more serious (I suppose the largely serious-looking opening titles assisted that expectation) but once I got a feel for the tone, I really enjoyed it.
Other highlights include Bubblegum Crisis (apparently the creators intended the title to be more like "Sticky Situation", but that's Japanese-English translation for you) and Vampire Princess Miyu. BC feels quite 80s and is fairly action-based, but still enjoyable. Miyu was described to me as "Buffy for grown ups" and that's fairly accurate. My only real gripe with Miyu is the short running time of each episode; this tends to exaggerate the episodic nature of the series.
My favourite of the collection, however, is Ninja Scroll. I've had the Ninja Scroll film for some time, and although it has good parts it's deeply flawed. The relationships between some characters (specifically Jubei and Genma) are confusing and not explained very clearly. Additionally, the film is bloody and tasteless to an unusual extreme; I found it uncomfortable viewing.
Ninja Scroll the series, though it follows on very loosely from the film (in that it contains a couple of familiar characters and locations), is far superior. Jubei is more likeable, while still being the dry, laconic, reluctant hero; the fights are handled better, and seem like actual fights rather than Jubei hacking a bloody path through his foes; the repellent aspects of the film are gone; and, finally, "Jubei's Theme" is great.
So those are the recent ones. Others I've seen include Perfect Blue, the first few of Neon Genesis Evangelion, both Vampire Hunter Ds, the Guyver, and Excel Saga. I may have forgotten one or two.
Partly my fault, though, as I meant first step in "manga," rather than anime. I have no idea how the Love Hina anime is, but the manga receives my highest marks.
