When people think of Anime, or Japanese Animation in general, they think Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and all that crap. Screw that. Anime isn’t for kids.
I’ve been a fan (Otaku) of Anime since I was a teen. To this day, it’s one of my most guiltiest of pleasures. While it seems to be popular with the teens and 20 somethings that I speak to nowadays thanks to the likes of shows such as Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, etc, it never seemed to be big when I was younger.
I supposed that the root of my fandom started early with Robotech in the 80s. Something about the animation style separated it from Transformers, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, TMNT and others back in the day. I didn’t get the story, but it was cool to see giant, transforming planes fighting and blowing the crap out of 50 ft tall aliens.
Eventually, the networks didn’t show Robotech anymore and my interest shifted to the other, more mainstream cartoons. It wasn’t until I discovered the Robotech RPG in my early teens that I started getting back into it. I wanted to re-watch them so badly, knowing that I’d appreciate the story. There were VHS tapes of the whole series, but as a poor high school kid, all I could do was look at them on store shelves.
Fast Forward to freshman year of college. I was hanging out with the Phi Mu Delta brothers at Lock Haven University (no, I never pledged) and I saw the entire Robotech series on VHS sitting in chronological order on the chapter president’s bookshelf.
I pulled out volume 1 and asked if I could watch it. “You like anime?” he asked me. “F^*k Robotech. You need to watch this.”
He handed me an old VHS tape of some move called Akira. We took it downstairs, rounded up a few more brothers and a case of MGD, and started watching. From that point, I was hooked.
Akira was the start of it. It took me multiple viewings to get it (I still find something new each time). But it was the gateway drug, kinda like pot. Over time, I discovered others. It got me thinking: how should an Anime virgin start. So I’m here to be your guide to the weird yet satisfying world of Anime.
Let’s start with the Godfather of all Anime: Katsuhiro Otomo’s masterpiece, Akira. Based on the manga of the same name, Akira has it all. High tech cyberpunk, superpowers, dystopian society, teen angst, government conspiracies. You name it, it’s in there.
Akira is intense. It made no sense to me the first time I saw it, but it looked amazing. For a movie made in 1988, the animation stands up to this day. If there’s a movie to start with, Akira is it. It may take several viewings to truly understand what the Hell you just watched, but it doesn’t take away from enjoying the crap out of it. Josh Trank’s first movie, Chronicle, was heavily influenced by Akira.
If Akira is the Godfather, then Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (GITS) is Goodfellas. GITS is another film based on the manga drawn by Masamune Shirow. It’s flashy, cyberpunk themes cover up that it’s essentially a cop story. The animation style is great, and it was one of the first anime films that combined a hand drawn style and CGI in a way that was fairly new and revolutionary at the time. The Wachowskis have flat out admitted that the Matrix was their live action version of GITS.
For a bit of a change of pace, I’d recommend Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke. It is more of a fantasy/faerie tale about man’s relationship with nature. Miyazaki is thought of as the Walt Disney of Japan. So much so, that Disney actually releases all of his films internationally. Most of his stuff is pretty strange and geared towards children (Ponyo and Spirited Away come to mind), but Mononoke is geared to an older audience. It’s not as entertaining or badass as the previous two, but it’s worth a look.
If you’re curious about Anime, I’d start with those three films. Others of honorable mention would be Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Appleseed, and Captain Harlock.
I didn’t want to get into Anime series, because there’s a lot of great stuff out there. We can discuss in the comments, so feel free to drop some suggestions.
Ghost in the Shell: http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Shell-25th-Anniversary-Blu-ray/dp/B00L6AW2MC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441055409&sr=8-1&keywords=ghost+in+the+shell
Princess Mononoke: http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Mononoke-Blu-ray-Claire-Danes/dp/B00MMPB3VG/ref=sr_1_1_twi_blu_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441055438&sr=8-1&keywords=princess+mononoke