cool anime thread

[totallynotlydia]

post weeb trash recommendations/favourites. i'll start.

- Dirty Pair (the 1985 one). Theres a tv series and an OVA series, and it is incredibly fun. Set in the distant future, it follows two "heroes for hire"- Kei and Yuri, as they cross the galaxy completing jobs, usually while blowing everything up. Notable for its surprisingly progressive portrayal of a trans woman in one of it's episodes (again, this was in 1985). Also, the people that worked on Star Trek: TNG seemed to really love the series, as there are a ton of references hidden in some of it's episodes.

- California Crisis. A 40 minute OVA, quite possibly the most 80s-american thing I've ever watched. It doesn't really offer much in ways of plot (random teenager insists on following random guy on a road trip to learn about mysterious alien crystal; chaos ensues). The visuals are def. the main appeal here, they're very stylish.

- Sonic The Hedgehog (OVA). When people say all video game movies suck, they conveniently forget this one exists. It basically answers the question "what if the opening animation for Sonic CD got a full length film?". It is peak 90s/classic era Sonic, it has all that sort of action you could ever ask for, and also Knuckles has a sick cowboy hat that unfortunately never shows up again. There's an english dub, but it's kind of annoying. I know a fandub was created, and while I haven't watched all of it I've heard its pretty good. Also, the soundtrack is just amazing, especially it's main theme "Lookalike".

- Carole and Tuesday. Another show by the director of Bebop, and it actually takes place in what seems to be a very similar setting (the show's events happen mainly on Alba City, Mars, the main currency is the Woolong, some big event happened on Earth that resulted in a mass migration. Whether its the same universe as Bebop's isn't really confirmed outright though). Follows two musicians, Carole and Tuesday, as they try to make it big in the music industry; they're joined by a washed-up drummer and his sidekick.

- Cowboy Bebop. I don't really know if I have to explain this one. I don't know how it took me this long to watch it. If you haven't seen it please go watch it. It's def a show I'd be comfortable recommending to almost anyone, even to those who don't really watch anime. I admire how fleshed out and genuine it's world feels, especially the space craft; it almost gives me original Star Wars trilogy vibes, in terms of how dirty and worn down some of the set pieces are. You can tell a lot of care was put into making each individual location and their inhabitants feel diverse and memorable. Don't even get me started on the soundtrack. What, there's a live action adaptation? What are you talking about? While the show and it's film, Knockin on heaven's door, can be watched independently of each-other, I watched the show, and then the movie (treating it as sort of an encore for the series).

- Neon Genesis Evangelion (+ the rebuilds). Like Bebop, It's also on Netflix (part of the reason I watched it). Also like Bebop, part of why I fell in love with it was in regards to how grounded in reality it/some of it's themes were able to feel, despite the otherwise off-the-rails science fiction setting. I think Episode 4 (the one where Shinji runs away) was really where I started to fall in love with the series. End Of Evangelion was one of those films that absolutely fried my mind on my first watch through (even with prior knowledge of some of the more infamous scenes), to the point where I couldn't think about much else. Evangelion 3.0+1.0 made me cry.