For someone who likes SKU, I would recommend serial experiments lain (more cerebral and thought provoking), The Vision of Escaflowne (involving storyline, not much to analyze but strong emotional appeal and mechs that swordfight WOOHOO ), Perfect Blue (psychological thriller type), Haibane Renmei (strong sense of mystery throughout, emotional appeal), or Millennium Actress (pure awesome in video form).

At least, those are the ones I like.

As for previews, check for a local anime club at nearby universities, rental stores that carry anime, or if you're really hard up, you can try youtube for snippets of episodes.

Edit: for opening clips.

Last edited by Yasha (04-17-2007 11:14:41 PM)

No problem. Those are the ones I could think of that had a running theme in common with SKU. I'm not well versed in anime either, so there are probably closer ones out there.

Also, I'm changing the thread title to be more descriptive. Hope you don't mind!

I'm not trying to be a topic-nazi, so don't think that, but there's an "If you like SKU" thread a few pages back you might want to check out for recomendations. There are a few anime threads floating around General Discussion too you might want to look at. We're usually a lot more picky about what we like than AnimeSuki.

And it depends on what you like Utena for. Simoun shares a lot of similar elements with SKU but not everyone agrees with me about the quality. Everyone here seems to enjoy Rose of Versailles and Princess Tutu as well. Baka Updates and Animenfo are my favourite sites for series information and anime reviews. I'm not sure about BU, but it's manga counterpart also has a nice feature that allows people to list what animes they've watched and keep track of episodes and find fansites and translations if you're interested in that. And you can always check out bits of anime that looks interesting on youtube or bittorrent, but torrents are usually considered closer to outright piracy. Crunchyroll is basically an anime version of youtube that has a lot of stuff that hasn't been licensed in English yet, and while the video isn't perfect you'll still get an idea of if you like the series or not.

I personally recommend Kimagure Orange Road to any SKU fan. 

It's an old-school anime done in the 80s from AnimEgo, so if you're looking for top notch animation you won;t find it here (though any SKu fan that says anything about not watching something for story because of the animation quality deserves to have their SKU fan status stripped).  KOR is a 48 episode sweries that follows the life of a fifteen year old boy name Kyosuke that is an esper (meaning he has psychic powers) as does mnost of his family, but they have to hide it from the normal world.  He moves to a new city and due to a chance encounter meets Madoka and falls in love with her.  But through various freak occurances, he ends up dating her best friend and all sorts of hilkarity ensues because life in general seems to hate Kyosuke. 

Yes, KOR is teenage romance.  Yes, KOR makes you want to pull your hair out at times.  Yet, KOR is also about adolescence and growing up.  KOR has a "slap counter".  KOR is my favorite series of all time and it ties the ending so perfectly to the beginning episode that it makes you rewatch it with a whole new perspective as you start looking for all sorts of subtle things as you move through it.  KOR is has an amazing amount of analytical value, after you've watched the whole thing.  And KOR makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you're done watching it. 

KOR isn't easy to find, unfortunately, and picking it up domestically isn't cheap, but I believe the price has greatly dropped in the last few years.  I highly recommend KOR.

Waaah, I really wanna see Gunslinger Girl. I definitely third the reccomendation for Princess Tutu! It's really amazing trust me, you just need to get through the first few episodes to get it! It's like an Utena for younger girls, in my opinion. x3
And the art style is very cute. ^o^; And there's NEKO-SENSEI. He's a cat who teaches ballet and threatens lazy pupils with /marriage./ He rocks.
-cough- Okay, so that was sliiiightly off-topic.

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

Boogiepop Phantom - non-linear sci-fi/horror where discerning the plot is left to the viewer as the series progresses.

And makes absolutely no sense if you haven't read the first novel or seen the live-action film.

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

Mind you, in my opinion this is a good thing.  I enjoy trying to figure out what is gong on.

I do too. I have no idea how many times I've watched BP and I still find something I missed each time. I read the first novels but they only helped clear up smaller details (i.e. the Shinyo Academy event, Spooky Electric, etc.). The main plot of the anime is something you gotta discover on your own. The sound in this anime is genius. I'm not sure whether it's the visuals or the music that send shivers down my spine. The song "Unstable" always makes my head spin for some reason.

Last edited by Rae (04-21-2007 09:02:53 AM)

Trench Kamen wrote:

I can't believe nobody has recommended Ouran High School Host Club yet.

Thats because its been mentioned before in other threads, it didn't seem to need mentioning again but true enough, there is plenty of SKU like stuff in Ouran Host Club. 



Like these two 'shadow mastermind' Ohtori's for instance.

Emiemipoemi wrote:

DEFINATELY check out Princess Tutu. It feels a LOT like SKU. It takes a fairy tale type cliche and flips it on its edge and makes it all dark and creepy and symbolic (not AS symbolic but enough) and such. Very nice animation and music as well.

OMG I LOVE THAT ANIME. ITS SO KAWAII!!!!!!!!!

Well if you want a fairytale like anime, Princess Tutu is for you! (FAKIRXXAHIRU......sorry) If you're looking for swords and/or demons,try Inuyasha(ORIGIONAL IS BEST).  And for Shojo-Ai, try Sailor Moon or My-Hime. And one of my faves is Full Metal Alchemist (dub and origional are great) Also Check out Bleach! They got swords all over! AND NO ITS NOT ABOUT LAUNDRY!

Last edited by RainbowRoseQueen (04-24-2007 08:02:46 PM)

This is likely to set a few people off, but I found FLCL very similar to SKU, at least as far as subject matter goes.  It treats an earlier stage of life, and it comes from the male perspective rather than the female, but it's kind of the same idea, to me anyway.  Obviously, it's much whackier...and much shorter

Last edited by Stormcrow (04-24-2007 10:09:35 PM)

Yeah, you guys seem pretty cool.  It's just that my anime friends make faces when I mention FLCL.  Mostly because I'm bitching about HOW MUCH IT COSTS!  Anyway, I guess I need to have a look at Princess Tutu and that other one people keep mentioning.