was_ohtori_akio wrote:

X also seems like a good recommendation, just don't watch the movie! lol

X/1999 is very good, but the movie and the series are WORLDS apart. The series is filled with all this great stuff. Twisted romances and incest, death, gore, the apocolypse. It takes the book of revelaitons and puts an interesting spin on it, but it's very much based on that version of the end of the world. And in the manga there is much more gore. Lots of people are disembowled or ripped into pieces, but it's in a pretty way. Clamp is good at making gothy pretty stuff. I recommend the X series and manga to anyone who loves SKU for all its dark parts.

A Day Without Me wrote:

I have much love for Princess Tutu. I adore stories that turn fairy tales completely upside down (I REALLY loved the book Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister). Although, if you actually read the original fairy tales, you realize that they never needed much inversion to start with... we just have Disney to thank for our warped view of fairy tales.

Hey thanks, I have that book "Confessions..." and I can't wait to read it. I agree, I found a book my mother had, which belonged to her grandfather, Fairytales. 1898 was the date inside. In any case, those stories were nothing like the cutesy stuff Disney peddles off today. I remember a story about a brother and sister who went out picking mushrooms, and they decided to eat some too. Because they picked a poisonous variety, they died.

A Day Without Me wrote:

Finally, I'd like to recommend Jigoku Shoujo, which is nothing like Utena, except for doing an excellent job of showing humans as being quite flawed and humanity as being capable of very awful things. The premise is simple enough: people who are being tormented by someone or have had their life ruined by someone can access the Hotline to Hell (Jigoku Tsushin) and type the person's name in - Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) will appear and give a doll to the person that has a red string around its neck. Pull that string, and your tormentor will go straight to hell; however, once you die, so will you. I really enjoyed it, and the artwork is to die for. Its second season is currently airing in Japan.

I like the premise in this one. It reminds me of the DeathNote. My friend just brought me the entire collection back from Japan, which I could not understand because I neither speak nor read Japanese. But she told me it was so popular over there, all the comic stores had the posters up, and they were making, or did make a movie. In fact, in these manga books I have, they have an advertisement for the movie version. Anyway, the "rules of the death note" were written in English. Bizarre rules, such as, "you cannot make a death note for a person under the age of 4". Interesting, but I see this series is out in US bookstores so I'll have to find out more.

My recommendation would be Angel Sanctuary. The main storyline involved a brother and sister who are in love with each other, but it's because their are angels inside of their bodies. Put their as punishment from God for beginning a rebellion, so the angels were sentenced to live lives of tragedy. In some ways, it might be too plot driven, with not enough emphasis on the characters...but the chars that are developed are done amazingly well. And the artwork is visually stunning.

Noein and Gankutsuou both have a great deal of substance in comparison to Utena.  Gankutsuou has class, so much class, and its origins are from classic literature: "The Count of Monte Cristo"... but in a sexy futuristic colorgasm sort of way.  Noein is just a great mindfuck.  It's scientifically as confusing as Eva but deep down its more about dealing with the complexity that comes from straight up human psychology.

Seconding Gankutsuou, as it is probably my favorite series after Utena.  It's fairly straightforward and not really trippy, but it has amazing characters and plays out quite nicely.

Alien 9 is also so underrated.  That's one that can creep under my skin and unsettle me for hours.

dollface wrote:

And AS is based off of religion, or moreso, sacreligion. Incest [to the max], homosexuality, transexuality, language, violence, and reference to God as a "sick bastard" or something to that extent, are abound.

Don't forget the Nazi-angels and Lucifer as a good guy.

Elfen Lied tries to mix up brutal scifi-horror, psychological tragedy and romantic comedy with varying success. It has certainly some very good scenes, but its overall quality is somewhat lacking, I think. Still, it inspired that incredibly evil yet ingenious webcomic, Nana's Everyday Life by Dan Kim, that manages to top de Sade's Justine in pure depressiveness, so I guess I'd have to be grateful to it, about that.

Lain, like almost everything from Ueda and ABe is pure genious, that is just not refutable.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a great series in both seasons, but it's very unlike Utena - on surface it's a police-series set in the future, but it also contains plenty of fascinating social commentary of the development of information society.

I loved GITS simply because of the Laughing Man.

eri401 wrote:

Madoka, of course, is the next best thing to come out in recent years.  Another girl-fighting, horribly dark revision of the magical girl genre.

Second on Madoka.  Very fun twist on themes for me.

I think you guys would probably like Natsu e no Tobira or The Door Into Summer. I mean, just look at it:



It's an hour long film from the early eighties dealing with the transition from adolescence to adulthood (though in a much more direct and literal way than SKU) via themes like homosexuality, suicide, the destruction of innocence and the first stirrings of lust as well as the intersection of all of the above - all amongst billowing clouds of roses, o'course. Very dramatic and theatrical, with an emphasis on intensity of emotion, but, being as short as it is, it works.

gorgeousshutin wrote:

If you guys like meaningful anime/manga, how about Please Save My Earth - 6 OVAs, story followed by a 21 vol manga?  The plot is thick, the main characters all gorgeously developed/presented, the entire thing just unbelievably engaging.

And, being that PSME lacks in the way of blatant wish fullfilment and/or banal elements, the title remained largely obscure despite its exquisite sincerity. 

Now that's a quality anime/manga series right there.

PSME is awesome, that is all.

[spoiler]Also, the way S. K. Utena takes the idea of teenaged angst feeling like the end of the world and then literally turns it into the end of the world, PSME takes the idea of teenagers feeling like weird aliens and literally turns them into weird aliens. Me gusta![/spoiler]

Last edited by Nova (07-15-2012 12:30:34 PM)

Scoluron wrote:

eri401 wrote:

Madoka, of course, is the next best thing to come out in recent years.  Another girl-fighting, horribly dark revision of the magical girl genre.

Second on Madoka.  Very fun twist on themes for me.

Yeah, I'm going to third Madoka Magica. It's a brilliant, dark deconstruction of the magical girl genre. Also, if you're an art history fan, don't be surprised if some of your favorite works pop up. Not to mention, this show has a ton of parallels and references to Faust, so you'll probably enjoy those references if you're familiar with the story. And if you're not familiar with Faust, that's okay because being familiar with that story isn't necessary at all to enjoy Madoka. But, if you're curious the Madoka Magica wikia lists the Faust references. DO NOT visit that wikia if you have not watched the anime yet, there are major spoilers. http://wiki.puella-magi.net

As for the actual plot, Madoka looks like a cute moe show about cute girls with cute magical girl costumes. Don't let that fool you. There are a lot of dark secrets to being a magical girl in this show that get gradually revealed as the plot progresses. The magical girls also have to fight these monsters called witches, which are these scary acid trip creatures. I would recommend watching at least up until episode three of this series before deciding you don't like it because in that episode something shocking happens to clue you into the fact that this isn't a typical magical girl show. And then after that, just watch the whole series Unfortunately, I can't tell you too much about the plot without spoiling it and giving away the best secrets in the series.

The best thing is you can watch this show for free and legally on hulu or crunchyroll.com
I would recommend cruchyroll.com so you don't have to watch so many ads.

We also have a Madoka discussion thread here, which contains spoilers: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=3078