...Melty...

...Blood.

Melty Blood.

MELTY. BLOOD.

That is AWESOME.

ALT. JOKE i think i saw them on a double bill with Acid Mothers Temple once

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

I love his little zombie dance.

NINOMIYA-KUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

WHAT! YOU!

you are a bad person and you should feel bad about your lot in life :(

Anime.

Your life is bad and you should feel bad.

Don't hate on all of it just 'cause most of what you can see on American tv sucks.

anime.

your brain is filled with rusty keys that fit no locks.

You are all incompetent cowards.

Well, just three of you. Three of you are incompetent cowards.

Yeah, speaking of ANIME...

Was "Penguin's Memory- Shiawase Monogatari" really about Pentaro from the Famicom game "Yume Penguin Monogatari"? I mean, the penguins in question really do look the same.

If so, shit, Pentaro really let himself go after Vietnam.

Anime

Suggest some good anime. By good, I mean it should have a well written story and convey it in a compelling way. If it were a book, it would be one that an adult who had no particular interest in Japan could enjoy and would suffer no embarrassment being seen by other adults reading it.

Your average adult reads Harry Potter and watched Friends religiously. I think you may need a new measuring stick.

So your standard for quality is "Will other people laugh at me if I read/watch this?"

Tuan Jim, you are a coward.

An incompetent coward.

Okay, Tuan, to answer your question I'm more about the dramatic crazy shit than the comedic crazy shit if only because the latter tends to be not funny. That said, Excel Saga has been pretty popular even with non-anime types because it's pretty much South Park with nicer artwork. Along the same vein (but several times more stylish and classy) is FLCL.

Also, Lain is a genuinely good TV series that has been recognized and praised also by all shapes and sizes. Ditto for Boogiepop Phantom (which I happily describe as Silent Hill: The Series). I've also mentioned Flag on numerous occassions for its psuedo-documentary approach to an armed conflict involving giant robots (which are treated more like super-badass tanks).

But yeah, "Will other people laugh at me if I read/watch this?" is, in of itself, a fairly embarrassing criterion for quality.

It's more than a little telling that you folks have jumped right over the "well written story conveyed in a compelling way" part and homed right in on the "suffer no embarrassment being seen by other adults reading it" part. Seems like I touched a nerve, there.

I'm just setting an absolute bottom boundary for something worthwhile and asking for suggestions that at least meet that. Mostly getting defensive responses to the "seen by other adults" so far.

Thanks to UCF. Can anyone recommend anything that doesn't immediately invite comparison to a video game?

I don't really discriminate genres- I watch whatever I like. Just saying, I don't watch much anime, but I don't watch much of anything.

That said, I really like GeGeGe no Kitarou/Hakaba Kitarou a lot. Shigeru Mizuki's style is unique and elegant. I am not sure though...if it could be considered "dated"? Or maybe the word is retro, I don't know...(the series started in 1959). I would not be embarrassed to look at one of my Kitarou books on, say, the subway. I had the youkai comparison guide on my desk at work for a long time. That said, I work with a bunch of modos, some of whom I WOULD be embarrassed to be seen with in public, so...

Mr. Mizuki is a WWII vet, as well as a master on Japanese youkai folklore- ghosts and demons and that sort of thing. The series itself is a good introduction to that, I think. The legends are handled respectfully, though.

At the risk of sounding defensive Tuan, I'll just say the Boogiepop:Silent Hill comparison is because Ju-on is too tame a comparison and David Lynch has never done a straight-up horror movie. Also, Lain has more in common with Gibson and Dick than, say, The Matrix.

While I'm here, I'll throw in Kino's Journey. Most every episode is a self-contained story about this androgynous wanderer going from place to place on his talking (or is Kino just crazy?) motorcycle. Each place is an embodiment of some abstract concept (generally moral or philosophical: i.e. religious interpretation, the side-effect of fully understanding someone else's pain). Each episode plays out like a more adult fairy-tale and it manages to be genuinely thought-provoking while avoiding being pretentious.

Also Now and Then, Here and There is very good, which is something like Barefoot Gen or Grave of the Fireflies but thrown into a more sci-fi setting. Also manages to be generally well-received by non-anime-fans.

Also, I should note that every series I recommended (aside from Excel Saga) is 13 episodes and most have been reviewed by non-anime sources and received high or above-average marks.

And btw, these are shows that I recommend in the same breath I would stuff like Twin Peaks or The Prisoner as far as atmosphere goes.

Oh, I see. Your request for recommendations was sincere. It's hard to differentiate legitimate requests from plain bitching at times, especially when said request is made in such a bitchy fashion.

What I'm saying is that it's your fault.

"Chiaki," I think. It's a little hard to read, though.