Be sure to check out the Ghost in the Shell movie if you haven't seen it. The original 1995 one. I actually just watched it last weekend after I picked up a physical copy of it.
Check out the anime Psycho Pass. Similar to GiS, it explores a technological dystopia and the crimes that would arise. It’s main world building idea is that the development of the ‘psycho pass’ allows for an AI to scan and monitor people’s potential to commit a crime. As a result, they have an intrinsically high trust society, since everyone who could commit a crime is theoretically locked up. The show explores the problems of the the technology and social philosophy. It’s really good stuff.
I watched it a long time ago and the social credit comentary, distopian surveillance and "cancel culture" now seem more relevant than ever, I started 2nd season but never finished it, I heard 3rd season is better. Might get back to finishing that series one day
I totally judged that one out by it's cover, which if I am remembering correctly is a baby in a diaper or something? Not like me to do that, I'm totally fine watching the 12-year-old boyiest level of shonen stuff even, yet I excluded that one. Sounds interesting though, I'll have to give a try.
Also, thanks for reminding me about From the New World. I read about that somewhere and totally forgot to take note of it--then forgot the name of it.
mushouku is kind of trash tbh, the self hating 30 years old pervy Otaku personality gets annoying after a while and after the first arc, the plot is just not going anywhere when he goes to the academy after he became impotent after his gf left him after their first fuck (she never bothered to let him know she wanted to improve her combat skills so he thought she left because he's not good enough)
ranking of king is also kind of overrated, the retro 60s art style is interesting and the animation is excellent, but the main character is just unbearable, he sounds and acts like a retard through out, after the initial sympathy seeing him struggle wears out, you're just left with annoyance seeing him go snotty wah wah wah every episode
Yeah I think I watched two episodes of Mushouku and while I don't think I've given up yet, the little weird perversion moments were kinda unnecessary and didn't make me like it more.
it never goes away, even at the most serious/dangerous moments. he was supposed to work on becoming a better person in every aspect but the only character improvement is him being humble about how powerful he is, the rest of his personality remains 'pedo' trash
Shin Sekai Yori is great. It gets uncomfortable, but worth a watch.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash (Hai to Gensou no Grimgar) is another hard hitting isekai. A group of kids are transported for no reason or purpose, and with no special powers, and have to learn to survive in their new world. The story isn't completed in the anime (although ends at a good spot), so you'll have to read the rest if you want to finish it.
+1 for Mushoku Tensei, though be prepared to be put on an fbi watchlist. They could have kept the themes and characters intact while dialing back the pedo fanservice imo.
I'll add Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood to the pile. A perfect mix of scifi, alt history, action, political intrigue, drama, and comedy.
As for recent stuff, I recommend 86. It's a really well done exploration of characters navigating an impossible situation.
Akira (1988) is such a cool piece of anime. It looks 100x better than the stuff they churn out these days. I didnt really get the story but you dont really need too much attention, the main thing are visuals. Cowboy beebop is very good anime also, its a space western with great music and a great protagonist
I cant recommend band of brothers enough, its a military series about a platoon of para troopers in ww2, it has gorgeous action but the best thing is how everyone interacts with each other and how human that feels
I really like space-y stuff, thats why I love media that properly deals with orbits and conservation of energy. Planetes is a 90s anime about a group that cleans up space debris on low earth orbit, probably my fav anime, it has a cool premise and just 1 season with a perfect ending. The anime feels a bit like a Spice of life, but it also deals with political themes, religion and other serious stuff. I was thinking of recommending the expanse, its a Sci fi show on Amazon video, it starts strong but woke gets inyected little by little each season, last 2 seasons are shit and non-watchable, but the space combats are soo cool
Zipang is a 90s anime about a modern Japanese missile cruiser that gets transported into ww2. It feels really dated and certainly looks bad compared to modern stuff, however the military accuracy is on point, they do a really good job of depicting the systems and weaponry of that vessel.
Edit: more anime
Psycho pass is kinda minority report - the anime, I only watched first season and the plot and gore is phenomenal
I really enjoyed Megalobox, its not very popular, its animated to look like a 80s anime and I love that style, the plot is that in the future people do boxing with exosuits and shit, so the protagonist has the brilliant idea of entering a World tournament against literal walking tanks without any exo suit, it feels light hearted but shit gets real and it hits you right in the feels. Second season its just depressing but also good.
And maybe the best for last, Dororohedoro, main drawback its that its cgi but done really well to look like regular anime, but it doesn't manage it just right and looks kinda weird. If you can get past that you are in for a trip, the whole anime feels like the author wrote this stuff high as shit, you have lots and lots of gore, a healthy dose of humor and also drama. The MC gets cursed by magicians and now has a crocodile head, the whole season is about finding these people and getting revenge and it gets super interesting on the last episodes
Edit:edit: last one I swear
I dont remember the name but its called something Grimgar, its one of the few isekais I actually like, but its more of a Fantasy rpg thing. It felt very much like band of brothers where the characters interact with each other and feel human. The thing I loved is the brutality of the anime, every battle the characters fight is hard and can get them killed by the most simple mistake, there are no potions nor op Magic so they fight with regular medieval weapons. It also has the best boss fight ever in the last episode
Samurai Champloo has a very similar feel to Cowboy Bebop, but set in the time where the west was just starting to get involved in Japan. It has a great dub too.
Planetes is great
Each of the Psycho pass seasons feels different, I liked the first season best. It also has a movie.
Dororohedoro is great. A somewhat similar show is No Guns Life. A post-war society where a military technology company holds significant influence. They developed cybernetics during the war, and the main is one of the results, a full-body cyborg with a revolver head. Main solves issues that occur because of people with cybernetics.
What a gigantic can of worms you opened. Here's my favorite 3 anime series as of late
Ascendance of a Bookworm. It's about a girl who loves books and wants nothing more than to be a librarian and live surrounded by books. She dies and is reborn into the body of a peasant child in a medieval-like world with no printing press, no plant-based paper and only expensive animal parchment. Her family cannot read/write, they are extremely poor and the girl has a sickly body that falls into fever for days by walking down the street. She decides she'll do whatever it takes to get her wish of living around books.
Mushoku Tensei / Jobless reincarnation. Loser dies and gets a second chance in a world of swords and magic. Sounds generic but it doesn't rush through his youth, you care about the characters, and women have actual personalities. Best classical adventure isekai I've seen yet.
I'm a spider, so what? Girl gets transported into a nightmare subterranean world as a spider monster, has to claw her way out through fighting and suffering. It's fun to see her do her thing.
Overlord did that for me, the LN is actually really good as well. The anime for Bookworm made me wanna read ahead and I noticed how good the story got. Friend of mine recommended it to me for ages and I feel bad for not giving it a go sooner.
The problem with the Overlord LNs is how much time one has to read about humans. After a couple of volumes I started skipping whatever wasn't about Ainz or the guardians.
I actually like those parts. It's nice to see those uber strong guys from one side while we all know Ainz in his mind is like "fuck, I have no idea what I am doing".
I'll share my favorite anime and a lighthearted one.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes - "The 150-year-long stalemate between the two interstellar superpowers, the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, comes to an end when a new generation of leaders arises: the idealistic military genius Reinhard von Lohengramm, and the FPA's reserved historian, Yang Wenli.
While Reinhard climbs the ranks of the Empire with the aid of his childhood friend, Siegfried Kircheis, he must fight not only the war, but also the remnants of the crumbling Goldenbaum Dynasty in order to free his sister from the Kaiser and unify humanity under one genuine ruler. Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy, Yang—a strong supporter of republican ideals—has to stand firm in his beliefs, despite the struggles of the FPA, and show his pupil, Julian Mintz, that autocracy is not the solution."
Besides the two main heroes, the story is full of vivid characters and intricate politics. All types of characters – from high nobility, admirals, and politicians, to common soldiers and farmers – are interwoven into the story. The story frequently switches away from the main heroes to the Unknown Soldier fighting for his life on the battlefield.
Excellent soundtrack, dated animation (space battles are ok in this regard). Oberstein did nothing wrong.
Grand Blue - "Iori Kitahara moves to the coastal town of Izu for his freshman year at its university, taking residence above Grand Blue, his uncle's scuba diving shop. Iori has high hopes and dreams about having the ideal college experience, but when he enters the shop he is sucked into the alcoholic activities of the carefree members of the Diving Club who frequent the place."
I started to watch this one because I'm a diver, but what got me hooked was the feeling of nostalgia. Having parties with your close friends, going on trips and the general mischief you get to experience with your bros.
Death note. A classic anime
A student of genius level intellect, discovers a notebook lying on the ground. He discovers the notebook has magic powers: If someone's name is written on it while the writer imagines that person's face, he or she will die. Intoxicated with his new godlike power, he kills those he deems unworthy of life. But a mysterious detective known only as L becomes determined to put a stop to his reign.
I've been thinking about reading the Altered Carbon book, just because I heard good things and figured Netflix would screw it up. Although you did just say season 1 which tends to be Netflix's thing. Make first season good and then screw it up after that.
Current events has me looking to Russian cinema out of curiosity, but I'll say it's not for everyone. Check out the Brat ("Brother") duology and the Mosfilm catalog. Mosfilm has a youtube channel with several culturally significant (to the former eastern bloc) classics in high quality. Save them with ytp-dlp before Alphabet takes them out due to political tensions.
I'd give Ukrainian recommendations but I know about their cultural output even less. Zelensky's dumb political comedy show is on YouTube in high quality with no English subs. sluga95
I just remembered some more recent films. They're probably only 50% true and the other 50% complete and utter hogwash and literal Russian propaganda but still very much worth watching for a fun ride: Salyut-7, T-34, and Stilyagi if you can tolerate musicals.
gundam thunderbolt - theres two ovas of 4 20-25 minute episodes each or there's two films - there's no real good guys in this one both sides of the conflict have some right bastards but theres also some tragic figures where you're like "damn life screwed you hard"
planetes - one of the most scientifically accurate sci-fi series out there its slice of life so its not all pulse-pounding action weightless scenes are done at a higher than normal (for anime) framerate to increase the smoothness and JAXA gave advice during production
.hack//sign - warning: very slow it takes place in a video game called "the world" and your main character is trapped in it kinda like sword art online but this was before SOA (actually technically the SOA books came before with the first book being 2001 and this being a 2002 series) but despite that theres very little action and it's more about the mystery of the world
Be sure to check out the Ghost in the Shell movie if you haven't seen it. The original 1995 one. I actually just watched it last weekend after I picked up a physical copy of it.
Check out the anime Psycho Pass. Similar to GiS, it explores a technological dystopia and the crimes that would arise. It’s main world building idea is that the development of the ‘psycho pass’ allows for an AI to scan and monitor people’s potential to commit a crime. As a result, they have an intrinsically high trust society, since everyone who could commit a crime is theoretically locked up. The show explores the problems of the the technology and social philosophy. It’s really good stuff.
I watched it a long time ago and the social credit comentary, distopian surveillance and "cancel culture" now seem more relevant than ever, I started 2nd season but never finished it, I heard 3rd season is better. Might get back to finishing that series one day
Just ignore Season 2 ever existed.
I totally judged that one out by it's cover, which if I am remembering correctly is a baby in a diaper or something? Not like me to do that, I'm totally fine watching the 12-year-old boyiest level of shonen stuff even, yet I excluded that one. Sounds interesting though, I'll have to give a try.
Also, thanks for reminding me about From the New World. I read about that somewhere and totally forgot to take note of it--then forgot the name of it.
mushouku is kind of trash tbh, the self hating 30 years old pervy Otaku personality gets annoying after a while and after the first arc, the plot is just not going anywhere when he goes to the academy after he became impotent after his gf left him after their first fuck (she never bothered to let him know she wanted to improve her combat skills so he thought she left because he's not good enough)
ranking of king is also kind of overrated, the retro 60s art style is interesting and the animation is excellent, but the main character is just unbearable, he sounds and acts like a retard through out, after the initial sympathy seeing him struggle wears out, you're just left with annoyance seeing him go snotty wah wah wah every episode
Yeah I think I watched two episodes of Mushouku and while I don't think I've given up yet, the little weird perversion moments were kinda unnecessary and didn't make me like it more.
it never goes away, even at the most serious/dangerous moments. he was supposed to work on becoming a better person in every aspect but the only character improvement is him being humble about how powerful he is, the rest of his personality remains 'pedo' trash
Shin Sekai Yori is great. It gets uncomfortable, but worth a watch.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash (Hai to Gensou no Grimgar) is another hard hitting isekai. A group of kids are transported for no reason or purpose, and with no special powers, and have to learn to survive in their new world. The story isn't completed in the anime (although ends at a good spot), so you'll have to read the rest if you want to finish it.
+1 for Mushoku Tensei, though be prepared to be put on an fbi watchlist. They could have kept the themes and characters intact while dialing back the pedo fanservice imo.
I'll add Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood to the pile. A perfect mix of scifi, alt history, action, political intrigue, drama, and comedy.
As for recent stuff, I recommend 86. It's a really well done exploration of characters navigating an impossible situation.
Akira (1988) is such a cool piece of anime. It looks 100x better than the stuff they churn out these days. I didnt really get the story but you dont really need too much attention, the main thing are visuals. Cowboy beebop is very good anime also, its a space western with great music and a great protagonist
I cant recommend band of brothers enough, its a military series about a platoon of para troopers in ww2, it has gorgeous action but the best thing is how everyone interacts with each other and how human that feels
I really like space-y stuff, thats why I love media that properly deals with orbits and conservation of energy. Planetes is a 90s anime about a group that cleans up space debris on low earth orbit, probably my fav anime, it has a cool premise and just 1 season with a perfect ending. The anime feels a bit like a Spice of life, but it also deals with political themes, religion and other serious stuff. I was thinking of recommending the expanse, its a Sci fi show on Amazon video, it starts strong but woke gets inyected little by little each season, last 2 seasons are shit and non-watchable, but the space combats are soo cool
Zipang is a 90s anime about a modern Japanese missile cruiser that gets transported into ww2. It feels really dated and certainly looks bad compared to modern stuff, however the military accuracy is on point, they do a really good job of depicting the systems and weaponry of that vessel.
Edit: more anime
Psycho pass is kinda minority report - the anime, I only watched first season and the plot and gore is phenomenal
I really enjoyed Megalobox, its not very popular, its animated to look like a 80s anime and I love that style, the plot is that in the future people do boxing with exosuits and shit, so the protagonist has the brilliant idea of entering a World tournament against literal walking tanks without any exo suit, it feels light hearted but shit gets real and it hits you right in the feels. Second season its just depressing but also good.
And maybe the best for last, Dororohedoro, main drawback its that its cgi but done really well to look like regular anime, but it doesn't manage it just right and looks kinda weird. If you can get past that you are in for a trip, the whole anime feels like the author wrote this stuff high as shit, you have lots and lots of gore, a healthy dose of humor and also drama. The MC gets cursed by magicians and now has a crocodile head, the whole season is about finding these people and getting revenge and it gets super interesting on the last episodes
Edit:edit: last one I swear
I dont remember the name but its called something Grimgar, its one of the few isekais I actually like, but its more of a Fantasy rpg thing. It felt very much like band of brothers where the characters interact with each other and feel human. The thing I loved is the brutality of the anime, every battle the characters fight is hard and can get them killed by the most simple mistake, there are no potions nor op Magic so they fight with regular medieval weapons. It also has the best boss fight ever in the last episode
Samurai Champloo has a very similar feel to Cowboy Bebop, but set in the time where the west was just starting to get involved in Japan. It has a great dub too.
Planetes is great
Each of the Psycho pass seasons feels different, I liked the first season best. It also has a movie.
Dororohedoro is great. A somewhat similar show is No Guns Life. A post-war society where a military technology company holds significant influence. They developed cybernetics during the war, and the main is one of the results, a full-body cyborg with a revolver head. Main solves issues that occur because of people with cybernetics.
I never gave attention to no guns life because of the ridicolous looks of the MC, I think ill give it a try
Megalobox and Nomad were both great. Good recommendation that I second.
Akira is also great.
Thanks man, I dont watch a lot of mainstream anime so I made sure to recommend less well known stuff. There are lots of hidden gems
What a gigantic can of worms you opened. Here's my favorite 3 anime series as of late
Ascendance of a Bookworm. It's about a girl who loves books and wants nothing more than to be a librarian and live surrounded by books. She dies and is reborn into the body of a peasant child in a medieval-like world with no printing press, no plant-based paper and only expensive animal parchment. Her family cannot read/write, they are extremely poor and the girl has a sickly body that falls into fever for days by walking down the street. She decides she'll do whatever it takes to get her wish of living around books.
Mushoku Tensei / Jobless reincarnation. Loser dies and gets a second chance in a world of swords and magic. Sounds generic but it doesn't rush through his youth, you care about the characters, and women have actual personalities. Best classical adventure isekai I've seen yet.
I'm a spider, so what? Girl gets transported into a nightmare subterranean world as a spider monster, has to claw her way out through fighting and suffering. It's fun to see her do her thing.
Seconded Bookworm. Probably my favorite worldbuilding story ever to the point where I am owning every single media I can get my hands on about it.
Got me intro LNs.
Overlord did that for me, the LN is actually really good as well. The anime for Bookworm made me wanna read ahead and I noticed how good the story got. Friend of mine recommended it to me for ages and I feel bad for not giving it a go sooner.
The problem with the Overlord LNs is how much time one has to read about humans. After a couple of volumes I started skipping whatever wasn't about Ainz or the guardians.
I actually like those parts. It's nice to see those uber strong guys from one side while we all know Ainz in his mind is like "fuck, I have no idea what I am doing".
But Ainz neuroticism and the guardian's love is the fun stuff.
Should I assume your viewing included 2nd Gig and Solid State Society?
2nd Gig is what the second SAC series is called and is set 2 years after SAC.
SSS is a film set 2 years after 2nd Gig.
While not as good as SAC, imo, they're still quite good overall as The Laughning Man plot is hard to beat.
2nd Gig/The Individual Eleven is arguably BETTER than the first Standalone Complex/The Laughing Man.
Solid State Society is a decent followup movie.
I have no idea about the Netflix SAC series, but the only thing good I've heard about it is that it keeps the SAC series voice cast.
EDIT: Oh, and make sure it's the SAC 2nd Gig series you watch, not the Individual Eleven condensed OVA.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/570/Jin-Rou?q=Jhin%20Ro&cat=anime
https://myanimelist.net/anime/320/A_Kite
https://myanimelist.net/anime/889/Black_Lagoon
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33/Kenpuu_Denki_Berserk
https://myanimelist.net/anime/937/Appleseed
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1079/Armitage_III
https://myanimelist.net/anime/2025/Darker_than_Black__Kuro_no_Keiyakusha
https://myanimelist.net/anime/790/Ergo_Proxy
https://myanimelist.net/anime/71/Full_Metal_Panic
https://myanimelist.net/anime/384/Gantz
https://myanimelist.net/anime/17729/Grisaia_no_Kajitsu
https://myanimelist.net/anime/36563/Megalo_Box
https://myanimelist.net/anime/40729/Nomad__Megalo_Box_2
https://myanimelist.net/anime/437/Perfect_Blue
https://myanimelist.net/anime/339/Serial_Experiments_Lain
https://myanimelist.net/anime/32615/Youjo_Senki
For more laid back shit go more with these:
https://myanimelist.net/anime/534/Slayers
https://myanimelist.net/anime/25/Sunabouzu
https://myanimelist.net/anime/10162/Usagi_Drop
https://myanimelist.net/anime/41226/Uzaki-chan_wa_Asobitai
https://myanimelist.net/anime/21085/Witch_Craft_Works
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35838/Shoujo_Shuumatsu_Ryokou
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1210/NHK_ni_Youkoso
https://myanimelist.net/anime/19815/No_Game_No_Life
https://myanimelist.net/anime/2966/Ookami_to_Koushinryou
https://myanimelist.net/anime/29803/Overlord
https://myanimelist.net/anime/245/Great_Teacher_Onizuka
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31771/Amanchu
https://myanimelist.net/anime/57/Beck
:D
I'll share my favorite anime and a lighthearted one.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes - "The 150-year-long stalemate between the two interstellar superpowers, the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, comes to an end when a new generation of leaders arises: the idealistic military genius Reinhard von Lohengramm, and the FPA's reserved historian, Yang Wenli.
While Reinhard climbs the ranks of the Empire with the aid of his childhood friend, Siegfried Kircheis, he must fight not only the war, but also the remnants of the crumbling Goldenbaum Dynasty in order to free his sister from the Kaiser and unify humanity under one genuine ruler. Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy, Yang—a strong supporter of republican ideals—has to stand firm in his beliefs, despite the struggles of the FPA, and show his pupil, Julian Mintz, that autocracy is not the solution."
Besides the two main heroes, the story is full of vivid characters and intricate politics. All types of characters – from high nobility, admirals, and politicians, to common soldiers and farmers – are interwoven into the story. The story frequently switches away from the main heroes to the Unknown Soldier fighting for his life on the battlefield.
Excellent soundtrack, dated animation (space battles are ok in this regard). Oberstein did nothing wrong.
Grand Blue - "Iori Kitahara moves to the coastal town of Izu for his freshman year at its university, taking residence above Grand Blue, his uncle's scuba diving shop. Iori has high hopes and dreams about having the ideal college experience, but when he enters the shop he is sucked into the alcoholic activities of the carefree members of the Diving Club who frequent the place."
I started to watch this one because I'm a diver, but what got me hooked was the feeling of nostalgia. Having parties with your close friends, going on trips and the general mischief you get to experience with your bros.
Death note. A classic anime A student of genius level intellect, discovers a notebook lying on the ground. He discovers the notebook has magic powers: If someone's name is written on it while the writer imagines that person's face, he or she will die. Intoxicated with his new godlike power, he kills those he deems unworthy of life. But a mysterious detective known only as L becomes determined to put a stop to his reign.
Not anime : Altered Carbon, season 1.
Anime: Akira, Parasyte, Gantz: O.
I've been thinking about reading the Altered Carbon book, just because I heard good things and figured Netflix would screw it up. Although you did just say season 1 which tends to be Netflix's thing. Make first season good and then screw it up after that.
Light to none for Season 1.
Season 2 was shit for reasons other than going woke but that certainly didn't help things.
I always love to give a shout out to Planetes. It's a hard sci-fi series about space garbage men.
If you liked True Detective, you might like Bosch (based on a series of books)
Justified is a good watch too (also based on a series of books), with Timothy Oliphant and Walton Goggins both putting in solid performances.
The new GITS anime isn't bad, if you can get past the shitty animation. It's a continuation of SAC. Arise is also decent.
You might like Psycho Pass. It's basically Minority Report: The Anime.
Black Lagoon is another good one.
X'AMD is kind of like a discount Ghibli/Eureka Seven fusion.
Current events has me looking to Russian cinema out of curiosity, but I'll say it's not for everyone. Check out the Brat ("Brother") duology and the Mosfilm catalog. Mosfilm has a youtube channel with several culturally significant (to the former eastern bloc) classics in high quality. Save them with ytp-dlp before Alphabet takes them out due to political tensions.
I'd give Ukrainian recommendations but I know about their cultural output even less. Zelensky's dumb political comedy show is on YouTube in high quality with no English subs. sluga95
I just remembered some more recent films. They're probably only 50% true and the other 50% complete and utter hogwash and literal Russian propaganda but still very much worth watching for a fun ride: Salyut-7, T-34, and Stilyagi if you can tolerate musicals.
Try Code Geass if you didn't already. Gets a bit whacky but the overarcing plot is phenomenally good.
Fate/Zero is also the first in the chronological order of the fate/stay series
gundam thunderbolt - theres two ovas of 4 20-25 minute episodes each or there's two films - there's no real good guys in this one both sides of the conflict have some right bastards but theres also some tragic figures where you're like "damn life screwed you hard"
planetes - one of the most scientifically accurate sci-fi series out there its slice of life so its not all pulse-pounding action weightless scenes are done at a higher than normal (for anime) framerate to increase the smoothness and JAXA gave advice during production
.hack//sign - warning: very slow it takes place in a video game called "the world" and your main character is trapped in it kinda like sword art online but this was before SOA (actually technically the SOA books came before with the first book being 2001 and this being a 2002 series) but despite that theres very little action and it's more about the mystery of the world
Speaking of, is the GitS reboot from 2020 any good? It's called SAC_2045
I was scrolling Matt Mercer's IMDB and noticed he did some dubbing for it, has anyone watched this?