Watch out on Funimation. They may list something as being available, but when you try to watch it, it's gone. I was halfway through Spice & Wolf when they did that. It seemed to coincide with when they started selling the DVD box set, hmm.
Watch out on Funimation. They may list something as being available, but when you try to watch it, it's gone. I was halfway through Spice & Wolf when they did that. It seemed to coincide with when they started selling the DVD box set, hmm.
Another good one...Big O. I'll just say, don't get your hopes up about the ending, but it does contain the best twist since the Sixth Sense. Dubs are good quality on that.
I'm generally tied to what's available on DVD at the local library. Keep in mind I'm watching with a 6 and 4 year old. I'd watch some stuff by myself but as I'm in class this semester I'm trying to avoid any excess TV time beyond catching up with Breaking Bad. I've been meaning to watch Akira for years but just haven't gotten around to it. I think that's a bit too grown up for the kids, though. We've got the Miyazaki boxed set so for the moment we're good with those. We started watching Bamboo Blade which they liked. I guess I was asking in the hope of finding something similar to that without a lot of graphic stuff...
GameboyRMH wrote: Another good one...Big O. I'll just say, don't get your hopes up about the ending, but it does contain the best twist since the Sixth Sense. Dubs are good quality on that.
Holy Crap I forgot about Big O. I used to watch it on Cartoon Network when they would show anime late at night. Never finished it though, so I may have to look into that.
For watching with kids that cuts down the list a lot...GiTS or AoT would get an R rating easily. Battle Angel is full of gore and hyperviolence. Rurouni Kenshin would get about a PG or maybe PG-13, has a little cursing and big cartoon blood splashes. I think Initial D and Wangan Midnight both have a few scenes dealing with...adult relationships. Nothing graphic, it might go over the kids' heads.
Big O or Future GPX Cyber Formula would get a PG, maybe PG-13. Cyber Formula has a bit of cursing and nudity in the later seasons.
In reply to stroker:
That helps a good bit. Bamboo Blade is a fairly solid classic sport-team type anime, and one of my personal favorites given I joined the local Kendo club about the same time it was airing. Most sports anime tend to be reasonably kid-friendly as well as entertaining for them. If you and/or they like baseball, find a way to get and watch Cross Game- I think Viz may have it streaming. It's VERY good, but also be forewarned that the beginning is a pretty solid punch to the gut emotionally. Saki, which I mentioned in my previous post, is pretty much a 'sports tournament' show except the 'sport' is Japanese-style (Riichi) Mahjong- it's a whole lot of fun, but may be hard to follow if you don't understand the basics of the game.
I'd echo the previous suggestion of Summer Wars if they've not already seen it- it's a whole lot of fun and pretty kid-friendly.
Of course, there is always the anime those of us from the 70's and early 80's grew up with (before we really knew it was Japanese): Speed Racer and Star Blazers.
Reasonably kid friendly "gateway drugs" anime. 
Speedracerissuchafunshowthekidswillloveit!
For the kiddles??? Try Girls und Panzer, Cyborg 009 (I think the dubbed version is PG/PG-13), Mobile Police: Patlabor, .hack, Your Under Arrest.
beans wrote: What they said. LOTS of different stuff out there, 90% is dumb and over-pervy. Try to find a copy of Akira. Watch it subtitled. The English dub is DUUUUUUMB.
I prefer the VHS dub which, as far as I know, isn't available digitally. (Of course, if I'm wrong, please send me details.)
Kids? Miyazaki hands down. Porco Rosso, Kikki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, The cat Returns, Castle in the Sky, Howel's Moving Castle. Anything, realy.
Cowboy Bebop, Bleach, Deathnote and Akira are my favorites. Don't miss the Cowboy Bebop movie, it's great. I like Initial D too, one of these days I'm gonna buy the whole series.
For 'modern' action/comedy type genre:
You're Under Arrest, Oh My Goddess, and eX-Driver are fun series with great artwork by Kosuke Fijishima. Should be ok for kids. Well done car and bike stuff (particularly eX-Driver. Watch for the Super and turbo charged Miata in the sort film "Danger Zone" that's on the disc with the eX-Driver movie).
GunSmithCats and Riding Bean should be fine for teens. Artwork is by Kenich Sonoda who does good car and gun art. His manga's (books) are better than the films.
Finally Black Lagoon is a series about mercenarys in southeast asia. Dark, gritty, dark humor and super detailed. It's awesome.
trigun
/thread
get netflix. it's way cheaper than an anime dvd habit.
In reply to patgizz:
Streaming netflix or regular disc netflix?
Curmudgeon wrote: Bleach
I'll tell anyone getting into Bleach to give it some time, it starts slow, feel free to skip the Bount arc if it's boring you, and if you see an episode about baking cakes, move on immediately 
It's so slow-paced that it was eventually killed off for it, despite being one of the most popular anime series at the time. Part of it is that they were trying desperately to avoid catching up with the manga storyline while not in a filler arc and then having no material for next week, which quite nearly happened before the last episode.
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to patgizz: Streaming netflix or regular disc netflix?
Streaming, if your internet connection is fast/reliable enough. Do a direct Cat5e connection from your router to your (smart) TV (or computer) if you can.
^A wired connection is best for anything that doesn't move, but 802.11g or better is plenty enough.
Gearheadotaku wrote: For 'modern' action/comedy type genre: You're Under Arrest, Oh My Goddess, and eX-Driver are fun series with great artwork by Kosuke Fijishima. Should be ok for kids. Well done car and bike stuff (particularly eX-Driver. Watch for the Super and turbo charged Miata in the sort film "Danger Zone" that's on the disc with the eX-Driver movie). GunSmithCats and Riding Bean should be fine for teens. Artwork is by Kenich Sonoda who does good car and gun art. His manga's (books) are better than the films. Finally Black Lagoon is a series about mercenarys in southeast asia. Dark, gritty, dark humor and super detailed. It's awesome.
Also his (original) Bubblegum Crisis is a must see. Gall Force is also very good with a convoluted storyline that curves back on itself after a couple of millennia. the animation looks dated compared to the new stuff.. but it is a very good story.
I will also add this fansubbed redo if a very famous Anime. When redone, they did a very good job of reimagining some of Uchuu Senkan Yamato that managed to add to the story without taking away anything from the original. The animation is topnotch with the same ship and character designs.
trigun of course 
Also Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT
I have no kid input but for the other people here, check out Baccano. It is freaking awesome. A lot of the other suggestions are sweet. For the kids the original Full Metal Alchemist is pretty tame. It has some dark points though... Actually nevermind. I think that is a teen and up show. Trigun is actually pretty tame and silly. I really enjoyed Avatar which is on netflix and probably at the library and kid friendly.
Ian F wrote:SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to patgizz: Streaming netflix or regular disc netflix?Streaming, if your internet connection is fast/reliable enough. Do a direct Cat5e connection from your router to your (smart) TV (or computer) if you can.
That's not even my concern (I have my Blu-Ray hardwired), my concern is the lack of content for Netflix Streaming that seems to be bugging me lately.
Something I'd HIGHLY suggest checking out yourself (has some nudity so most parents won't want to show it to their kids...) is the 2009 movie Redline (there's an older non-anime one by the same title). It's a movie about a race, and it's an absolutely insane visual spectacle. IIRC it was also entirely traditionally animated (no computer animation).
I'm actually selling off some of my collection if anyone's interested. All in great shape:
Grenadier (complete DVD series) $20
Burn-up / Burn-Up W (VHSx5 dub, not too bad) $10
Dirty Pair Flash (Complete series VHSx7 subtitle) $10
Original Dirty Pair OVA's (Complete VHSx5 subtitle) $10
Oh My Goddess original OVA's (VHS 1-5 dubbed) $10
+shippping
Was I the only one who liked Gundam? It introduced me to Anime. Giant fighting space robots were awesome! I even wasted some money on the Japanese models when I was younger and dumber, somewhere I have Endless Waltz on DVD. I played the hell out of some Mech Warrior too, so I have a thing for giant fighting robots.
I'll echo, Ghost in the Shell, Cowyboy Bebop, and Big O. I was mostly exposed to what Cartoon Network played late at night back in the day, and some other random stuff some college friends were into, but those are the only ones I can think of at the moment that I actually liked.
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