Looking for anime recs

[brigdh]

I've finished watching both Gankutsuo and Loveless (I'll write them both up eventually, I'm just busy at the moment) and I need something new to watch.

Other things I've watched and enjoyed recently: Samurai Champloo, Get Backers, Full Metal Alchemist. What should I watch now? Bonus points if the show is something I can get easily off the internet instead of needing to rent it.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Have you seen X already? Angst! Tragedy! Heroic pyrokinetic hookers who are quietly in love with soft-spoken heroic editors! More angst! More tragedy! And bonus wings!

The Last Exile: I've only just started this steampunk series about complex political wars waged via airship battles, but the animation is lovely, the plot is smart, and there are female fighter pilots.

Bleach: Clunky animation, but incredibly endearing character; also, it has the parakeet cockatiel parakeet of DOOM.

Also, you should read Naruto. It starts slow, but it slowly builds until it became the series that I am more obsessed with now than any other.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I should watch X! I tried reading the manga, but I couldn't get into it and gave up after a few volumes, but I feel like I'm missing out on Anime 101 by not knowing the series.

I've been meaning to get into Bleach and Naruto, too. Thanks for the recommendations!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

X:
The anime is better than the manga; for one thing, it has a somewhat rushed but satisfying ending. Some plot points are confusing if you haven't read the manga; you can ask me about those. Also, the hero is frickin' obnoxious at the start; he improves. But it is very, very beautiful, and very, very touching, and I adore almost all of the large ensemble cast.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Naruto: The first volume sets up a lot, but is not terribly well-written. The series slowly improves for the next few volumes, then takes a big jump up in quality at volume 5, then another at about volume 8. It's a shounen fighting series that's really about love and loneliness and found families, and if you stick with it, it becomes really, really powerful and emotional.

The first episode of the anime summarizes most of the first volume of the book, but is better; the next fifteen or so episodes are filler-ish; the anime then alternates between being very fun (great voice acting) and excruciatingly slow. Generally, the manga is better.

Bleach: I like the manga better, but the anime has the benefit of one of the best vocal performances I've ever heard, by the actress playing Rukia. It's worth watching at least the first 20 or so episodes for her. Also, the actor who plays Tsuzuki is in it, as Urahara, and is also wonderful.