no subject

[snarp]

Having finished Utena, I now need another anime to watch while I use the treadmill. Suggestions?

("Go outside" does not count. It's muddy.)

Stuff I've seen all the way through:

Princess Tutu - ****
Haibane Renmei - ****
Baccano! - ****
Excel Saga - *** 1/2
Darker Than Black - ***
Requiem from the Darkness - ***
Serial Experiments Lain - ***
Last Exile - ***
Gankutsuou - ***
Ouran High School Host Club - ** 1/2 (sorry, but for me, it will always fall short in comparison to the manga)
Fruits Basket - ** 1/2 (same)
RahXephon - ** 1/2
El Hazard - *
Descendants of Darkness - I DON'T KNOW
X - My feelings about it are colored too deeply by my dysfunctional relationship with CLAMP's work as a whole for any useful evaluation to be possible.
Now and Then, Here and There - This is one of the most unrelentingly cruel narratives I've ever consumed in any format. For what it is, it's well done - I just hate what it is.

Stuff I've watched a little of before stopping:

Fullmetal Alchemist (1st series) - Yeah, yeah, I know.
Mushishi
NeiA_7
E'S Otherwise - THIS IS SO TERRIBLE. Though I might finish it to see just how much it eventually ends up ripping from X.

Stuff I refuse to watch:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica - I watched the first episode, searched for synopses, discovered that my predictions were basically accurate, and decided against it. I've already watched Now and Then, Here and There once; I don't need to see the shoujo version.
Saiunkoku Monogatari - Shan't!

Edited to add a couple things I'd forgotten.

Comments

[salinea]

you... didn't like Mushishi? o_o

Aoi Hana: Yuri slice of life / drama

Mononoke / Bakematsu arc of Ayakashi: historical horror stories about exorcising spirits, ridiculously gorgeous art

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei: college boy is trapped in repeating the same two years over and over, trying to accomplish his dream of tasting the rose coloured life of a student and falling in love with a raven haired beauty, but keeps failing.

Michiko e Hatchin: in pseudo!Brazil, escaped female convict Michiko kidnaps/rescues abused orphan girl Hana and search for the girl's father & her former lover while gangsters and cops search after her.

[laceblade]

I didn't really like Mushishi, either. It happens, :O

[salinea]

... my mind does not compute this XD

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to wonder if I'm a weirdo for preferring the anime! Not that I didn't love the manga, and maybe seeing a few eps of the anime first made me imprint on it, but...there was just a certain magic for me in the lush green forests, and the River of Light, that static black-and-white images couldn't quite catch.

[rachelmanija]

I prefer the anime. It's just so beautiful in color. And the music is wonderful.

[salinea]

Yeah exactly the same for me!! and I usually prefer manga to anime that are adapted from them! Also the music as rachelmanija says ♥

[snarp]

I liked Mushishi, but it just didn't grab me enough that I felt like watching the whole thing. I prefer the manga.

[salinea]

Aah I guess I can understand that, though mushishi is one of the exception for me where I prefer the manga ^^

[badtzhobby]

This is badzphoto from lj. I've watched these and liked them. Sorry if you've watched them already. Also I bought or watched from Crunchyroll (noted) these a few years ago so am not sure what their availabilities are:
- Crest of the stars
- Banners of the stars I and II (sequel of Crest of the stars)
- Fantastic Children
- Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
- Natsume's Book of Friends (from Crunchyroll)
- Samurai Champloo

[snarp]

I've seen Gankutsuou and at least one of the [Noun] of the Stars series; I'll look up those others.

[esmenet]

Nurarihyon no Mago! Well, okay, I've only read the manga, but I've heard good things about the anime. On the surface, it's straight generic shounen -- boy decides to be greatest ____ ever, even greater than his grandfather, boy has to reconcile different sides of his heritage, boy makes friends and fights a lot. But it feels a lot more like a seinen—or even a josei— manga; maybe it's the youkai, maybe it's the way the different parts of Rikuo's life are set up, maybe it's the fact that he won't kill if he doesn't have to, but if he has to he won't even hesitate—no technical pacifism here. Or maybe it's that his Sekrit Identity isn't actually all that secret.

The other one I would really recommend—the one I'm absolutely positive you would like—is Natsume Yuujinchou. littlebutfierce wrote a rec post for it that says all I could and more, but basically it is the nuanced dealing-with-feelings slice-of-life plot-tastic friendshippy shoujo you always wanted. With bonus awesome.

[laceblade]

Gankutsuou! The Count of Monte Cristo in space.

[branchandroot]

*considers your list*

Have you tried Cowboy Bebop? It's very episodic, which I find makes good exercise anime, but has nice complex worldbuilding and overarching character-development/history-reveal going on too. Faye Valentine kicks ass, too.

You might or might not like Hikaru no Go; it's nice and long so you wouldn't run out of it too fast, and I'm always kind of amazed by how much suspense is packed into a /board game/. But it does /start out/ very young.

You might like Mai-HiME, though there's definitely a rocks-fall trend to the second half, until the end.

If you're in the mood for slice-of-life with backstory, you might try Sora No Woto. I think it has a certain feel in common with Haibane Renmei.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Cosigning on Mononoke (so, so damn hard!), Natsume's Book of Friends (Mushishi's kinder, gentler shonen cousin), and Cowboy Bebop, if by some chance you've not already seen that one, also Samurai Champloo. Kino no Tabi, perhaps? And the Black Lagoon anime is remarkably faithful to the manga and actually adds some excellent small characterization/backstory bits into transitional scenes, instead of going the too-common filler-episode route. The non-Mononoke arcs of Ayakashi are also fairly interesting -- one is, but for the framing bit at the end, a fairly straight retelling of "The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa".

[urban-twilight.livejournal.com]

The Twelve Kingdoms! If you want a good fantasy. The first arc concludes pretty nicely, though the second one leaves you hanging completely and the third one is okay, just not AS good as the first one.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Oooh, yes, also cosigned! I'd thought of that and then somehow had it slip my sieve-like mind as I was typing.

Rose of Versailles, maybe, if you want to kick it seriously old-school and see where Utena got all the non-Mindscrew aspects of all its swordplay-crossdressing-and-gender-issues stuff from?

[mikkeneko]

Oh yes, thirding Twelve Kingdoms!

[estara]

Fourthing!

[rilina]

Honey and Clover? It's slice-of-life about students at an art college. Not sure how well it works as workout anime, but it's lovely.

Baccano! has gangsters, alchemists, and train heists. Mostly takes place in an AU Depression-Era US. Lots of ridiculous anime names, including one of my all time faves, Jacuzzi Splot. It may also be hard to watch on a treadmill (it has multiple timelines, and it's not clear how they tie together at the beginning, which is confusing), but I think its tons of fun. Warning: lots of violence. Funimation had it all up their YouTube channel at one point.

Kino's Journey is a slice-of-life and episodic anime about Kino, a young adventurer, and Hermes, Kino's talking motorcyle.

[jinian]

Definitely Samurai Champloo. Honey and Clover is a favorite but might be too unfocused and emotional for treadmilling.

[mikkeneko]

Now and Then, Here and There - This is one of the most unrelentingly cruel narratives I've ever consumed in any format. For what it is, it's well done - I just hate what it is... And I don't need to see the shoujo version.

Yeah... I'm glad to find someone else who shares my feelings on this. It was masterfully done and I never want to see it again. And thanks for articulating why I have been resisting my friends' attempts to get me to watch Madoka.

How about Seirei no Moribito? It intersperses exciting action fight sequences with long, gorgeously illustrated slice-of-life and character development sequences. Good for treadmilling I would think.

[estara]

Seconding Serei no Moribito

[telophase]

If you want a mindscrew, Boogiepop Phantom. Told completely out of chronological order and taking place in three different times. I've seen it all the way through twice - once straight, and then once with the commentary on, which made things so much clearer. :)

[estara]

Heh, and I was just going to recommend Saiunkoku Monogatari...
Did I miss a post somewhere were you wrote why you don't want to? Probably...

Hmm, I quite liked Someday's Dreamers and the slice of life prettiness of Aria!

[estara]

And having worked through the comments I also throw another vote behind Natsume Yuujinchou - although I would call it shoujo, not shonen, in its sensibilities.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I somehow had gotten it in my head that it was one of those shojo-friendly series that nonetheless runs in a shonen magazine, but your comment made me doublecheck...whoops, it's serialized in a shojo mag. My bad! But my general point stands even if I screwed up the gendered marketing demographic -- it reminds me of the seinen Mushishi, but younger and gentler and more innocent. I love it to bits and have been nagging Chomiji to give it a try, as I think it's just the sort of full-of-heart title she would really enjoy.

(And speaking of Natsume, I really owe you some thanks on that front! That music discussion on Sartorias' LJ last year where you linked the lovely Kousuke Atari closing theme was the first thing that seriously put it on my radar, and while I'm way behind on the anime as I'm more of a reader than a viewer, I have been enjoying the manga immensely.)

[estara]

it reminds me of the seinen Mushishii, but younger and gentler and more innocent.

Oh yes, so this!

(And speaking of Natsume, I really owe you some thanks on that front! That music discussion on Sartorias' LJ last year where you linked the lovely Kousuke Atari closing theme was the first thing that seriously put it on my radar, and while I'm way behind on the anime as I'm more of a reader than a viewer, I have been enjoying the manga immensely.)

Aww, that makes me so happy to read - karma seems to come around this year a lot in a good way there: I find nifty stuff from all kinds of various recommendations on the blogs and sites I read and now I have obliquely sent another person in the direction of the good crack, yay!!

I still totally adore that song, it's on my "zenny relaxation" mp3 playlist - it just calms me right down when I'm all up in arms. And I collect the manga, too - anything I can legally get shall be supported. I thought the anime did rather faithful adaptations, as well.

[lacrimawanders.livejournal.com]

Also isn't a treadmill kind of heavy to drag outside?