snarp | (no subject)

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.

Threaded | Flat

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.

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

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.

Gankutsuou! The Count of Monte Cristo in space.

*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.

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".

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.

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.

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

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.

Edited 2011-05-17 09:29 (UTC)

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. :)

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!

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