Dude, I can't find the opening song anywhere! I bought the soundtrack, but it only contains the 90 sec. edit. Even though it doesn't include the song, the soundtrack is still worth getting. The score is very organic, much like the score for The Dark Knight.

Since everyone’s making lists here, I guess I may as well throw mine up.

My top 10 favorite, in no particular order, would be:
Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy
Zeta Gundam
Akira
Macross
Hellsing Ultimate
Armored Trooper Votoms
Galaxy Express 999 (How is it that this still isn’t on R1 DVD?)
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Cowboy Bebop
Perfect Blue

Top 10 worst:
Bio-Hunter
Ninja Scroll: The movie
Ninja Scroll: The series
Twilight of the Dark Master
Ninja Resurrection
Samurai Gun
Gilgamesh
Wicked City
Blood Reign
Fatal Fury: The motion picture

Unimpressed with:
Ghost in the Shell: SAC
Basilisk
Gantz
X – TV
Gundam 00

Underrated:
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ – I know this gets a lot of hate and people consider it to be the worst UC Gundam show, and I will admit it did start out pretty odd and the moon-moon episodes are probably the most useless episodes of anything I’ve ever seen, but I’ll be damned if I said I didn’t have a good time watching it. And in my mind, that’s all that matters.

Thanks for the input from everyone who chimmed in...I decided to get Black Lagoon- Season 1 and Gurren Lagan- Set 1. Both series look promising so we'll see what happens.

My top ten in no particular order are:

Berserk
Cowboy Bebop
Escaflowne
Excel Saga
Full Metal Panic
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
GTO
Hellsing
Love Hina
Neon Genesis Evangelion

Kinda hard coming up with a top ten list as at least another five series feel like they should be on my list but these are the first ones that popped into my head so thats what i went with.

i get all happy when I see Berserk make it to the top of someone's list

Berserk is definitely up there on my list and its one of a handful of series i've watched all the way through several times. It's also the series that first got me into manga as I wanted to know what happened after the series ended...although at the time the manga wasn't available in english. Also in regards to Berserk what exactly is the deal with the new remastered set coming out in a few months. I'm wondering if it will be worth the upgrade over my existing discs. The only series I've ever upgraded was Evangelion so I'm hesistant but considering it.

That's news to me. I don't even think the production value for the show was that high. Unless they totally remade the show, or continued the Manga story-line, I don't see something like that really happening. Plus, I kinda like the simple animation used for the series, it works really well.

Is Berserk manga a worthy to buy? Does it actually continue the storyline than what we have seen on DVD? I already know that there's an answer to a big question (gotta add spoiler tag) -



Somebody in here told me that the answer was shown in manga.

Yes the Berserk manga is worthy. Buy it now!!!
The anime only covers volume 1 (it really condenses it) and volumes 4-13, although volume 10 is omitted. Volumes 1-3 and 14-up take place after the eclipse massacre.

I'll second big e and say the Berserk manga is definitely worth checking out. It's been a couple years since i read it and I read the first 20 or so volumes. They were all fan translations as it hadn't even been licensed in the US at that point. I bought the first volume Dark Horse released but the $13.95 price tag per volume turned me off a bit.

So the Manga is available in English? What would be the best deal on the set?

Dark Horse has released through volume 26 (I believe they are on volume 33 in Japan) and they release a new volume it seems every other month. Not sure about any deals as I'm kinda out of the loop on manga buying as its been a couple years since i was actively buying it. Amazon has them for about $11 bucks a volume but I would imagine there are probably better deals to be had.

Interesting news. I actually like the pacing of S1; it has a contemplative feel. Though there's enough political intrigue and action to keep the story exciting and balanced. It should be interesting to see how S2 is put together and what points it tries to make.

Aside from Vampire Hunter, not a big fan of Kawajiri's stuff I see. Goes to show, different strokes. But the SAC series opinion - no kidding..

My top 10

Ghost in the Shell
Patlabor
Ninja Scroll
Wicked City
Kite
A.D. Police Files
Samurai Champloo
Metropolis
Fist of the North Star
10th spot would be a rotation by anything made by Ghibli studios.

Honorable Mention

SAC - 2nd Gig
Tekkonkinkreet
Gunslinger Girl
Perfect Blue

Visitor, I've been considering watching A.D. Police... is it really that good?

Ack. $12 per volume... that would put me over $400 (that included s/h and tax)!

It would be interesting to see how they put together - what we saw on first season, they came from mostly in volume 1 & 2 manga (there are six volumes).

Man, where does all this hatred for Ninja Scroll that I've seen lately come from? I've never watched the series, but the movie is one of the all-time classic animes. What I liked about Basilisk was that it kinda felt like Ninja Scroll meets Romeo & Juliet.

Watch the series and you will understand. The series looks like a stack a pictures that some is flipping through in slow/stop motion. It doesn't come much more crude animation wise than that series.

Its almost criminal to call Ninja Scroll Anime.

Here's a set of mini reviews I did:

File 1 (Phantom Woman) - Female android (Boomer) goes berserk only to be "retired" by a plain clothed officer. Fast forward to a future time where the officer, who is now a part of the AD Police Unit, goes on a clandestine mission to find out the cause of another Boomer gone berserk, one which seems to have a connection to the officer. Future meets past. Pleasure meets pain. Technology meets humans. It's a crude, sleazy and violent sci-fi/crime piece.

File 2 (The Ripper) - Somewhat darker than the first File. A serial killer is preying on young prostitutes. Along with the investigation of the killings, more importantly the reason of, the primary theme explored relates to the philosophy behind the melding of human and machine; as humans are replacing physiological components with artificial. Where does it end, what makes us human, is there a crossing point where humanity is ultimately lost, and finally, how does it all tie in to the killings? If the viewer can get by some of the violence and bloodshed there are some interesting questions to be found.

File 3 (The Man Who Bites His Tongue) - Another interesting take about an experimental project undertaken by AD Police ... the use of what's left of a former A.D. Police field agent has been turned into a mechanical anti-Boomer crime fighting android. The only human components remaining are that of his brain and tongue; the latter his only recognizable tie in to his humanity. The android gets hooked on pain killers (ala Robocop 2), goes berserk and ultimately has to be taken down. Enter A.D. Police. As you can see there are some inherent conflicts that are already in play. It's another interesting character study about 'what-if's' but ultimately this one (as all) could have been expanded to better flesh out the points better. But overall, it was still entertaining with it's moments of action and violence.

The animation style of the series is dated (similar to Angel Cop and Fist of the North Star) and some will have a problem with over the top graphic violence and nudity - but I felt that it fit into the context of the stories just fine. The settings are fairly dark and dreary - almost noir-ish in feel. It's not a happy anime piece by a long stretch. But overall, even though it's a bit rough around the edges, it's an entertaining series that mixes in some interesting tech/flesh sci-fi themes.

If you end up picking it up and get anything out of it, I'd also recommend Parasite Dolls - which is another dark spin-off of the Bubblegum Crisis series.

Well, I liked Ninja Scroll when I saw it back in high school, but when I rewatched it last August I honestly thought it was boring. When it was half way over I found myself wishing it was over and by the time it was over I found myself not paying very much attention to it anymore.

Wicked City was actually better than I thought it would be, but I still didn’t think it was that good. I thought it was alright but it’s not a movie I would want to watch again, nor is it something I would recommend to someone.

I’m probably going to get flamed for saying this, but Ghost in the Shell: SAC I found to be a very dull show. I watched the first 10 episodes of it and just didn’t find it very interesting and dropped it.

You could probably pick them up cheaper on eBay or Amazon. I'm not too happy about the price either, but with the volumes only coming out 3 or 4 times a year it's not really that bad.

One place you can get is from RightStuf.com when they have their Dark Horse sales. There should be 2 sales per year (1/23/08, 6/18/08, 1/7/09) and it's 33% off the retail price. But keep in mind that some Dark Horse products take quite a while for TRSI to replenish.

Thanks for the heads up WTK

Thanks for the reviews Visitor, I'm gonna have to check A.D. Police out.

I started watching Heat Guy J today, I bought the entire series back when it first came out but got stuck after the first volume or two and never went back to it. I've only watched the first three episodes but its enjoyable thus far. I'm not the biggest fan though of the way they mixed cgi and traditional animation though.

Just started Beck last night and finished the first two volumes and it kind of reminds me of Suzuka except different themes...at least so far.

I just started Peacemaker. It's just okay - let's see how the series goes and end.

I like this temper pig, he's funny.

That's exactly how I would sum up the whole series.