I'm an anime newcomer like yourself. We've read quite a bit of stuff on the forum about anime on DVD, and we've seen a lot of titles mentioned by die-hard anime viewers. But since it's such a fringe market in the US, these titles aren't easily rentable - so we have to buy the discs, sight unseen and without much guidance.

I'm just posting this to let you know that I've ordered some of the most acclaimed anime discs (Macross Plus Vols. 1-4, Graveyard of the Fireflies, and Record of Lodoss War) and I'll be posting spoiler-free reviews in a week or so. I'll be writing specifically for those of us new to anime who are hesitant to sink a lot of money into discs before at least a good review.

Stay tuned!

- David Stein

P.S.: I already own Ninja Scroll, and I'll be posting a review of that soon.

sfsdfd,

Do you have Ghost in the Shell?

That's the only anime I've seen on DVD.

While it was pretty good (and you could see quite a bit of the Matrix in there) it wasn't quite as good as I had believed it would be.

Maybe I need to watch it again.

In any case, if you would consider doing a review of Ghost in the Shell, I'd be interested in hearing your opinion of a DVD I've seen too. (I am considering getting Record of Lodoss War, though, so I'm interested in reading your review of that too.)

Thanks for doing this, it's very generous of you.

------------------
-David

If you're just getting into anime I have to endorse the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki box set. It is such a good collection I can't stop talking about it, and you can get it for $62 + S&H from reel.com using a $10 off coupon. For 420 minutes of Tenchi + the Tenchi Muyo Encyclopedia it's an absolute steal at that price. This was probably the most influential anime of the 90s alongside Evangilion and well worth a viewing by anyone.

If you're looking for something a bit cheaper, I endorse Tenchi Muyo in Love (first movie of the series, which is pretty easy to follow even if you haven't seen it), Ghost in the Shell (not my personal favorite, but most enjoy it), and Macross Plus (you MUST see this even if you have never been interested in anime before).

FYI:

Netflix http://www.netflix.com

has a decent selection of Anime. They're an online rental place.

I've rented a few Anime titles from them. I'm on their Marquee program, so it works out to about $4 a rental.

Also. For the record, Blockbuster (at least, all the ones near me), have always seemed to carry a decent collection of VHS anime. -- Other than that, a few comic book shops will rent them out as well.

DUH, stupid me... never even _thought_ of checking out netflix... I'll definitely be renting a bunch of anime from them! Thanks DodgingCars!

Blade: A friend of mine owned Ghost in the Shell, so I have seen it. I found it... well, not very good. Some anime just doesn't seem to make sense when ported over to the U.S. I'm not talking about the philosophy, I'm just talking about the way people speak and act... it just seems a bit confusing. I will definitely post a full review along with the rest.

Cav: $62 is a bit much (even for me!) to drop on a series I've never seen. If I can rent it from NetFlix and I like it quite a bit, I wouldn't hesitate to drop that much money on it, though. (After all, $62 is ripe for the good ol' Reel/BFL double whammy )

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! The first review will be posted in a few days.

- David Stein

By the way, I reviewed Ninja Scroll and Record of Lodoss War a while back. The reviews were posted here:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000465.html