Generally that the story was either absent or excessively slow-moving, and I didn’t really care for the stop-motion animation effect.
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21 posts in and no mention of Akira?
Because everything else I could have mentioned was already mentioned and now I have a bunch of things to add to my queue that I haven’t seen. Thanks a lot, guys. 
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Akira’s beautiful but confusing. I love it but I wouldn’t recommend it, much like Evangelion.
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Ajin might be something you like then. It’s a linear fast paced story that hits the ground running and just continues to build intensity and move forward. First season is on Netflix. Second season is on the web on various anime web sites.
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A movie I really enjoyed and clearly is the inspiration for Inception is Paprika. And honestly if you want to get crazy with dreams and reality altering stuff, anime is a great genre to go wild.
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Then, boy howdy, do I have a show for you. The Game of Thrones of Anime… A show that will tear your heart out, dice it, sautee it with onions, and then feed it to you. I present: Akame ga Kill!
I also highly recommend Deadman Wonderland. Supremely messed up show that asks whether the point of prison is punishment or rehabilitation and asks serious questions about humanity’s bloodthirsty nature. The show ends all too soon. As it’s a Studio Madhouse production, it is highly unlikely to get a second season. So be prepared to either search for the manga or come to terms with never knowing the ultimate fate of the characters. Available on pirate hobbyist sites or on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
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Loved Deadman Wonderland.
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Weird question – does Ghibli count as ‘anime’?
I ask because every time I see a list of recommended anime, or someone in a get together says “I’ve never really watched much anime, what should I start with?” and someone says “Studio Ghibli!” they get sort of waved aside, as if to say ‘well, that’s a given, let’s move on.’
If someone wanted to explore Japanese animation, I’d point them towards Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Totoro as starting points, alongside Cowboy Bebop, Space Dandy, and Tokyo Godfathers. But I feel like recommending Ghibli is like recommending Disney to someone who’s never seen Western animation – sort of a given.
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Anime shows and anime films tend to be whole different beasts, with wildly different pacing and tropes. Don’t get me started on the shows that have film spinoffs (really, just extended episodes…). I intend to get around to updating my earliest post with a breakdown by genre and medium.
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I grew up (I know, very funny) on old-school anime of the 1970s, such as the English-language dubs of Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets), Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers), Mazinger Z (Tranzor Z), Grendizer and Gaiking (Force Five).
In my adult years, I watched little television or video but was drawn back into anime through cinematic work such as Akira, Wings of Honnêamise, and Momoru Oshii’s movies such as Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh, and Patlabor.
Over the past twenty years or so, I have been enjoying a few bits of anime that get my attention. In nearly chronological order:
Dominion Tank Police - What happens when there is widespread ecological and social disruption and you have the police use tanks? This is what happens.
Patlabor - Posits a society where giant robots are not mainly used for combat, but regular labor, such as construction and emergency services.
Memories - A gorgeous three-part anthology film.
Neon Genesis Evangelion - Much hyped, and I avoided watching it until a couple of years ago. Interesting update/subversion of the classic “chosen kids pilot battle-mechs to save the world” theme.
FLCL - Simple coming-of-age story told through a relentless barrage of weirdness and deconstruction of tropes.
Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex/2nd Gig/Solid State Society - A complete continuity of political intrigue being investigated by cyborgs. Very deliberate, smart, and deep.
Planetes - Proles in spaaaace. Near-future extrapolation about workers clearing space debris from orbit. Great balance of story with human and SF elements.
Texhnolyze - How do the last humans handle the end of civilization? Very artful, but extremely dark and nihilistic. Beautiful yet depressing as hell.
Gunbuster/Diebuster - Two series with apparently the same continuity, made in the 80s and 00s, respectively. Mechs save the world again. But with a fair amount of weirdness. Hints at continuity with Gainax’s Evangelion and FLCL.
Mind Game - Movie about the entirety of one’s life. As if “Enter the Void” was actually a very funny, very creative philosophical cartoon instead of whatever it was.
Gatchaman Crowds / Gatchaman Crowds Insight - How do people’s motivations and biases come into play when a social network allows them to supplant many of the traditional roles of government?
Knights of Sidonia / Battle for Planet Nine - Far-future hard SF aboard one of the last human generation ships. A reclusive clone/misfit gets involved in the protracted struggle against a mysterious shape-shifting colony organism.
No doubt a few others will occur to me also.
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I can’t believe One-punch Man has not been mentioned yet. It’s a terrific satire of heros and gets deeper at times when it talks about what makes a real hero. The anime has great animation quality, but preserved the goofy qualities that made ONE’s manga so great. I think it is only available in subtitles.
My second recommendation for non-weed anime is the stuff by Trigger. On Netflix you can find Gurren Lagann takes an over the top mecha story and ends in a goofy exploration into what it means to be human, while Kill la Kill is a magical girl parody that is a goofy exploration into authoritarianism and parenthood. Both shows are inspired by the west, and move lightning fast with none of the filler episodes that bother me.
Oh, and Trigger produced Little Witch Academia which also has a sequel. Both are on Netflix and are very entertaining OVAs in a Harry Potter
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The second season of Attack on Titan is available now, didn’t see it mentioned above.
If you are into sweet slice of life stories, Yuri on Ice.
Full Metal Alchemist is an oldie but goodie.
If you are looking for a fun flick, I’d recommend Summer Wars. Really worth a watch.
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That reminds me – I’d also recommend The Wolf Children by the same director as Summer Wars. Very Ghibli-esque, and made a grown man cry.
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Yes! I very much enjoyed that one.
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I can’t believe I missed it. It just keeps getting better every episode. Strongly recommend.
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Paranoia Agent - Flawed but mind bending, Hello Kitty meets the apocolypse
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Samarai Champloo - Sort of a Samarai Cowboy Bebop with anachronistic elements
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Cromartie High School - Absurd take on tough guy High School tropes
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well same director.
I really like that one.
I am a lot of hit and miss for anime.
One I binged on last summer after hearing it mentioned on the GME - Anime funtime podcast was Flying Witch. No sweeping action, no great drama, just pure sweetness of kids in school one of whom just happens to be a witch.
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Big yes on Samarai Champloo.
Which also remind me about Afro Samurai.
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Seconding Yuri on Ice. I don’t like anime most of the time (especially what we’re calling classic anime – the frame rate is wrong to my eye or something) and I really enjoyed it. I suggest the dubbed version rather than the subtitled, though – the voice acting for the dubbed version is very, very good.
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Love Lab is one of those anime which are either great or terrible, and I think that its clumsy poke at exploring queer themes through a cis male gaze didn’t help it at all. YMMV.