by Brad » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:07 pm
Here's a few of my very favorites series that haven't already been mentioned:
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad
Really awesome story about the formation of a rock band. It's a very cool and unique slice-of-life/coming-of-age story centered around the main character, Koyuki. He begins as just a very average, kind of shy kid, and he begins to grow and change after he discovers rock music. It has genuine emotion, great writing, and of course a great soundtrack. I'm still amazed at how few people have actually seen it.
Honey & Clover
This doesn't exactly fit your criteria of what you seem to like, but I really think you should give it a shot. It's very different from your conventional romance series. For one, it's set in an art college. I can't think of too many romance-based shows that aren't set in high school. Two, while some of the characters do follow some long-standing anime archetypes (the young-looking and shy moe girl, the strong but conflicted tsundere girl, etc.), they do so with clever writing, and really fleshed out personalities. You end up (or at least I did) caring for each character and just want to spend more time with them.
NANA
Another kind of drama/romance type show, but the core of this one is about friendship than anything else. Once again, like H&C, the characters are actually older and un-conventional. It also has a lot to do with rock music. It tackles the much more complex side of relationships, involving sex, betrayal, figuring yourself out, all traits that are most often overlooked or simply non-existent in your typical romance/drama show.
I don't really watch a lot of anime anymore, but I've always stuck by these shows. Others that I can mention but I won't go into a long spiel about are:
Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, REC, Nodame Cantabile, FLCL, Battle Athletes Victory, Fushigi Yuugi, Macross Frontier, Rurouni Kenshin, Visions of Escaflowne, GoldenBoy, and Chrono Crusade.
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