CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

If you had to choose an anime to represent the best qualities of Anime as a whole to someone. One that this person who had never seen an Anime before would most likely stereotype it on.

You can only pick one, you can't splice different clips together, and the person you're showing it to is sensitive to content and will judge it critically.

Which Anime would you choose?

Reign: The Conqueror!

Oh wait, that is anime to show someone that will hate anime after seeing that one.


I know people will say Cowboy Bebop or Monster.


So, I'm going to go with something else and that would be 5 Centimeters per Second.

[color="Red"]
[font="Book Antiqua"]Col. Roy Mustang[/font][/color]

Generally, I agree with Cowboy Bebop! It's fun, well written, and it's proven to be extremely accessible to people who don't like or don't get anime.

Hmmm... very interesting question. I would have to say "Nadia:The Secret if Blue Water". In my opinion, it combines all the stereotypes and idiosyncrocies (sp?) of anime.

Grave of the Fireflies.

It was not only what got me into Anime, but was the first true animation that made me realize that there truly could be even one animation that went above and beyond (this is speaking very lightly) the mentality that animation was just for "children".

There have been a number of people who have criticized me for my Anime obsession, after I showed them this film, they never criticized me again.

I would actually suggest a few non-series titles, such as:

Toki wa Kakero Shoujo
The Place Promised to Us In Our Early Days
Voices of a Distant Star

I think they show the sophisticated, non-goofy side of anime very well and prove how moving it can be.

But if you're talking about series, perhaps Cowboy Bebop (as everyone has said) or Honey + Clover, which is fun and hilarious without being too over-the-type-big-breasts.

DBZ? Tokyo Godfathers might be a good one...

Last Exile. Humor, action, adventure, mystery, and possibly the best animation of any anime I have seen.

Is this a "what is the best anime" question, or a "what anime has the best representation of what anime (stereotyped) is" question? Or a "what is the best anime that has the best representaton of what anime is" question?

If the first, then I vote Monster, that's pretty obvious. If the second... I hate to be blase, but I'd probably vote something extremely lame and stereotypical like Inuyasha or Naruto, something, you know, shounen fight fantasy with cookie-cutter characters, supposed BL subtext, and hoardes of screaming fanboys AND fangirls. If the third, then maybe Fullmetal Alchemist-- a series that's good but still features a lot of anime staples, something slightly original yet not wholly groundbreaking.

I second Full Metal Alchemist. That was the first series anime I watched the entirety of, and it will always remain my favorite. There's the perfect balance of humor and gravity, action and emotion, fantasy and themes that relate to real life. I would almost call this the perfect anime...if not for the ending.

If I wanted to convince someone that anime isn't dumb or for kids, I would show them FMA. And if they were left as devastated as I was at the ending, I would introduce them to the manga XD

It would be so tempting to just answer with my personal number one favorite:Silent Mobius,but that is only why I like anime.If I would pick one,other than on my top ten favorites list,I would have to pick Haibane
Renmei.
Why?
Watching Haibane Renmei is like watching a well done animated short.
Each episode is like a movie in and of itself.It's just the overall feel and look of the series.
Not only that but the plotting and storylines are solid and the characters
come across as 3 dimensional people.

I've been using Paprika for this as of lately.

Standing ground with a classic here, Princess Mononoke.

hmm. I lean towards Fruits basket for comedy stuff with emotions mixed in, and Full metal alchemist for everything else. ^_^

[font="Palatino Linotype"]Hmm...

Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Howl's Moving Castle

That's all I'm saying.[/font]

I have to agree with Fish and Hana with Princess mononoke . And also Cowboy bebop, FMA, and trigun because of the heavy rotation from adult swim the each got. Also Rerouni Kenshin (forgive me for terrible spelling)

To represent all anime? Spirited Away. It had shonen stuff, shojo stuff, and spiritual themes which are freguent in anime.

Not saying it's my favorite, but it is a good representative.

Spirited away for sure.

probably anything from hayao miyazaki. *_*

Cowboy Bebop all the way.

Yeah, Id say anythin Miyazaki.

But for a regular anime Id say DN Angel(Ive liked it since I was 14, I may have grown out of it a little, but I still like it). Sorry its just my favorite anime, end of story.

minakichan (post: 1191822) wrote:Is this a "what is the best anime" question, or a "what anime has the best representation of what anime (stereotyped) is" question? Or a "what is the best anime that has the best representaton of what anime is" question?

This would be a "what is the best anime that has the best representation of what anime is" question.

Most definitely Fullmetal Alchemist.

When my 44 year old Dad comes to me and says, "What's this "Conquerer of Shambala thingy on the T.V. here? It looks interesting...", and proceeds to watch the entire show in the original Japanese language with subtitles, you know a series has something going for it...

*stamp of approval for Newbish Introductions To Anime*

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]I have a better idea--

Tell the person interested in anime to sample all of the above and make up their own mind. As the previous posts have revealed, anime means a lot of things to a lot of people--to some it's an art form, to some it's the dialogue. Whatever it is, because there so many different anime and so many different people watching, you're bound to get conflicting answers. Just have the person sample an episode or two from different genres and have them make up their own mind. The worse they can say is "Man, this sucks!"[/color][/SIZE][/font]

Question: if "the person you're showing it to is sensitive to content and will judge it critically" why would you show them Miyazaki, who is pretty hard to follow story-wise even when you're a well-initiated anime fan, and its chock full of potentially offensive "pagan" stuff? Wouldn't that effectively turn them firmly off?

Pick your battles wisely, then. For Miyazaki, you would have to be awfully picky to find something 'offensive' in 'Whispers of the Heart', for example. And some of them, such as Porco Rosso and The Cat Returns, are so clearly 'fairy tale' in nature that nobody would object to them who didn't object to, say, Snow White.

For me, the ultimate example depends on the person's tastes. For example, if they were into Sci-Fi I would give a different answer than if they were into Fantasy, or Romance, or Adventure.

It's rather hard to predict what another person's tastes will be like,which is why I would pick something like Haibane Renmei.Also it avoids the problem of stereotyping anime.
btw:Did anyone else see that the minister of First Presbyterian down in
Bakersfield,California is actually going to use Haibane Renmei in a series of sermons?(I read up on it while checking Theotaku to see if they had anything on the new Ani-Tuesday on Sci Fi and they did.)

Cowboy Bebop and Vision of Escaflowne are by far, the only series I feel relatively comfortable introducing to other (with the exception of fanservicey Faye....).

But then again, I rarely introduce anime to Christian friends.

mitsuki lover (post: 1192083) wrote:It's rather hard to predict what another person's tastes will be like,which is why I would pick something like Haibane Renmei.Also it avoids the problem of stereotyping anime.

I agree with you, but you know, Haibane isn't a series that everyone will like. Some people, like my brother (who is also an anime fan and watched it with me), will think that's it's incredibly boring and that there's not enough action. Some people just don't get into stories that are slow-paced and explore deep themes; they like depth, but would rather see depth in an action sort of story, if you know what I mean.

I agree that it's hard to predict what someone's going to like, unless you already know them and what their tastes are in other kinds of stories. For example, I knew from the kinds of books my mom reads (Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, etc.) that she likes fantasy and can enjoy a story simply for what it's worth. So I knew that when I introduced her to FMA, she'd enjoy it.

Death Note, maybe FMA. Two of my favorites