Best anime-style RPG system

[Vice]

I've been thinking about picking up a new RPG book. I don't own any anime-themed RPGs at the moment, so I was wondering which system people favored. BESM seems like the most popular, but I've never heard an opinion about which of the recent editions was best; I thought the d20 version was crap though. I browsed through OVA recently and I like the simplicity, but having never put it into play, I was wondering if there were limitations that made it inferior to BESM. And I've never played Random Anime at all.

[Oniya]

I haven't played any of the others, so my opinion is more of a testimonial than a 'best', but I had a lot of fun with Teenagers From Outer Space (TFOS).  Now, it does have a rule that 'forces' it to be PG-13, namely that any scene that might get hot and heavy gets interrupted in as humorous and embarrassing a manner as possible.  Just like in real anime ;)

[Vekseid]

I haven't tried OVA. I have RandomAnime, BESM 2nd and 3rd...

BESM 3rd is somewhat more streamlined, and where it is 'broken' easier to fix, though how is not always obvious (basically, many if not most customizations need to be per-level rather than just adding on top).

I'm pretty sure RandomAnime's rise in popularity was a paid effort. You can see this in later reviews - the game is needlessly complex on many levels. With BESM you can stick with the human-only attributes for a start and run with those.

[Thufir Hawat]

I've been thinking about picking up a new RPG book. I don't own any anime-themed RPGs at the moment, so I was wondering which system people favored. BESM seems like the most popular, but I've never heard an opinion about which of the recent editions was best; I thought the d20 version was crap though. I browsed through OVA recently and I like the simplicity, but having never put it into play, I was wondering if there were limitations that made it inferior to BESM. And I've never played Random Anime at all.

And I must ask, what kind of Anime are you looking to emulate?
I mean, anime is a medium and not a genre, after all. And you can emulate a genre with different systems, including some that are not meant to be "anime-oriented".

[Mudchaser]

I agree with Veks on RandomAnime.  I have no idea why it would ever be popular.

BESM is a fine game, but with each new edition, it edged closer and closer to being GURPS with 2 dice rather than 3 (3 traits rather than 4, etc).  If it's a mainstay RPG for you already, that's fine, but if you have access to any other "generic" RPG, I don't see any point to picking up BESM.  It takes just as much work to put together a good BESM campaign or character as it does to put together a good GURPS campaign or character.

I have OVA, I have run OVA, I love OVA.  It's simple, sleek, and right to the point, and the dice mechanics make for some great fun, lots of roll-and-shout moments, and the core combat system is inherently interesting enough to kee my combat-monkey players rapt at attention, while simple enough to keep my flakey drama players happy.  It's actually one of my favorite systems, though I haven't had much use for it recently, precisely because it manages what few "lite" systems do: It doesn't dumb down the rules to the point where you wonder why you need them at all.

I highly recommend the game.