My anime crew?

[Koibito]

While I'm well aware this is no anime-based forum, being a RP forum I know there must be anime fans around. I want to call ya'll out, meet and greet ya, and make some new friends with similar interests. All fans of anime should come and stop by to meet; my interests include shounen, the more actiony types of anime like DragonballZ although I do have more modern examples but I'll save those for conversation purpose when I get some people around here ^^

P.S. I do hope I posted this in the right place and that there isn't a similar thread somewhere, please correct me if I did something wrong here ^^

[ShanaTheIV]

I'm quite the anime fan myself. I especially enjoy action, mecha, martial arts, super-natural, fan-service and yuri. Although I haven't watched THAT much, some of my favorites included DBZ, One Piece, Cowboy Bebop, Black Langoon, Samurai Champloo, Galaxy Angel, and Tenchi Muyo. It's kind of hard for me to get into romance but if in involves yuri, I'll definitely give it watch. ^^

And I actually do think there should be an anime forum of some sort. Maybe have a Movies and TV forum with anime as a sub-category. I think there should be a video games forums as well if there's none already.

[Haruki]

Yep, I'm definitely an anime fan, been so since 1996.

Unlike many who really got into it thanks to Dragonball Z when it aired on Cartoon Network, I came into it a few years earlier, and not with DBZ, but instead with a little-known series, Samurai Pizza Cats.  It just took that and the rest is history.

I don't keep up with newer series like I once used to, but I still collect and watch things I missed.

I seem to be the odd one out though when you get into genres, especially among fans who are more around my age.  I notice a lot of folks into more action-y things or stories that you almost need a dictionary-sized 'guide' to understand half of what's going on....psychological thrillers and stuff.  While I have gotten into more action-oriented stuff like Naruto (original series only), and Rurouni Kenshin both which I liked (Kenshin more than Naruto though), along with older mind-benders like Evangelion, more contemporary stuff like Death Note, Bebop and Champloo just never grabbed my interest.  Ditto the sci-fi and mecha side like the Gundam franchise.  I understand the historical significance of things like Bebop and Gundam, but they're not my cup of tea.

I suppose, like me with my gateway....a satirical, pun-laden comedy about a bunch of anthropomorphic feline crime-fighters who run a pizza parlor all day, most of the above are what got people into anime.

Sometimes, and especially moreso today, I feel like I'm alone in having gone a bit outside the box.....or used to.  When I started in the fandom, I went from Pizza Cats, to the classic Akira, and onto more comedy....,Ranma 1/2, and The Slayers specifically.  The former because it was just funny, the latter because its RPG/medieval fantasy setting grabbed me.  From there, I just kept on branching out and exploring past my comedy roots.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I love having a romance in what I watch (older anime like Fushigi Yuugi, and newer titles like the re-telling of Shakespeare's classic Romeo x Juliet do this well enough for me), even though it's not a dealbreaker if the series in question doesn't contain a hint of romance.  I enjoy settings that evoke a fictional world where one learns its history and inner-workings, like those of The Twelve Kingdoms.

Shoujo and slice-of-life are rather high up there on my list of favorite genres.  Not the current crop of slice-of-life favorites like K-on though.....not my thing.....girls in highschool uniforms as a rock/pop outfit just doesn't do it.....seems a bit pandering.....what's wrong with a series like Beck, which I enjoyed immensely?.  It's more 'adult' in tone and does the whole 'teens/young adults' in a rock band gig better and far more believable/realistically.  Instead of that, I'll take stuff like the aforementioned Fushigi Yuugi (in the shoujo area....the series also fits into the drama and romance angles), Someday's Dreamers, which is nice, if possibly too slow-paced for some, a more recent fave has been Petite Princess Yucie...a cute little comedy/adventure seemingly aimed at the female audience (but I've been enjoying it), and one can't forget Cardcaptor Sakura, which introduced me to the 'magical girl' sub-genre of shoujo, and also to CLAMP.  Perhaps oddly, Sailor Moon wasn't one that appealed to me.

There's of course the slew of visual-novel-to-anime adaptions I have.  Air, Kanon, and Clannad.  They're all fine, but I don't go actively seeking anything newer (or older) out.  These seem to only appeal to a certain sort of fan, due to their slow pace.

I mentioned Twelve Kingdoms, which gives me a nice character-and-world-building story.  I enjoy this stuff immensely.  Sadly, the Japanese culture....or the otaku base within it.....I don't know which, seem to be adverse to stories featuring strong-willed females in an uber-high positions.  As such, no one takes risks on these anymore.  This really is sad, because whilst we do this 'strong-willed/independent' female stereotype more in Western storytelling, it's almost always just 'superheroine' sorts of gigs in sci-fi.  I've never been one for comics.....the DC and Marvel realms.  While Twelve Kingdoms is more a series of short stories in a way, one of them does feature a young lady who is taken from her humdrum life as a typical high-schooler, to that of being crowned Queen and as such, having to deal with that whole new set of challenges.  Another series I can't seem to push enough is Saiunkoku Monogatari (The Story of Saiunkoku).  It got lost amongst all the "Haruhi mania" since it started air in Japan in 2006.  It's about a young lady with lofty goals, who through a stroke of luck, gets a chance at her dream....in the same, also being thrown into the nasty realm of politicing.  A little more recently, Spice & Wolf has become a favorite of mine.  It explores economics in a medieval-fantasy realm.  Moribito, yet another one in a past-time setting and with a strong female lead.

From time to time, I still revisited my comedy roots.  Azumanga Daioh! sticks out front-and-center for me.  It's the more obtuse sort of comedy though, the sort that often can get lost in translation.  While perhaps some maybe did (and thus you needed the booklets that came with the single-disc release run of the series), they still pull it off and it still gained a nice-sized following.  Love Hina applies the rom-com (romantic comedy) angle to a harem setup.....it's not one I make time to watch like I used to, but I still watch its Christmas special every year around the holidays.  Like many other 'fanboys' out there, I still swoon over Ah! My Goddess, both for its fun, easy-going, easy-to-follow premise, and a certain goddess.

I could go on, but I'll stop.  I ramble on so much.  ^^;;

Whilst I wish E! had an anime and gaming board, it's doubtful they'll bother.  This is mainly a role-playing/storywriting board.  That said, I'd love to RP based off these worlds, but I don't make up original characters to the themes or worlds.  I play the 'canon' roles, which seems to be highly unpopular (unless your a young teen and just beginning to discover the many worlds of anime.).  What doesn't help in anime's case around here is that the characters all look too damn young half the time, especially in more contemporary works.  I never cared for hentai.  Too much hentai fanart is over-exaggerated crap-ola, and the animated side of hentai......forget it.

Video gaming is a more mainstream medium, though this will depend on genres one is into.  It would probably have a better chance of getting a forum.

Really though, this forum works well enough.

In short, count me into E!'s small stable of anime fans.

[Jag]

I am most certainly an anime fan. Not a fanatic, but a big fan. Akira was the first anime movie I can remember seeing, after that would be KiKi's Delivery Service. The first show I remember watching was Dragon Ball. DBZ is probably my favorite anime, even if I don't watch it nearly as much anymore. I'll watch just about any anime at least once. I do prefer more action type ones though. I like fighting, muscular men, puny villain names, and silly fighting poses.

I have a very big soft spot for Alexander Senki, mostly because I was big on reading about Alexander the Great when I was in school.

While I adore the long, drawn out, need a guide for animes...I do prefer the shorter ones. Things I can sit down and watch the whole series in a day or two if I wanted to. Things like Alexander Senki, Trigun, 3 x 3 Eyes, Cowboy Bebop, Battle Angel Alita, Angel Sanctuary, FLCL, Outlaw Star, and Tokyo Babylon come to mind.

I also prefer anime movies to shows. They are shorter and I just don't have the time I used to to sit and watch a whole series.

[CmdrRenegade]

I'm checking in to.  I like my occasional comedy buy my interests defintely fall into the shounen (One Piece, Naruto, Soul Eater, etc.) category and seinen (Berserk, Grappler Baki, Ghost in the Shell, Hellsing, Vinland Saga, and such).

[NightRabbit]

*raises hand* Oh I'm a huge anime fan. I'm not a fanatic but since I was 5 or 6, I've been hooked on the genre. Nice to meet you all since we haven't met formally. ^_^ *brings in cookies, tea, and and coffee for everyone*

[Koibito]

I'm glad Ive gotten such a response, hello all! ^^

See I prefer longer series because I like the fandom to last as opposed to 'that one thing I read once'. My current fandom is Saint Seiya, an older but more epic (and possibly continuing soon) manga (Oh my would I love a rp of that). Another thing, I prefer manga over anime, anime tends to take its own liberties with cannon story. I love hearing all your preferences and knowing how many people are around here that like anime, with my lack of replies from others in my rp thread, I thought there weren't many.

[Jag]

There are many anime/manga fans on Elliquiy. I think the lack of responses to your RP Request Thread is because it's non-forum. While there is nothing wrong with that and we do have quite a number of non-forum players, the majority of Elliquiy is forum based roleplays.

I tend to lose interest in longer series unless it's already finished and I can easily get my hands on it. Naruto lost interest to me because it became too long and I disliked waiting for the episodes to come out. Same reason I stopped watching Sailor Moon, I got tired of waiting for it to finish. Luckily, there are plenty of good animes out there that are long and finished.

I recently read a 10 book long manga called Ichi the Killer, it is most certainly not for the faint of heart or who have queasy stomachs. Neither is the very short OVA Prequel that goes along with it or the live action movie adaption. Point is that not only is it finished, but it shows that anime, like any other media, has something to please and interest everybody. Whether you enjoy something fluffy and cute or something bloody, nasty, and gory. ^

[Caeli]

I'm a huge fan of anime as well, but I'm not really in the mood to rehash everything I've ever watched and liked, so I'll list some and perhaps expand in the future.

My all-time, absolute favorite anime, manga, and novel series is Saiunkoku Monogatari. It seems strongly reverse-harem at first, but the series becomes extraordinarily serious later on, and I loved the treatment of Shuurei as a main character. At times, it did seem like she was flawless in many respects, but I don't think it was incredibly unbelievable. I also liked the initial storyline, and loved the political nuances and situations.

I was first introduced to anime with Cardcaptor Sakura, which I abhorred because I first watched it English-dubbed. I enjoy the manga more, but I adore the Japanese series because even though the same formula appears (real world problem turns out to be magical, Sakura saves the day after some fumbling), I was surprised by the creativity of the solutions. I never felt like the episodic plotlines became repetitive, and this after watching episodes back to back in a CCS marathon.

Another early series was Fushigi Yuugi. I wasn't so much a fan of Miaka, but I really liked Nuriko, Chichiri, and Tasuki. (Unrelated, but I also enjoy looking for interesting AU Fushigi Yuugi fanfiction.)

Most of CLAMP's work, I generally love. My favorites have been Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (for obvious reasons), xxxHOLiC, and Magic Knight Rayearth.

I enjoy a lot of slice of life and school dramas, and also enjoy sports-related or sports-centric series to a degree. I've become a huge fan of the Maria-sama ga Miteru (Marimite) series which, unlike many other series in the slice-of-life genre, seems slow-paced and potentially boring in its realism. Ookiku Furikabutte is a baseball series that has a somewhat unusual art style, but once you start reading and watching, find yourself caught up in the lives and stories of the characters. (I learned a lot about baseball from Oofuri.) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei was another that I really enjoyed. NANA and Honey & Clover also hold special places in my heart, as does Paradise Kiss (which appeals strongly to my newly-awakened fashion bug). I wasn't a huge fan of Sailor Moon in the beginning, and I'm still not, but I appreciate a lot of the messages that the series strives to teach.

I haven't tried Naruto, One Piece, Rurouni Kenshin, Cowboy Bebop, and other such popular series, so I can't comment on those. I enjoy Vampire Knight even though I think the storyline is unoriginal and the characters not very compelling. I like Special A even though it's predictable at times and episodic in nature (which I don't really like). Arina Tanemura's stuff is also pretty much universally enjoyable for me - Full Moon o Sagashite (the manga) was one that I liked, though I enjoyed Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne much more. I did start Shinshi Domei Cross at one point, but stopped reading it after a while. I'd also like to try Sakura Hime at some point.

I know I'm forgetting a lot that I've watched and enjoyed, but these are the most memorable ones for me. There is one more, Sunadokei, that I've been crazy in love with and intend to purchase once I start making money at a legit job. It's another slice-of-life, and I don't even think it's anything very special or out of the ordinary for its genre. Something about the main protagonist really captured me, though.

I have not been keeping up with anime recently (mostly an issue of time), though, so I haven't watched a lot of the recent releases. It's a lot easier for me to keep up with and find new manga fixes - FIVE, Deep Love, Dokuhime, Ruri no Kaze ni Hana wa Nagareru, Sora Log (or anything by Mitsuki Kako, for that matter), and Koizora have been manga-only series that I kept up with via scanlation groups for a long time. I did watch some of the television dramas associated with these titles, but usually prefer the manga to the television adaptation.

[Jag]

Another early series was Fushigi Yuugi. I wasn't so much a fan of Miaka, but I really liked Nuriko, Chichiri, and Tasuki. (Unrelated, but I also enjoy looking for interesting AU Fushigi Yuugi fanfiction.)

Chichiri is the best. *nods*

[Faustus]

Well, let me just drop into this thread right 'ere - I suppose any girl that has had to do a panel on "The History and Artwork of Japanese Animation" must count herself amongst the anime fans.

I, too, am not a particularly obsessed individual (anymore), but I am a semi-vet (1998 was when I entered the scene and clearly recall it). I still love my anime to pieces, don't get me wrong. I have an entire bookshelfshelf devoted to my manga series (plus another bit for my...*ahem* adult yaoi related pieces), and a good deal of my DVD collection is related to series I have collected. Of my "Fandom" folder on my laptop, 3.29GB of it is related to anime/manga material, and that's before we get into the subbed episodes and scanlations for series.

In short : I'm not an otaku, but I sure do love my series.

I bounce all-over the places with what I watch/read, what genres I watch/read, and what I have watched/read. I'm a well-rounded fan?

I think?

[Haruki]

Caeli, seems our tastes overlap a bit, though since I'm kinda  out of the loop with newer anime, I admit I have never heard of half the titles towards the end of your response.

Still it's always a pleasant surprise to find others who enjoyed Saiunkoku like I did.

I too, got my introduction to CCS via the English dub version.  The art is pretty, the dub......not so much.  I turned down the TV volume and just played music whilst watching the pretty art go by.  No way in hell was I going to burn my ears further than I did with that one.  Due to my sight, I typically watch anime in English whenever possible, but I just wasn't going to do that with CCS.  It wasn't easy, but with some adjustments to the DVD player's text display brightness and overall contrast of my TV, I could make do with the subs, and I'm glad I went to all the trouble to do so.  A very rewarding experience and it gave me a pleasant little shoujo / magical girl series.

With Fushigi Yuugi, I personally don't get all the Miaka dislike in the fandom.  I don't know how it was when the series was originally fansubbed back in the late 1990s before it got its VHS and DVD runs in 1998-1999 and 2004-2005, respectively. (There were the uber-expensive box sets that were put out after each of the 8 volumes per-season of the TV series were released on VHS, but I decided not to include those)....but in general, she's disliked.  I suppose her dub voice didn't help matters.  FY's a dub I can tolerate, because other than Tenchi and (coming out around the same time), El Hazard, it was one of Pioneer's early dubs.  It's not BAD for an early dub....there's worse from the 1998-2000 timeframe, seriously, but I've always had to basically keep quiet about my like for it because of the scorn I'd get.  It's definitely not a winner though.  They do okay pronouncing character names....but two things people always cite are Chihiri's 'ya'know' (originally 'no da'......think Naruto's 'dat-te-bayo'.....it wasn't meant to be translated to English, but had to be due to lip-flap animation), and Miaka's rather 'whiny' tone.  I'll give that..but I ignore little things like the former.

It's a series I still revisit every few years, for nostalgia.  It flows like the daily daytime soaps that are quickly disappearing.  Melodrama oozes as does the mushy teenage romance, but it's a textbook example of 1990s shoujo.  I do like the setting and costume design though.

I guess I'm just too damn understanding....the 'put up with it' type of an anime fan.  If I had good vision, and access to an anime club at some university back in the mid-late 1990s, I'm sure I'd probably think and have a different view of things than I ended up.

[Koibito]

See I prefer the longer series when they are unfinished because that means my fandom can last, I can talk about the latest chapter every week and be all excited for next week's.

Sad thing 'bout my posts then I guess, Michi. Yeah it's just I feel odd about others being able to ready my plots. Especially the original story ones.

[Haruki]

I enjoy my share of long series, but they're really few and far between these days, even in native Japan.  Really the only ongoing series are One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, and Pokemon.

I personally prefer those that fall somewhere in the 13-90+ episode range.  I feel depending on the story, that's just the right amount to cover all the bases.  The only long series I own is Naruto, and that's only the 135 canon episodes of the first series.  2nd longest being Maison Ikkoku (at 96 episodes or so), then followed by Cardcaptor Sakura (@ 70 episodes and 2 movies).

Most others I have fall between 13-52, basically covering 1/2 a season to 2 full seasons of content.

[Faustus]

I enjoy my share of long series, but they're really few and far between these days, even in native Japan.  Really the only ongoing series are One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, and Pokemon.

I personally prefer those that fall somewhere in the 13-90+ episode range.  I feel depending on the story, that's just the right amount to cover all the bases.  The only long series I own is Naruto, and that's only the 135 canon episodes of the first series.  2nd longest being Maison Ikkoku (at 96 episodes or so), then followed by Cardcaptor Sakura (@ 70 episodes and 2 movies).

Most others I have fall between 13-52, basically covering 1/2 a season to 2 full seasons of content.

I somehow didn't realize that CCS was that long when put into animated format. I was so mad when I was younger - My satellite provider stopped offering the WB, so I didn't get to watch the second season until I became an adult and used the school's internet to watch it. I never have forgiven DirectTV for that one. . .

I gave up on Naruto at some point too (though I own 100+ episodes somewhere in my closet). . .I only occasionally drop in to check and see how my favourite character is doing. Last I checked, he was working his way into quite a villainous spot. I'm so proud. 

[Haibane]

Something of an anime fan here too, as my username suggests.

I discovered anime through The Matrix and wanted to find out what the Wachowski's proclaimed inspirations were so picked up DVDs of Akira and Ghost in the Shell. I was blown away completely by both of these, especially the rape scene in Akira. I was stunned. Rape? In a cartoon? Whoa. But while I was in the shop buying these I saw a DVD cover with a pig flying an old biplane and because my husband is a military history buff and does stuff like mess about with radio-conbtrolled planes and models I picked it up. I thought the cover looked a bit silly but gave it a whirl anyway. It was, as you've probably guessed, Porco Rosso. That opened my eyes to Studio Ghibli and I've since bought and watched and loved everything they've made until Ponyo which I still haven't got around to seeing yet.

Early on I also discovered Evangelion and was completely ehthralled by that as well. I found that cartoons that deal this much about characters deep psychoses to be a complete revelation over western animation and was thoroughly hooked. I think NGE is probably always going to be my No.1 favourite anime of all time.

I tend to stick to the high school and slice of life types of story, and avoid almost everything where people have superpowers or turn into machines. Evangelion is therefore for me, not my average type of show, though I consider it to be not a sci-fi story about mechs but a story about what makes people tick and how lives can be ruined when things go wrong in people's heads. More than a sci-fi story its another tale about people, the kind of thing I like.

In recent years I was one of many millions of fans of Haruhi Suzumiya thinking that KyoAni scored a huge hit with their chosen random airing sequence for the show, which complemented it perfectly. I'm also a lover of Kyon's deadpan delivery, he's one of the best leading (or is it trailing?) males ever created in anime.

Others I love? It would be hard to just make a boring list but Beck made a big impression on me. I liked its gritty realistic style and the fact that not everything works out in people's relationships or goals. More recently I've enjoyed the fresh cuteness of Aoi Hana, the oddness and cool artstyle of Eden of the East, the unending tidal wave of spoken dialogue of Bakemonogatari, the back-and-forth time travelling madness of Steins; Gate and the oppressive totalitarian darkness of Jin-Roh. Oh, I also watched The Sky Crawlers the other day with my hubby, another random purchase because of aircraft on the DVD cover but such a marvellous and engaging story; I love these minimalist stories that the Japanese are so very good at writing.

Moving on to directors I particularly love, other than Miyazaki and Takahata, Satoshi Kon was a genius, pure and simple: Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, Millenium Actress and Paprika were all wonderful, if somewhat dark, journeys into the mind and Makoto Shinkai's Place Promised and 5cm per Second are films I can watch over and over just for the beauty of the artwork.

[Jag]

I must admit, my guilty pleasure when it comes to anime is Beyblade. I don't know why. It's not that good and it's a little poor on the plotline, but I just love it so much...though I only enjoy the first segment, from Japan to Russia. Anything past that can kiss it, in my opinion.

And even though it's not technically 'anime', I adore Samurai Jack. I really wish the series would have gotten an ending, but I can understand why it didn't back then and why it won't ever. I think it would be horrible of them to try and end it now when the voice actor for Aku died (Mako). Even Avatar: The Last Airbender had trouble continuing on without him to be Uncle Iroh. I know when the voice actor for Tien died from DBZ, they decided to cut his characters part as much as possible and then when he was on screen, he got little to no speaking roles because they didn't want to replace him if they could help it. It's so sad when a good voice actor dies.

[hardlucksixth]

I like things that have guns, cool, and philosophical navel-gazing in it.

Thus, my favoritest anime ever is Ghost in the Shell. All of it, the movies, the tv series, the manga, everything. I love it.

A couple other favorites I have are things like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, and IGPX (the 5 minute mini-shows, I haven't seen the new one that's got proper episodes). I used to get my fix from Adult Swim and Toonami, and I guess that shows...

[ShanaTheIV]

Hardlucksixth, have you ever heard of Gunslinger Girls? I haven't quite finished it yet but from what I've seen, this organization trains teenage girls how to use actual fire arms. The story is quite decent so far imo. As anyone else seen that show? 

[Haibane]

Yes. I have the DVD boxed set, it's pretty good. Set in Italy for a refreshing change, with good solid artwork and relatable-characters. There's quite a bit of focus on the hardware of the guns and stuff, I've no idea if I'm looking at rifle or a machine gun to be honest but I imagine the guns are very accurately rendered.

Gunslinger Girls isn't a happy-feely story though so its fairly dark all the way through. It has an interestingly touching ending however.

I always thought it would make a very good setting for a group RP, though you'd need to raise the age of the girls which I think are as young as 12 in the anime.

[Haruki]

I think it's time I drag out my Eden of the East and Baccano sets and watch those with an open mind and a serious eye.  I bought those a little while back in an attempt to broaden my scope.

Yet my MOST recent buys were these:

-Clannad / After Story
-Princess Tutu
-Petite Princess Yucie

I'm feeling really out of the loop.  That or my mind just hasn't 'matured'.  I don't know, don't care much.

Not many adults are into the sorts of things I've been into for some time.  The three mentioned titles are backlog titles I didn't get when they were originally released (because I was into other things in anime at the time).  Lots of arty and / or realistic sorts of things been tossed about here that I've no clue about, other than recognizing their titles.

I do have Shinkai's 'Voices of a Distant Star'....his first venture into anime.  Literally a blind buy for me.  It was nearly a one-man gig there.  After watching that, I have nothing but admiration and respect for it and the man behind it.  His more recent works have been more fleshed-out productions by studios (with him overseeing things as producer/director), but that first one was all him and it shows.

[Jag]

Not sure if it will be your sort of thing, Haruki, but I found Princess Tutu very enjoyable. Then again, I'm a bit easy going on anime, movies, and tv shows. I find the good in just about any anime.

[hardlucksixth]

Hardlucksixth, have you ever heard of Gunslinger Girls? I haven't quite finished it yet but from what I've seen, this organization trains teenage girls how to use actual fire arms. The story is quite decent so far imo. As anyone else seen that show?

I've heard of it, but never quite gotten 'round to watching it. Little girls with guns strikes me kinda weird, but, I've had multiple people recommend it to me over the years. Must be something good, right?

[Koibito]

I enjoy my share of long series, but they're really few and far between these days, even in native Japan.  Really the only ongoing series are One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, and Pokemon.

There are plenty more than that as far ongoing series. Just the popular ones are One Piece, Naruto, Bleach (sadly lol), Hitman Reborn, D. Gray-Man, Fairy Tale, and many more.

Oh Michi, I too love Beyblade, no guilt here haha ;3

[Caeli]

Oh yes, Studio Ghibli films are also wonderful. I haven't watched all of them, but I've loved all the ones that I have.

Also, Haruki (I think), some of the ones I listed near the end are actually manga; I don't think some of them are anime (yet). Most of the earlier stuff is anime, though, but I'm pretty old-school.

Also forgot to mention Full Metal Panic. I didn't like Fumoffu, but the original series and The Second Raid were incredibly enjoyable for me. Also (and I can't believe I forgot to mention this one), I just love Ouran High School Host Club. At first it seems like a whole lot of nonsense and comedy, but the story flowed incredibly throughout, with the depth of the characters really bringing them to life as the series wore on. (As a note, I enjoyed the anime, but the manga is much better.) Another guilty please of mine is the sexy and action-packed Gunsmith Cats - and after getting into shooting pistols myself, I can very much appreciate the difficulty of Rally's fictional abilities with weapons.

I prefer to watch all of my anime subbed (Japanese voiceovers) because I feel that they are more original to the characters. I'm also familiar with watching subbed anything (I started my Japanese dramas soon after I got into anime), and I love listening to the cadences and nuances of the language, which you can't get in most dubs.

My beef with Miaka wasn't really her voice, and more to do with her character. I remember the dislike being similar to the one I had for Usagi from Sailor Moon.