I was nosing through the university video library the other day and was pleasantly surprised to find they have a healthy collection of anime, including a few titles I hadn’t seen. A size-able chunk of these shows I knew immediately, old hat favourites like Ranma 1/2, Patlabor, Evangelion, GitS, Rurouni Kenshin. But then a thought occurred to me: If I had never seen an anime before, how would I begin to approach this cartoon menagerie?
Well, at first glance they’ll be captivated by the box art. It’s very colourful, almost psychedelic—reds, blues, greens, robots, girls, swords, guns, big hair, spaceships, robots—that’s enough to reel them in for a closer look but beyond that is a world of deceptive titles and juxtaposed images. Could you imagine what they’d think seeing the title The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?
So back to my question, what would be a good show to introduce someone to anime? In fact that’s a question that eventually pops up when you find yourself ready to share your interests with your significant other. Obviously you don’t want to freak them out or bore them to death or have her/him think you’re weird. You want something that would appeal and interest them, not alienate.
Would you call it a responsibility to choose the right show for somebody? Personally, I’d offer up Tenchi Muyo! Probably because it was the first series I ever bought and was also the first that really opened my eyes to how an impossibly convoluted mash-up of action-adventure-comedy- romance-science fiction-drama managed to function so seamlessly. It was charming in its madness. Although, perhaps it’s too maddening for its charm (as later dreaded instalment prove). Choosing the right show for the right person is certainly not a simple task, but when you get it right you can see how much it was worth it. About a year ago around Christmas time, I took the time out for my two cousins (ages 6 and 
and put them in front of the set to watch Steamboy. They didn’t have the same love for Naruto and Pokemon after that.
So, to you fine connoisseurs, which show (movie or series) do you think would make for a great introductory?
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anything that’s not too serious but serious enough, cliche and true ^.
FMA comes to mind, or more classical ones like Cowboy bebop, or something thought provoking like Ergo Proxy. Hunter x Hunter was enthralling, but then so was Samurai Champloo. maybe even K-ON. the devil is in the details, otherwise Naruto is actually quite good for a starter, not the dubbed version but yeah.
Inuyasha got me into anime (Before they decided “hey let’s end the show without really finishing anything.”). From there I enjoied Cowboy Bebop, Ghost In The Shell, Gudamn Seed, and mostly everything that showed up Saturday Aldut Swim 4 years ago. I suppose those would be some of the best for starters, Then again I got someone intrested in anime by showing them Gilamesh, Negima!, Rozen Maiden, and Full Metal Panic.
I can’t believe you mentioned Tenchi Muyo! That was for me like the start of REALLY getting into anime ..
… I had seen Akira, Candy, Transformers, among others by coincidence, but when I saw Tenchi Muyo I decided to see what else was there in the anime world, that was like…. 9 years ago.
(good boy!).
When I introduce anime to people I first ask them what kind of movies they like, and consider age and gender. I got two female friends hooked starting with simple stuff like Gakuen Utopia Manabi straight, and the “trendy” Naruto and Bleach. With two males I lent them death note, Samurai Champloo (like Nosferato says) and ghost in the shell… Surprisingly one of the males came back asking for shoujo anime
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It depends on the person, I don’t necessarily recommend my favorites. A lot of people in my college had Scrapped Princess as their first anime for some reason.
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Gotta go with what Nosferatu and Aime said. You usually have to tailor pick stuff for people based on their existing taste. You have to give them something you know they’ll like to get them to bite, and that’s when you reel them in. If they want to stick with mainstream stuff (Cowboy Bebop, FMA, Naruto, Desu Noto, etc), they can stay mainstream, and the option is always on them how far they want to delve into different types of genres and such.
Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo are two of my eponymous starter shows for people that ask and are curious about the strange Japanese thing that is anime. CB and SC are very appealing overall and offer a little bit of everything from action to drama to comedy. You also can’t go wrong with Ghibli stuff either, especially for girls. They eat that stuff up like chocolate.
tl;dr: Stick with mainstream stuff for introductions, though if you know what specific genres the person in question likes then change accordingly. For example if you know someone that likes Star Trek don’t be afraid to dump something sci-fi on them and so on.
Yeah, it’s always ideal to start off on the mainstream stuff (get’em hooked, then give’em the hard stuff), *BUT* I’d like to point out that serials are bad and cliffhangers kill. A sign of a good series to introduce someone to is one that can A) be seen out of order and B) has a conclusion.
I believe an ideal introductory series is one where each episode contains a complete stand alone story while hinting at a greater story arc. Although, I can hear the voices telling me “But they’re all like that!” So, clarify myself here, what I don’t like to offer people are shows in which the selling point is a cliffhanger, because I feel like that’s just cheating the viewer out of a story.
There is money to be made and it’s done by keeping people watching. And the best way to do that is to draw out everything. Naruto, DBZ, Inuyasha etc. are all guilty of elongating their arcs unnecessarily. I don’t find those to be good introductory examples. Even shows like FMA or Death Note I hesitate on because of their episodic nature.
The finale is the trump card that separates Anime from its American composites. The first finale I ever saw for a “cartoon” was Noozles (and for ages I didn’t know it was from over seas). It was an emotional shock knowing a show has ended instead of being cancelled and vanishing into obscurity. So when choosing a series I try to suggest one that has a real, honest-to-god finale. One that can’t go back on itself and say “Sike! Got ya! There’s more!” A show like Michiko to Hatchin or Code Geass (and yes, DeathNote) are perfect in this sense, but then it leads back into episodic territory which should be avoided.
A series that can be seen out of order and yet still retain enough structure to lead to a finale is preferred in my book (Bebop suddenly sounds like a god-send here). Of course then, taking all this into account, I’ve just contradicted myself by mentioning Tenchi Muyo in the article.
Ignore everything I’ve just said!
tl;dr: If a series can be seen out of order and can still manage to inflict an emotional impact of a finale, means it might be worth starting somebody out on.
Tenchi Muyo was the first one for me too. But AirTV was the one that got me hooked into Anime again. Short shows (12 episodes) with a good conclusion, like Air, seems to fit your criteria.