About me, blah blah blah:

I've been watching anime for a very long time, and more recently I've become appalled at the low standards of anime fans. I'm not an anime snob, nor am I smart or particularly cultured but I do have a benchmark above garbage. As someone who's done reviews for quite a while, I've seen a lot of anime for comparisons and I've had to think a lot about why I like and dislike titles. I've come to a point where I can evaluate them fairly well (with my own bias) and I do have reasoning behind my reviews.

If you're here it's probably for one of two reasons. You want to cross reference your own opinions or you don't want to waste time watching crap. This is one of the reasons I tend to focus on older titles, because I think they're often overlooked and if you're still an anime fan after having watched the piles of formula anime titles out today, you're only options will to be to look at past titles, or hope that something interesting comes out in the next season. And there are TONS of past titles that are really good, and more than a few to avoid. Hopefully you'll find some intelligence here behind the reviews and be able to make informed decisions on what to watch, or maybe find an interesting take on a title you've already seen.

If you're interested in me doing a review for a title, feel free to drop me an email or put a note in my guestbook. I won't do reviews for super recent things (within the last year) from Japan that require fansubs, but I'm open to anything else. I prefer commercially released stuff in America.

I'm not sure what this page was supposed to be, but it turned into a few recommendations and a bunch of oddball lists I felt like making for some reason. Don't take those lists too seriously.

Highly Recommended

Honestly I'm not big on lists because they're usually an exercise to make the list maker feel important. Really, no one cares what I think, so for that reason lists are pointless. If you're starting from scratch (and for some reason on my site) I'd guess you need a starting point, so my page would be incomplete without one of these lists. I guess that's justification enough.

	Record of Lodoss War - OVA / TV This is pretty much the defacto fantasy anime. It looks like a simplistic RPG based story when it starts, but it develops into a very good story where most things are a shade of gray. The soundtrack is a particular feature which helps the epic feel.
	Kodocha ( A Child's Toy ) An anime about the exploits of an eleven old girl certainly doesn't sound like any sort of ground breaking material, but I guess it simply has to be seen to be believed. Beware since this anime is not for people who are new to anime. If you're a veteran anime fan, then I highly recommend it. Easily the funniest anime I've watched, and funnier than most non anime I've watched as well.
	Mahou Tsukai Tai! - OVA (Magic Users Club) So many series try to do what this title does and fail at it. It's main feature is being absolutely charming. It's a great production with high quality animation, designs and with a good story. It's also got some of the best (and often risqué) comedy around.
	Maison Ikkoku The best anime romance title ever created didn't need giant robots, magic or any other cliché anime formula. Instead it's a (relatively) simple story about a guy who falls in love with the manager of the boarding house he lives in, and the odd cast of characters that are his neighbors. A long watch at 96 episodes, but absolutely worth it for the very sweet story.
	Code Geass There isn't any one stand out attribute that I would say: "watch it for this reason". Code Geass is a very popular. It has a lot of things like flashy designs, good animation, interesting backdrop and gripping story. The main reason I recommend Code Geass is because it's entertaining as hell. That's like saying watch it because it's good but... uh, yeah. It is.
	Area 88 - OVA This anime is what I would consider the best war drama in anime, but also one of the best character driven dramas period. While it's a dated title, the animation is very good for its time, along with a great soundtrack and surprisingly realistic detail in its rendition of fighter jets.

Personal Favorites

	Martian Successor Nadesico This title always struck me as special, due to self parody. As a giant robot comedy, it works very well. That's what most remember it for. At the same time it fully points out not only how silly giant robots are, but also many of the cliche aspects of anime as well... then proceeds to do all that in full force. For this reason I've come to think of Nadesico as an anime fan's anime; which never got the recognition I think it deserved. Not revolutionary, but a fun title with a good story.
	Vampire Princess Miyu - OVA Whenever I hear of the classics of anime, this is a title that springs to mind. With a well produced mysterious surreal dark environment, Vampire Miyu is not only beautiful with visual aesthetics, but is well produced musically as well. The music in particular gives everything an often chilling feel I've always thought of as unique and I've come to adore over the years. The dub is rather bad, so if you don't like subtitles you'd probably want to skip this one. You'll be missing out though.
	Hourglass of Summer - Interactive DVD By some standards this is a date sim game since the protagonist focus is on a particular girl presented in the story, but having seen it I find it hard to think of it that way. The story is very good, and the characters interesting and likable. I also love how introspective Kotaro is. The best feature of this title is how Kotaro ends up time traveling through a summer, but with no control and each day out of order. This causes him to face different consequences he unintentionally caused and presents new challenges as he tries to prevent the death of his friend before the summer ends. This was also made into an anime that's not very good.
	Combustible Campus Guardress It's frustrating how much crap made it to America when this title never did. CCG is your typical save the world by preventing a demon gate from opening story. The animation is seriously top notch. It seems to follow a very serious vein, but is at all times a (risque) comedy. Certainly worth finding a fan sub of this anime. If you're looking for a normal save the world from the demon gate plot, but serious; Demon City Shinjuku is another good title.

Honorable Mention:

Opening / Closing

One concept that isn't very big in traditional live action shows are well done opening sequences. I guess it's no surprise that many shows skip them altogether these days. In anime however an opening is considered a feature of a title. An opening is an odd mix of animation, music, and presentation while capturing the idea behind the show.

Where to buy

In keeping with my mantra of supporting businesses that aren't giant evil corporations, I recommend Robert's Anime Cornerstore. Believe it or not I'm not a shill, and I don't get any kickbacks from them. Fast and friendly service, from a store that's run by an actual anime fan. Been ordering from here for years.