Anime Recommendations

[gunswordfist]

I forget. I disregard so much anime that it's all just one lump to me. I think I heard Magi gets bad after a certain arc, though.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well then, you heard wrong. Very wrong. The series has just gotten better as it's gone on. The most recent long story arc, the Magnostadt arc, is easily the best part of the series to date and blows the previous arcs (which I like) away by miles and it's keeping very ambitious and entertaining in the recent chapters. I'm afraid that I don't see how people could come to the opinion the series has declined, but I strongly disagree.

[Lord Dalek]

The latest Alma Toran arc is kind of a waste since its all backstory and Otaka is basically writing a bunch of characters we barely know or care about (outside of Ugo). Really looking forward to when Aladdin stops expositioning and we get back to Alibaba stuck in the crossfire between Kouen and Sinbad.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'd agree that Joe is a much more well-rounded and expressive character than what I've seen of Ippo, and is actually the kind of character I feel Grave would prefer. 

Though I'll admit that's a bit presumptuous of me to say, since I've only just resumed watching HnI. I'm only on episode 25 right now, but so far my favorite character in the series is probably Takamura, who has a combination of a comedic and badass personality that appeals to me. I'd also say Miyata's determination and maturity has won me over, especially during his fight with Mashiba.

Takamura's best moments in the series are easily in the Bryan Hawk arc (which incidentally is covered in New Challenger, not this anime). But he's a fun character up to that point, though afterward he becomes way too much of an ass-hole, IMO.

I personally love the comic duo of Aoki and Kimura. Both are so likable and they are the untalented guys of the group. Always struggling but ultimately being stuck in the same place, never being able to achieve the success of Takamura or Ippo. But aside from adding a lot of heart to the series, their comedic shenanigans add a lot of real personality into the mix. At any rate, I think the characters are good enough to sustain the original 75-episode anime (which is why I prefer it over the manga), and New Challenger to some extent. The problem with a series as long as HnI, though, is that they eventually become stale if the author doesn't do anything new with them, and Morikawa's refusal to develop them any further really makes the later parts of the manga a drag, IMO.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Aw, Takamura becomes an asshole after a point? I hope he doesn't become too unlikeable...

I also like Aoki and Kimura, and I'm sorry to hear that they never, ever improve, though realistically it reflects how not every athlete can have the talent/luck of guys like Takamura and Ippo.

As far as long running series with no end in sight so, I think one thing Gosho Aoyama does well in Detective Conan is how he's always able to make the characters interesting. The story of that series doesn't really move forward very often, but he puts them in situations that really get the most mileage out of them and allow them to shine. There aren't really any overused quirks to the characters either, so none ever really grow tiresome even if only a couple really ever get actual character development (though, admittedly, the Detective Boys do bore me, but they don't get that many cases to themselves anymore).

[gunswordfist]

Two days ago (Wednesday), after giving Fist Of The Northstar a long break because of seeing an overly melodramatic episode, I started watching it again. The first episode in the season I'm on was pretty good.

[gunswordfist]

is parasyte any good?

[LumRanmaYasha]

is parasyte any good?

I love the manga. One of my top favorites. I have no clue how the anime adaption will turn out, and I'm still not sold on the changed character designs, but with the source material so good, I have to hope it'll be just as excellent. There are a lot of anime I'm looking forward to this fall anime season, but the Parasyte adaption is easily the one I'm most excited for.

[gunswordfist]

i guess i'll have to wait.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Somebody recommend me some comedy anime or manga that's good fun but isn't TOO over-the-top zany.

Now, before you guys mention anything, let me clear this up:

-Excel Saga manga, I know....I promise to get to it eventually.

-I'm already reading Dr. Slump, and while I do really enjoy it, that fulfills my quota for the insanely over-the-top comedy that defies all sense of logic whatsoever, so I don't want to get burned out on this stuff; I do plan to get into BoBo after I finish this, since CX speaks so highly of it, and maybe I'll eventually give Assassination Classroom another chance.

-Nothing like Lucky Star, please. I just don't care for that brand of humor.

With that said, I'm basically just asking for something that's primarily comedic in tone, and can get ridiculous on plenty of occasions, but is still grounded enough in some semblance of reality, such as GTO, Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu, Ouran High School Host Club, and so on.

Like, I was thinking of checking out Welcome to the NHK and series like that since they seemed closer to fitting the bill. I'm not really sure if it does, though, but does anyone know if there are other series that fit the bill of what I'm asking for?

[talonmalon333]

Ghost Stories was pretty funny when they dubbed it and threw away the original script in favor of a comedic, self-satirizing one.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well, School Rumble is one of my personal favorites, and while it has a lot of wacky humor it can pull off genuinely great emotional and character moments exceptionally well.

Princess Jellyfish and Silver Spoon are my two favorite currently running manga. There's more to them then just their comedy, but the comedy is one of the best things about them and a large part of what got me into them before their more series elements started to show up. The anime versions would give you a good taste of them, and both of those are short (PJ is 11 eps and SS is 22). They don't tell their complete stories though (because they're still currently running and all), so I'd definitely recommend reading the manga after watching the anime, especially since that's the version where both are favorites of mine.

I've said this before, but Franken Fran is like Black Jack made into an excellent horror comedy with great satire. It's another one of my favorite manga comedies.

If you don't want to read more AC atm (though I will say that it's not really a logic-less comedy like Slump or Bobobo), then Shokugeki no Soma is the next biggest thing in Jump after that. I've read my share of cooking manga, and while Soma isn't innovative in terms of the genre's tropes, it's excellent humor and characters make it an incredibly fun series to keep up with.

On the subject of Jump series, Gintama is one of the funniest anime/manga comedies I've seen, but the first few episodes/volumes are a bit slow and sometimes it tries to get serious like a regular battle-shonen to mixed results (imo). It's still mostly a comedy series and an excellent one at that, but it's also incredibly long. I'm not even close to catching up with it. If you are willing to invest in a long series like it, then it is definitely worth checking out, though, as it is probably Jump's best comedy series overall. 

And then lastly of course is UY, MI, and R1/2 which you know I love a whole lot. Of course all are pretty long and I know you already said you don't plan on getting to them for a while, so if you want something shorter go with the above (barring Gintama, of course).

I think that's a fair amount of suggestions for now.   

[Foggle]

Welcome to the NHK is excellent and often funny but also incredibly depressing. Only watch it if you're prepared to feel like shit afterwards.

[Spark Of Spirit]

School Rumble.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Thanks for the recommendations, CX.

And yeah, you're right, I don't want to get into something too long right now, even though I forgot to mention it, which is why I haven't gotten to the Excel Saga manga as well as Takahashi's series, yet. From what you've mentioned, Princess Jellyfish seems up my alley, and even the manga doesn't seem THAT long yet, even if it's still currently running, from what I can tell. At the very least the anime is short, so I'll probably give that a look along with NHK, which I was already planning on watching.

::EDIT::

I just noticed Foggle and Desensitized's comments. Based on that, I'll change it to Princess Jellyfish and School Rumble for now, and then balance that out with something that will make me feel like shit which is when I'll watch the NHK (after I finish one of the other two series), because I'm just a masochist like that.