I LUV ANIME

I'm currently in watching BLEACH, which I have to admit, took me a while to get in to. I actually started watching it on Adult Swim (Cartoon Network), I believe, in the second season. I ended up catching up with reruns that they, thankfully, ran at the end of the second season so I caught up pretty quickly. I love Ichigo's transformation over time. He went from being a soft hearted kid who could see spirits and was a little awkward, to being a complete warrior and defender of his friends. My only complaint is that the seasons are short and the episodes aren't long.

There are so many that i've loved, but I am only going to list some of my favorites here:

This is my all-time favorite, EXO-SQUAD. I remember it from the early 90's when I first started watching sci-fi fantasy cartoons. This is considered a cartoon and not anime, because it was done in America for American television. But it was done in early anime style. The story was similar in theme to the 80's mini series and current readapted series V. Neosapiens, genetically engineered to be a slave race on their planet, arrive on Earth to to try to take over and make it their home with humans as the slaves. A a small group of humans and Neospaiens fight using Exo Suits that they control by being jacked in to the suits at the base of the skull. Think, people jacked inside Transformer robots.

My next favorite is the short lived WOLF'S RAIN, but full series, about wolves, who have survived the apocalypse and have developed the ability to telepathically make human's believe they are human as well. But one wolf doesn't want this for their lives. He wants to live as he was and believes they shouldn't be among the humans in society.

Beautiful to watch and poetic in a lot of ways.

When FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST ended, I was sad. I thought it was great writing, great adventure and the brotherly dedication between Edward and Alphonse was special to the story. I loved the mix between old and new, making the show very steampunk. It was fun when the series took them to an alternate reality where there was no sorcery and magic. They were able to see how they would grow like regular boys. How their lives could be versus how it was.

MOBILE SUIT: GUNDAM SEED is probably the most full sweeping of the anime series that I like. It show's how economics, bigotry and one act of violence can throw an entire planet and it's people into turmoil. The Naturals are basically afraid and a little jealous of the Coordinators, genetically enhanced and selected before birth. Causing a full out war when The Naturals believe the Coordinators are going to take over. My only problem with this series is that it ended on television before the series ended and the complete sequel is hard to get on DVD. I've yet to be able to see the full story.

This is the series based on the Anime film BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE, where Saya has come out of hibernation after many years. She is being raised by a man with his two adopted sons. She has no memory of who or what she is until she's attached, at school, by a shape shifting chiropteran. Her surrogate father is later killed and she and her adoptive brothers are taken in and trained by her previous handlers while she slowly tries to recover her memories. Great action, great music and really cool story. I highly recommend watching the original animated film, the series and even the live action version of the animated film.

There are many other anime series I could recommend, and may in the future, but these are my favorites.