| This famous post-apocalyptic series is set 30 years after WWIII in neo-Tokyo. Some reform school boys accidentally meet up with a ghostly boy with strange powers. It soon becomes clear that there are several similar people, and that the government is either creating or suppressing them, probably both. One of the hoodlum boys starts to manifest powers himself and is captured and tested. Ominous beginning of an ominous cyberpunk series, in which Akira is the invisible leader who plans to rule the world. | |
| Alita (Gally in Japan) is a cyborg who was found in pieces by a cyborg doctor. She has no memory of her past life, but still remembers the deadly battle art of Panzer Kunst. Now she roams the bleak Scrapworld and dreams of living in the utopian sky-city of Tiphares above. Meanwhile, she gets in lots of really violent fights. Since she is indestructible, she must endure the deaths of all her friends, and her world gets more and more bleak. |  |
| Dragonball/Dragonball Z by Akira Toriyama Gokuu is from a race that is trying to destroy all humans, but he switches sides. The extremely long storyline covers many years, so you'll see Gokuu as a boy and as a man with his own son. Everyone is trying to find and get the Dragonballs; once you collect seven, you can have a wish--but never the same one twice. However, what with all the fighting and killing along the way, the characters usually use the wish to bring someone back to life, and wind up back where they started. DB is the name of the original manga series and the spinoff anime. DBZ is the name of the second anime series, and is never applied to manga unless the manga is a collection of anime pictures. There are also movies, which don't quite belong to the storyline. |  |
| A romantic adventure fantasy in which Hitomi, a schoolgirl, runs into Van, the young dragon-killer king of Fanelia. They are both transported to Van's world, called Gaea. Fanelia is almost immediately attacked by invisible enemies. Everyone fights with Guymelef, huge armored robot suits--Escaflowne is the king's Guymelef, which also transforms into a dragon. They escape to another kingdom, which is then attacked too. It appears that the floating Empire city is behind the attacks--and the adventures begin. Hitomi regularly has visions and foretells the future with Tarot cards. |  |
| This is the story of a fifteen year-old girl named Miaka, a junior high student getting ready for high school examinations. She and her friend, Yui, visit the library, where they discover an old Chinese book called The Universe of the Four Gods and are pulled in. There, they are saved from slavers by a boy with 'Ogre' (oni) written on his forehead. Yui mysteriously disappears in a red light and finds herself back in the library.... without Miaka. The story begins of Suzaku no Miko, the girl who appears to open the portals to another world and acquire the divine powers of Suzaku. She is destined to be the savior of the other world. |  |
| This series is culturally fairly equivalent to 'Star Trek' in the US. It's been running for over 20 years and is incredibly popular. At the beginning of the Universal Century, mankind has moved into space, inhabiting giant revolving space cylinders. Hostility develops between those in space and those on the planet, which leads to a 14 year war that devastates humanity. Two forces vie for the fate of mankind. Using giant, anthropomorphic robots called Mobile Suits (you'll see a lot of these in various series), the Federation and the Jion battle in space. Two pilots, Amuro Rey and Char Anzable, wind up changing history. |  |
| Maison Ikkoku by Rumiko Takahashi Maison Ikkoku is a shabby apartment building where a bunch of eccentric people live. Yusaku, a student, is in love with the beautiful manager, Kyoko, who is a recent widow and in no mood for love-yet. He and the tennis coach Shun vie for her affection, and the other residents can't resist meddling--hilarity ensues! |  |
| This is a good story for all ages by the author of 'My neighbor Totoro' and 'Kiki's delivery service.' It's a post-post apocalyptic setting, where the dwindling population of humans tries to keep centuries-old ships running and an empire still wages violent war. Nausicaa is a princess of a tiny valley city near the Sea of Corruption, a huge fungal forest that covers much of the earth and exudes a poisionous miasma. Nausicaa, who can communicate with animals, discovers that the forest exists to purify the earth and is slowly working its way through the poisons from the great wars. However, it turns everything to sand and is hopsitable only to insects. Her destiny is to save humanity and the earth. |  |
| A 'science-fiction extravaganza,' this series is more about feelings and trust than giant robots. People use 'evas,' biomechanical robot suits, to fight 'angels,' which are really enemy alien biomechanical robots. The long storyline is is one of the most complex and difficult to understand in anime, and the ending (which reminded me of '2001's ending) doesn't make things much clearer. |  |
| This popular series revolves around Tenchi, a boy who stupidly opens a hidden shrine, releasing the demon/space pirate Ryoko, who has been trapped on Earth for the past 700 years. She takes up residence with Tenchi-she likes making his life miserable, and loves him too, but since she's a sadist, that's not very helpful. Pretty soon, other alien women show up to plague him and the fun continues in a 'Three's company' scenario (a popular setup in manga, where an unassuming regular guy is surrounded by strong, havoc-wreaking women). The title is a cute 3-way pun--'Tenchimuyo' means, depending on how you read it, 'Useless Tenchi,' 'This way up' (his life is upside-down) and 'heaven and earth' (demons and people). |  |
| Keiichi summons a goddess when he meant to order a pizza. Belldandy moves in with her two sisters and the fun and mischief begins. The whole thing is based on the world being a computer program structured after Norse mythology--The Yggdrasil System is the main tool which God (Kami-sama) uses to help run the World. It sometimes gets bugs--real ones. Like bugs/viruses found in some computer programs, they occasionally cause the Yggdrasil System to crash. This causes "unsolved mysteries" now and then. The goddesses (the Norns) help Kami-sama in running and maintaining the System. Urd, the sexy sister, is a sysadmin. Skuld, the bratty younger sister, is a debugger--literally "squashing" the bugs when they appear with her mallet or capturing them using a special device she invented. The markings on the goddesses' foreheads contain programs which define their domains and powers (and evoke the Buddhist third eye of wisdom). The goddesses maintain a constant link to the Yggdrasil system, so if it goes haywire, so do the programs in the markings, which affects the goddesses. This series is often known as AMG. |  |
| This odd little series involves a nun, Sister Angela, and a young boxer, Kosaku Hatanaka. Sister Angela is a sort of mascot for Kosaku, who eats too much and can't keep his weight down. He loves her, but she is conveniently unattainable. The whole thing is really weird, since she worries about him all the time instead of doing nun things and tends to announce that the Lord will forgive him for losing a match. Note: Keep in mind that Japanese view Christianity just as Westerners think of pantheistic religions: suspect and perhaps a bit occult. In many series, when a character wears a cross, it's a hint that he has supernatural powers. |  |
| This hugely popular series is based on the Nintendo video game. Ash Ketchum is determined to be the best Pokemon trainer ever, so he wanders around with his friends looking for Pokemon to catch and store in the red and white Pokeballs. There are 150 Pokemon, and if you take good care of them, they'll evolve into a higher version of themselves (Charmander will become Charmeleon and have more powers). Pokemon are not always animals--there are plant, mineral, gaseous, and ghost Pokemon as well. Trainers set their Pokemon to battle each other. Ash has a sidekick, the Pokemon Pikachu, a sort of electric tabby mouse, and they have adventures. Team Rocket--Jessie, James, and Meowp--are the bad guys. This series is a brilliant marketing scheme--the ultimate 'collect them all' ploy. |  |
| Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi "The story of a boy who turns into a girl--a man who turns into a panda--and the weird Chinese curse what did it to 'em!" Ranma and his dad show up at the Tendo Anything Goes Martial Arts School so Ranma's marriage can be arranged with one of the Tendo girls. The tomboyish Akane gets stuck with him, but he keeps turning into a girl, and various people keep falling in love with each of them, and lots of karate and romantic comedy is the result. This is a really funny manga, especially some of the karate; look for it at your local library. |  |
| Robotech/Macross One of the first mecha series to hit the US, this long-running series is set after WWIII, when giant aliens come to invade Earth. Giant robot suits help humans to battle the aliens, and this is the story of the people who try to save the Earth. |  |
| Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki This is a Meiji-era (late 1800's) samurai series about Kenshin, who is a wanderer trying to come to terms with his violent past. He believes it is unnecessary to kill and tries to live a quiet life, but constantly runs into old acquaintances who won't let him. His friends try to support him in his new lifestyle. |  |
| You may have seen this hugely popular shojo series on TV or in your library. Serena is a 14-year old student who just wants to play video games and eat ice cream. Only it turns out that she is the reincarnation of the Moon Princess, whose Moon Kingdom was destroyed by the Negaverse long ago. Now she must fight the Negaverse and reclaim her destiny. Her cat, Luna, helps, and gradually she collects her fellow Sailor Scouts (Sailors Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc.), and finds her true love, Damien/Tuxedo Mask. They all gain powers and fight the Negaverse (at the end, all the Scouts except Sailor Moon are killed--in English, they're 'captured'). You can find tons of fan websites on Sailor Moon, and at conventions, many of the costumed people will be dressed as her. Serena is known as 'Bunny' (Usagi) in the manga, since the Japanese see a rabbit--not a face--in the moon. |  |
| Slayers by Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi The first anime series to debut in the US (that wasn't chopped up and passed off as American, like G-force and others were), and still one of the most popular, this is a sword-and-sorcery story chronicling the adventures of a powerful teenage sorceress named Lina Inverse. |  |
| Urusei yatsura (Those obnoxious aliens)/Lum by Rumiko Takahashi The prolific author's first series involves Lum, an alien who shows up and challenges Earth to a game of tag. Ataru, a sex-crazed boy, accepts the challenge when his girlfriend Shinobu says she'll marry him if he wins. He has to grab Lum's horns, or the aliens will take over the Earth. He wins, but in the process Lum thinks he proposed to her and moves in with him. Add more space princesses and some other 'obnoxious aliens' to the mix, and typical sex comedy fun ensues. The 'aliens' are based on Japanese oni (demons), which wear tigerskin loincloths, and you'll find that Lum's high-school friends are all either demons or gods. |  |
| You're under arrest!/Taiho Shichauzo by Kosuko Fujishimo This goofy girl-cop show by the author of AMG features two policewomen, Miyuki and Natsumi, who are partners, and the rest of the station. Miyuki is the calm, intellectual type with long hair, and Natsumi is the wild type with short hair. They drive around very fast and arrest odd criminals. Beware--although they're tough, they are very girly girl cops, and have been known to rescue kittens while others get the bad guys. |  |
