Eight Animes for the Uninitiated

Now that you have met the elusive Otaku, you may be wondering how you too may become one (hmm, a lot of wishful thinking there, eh, Clyde ^^)? The world of anime can be very daunting, especially for the uninitiated. There are thousands of animes out there. The best place to start? Short animes! Those with an episode run of 13 or 26 episodes. We have a friendly guide for you here :D.
Animes and mangas come in four major categories (let me get all Jane Goodall-ey):-
• Shojo – girls
• Shonen – boys
• Josei – adult females
• Seinen- adult males

Since humor is universal, we recommend you start with the funny ones. Clicky the screen shots to go to the Official Sites to purchase them :D!

1. Ouran High School Host Club (桜蘭高校ホスト部) – a shojo anime. Haruhi Fujioka, a poor but exceptionally smart student, gains admission into the prestigious Ouran Academy. There, due to an unfortunate accident (specifically, breaking a 8 million yen vase in the Host Club Room), she has to pose as a male host to work off her debt. The story has loads humor but for me the main draw was the Bishies XD. The anime has 26 episodes and has ended its run. The manga is still ongoing. Chuang Yi distributes the English and Mandarin translation in Singapore. Viz Media does the English translation too.



2. Toradora! (とらドラ!) – A shonen anime. This anime follows the story of a Aisaka Taiga, a feisty high-schooler and Takasu Ryuuji a very yankee looking guy. Taiga, who is acutely aware of her short stature, makes up for it with a, let’s say, ferocious bite. Ryuuji, on the other hand just wants people to not run away from him because of his scary looks. The story is fluffy enough, with loads of romance and humor. This is one of the very popular school themed animes in Japan. There does not appear to be a English manga version as of now.
3. Nodame Cantabile (のだめカンタービレ) – This Josei anime follows Megumi Noda, a.k.a Nodame, an exceptional piano player and Shinichi Chiaki, an aspiring conductor. Girl meets boy, girl falls in love and though it is a familiar story, it’s got humor and a quirky charm that makes it so loveable. Music lovers will adore the soundtrack of this anime as well. The manga is serialized in English by Del Rey.
4. Genshiken – A seinen anime for us kindred Otaku souls, this story follows the lives of the members of the Gendai Shikaku Bunka Kenkyukai or “The society for the Study if Modern Visual Culture”. The members learn to accept various aspects of their Otaku-ness, be it Cosplaying or dedicating days to building GunPla. this series is packed with inside jokes and various Japanese pop culture references as well. The manga is serialized by Del Rey.


Now lets move on to the serious stuff. some folk want substance over the glitz factor. Hence, let’s look at some of the more serious animes in each of the four genres.

1. Weiß Kreuz (ヴァイスクロイツ) – This shojo series is about a group of four assasins who belong to a group called Weiß (German for White), which is owned by Kritiker, a secret subsidiary of the Japanese Police. They oddly enough, work at a flower shop ^^ and are very bishie like, hence being more of a Shojo anime instead of a Shonen one. They are all haunted by events from their past and . There are 2 anime seasons, one from 1998 and another from 2002 and a 2 episode OVA in 2000. There are 2 volumes of this manga but not in English.

2. Samurai Champloo (サムライチャンプルー) – For those looking for a super stylish anime with a killer soundtrack this one is for you. Fuu, the show’s female protagonist, ropes Mugen, 19-year-old samurai, and Jin, another samurai (a Megane Bishie that Bonnie loves :D) on a quest to find the Samurai who smells like sunflowers. The ride is excellent, with very stylistic fight sequences and Nujabes’ cool tracks. Tokyopop carries the English translation of this manga.

3. Honey and Clover (ハチミツとクローバー) – Josei manga and anime usually feature college-aged women and this one follows that trend. For those looking for a more mature kind of anime, this is perfect. It follows the lives of five college-aged friends and how they navigate life, love and other aspects of growing into (yikes!) adulthood. The story line is complex enough and there is a live action version of this so you can look that up as well. Viz Media does the English translation of this manga.
4. Mushishi (蟲師) – Seinen animes tend to be quite meditative and calmer in nature as compared to the fightsy sequences common in shonen animes. This story is about Ginko, a mushi-shi – mushi doctor, who can see these mysterious floater-like creatures called mushi. In Japanese, mushi just means bugs ^^. He travels around and helps people who are troubled by the mushi. Some of the sequences can get a tad scary but this stop itself just before things get outright scary. Del Rey carries this manga in English.


I hope you now have an idea on what to start watching from :D. we shall do more of these lists (people love lists, I think).
Please leave us your thoughts on what are some good animes to start with as well.
じゃね!{“Ja Ne!”means Bye!}