Kind of a loaded question, but I was wondering if people would be willing to suggest some of their favourite anime/manga/books(?) that fit in the Anima? I've been a fan of anime for a long time, but have little experience/exposure to the fantasy side; most of my interest has been in mecha and cyberpunk. My initial thoughts for anime were Record of Lodoss War (more DnD?) and Escaflowne; what about series like Code Geass and Claymore?

Thanks in advance,

AJC

Though neither Manga or Anime, I am currently reading The Broken Sky trilogy by Chris Wooding and it has a strong Escaflowne/Anima vibe - www.chriswooding.com/brokensky_book.html . Though young adult fiction, it is well written and quite meaty (over 1,000 pages long).

Scrapped Princess is a decent anime show with a fantasy Anima vibe.

Also Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children is a decent fantasy anime movie, though perhaps a little on the hi tech side. Other movies that are of interest: Escaflowne and Tales of Earthsea.

Thanks for the suggestions - never heard of The Broken Sky - definitely looks like something worth checking out. I'd forgotten about Advent Children and Scrapped Princess - saw them a couple of years ago and quite enjoyed both ( Scrapped Princess more so).

How "hi-tech" is Escaflowne? I've seen bits here and there, but can't really remember. Never hear of Tales of Earthsea ; something else to go and research.

Thanks again,

AJC

Escaflowne has a pretty good mix of tech that can match Anima pretty well. Its mostly fantasy with swords etc but there are sky ships, zeppelins, tracked vehicles etc. IIRC the movie is slightly higher tech than the series. It also has a good mix of characters and even some Nephilim like ideas.

FWIW the series is good, but I am a bigger fan of the movie. Its probably the best example of big budget anime fantasy IMO and the cloest thing to how I would like to see my Anima games go.

With very little customization(like forgetting the magic and psi for the most part), it fits perfectly with Naruto or bleach. including every rules, it's marvelous for Tsubasa Chronicles. With mainly summoning, it can be used for Fate Stay Night or maybe Rozen Maiden. Final fantasy 8/9/12 need almost no adaptation. For FF7/9, maybe a little bit more, but not necessarily. You can also try a kingdom hearts-like adventure of course.

I'm a manga-newbie ^^ but I agree Moklo on the Final Fantasy games and movies. The "hi-tech" level is different, but ambiance, mood, scenario-type fit perfectly.

I can advice Hayao Myazaki movies for the global mood, as Princess Mononoke, Howl's moving castle, Spirited away, Laputa : Castle in the sky, etc. (didn't knew the english names, thanks to Wikipedia ^^)

And Moklo made me watch "xxxHolic" (same studio as Tsusuba Chronicles) and it's good

Again, thanks for the suggestions. Definitely have enough ideas to fill up some Christmas lists...

AJC

Well, it really depends on you preference as well. You can pick up on Cardcaptor Sakura for its summoning aspect if you have not already. And just for the lulz, me and my friends are trying to do a Yu-Gi-Oh Anima conversion.

Anyway, here are some of my recommendation

Flame of Recca

MAR ( Märchen Awakens Romance )

Groove Adventure Rave

For a more lighthearted take on what it would be like to be dealing with power on the Anima level I would recomend the Disgaia series.

For the whole fantastic world that also has a much darker side(all that technomagicky stuff) that is only known about to a select few, the original Xenogears game for the playstation is probably the best possible example.

Zombie Powder, its just plain cool and not enough people know that Tite Kubo did something before Bleach. Over the top martial arts and etc.

Music wise-anything epic, light techno, celtic music, flamenco or classical spanish guitar.

As a side note, in another thread they mention "Lost Loggia"s this brings to mind Magical Lyrical Nanoha. Which is a very cute series (though as silly as it sounds it is good) to start off, but the last one, Strikers, was much less cute.

Berserk would also be cool anime to watch, though it does not encompass entire comic book series.

There is a great variety of material available that captures the aspects of Anima :

1. Witch Hunter Robin (Anime); a lot more hi-tech than Anima but captures the duality of the Inquisition in hunting Witches (Humans with psychic abilities) using Hunters (Humans also with psychic abilities). It also has the underlying story of an ancient race that ruled humanity (Witches). All in all, fun to watch.

2. Princess Mononoke (Movie); awesome movie that captures the advent of technology present in Anima with the arival of blackpowder weapons in a feudal Japanese setting. It is definitely more fantasy set then Anima but it shows Humans and the way they interact with the Spirit world, (aka. Fear, revulsion, outright hostility, etc.)

3.As noted above, the Final Fantasy game series is great in that it combines epic storylines, heroes with incredible abilities and over the top action sequences. Plus. a majority of the games have some dealing with a Spirit-world or dimension parallel to that which is normally percieved.(Much like Hell in Anima ) And most importantly, Big swords being used one-handed!!! (Strength 10 is awesome!!)

I look forward to finding everything else that has been posted here, it all sounds very interesting. Thanks for reading!!

For the anamie inspired you could watch Last Exile.

Alexi

A bit obscure series wise but Utawarerumono is a good anime to watch for ideas.

The old Chrono Trigger game, originally for the SNES and rereleased for the PS1, also has some great character ideas and special attack fodder.