TI: The Infolink Recommends [G-L]

Welcome to the second installment of the first-ever "The Infolink Recommends", a four-part collection of commentary revolving around the best in animation as written by members of the Toonami Infolink community. This guide should be helpful in finding that next "big" show we all strive to watch, or perhaps confirm the existence of a show casually mentioned by a friend or acquaintance in the past that may have gotten your interest. We've done our best in suiting this list for the newbie to the world of animation as well as those who believe they've seen everything the genre has to offer.

Part 2 houses one of the biggest animation franchises in existence, as the saga that is Gundam clocks in at the most talked-about series in the database. At the very least, be sure to look into GTO, Love Hina, and Lupin the 3rd if you haven't already...


G - H - I - J - K - L


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G

Giant Robo

- Giant Robo - This is another Magna release that was a remake of an old series. Much like Kikaider and Cyborg 009, but this one is KICK ASS. This story had me gripped from beggining to end and the fights have to be some of the best animated and most extrordinary I've ever seen. Whether is was person to person or machine to machine the fights are just great. The animation is on the top of the scale and the music is always rivting. There's no reason that you should[n't] take a look at this one. (Zechs)

Gokudo

- Gokudo- It's quite juvenile, but if Jay Ward had been Japanese, this would have been "Fractured Fairy Tales". From "The Prince and the Pauper" thru "Journey to the West" and the "Bodhisattva", a bunch of (primarily) eastern folk tales get turned on their ear just for laughs. (Nobuyuki)

Golden Boy

- Golden Boy 1, 2, 4, 5 - It's for the perverted comedy and nothing else. It has decent animation genreally but the style tends to switch to match/oppose a mood so often it can't be considered consistant int he least. I leave out 3 and 6 from the list on account that they do not follow the standards set by the other GB's and just aren't nearly as entertaining. (Andromaton)

Gravitation

- Gravitation - It may be about two gay guys, but there's so much more. It's about a band. It's about Shuichi and Yuki. It's about friends and relationships. And it's funny. BMS all over the place. Watch it. This is the last one I'm typing, and I want to stop. So I'll leave it at that. (AdmiralGreer)

GTO/Great Teacher Onizuka

- GTO - Quite possibly the funniest anime ever. Even more so then Love Hina. There's no way to say otherwise. You have a 22 year old horny ex-biker virgin being a teacher- how can that not be great? Onizuka is the ultimate hero throughout it- helping the nerdy/low self confidence students, hitting on the class "punk"'s mother, messing around with the other teachers... There's no end to the chaos, yet there's a reason for all of it. The series is great, but the manga is better, and the live action version is as good as the anime. (AdmiralGreer)

- Great Teacher Onizuka-An anti-hero like Lupin, Onizuka may be crude, loud and obnoxious, but his heart is in the right place. He wants nothing more than to become the best teacher ever, winning over his class of bullying delinquents one-by-one with nothing more than his unique sense of integrity and idealism about how student-teacher relationships should be. He's the kind of teacher my high-school friends and I imagined WE would want to be if we ever grew up. (Nobuyuki)

Gunbuster

- Gunbuster- I'm betting no one has heard of this. Well that's a problem. This has been hailed as the greatest robot show ever and I agree. THe story will make you feel the passion of the characters and cry by the end. It's only on VHS because there's a rumor that MANGA lost the masters to it and havn't released a dvd yet. You can however get a bootleg dvd but I've heard the subtitles are all engrish. (Zechs)

Gundam

- Gundam (UC series/movies) - I love the military, and Gundam is not only great for mecha fans, but military fans as well. There aren't any aliens, super robots(unless you count the Gundam-type suits), or even a defined good and bad side. With Gundam, you get humans fighting each other- and starting off with a bang by blasting half the human race. The series is fun to watch, but does indeed show the horrors caused by war- and not even children are safe from them. It features the best hero/villian ever, in the form of Char Aznable. The mecha design is second only to Macross, and indeed, the chief difference between Gundam and Macross (besides aliens) is the focus of Macross on the characters, while Gundam is a little bit more heavy on the overall war(s). In fact, the only reason I don't rank Gundam at #3 is the VF-1 from SDF Macross- it beats out an RX-79(G) for best mass produced mecha unit in my book. (AdmiralGreer)

- Gundam 0080 - A short OVA with great characters and what I found to be a very unexpected ending. (JJc14)

- Gundam: The 08th MS Team - One of the few series I own the entire collection of. I'm sick of typing so let's just say..OMGWTF TIS SEREIS iS G00D!!!!!! (Zechs)

- MS Gundam: 08th MS Team - Hands down, my favorite series. Astounding animation quality, complex story, multi-layered characters, and it is the quintessential example of the motto of the Gundam Universe: "In war, there are no winners." (Force-Attuned_Krogoth)

- Gundam 08th MS Team. Same reasons as FAK, basically. Some of the realest characters I've ever encountered. (John_Bono_Smithy_Satchmo)

- Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team - Taking place during the One Year War, the 08th MS Team OVA takes the outer space, aerial battles down to Earth (literally). Shiro Amada and his crew take on ground missions in a brewing battle for land between the Federation and Zeon. A chance encounter between Shiro and Aina, a high-ranking Zeon officer, sets the stage for the second half of the series, which is full of suspenseful twists and turns. (JJc14)

- Gundam SEED - It's not over in Japan and the fast fansubs are awful, but it's still one of the better AU series created. If it continues the way it is now, it could beat out Gundam X as my favorite AU Gundam after it's completion. SEED is kind of a cross of the original MSG and Wing. Like Wing with all the well designed Gundams(the only part of that series I liked) and like MSG in the initial story and the primary battleship. It brings back the gritty feeling of war that many AU series have passed over and brought in great mecha. The characters aren't bad either, and you wonder what some of them plan to do later in the series. And you can't forget the OP/EDs. The second ED sucks, but the first one and the first three OPs have been great. Especially the thrid OP, sung by Nami Tamaki- only 14 years old when she recorded it She's awesome. So is her song. (AdmiralGreer)

- Gundam Wing- Yes, everyone knew I was going to say it, but it's not like I put it that high on the list. With GW you either love it or hate it. Much of this is due to a group of people who choose to bash the series and everyone else jumped on the bandwagon without even arguing. The show does have a plot..a very deep one that many people would rather just ignore than try to figure out. War can not be brought to an end by dictators or by destroying all the weapons. The only way to end wars is to erase the feeing in people hearts and to remind them of the horror of war and that is the only way they will remember. The angst does get overblown here and there and and yes the mechs do seem way too powerful. This was the anime that blew me away and helped to finnaly show me that these shows are on a completely different level. (Zechs)

- Gundam X - Unlike Wing (kiddie show) and G (weirdness), X feels... Better. When all but less then 200 million humans have been killed, you know something's up. X has a great main character who tries to stay positive and not turn into a whiney b|tch like many UC main guys turn into. The story is good, even though some things could have been expanded more - 39 eps doesn't do this series justice (I blame Evangelion and Wing). It does de-humanize the enemy by never flashing to enemy pilots in their cockpits, but that flaw can be overlooked by an otherwise good execution. (AdmiralGreer)

- Any Gundam Series- The long running mecha series has alot of good Series and some not so good. (Green-Bird)


H

His And Her Circumstances/Kare Kano

- His and Her Circumstances- A well-written (for the most part) high-school romance that calls to mind the early John Hughes films, mainly "Sixteen Candles", but also "Pretty in Pink". The biggest drawbacks are too many recap episodes and a rushed non-ending brought on by budget shortfalls and early series cancellation. Still worth watching, even episode 19, the infamous "paper-doll" episode. Once again proving that if the writing and performances are great, it doesn't matter what medium the story's told in. You can see a little seed of the future FLCL's wackiness begin to sprout. The Evangelion riffs are cute, too. (Nobuyuki)


I

Initial D

- Initial D - It's Initial D. Even though I have very little interest in driving, I was hooked on the series after the first episode. The characters are great - you either like them, or love to hate 'em. There aren't any true "villians" although a few come close. The animation and CG races are simple, but convey the excellent story well (and this improves in the second season, OVA, movie, and takes a bigger leap in the TV special). Too bad Tokopop is screwing the whole thing over. This series(including OVA, movie, etc) has everything - characters, action(races), and one of the best god dang soundtracks ever. (AdmiralGreer)

Inuyasha

- Inuyasha- Another Takahashi Rumiko work. I started watching the English dub, then I got the official subbed episodes from the video store, and lately I've been keeping up with the official manga at Sengoku-o-Togi Zoushi. It's not really all that original, but I stil like it. I like the romantic couples it has also, and the music's not terrible either. (Tempest)

- Inuyasha - Well-developed characters and a little bit of everything has maintained my interest in what I've seen of the first half of this series. (JJc14)

Irresponsible Captain Tylor/The Irresponsible Captain Tylor

- The Irresponsible Captain Tylor- My #2 all-time favorite, part-M*A*S*H, part-Star Trek, a little Animal House, lots of funny and exploring the themes of questioning authority and social nonconformity, while still maintaining a sense of moral decency. (Nobuyuki)

- see also: "El-Hazard"


J

[No Entries]


K

Kare Kano
- see: "His And Her Circumstances"

Kenshin
- see: "Rurouni Kenshin"
- see also: "Samurai X"


L

Lain
- see: "Serial Experiments Lain"

Lodoss War
- see: "Record Of Lodoss War"

Love Hina

- Love Hina - I'm a sucker for cute, love stories. But this show is more than that. The characters, which could easily become typical, typecast characters, are memorable - ESPECIALLY the supporting people (Shinobu, Mutsumi, Kaolla, others). The slapstick humor, which I'm not terribly fond of in series like this, was not distracting - as a matter of fact, it was awesome! And come on...ya gotta love the weird obsession with turtles in the show (Hot Springs Tama, Mecha Tama, Ancient Turtle civilizations, etc.). Not to mention, some of my favorite single episodes in anime come from this series...including THE best Christmas special I've seen. (TheWorldWeKnow)

- Love Hina - Like TWWK I'm a sucker for those cute love stories. >_ Love Hina represents the dream of many young(and old ) men. Being surrounded by a bunch of young girls, all of them the right age. And of course they can all kick your a$$. This series goes everywhere, but there's almost always a laughable situation or gag. There are few better ways to relax then watching a Love Hina episode, including the Christmas and Spring specials. Forget the OVA though. It's okay, but kinda creepy. And Keitaro's new glasses don't fit him at all. (AdmiralGreer)
- Love Hina- Greer sent me a couple eps a while a back and since then it's been one of my favorite series. One of the first anime to every actually make me fall on the floor laughing with Keitaro being the reason. The boy has the best and worst luck of just about any anime character and even though he's a litle more perverted than Tenchi he's still awesome. (Zechs)

Lupin/Lupin The 3rd/Lupin III/Rupan/Rupan III

- Lupin III: Caslte of Cagliostro - Ya I know everyone likes this. Well I'm no exception. Lupin is at his best in this movie and it tops pretty much everything I've seen to date without giant robots, demons, or complicated love triangles. He's just a normal dude who can do just about anything. It's bond, but better. No question. (Zechs)

- Lupin III- Personality-wise Lupin is basically the Japanese equivalent to Bugs Bunny. The classic series may be dated and the newer stories less entertaining, but even mediocre Lupin is better than at least 60% of the stuff on US prime-time TV. God help me, I do love it so. (Nobuyuki)
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Added: March 29th 2004
Reviewer: JJc14
Score:
Related Link: Top Ten Anime-- Or Recommendations
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