Anime'ated!

The Japanese industry seems to be churning out anime after anime like hot cakes! Yes I am talking about those animated series where in you can see protagonists with weird hairdos, girl characters with incredible bosoms and stories with outlandish plots. First impression of any anime in any person's mind is definitely going to be a resolve- not to touch it with a barge pole. But appearances are deceptive. Some of the anime generated by the Japanese people have taken storytelling, direction and animation to an entirely different plane.

Death Note

It does take some time getting used to the language which is primarily Japanese. But the charm vanishes if you go for watching dubbed episodes in English. So it is always recommended to go for the subtitled episodes. They explore a myriad of areas like fantasy, thriller, suspense, mystery, drama etc. and they handle all pretty well. A case in point is Desu Noto or Death Note, an anime which I consider the best out there. It is not your typical Duck tales cartoon sort of thing. It is dark and gloomy and is likely to give chills even to the adults, let alone the small ones. An intelligent cunning high school boy comes across a supernatural notebook. The one whose name is written inside the notebook will die. There are rules to use the book. But such an absurd storyline is taken to such elevated dimensions of superiority with incredible characterization, soulful direction and brain-racking situations created that are likely to considerably improve your gray cells. A simple act of writing things in a notebook assumes marvelous stylized proportions as the protagonist sets out to rid the world of all the sinners and pen their names in the infamous Death Note. A battle of wits ensues when he locks horns with another teenager who possesses remarkably similar intelligence skills. Each episode is a gem in itself and I highly recommend the stuff to the uninitiated.

Detective Conan

There are also a lot of themes inside anime which are related to the detective stories genre. Meitantei Conan or Detective Conan is an outlandish story of a teenager whose body has shrunk to that of a kid. He retains his deductive powers though and starts solving crimes in increasingly unbelievable situations and getting out through tight corners, by knocking out his girlfriend's detective father with a dart and impersonating his voice through his very own gadget. But the cases depicted are so intriguing and multifaceted it takes several viewings to understand the tricks the criminal employs to clear the blame off himself/herself. The clues revealed appear too random and irrelevant until Conan arranges all of them step by step and spells out a brilliant deduction spellbinding everyone present. Almost all amongst nearly 600 episodes are of a very high quality and that is indeed a startling accomplishment. As the show is aimed for young audiences, you may find yourself losing patience in some parts but trust me once you move to the actual suspense, it will all be more than compensated for! Another cousin of this genre from Japan is the Detective School Q. Although all the cases here also are pretty tough, a couple of episodes are just too good. Especially the séance murder case has a truly disturbing and unexpected revelation at the end which helps catapult Detective School Q into one of the better animes out there. Some childishness and tom-foolery is present here too though.

I have watched limited anime series so my article might seem misleading. But I have got inputs from so many friends that confirms the fact that indeed, most of the Japanese anime out there are pretty good. For some one who doesn't want to take the leap and start watching these intelligent works of art from Japan impeded by the garish nature and the language barrier present, I will say you are missing out on something on the good things to watch part! Do it, take a leap of faith and you won't regret it!

Recommended anime: Death Note, Detective Conan, Detective School Q, Berserk, Avatar:The Last Airbender (non-Japanese but anime-style), Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach.

A list by genre and with short synopses: Anime for Newcomers