Trigun: This is a good series. A really good series. However, I just cannot place it over Bebop. For one thing, I love Bebop’s music more and I wasn’t too big on the romantic hints. They weren’t bad, but at times I wish it wasn’t happening. Still, the characters are very likeable. Vash is a wonderful character and he’s got a nice complexity to him. Wolfwood- epitome of cool right there. He’s my Spike. A “good” guy but is a badass and has “questionable” moments. The insurance gals are funny. And Kuroneko-sama owns me. If one prefers a straightforward series where you know the true dilemma and such, this is a great series for you. This is just a nice series for all audiences.
Big O: This might be my third favorite series. I adore this series and I also love the music. Very low key and jazzy. This show is rather muted in its animation. But that’s a given due to the premise. Roger Smith is a great protagonist. He is a louse. But he’s so competent, suave, and endearingly awkward when it comes to affection. The show is very much a mind game and the second season is one big mind-f*ck. Seriously, it is. There is some minor flirting between Angel and Roger, which toes my line between tolerable and unbearable. But it’s secondary to the series as a whole (much like Trigun). Nice combat scenes and one of the best humor episodes to be seen in the second season. Just a very well put together show.
Boogiepop Phantom: If you want bleak animation, here’s the series for you. Every episode (minus the end) had a haze around the frame that made things more surreal. There are many individual stories, but there will be an element (besides the obvious) that was from a previous episode. So you go “Oh!” To be blunt, I didn’t understand a thing. It may be that I didn’t have the volume to a decent level (didn’t want to wake my parents), so I couldn’t hear all that well. I had a hard time following the overall story. Being a concrete thinker, all the abstract stuff (metaphors and the like) was completely lost on me. But, I enjoyed watching the individual stories. The slow descent into madness. This series is by no means happy. It’s confusing, brutal, morbid, gory, and gruesome. It’s also highly intriguing. I’d sit through a second viewing (minus the one episode I missed because it got a bit too gross).
FLCL: Fooly Cooly! Two words. Pure. CRACK! The end. This series is messed up, demented, and funny as hell. Don’t even bother trying to understand it. Just go along with the ride. The characters are so odd, quirky, and off-the-wall. This series has moments. The switch to manga? Great. The Lupin III sequence? Cracks my sh*t up. And how can you not love ‘Ride on Shooting Star’? Anime crack as it should be done.