forestofglory

I agree, having local friends to share media with is marvelous; I am always on the search for more. I hope you may find some soon, if your life has room for them.

Revolutionary Girl Utena is hands down my favourite anime of all-time -- I have seen it all the way through 3 times, I think, and then most of the way through a few more. They were rereleased a while back but they can be expensive on DVD -- oh, but they are available streaming on Amazon, if you do streaming?

As for recommendations... Princess Tutu is somewhat in the same vein as Utena, except where Utena starts with shoujo tropes using fairy-tale icing, Tutu is really more about fairy tales and also about ballet. I did not fall in love with it the way I did Utena, but I liked it very much and although it pushes the edges, I feel like it is more gentle. It is on Amazon and Hulu.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is another one akin to Utena, it is magical girls a la Sailor Moon except turned inside-out; I do not want to say too much because of spoilers, but it is harrowing in the ways it takes the genre furniture and considers what else might be done with it. I loved the craft of it; the story is perfectly put together so that all the pieces fit, and the animation is stunning -- there are different styles for different parts of the world and they worked really, really well for me. I am less certain what I think of the ending, but I am very, very glad I watched it, and writing about it now I am feeling the urge to go dip back into it, just because it was so good -- but good as art more than entertainment, if that makes any sense? It raises a lot of questions and I am not certain I agree with some of them, or with some of the answers, but I liked the experience of it.

Oh and finally, did you hear about the new Fruits Basket anime? I saw the first two episodes this past weekend and I am so, so pleased with them. I did not watch the original anime, long ago, I had heard it was too different from the manga, so I am excited it is getting a treatment that the author likes.

If you do watch (or rewatch) any of these, I hope you write about them here.

(It occurs to me that if you were at FogCon, we must be semi-demi-hemi-local to one another?)