I've been talking to various people this morning about Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (I've made 4 people and counting anime fans entirely off the back of that show), Moyashimon, the Odex fiasco, Key (Clannad, Air, Kanon, just started watching Air today) and wondered how much our community overlaps with it. I expect it to be a lot higher than if I polled people in the street, obviously, but it seems like a lot of people don't know about the scene at all.

My categorising there might be a bit unfair on certain shows but it shouldn't be too far out. There's a lot more obscure stuff than what I listed but I think what I did mention should be in the right range to get a feel for the demographic in general.

EDIT: Damnit, mods can't edit polls? I wanted to add cowboy bebop into the 3rd option there.
EDIT: Nm, yes we can.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu is effing awesome.

So is GitS... I really need to catch up on that. And Trigun.... And way too many other shows... le sigh.

Curse you, Shiri, for destroying my productivity.

EDIT:

Shiri says: Btw, did you ever do azumanga daioh?

Like crack cocaine, baby!

I watch stuff on DVD that people recommend/force upon me, like Fruits basket, Patlabor, and Magic Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. I also like the Hiyao Miyazake movies

I love anime. I just watch a few things that are shown on Cartoon network. The only stuff that I have that isn't on CN is Naruto (the new stuff), GetBackers, Nana and X.

I need to expand my list. Especially, since I watch at work now. My job is extremely boring and it's the only thing that keeps me going.

Starting this thread, I kind of expect this to be the second most popular response after one of the "no"s. I'm also assuming the only stuff most of the option 2s have seen is stuff like DBZ, Naruto, Butchered One Piece etc., but there you go.

In your particular case, I don't mind recommending some stuff for you if you PM me all your favourites (preferably in order) so I can try and look for the best stuff in the genres though!

I can reccomend some highly awesome stuff that does not exist in the US (and hopefully never will, because I find most English dubs to be horrible perversions of the orginal voice-acting). Yes, they come with subtitles.

Shiri's "collection" is a tad more expansive than mine, so you might also ask him for some reccomendations. World knows that's what I'm doing right now

@Shiri: The No's will come. give it time. Only what, 4 people have voted so far? One being you, the other being me. Also, you have to take into account that the majority of people clicking into a thread titled "Anime Fans" will probably be fans and thus not be a "No" option person.

For those of you voting 4-5, by the way, I need to start taking recommendations for good shoujo stuff since I have no idea how to classify it, much less how to recommend it to people enjoying things like Fruits Basket. PMs will do to avoid cluttering the thread.

EDIT: GOod point Tervic, maybe if I change the title like so it'll be at least a bit clearer.

GitS airs on "mainstream" television in the US (well, CN, which was mentioned above and you said that you were counting as mainstream), so if you leave that in its current category, it may taint your results.

Hmm, got it. I'll replace it with...Mai HiME series. Couldn't watch it myself but it's pretty popular.

EDIT: And you forgot to vote, Xenthos! Fix it.

OMG I LOVE NANA!!!

Weird, how is everyone but me into anime?

I think the current 10-to-2 ratio is 'cause I opened the poll during daylight hours, while the Americans are still asleep, but the Asians are awake and home from school/work. (Europeans are still at school/work right now so I guess they haven't voted either.)

I have 3 of the 4 listed in the last option (well, Moyashimon seems to be ongoing), so I guess I fall into that category. I don't really go out of my way to browse through anime databases, look up stuff etc. But then again, I'm not influenced by anime channels, so nothing is actually mainstream for me unless it's Naruto or Bleach which can show up on initial page of tv.com.

Truth is, the more you watch the more repetitive and cliche it gets, it's a really huge business nowadays. I somehow came to enjoy realistic or semi-realistic series the most, statistically (to name a few: Initial D, Beck, NHK ni Youkoso, GTO, Planetes).

If you count 1 in the morning as "mainstream". That they only show such awesome shows at ungodly hours really makes me sad, because it makes obtaining fansubbed versions all the more difficult due to "licensing" laws and other lame crap like that.

@Shiri: Ha, I told you the "No" votes would come in.

I voted "No, I've never/almost never seen anime" because I haven't seen a lot of it at all. I almost voted the other no, because more than half of what I have seen I didn't like... but decided that since I haven't seen that much and I did like a few of them, I went with the more optimistic No.

Oh, there's a real reason?

I always thought it was because the "I not only dislike anime, but I hate it so much that I hate you for enjoying it, with the sort of frothing-at-the-mouth screaming that comes only from closed head wounds, being a silly person who was instructed that it wasn't "cool" by someone else, or likely both" crowd latched themselves to Adult Swim when it gained in popularity, and would much rather see a re-run of "Family Guy" for the up-teenth time than something outside of their "left-overs from Fox" viewing preferences.

...how's that for a run on sentence!

...also, not that there's anything particularly wrong with Family Guy in and of itself.

But, anyway, I'm in the "US mainstream" group. Some stuff, I really like, other stuff, I really don't. Like, I never understood why FLCL is so great. Bebop is fun, Bleach is fun, I like some stuff from Naruto, but I get annoyed that with the exception of, like, Temari and the odd villian, most of the female characters are (usually) noticeably weak.

I love Paranoia Agent, and Bo bo bo.... I don't really like it per se, but I can't dislike it... if it's on, it's just so... goofy that I can't look away from the screen!

Where would, say, NGE fit in? Not really an anime fan, but I do like a few (such as FMA, and the aforementioned NGE.)

NGE falls into the category of heretically bad. You are redeemed for enjoying FMA though.

In a more serious note, I'd almost consider NGE to be approaching mainstream status in the US. True, I don't think TV stations have picked it up yet but the vast majority of anime fans that I've talked to have seen it and either love it or hate its guts.

@rainydays: I'm not quite sure what you're talking about there in your runon sentence of doom... and also, I'm just gonna cough two names at you: Tsunade and Sakura.

While Temari's weak. But now, that really depends on how far you're with the storyline.

Anyway, NGE was popular around here when there wasn't much of an anime hype yet, it was the first series I've seen actually. Liked it back then, don't have too high opinion about it nowadays though.

I voted option 1 because I haven't really seen much anime but I am actually trying to watch Evangelion at the moment (up to episode 6) although I can't actually decide whether or not I like it, it's strange stuff and from what I'm told it gets stranger.

I've personally always found it difficult to enjoy anime because it seems like some sort of fundamentally different philosophy goes into creating it than into the western shows/movies I enjoy. It's not just the animation style, which doesn't bother me tremendously, but the people who make anime clearly have a different vision of what a good show is from the people who make western shows. I think this is why I can't decide whether I like Evangelion or not, it's just so different from what I'm used to.

Mainly out of curiosity, are the devices used in scripting anime similar to American movies, or are they different? As an example, does most anime do things like using, say, scenes that don't advance the plot or particularly develop character like I've noticed Evangelion doing? I mean, in Western stuff, things that use that are the incredibly rare exception (probably the most notable of which is Pulp Fiction) rather than the rule.