I just acquired the first of the three intended movie adaptations, and I'm looking forward to watching it this weekend. I haven't read any of the manga (which gets nothing but praise) which I've heard seriously hurts the movies ability to entertain.

And keeping in the "harem" vein, I thought Martian Successor Nadeshiko was a great series as well. I saw it way after it came out, and it did feel a little dated but still a good sci-fi with some light harem rom-com stuff thrown in. Worth checking out in my opinion.

>>Nerd Paragon

Not really jumping off points but,
A few more recent series worth checking out are, in my opinion:

Tenchi Muyo was favorite for a long time. The most recent related series was a good little piece of mindless entertainment.

Finally Honneamise gets a mention.

Monster (both the anime and the manga) were great. But damn is it a long series. I first began watching it at ep.13 on Japanese tv and I thought I was coming in a the halfway point. 60 episodes later…

"As our culture slooowwwly edges into the idea that occasionally animation might be appropriate for adult audiences too…"
It might actually be preferable that animation hasn't quite yet become totally mainstream. Shifting throught the piles and piles of utter crap anime that gets produced every year, hoping to find…

Outlaw Nation
It would probably work better as an tv-series than a movie but I think could be adapted well. I mean sex, drugs, violence and redneck-y outlaw chic, audiences still go for that stuff right?

If you're gonna go with a Tomine work I think "Short Comings" would make a good "small indy movie."

And you know, I was totally against chu-hi up until my last year in Japan.
Suddenly it hit me, the yuzu flavor chi-hi that is; it cost less than beer and it gets me just as drunk and it has a very nice taste. Not a beer taste, but a nice taste nonetheless.

Oh no, don't explode internet!

Ready for a heaping helping of pedantic bullshit? OK!

Osamu Tezuka
Even though his name is pretty much synonymous with manga (and by extension anime), none of his supposedly profound, epic works (Phoenix, Buddha, Adolf et. al) do a thing for me.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot that Maggie Cheung was in it. In all three she was Jackie's girlfriend who was always falling down for some reason.

Yeoh
Forget Police Story 3, Wing Chun has all the Yeoh I'll ever need (even if the plot and some of acting is kinda of crap).

The Cove
Here's little background reading for anyone who's interested:
http://search.japantimes.co…

Umm…isn't it "madness," not "magic," that Maiden was asking about?