>Porco Rosso, a Princess Mononoke, and either a Totoro or a Castle In The Sky.
I strongly agree that Kurenai no buta (Porco Rosso) is a “must see”. It’s underappreciated and the female lead is more dynamic; but it’s an older simpler movie too.

Everything that Miyazaki makes is considered a classic, and Totoro and Laputa (Castle in the Sky) are probably the “most classic”. But if you aren’t a MIyazaki fan and not watching them for some other reason (i.e. you want to see a movie that every person in Japan has seen and likes) then I wouldn’t put them first.

Mononoke is… if you like Miyazaki (and I love him) then it’s a great movie. It’s not something I would inflict upon someone who is no prepared. It’s convoluted, somewhat incoherent and extremely preachy. Miyazaki makes it work and I love the movie and watched it three times in the theater but it’s an intellectual exercise (especially if you don’t speak Japanese and have to work through a translation or subtitles).

If you can only see one Miyazaki movie it has to be Sen to Chihiro (Spirited Away). It’s probably his best movie in terms of 1) totally insane stuff 2) “being locked into character development” (i.e. not letting the action or the themes of the movie overwhelm the characters and their interaction/development). Every great director makes a transcendental movie. This is his. I love that he’s still out there and making movies (I loved Howl for example) but…
…. it’ll never be better than this.
And your Bishojo leanings will feed very nicely into it I think.

If you like romantic stories you should probably consider Majo no takubin (Kiki’s Delivery Service, which would probably be one of his “classic movies everyone knows and loves” along with Totoro and Laputa/Castle in the Sky) and Mimi wo Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart), which is a minor film I suppose but very romance oriented. (Though it was still popular enough that people made him make a pseudo-sequel).

This is a controversial thing to say but…. skip Nausicaä. It’s one of his first movies and many Japanese people (like my wife) have an irrational love of it but it’s incoherent and skippable in the same way that Akira is. (i.e. it’s based on an brilliant manga and was crammed and cut into a movie… by the end they’re trying to finish so quickly that it makes no sense. I’d say more but anyway….) Read the manga, watch the movie if you’re bored or a completionist.

PS Akira is a fantastic manga; One Piece is an acquired taste, but once you’ve acquired it can be very hard to shake. (read: I like it a lot, mostly because it loves its flaws an nurtures them until they become an entire, insane, pirates-with-trippy-super-powers genre)

I do NOT have strange tastes. >_<
This list was hilarious, though. Thumbs waaay up.

You also need to remedy that Lone Wold and Cub issue…(though I think I have only made it about 10 volumes in)

@ Dalarsco: When Kodansha moved into town Dark Horse lost their Akira license…but I totally agree with you.

Also, yeah, seriously, I’ll try to watch some of the Ghibli films over xmas break (I think my local library has all of them — now i need to take advantage of that bounty!)

I usually send folks to a series a posts I did on manga for adults when I first joined the blogs:

Part one:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/02/19/manga-before-flowers-manga-for-adults/

Part two:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/02/26/manga-before-flowers-manga-for-adults-part-two/

Part three:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/03/04/manga-before-flowers-manga-for-adults-part-three/

The recommendations are divided into genre so if you happen to be a person who likes horror, you’ll find a few titles that are quite good under that genre category. I also have some posts on shojo (comics for girls) since that is one of my favorite types of manga but judging from the list of manga you’ve already read you’ll probably be more interested in action / mystery manga.

Hope this helps!

I have really only read a few manga.

I have read all the Deathnotes and have read all the Daigo! Firefighter of Company M as well as the three volumes of Cowboy Bebop.

What should I pick up next?

And ditto on the assessments of Hayate x Blade and Black Jack. I had almost skipped over Hayate but decided to give it one more shot, and was very pleasantly surprised by the first volume. It’s now on my regular reading list. And Black Jack, oh Black Jack. How I adore thee and your fantastically disgusting medical mysteries. My biggest fear is that the rumors of Vertical’s demise prove true and BJ’s release gets cut short in America…again!!

6: Gotta say THAT’s weird. Even people that dislike anime have seen at least one in my experience.

8: I do too. I’m a man though, but I know plenty of girls that despise how the characters act and some of the angst for the sake of angst of the plot. Have you seen/read Ayashi no Ceres? Seems it’s better, though with even more drama.

16: Nothing wrong with that, the pacing of the show was awful during the first season (I assume you mean up to the incident with Diva in the ship as first season). Since it was building characterization, some episodes had nothing happen and were growing stale. But second season has a “Boss Rush”, leaving you in your seat due to non-stop action and plot resolution. And the ending was beautiful.

I’m a bit behind on my manga reading, but I’m working on PARASYTE now. I have some VAGABOND vol’s sittign around, but I’ll now have to start stocking up on REAL too!

“20. I’ve only read the first two volumes of Lone Wolf & Cub and the first collection of Akira. This needs to be rectified immediately.”

Yes, that you get a slap on the wrist for! Ask for some of these for x-mas!