This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.

What Anime Should I Buy for my Library?

edited June 2011 in Anime
I have a request that I think some of you might be willing to consider:

I'm making a list of anime that we don't own, that we should buy, for the library system I work in. I already spent some money I had discretionary use of to buy: Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the second part of the new Evangelion remake, Akira, Escaflowne, 5 cm Per Second and The Place Promised in Our Early Days, Millennium Actress, They Were Eleven, and Full Metal Panic. You might recognize that a lot of these were taken from the "Anime You Should See" panel Scott and Rym have done before.

Right now, I'm working my way through another list of anime, recommendations to the person in charge of using the rest of our budget this year, and I would like your input. I've got a good dozen items on the list, but I could always put more on, and I don't know what I'm not thinking of now that I would regret later. I need to send my e-mail off by June 30th, I'd like to have it off sometime on Monday, so this is just a quick survey to get some more ideas for the list.

This is for a public library, so I'm specifically asking for things you think would be popular, not just things you think people should watch. If something doesn't go out, it's going to get withdrawn within a year, so there's no point buying it. Our movie selection is our most used collection, so that's not a high bar to clear, though.

Some things you can consider if you want to make it easy on me, but you can ignore if you just want to throw some things out there:
It has to be in stock at our suppliers, or we can't buy it. We do use Amazon, and it's usually safe to say if it's not in stock there, it won't be at our other suppliers either.
We actually do have a fair amount of anime already, you can see what we have at our catalog. I hope it's OK to link to our catalog, I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't be.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Comments

  • What about Kino's Journey? Wouldn't show up in your search.
  • That looks interesting, I'm adding it to the list. I've never even heard of that one before, thanks!
  • From the look of it, it doesn't seem that you have much mecha anime, specifically Gundam and Macross. While the original Macross TV series is really out of print, Macross Plus is just as good and very available. Of the Gundam shows, I recommend 0080:War in the Pocket* , G Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Gundam Wing (this in particular will be very popular), Char's Counterattack*, Gundam Seed, and The 8th MS Team. I see you've got the original trilogy movies, so that's good. (If budgets are tight, * indicate those especially reccomended.) Also, Patlabor TV can be had for very cheap here.
  • I think I will add at least some of them onto the list. Your advice helps because I had considered Macross and Gundam, but haven't seen them myself and got completely lost trying to figure out which version would be best to buy. I've never been much of a mecha person myself.
  • Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Trigun, Evangelion TV, and Paranoia Agent or Paprika.
  • Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Trigun, Evangelion TV, and Paranoia Agent or Paprika.
    They already have everything except Paranoia Agent, and you literally can't buy that for under $100.
  • Yeah, I love Satoshi Kon, and would get it in a second, but not only does it cost that much, our system can't, or won't, buy from third parties on Amazon. I did notice that we only have the first 2 discs of Samurai Champloo, though, so I'm going to have to see what's up with that.
  • edited June 2011
    What about some fake-ish philosophy? Ergo Proxy is popular, Texhnolyze is mostly the same mood and cheaper. For better philosophy shit, Serial Experiments Lain.

    Oh, and Last Exile is cyberpunk-y and pretty, so that'll be popular I think. It used to be anyway.
    Post edited by Aria on
  • Ghost in the Shell. I was astounded to find that my Uni has quite a few copies of it.
  • edited June 2011
    Ghost in the Shell. I was astounded to find that my Uni has quite a few copies of it.
    They has. Use the search he linked. But more is always good I suppose.
    Post edited by Aria on
  • Sorry didn't see it only skim read it if I'm to be honnest.
  • edited June 2011
    Oh, and Last Exile is steampunk-y and pretty, so that'll be popular I think. It used to be anyway.
    I will second a recommendation for the show, regardless of whatpunk it is.
    Post edited by Ruffas on
  • Serial Experiments Lain.
    While I do love that series, it is basically unpossible to find for less than 100 bucks. So not that good idea to try and buy for a library.
  • Any chance you could tell us what's popular among what you already have (if you have access to circulation numbers)?
  • Last Exile I just put on the list. Thanks!

    Both Serial Experiments Lain and Ergo Proxy were ones I had considered, but just are not in stock anywhere I can get them. Texhnolyze I hadn't heard of and is a possibility, but I know the buyer won't like that you have to get each disc individually since the box set is out of stock.

    I do have access to circulation numbers, but we don't have any way to separate the anime from the rest of the dvds in our system, so the only way of checking popularity is looking up series individually, which doesn't lend itself to easy answers about general popularity. Shonen fighting series are popular when we can get them. I know Shojo manga is really popular with the teens in our library.
  • I just sent the list into headquarters. It turned out we already had Last Exile on order, so I took that off the list, but thanks for any help you gave! If you want to throw some more recommendations out there, I will keep them as ideas for future orders.

    Thanks again for your help.
  • Get some Hajime no Ippos up in there.
  • Another series I wanted to do, but it's just not available from the people we buy from. I love me some Ippos.
  • The Miyazakis, Girl Who Leaped Through Time, FLCL (new release, the old one is 6 episodes on 3 discs) and Princess Tutu.
  • I don't see Summer Wars or Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still in there.
  • Ooh yeah! I forgot about Giant Robo! It's fucking awesome and super cheap to boot!
Sign In or Register to comment.