Well I thought I'd better drop by, as I have been DMing Anima for a few years now.
Oh, I forgot so I must add this: the books are wonderfully done, much better than the D&D ones, and in my country even cheaper. If you are playing Anima, they are worth it, if you can stand the anime style illustrations.
The books are as follow:
Core Exxet (basic book, you can get by with just this. Has rules for almost everything, from creating techniques to monster creation)
Gaia 1. A book on background.
DM screen + small book. Extra rules, advantages, and a little adventure. Plus a DM screen obviously. Nice to have
Dominus Exxet. If you want to create a DBZ/anime style character, this expands on the basic book a lot. Want to shoot kamehameha at your opponents at lvl 1? With the basic you can, with this you can, and much much more.
Arcana Exxet: Magic/Psi powers. Lots of nice stuff. Lots, lots
The bestiary + extra races and rules (Monster manual like, includes rules for mass combat and a couple more needed things)
Prometheum Exxet. Create artifacts and magic items. I still have to get my hands on this book.
The game is very dinamic, high-powered (you can have spells to undo aspects of creation, jump a building roof 5 stores high) and whatnot. It's very "don't do that or i take my DM stick and beat you with it" inclined, that's true. But as it's very open you can get quite everything you wish if your group is friendly and not entirely comprissed of idiots. (If profanity is frowned upon... please remove this last word)
On the game system:
No classes. Well, there are, but at the same time there aren't. You have a few archetypes to pick from, each giving a range of ability costs and increments by level. How you spend your points is up to you, and there is a "standard" archetype to build with not too high costs on anything if you need to make something different.
You then get an advantage/disadvantage system to further personalize your abilities, on 2 different sets: regular and backstory ones. The rule is that a background disadvantage gives background advantage points, not regular ones, so not too much abuse here (better than UA I think
)
At level 1 you are roughly an equivalent of a 3.5 character at level 5 (a mage with around 3rd level-equivalent spells) with exceptions on some spells. You can level a city being level 1 but there's also Pun Pun and other things in any system.
A sample character concept:
-I want a guy strong in close quarters, who looks down on the supernatural and has been born with an innate resistance to such powers (basically a mage hunter)
I'd take the warrior archetype, spend points in a weapon table (you get proficiency on a set of weapons. You can also buy them one by one, but a table is cheaper and has variety).
Then look at my concept. I need a mid armor, and a few weapons and shields. This means a lot of money for Anima, so I buy 1 background point of wealth and get 1 disadvantage to counter it. You have 3 adv. points at start but as you usually want 5-6 adv points, you need drawbacks. I pick powerful enemy (a wizard whose apprentice crossed my path or whatever).
3 points yet. I pick 2 drawbacks I find suitable, then buy Immunity to magic (3 points) which makes you impenetrable to all but the mightiest magic, and the free will advantage (harder to mind control. Psykers...)
Then spend the points (they come per level, and you allocate them with a few rules, like not spending everything in the same thing) in attack/defense/wear armor. Armor has reqs in Anima and gives penalties if you don't have the skill. Then get my secondary skills with the remaining points.
You can, I really emphasize this, build everything you wish. You can create the techniques, with costs per effect! That's awesome