Anime: Do you watch it? Which ones?

[UberBeaver]

I'm not huge into it, but I like what I've seen.

Currently I'm watching Cowboy Bebop (I've seen the movie, but never the shows. I just picked up Vols 1 and 2. Episode 5 is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. The story, animation, dialogue, incredible. I think it's things like this that get people hooked.)

I've also seen Dead Leaves, Appleseed, Princess Mononoke, Magical Shopping Arcade, Elfen Lied and Naruto.

It really is an underappreciated art form, I think.

 

[Muggsy]

Cowboy bebop love the movie.
Princess mononoke is great too...

I don't watch much anime as before but my favorite movies - series are:

AKIRA
Ghost in the shell
Blood
Samurai champloo
Spirited away
Evangelion

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Alright baby, I'm bringing back an oldie but a goodie!

This goes out to all my boyz!!! Alright, I don't have any "boyz" but if I did, this would be for them...

Beav and Unico, I know you guys like Anime and there has to be some others out there...

I have seen (off the top of my head):

Akira
Ghost In The Shell
Princess Mononoke
Apple Seed
Battle Angel
Rurouni Kenshin
Berserk
Escaflowne
TriGun
Samurai 7
Neon Genisis Evangelion
Chobits
.hack/Sign
Blue Seed
El Hazard
Fruits Basket
Excel Saga
Hellsing
Fushigi Ugi
Record Of The Loduss War
Sailor Moon
Serial Experiments Lain
Slayers
Tenchi Muyo!
X

That's all I can think of... What are your faves?

And what is the deal with almost all Anime ending badly, why can't these people come up with satisfying endings?

 

[redhotswami]

i've kinda lost touch with anime actually. i'm not too familiar with the new stuff. i dunno...nothing has touched me quite the same way that sailormoon did. sailorstars was the best season and ended beautifully with a very profound message!

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

My wife is more into Sailor Moon than I am...

I've seen most of it I think, it's all kind of a blur, what happened at the end of the Sailorstars arc?

 

[redhotswami]

well, sailormoon discovered that sailor galaxia was a sailor senshi. back in the day galaxia defeated chaos after a world takeover, and wanted to make sure chaos didn't erupt again, so she figured the safest place to maintain chaos was to keep it inside of her.

well, then chaos ended up growing and eventually consuming her, making her the cruel hearted and power-hungry individual that we came to know.

when sailormoon had learned this, she had decided that there was no way she could kill galaxia (despite all the protest from the starlights and the outer senshi). sailormoon said that "she was one of us" and was "only trying to help, and was doing it because she thought it was the best thing for the world."

so, sailormoon transforms into this winged naked princess, stripped of clothing, stripped of any barriers, just trying to show that they were one in teh same, doing their best to save the world. galaxia tried to fight her off, but then sailormoon reached out to the true galaxia inside of her, and released chaos.

so then galaxia was concerned that chaos was released. sailormoon had sent it off in bits and pieces to the rest of the world. she said something like, there is a little bit of chaos in each and every one of us, but thats why we need to depend on one another to help each other out. nobody can maintain chaos alone, but when we work together love can overpower it.

...or something like that.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

yikes... I don't remember that at all.

I think part of the problem was when we used to watch it you couldn't get the later series in english over here (and it was before DVDs) so my wife would by tapes from China Town in Mandarin with no subtitles...

What about Kenshin, have you seen them all?

 

[redhotswami]

yeah i saw all of kenshin. that was AMAZING. i think the duel b/w kenshin & saitoh was the best animation i have ever seen. WOW.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

yeah i saw all of kenshin. that was AMAZING. i think the duel b/w kenshin & saitoh was the best animation i have ever seen. WOW.

best story arc by far... I wasn't crazy about the last one where he goes blind with those Knights or whatever, got a little boring.

Have you seen the movies?

 

[Lancemc]

I'm not a big fan of anime, but I've seen some stuff I've really loved.

The only series I've thoroughly enjoyed was Samurai Shamploo. Funny stuff there.

And I'm a huge fan of Miyazaki's animated films. I've just gotten into him, and I've been nothing short of enraptured.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I'm not a big fan of anime, but I've seen some stuff I've really loved.

The only series I've thoroughly enjoyed was Samurai Shamploo. Funny stuff there.

And I'm a huge fan of Miyazaki's animated films. I've just gotten into him, and I've been nothing short of enraptured.

Miyazaki is awesome, Princess Mononoke is one of my all time faves and is part of the Holy Trinity of Anime IMO:

Princess Mononoke
Akira
Ghost In The Shell

These three films really show Anime as an art form rather than just "cartoons" as my dad calls them...

 

[LJT]

best story arc by far... I wasn't crazy about the last one where he goes blind with those Knights or whatever, got a little boring.

Have you seen the movies?

I've seen them...the actual movie isn't so great, enjoyable all the same though...the two OVAs are must sees, both amazing animation, but both incredibly depressing.

One is called Reminiscence, focusing on Kenshin's early life...and then Reflection, which is one of the most depressing things I have ever watched, but great all the same. It is set years after the series, and is definitely needs to be seen.

Btw I thought Trigun, Escaflowne and Fruits Basket all ended pretty well...unless you mean why the lack of happy endings rather than good ones?

Sometimes they end poorly due to a lot of animes being based on a manga...the author hasn't actually finished the story yet ie. Hellsing so the writers for the series have to make up their own ending. Oh yeah that Knight Story arc in Kenshin was made up by the series writer not the actual author of the manga hence it's pointlessness really, same with a lot of arcs in the series....they had to pad it out to give the author a chance to finish the manga.

Elfen Lied is also amazing, if not one of the most brutal things to watch ever.

Hmm Mushishi is an amazing series from last year, it is a collection of Japanese tales collected together and given a common thread connecting them....a really pretty show to watch, and a great change of pace from an action show.

Gungrave is also in my opinion one of the best animes around, focusing on the relationship between two gangsters. There are plenty of sci-fi elements to it but the whole relationship between the two protagonists is great.

Death Note which just ended a few weeks back is also worth a look, based around a boy picking up a 'Death Note', a book shinigami (Death Gods) use to end people's lives....it's brilliant because the kid decides to go on a holy crusade viewing himself as a God to remove who he judges as 'bad' from the Earth....and the duel of wits between him and the mysterious detective 'L' is great fun.

 

[Lara_Croft]

the best for me

Cowboy Bebop
Wolf's Rain
Full Metal Alchemist
Sailor Moon
Excel Saga
Nana
Evangelion
Rurouni Kenshin
Lady Oscar (the rose of versailles)
Captain Harlock
Devilman oav
X 1999
Count of Montecristo
Inuyasha

and more or less i have all of them as manga

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I've seen them...the actual movie isn't so great, enjoyable all the same though...the two OVAs are must sees, both amazing animation, but both incredibly depressing.

One is called Reminiscence, focusing on Kenshin's early life...and then Reflection, which is one of the most depressing things I have ever watched, but great all the same. It is set years after the series, and is definitely needs to be seen.

Totaly... I loved Reminiscence but Reflection while beautiful to watch made me want to kill myself after watching.

Btw I thought Trigun, Escaflowne and Fruits Basket all ended pretty well...unless you mean why the lack of happy endings rather than good ones?

Sometimes they end poorly due to a lot of animes being based on a manga...the author hasn't actually finished the story yet ie. Hellsing so the writers for the series have to make up their own ending. Oh yeah that Knight Story arc in Kenshin was made up by the series writer not the actual author of the manga hence it's pointlessness really, same with a lot of arcs in the series....they had to pad it out to give the author a chance to finish the manga.

I've noticed overall, Anime endings tend to fall under 1 of four categories:

1. What the fuck just happened? Neon Genisis is a good example of this...

2. The general happy ending. Kenshin (series) and Trigun are good examples.

3. The sort of happy ending. Escaflowne; so she chose to give up her life in this magical world to go back to school? Yeah, not what I would have done...

4. No ending. You are correct in saying this is usually because the Manga was still going on. Berserk is a good example of this

 

[LJT]

I never bothered watching Beserk because I heard it had a non-existent ending....it would annoy me too much. Of recent anime I have watched Noein (again another excellent anime, visually stunning at times) it had a great ending , everything wrapped up nicely.

I basically yelled at the screen when Hitomi left...such a silly girl...the movie of Escflowne is meant to be incredibly different, with some complete personality changes...Hitomi becomes very emo, Van a mad killer and so on....

Currently watching the Devil May Cry anime...so far it has been fun...also watching another called Kekkaishi, which has been really great so far, kinda typical shounen style anime, but the art is fun, and the lead character is atypical for the style and the gay wolf spirit guide is a joy

I could never finish watching Evangelion...the lead dude just whinged waaaaaaaaaay too much.

Lara Croft is the Count of Monte Cristo anime you refer to Gankutsuou? Where it is set in the future? and the artwork is sort of all a collage in a way? That was an awesome series....the artwork can hurt your eyes initially, tis very disconcerting...reminds me of an animated Klimt painting.

Anyone who says they are kids cartoons annoy the hell out of me. In Japan, animation is seen to be a media form for everyone, hence adult and kid animes. I would never let a kid of mine watch Elfen Lied for instance....it would severely mess with your head....it did to me and I saw it when I was 19.

Of course you have your animes aimed at kids ie Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh (more designed to sell products than anything else really) and it is a shame that these tend to be the ones exported to the West...we miss out on so much.

Grave of the Fireflies is another Studio Ghibli film, that people should check out, but remember to bring a box of tissues and a rope....you may want to end it all at the end of it.

Lastly http://www.themanime.org/ is a useful place to look up various anime for reviews etc....generally reliable it can help sort the good from the bad...

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Watch Berserk, its so fucking good that it's worth the abrupt ending and there is talk of more episodes to come ray:

Evangelion; I would honestly say watch the series but avoid the movies like the plague. I consider myself fairly intelligent and able to understand most forms of symbolism and what not but that last movie completely fucked me up, it was like David Lynch to the 1000th power or something...

 

[LJT]

I have heard it described in similar terms...a similar anime is RahXephon...at the end of that I went straight to its Wikipedia entry to work out exactly what happened.

There will be four new Evangelion movies btw...a prequel, two set during the series, retelling the events and a new 'final' movie with the apparent true conclusion to the series....they are meant to be more understandable than the earlier movies and series, to give a more definitive account....I say it is likely they will make things even murkier.

 

[Muldfeld]

The only anime I've ever enjoyed was when I was a kid and that was Robotech and this cartoon that was on my local ABC channel for only 13 episodes called Dragon Warrior. I really loved that. They were Americanized, though.

 

[redhotswami]

I'm surprised you think Trigun had a good ending...because the manga was still going on when the series ended. I was soooooo sad at what happened to Wolfwood. I didn't think that happened in the manga, but it has been so long I can't remember.

Oh I forgot to mention I've seen Slayers.

 

[Caroni]

HEY I din´t know that there were so much Anime watchers on Interference



Definetly Sailor mOon is my favourite apart... anything with magical girls or beautiful love hirtories

 

[bonojr62]

2 Words Gundam Wing

 

[Lara_Croft]

Lara Croft is the Count of Monte Cristo anime you refer to Gankutsuou? Where it is set in the future? and the artwork is sort of all a collage in a way? That was an awesome series....the artwork can hurt your eyes initially, tis very disconcerting...reminds me of an animated Klimt painting.

yes, i'm referring to gankutusuu! One of the best anime i've seen so far!! I downloaded from the internet japanese episodes+fansub.

X 1999 is great too.

yes, the artwork used for the anime was based on klimt painting.

 

[LJT]

^Really it was based on Klimt? Brilliant

Most obviously I guess Elfen Lied's opening sequence is based all around Klimt's paintings.

I'm surprised you think Trigun had a good ending...because the manga was still going on when the series ended. I was soooooo sad at what happened to Wolfwood. I didn't think that happened in the manga, but it has been so long I can't remember.

It didn't happen in the manga, but I kinda liked Wolfwood being killed off....sad but I liked it I generally thought it ended as well as it could given the manga not being finished.

Originally posted by bonojr622 Words Gundam Wing

Surprisingly most people consider Gundam Wing the worst series out of all the other Gundams....it was the first anime I saw along with Dragonball Z....I loved it, but the politics of it confused me to no end.

 

[cobl04]

Umm...

Dragonball Z??

Fuck I loved that show to death when it was on a few years ago. Every single waking morning was spent watching Pokemon and Dragonball Z. Those were the days

The only problem I had with it was when Goku used to power up to turn super saiyan. By the time he'd done it the episode was over.

And Pokemon was good before they started getting ridiculous. It's pathetic now. When it was just the 151 of them it was perfect.

 

[Halifax]

Yes! An Anime thread! LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG overdue!

Anyway, has anyone seen Jin-Roh? Absolutely awesome. Also, I'll be watching Paprika this Thursday, which is another film from Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers).

 

[XHendrix24]

Trigun is awesome.

 

[redhotswami]

It didn't happen in the manga, but I kinda liked Wolfwood being killed off....sad but I liked it I generally thought it ended as well as it could given the manga not being finished.

Well, it was well written, well enough to make me cry. However, he was my favorite character of the series, so when his character was killed off I was *really* confused since I was reading some of the manga at the time.

 

[AtomicBono]

I used to be such an anime nerd in middle school...I'm not so into it anymore, but Akira is still prolly my favourite movie of all time. So badass. Princess Mononoke is up there as well.

the best anime series would have to be Cowboy Bebop. Amazing, amazing stuff. Neon Genesis Evangelion is great too. I also enjoy silly shoujo things like Marmalade Boy, and of course as a kid I went nuts over Pokemon, Digimon, and even Yu-Gi-Oh.

 

[UberBeaver]

I recently watched Grave of the Fireflys and that may be the most depressing thing I have ever watched.

Triplets of Bellvue was very good.

 

[LJT]

^Watch Grave of the Fireflies in a room packed with girls...and reap the rewards...unfortunately I was too depressed afterwards to do anything...it sucks the will to live out of you...in a good way, not like having to watch Evan Almighty.

The Japanese excel at getting you down.