I have liked 'Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" the best, but we have also made our way thru all the original Tenchi Muyo series and movies, some Trigun, some “Ah, My Goddess” (too sticky sweet), some Evangelion and the standard must-watch ones. But I have also been watching hentai to review for some adult sites. I have begun to tire of tentacle, uhm, ‘relationships’. ;>
I did like the one part of of Kimigure: The Orange Road that I could find.
I also just heard that MadHouse is going to make a live action version of ‘Ninja Scroll’.
I’ve been rewatching my “Digital Dojo” box set of the first series of “Ranma 1/2”. Good fun! Now I wish I had the second series.
“Love Hina” was pretty good, too. Why the series is named after the grandmother, though, is beyond me!
I remember liking “Slayers Next” at least as well as the original series, but I found “Slayers Try” a bit lacking. Even more lacking is the movie…no Gourry, no Amelia, no Zelgadis–pretty lame. My daughter loves them all, though. Ever had a five-year-old try to cast a Dragon Slave on you?
We watched “Photon”, recently, too. It’s one of those “entire series on one DVD” shows, but it’s actually quite good (and weird).
I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t remind everyone that the first Golden Boy DVD FINALLY hit DVD last week. Best . . . series . . . ever. Pity it isn’t longer.
I’m slowly working my way through the excellent Big O, which I missed on CN, and the mediocre Sorcerer Hunters, which I’m only still getting because I’m physically incapable of dropping a series once I start it. And I FINALLY! Got the upgrade box/extra disk for my BGC collection, and forced myself to watch the entirety of Hurricane Live! Man, I hope in never stops being the 80’s, or they’ll all be in trouble. Though surprisingly enough, one of the videos actually had some new footage, (backstory vignettes) which was a pleasant surprise.
I recently saw the end of the amazing second season of Kenshin. Pity it goes downhill from there. The second OAV series, which covers the second half of the third manga story arc, on the other hand, looks like it’s great, but it won’t be out in the US for a while. (I’m not sure it’s finished in Japan yet) I haven’t been picking it up, though I’d like to. (96 episodes is kind of a lot)
I also saw Handmaid May, which was fun, though so (OMG/SMJ) formula that you could be forgiven for not being able to tell them apart. Their version of Hanagata was bizarre, even by SMJ standards, though. There’s a running gag (a soap opera show-in-show) whose payoff more than justifies the existence of the entire series.
The last time I was in Philly, I saw the new movie version of Devilman. I’m not sure I can say I liked it, though. It was just too . . . hateful. The Cowboy Bebop movie, which I saw on the same day, though, was excellent, even if YET AGAIN, they totally screwed Jet Black on screen time.
I’m eagerly awaiting next month’s release of Berserk. As far as I know, the only ‘low fantasy’ anime, ever. A perfect complement to Escaflowne and Lodoss. Its only problem is it’s only about a third of the story, and the laughably bad opening song is done in (terribly) accented English. (It’s not as bad as that part in the middle of Darkside Blues. Quite.) Well, they cut out some of the more distasteful stuff from the manga, but that’s really a nitpick. I’ve seen the fansubs, but I’m DEFINATLY picking it up as soon as it’s available. It’s really that good.
Besides, the Guts (I know, Gatts sounds cooler, but it looks like Guts was the intention) action figure standing on top of my monitor is really neat. He even has interchangeable helmeted and non-helmeted heads.
Really? I thought Next was a lot stronger than Slayers, (Martina. What can you say . . .) and Try was better yet. The first was goofy fun, the latter two were goofy fun backed with an above-average fantasy series. Besides, Gaav and Valgaav were just incredibly cool. And actually, I didn’t really like the OAVs as much as the TV series. Not bad, I just didn’t think they were as good. (Well, except the one with all the Naga clones. That was funny.)
Lain, on the other hand, I found terribly overrated. The first six or seven episodes looked like it was going somewhere, but it just totally fell apart about halfway through, when it became obvious that the writers were just throwing out weird stuff to pad out the story. (What was that alien stuff about? NOTHING. It was a red herring. But they spent TWO WHOLE episodes on it . . . Likewise, what was all that with her sister about? It makes absolutely no sense considering the ending)
Like the bad parts of EVA, without the interesting character stuff to distract you from the fact that there was no continuity and nothing was ever resolved.
The vaguely similar Key the Metal Idol, on the other hand, was amazing. Made more so by the fact that it seemed to pass completely under the fan radar. It’s the best directed anime I’ve EVER seen, and one of the best written ones as well. It’s basically to ‘magical girl’ anime what EVA tried to be for robot shows.
Actually, I wasn’t a big fan of Utena, either. For possibly the first time ever, I found myself wishing for more filler episodes.
The OAV version of Armatiage were actually somewhat better than the movie version, the less pretentious stuff was the part that got cut out. And, you didn’t have to listen to Elizabeth Berkley try to act.
And, as is my tradition, I simply must push the undeservedly obscure, goofily titled Eat-Man ’98, and the fantasy (self) parodying Bastard!!
“Gaav bends him over and impales him on his enormous weapon, causing a single horn to thrust powerfully out of his forehead . . . But there’s no subtext there at all.”
I started watching Evangelion after hearing so much about it and deciding to try out this Anime thing. I stopped after the third episode. I personally found it pretty dull.
I then tried Trigun, and was really let down. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I got. After all the cool images of Vash and the neat stempunky designs I was disappointed at how goofy and slapsticky it all was, so I quit aftre, I think six episodes or so.
People have suggested Lodoss War and Cowboy Bebop to me, but I think I’m done with anime. It’s just not for me.
Currently I am watching the first and second series of Initial D. A interesting series about street racing and a kid who is a natural at it and does not realize it. The mechanics and driving styles they talk about are researched very well and its characters are believable. The only thing I have a problem with is the computer animated cars are slightly hokey but are ok. Plus its kinda cool id’ing the Japanese versions of imports over here. (The main character drives a Celica I think)
I’m currently catching Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai (think I butchered that title). “Abenobashi Magical Shopping District.” It’s still being aired in Japan right now–I’m catching them as fansubbers release them on usenet.
It seems like it could be pretty neat. It’s a comedy by the same people who did Wings of Honneamise.
Recently saw the Cowboy Bebop movie, its better then most of the series. I also just got the Kenshin Seishounen OVA, its a bit stumped together for time (Enishi arc in a nutshell) but ok. Also tried a bit of Flame of Recca and Weiss Kreuz, both are not this good. (SPOILER)
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Trigun really should have stayed with the loopie jokes insted of the you shall not kill stuff. But the death of Wolfwood was a really well done scene(end SPOILER)
Ah, I finally saw Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust a few weeks ago. So pretty! The storyline was interesting enough, but I just stared at the art most of the time. I really wish I’d heard of the first movie before I watched the second one, though. I’m pretty sure the first would be a letdown artwork-wise if I watched it now.
A friend and I went to Disney’s Epcot last weekend and browsed through the anime collections in the Japan stores. No tapes I couldn’t find cheaper elsewhere, but they did have a COWBOY BEBOP SHIRT!!! If they’d had anything but medium, I would’ve gotten one. I didn’t even think those really existed, so I was slightly overjoyed.
I’ve got a friend I’ve been walking through Kenshin this week. He just hit the Kyoto saga last night. After taunting him with the fact that the stuff he was watching was nothing over the course of four days his mind was effectively blown by that first volume of Kyoto.
I personally am going through Sabre Marionettes right now. I watched a bit of the series before when Anime Village first started selling tapes but at that point I stopped buying videotapes in favor of DVD’s (though not before they got my money for the Escaflowne box) but now I’m finally enjoying it. Last week I watched about half of Ayashi No Ceres which I enjoyed as a more tightly paced Fushigi Yuugi but the three episodes a disk release has made it rather low priority in my buying. Finally, my copy of Otaku No Video finally came yesterday and I watched that.
I went to an anime convention last week, and I got Bastard!!, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, and Jin-Roh. Why in hell did I buy Jin-Roh? It has suicide bombings. I know it has suicide bombings. I know that will give me nightmares for months.
I’m working my way through Kenshin along with my little sister, who got ripped off by a shady anime dealer at said con. He sold her a tape that was marked as subtitled, but the actual tape was a dub. Subs are $5-$10 more, and Kenshin’s English voice is so annoying we can’t even watch it. Ugh.
I hated Cowboy Bebop the first time I saw it. I thought Spike was an obnoxious poser, Jet was a completely flat character, and Faye was an immature brat. But later I caught my sister watching the “Mushroom Samba” episode and got instantly hooked. Bebop is now one of my all-time favorite series.
Well, you’ve started out with one of the best out there. I could recommend some other classics (not all may be to your taste)
Ghost in the Shell
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Perfect Blue (warning: disturbing imagery)
[Abrupt change of subject]
Can someone more knowledgable than I clarify something for me?
I have a DVD set called Samurai X, a very serious and heavy OAV featuring a young swordsman named Himura Kenshin. It refers to itself, at times, as Rurouni Kenshin.
I’ve been told, however, that the series of the same name is dramtically different, more of a comedy, which this OAV is not.
Kenshin’s english voice in Samurai X is very annoying, but his Japanese voice is soft, almost feminine, and for some reason, menacing.
What’s the story? Is Samurai X some sort of spinoff?
Boy that Samurai X thing is complicated. So here goes.
First, there was the manga series Rouroni Kenshin in Japan. It was really popular and a television series was made out of it. In the manga there were three major story arcs, the Tokyo arc (really a series of unconnected storylines that are lumped together to distinguish themselves from much long stories later), the Kyoto arc, and the Revenge arc. The television series made the first two sets of stories but weak storylines filling space after the Kyoto arc was finished on telelvision while waiting for the Revenge arc to be finished in the manga killed the television series.
Sony owned the TV series and decided to try to sell it for overseas television. They made a dub of legendary awfulness entitled Samurai X. It never aired in the US, but in a few placed it did show up (like the Phillipines).
So, Sony can’t get a network deal for their hot property so people are looking to license it. At the same time the flashback portions of the third storyline were made into a four episode OVA series. Eventually Media Blasters got the rights to the television series and AD Vision got the rights to distribute the OVA. Now the problem is that they can’t both use the Rouroni Kenshin name, competing products with the same name can be a touch confusing. For whatever reason Media Blasters got to keep it and ADV had to use Samurai X.
Now the thing is the manga started out light and humorously and got very dark as it went along. So the TV series which has those early stories has a lot of humor at the beginning. But when you hit the Kyoto arc (epiosde 28) the humor starts fading into the background.
The soft voice for Kenshin is a bit that makes sense after you see the television series. I don’t want to spoil things for you, but the OVA series has a characterization of Kenshin that’s only really dramatic if you know his future. In the television series the soft voice (yes, it is a woman doing it) is to emphasize the gentleness, but… well, watch the first two DVD’s and you’ll get the dicotomy of the character.
I like both, though I think the OVA either goes on too long or ends too abruptly (they could have stopped it right at the moment he went back and I would be happy but since they went on I wanted to see things like the conclusion of the Kenshin/Saito fight, not the same stuff we already saw in the series).
One more thing, the translation for the Samurai X OVA is rather troubling. Saito, for example, was an equal to that kid who calls him “master” and “lord”, and despite what it says he didn’t die at the end of the revolution (I would say how he dies historically but that might be spoilers for the television series). They translated Kenshin’s nickname (the “Batousai”) which was a made up word into things that don’t even make sense like assassin (the components of “Batousai” refer to drawing a weapon).
Dex: in addition to Journeyman’s picks, I’ll also recommend Akira and both of the Patlabor: Mobile Police (1 and 2).
Cowboy Bebop ain’t for everybody, but I was hooked the first time I saw it. And I agree, the character of Jet Black is way underdeveloped. The final episodes are rather sad, though Spike went out true to form.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Bubba Ray *
**I also just got the Kenshin Seishounen OVA, its a bit stumped together for time (Enishi arc in a nutshell) but ok.
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I loved seeing parts of the Jinchuu arc animated but I found the whole thing way too depressing.
I thought the music was once again great though, together with the soundtrack for Read or Die, Taku Iwasaki is fast becoming one of my favorite composer (for anime that is) C K Dexter Haven
If you liked Princess Mononoke you should try some of the other movies by the same artist
Kiki’s delivery service
My neighbour Totoro
Nausicaa
I completely forgot about ‘Big O’! That is a neat set now that it is out on dvd. But what I really feel stupid abut forgetting was ‘Crying Freeman’. Now there is an interesting series. D’oh!
The Seishouned OVA was ok, really stumped for time and very depressing, a pity I never got to see the manga of the revenge arc.
The Kenshin series still is a great anime until the end of the Tokyo arc mixing humor with drama quite well, even giving the devil its due in making Shishio an a bit more three dimensional villain then just someone who wants to destry the government for revenge.
(Am I the only one who would have loved to see more screentime of Hiko Seijuro and Saitoh (Saitou as tribute to the threadstarter) Hajime?)
He even has interchangeable helmeted and non-helmeted heads.