The music rocks throughout the whole movie, but especially during that scene.
Crazy horns.
Oh, another that I liked so well I meant to mention it, but forgot: The Heroic Legend of Arislan (or Arslan). This one is actually kind of odd. It seems that the production team changed between practically every episode, and it actually goes down hill very quickly, which is sad, very sad, because it gets off to such a promising start. A man in a silver mask claiming to be the rightful Prince of Pars colludes with Pars’s enemy, the Lusitanians, to lead a rebellion against the King whom he claims usurped the throne from his father. However, the king’s son, bishy-rrific crown prince Arislan, escapes and, with a motley crew of friends, tries to raise an army to expel the Lusitanians, learn the true identity of Silvermask, and take his place as the ruler of Pars. And since he’s so much kinder and nobler than Silvermask, I have the feeling he might just do it.
It’s really a neat story, full of political intrigue, exotic locations, mythology and heroics. I understand it’s supposed to be based on an ancient Persian story (Pars is Persian for Persia, I’ve read). The first episode is an hour long and the visuals are gorgeous, utterly gorgeous. It leaves you wanting more. But somehow the second episode is a bit of a letdown. I’m not sure why, it just doesn’t seem as good somehow. It’s still better than the third and fourth episodes, though, which are only half as long and not nearly as nicely animated. I understand the series just wasn’t that popular, and it seems like the creators lost interest (or maybe they just lost funding) as it went along. I guess there are at least 2 more episodes in the series, but I’m so disappointed I’m not sure I care, though at least one review I read said the quality picks up again in ep. 5. Maybe I’m just too damn picky 
Arslan had a rather bizarre production story. In short, it was based on a series of Japanese novels and the production team had a hard time getting funding for episodes, so there were large gaps in time between “episodes.” For more information, check out animeondvd.com’s writeup of the dvd release.
Hey, my boyfriend and I just rented Metropolis last weekend! I’m just starting to get into anime, so I’m afraid it was about a 7 on the AIS for me. What else is good out there?
I haven’t seen most of the serials you mention ,Gr8Kat ; thanks for the descriptions. BTW did you watch Cowboy Bebop.? IIRC that was the most popular recommendation on the thread you started.
Another terrific series which I saw a few months ago is Crest of the Stars. On the surface it’s a standard teenagers-in-space adventure story but the writing is excellent and the two main characters and their relationship are really well developed. The way of life of the “Abh” civilization, which dominates space, is also fleshed out very interestingly. The animation is pretty decent though you may or may not like the heavy use of blue in a lot of scenes. I think it’s available on DVD so see if you can find it.
“What else is good out there?”
Well I guess that depends on what you like.
Check out Grave of the Fireflies and Princess Mononoke for something different from Metropolis. Those two films are on my all-time top ten list (including live-action films). In general anything by Studio Ghibli, which produced those two films, is a good bet.
As for TV serials check out the afore-mentioned Cowboy Bebop (ignore the silly name). The show is quite easy to follow and is just really good in every department: story, characters, artwork, music, everything. All kinds of episodes too: comedy, parody, suspense, drama etc.; it’s probably the most versatile TV show I have ever seen.
Like I said, I know nothing about anime, and I often think I understand something, but I don’t. But what is so incomprehensible about Metropolis? Is it just hard to remember who everybody is?
The last film I saw that I felt I didn’t totally understand what was going on was Pi.
I’ve seen a couple episodes of Cowboy Bebop and thought it was pretty interesting…that Ed is quite a strange girl 
My little sister really got into Knight Hunters (Weiss Kreuz) but I just didn’t find it that interesting. I really wanted to see Spirited Away, but I never got the chance to while it was in theaters here and it doesn’t appear to be out on DVD yet…I’m looking for something like that I guess.
Princess Mononoke looked interesting at Blockbuster…thanks CyberPundit
“But what is so incomprehensible about Metropolis?”
Personally I found it quite straightforward thought a few things weren’t clear on first viewing. But then I have become a little more used to anime now.
“I’m looking for something like that I guess.”
Check out My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service by the same director (who also directed Mononoke). They are more standard children’s films but very charmingly done. They are also easy to find (though only the dubs).
What a terrific coincidence!!! Crest of the Stars is on Tech-TV (channel 191 on Dish Network)!! I’m so looking forward to it They’ve been showing an episode a night at 10:00 PM which is passed my bedtime, but tomorrow night at 8:00 they’re showing all the ones they’ve shown this week, plus a bunch more. I’m so excited And I love the color blue, so I don’t think that’ll bother me
I like Cowboy Bebop a great deal, too. I like most of what they show on Cartoon Network, with the exception of most of the Gundams (mostly I resent that they seem to think Gundam in the end-all, be-all of anime and have completely inundated us with it). And I appreciate that Cowboy Bebop was not as edited as most of the other series they’ve shown, like Tenchi where all references to sake were changed to tea (the characters were evidently very sensitive to tea as it seemed to intoxicate them quite easily) and digital bikinis were added to all bath scenes, or Outlaw Star where Melfina also had a digital bikini added, and all blood was digitally removed.
And I’ll add that anything by Studio Ghibli is on my Top however many list, too, I just thought that went without saying
I bought the Metropolis DVD but haven’t watched much of it yet. I don’t know if the problem is my attention span or that the movie’s dull, but it can’t hold me for more than five or ten minutes at a time. I’m exceedingly impressed with the art, though – a friend of mine complained that it was the worst job of blending CG and 2D that he’d ever seen, but I saw it as an artistic style, not that they were trying to blend them seamlessly but failed.
There’s a pretty interesting article about Metropolis at Anime Jump!, which explains how Tezuka-san had a stable of stock characters that he used throughout all his work. There’s also a review of the theatrical release on the same site that gives some interesting background on the movie.
Well, that’s not all Cartoon Network’s fault of course. Gundam is HUGE in Japan, still. I was in Tokyo recently and it seemed that you couldn’t turn a corner in hobby stores or arcades without seeing something Gundam-related. (As well as Lupin III.) That means that there’s a ton of Gundam anime; I think there’s something like 8 separate Gundam series? That may be why it seems we’re being “inundated” with Gundam, just because there’s so much to see. And especially after the huge success of Dragonball in the US, it’s not unrealistic for CN to expect Gundam to take off in the US as much as it did in Japan. (Personally, I don’t like Gundam at all.)
Cool! Let us know what you think . I had started a thread about it a while back but I don’t think too many people here have seen it. Though if it’s on TV I guess it’s going to be dubbed which is always dicey.
Sol, thanks for reminding me, I don’t like Dragonball Z.
We’ll see. I’ve never watched anime on Tech-TV before, so I have no idea what it’s going to be like. Ooh, it’s 10:00 now, maybe I’ll take a peek before I go to bed
In case it isn’t clear my previous post is about Crest of the Stars.
“a friend of mine complained that it was the worst job of blending CG and 2D that he’d ever seen, but I saw it as an artistic style, not that they were trying to blend them seamlessly but failed.”
I was in two minds about it as well but ultimately I took it the same way you did. Anyway regadless of that, the background art is fantastic and I would love to have prints of the various cityscapes. The director does overuse the overhead shot but that is a minor problem.
Didn’t care for it. While technically proficient anime -
- I didn’t care for the art-deco style of the architecture
- Didn’t like the childish character style of this particular animator
- All the characters seemed like they were ripped right out of other movies: stiff robotic cop, warmongering general, mad scientist, “who am I?” robots, warped evil son, etc
- I never did get the style of juxtaposing 40s styling (architacture, design, sountrack) over futuristic setting.
Basically, I thought the theme of this movie was done much better in movies like Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner, etc
CyberPundit, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc were directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Tarô Rin directed Metropolis, Astro Boy, Captain Harlock etc.
“Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc were directed by Hayao Miyazaki”
Hmm yes that’s pretty much what I meant; that the same director made Spirited Away , Totoro,Kiki etc.
I did make a mistake though about the Metropolis director not having seen the Fritz Lang version. As Sol Grundy’s link indicates that was Tezuka who created the manga. It would be interesting to find out if the filmmakers saw the earlier film.
Rintaro did see Langs Metropolis, and in fact reincorporated some ideas from Lang’s movie that Tezuka didn’t include, such as the vertical city/ class structure.
Thanks. Have you seen the film; what do you think of it?