I used to watch He-Man and had most of the toys. It was probably equally bad.
He-Man was SO MUCH WORSE than She-Ra.
In general, toy cartoons for girls were several steps above toy cartoons for boys, and She-Ra vs He-Man sets that more starkly than, say, the Hasbro/Sunbow universe. The most obvious aspect is that Etheria is an actual living world, with cities, factions other than the Horde and Rebellion (both of which had actual armies, not just the handful of named characters), and people just trying to live a life. Whereas Eternia is a huge desert (except when a jungle was needed for a story), which seems to be populated entirely by the dozen or so people who had toys, plus Prince Adam’s parents.
What does that say about He-Man characters such as Ram Man, Man-At-Arms, Clamp Champ, Extendar, and Fisto?:eek:
Yeah, same thing with Thundercats. Except when they encountered the village of the week.
Not … really seeing it, to be honest.
And I just rewatched Nausicaä recently (all the Ghibli films are on Netflix outside the US).And yes, I’ve seen the youtube vids.
Really? I came across some of those videos and now I can’t unsee it.
- Both introduced wandering a post apocalyptic desert littered with the husks of dead behemoths
- Similar headgear / goggles / face covering
- Both carry a big stick/weapon
- Both spend a couple minutes dicking around with some piece of garbage they found in the desert (Rey’s toboggin ride, Nausicaä’s bug shell)
Plenty of differences as well. It’s not like they are the same person. I think all these various sci fi stories more or less influence each other at this point anyway. Or there is just so many ways to show the same story elements (i.e. rugged individualist girl who lives in the desert).
This new Netflix Original movie was released a couple of days ago. It is okay.
(And I’m unable to embed the URL because a stupid fucking unmovable menu pops up and covers the link button when I highlight anything, so here is the URL: Watch A Whisker Away | Netflix Official Site)
Oh, you meant some superficial resemblances in the first 5 minutes (not that I’d call the toxic jungle where Nausicaa is first introduced, and where she finds the bug shell, a “desert”, but let’s skip past that). I thought you were talking about her character. Never mind.
Well…both characters also interact with Mark Hamill at some point.
We really enjoyed Castlevania. Make sure to give that show a decent chance.
What about movies or short series? I tend to find that easier to digest than taking in 20+ episodes over however many seasons of any show.
I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet (and surprised at myself for forgetting it), LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS. It’s a series of animated shorts, in several different animation styles, some anime or at least anime-influenced. It’s a “series”, but each short is completely unrelated to the others, other than each one has one or more of love, death, and/or robots as an important motif.
As a true anthology series, the quality varies quite a bit, but I thought the best ones were really good, and even the worst ones had enough interesting ideas and/or animation to make them worth watching. As they’re all pretty short and don’t have any connecting plotlines, you can watch the series in small chunks every now and then, or binge the whole thing in a single marathon session, or whatever pace you want.
Well, I already mentioned the new A Whisker Away, which is an okay movie despite the horrible English title. Other suggestions:
In This Corner of the World takes place in and around WWII and shows lots of the hardships of the times for ordinary people, but mostly not as grim as Graveyard of Fireflies or Barefoot Gen.
Mary and the Witch’s Flower a very Ghibli-esque fantasy movie, right down to the art styles and character designs.
A Silent Voice the story of a deaf girl and a guy who used to bully her but is Real Sorrry Now. It gets lots of praise, but I have problems with how the girl is pretty much just the foil for the guy’s redemption arc.
Mirai has fantasy/time travel/magical realism elments. Story is actually kind of muddled, but it looks good.
Fireworks description pretty much same as for Mirai.
Lu Over the Wall a bit of a hyperactive movie about a boy and a bit of a hyperactive mermaid. Animation style is quite different than most anime.
As for actual anime on Netflix, a lot of shows I liked in the past are no longer on Netflix and I’m not caught up on a lot of the newer ones. Netflix also has a habit of only picking up part of a series (Attack on Titan, Ghost in The Shell), or just the movie or video special made from a series.
Kakegurui: Means gambling-crazy in English, and this show is completely over the top in premise and execution. It’s set at an elite private high school filled with scions of the richest and most powerful families in Japan and it’s one of those school shows with an All-Powerful Student Council the protagonist must work their way through. The twist is that this school is based on high-stakes gambling and students either end up on top or end up as lowly “pets”. Netflix also has the live-action version of this show and it’s only slightly less over the top.
Kill La Kill: Another over-the-top series with an absurdly powerful student council, which not only runs the school, but also the city, and the nation. It’s a pastiche of old-school “I must fight my way to the top to get vengeance on my father’s killer!”-type anime and had all the tropes of that school.
Carol & Tuesday: Possibly the best anime series on Netflix. It was created by the director of Cowboy Be-Bop. There’s already a summary on the thread.
Children of The Whale: I saw this a while ago and was surprised it’s still there. It doesn’t show up on the menu unless you really dig for it. I’t s a relatively short fantasy series about the inhabitants of a magically powered stone ship-city (the “whale of the title) on an endless cruise along a vast desert “sea”. They’ve been in isolation for generations, but that changes in the series.
The Devil is a Part-Timer!: In a magical world where angelic and demonic forces are in a titanic struggle, the bad guys lose. The infernal leader, face with the downfall of his forces, escaped to Earth. On non-magical Earth, he has now powers and looks like an ordinary teenaged boy. He comes to the realization that corporations have the true power on earth and decides to work his way to the top from the bottom, just like he did in the demon realm. He starts by taking a part-time job at fast food restaurant chain.
I just started watching ‘Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans’ on Netflix and have enjoyed it so far. It is a standalone story so you don’t need to know the rest of the main Gundam universe (of which I admitedly have only a passing acquaintance). From what I understand, it’s about a group of young kids who end up running a sort of Halliburton-esq paramilitary contracting firm on Mars set against a backdrop of dealing with competing firms and some sort of Martian independence movement. They also acquire a couple of ‘Gundam’ giant fighting robots of course.
I seriously enjoyed Forest of Piano. Be warned, though, that a whole lot of the anime is spent on long scenes of pianists … playing piano. (Usually with someone rhapsodising about how movingly they’re playing.) On the other hand, lots and lots of gorgeous Chopin, and some interesting insight—hopefully only fiction—into how major contests are judged.
I liked Last Airbender more than I thought I would, and am partially through Korra.
Season 3 of Sword Art Online is now available.
Brian
Since this thread was last active Great Pretender was added to Netflix. It isn’t bad.
I recommend Dorohedoro. It’s insane yet layered. There’s always the squeaky cute girl in animes that busts my eardrums, but the one in this series is seriously demented.
Second Dorohedoro. It’s surreal.
I’m also really enjoying Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma. Silly fun, and serious food porn.
My son got me into anime and I’ve lost track of the amount of series that I’ve watched.
If you have access to a VPN, I’d suggest logging in from an Asian IP address (we use Singapore). Netflix there there has an insane amount of anime on compared to North America.
I like Gantz, Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure, Mob Psycho, Assassination Classroom, Tokyo Ghoul, Bleach, Ghost in the Shell, to name a few.
JoJos Bizarre Adventure was really enjoyable. The manga writer was a huge music fan and included lots of character’s with musical names (Speedwagon, Zeppelli, Tonpetty…)
Some of these shows have been running weekly episodes for many years and have literally several hundred of episodes. I’ve found that many of them have interesting plot lines / story arcs over a “season” but to fill the entire season, they have tons of non-plot related filler which sucks.
The worst of this was Gantz, it had some of the most interesting ideas and concepts, but the season that was on Netflix [at least] was torture to sit through because there were so much irrelevant filler. They’d show the same extended flashback scenes over again in multiple episodes.
One of the only ones I wasn’t really a fan of was Full Metal Alchemist. I came to loathe the main characters after a while. On the other hand my son loves it, so who knows?