The "Chewer Approbed!" Anime thread (or Anime that doesnt suck, apparently)

[Strumvogel]

Originally Posted by cognizant

His short for the Genius Party anthology was the best of the bunch. And I hope he's kidding about bringing Spike back, unless its in the form of another standalone movie.

I watched the first Kara no Kyoukai movie and it was awful. It looked pretty with a decent Yuki soundtrack but the story was terrible in a typically anime kind of way where characters arent characters but dissertations. I'm a completist so I'll check out the other movies but arent expecting much.

What I am currently getting lost in is quite possibly the longest OVA in history, at a whopping 110 episodes, Legends of the Galactic Heroes is getting more and more attention on the Net lately (and its prequel movies), and is basically like a grown up version of Gundam and a more refined version of Star Wars. Real meaty stuff, hampered by old animation but still starring great characters and containing epic scope.

Which one was Shinichiro's work in Genius Party again? I've seen most of them but there were a couple that I couldn't get a hold of.

I guess Kara no Kyoukai may be one of those shows that would only work if you were intrigued by it in the first place. I unfortunately came into contact with the series from the sparsely fan-translated novels first and I'm bringing my enthusiasm for it to the movies so I may be a bit biased. I did show it to a couple of friends who knows nothing about the story and they ended up loving it so I thought praise for the movies were justified.
Granted one of them has sworn off watching the rest of the movies until they were all available since the movies like the novels' chapters are in a shuffled timeline which makes following the supernatural mystery story frustrating especially since they being released months apart.

Legends of the Galactic Heroes is like you said, epic. It has a longer run than most tv series and originally each episode were only avaliable through mail-order. Something unthinkable even now and they did this as far back as the late 80's. It's the one series I've yet to start on as the sheer number of episodes is intimidating.

[cognizant]

Originally Posted by Strumvogel

Which one was Shinichiro's work in Genius Party again? I've seen most of them but there were a couple that I couldn't get a hold of.

His was called Baby Blue and is about a fleeting relationship between two kids. It wasnt perfect, but definitely had that Watanabe style, albeit in a more subdued setting.

Legends of the Galactic Heroes is like you said, epic. It has a longer run than most tv series and originally each episode were only avaliable through mail-order. Something unthinkable even now and they did this as far back as the late 80's. It's the one series I've yet to start on as the sheer number of episodes is intimidating.

I would highly recommend doing what I usually do when confronted with a franchise, and that is to consume it in order of release date. With LotGH the watching order would be:

My Conquest is the Sea of Stars movie
The 110 episode OVA
Golden Wings movie
A Hundred Billion Stars; A Hundred Billion Lights movie
Spiral Labyrinth movie
Overture to a New War is a rehash of the first two episodes of the OVA.

Last year I began watching every Gundam show in order of air date (I'm crazy/sad like that) and its been a fascinating ride. I'm currently up to Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (which means I have yet to experience anything out of the UC timeline)

[cheftournel]

Don't know how popular this is, but Aachi & Sspipak remains a personal favourite. Completely fucked-up story, crude & over the top violence, and practically non-stop action or plain insane stuff going on over the entire length of the running time.
Here's a sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVClhvo0GLo

[The Alexor]

Originally Posted by cheftournel

Don't know how popular this is, but Aachi & Sspipak remains a personal favourite. Completely fucked-up story, crude & over the top violence, and practically non-stop action or plain insane stuff going on over the entire length of the running time.
Here's a sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVClhvo0GLo

I couldn't make it to the end. The designs are atrocious.

[AeglosIstarion]

I have no idea what that was all about, but it was awesome. My favorite part was probably Main Action Guy's ability to shoot flares from his head... and with dozens of machine gun wielding smurfs being cut down and scantily clad women covered in blood, what more can you ask for?

[neaux]

am I the only one watching Gode Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion?

cuz I gotta say its a damn entertaining show and Johnny Yong Bosch is probably the greatest english voice actor around these days.

Doing Lelouch and Ichigo in Bleach makes him pretty awesome.

[EdHocken]

Originally Posted by neaux

cuz I gotta say its a damn entertaining show and Johnny Yong Bosch is probably the greatest english voice actor around these days.

Steven Jay Blume would like a word with you.

[Strumvogel]

Originally Posted by cognizant

His was called Baby Blue and is about a fleeting relationship between two kids. It wasnt perfect, but definitely had that Watanabe style, albeit in a more subdued setting.

I think I remember that one. I'll try and see if I can find that short again.

I would highly recommend doing what I usually do when confronted with a franchise, and that is to consume it in order of release date. With LotGH the watching order would be:

My Conquest is the Sea of Stars movie
The 110 episode OVA
Golden Wings movie
A Hundred Billion Stars; A Hundred Billion Lights movie
Spiral Labyrinth movie
Overture to a New War is a rehash of the first two episodes of the OVA.

That is quite a number of movies there. I can get the OVAs from a friend of mine who I think has it all but I'll have to see about the other movies.

Last year I began watching every Gundam show in order of air date (I'm crazy/sad like that) and its been a fascinating ride. I'm currently up to Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (which means I have yet to experience anything out of the UC timeline)

Victory. Man that show exemplifies the term "Tomino'ed" like no other with the exception to Ideon from what I'm told/know about it. I don't think you're going to like the UC world that much, or at least I don't. While it has some neat ideas, ultimately you're going to recognise the stories, ideas and themes from the original timeline in it.
And the less said about Seed Destiny the better. The term "Mary Sue'd" gets thrown around a lot when people discuss that series but it's really better you find out about the show yourself. You might like it like some friends of mine did.

Btw, I'm not really a fan of Gundam. The only part of the franchise that I enjoyed are Gundam: Sentinel (novel) and 08 MS Team both of which focus more about the people fighting to win in their small part of the larger conflict rather than about the overarcing story of the whole conflict, politics and NewTypes.

[cognizant]

Originally Posted by neaux

am I the only one watching Gode Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion?

cuz I gotta say its a damn entertaining show

I enjoyed Geass, but R2 the sequel season basically shits all over it and is one of the worst second seasons of anime TV ever. Logic, if there ever was any in the first place, is thrown out of the window. Fan service, incoherency and 'no one ever really dies' syndrome takes over.

Originally Posted by Strumvogel

Btw, I'm not really a fan of Gundam. The only part of the franchise that I enjoyed are Gundam: Sentinel (novel) and 08 MS Team both of which focus more about the people fighting to win in their small part of the larger conflict rather than about the overarcing story of the whole conflict, politics and NewTypes.

So far I'm digging the UC timeline and am almost dreading going out of it to other timelines. Because I'm watching in release order (no dubs) I've watched 8 Gundam shows so far, my favourites being Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, 0080: War in the Pocket, and Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (this movie features a gigantic bullet casing, falling from a mecha's weapon, bouncing off a lady's head on a street far below, causing her to fall over and die)

[Strumvogel]

Originally Posted by cognizant

I enjoyed Geass, but R2 the sequel season basically shits all over it and is one of the worst second seasons of anime TV ever. Logic, if there ever was any in the first place, is thrown out of the window. Fan service, incoherency and 'no one ever really dies' syndrome takes over.

So I take it the term "train-wreck" I heard being used to describe R2 is entirely appropriate then?

So far I'm digging the UC timeline and am almost dreading going out of it to other timelines. Because I'm watching in release order (no dubs) I've watched 8 Gundam shows so far, my favourites being Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, 0080: War in the Pocket, and Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (this movie features a gigantic bullet casing, falling from a mecha's weapon, bouncing off a lady's head on a street far below, causing her to fall over and die)

I actually made a mistake there, I mistook UC for the CE timeline. A mistake probably isn't that uncommon considering the sheer number of alternate and subsequent timelines in the Gundam universe. Sorry about that.
Anyway yeah, UC continues to be the best overall with perhaps only the CC (Turn A) coming close. Though that is due the fact CC only had the one series while UC had multiple to choose from.
Meanwhile it is CE that I'm critical of due to the similarities in plot and stories, or atleast initally anyway, that you would recognize from UC's MS Gundam, Z, ZZ.

I liked F91 as well but it really suffers from having such a compressed story. I wished that they had been able to go ahead and produce it as a proper TV series to flesh it out rather than throw everything together into just one movie.

As for the kills in it, chalk it up again to Tomino who isn't afraid to show the ugly side of war. There are plenty of examples of innocent bystanders being taken out in his stories in shocking and gruesome(or as far as anime at the time could go anyway) manner. I'm talking very young children being taken out by a stray round and a mother whose head in a helmet was the only thing left after an attack.

That guy can be very cruel to the audience sometimes.

[duke fleed]

Strumvogel, Yoshiyuki "Kill Em All" Tomino based his UC Gundam off of Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers. He earned his nickname with all the death and destruction of not only during Gundam, but his previous Super robot series. My favorite Gundam Series goes like this...
1) Mobile Suit Gundam 0079
2) Mobile Suit Gundam 0083
3) Char's Counterattack
Other Gundam
Gundam Wing

Is anyone else excited about...Fist Of The North Star finally getting a reigon 1 dvd release? It is the FOTNS film that Streamline released in the 80's, and it will be in stores sometime in May.

[Strumvogel]

Yeah, Tomino was at his most infamous during Ideon, a series I've never seen but from all accounts of it had not only every single character in it was killed off, he took the whole universe out as well. (Granted he did this so that the studios couldn't spawn out sequels after sequels and essentially taking it out of his hands and destroying his creation in the process)
His Gundam series only solidified his infamy. I remember seeing a discussion thread in another board which featured animated gifs of all shocking kills from his series and there were alot. The one where a toddler being in the wrong place at the wrong time and got his head vaporised by a headshot in the middle of a firefight still gets me.

Fist of the North Star is another series I've yet to watch but unlike Ideon is easily obtainable and translated so I may give it a try. Does anyone have any idea how does the original old series compared to the new ones?

[NathanW]

I'm going through Samurai Champloo again and I think I prefer this to Cowboy Bebop although they run on the same structure, I still love CB but I find the characters in SC much more endearing, although it might be my fondness for samurai films. This series is much goofier although it has it's moments of levity like 'Gamblers and Gallantry' and the two parter 'Elegy of Entrapment' but for the most part it's just so much damn, Fuu and Mugen's constant arguing, Jin's straight guy routine, it all just works so well.

[EdHocken]

I'm getting back on the Death Note horse again soon. But that new intro they put in is really REALLY jaring.

[buddhabliss]

Finished watching Gurren Lagan.What a great ,insane rollercoaster ride.Best anime I've seen in years.

Just started Monster.Feels like its gonna be epic

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by EdHocken

I'm getting back on the Death Note horse again soon. But that new intro they put in is really REALLY jaring.

HA The first time I heard it I was stunned... and then I couldn't stop laughing for a good 20 minutes. Japanese metal?!? \m/(>.<)\m/

I got to laugh again when I caught the dubbed version on Adult Swim and saw the "translated lyrics" on the screen. WTF. Those "lyrics" have nothing whatsoever to do with the song.

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll

I got an anime series called "Speed Grapher" for Christmas from a friend. I thought it sounded like an old Square One skit, but she says I'll love it cuz it's completely fucked up.

Anyone ever see this?

I liked Speed Grapher. It is pretty fucked up. I don't know if it's one I would buy for myself, but if someone had given it to me as a gift I probably wouldn't have felt a need to exchange it. That said, it's not one I feel compelled to watch many times over. Have you started watching it yet? What do you think?

[Master Shake]

Originally Posted by Jennifer

Japanese metal?!? \m/(>.<)\m/

If you want to hear truly ridiculous Japanese metal, I highly recommend checking out Detroit Metal City.

[cognizant]

Trailer for live action Detroit Metal City movie! Looks like its faithful, but again with most Japanese adaptations, the direction seems to be bland as hell. They should just let Miike adapt every anime in Japan.

I'm currently about halfway through Legend of the Galactic Heroes and epic doesnt even begin to describe it. This is more Star Wars than Star Wars ever was, is, or will be. Infact Lucas's franchise should have its name removed.

Other than that I'm also a regular watcher of Gintama which is hilarious if you get all the references.

[Ali]

I actually found the Detroit Metal City movie to be a lot of fun, but it might have been the midnight crowd I watched it with that made it seem so entertaining. Also, I didn't even know it was based on a japanese cartoon or whatever until I got there. I don't know much about the animes.

[Eyeball Kid]

Originally Posted by neaux

cuz I gotta say its a damn entertaining show and Johnny Yong Bosch is probably the greatest english voice actor around these days.

Doing Lelouch and Ichigo in Bleach makes him pretty awesome.

Speaking of Bleach, my wife and I have been watching this on hulu/joost and loving the hell out of it. The filler episodes are terrible, but the main arc episodes are relentlessly paced and have a cliffhanger structure that always induces that "just one more!" response.

There's also a heaping helping of that elation/uplift thing that Ebert blogged about from characters giving everything to do the right thing. Usually this involves unholy ass-kicking, which is fun.

The biggest flaw so far (1/3 through season 3) is that nobody dies for real. I even have my suspicions about Aizen...

Anyway, if we dig this show, what else should we try when we finish it off?

[Syd]

Vampire Nazis v.s. Vatican Knights v.s. Dracula.

God, I love Hellsing.

[Son of Jason]

To give you the rundown for the anime shows that I like.
The Tops:Of course I love "Cowboy BeBop", "Samurai Champloo", and "Ghost In The Shell". But other animes I consider top notch imo are "Paranoia Agent" (very weird), "Basilisk", "Elfin Lied", "Beck:The Mongolian Chop Squad", and "Gantz".
Give Them a Try:Some animes I think are pretty good or underated are "Speed Grapher", "Moribito", "Ghost Hunt", "Ergo Proxy", "Gilgamesh", "Death Note", and "Gunslinger Girl".
Guilty Pleasures: But hey, I also have a thing for stuff like "Ikki Tousen", "Maburaho", "Desert Punk", "Girls Bravo" and "Golden Boy".
Hentai:Haven't seen much, but I do like "Kite" and "Mezzo Forte" (the uncut versions, of course). Also seen several of the "Bible Black" titles, now that is pretty insane stuff there.

[duke fleed]

I really wish that we in the...US, were getting...Space Battleship Yamato: Rebirth, instead of...Avatar, this December! Those Blue Cat People, are making me less excited for the film. It would also be appreciated if...Go Nagai's final series...Z Mazinger, could be either broadcast in the US, or put on DVD.

[duke fleed]

WOW!!! I have been watching...Shin Mazinger ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!, on animefreak.tv, for free! What an awesome series, and one I will definitely buy when it arrives on DVD in the USA! Go Nagai has re-done his earliest super robot series, by paying homage to the...Greek Gods. Zeus himself is the inspiration for Mazinger Z, as in Mazinger Zeus. The mightiest of super robots even meets up with Zeus throughout the series. Rocket Punch!!! Indeed!

[Son of Jason]

Originally Posted by Jennifer

I liked Speed Grapher. It is pretty fucked up. I don't know if it's one I would buy for myself, but if someone had given it to me as a gift I probably wouldn't have felt a need to exchange it. That said, it's not one I feel compelled to watch many times over. Have you started watching it yet? What do you think?

I'm a fan of SG myself. Its a very mature anime, with its action, subject matter and sex (episode two has a very daring and erotic scene late into it thats pretty much softcore pornography, not that I'm complaining). Also, some of the baddies are among the weirdest I've seen, and the hero's camera weapon was unique.

[Chris Spider]

Felt like bumping this because I saw Baccano mentioned earlier in the thread. It's damn great, although I have to confess that the Eve Genoard story by itself isn't as interesting as how it connects to the other stories (Eve's not a great character, and the designs of the black characters in the arc lean uncomfortably close to stereotype territory). But the rest is great; it's got jumbled storytelling that doesn't feel like a gimmick, a huge cast of characters, most of said characters are incredibly interesting and fun to watch, and some unique settings for an anime. It's also got a great English dub.

[Master Shake]

Originally Posted by Chris Spider

Felt like bumping this because I saw Baccano mentioned earlier in the thread. It's damn great, although I have to confess that the Eve Genoard story by itself isn't as interesting as how it connects to the other stories (Eve's not a great character, and the designs of the black characters in the arc lean uncomfortably close to stereotype territory). But the rest is great; it's got jumbled storytelling that doesn't feel like a gimmick, a huge cast of characters, most of said characters are incredibly interesting and fun to watch, and some unique settings for an anime. It's also got a great English dub.

Baccano is great stuff. Best part is that ALL of the dub is freely available on Hulu.

Also, it has Ladd Russo, who became my favorite animated sociopath by the end of the series.

[Chris Spider]

Originally Posted by Master Shake

Baccano is great stuff. Best part is that ALL of the dub is freely available on Hulu.

Also, it has Ladd Russo, who became my favorite animated sociopath by the end of the series.

I watched it on YouTube, where it is also available for free, because Hulu requires you to register to watch "mature" content. Screw that. Ladd's pretty fun, though I find him pretty abhorrent, so I ended up loving Claire when he completely owned and humiliated Ladd. My favorite characters are easily Isaac & Miria, followed by Firo, Claire, Ennis and Czes.

[Punchinello]

Originally Posted by Doc Happenin

Oh, how could I forget! Escaflowne...starts off stronger than it ends, but it's a fun fantasy ride. And if you like (swipe for spoilers): 17th century physicists as the bad guys then it's definitely the show for you.

Oh Man! I haven't watched any anime in years, but Escaflowne was the last series I sat down with. This show needs more love, although it's been years since I've seen it. It's my hands down favourite Fantasy (other than Milius' Conan), as I'm not a big fan of the genre. So Escaflowne with its combination of GIANT loving ROBOTS (which are all just fantastic designs, with all the inside-the-cockpit views of how it might actually work), just worked when married to standard fantasy genre staples like Elves, Airships and an Evil Empire. Even the fact that the Heroine is from the modern world works when it shouldn't. Great show. Really a shame it doesn't get more love... and also happens to have a great Yoko Kanno score.

Cowboy Bebop, I'm just happy to know so many of you get it. CB's English dub is the only way to go. I've been trying to get my hands on Samurai Champloo, but I can't find any with English subs in China.

Somebody also mentioned Samurai X Trust and Betrayal, which was the first old-school type Samurai film I'd ever seen, so it was my lead to (admittedly much better) films like Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Baby Cart and the like.

I've pretty much given up on Anime for a long time now, but that's because nothing will ever live up to Bebop and the ultra-violent guilty pleasure that is Ninja Scroll was such a product of its time it cannot be replicated. I wonder why CG animation hasn't caught on in Japanese animation?

*swish ninja edit: Oh, and the Macross OVA, which I can't remember the name of... had 3 central characters, the main guy was voiced by the Dad on Malcolm in the Middle. I think it was by the same guy who directed Bebop and Champloo? That was a great 4 part miniseries... I just fell in love with the whole Macross world, and was the only other manga other than Gunsmith Cats I ever read. Those Robot/Fighter jets were just awesome. The only thing to come close to Macross is Battlestar Galactica, which gives me a geek boner for the mere possibility of what a live-action Macross film could be like... *sigh*

[ryoken]

Originally Posted by Punchinello

*swish ninja edit: Oh, and the Macross OVA, which I can't remember the name of... had 3 central characters, the main guy was voiced by the Dad on Malcolm in the Middle. I think it was by the same guy who directed Bebop and Champloo? That was a great 4 part miniseries... I just fell in love with the whole Macross world, and was the only other manga other than Gunsmith Cats I ever read. Those Robot/Fighter jets were just awesome. The only thing to come close to Macross is Battlestar Galactica, which gives me a geek boner for the mere possibility of what a live-action Macross film could be like... *sigh*

Is that "Macross Plus" youre talking about?

[Punchinello]

Yes, that's it! I remember they re-edited the whole thing into one movie, which cut out one of the few action set-pieces that was a training exercise in space, if I recall. It was pretty good, it ret-conned the alien species to something more believable, instead of being huge giants like the original Macross/Robotech series, they were just taller, stronger humanoids (green or blue-ish? Can't recall) that were known for their bad temper, sort of like Klingons I guess. It focused more on the characters than the action, but I remember seeing the advert for STEALTH and thinking they lifted the idea of a new-fighter jet gone AWOL from Macross Plus. I haven't seen Stealth, but did it also have a trio of characters involved in a love triangle? I'm sure they didn't lift the whole concert thing, that's obviously (retarded) Macross territory...

[Strumvogel]

Actually nothing was ret-conned in Macross Plus, the giant aliens on that planet were micronised since it was easier to integrate into the largely human population and city there. There are still un-micronised aliens around, the first OVA the movie was made from actually had the main character fighting against one in a Powered Armor.

[The Alexor]

Macross Plus' music is very good. One of my favorite anime. Punchinello, are you a francophone? Teletoon showed a great french dub of the series a few times.

[Martin Savage]

Macross Plus is pretty great.

I was kinda disappointed by Escalfowne. Great concept, but it fell a but flat for me by the end.

I'm a huge fan of Ghost in the shell, but I never watched the series, so I might have to remedy that. Also: Cowboy Bebop...

Any other suggestions?

[Strumvogel]

Gunbuster. Starts off slow and cutesy but finishes in epic form. It's my favorite OVA series ever.

You can ignore the sequel Diebuster if you want. It's got more in common to FLCL than to Gunbuster, with the exception of the last episode.