Anime On Trial

[Reply #440 on:]

Not the critics fault, I also blame Japanese and other nerds alike as well as cheap money grubbing Production Studies who pump out cheap harem or fighting anime after anime.

Anime it self has got to mature more as well.

[Reply #441 on:]

It's not a coherent whole though. Manga and anime encompass all aspects of entertainment and culture. Saying that the artform is immature because of the kiddy crap aspect is like saying all Hollywood live-action films are silly because of the Olsen Twins movies. Really, they shouldn't be lumped together as being intertwined. We don't do it with live-action, so why anime?

Bah!

[Reply #442 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nurdbot:

Anime it self has got to mature more as well.

I am just have to disagree on this point. One of the main things that interested me in anime and manga is that it runs the full gamit of styles, from Hello Kitty to Paranoia Agent.

Add to that the fact that most of the anime that was released in the UK when I was growing up was all of the mature kind (Overfiend, Ninja Scroll, Devilman ect), in many ways I don't think it is the jaapanese market that is to blame but the distribution companies in the west whom are releasing what they think will get them the most money.

On a releated note that almost nulifies my point. I have been watching (and reading) Death Note, while it is set at a more mature audience that is not because of violence or the amount of clevage shown but more the philosophical content. All in all it is pretty good so far and one of the few time the anime is actually as good as the manga (actually add the music and the visual styling and it is sometime better). A show that should be watched.

[Reply #443 on:]

True Wu, but SOME anime has to mature. Or at least be original. There is some great original stuff out there but it keeps getting eclipsed by crappy harem stuff, crappy violent stuff or annoying cute stuff.

How many more harems, cute things and pointless fighting anime are there? Lots. Yet, aside from a few original gems these are more less clones.

In other words, we need more serious stuff and less fighty panty schoolgirl harem tentacle time!

Anywho, speaking of which, I'll have my review of the 2nd Girls Bravo series done soon . 

[Reply #444 on:]

Does anyone watch Afro Samurai on Spike?  I can't believe each episode cost a million dollars.  Too bad there is only 5 episodes, I just hope they come out with another season.  Samuel L. Jackson is one of the best voice actors ever.

[Reply #445 on:]

Anyone seen Death Note?

The anime has aired up to ep 16 of 32, but the manga is complete or 3/4 complete for those who wait for the Viz version. The anime will cover half the manga.

For those who haven't seen it, here is an excellent opportunity to watch an anime that isn't immature.

Death Note is about a machiavellan genius of a high school student who one day finds a book. He discovers that if you write a person's name in the book, that person dies.
And so, in the name of justice, in the interest of all... he decides to take over the world.

Yagami Light is without a doubt my favourite character from all categories. He is so... superior.

[Reply #446 on:]

Sounds deliciously evil.

[Reply #447 on:]

Death Note is awesome. Finaly got the live action version (after many atempts....they should label the language of the subtitles).

The anime is awesome and has so far not particuly deviated from the orginal manga source. I do love they style and the music they have choosen for it.

Two things though. The series is sheduled for 37 episodes and the pace it is going at it should complete the entire manga arc but I will look into this.

As for my fave got to be L, got to love eccentrics.

[Reply #448 on:]

A quick and Dirty review of R. o. D.: The TV

Too much crying, not enough paper mastery.

Although the paper mastery was pretty darn sweet.

And when did The Paper grow a British accent?

[Reply #449 on:]

wu_konguk: I am not too confident about the number of episodes, it might be that you are right.

But with 16 episodes out they are only about as far as chapter 34 out of 108. I find it unlikely that they would squeeze the remaing two thirds of the manga into half a season. Much more likely they will drag it out a little and end the season at around chapter 58.

Then again... it might just be that I am biased, seeing as how I really really want it to end there.

[Reply #450 on:]

Photon
Sci-Fi, Action Adventure, Vague Harem trappings and a waste of time...

It's been a while since I've watched an anime bad enough to make me roll my eyes, hate the entire cast and wonder how many other good things it has ripped most of the ideas and concepts from.

Over a year in fact. Before I begin, I have to say this to YouTube: Bite me you jerks. I had to download the last three episodes of this crap because you pulled it. This has also proved me a sado masochist when it comes to bad entertainment. Thank god there was only 6 episodes.

Okay, hands up if you've seen Tenchi Muyo? A large percentage of anime fans have seen at least one episode. Photon is made by the sole survivors of Pioneer studios.

Here is the plot. It's Japanese anime sci-fi future whacky time! With horribly designed organic looking ships that remind me of the early KOTOR comics and crappy laser balls/lightsaber rip off fighting!

Episode 1 starts off thus:

Two ugly anime style Sci-Fi ships are chasing each other in the same way a certain bunch of much more attractive ships chased each other in a proper western space opera made decades before. Needless to say, there will be more painful Star Wars 'homages' to come.

Some big breasted bimbo (One of our heroes) is being chased by a creepy beardo who looks a lot like a guy cosplaying Kagato. When the anime you are watching in the first five minutes reminds people of a better anime done 6 years ago (this was made in 98) you know it will suck.

Oh, the bimbo, her name Keyne, climbs in a handy dandy Aliens survival transparent coffin nude and her ship crashes.

Even the weak injection of T&A doesn't save the opening of the first episode. Cue slightly more annoying spastic action packed intro! Does anyone actually watch these now? I just move the slider forward until it is over.

Then we meet the rest of our main characters. Photon and Aon. Photon is an ugly little bastard whos face is drawn retardedly. Aon is a self centered bitch with the word jailbait imprinted on her forehead. Speaking of foreheads, this anime just loves that plot device!

Aon steals a Felt Tip pen, which is her villages holy object (Argh, a good movie The Gods Must Be Crazy is another victim!) and Photons Grandfathers being the lazy bastard he is sends our pathetic protaginist into the desert to bring the jailbait and MacGuffin back.

Eventually, he catches and saves Aon after some painful comedy relief. By the way, even for comedy sake, the threat of rape isn't NOT funny Japan.

She rewards him by beating the crap out of him in that oh so not funny way. A pet hate of mine is the 'hahah, wow, that girl is kicking that guys ass' joke in anime. It isn't funny, It never was.

We creepily learn that Aon is Photons sister. Photon likes his older sister in a very creepily incestious way. Oh god, help!

She also takes off when he falls asleep and writes idiot on his head with the permanent felt tip pen. The chain of idiot events in this plot has just begun.

Okay, seen most of the main characters already and I hate them all. Not good. Not good at all. To add to my annoyance, there is whacky deformed emotes every fucking where.

There is a stupid chase scene where I hate the main characters more and Photon eventually blunders into Keyne whos nude and sleeping off the effects of her crash at the start in her invisio coffin in her crashed ship.

He finally spots he has idiot on his head and spazzes out and writes idiot all over the place, including on the head of the naked Keyne before snuggling down against her creepily reminding us how her boobs remind him of his big sisters.

Thankfully, Keyne wakes up and freaks out a little.

My only favourite bit ever in this anime, the naked chick fighting scene. Sadly, It doesn't remain favourite long. I also must mention, if you are going to do a full frontal nudity fight scene with a naked bimbo in it, have the balls to finish the job and draw the rest of the naughty bits. Or don't do it at all.

The scene ends when bimbo Keyne notices she is in her birthday suit. Man, you've got to be stupid to not notice your own nudity. She then notices the grafitti on her forehead and Photons and declares, due to her retarded alien culture that they are man and wife.

She then creepily gives him a bath killing what kicks a naked bimbo gave us and amps up the creepy meter to 5. At this point, I want to just watch Itchy and his Wookiee porn in the SW Christmas Special.

Also, what the fuck is with anime giving little boys babes and eventually harems? Ever hear the term 'fish with a bicycle' Japan? Not only is it creepy, but goddamn stupid to boot.

Episode 1 ends here. And it only gets worse. There is the appearince of a cute token animal (who looks suspiciously like Ryo-Ohki) and the annoying foppish retarded Villain makes a long overstayed appearince throughout the series. Photon is reunited with Aon, there is the annoying stupid rival conflict.

We eventually learn there is a stupid plot with bimbo Keyne as the MacGuffin (Pssst, Outlaw Star already did this, and it was good!) and a really crappy pretentious final episode where the only good bits was watching the heroes get hurt physically and emotionally. Oh, and lots of stupid Sci-Fi science with equally stupid techspeak. Like, Brain Crystal.

In conclusion, Photon is a baaaaad anime. A cheap much worse carbon copy of Tenchi Muyo/Universe. Not even bimbo Keynes bare breasts can save such a crappy OVA from obscurity. It has a crappy plot, full of characters that you will not ever like and is even offensive at times. If you want to get a girlfriend into anime, this is NOT a series to show her.

On a final note, Photon? quite possibly the most faggiest name for a male protaginist ever. Tenchi called Photon, he did your mum. And it was bad!

May the suck be with you and your wretched little band!

1 out of 5 Nurdy Points: I saw this when it was called Tenchi Muyo. This anime is bad and I feel bad for watching it. A classic case of DEEP HURTING

[Reply #451 on:]

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge AKA Perfect Girl Evolution
Sparkly, Quite amusing and awesomely dark and masculine at times.

YouTube, I love you. Sometimes, you are blessing (without you, I never would have seen most of Mystery Science Theater 3000) sometimes a curse (My curiosity in stumbing over Photon in the related box). But once more, you came through to me baby! Mwah!

What is YNSH (Longest title ever) about anyway? Remember those crappy movies about those high school guys betting they can make that already hot bookish chick even hotter for cash? It is something like that. But not as lame.

Four Playboys. One eccentric upperclass Landlady and the rent of a massive oddly European Mansion in the middle of Tokyo (?) as well as the star of the show herself, Sunako are all the main players of this show. The guys need to make her a perfect lady for free rent, as she is related to the Landlady.

However Sunako is not your average girl. She is more like the chick from The Ring than a typical Pretty Girl protaginist. She has quite dark tastes in movies. She shuts herself up in her room. Her best friend is an anatomy dummy.

The Pretty Boys from the start know that they are screwed (these guys however are far from perfect, Red is a Manwhore, The Black Haired dude is anti-social guy who'd edit Wikipedia, the small dude is quite childish and the tall blonde guy is quite a bit of jerk, all these traits add to the humour) but never the less give it a try.

Sunako herself is drawn in three different ways. Chibi, Semi-Deformed and realistic beauty. These change from time to time depending on the situation and how she feels.

Once you get past the surface of the slightly disturbing detail of some of the characters (especially the males, but this is a girls anime, so I'll just shut up and put up) and the cost saving themes of comic deformation and silly humour you notice some interesting themes to do with self acceptance, appearince and quite a few other nick nacks. If not, laugh at the hopelessness of the Pretty Boys cause and admire how rocking Sunako is. We also see the darkside of being atttactive to both sexes.

The anime also takes the piss out of Goth Loli and those creepy deeply tanned ganjuro girls too. Unlike Photon, if you want to get a girl into anime, watch this.

All in all, I enjoyed watching YNSH. It made me laugh, made me cry (yes, you will feel sorry for Sunako) and made me proud for being the bland sort of guy I am.

5 out of 5 Nurdy Points: Girls can get anime right sometimes. Not an obnoxius idiot in sight.

[Reply #452 on:]

I watched a few episodes of Perfect Girl Evolution yesterday. It is really entertaining. The manga is better.

I suppose it is occasionally meant to be a little emotional, and it may possibly grow more so ahead, but so far it's pretty much only humorous. Definitely something I recommend.

Thanks for the tip, Nurdy.

[Reply #453 on:]

I just started watching [Tenjho Tenge.  Its cool, but like other anime series, the girls are WAY too developed. If I wanted giant fake breast in my face, I would just go to a strip club.  I don't want to think about sex when I'm watching anime.

[Reply #454 on:]

I have finally convinced one of my friends that we should have an anime marathon. The plan is that we will pretty much just sit still for a day+ and watch anime. For me this will be an attempt to break my old record of 42 episodes in a row (16 hours), and for him it will probably be his first brainwash*. Any suggestions what I should show him?

I'm leaning towards showing him all of Evangelion and something of equal length, possibly season 1 of Full Metal Panic or the Tenchi Muyo OVA. But since that would mean switching anime around half way, it would probably spoil the whole brainwash effect.
Best would be if I found a suitable anime with 50+ episodes, because even if we don't finish the whole series in one go it is bound to screw both our brains to smitherins. Plus I could possibly find something I haven't seen either.


*It is a wonderful thing to watch a series so intensively that you end up dreaming vividly about it for three nights in a row.

Edit: If I wanted to be cruel I could add alcohol to the plan and force him to watch Excel Saga and FLCL, but I'm too worried about my own mental health to do that.

[Reply #455 on:]

Lengthy anime I highly recomend.

Great Teacher Onizuka
Full Metal Alchemist
The Twelve Kingdoms
Hikaru No Go (might be trickier to get hold off)

What I would suggest though is to ease this person in with an anime that has even been recomended by some of the self proclaimed anime haters on here.

Cowboy Bebop

Then go on to NGE

[Reply #456 on:]

Yeah Cowboy Bebop and FMA are really good starters.  I would tell him to be patient with FMA, it doesn't get real good until episode 14.  I think Eva is good, but its not one of my favorites.

They started airing Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles (Naruto Part 2), is anyone following that?

[Reply #457 on:]

I used to watch Naruto all the time (the fight between Gaara and Rock Lee is still one of my fave anime fights) but really lost interest in the show once they began showing those god damn filler episodes. I think most people would lose interest after over a year of filler.

Besides I am quite happy to just sit down every week and watcha a new episdoe of Death Note.

[Reply #458 on:]

Well, I'm guessing you're as happy as everyone else that the fillers have ended.  I haven't got into Death Note yet.  My friends talk about it, but I just haven't taken the time to check it out yet.  But I probably will soon.

[Reply #459 on:]

Hmm... the marathon won't start until around noon tomorrow. I bet he just wants to rid himself of excess energy before we sit down for 20 hours... cheater.

But anyway, I think I'll go with showing him Revolutionary Girl Utena. It feels like watching two different animes would make us both want to give up in between. And Utena is 39 episodes and a movie, so it will still be a tiny step up from my record of 42 episodes of Futurama.

I'll write a review of Utena in two days or so, but it's a slightly psychological shoujo anime where pretty much everyone runs around with deliciously dark pasts and secrets that control their lives.

[Reply #460 on:]

 

Originally posted by I:
I'm leaning towards showing him all of Evangelion

Somewhere PItt Clemen's brain is melting.

As someone who is not a hardcore anime fan, I'd recommend Trigun, Bebop, and Red or Die and R.o.D. The TV.

But only R.o.D. The TV if you watch Read or Die OVA first.

[Reply #461 on:]

So far, I have to admit that Cowboy Bebop is the only anime that has really managed to get a hold of me. I suppose that it's because I can forgive the quality of animation in exchange for the story, the ideas behind it, and of course, the fact that if I could somehow bring Faye Valentine out of my TV and into the real world, I would be the happiest man alive. Ever. Assuming, of course, that she was naked or semi-naked at the time.

 

[Reply #462 on:]

Bebop is one of the best. One day, I will get the entire series box set.

The Cult episode and Toys In The Attic (the one where Faye is in the bath :P) are my personal favourites.

Trigun is also good, I really must finish watching the rest at some point.

I like my fights, quick, fast and with guns.

[Reply #463 on:]

Utena....hmm I think I did a review of that in one of the anime threads at some point.

Just so you know. The movie and the TV series are not related other than the name and the characters. The stories of the two are very different and both are quite weird.

Did forget a fairly long series that is good. Rurouni Kenshin, add the OVA's in there and you will be at it a while.

My faveoruite episodes of Bebop are Wild Horses, Ballard of Fallen Angels, Toys in the Attic and The Real Folk Blues. Oh and Hard Luck Woman, the fight with Edd's Dad...so much fun. Almost as much fun as the fight with Andy.

[Reply #464 on:]

Mushroom Samba > Toys in the Attic > the rest of Bebop.

Africa, Mexico, Sicily, Tiajuana
India, Osaka, Indonesia.
MUSHROOM HUNTING.

[Reply #465 on:]

In the end we just went with Evangelion. He wasn't completely new to anime before, but it took a marathon to get him hooked.

Also my forcing him to sing along with the intro 26 times paid off.    He could sing along pretty decently for the last few episodes.

Sadly the brainwash effect was pretty much ruined by the two of us adding stupid comments at every opportunity for the first two thirds of the  series. But other than that the day went well.

wu: I've already seen Utena, but thanks anyway. And yes... they are a little weird. But still well worth watching. I like Juri.

I watched the first 20 something episodes of Kenshin a few months ago, but I wasn't too impressed. I hear it gets better after ep 28, but is the difference really that great?

[Reply #466 on:]

Agh, the NGE theme. I feel really stupid when I start singing it. Humming it is okay.

And I made some stupid comments too when watching NGE. When you have a protaginist like Shinji, you will get annoyed and make fun of him.

Mushroom Hunting is a decent episode, and I forgot the awesomeness of Wild Horses. I think we can all agree that Bebop has the best soundtrack. Usually, most music in anime makes me want to stab something. Something small and cute.

Bebop was the first anime soundtrack I looked around for on the net.

[Reply #467 on:]

Bebop does have one of the best anime soundtracks there is, will admit I am quite partial to the Beck OST and the new Death note one.

@ I

It does get better as the series progresses, although I did feel the last story arc was a let down. Honestly the best part of the series is the OVA's, they are well worth the efoort.

[Reply #468 on:]

Attention world: Stop watching the rantings of EVA!  Start listening to The rantings of EVA

[Reply #469 on:]

Amended

 

Originally posted by Nixorbo:
Mushroom Samba > Toys in the Attic > Wild Horses > the rest of Bebop.

Africa, Mexico, Sicily, Tiajuana
India, Osaka, Indonesia.
MUSHROOM HUNTING.

SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA TO THE RESC-OH SHI-

[Reply #470 on:]

Also, the best thing about Bebop was it did sad endings good.

Not the 'omgWFT was dat skull f*ck!?' pretentious bad endings some anime has.

Looking at you, Death and Rebirth of NGE fame.

Spike also kicks every other anime protagonists ass.

I really must get into the Samurai anime those guys also made. I hear it is of excellent quality.

[Reply #471 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nurdbot:
Spike also kicks every other anime protagonists ass.

I disagree
(Best AMV ever, FYI)

[Reply #472 on:]

Hmmm. A tough argument. Vash is pretty clool too. Alucard from Hellsing also racks up some points.

We need a to rack up some sort system to really decide. With a calculating engine. Or a series of levers and valves.

[Reply #473 on:]

I actually find anime a world that I think is in it's own little world and to those who have the skills to be able to  draw japense art are one of the best artists in the world or art!!!

[Reply #474 on:]

New Death Note intro sucks.

[Reply #475 on:]

Very true. Just cause the series has Death in the title does not mean it needs a death metal song....like the total opposite of the the theme of the series.

[Reply #476 on:]

Just started watching Read Or Die. Yomiko is cute as a button, Deep is hawt and Drake has an awesome Brock from Venture Brothers vibe going on.

I like. I like a lot.

EDIT: Hmmm, Duke? where did that come from?

[Reply #477 on:]

Duke?  Is he like Drake?

[Reply #478 on:]

I stand corrected. I need sleep.

Never the less, It rocks. Wish I watched it sooner. I also found some old school AOD Police OVA on YouTube too.

[Reply #479 on:]

Youtube needs the original dirty pair episodes, dammit.  I need my Kei and Yuri fix.