Spike Lives! (Anime talk)

[Reply #240 on:]

Totoro's cute alright. Tell me this isn't cute.

Show spoiler

I posted that pic many many moons ago... 

[Reply #241 on:]

saw that pic coming before i pressed spoiler... too obvious

Drats, foiled again. The pic has been around for years so it's bound to re-appear when talking about Totoro.

I posted that pic many many moons ago... 

Well, many many many moons ago when I went into self-exile, you weren't even registered, so "Nyeh!"

[Reply #242 on:]

Totoro's cute alright. Tell me this isn't cute.

Show spoiler

Awwww Kawaii ^_^

[Reply #243 on:]

i just watched Hotaru no Haka again (first time on canvas)... still makes me a sad pickle

[Reply #244 on:]

Don't be sad, Bend-err or you'll ended up in a burger.

[Reply #245 on:]

i doubt that

hmm, new ghibli coming out this year

[Reply #246 on:]

I really hope I can visit the Ghibli Museum next year. I hear there is a waiting list. I hope I'm wrong though

[Reply #247 on:]

waiting lists? OH NO
i so would love to go there some day too... and steal the huge laputa robot

[Reply #248 on:]

You mean this gentle giant? I'm sure you'll look ridiculous dragging it out

I just want to hug him...

... and never let go

[Reply #249 on:]

yes, that giant... i am sure i can hide it in my pocket... and that totoro and t6he nekobasu too...

ach crap, i want the whole building!

[Reply #250 on:]

According to nausicaa.net there will be a new Ghibli film released this Summer; Arrietty the Borrower

Teaser trailer

Of course we'll have to wait a while longer till it gets a release in the west.

[Reply #251 on:]

och tweek, old news that is

[Reply #252 on:]

Oh.... so you are an evil suppressor for not posting about it here

[Reply #253 on:]

hmm, new ghibli coming out this year

i think i did...

[Reply #254 on:]

Oops, I thought you were referring to "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" when I read your post then forgot about it when I posted

[Reply #255 on:]

but Tale of the Bamboo Cutter doesn't even have a release date yet...

so, Borrower is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, haven't heard anything about him yet

[Reply #256 on:]

Soul Eater

Anybody who read the review I left after seeing the first few episodes of this knows that my feelings at that point were mixed.  After that review some really weird things happened in the series that changed my opinion completely in one direction. Then, halfway in, even more plot occurrences changed my opinion in the exact opposite direction, putting me back where I started.

I think I better start with something I read on TV tropes called a Gecko ending.  It can be explained like this:  If you make a manga series in Japan and it gets hugely popular, it might get made into an anime series.  This anime series will double the plot of the Manga series, and try to follow the same lines.  There is a flaw in this arrangement, however.  The manga will only be released once a month.  Anime episodes come out once a week.  Eventually the plot of the anime will overtake the plot of the manga and enter uncharted territory.  It's called a gecko ending because when the end of a gecko's tail is cut off, a new one has to grow in to finish the lizard.

A great example of this was Fullmetal Alchemist.  FMA followed the manga's plot up to the fight between Ed and Greed.  After that, the TV series had to make up its own ending.  And what an ending.  Characters from every point in the series made recurrences to flesh out the ever-expanding plot.  This was no small feat, as minor characters who in any other quest series would have been tossed off as one shots re-emerged after months of disconnect only to reveal that their lives had been turned upside down by Ed's actions.  All in all, minus some silly alchemy tricks that became downright absurd in the Shambala movie it was a crafted emotional roller coaster that didn't disappoint.

Soul Eater represents a not so successful attempt at a Gecko ending.  The real heartache of it is that everything I liked about the show, namely its quirkiness and its creepiness increased steadily up to episode 24, which I consider to be the show's high water mark.  By that time the villains had earned a solid foothold, the heroes had to resort to contaminating themselves to survive and the atmosphere carried along with it an ever-present classic horror feel, that always left a niggling discomfort.

After that episode though, the whole series goes downhill.  The horror aspect was scaled way back to make room for overblown action sequences.  Not to say that the action sequences earlier weren't overblown, but they were tighter.  There's a big difference between on the one hand barely making it out of a knife-fight with a few scratches and on the other blasting away at each other with overpowered fireballs.  The fight animation also looks a lot more fun and grittier in the first half of the series than the second.

I also feel that plot and character elements that emerged as fun and original got ever more buried in favor of cliche delivery.  A very interesting character in the series is presented in the fist half as an unstoppable killing machine, and then in the second half is demoted to an almost MacGuffin-level plot device.  Plot elements themselves, like for example soul eating; which being the title of the series you'd think would be pretty important, evaporates almost completely in the shows second half.  The angle of the show itself even takes a drastic turn from John Woo presents teenage ghostbusters as directed by Tim Burton to something along the lines of scooby-doo mystery with Dragonball fight mechanics, while reading from a DIY book on Anime series plot points.  It reeks of not only a cop-out to the original design but a sad note on how originality really needs to get pumped into the industry.

I'll boil down all my rantings to one simple statement.  Here we have a series that can easily be filed under Action/Horror.  All the way up to episode 24 the scale tips more and more toward Horror, while still getting some pretty sweet action, and never losing its playful nature.  After that point the scale tips fast, hard and reverse.  It ends as far more of an action series than a horror series, and I liked it better as a horror series.  That's all.

So I'm pretty lukewarm as to the end of this series.  One thing I will give it props for is it has some pretty good CGI to match the pallet of the traditional animation.  Once somebody figures out to synch the framerate of the 2D animation with the 3D animation Anime's going to look real crisp, if soul eater is anything to measure by.

C+

[Reply #257 on:]

Shuffle

As this series can currently be watched legally on line on Funimation's YouTube channel I thought I'd give it a go and I'm glad that I did as it was pretty good. Before it started I knew little about it but the characters are introduced well and are all fairly distinctive.

Rin Tsuchimi is a high school student who's life gets very complicated when the kings of the World of Devils and the World of Gods turn up in his class and tell him that he is to pick which of their daughters, Nerine and Lisianthus, he wishes to marry and later become king of that realm himself. This being a harem anime these aren't the only two girls interested in him. Kaede in who's house he lives is besotted by him and he is also close to Asa a girl in a class above him. For most of the series he can't decide which of the girls he wishes to date. As it becomes apparent which of the girls he likes to tome of the series takes a drastic mood swing as one of the other girls has a dramatic breakdown, even when that has past things don't get too much better for the group as the girl he loves becomes sick but refuses to do the one thing which could save her, this leads to Rin taking drastic action. I've avoided naming names here to avoid spoiling the end.

This was a fun series and I was genuinely interested to see who Rin would pick. As well as the central story there is plenty of comedy early on, three of the girls have large fan clubs who don't like their attentions being directed at Rin so he must evade them, as the story progresses these groups disappear though. There is a reasonable amount of fanservice although it doesn't go too far too often, there are occasional shots of the girls' undies or bare chests which some viewers might not be too keen on.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

7/10

[Reply #258 on:]

Steamboy

I'd heard good things about this film but was somewhat disappointed as soon as I put the disc in and found it didn't include the original Japanese language sound track as I prefer to watch my anime subbed rather than dubbed. When the film started I soon put that out of my mind and settled down to enjoy the story.

Show spoiler

The Steam family live up to their name by inventing a variety of steam powered devices, the most impressive of which is the steam-ball a metal ball the size of a football that can contain enough compressed steam to power huge machines for a long period of time. After an accident at a research centre in Alaska Lloyd and his son Eddie have a falling out and Lloyd sends the ball to his grandson James Ray Steam. Soon after the package arrives in Manchester members of the sinister O'Hara Foundation turn up claiming that it was meant to be sent to them so it could feature in the Great Exhibition in London. James flees on an exotic looking single wheel vehicle and is chased by thugs on a large traction engine... this exciting chase goes on for a while and includes trains and a Zeppelin. Ray is caught and taken to London along with the steam ball, he is shocked to discover that his father, who he believed was dead, is working for the O'Hara Foundation. Eddie explains how grandfather Lloyd went a bit mad and stole the ball, at this point Ray doesn't know who to believe.

It turns out that the steam ball is one of three required to power a huge steam castle where the Foundation is hoping to sell their various steam powered weapons to anybody who has the money to but them. When word gets out and the authorities seek to search the castle the foundation deploys a wide range of steam powered weapons against them including steam-armour, tanks and even aircraft, finally the castle itself takes off leaving a swathe of destruction through London. Ray, his grandfather and the O'Hara's daughter Scarlett must stop them before London is destroyed.

I thought the story was pretty good and the animation was pretty stunning throughout. I really liked the vast array of imaginative steam powered devices that appeared. The dub wasn't bad and I wouldn't have guessed that Ray was being voiced by a woman if I hadn't read it here first. The accents did seem to be the sort only had by the generic Northerns who feature in period dramas, I was half expecting somebody to say, "Ay oop, there's trouble up t' mill". If you insist on watching anime in Japanese get the directors cut, if it isn't essential this English version is still enjoyable.

7/10

[Reply #259 on:]

This is old, I know, but I only recently heard about the conspiracy theory about the true story behind My Neighbour Totoro. I just wanted to know what you al thought?

Am trawling through anime planet atm for something new to take my mind off of essays.

[Reply #260 on:]

complete and utter bullshit

ghibli themselves said it's totally made up

[Reply #261 on:]

K-On

I've only begun to watch 2 episodes of this and I find it rather adorable. Sure, it's just 4 girls with highly squeaky voices and their passion to sustain the Music Club but I enjoyed it. I think the animation is pretty good and I hope to catch all of the episodes on tv.

めっちゃ　かわいい　な～　

[Reply #262 on:]

Looks like a cute series.  I might have to watch that sometime if I get the chance.

...y'know, maybe if I run out of big stompy robot anime to watch.

[Reply #263 on:]

Looks like a cute series.  I might have to watch that sometime if I get the chance.

...y'know, maybe if I run out of big stompy robot anime to watch.

Japan running out of ideas on robot anime? Ne-VAH!

I saw two more episodes yesterday. Cutey girlies when to the beach-y~!

[Reply #264 on:]

i'm currently considering watching the Hunter X Hunter anime once i coughed up to the recent manga chapter

[Reply #265 on:]

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Rebuild

Why the fuck should this exist?

Not planning to watch

[Reply #266 on:]

well, the image quality is way better for a start

[Reply #267 on:]

You know what else looked better than the original animation?  The Batman Anime when compared to the animated series.  I'd still rather watch the former 10 days out of 10.

[Reply #268 on:]

but that also has a complete different story line and stuff

[Reply #269 on:]

No angels and no Evas?

[Reply #270 on:]

i meant the Batman cartoons, not NGE

[Reply #271 on:]

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Rebuild

Why the fuck should this exist?

Because Anno Hideki blew all of his money on blackjack and hookers, and now he needs more?

No angels and no Evas?

That would arguably be an improvement.

[Reply #272 on:]

Honest to God, I wish I knew how much I could trust that guy.  Part of me wants to say he's a goddamn genius, then I have to fall back on the part of me that says he's just an aging emo-kid, and finally I see him as just another studio head looking for a profit.

I always pictured Anno as the kind of guy who would want you to think that He's a Shinji Ikari.  A guy who thinks of himself as a Gendo Ikari, but in actuality he's really just a Makoto Hyuga.

[Reply #273 on:]

Honest to God, I wish I knew how much I could trust that guy.  Part of me wants to say he's a goddamn genius, then I have to fall back on the part of me that says he's just an aging emo-kid, and finally I see him as just another studio head looking for a profit.

Hint: It's probably that third one.

I always pictured Anno as the kind of guy who would want you to think that He's a Shinji Ikari.  A guy who thinks of himself as a Gendo Ikari, but in actuality he's really just a Makoto Hyuga.

Y'know, I have no idea what he actually looks like, so I always picture him as looking exactly like Gendo.

[Reply #274 on:]

Area 88 (2004)

I had seen this series advertised on other ADV DVDs but didn't initially think to buy it, when I saw it for sale at a good price I thought I'd give it a chance. I'm glad that I did as it was enjoyable. The flying sequences were very impressive with scenes that would be almost impossible to show were it live action. Of course a good series needs more than just good action scenes it also needs a variety of good characters and a good story; the main characters good and although the story line wasn't the series' strongest point it wasn't bad.

Set in a fictional desert country there is a base called Area 88 which is the home to a group of mercenaries who fly in support of the government against rebel forces. While there they are paid a bounty on each enemy plane they shoot down, they must also buy everything they need including fuel, weapons and spare part. Once there a pilot must work for three years or pay one and a half million dollars before they can get out. We are introduced to Area 88 with the arrival of photographer Makoto. When he arrives he seems most interested in Shin, a Japanese pilot who we later learn was tricked into signing up to fight at Area 88 by the man who he thought was his friend but betrayed him so he could move in on Shin's girl friend. While these are the main characters there are plenty of other good characters most noticeably; Kim the young Harrier pilot, Mickey who flies a Tomcat and Kitori a female pilot who arrives later in the series.

The animation looked really good although it seemed a little odd at first that Japanese pilot Shin was blonde haired and blue-eyed. The range of aircraft on display is impressive and will make this series appeal to anybody who likes military aircraft. While the story isn't the series main draw it progresses nicely through the series and has a good low key ending.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

8/10

[Reply #275 on:]

I am watching Fruits Basket and it is so cute and sweet! (also drujnk at present, apologies). I'm about half way through.

[Reply #276 on:]

With watching Fruits Basket or getting drujnk?

[Reply #277 on:]

Haha, Fruits Basket. I was already done and dusted with drinking! :P

[Reply #278 on:]

I've watched part of the fruits basket series, I think it's pretty good.

[Reply #279 on:]

009-1

I hadn't given any thought to this series till I saw that it was in Funimation's YouTube channel, then I thought I'd give it a go. I'm glad that I did as it was enjoyable. It might not be the most gripping series but the lead character, Miléne Hoffman AKA agent 009-1 is a good character who draws the viewer into her world. Set in a future where the cold war never ended 009-1 is a cyborg agent working for the west; each of the early episodes sees her going on a mission to thwart the dastardly East, towards the end we get a three part story where it is clear that the West's behaviour isn't perfect either. Surprisingly for a short action series there are quite a few touching moments and we see out heroine take actions that will have consequences for ordinary people.

The animation isn't as good as many other series but the style grew on me and the characters had a distinctive look. While there is no real nudity in the series we see 009-1 wearing nothing but a strategically placed sheet more than once more than once she beds her target, some viewers might think this goes to far but I thought it was no more than we see in a James Bond film; it just has a female protagonist rather than a man... although Bond doesn't have machine-gun breasts. Most of the actors did a good job although the English agent did have a "Cor blimey Mary Poppins" accent which was difficult not to laugh at. Normally I watch anime in Japanese with English subtitles but as that wasn't available I watched the dub and still enjoyed it.

7/10