Got Anime!?

[disturbman]

From reading the forum I get the impression that I'm not the only person whose a bit interested with japanese animation and so, I was wondering:  who look with pleasure to some animes around here? And if someone participate(s/d) to a fansub team?

I have many more questions but I'm not sure I'm going to fire them away right now.  

EDIT: Change topic name from split.

[Martijn Meerts]

I love quite a bit of anime series, usually the somewhat less popular ones. I'm usually also more interested in the somewhat more mature ones. Stuff like Naruto and Dragonball Z etc I wouldn't even consider watching.

My favorite 3 would be:

"Kimi ga Nozomu Eien" (the eternity you wish for or something along those lines)
Very depressive series really, but extremely well made, and the story is very non-typical anime.

Vision of Escaflowne
First anime I saw really, and it introduced me to the lovely voice of Maaya Sakamoto, of who I have several cd's by now ;)

Last Exile
Great story and amazing graphics all around.


As for movies, obviously the Studio Ghibli stuff is great, I especially like Naushika and the less well known Grave of the Fireflies (this is actually the most depressive movie I've ever seen, even if it's a cartoon. Very powerful story)

[disturbman]

I love quite a bit of anime series, usually the somewhat less popular ones. I'm usually also more interested in the somewhat more mature ones. Stuff like Naruto and Dragonball Z etc I wouldn't even consider watching.

Yeah me too. But sometimes one just catch my eye, like Hajime No Ippo. It allways make me lough and shiver. Usually I'm also interested in atypical ones.

Like:
- Moyashimon: A short anime on bacteries. Funny and... different.

- Kemono Zume: A love story between a human and a somekind human of monster, werewolf or something. Great Music, Incredible animation and sad story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemonozume

- Paranoïa Agent: A paranoïac serie made by Satoshi Kon (Millenium Actress, Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers). Just great and mind twisting.

- Ebichu: The perv Hamataro.

And my favorites? Hard to say:
- Mushishi: Great. Great. Poetic. Strange. And Great. I can't even explain, you have to watch it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi

- Haibane Renmei: Yoshito ABe (Lain Serial) come back. Bitter and beautifull. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haibane_Renmei

- Kemonozume: see before

- Samurai Champloo: Medieval Japan by Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Champloo

- Fruits Basket: Because I'm a Girl inside. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruits_Basket

- Haruhi Suzumiya: Because I'm also a Geek. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhi_Suzumiya

- Hajime No Ippo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajime_No_Ippo

Grave of the Fireflies

Yeah, that's trully depressiv but a lot less hard to see (or read) than Bare Foot Gen.

[veejo]

Love the stuff,
Favourite is    "Steamboy"   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboy    lots of action, 19th century mechanical things, recently made, highest budget spent on an Anime, so the graphics are sharp, and it's wide screen.


When it comes to things like Dragonball Z, or Yugi OH ??, I'II pass.    I'd buy a micro ace pokemon train though. As my nephew said  "pokemon stands for POcKEt MONey not pocket monster"

It's amazing how the Japanese can even take drama stories and make them into animated films.
I'm lucky in Australia, mail order video libraries have VERY good collections.

I'm itching to get some more anime trains. They're such a great conversation piece when people see them, especially non train enthusiasts.

Anybody know of some nice anime trains currently available, or about to be released, feel free to send a PM with a link

[CaptOblivious]

I never finished Grave of the Fireflies, and now that I have a baby, I don't think I ever could. So I gave it to my brother-in-law :D

But for a great sad story that is at least stomachable, you can't beat "Now and Then, Here and There", a wonderful parable about "ki ken tai ichi" (spirit, sword, and body as one, the essence of Kendo)

[Shashinka]

Without going all otaku here, I have a 400 title DVD collection.

[CaptOblivious]

Without going all otaku here, I have a 400 title DVD collection.

Mine used to be in excess of 500 discs, until I sold almost all of it to get started in model trains :D

I think I made the right decision.

Now, I have only a small handful of series and movies I really love.

[Shashinka]

I looked at selling the collection at one point but gave up.

[CaptOblivious]

I looked at selling the collection at one point but gave up.

I sold it as a bulk lot on eBay; didn't get out of it nearly what I put into it, but I did get quite a lot, and it was hella easier than selling 500 discs one at a time!

[Shashinka]

At the moment, I'm totally digging K-on!, Haruhi Suzamiya S.2 and Gundam 00 S.2, finished Linebarrels, and Welcome to the NHK

[disturbman]

Do you mind telling me where you find all that?  

The last thing I've seen was Shigurui. It was very good, very intense (it reminded me a bit Kemonozume) but a bit gore and unfinished.

[Martijn Meerts]

Just finally watched Gake no ue no Ponyo (the new Miyazaki), one of those feel good movies in the Totoro style.

Ponyo is awfully cute =)

[Shashinka]

As, I understand it Ponyo is Miyazaki's first film written and designed to cater to the foreign markets instead of Japan's.

[Martijn Meerts]

Could be.. The story is very simple and straightforward, but still, there's a lot of the Miyazaki magic and fantasy in there. Not his best, but still really nice.

And Ponyo is just incredibly cute =)

[Bernard]

Could be.. The story is very simple and straightforward, but still, there's a lot of the Miyazaki magic and fantasy in there. Not his best, but still really nice.

And Ponyo is just incredibly cute =)

I'm really not up on Anime but just this week there have been a lot of ads on TV in my area for the new movie "Ponyo", the studios are really pushing it so they think they have a money maker here.

[Martijn Meerts]

Ponyo has done really well in Japan, and it's really just easy money for Disney. Disney is really pushing it, and the movie should be opening in a LOT of cinema's compared to previous Miyazaki movies.

Miyazaki movies are always quite amazing, and watching them has really made me feel like Disney are a bunch of amateurs (I used to love Disney.) I feel like Disney it putting too much effort into modern technique and completely forget about what an animated movie should be about, the story. In Japan, the budgets are much lower, so they generally concentrate more on the storytelling and the actual animation rather than the techniques behind it. A lot of people don't like Miyazaki movies because they can be a bit rough and unpolished at times, but I absolutely love them.

If you plan on seeing Ponyo though, do yourself a favor and get the Japanese language version. The English dub is terrible. Hollywood just grabs a couple of big name actors to do the voices, but being a good actor doesn't mean being a good voice actor. Voice acting is an entirely different thing, something they refuse to understand in Hollywood.

[Shashinka]

I'm not surprised by the carp dub. Especially with top $$$ actors. If they wanted a decent dub, they need the Viz boys, like Steven Ian Cox, but that's just me. Disney knew Miyazaki's films sell in Japan, so but Disney thinks the money is in Hollywood and tooled this movie accordingly which is no surprise that the Japanese reviews have been sharply critical of the release.

[disturbman]

Miyazaki doesn't sell good only in Japan, he does too in France at least since Monoke and/or Chihiro. And I did heard good things about this movie when it was released in France. And the critics where more focusing on the graphical change than anyother thing.

[grumbeast]

My wife is an Animator and we both love Miyazaki's work.  And while I like it all, Totoro has to be the finest, it'll certainly be the first film my 2yr old sees, I painted a big Totoro mural on her bedroom wall :)

Grave of the fireflies is a stunningly heartwrencher and should be required viewing for people who think going to war is a good idea.

Lately however I've been trying to get hold of the rest of Last Exile, I've only seen the first few but I want more!

I started watching Anime in the late 80s and early 90s in small festivals in the UK and have fond memories of Dominion Tank Police and Bubblegum Crisis....

[Martijn Meerts]

If you love Totoro, you're also gonna love Ponyo =)

[Shashinka]

If you love Totoro, you're also gonna love Ponyo =)

It's box office return numbers look a little lower than anticipated for a Miyazaki film debut.

[keitaro]

I love quite a bit of anime series, usually the somewhat less popular ones. I'm usually also more interested in the somewhat more mature ones. Stuff like Naruto and Dragonball Z etc I wouldn't even consider watching.

My favorite 3 would be:

"Kimi ga Nozomu Eien" (the eternity you wish for or something along those lines)
Very depressive series really, but extremely well made, and the story is very non-typical anime.

i have this and loved it too.

I have tons of anime some mine (most) some the wife's.

favourite would be wolf's rain, FMA both series's, Bleach fmp both, i also liked prelude.

[Toni Babelony]

Oh lol. How could I ever have missed this. I've watched quite some anime a few years back, but now I grew a little over this stage.

At first it was mostly the stuff that was on television. Things like Pokémon, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, etc. I was a big Pokémon fan back when they had only 151 different species and the story was somewhat interesting.

After that, I moved out of the parent's house and started downloading series like Initial D, Slayers and Azumanga Daioh, but I became more of a manga reader, rather then an anime watcher.

Quickly I started to gain interest in Shirow Masamune's series, like Dominion Tank Police and Ghost in the Shell. Especially the latter has great stories, attention to detail, superb designs and deep philosophical/psychological plots.

Now I'm more interested in Ghibli stuff, as they have a great way with colours. It'll probably trigger a great layout project with trains in a dreamy landscape in the future (when my modelling skills have upgraded).

As I come to think of it; the last series I've seen was about a year ago: Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Greatly influenced by Jules Verne and interesting for me, as I was then deeply into pseudo-science plots from the likes of Erich von Däniken (e.g. Chariots of the Gods, Ancient Aliens) and Graham Hancock (e.g. Fingerprints of the Gods, Underworld). Very interesting to see different ways of dealing with historical records in combination with myths and such. But most of all, great science-fiction! :)

[ShinCanadaSen]

Dominion Tank Police, Old school Gundam, Patlabor and the Americanized Robotech were some of my favorites but Project A-ko, The Dirty Pair and Totoro are the top of my list.

[Martijn Meerts]

Dominion Tank Police, Old school Gundam, Patlabor and the Americanized Robotech were some of my favorites but Project A-ko, The Dirty Pair and Totoro are the top of my list.

You might like Gundam Unicorn. I have the first 2 episodes, haven't watched them yet, but at a quick glance it's very much the same visual style as the original series. The difference is of course that it's now full HD ;)