Novice Anime Discussion Part I (1 Viewer)

[Woo Jae]

Let me take stab at this:

Battle Athletes OVA and Victory are TWO SEPARATE series, with overlapping (shares the names of the main char and friends) characters. Characterization in each is very different.

Battle Atheletes OVA comes in 3 (2 episode at 45 min each)DVDs (at least that is what I have). The story and animation are quite well done, and very humorous.

Battle Athletes VICTORY! is 25/6(?)episodes in 8 discs. Sadly, there are no Opening or closing animation or eyecatches for the animation in the TV series. Good series, with some moments that are really funny - and sports that are off the wall.

Ranma 1/2 is a HUGE series based on the well known managaka Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/2 manga (comic). 7 TV seasons, 3 movies, 12 OAV (original animated video - straight to video; also known ans OVA) episodes. My recommendation is to watch the first three seasons followed by the OAV and movies. Also get the 20 volumes of Ranma 1/2 graphic novels released by Viz if you so desire. Good stuff that got LOTS of folks into anime... definately a fan favorite.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Recommendations:

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the best series, anime or not, that I know of, despite its perplexing finale. It has the trappings of the giant robot genre (which I despise) but is much, much more than that.

For adventure, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is entertaining and has some good character bits though it tends to drag in spots and the big revelations are pretty disappointing.

Serial Experiments Lain is another headscratcher but definitely intriguing and well-done.

 

[RickER]

I have to mention one of my favs...cause i didnt see it on anyones list. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. The best style in an anime movie i have ever seen in 20 years! Love it.

 

[ShaunS]

I can't agree enough with Mark in terms of reccommending Neon Genesis Evangeline (how is "Evangeline" pronounced?). I just finished watching the whole series as well as the 2-part Evangeline ending (much more violent than the show, that's for sure). Talk about getting sucked into the characters! If there is ever a list of REQUIRED anime viewing this would have to be near the top. I think a perfect progression for someone entering into the whole anime world could possiblly be to start with Cowboy Bebop, then move into Escaflowne, followed by Neon Genesis Evangeline. That's what I've been up to for the past while.

I need some opinions on "Love Hina" and "Chobits". I'm in the middle of "X" and thought I'd check out some more Clamp stuff so I'm thinking about "Chobits". "Love Hina" seems like it might be a nice alternative to the whole SF/Robots/Mecha/Futuristic thing.

Shaun

 

[Rob Lutter]

Neon Genesis Evangeline

That's Neon Genesis Evangelion or just plain Eva to us otaku
I pronounce it EE-VAN-GAY-LEE-ON

 

[Kong Chang]

Due Note on Chobits, it may be "light and fluffy" in the beginning, but this anime (and manga) takes a turn to the the "dark" side later on. It's not a "sad" ending, but it's not "light and fluffy" either.

EVANGELION is pronounced, correctly in Japanese fashion, AY-VAH-N-GEH-LEE-OH-N. The fact that it has the word "angel" in the middle of this word makes people think the "g" is a soft "g" sound, which it isn't. It's a hard "g" sound.

 

[Brendan Brown]

Yeah, if you pronounce 'Evangelion' as eev-ahn-GAY-li-on some fans might think you're trying to be insulting

 

[JohnAD]

EVANGELION is pronounced, correctly in Japanese fashion, AY-VAH-N-GEH-LEE-OH-N. The fact that it has the word "angel" in the middle of this word makes people think the "g" is a soft "g" sound, which it isn't. It's a hard "g" sound.

In this case, the Japanese way of saying the word is closer to the original Greek pronunciation of Ayyelos (Angelos, messenger, herald).

John.

 

[ChrisLee]

Okay I'm seeing that the Cowboy Bebop DVDs claim to have DD5.1 and DTS. I thought only the compilation DVDs had these formats and not the 6 session discs (with them being DD2.0). Am I wrong?

 

[Woo Jae]

Probably bootlegs... but get Jeff Kleist or Kong Chang or those who SERIOUSLY import stuff to answer that question.

 

[Brendan Brown]

Only the 'Best Sessions' disc has DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1. Everything else is in Dolby 2.0 despite the fact that the first volume has a nifty 5.1 dolby 'train' trailer

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Brendon Brown said:

Slayers remastered I think, doesn't have the mis-phased audio problem. IIRC

Thanks, but I was asking about the box the DVD's come in. I don't want to purchase the inferior version.

I think I'll follow through with Rob Lutter's recommendation from a lifetime ago and purchase the Best of Cowboy Bebop set with my tax refund, whenever that happens.

 

[Kong Chang]

Dome:

Slayers Box...answer is no, still the same design, no way to tell if the box is the remastered or the crappy audio. The audio is only affected with the Japanese, not the English.

ChrisLee:

Bootleggers love to label their boots with 5.1 DD & DTS logos all over when most anime don't even have them. Only very recent anime series have 5.1 DD on them.

 

[Kong Chang]

Novice Anime Thread

*bump*

Talk more you n00bs

 

[Tony-B]

They are shy.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Hi,

Sorry I haven't been more active over here but my time has been spent on DEEP SPACE NINE, the CINERAMA festival in Seattle, and the closure of my roommate's record shop. I have NEON GENESIS EVANGELION on order (due to the recommendations of others here) and I'm very much looking forward to it. I enjoyed LAIN and therefore the first two volumes of BOOGIEPOP PHANTOM are also on their way to me in the mail. I will give you all a full report.

Here is an idea for the recommendations list: how about a section of AMERICAN animation that would be appealing to an anime fan? I'm thinking specifically of SAMURAI JACK and the Fleischer SUPERMAN cartoons. (The fact that these were made in the early 40s is unbelievable!!!)

See you, space cowboys...

 

[ShaunS]

Could someone please let me know the order in which to watch Love Hina including all of the specials and what not. I take it there is 25 episodes in the original series, a Xmas and Spring special, and Love Hina Again 3 episode series? I'm almost through the original series and it's just great. I can see why it is so popular.

Shaun

 

[Rob Lutter]

Episodes 1-24
Episode 25
Love Hina Again OVA 1-3 (?) [I don't think it matters if this is before/after the movies]
Spring Special
Christmas Special

Heck, I got in late in the Love Hina game and I missed the Christmas Special... so I am waiting for this November to get it

 

[Porfirio]

I have two questions.

1) What does OVA mean?

2) What's the difference between "Armitage III: OVA" and "Armitage III: Polymatrix"?

 

[Kong Chang]

Um, the OVA's come AFTER the two specials for Love Hina. The OVA's ends the series overall.

Porfirio:

1) OVA stands for "Original Video Animation". Sometimes it is also called OAV which stands for "Original Animated Video". OVAs are direct-to-video anime that usually have no potential of being aired in Japan. Production value is generally higher or lower, depending on budget and how many episodes. The negative side of OVA's tend to be they are sold at one episode per volume in Japan. Depending on sale determines whether or not the series will keep going. There are many incomplete OVA series because sales were not that great. This is revenue back for the company, since they can't get revenue like they can if they were to go direct to T.V.. OVA's also allow independent studios or solo-artist to showcase their work, in this case, for example, the solo artist who created the wonderful short 30min OVA, hoshi no koe (Voices of a Distant Star). Because of his effort and work and great story and design and time and effort into his work, his popularity gained and many studios offered him jobs and what not to work for them.

OVA's range from 1-13 episodes, so, if you can imagine, one episode per volume in Japan, 13 episodes equals to 13 volumes, as is the case with Record of Lodoss War (That was very painful to collect @4800 Yen per videotape back then!!!).

2) There is a slight difference. Polymatrix is the movie version of Armitage III. The OVAs are the separate episodes, which the movie is comprised of. I'm not sure in Armitage III, but when a movie is based off of 3-5 episode OVAs, there are sometimes edits and new scenes added.