HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII (2 Viewers)

[ChristopherDAC]

Have you ever seen a Hawker Harrier possessed by a demon? You will, in Geobreeders! Have you ever seen a cat shoplifting? You will, in Geobreeders! Have you ever seen that restaurant before? Yes, it's the same one that was in Nuku-Nuku — and that waitress is one of the Homicidal Office Ladies! The fact that she's almost the least dangerous thing in this show says a lot about Geobreeders.

 

[JohnAD]

I watched volumes three and four of Ah! My Goddess TV this weekend. Skuld does show up in volume three, and does an enemy, Marller. Some of the funniest parts in these two disks have been Marller's attempts to get Belldandy to leave, and the over the top manner in which she goes about this.

John.

 

[Max Leung]

Geobreeders would be less weird if it was Hentai starring prehensile cats and killer impotent sperm whales!

 

[JohnAD]

Whoa. I wonder if this is what the changes that were pulled a few months ago were supposed to look like.

Anyway, I've got some more disks on their way:

Order 1 - Tenjho Tenge vol. 3 and ST: DS9 Season 5
Order 2 - Tenjho Tenge vols. 4 and 5, All the President's Men, Hostel, and The West Wing Season 5

John.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I just noticed: we've lost a lot of posters. Just looking at the first page of this thread, a lot of the people who posted pretty heavily [I'm looking at you, Woo Jae] have gone bye-bye. I know we've picked up a few new folks, but it really is pretty dead around here!

 

[Eric F]

Well, post something interesting and the thread will probably pick up.:p

 

[James_Kiang]

I was never one of the "major" posters in this thread, but for my part it's just that it seems my anime time is dwindling. I still have tons to watch but I'm only buying three series, two of which will be ending relatively soon (Samurai 7 and Tehnjo Tenge; the other is Gankutsuou). I think I realized that I don't have a ton of time to watch everything that interests me so I didn't buy some stuff that I might have otherwise. To be honest, once these three series are over, I'm not sure if there's anything coming soon that really interests me. There is one series I suppose - I believe it is a vampire-type series (Trinity something?) - but I'm not sure on that even. I've even been considering selling off some of the stuff I have yet to open.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I guess that's kind of one of the problems I'm seeing. We seem to have less and less "discussion" to the point that the thread becomes mostly a list of recent purchases, without even much in the way of description [aside from the occasional "very interesting" or "I didn't see that coming"]. Surely people can have, and want to express, opinions — even opinions involving something they don't own but have watched, or have owned a long time, or something. Anyway, the other week there was something advertised in the paper as an anime movie, and I didn't go to see it ; I don't know if it is still running. I think it was called Basilisk : The Beginning — it was credited to Funimation, and showing in Bedford where they have their headquarters, and I got the impression they had struck one print [or maybe just an advance copy of the DVD, which I think their theatrical showing of the Inu-Yasha movie was] and sent it down the block to the nearest movie house, just so they could say that it had been released to theaters. Has anybody heard of this, or know what it is?

 

[RickER]

I would post but the last good anime series i got/ saw was Cowboy Bebop. That was about 3 or 4 years ago? The only thing that is coming out that i want is Macross, the old show with a new dub. I am an old school anime guy. But i have been into anime before we knew what it was (Kimba and Marine Boy) in the 60s and 70s. I would love to see some of the old anime TV and movies. I would pay good money for "Macross: Do You Remember Love on DVD. "Robot Carnival" is an old LD i wish i could also get on DVD. 99% of the anime out now, or coming out just doesnt do it for me. I do however have hope in the stuff i see coming to us from Disney! Just my thoughts.

 

[JohnAD]

Christopher:

I agree. It hasn't been the same since Woo, Kong, or Dave last posted, although Dave's got a good excuse. I have to admit, with my own child on the way, anime has taken a back seat to some other stuff going on right now. I've still got a few series I'm actively collecting, but nothing like last year or 2004. I have to agree with James that there haven't been a lot of new series that have caught my eye so far this year, and my goal is to pick up some of the older series that I've let go the past couple of years. I'm also finishing up some non-anime TV series (ST: DS9 and The West Wing), so they're competing with my DVD budget, too, along with finishing paying for the new TV.

John.

 

[Max Leung]

I did catch a few episodes of a couple of new series. Fansubs so far.

Ergo Proxy does seem to be picking up after episode 3. Things are getting more interesting, although I wish it had more depth surrounding the world the main character(s) are living in. It sort of reminds me of Logan's Run in terms of mood however. With the addition of humanoid robot servants of course - they are rather creepy though.

I also saw one episode of Paradise Kiss. It left me cold. All the charm and coolness from the manga (written by Yazawa Ai) is completely absent here though. It seems so sterile and forced, especially the voice acting. Ugh, the main character has a terrible voice! I don't know if I can bear to watch another episode.

The Nana anime, on the other hand, is awesome. Based on the "Nana" manga by the same author above, it is a polar opposite of the Paradise Kiss anime. The voice acting is great, the use of mild SD is funny and true to the manga. The character design is very close to the manga - and I think in some ways is even better! This promises to be a great anime series - perhaps the best I've seen from this year. To be fair, there hasn't been much that is interesting lately. The fansubs are of high quality as well - not surprising, since they can life the dialog straight from the manga in some scenes.

The Nana anime seems to recreate the storyline from the Nana live action movie - the latter of which I thought was not bad, although a little slow. The movie differs from the manga of course, but does seem to keep the core. Right now, I greatly prefer the anime.

If possible you guys should check out Nana. Sure, Tokyo isn't destroyed, there are no giant robots, and frankly it IS a girl's anime, but it is well-written and has engaging characters.

 

[Ralph Jenkins]

Christopher: Funimation has been taking the first few episodes of some of its TV series and making "movies" out of them. (Aside from Basilisk, they are also releasing a Trinity Blood "movie".) I haven't seen Basilisk myself, but I have seen Shinobi, its live-action counterpart (which Funimation has also acquired). It's a period piece about rival ninja clans that go to war. The leaders of the two clans have a forbidden romance. Like Jubei Nimpucho (Ninja Scroll), the warriors all have fantastic abilities. The title may have something to do with the female lead's power; she can kill with her eyes. The live-action movie is pretty (especially the lead actress) but skimps on story and character development. It is reminiscent of a bad anime.

RickER: I'm kind of in the same boat. The last anime series I really enjoyed was FLCL in 2000; before that, it was Bebop in '98, and before that, Utena in '97. I do own Macross: Do You Remember Love? and Robot Carnival on region 2 DVD. Unfortunately, the R2 Robot Carnival disc is now out of print. A couple of years ago, the DVD was released in region 3 but I believe that is also out of print (Korean releases seem to be awfully limited). You may be able to track down a copy if you look hard enough (of course, that's assuming you're region-free). The DVD does include the English dub and English subtitles (although they're "dubtitles"). As for Macross: DYRL, there is no English at all on the DVD, but... it's DYRL. My collection wouldn't be complete without it.

I did watch the initial episodes of a couple of new series recently. One was Fantastic Children, which coincidentally is the brainchild of one of the directors of Robot Carnival, Takashi Nakamura ("Nightmare"). So far, it feels like a cross between Please Save My Earth and Now and Then, Here and There. It's about this group of children that is reincarnated every 11 years. It seems that in each life, they must search for the spirit of a particular woman. At the same time, an opposing force is trying to stop them. I'm intrigued, and I've decided to avoid reading any plot spoilers as best I can.
I also caught the first episode of My-HiME. I picked up the first disc after reading some positive reviews. The story is very cliched so far (the main character only wants to be an ordinary schoolgirl, but of course she will be the chosen one to save the world from demonic forces), but the animation is very fluid during the action sequences.

 

[Eric F]

I finally got around to watching the old school "Guyver" series I picked up at last year's DDD sale, and I have to say it's a great series. I really like the classic anime, where they focused more on good stories, rather than so much on the animation.

I know there is a new version of Guyver being aired in Japan, and hopefully it will be a good update, along the lines of Bubblegum, etc.

 

[JohnAD]

Anime on DVD has news that Manga will be releasing an SE of Castle of Cagliostro. It sounds like the disk will have new extras, but they haven't announced if it will have a new transfer.

John.

 

[James D]

Bargain Alert: Columbia House has really been expanding their Anime selection as of late. They have quite a bit of Funimation titles including Burst Angel 1-6, Fullmetal Alchemist 1-8, Kiddy Grade 1-8, Fruits Basket 1-4, Gunslinger Girl 1-3 and a few others. They also have ADV's Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Essential Anime 1-3. What I'm excited about is that they just added some Geneon titles. They have the Signature Series version of Akira and the 1 disc version of Appleseed. They also have all 4 volumes of Hellsing(Signature Series) and the entire 7 volumes of Samurai Champloo. All of these titles are available as enrollment selections with the exception of Bubblegum Crisis(CH considers these discs to be a box set and they will never be available for enrollment). You can now get the entire Champloo series with just one enrollment.

 

[Eric F]

Thanks James. I picked up all of Chamoloo @ CH with their Buy 6+1 enrollment.

 

[JohnAD]

While spending the day at home yesterday feeling under the weather, I did manage to get caught up on watching a few of my new disks. I watched volumes three and four of Tenjho Tenge. Volume three concluded the preliminary 'fight arc', and moved into a major back story arc, which continued in volume four, and looks to continue in volume five. At the halfway point, I'd say that the show is turning out to be a bit more than the usual T&A fight series, but I don't think this will be getting an 'A' rating from me . Still, it's been pretty enjoyable, and I look forward to seeing where it continues to go.

John.

 

[Andy_Bu]

I just finshed watching the Mobile Suit Gundam Trilogy.

I will follow that up by watching Char's Counter Attack

Questions

1) How much did I miss by watching the Gundam movies instead of watching the whole series?

2) Does anyone have any recommendations in the original or expanded Gundam universe? In terms of anime enjoyment, the Gundam movies were about average for me.


Andy

 

[JohnAD]

Andy:

IIRC, Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta is the next series, and Bandai (conveniently) just completed rereleasing the non-boxed set disks. Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 and Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 were both good, and while you might have some 'Kenny' issues with 0080, to me at least 0083 is up there with the best anime series, Gundam or not.

John.

 

[JohnAD]

I got through volume five of Tenjho Tenge this weekend. As expected, the 'back story' arc finished up, and we have been returned to the present. The ultimate denouement of the back story is left up to the viewer, as it were, but at least we're better informed now.

John.