Are there any fans of Japanese anime here?

will_b_free wrote the following as part of a post:

I enjoyed the original version of Armitage III and I agree that later release wasn't needed. With Armitage III - Polymatrix (the movie version) they basically took the four original OVA episodes and merged them together into one movie with new dubbing for the two lead characters, some editing, and some additional animation. One thing that was lost with the DVD release of the series was the supplemental material printed on the disc liners with the original laserdisc version which provided a great deal of background for the series.

I agree that the releases do get a bit confusing at times. One of the most confusing series is Tenchi Muyo! which has the following (if I remember correctly):

• The original six-episode OAV
• A stand-alone seventh episode
• A second six-episode OAV
• A special that fits somewhere within the above OAV
  
• A TV series that retold the story of the first six-episode OAV with significant changes to the story
• A theatrical movie that was somewhat compatible with both the original OAV and the TV series
• A second theatrical movie that moved away from the original OAV
• A third theatrical movie that "supposedly" concludes the story
• A separate 26-episode series that is a side story to the TV series
  
• A third OAV that returns to the original OAV and continues its story
• Another OAV series that is apparently a side story to everything else that is going on

The continuity in Tenchi Muyo! has become so confusing that the DVD releases include a chart to show where each series fits within the continuity, and how it does/does not connect to the other series.

As far as the term "OVA", it stands for "Original Video Animation." It is a term that is supposed to be used an anime series that was released directly to the home video market rather than being released at the theater or on television. One source of confusion is (according to Wikipedia) that some episodes of a TV series were released as an OAV for various reasons. As an example, the last episode of Excel Saga was released as an OAV because it could not have been broadcast on television due to its content.

 

Holy moly. And I thought Blade Runner pegged the meter with the theatrical, the international theatrical, the 1992 so-called Director's Cut, the actual Final Cut, and the Workprint.

 

Any fans of Satoshi Kon?

I'm familiar with PERFECT BLUE, MILLENIUM ACTRESS, TOKYO GODFATHERS and PAPRIKA.

Any others of his worth a watch?

 

I often watch slice-of-life and music related anime. Last one I watched was Love Live. Cute girls there. Even one of them was my earlier avatar here.
There's also a continuation-like part of that series subtitled Love Live Sunshine with different girls. Very tough to pick a waifu there.^^

I have Perfect Blue on DVD. Watched it a few times. If I remember right, the latter half of the film is pretty creepy... but amazing!

 

That whole film is creepy, but it's a very compelling story. I like it a lot.

 

Another music related anime series I like, K-ON! All are cute but Mio (the girl on bass, far left) is my favorite.

 

Back at the school days I watched Pokémon, Detective Conan and Dragonball a lot. Then however I lost interest for a while.
Actually I came back to anime just 5 years ago, with this one: 5 Centimeters Per Second by Makoto Shinkai.
A film in three episodes about a relationship in long distance. Very sad at some points. And it's so well done, one of my favorite anime films.

 

This anime is definitely among my favorites. It's getting a remake soon this year (I think) and it's probably going to be awful just by looking at the trailer footage.

 

Jerky cartoons? You obviously haven't watched anime like Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa). One of the most gorgeous films I've ever seen. Filled with characters with a lot of depth and a great story. If you don't want to listen to the English dubbing you can just watch the original Japanese version with subtitles. In my opinion anime like Akira and Ghost in a Shell are some of the greatest sci-fi stories ever told and are on par with films like Blade Runner and also feature two of my favourite soundtracks ever.

 

I've seen The Garden of Words and Your Name by the same director and absolutely loved them. Can't wait to see this soon.

 

Yes! Great soundtrack too.

 

Btw what's the deal with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood? Why is it so highly rated and loved by the anime community? I watched episode 1-15 but had to stop since it really wasn't that interesting to me. Also there's way too much of that typical anime comedy where the characters change into little kids and scream something. Could not stand it anymore.

 

Don't look at me!

You might try the original series, titled simply Fullmetal Alchemist. Even the dub isn't bad.

 

Yes. Memories is one of the very best I've ever seen. 3 episodes in a single movie, each directed by somebody different. The first is a serious suspense, the 2nd a crazy comedy, and the 3rd a dark study of human nature in regards to war.

Memories is INSANELY good!

 

If you wish to judge anime by the versions you see on children's television series imported to America, there's no hope for you, to either grow an appreciation, or just understand it better. There are certain quirks to anime (and Japanese school animation in general) that are endemic to the art, styles and topics of the genre, and of course these come out of earlier styles and content that seem confusingly alien to us in "The West". And the acceptance of such stylistic differences in their own country, of course comes from a different appreciation of The Arts in general, that you really have to follow far, far back than your own artistic education, to understand the differences between European-influenced art appreciation, and everything from Ghengis Kahn onwards.

For instance, what you call "jerky", you can trace a direct line to Tezuka, who balanced his (far, far more) considerable output between comics and television animation. Just getting a show produced, in a country that, a mere decade-and-a-half earlier, was just crawling out from under devestating, humiliating defeat on their own soil. Now imagine artists (with, no question, a LOT more draftsmanship ability than you would ever expect from Joe Schuster, Bob Kane, or even Jack Kirby or Milt Caniff) using the shorthand beauty of Japanese artwork, to capture the attentions of a far higher market share in Japan than the U.S. had seen before said war. And, arriving at different emotional "solutions" of conveying faces than you see here. And, choosing to highlight other qualities of motion and depiction in their animation than the rest of the world, who looked to Uncle Walt, Inc. When I finally started watching Japanese animated films in the '80s, it was indeed an education, realizing ther were so many more ways to convey movement and life (imagninary or realistic) than just shooting on the 2's.

My go-to examople will forever be, the wind rushing through the long grass in a Miyazaki film...whether the scene is about the wind rushing through the grass, or not! Touches like this, and actual realistic blinking, and making the legs work realistically when coming down the stairs, all point to an art which we thought we were the supreme practitioners of, where we had just trained the North American eye to become used to other processes of accepting the illusion of animation (like "squash and stretch", or a littany of a very small catalog of sounds, "taught" to us in childhood exposure to Hanna-Barbara-style filmmaking).

"Bad dubbing"? "Jerky"? "Dull"? Heck, I can't even give you the first one there...considering this would be made for the American market - not their primary audience by any stretch. And, supervised/approved by American management, to boot! It's just a different dynamic for storytelling. As is manga, their other major art form far more prevalent in the lives of their people, as comics became here, in the land of its' origin.

And I would think, considering you choose Daniel Clowes' art as your own avatar...that you would understand, and be more open, to that.

 

Honestly, anime like K-ON! hardly do the medium any favors either.

 

Saying 'I don't like anime,' is like saying 'I don't like movies.' It's not a genre.

 

I like anime and I still strongly disagree with that. Some people don't like the animated format. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever and it doesn't make them any lesser of a movie fan.

Otherwise, it's akin to writing stuff like "not liking country is like saying you don't like music".

 

Not really. It's a medium, not a genre. Country is a genre. Music is a medium.

 

If I could do a top ten anime series, it'd be something along the lines of:

Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Baccano
Mushishi
Monster (makes Death Note seem like a joke by comparison)
Great Teacher Onizuka
Cowboy Bebop
Samurai Champloo
Psycho-Pass
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

There's more but those are what I feel are the essential ones at the moment.

Really, I don't have a lot of patience for the oversaturation of slice of life and moe that is present in the medium since I know it can do far better. I could very well have a genre bias but I find the works I listed to be examples of one that are far more satisfying from the viewpoint of style and narrative.

 

Many fans of the medium as it is today find this to be a pretentious observation on his part but given how remakes of classic series tend to go in this industry, it's really not something that can be argued. I mentioned Legend of the Galactic Heroes earlier as an example of this but I thought I'd expand upon that point further.

The original series had more grounded designs that added verisimilitude to the setting that weren't rendered in glossy CGI, the character designs were unique and weren't made to appeal to fujoshis, it had a classical score that added gravitas to the setting, etc. etc. The newer one, just by looking at the trailer for it, basically reverses all of that. I think more anime from the '90s like Legend should be better preserved instead of remade as the original was (and still is) a breath of fresh air considering how unmarketable of a concept it is while still getting a finished 110-episode adaptation. Making a remake that ultimately gets its legs cut out from underneath it by detrimental contemporary elements is folly. This applies and has applied to many other cases.

Really, what I'm saying is that I sympathize with the man as much of this industry is pretty goddamn embarrassing.

 

I've tried, but no. Either its over the top ridiculous or its mind numbingly dull. Not for me I guess.
And before anyone goes off with the whole "You never watched the right ones," just relax. Its ok if someone doesn't like the same things you do.

 

I've heard a lot of great things about Monster and Psycho-Pass which were recommended to me when I asked for series that were similar to Death Note. I just recently watched a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and was really disappointed with it. I've watched till episode 15 but I might just stop watching completely. The comedy feels too immature and childish for my taste. Im after dark/adult themed anime.

 

I can tolerate it with Fullmetal but I get your point. I do wholeheartedly recommend Death Note and Psycho-Pass though as well as anything else you may have not seen on that list.

 

I’m relatively new to anime, but I like a lot of what I’ve seen. I recently just finished my first viewing of what is now my favorite anime series, Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Other anime I love include Cowboy Bebop, Clannad (and After-Story), Shirobako, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Fate: Zero, a good chunk of Studio Ghibli films, Code Geass, Makoto Shinkai’s new movie Your Name, and probably some other’s I forgot to mention.

As far as Ghibli goes, my top three are Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Other favorites include The Castle of Cagliostro, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Porco Rosso, Whisper of the Heart, Goodbye Yesterday, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Wind Rising