Recommended Anime/Manga?

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BIL
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

Well sheeeit. Image Berserk ended kinda perfectly. As much as a three-decade unfinished series could, anyway. Sad that Miura never got to complete his life's work, of course, but it's a decently karmic place to leave Griffith. A deserved reprieve for VengerMan McHardPecs and his missus, too. I like to think so, anyway. Yeah, it's optimistic. So is fuckin Berserk. Image

ch364 spoiler
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Sorry, wrong chapter. >_<

ch364 spoiler
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Berserk, or GRIFFITH GETS TROLLED. Shit son, I know the feel 3;

Image

Also a decent epitaph in general. ;-;7 Later sir.

Image

*cue a million angry neckbeards flamewarring @ WHAT IT ALL RLY MEAN* Image
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

Looking for any deeper meaning in a male power fantasy is a bit of a waste of time. Since Gilgamesh they've all been the same at their very core, with aesthetic differences and gimmicks. The most important difference being how high the difficultly slider is set. (The glut of Japanese stories where the MC starts in EZ mode with godlike power and beats all his problems up especially rankles: on this masochism/sadism scale, these are obviously strongly aligned with sadism from how they're systematically designed. But the MC isn't portrayed as an evil fuck, they've rarely any character traits at all! Apparently only xianxia protagonists are allowed to be absolute monsters.)

I'll reiterate how much of a shame it is that so few seinen series get a dedicated translation team. There's much more than Berserk out there.

In some of the early prototype chapters of Saiki K, when he describes some of the downsides of his powers, he talks about why his x-ray vision is not exciting. How novelty is necessary to feel that something's special. The specific example he gave was that if everyone walked around with their noses covered up, then seeing a bare nose would be titillating and taboo.... which is uh, something that's happened thanks to our virus apocalypse.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Licorice »

I just watched episode 13 of the 2nd Patllabor OVA. Another anime take on Wizardry, or at least full of explicit references to the game. Well worth watching along with the official Wizardry OVA.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by scrilla4rella »

Licorice wrote:I just watched episode 13 of the 2nd Patllabor OVA. Another anime take on Wizardry, or at least full of explicit references to the game. Well worth watching along with the official Wizardry OVA.
I remember watching this a few years ago and thinking, 'I should write about this for the message board!', but then forgot. Good stuff
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by lilmanjs »

Neon Genesis Evangelion from GKids arrived today. Got through Disc 1 of the standard edition (first 7 episodes) and it very much looks amazing and sounds great! I know Netflix got the show in 2019, but I never did watch it nor the rebuild movies. Makes this my first time with this restoration. I know the other 2 editions of the series that release next month include an older subtitle translation and the old ADV Films english dub, but I thought as a kid that it sounded crap then so no reason to spend a high price for either.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

Any of y'all have any opinions on Galaxy Cyclone Braiger?
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by scrilla4rella »

I can confirm that the GKids release of OG Eva looks amazing. It's my first time seeing it in HD. I'll never get tired of being able to see individual brush strokes of a background image in pre-digital anime. It's amazing to see all of the details lost with older formats (though DVDs on a good CRT has its charm).
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by mycophobia »

scrilla4rella wrote:I can confirm that the GKids release of OG Eva looks amazing. It's my first time seeing it in HD. I'll never get tired of being able to see individual brush strokes of a background image in pre-digital anime. It's amazing to see all of the details lost with older formats (though DVDs on a good CRT has its charm).
good to hear. mines probably coming in the mail today so i'll want to dig in soon
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by EmperorIng »

Been watching a few episodes of Hisone and Masotan, aka Dragon Pilot. It's pretty cute and innocuous after a few episodes and probably skews a bit younger than me, lol. I didn't realize it was a Bones joint at first but after a while some of the 'adult' non-chibi faces definitely started to give it away. A dragon cosplaying as a fighter jet is a cute concept, even if the whole 'pilot the dragon by touching its innards' is a little weird.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Udderdude »

I liked that one. Gets a lot more intense as it progresses.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

Space Battleship Yamato 2. About 2/3 of the way in and considering just watching the movie instead. I love the first series, and while this one is entertaining, it lacks all the drama and characterization of the first. Basically a complete repeat of the first, too, with the same villain, a mysterious woman who can help, and the same encounters/escapes. Every episode is just threat->neutralize said threat, continue. They also pick up this obnoxious soldier dude not far in and he's easily the worst character. He steals shit, fights everyone, flirts with the only girl, and they never seem all that bothered, just annoyed. Waiting for the inevitable sacrifice where he is finally respected.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by GaijinPunch »

drauch wrote:Space Battleship Yamato 2. About 2/3 of the way in and considering just watching the movie instead. I love the first series, and while this one is entertaining, it lacks all the drama and characterization of the first. Basically a complete repeat of the first, too, with the same villain, a mysterious woman who can help, and the same encounters/escapes. Every episode is just threat->neutralize said threat, continue. They also pick up this obnoxious soldier dude not far in and he's easily the worst character. He steals shit, fights everyone, flirts with the only girl, and they never seem all that bothered, just annoyed. Waiting for the inevitable sacrifice where he is finally respected.
The movie is pretty dope, and I figure at this age, probably sufficient to watch over the series. All of the Yamato TV series are episodic, so not a big surprise there. You do get a different ending which allows for more sequels. Some of your issues are in the movie though (and it's long AF). I think at this point you should probably just finish the series. The next two movies after it are pretty snoozy, especially the TV movie. Final is pretty dope from what I remember but haven't watched it in ages. Like 20 years at least. O.o

I did start Yamato 2 about a year ago and only got 8 episodes in. Fun enough, just got busy.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by it290 »

Picked up a Blu-ray of New Cutie Honey. Dang this series is fun, not sure why I slept on it for so long, just something I missed out on back in the OG days. Really wanna explore more of the franchise now, where should I start? The Gainax OAV, Anno movie, and 70s anime all look fun. Any suggestions?
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

If you read manga, definitely the original manga. Like most Nagai, it's hysterical and a lot of fun. The original series is pretty fun too; it carries Nagai's humor, but it's pretty neutered compared to his manga output. The later series/OVAs are okay, but I'd take them last.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Randorama »

The Manga + 1 re: Cutey Honey.

Nagai's illustrations ooze enough intensity to satisfy you for days on end, if anything else you read feels like absurdly bland, homogenised stuff.
I am re-reading his rendition of Divina Comedia (in Italian, even), and I am completely blown away by his rendition of the work.

I honestly think that he was a brilliant thinker and author, even though sometimes he would really stuff pages with text.
Well ahead of his time, which makes me think that he must have endured a shitload of frustration in his career (...and I do remember reading that Devilman was his creative escape hatch from Mazinger, or something).
Chomsky, Buckminster Fuller, Yunus and Glass would have played Battle Garegga, for sure.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

I love that Nagai also credits his team alongside himself. They kill it. I'd be curious to know about his escape if that's true. Devilman and the original Mazinger Z were both started in '72. Just seems odd he'd want to escape that early since he basically kickstarted the piloted robot, and it was pretty short in the first place. Unless he just had no interest in robutts in the first place, then I'd get that. I'm not huge on them myself but Mazinger still caries his absurd charm.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Randorama »

I believe that the interviews could be found with a bit of digging: I recall reading one translation from 2006 or so (Japanese to French, in some collected works omnibus).

My understanding is that Nagai worked on Mazinger but hated it since day one, since the story he had inside and he wanted to pursue was the one in Devilman.
Of course, Mazinger was a huge success and brought a lot of work & money to a lot of people; he kept working on it because of these and other reasons.
Still, I recall the comment that he would work day hours on Mazinger and, once free, he would switch to Devilman to blow off steam and keep his sanity (!).

On a tangent: End of Evangelion is an early, loose adaptation of the end of Devilman (i.e. the way the portray the apocalypse is inspired by the manga: 1998?).
My guess is that Gainax wanted to find a way to animate that part because at the time nobody would have ever wanted to take such a risk.
The Masaaki Yuasa Netflix series is more or less faithful, but apparently was at risk of censorship, in 2015 or whatever year it was, because it was relatively faithful to the themes from the manga (no spoilers, but apparently it was too "conceptually extreme" for the platform).

It seems to me that Nagai's ideas still remain..."radical", after all these decades.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Ghegs »

Humble Bundle is offering over 60 manga books by Kazuo Koike for a bit over 20 bucks, so I'll be reading through Lone Wolf & Cub for the nth time.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

Holy fuck, nice :o Thanks for the heads-up! Just finished a periodic Shigurui re-read, was in the mood for some more of the ol' zankoku jidaigeki.

But for something totally different on this cold windy night, a world away from the ghastly depredations of feudal Nippon:

They Were Eleven (1986 OVA)

Image

Classical "space travel be some dangerous shit y'all" science fiction / mystery, with a very restrained hint of Lord of the Flies. Good upbeat stuff. Image Ta again for rec drauch. :cool:
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by scrilla4rella »

I just rewatched Patlabor 2: The Movie. Now that was a goddamn aesthetic experience! Every frame a painting, and so on...

It was my first time seeing it in many years (last time was at a theater w/ GaijinPunch and Asahi tall cans in Shinjuku around 2013) and my first time seeing it after watching the OAVs, TV show, and the other movies.

The original cast of characters and the whole getting-the-band-back-together hits so much harder now that I’ve seen just about everything the franchise has to offer (other than the manga).

I can now see why the movie and OG OAV continuity are supposed to be distinct from the TV show. For some reason the relationship between Goto and Nagumo seems different and Nagumo’s past fling with Tsuge might cut against the hilarious and awkward tension between the two SV2 chiefs in the show.

They don’t make ‘em like they used to.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Randorama »

The new Lupin series had a brilliant episode 4 by Oshii Mamoru. The first part is Oshii's trademark re-invention of the character he is working on, the second part is a smart explanation on how he approached the re-invention (narrated via the characters, of course).

JoJo part 6's first 12 episodes are out, on NetFlix. I guess that they will follow a standard NetFlix release schedule, i.e. a whole cours released at once. Binge-watch and fashion-pose at will? Great option, though I *believe* that they will need 3 courses to cover the whole series. I wouldn't be surprised if they will time the release for the 35th anniversary of the series (September 2022?).
Chomsky, Buckminster Fuller, Yunus and Glass would have played Battle Garegga, for sure.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by GaijinPunch »

scrilla4rella wrote: It was my first time seeing it in many years (last time was at a theater w/ GaijinPunch and Asahi tall cans in Shinjuku around 2013) and my first time seeing it after watching the OAVs, TV show, and the other movies.
The only way to hit the theater in Japan! Although I'm sure I was drinking Chuhi. :)
The original cast of characters and the whole getting-the-band-back-together hits so much harder now that I’ve seen just about everything the franchise has to offer (other than the manga).
I have them set aside. Need to go through it. I assume the TV covers all the manga?
Bil wrote:a world away from the ghastly depredations of feudal Nippon:
Bil wrote:Classical "space travel be some dangerous shit y'all" science fiction / mystery
If you ever want to mix both, highly recommend Toki no Tabibito / Time Stranger which is featured alongside They Were 11 in this trailer. Full trailer in bad quality and no subtitles. Music Video using, you guessed it, Twilight by ELO.

This one hasn't been given the BluRay treatment sadly. Also will help if you know at least the very basic concept of the three great unifiers of Japan.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

Oh god yeah, The Time Etranger is great. I used to rent out GoShogun's lovably scrappy Western release "Macron 1", as a kid (one of those localisations that stapled on half of another, totally unrelated series, then just kinda winged it from there). In hindsight, the slightly harder aesthetic (compared to the usual Hasbro staples) was my first exposure to anime/manga, even if I didn't know it. Heard about the movie on a nostalgic lookup, jumped in blind and loved it. Still got some of those tunes in my head as I type this. :mrgreen:

One of those works where puzzling out its very existence is part of the fun - never actually watched GoShogun, but I had the impression it was more Super Robot than Anime Lynch.

The only thing I've seen since that I'd compare is the first Eat-Man anime. Wistfully weird romantic/tragic vignettes in a Bebop-esque retro-future, held together by the endearing title character, who's like a hybrid of Duke Togo's ubermasculine problem-solver and Doctor Who's amiable eccentric. Parlays its low budget into a dreamy ellipsis remarkably well.

The whole series was on Youtube as a "movie cut," which I suspect was the best way to see it. Seems it's been taken down, annoyingly... I'm gonna go look around, would like to get it for safekeeping (Episode 1's still up). Good for a lazy evening with company. Apparently, like Etranger, it's nothing like the source either (there's a second anime which I hear is much closer, but altogether less memorable).
GaijinPunch wrote:Also will help if you know at least the very basic concept of the three great unifiers of Japan.
Indeed, I remember reading up on the subject after you mentioned Etranger on here, some years back. :smile:
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by GaijinPunch »

No doubt there was some magik time frame where Japan simply had more money that it knew what to do with, and shit heads like us reaped the benefits. And then once I figured it out the party ended. There's still a few things I've not seen from that era that I should go through if I ever find the time. It's hard to commit to a 52 episode TV series (shit, even a 26 episode one).
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

BIL, I think you're thinking of the Goshogun movie (which is awesome), and not the one GP is talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_no_T ... e_Stranger (which is also good!)
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by GaijinPunch »

Wikipedia even has a disambiguation link. :)
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BIL
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

Haha, holy shit. :mrgreen: Cheers drauch, got some more watching to do this weekend. :cool:
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by scrilla4rella »

GaijinPunch wrote: The only way to hit the theater in Japan! Although I'm sure I was drinking Chuhi. :)

I have them set aside. Need to go through it. I assume the TV covers all the manga?
I also remember you telling me some of your stories about the fan-subbing era, when Laser Disc was the video source that emanated real BDE.

The Patlabor TV show is good, but you might be better off getting a curated list of the best episodes and just watching those. There's a lot of episodes (50+) and they're almost all self-contained. Makes for good casual watching.

Manga is apparently a different continuity but probably has a lot of same beats as the TV show. I need to cop some of those books
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by GaijinPunch »

Good to know! If I'm watching a 50 episode TV show, lighter is better. I have a worse attention span than my son these days.

And yes, I did do fansubs off of LDs way back in the day w/ my Amiga 1200. Talk about pussy repelent!
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Mischief Maker »

Well thanks to the (reportedly) terrible live-action remake, I finally saw Cowboy Bebop for the first time on Netflix.

This was NOT the show I was expecting. I'd heard people praising it for years, but all I'd ever seen was animated gifs of the church shootout where a bullet grazes Faye's cleavage. So I was expecting something goofy.

So much for the only Joss Whedon show I ever liked. Turns out "Firefly" was a blatant copy, even down to the autistic teen girl with superpowers. No disrespect to the cast.
Spoiler
The ending was a downer, but that really was the only direction Spike's character could go, even if Ed and Ein had stuck around.
I guess I'll watch Berserk now. Which version is better, the one on Netflix or the one on HBO Max?
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