Recommended Anime/Manga?

[greg]

>>Unless there is some large Japanese population hub in a big city that would warrant a Japanese bookstore that you can drive and visit

There's such a city close to where i live, thanks for the hint.

at second sight, amazon.co.jp doesn't really have eveyrthing either anyways.

For older series, perhaps not. The majority of Amazon Marketplace sellers in Japan would not be willing to ship anything international.

[Randorama]

Long post, a question before adding some comments:

I remember an old anime from the early '80s in which the Earth risked being engulfed by the Sun and some "bad aliens" joined forces with humans, trying to save the planet. The design had a Matsumoto/Macross feeling. Does anyone know what series I am talking about?

Twin Spica: beautiful story on a group of students trying to become space cadets.

Wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one that remembers this series. Are you collecting the manga?

Not really. I am reading it online, too broke to buy anime/manga these days.

You didn't? It's got a very strong shounen manga vibe to it. Who else than Jump readers would be the core target demographic?

Gintoki is a cosmic loser. He is rather smart, apathetic to a z, quite open-minded rather than a manichean cretin, he's 30+ or something...
I was put off track by these details. Jump heroes are Naruto, Luffy, Ichigo, in my book, "Gruh! Me punch!" folks.

It's über-epic and worth watching, but two things bothered me about it. The protagonist was dumb as fuck in a way I can barely stomach (Gundam way).

The main character is supposed to be deeply apathetic and find its own way by finding a goal in life. I think that his dumbness was studied to appear in this way. Re: design, there are strong influences by sci-fi british comics (the way they dress seems out of a 2000 A.D. comic), so they chose poorly. Garegga fans should like the planes, though. The comparison with Last Exile (great series, in its limited way) is a bit unfair, as this latter show was built on Murata's Vision.

Even her whereabouts between intro and the hijacking of Unit 02 wasn't touched upon - she just kind of vanished from the radar until the end. If she gets more screen time and character development in part3 though, that should be okay.
Love the animation though. At least the films do the original art and design some justice.

As far as I am concerned they could have photoshopped Gianna Michaels, if they wanted to have fan service for westerners (apparently, their reason behind Mary). The way they used the character is really pedestrian. The improvement of graphic quality is worth the time, anyway.

One general consideration on Eva is that the original show was in its first half placed in an unsuccesful "monster of the week" slot, and then it dramatically improved in quality and ratings when it was moved to an adult slot, purged of bad aspects. As a consequence the series was already quite disjointed in themes and plot in the original version. On top of that, I adore the "third contact" final, but the way they presented to the public was hopelessly confusing. The movies seem just to stack more ideas, without a plan behind it.Terrible planning. This parody in Gintama is pure genius, btw.

Other shows I would like to suggest. Just to be sure: since I now live with my partner (Japanese ethnic korean), my anime/manga intake has vastly increased. Some things I liked so far.

Last Exile: plot is not so original and characters tend to the mono-dimensional, but the design is worth the series by itself. Makes me wish to move to scandinavia/Britain just to enjoy the clouds and the cold.

Ristorante Paradiso: short slice of life series. The story of Nicoletta, a girl that moves to Rome to work in her adoptive father's restaurant, under "false identity". The anime feels like a good italian tv drama, which means slow pace, great characters and food and drink discussion everywhere.

RahXephon: similar to Evangelion (Mecha, religious themes, etc.) but more consistent in plot and design.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama: typical high school story with some hilarious plot twists.

Kuroshitsuji: entertaining series which mixes Dickens (Victorian age) with Anne Rice (zomg demons, vampires!). Worth watching only for Sebastian, or rather his seiyu.

...Giant Killing: now, soccer feels more like this. I can't believe it took 40 years or so to have a good sports anime (partial exception being Slam Dunk), and not the Captain Tsubasa/Prince of Tennis non-sense.

Summer in Andalusia: the best movie ever on cyclism is "the triplettes of Belleville" (a masterpiece), but this one also captures very well cycling and Andalusia.

Classic stuff, off the top of my mind: the original Slayers show was fun, in its AD&D-esque style. I was also very partial to Lina Inverse and Ishida's acting as Xellos was great. Hare+Guu is pure genius, as a surrealist comedy. Nadesico was also an interesting series.

[Randorama]

>>Unless there is some large Japanese population hub in a big city that would warrant a Japanese bookstore that you can drive and visit

actually .. coincidentally there's such a city close to where i live, thanks for the hint.

at second sight, amazon.co.jp doesn't really have everything either anyways.

I am pretty sure that Duesseldorf had a japanese bookstore until 2006, the japanese community is relatively big. Hamburg, Frankfurt and probably Berlin are good candidates for cities having japanese food/books. If you have time and money, though, you may make a trip to Paris and London, provided that some local shmupper can help you on information about these cities' japanese resources.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Gintoki is a cosmic loser. He is rather smart, apathetic to a z, quite open-minded rather than a manichean cretin, he's 30+ or something...
I was put off track by these details. Jump heroes are Naruto, Luffy, Ichigo, in my book, "Gruh! Me punch!" folks.

As if there was no adult Jump readers... The shit's been coming out since the last century's late sixties.

The main character is supposed to be deeply apathetic and find its own way by finding a goal in life. I think that his dumbness was studied to appear in this way.

I'm allergic to this military vibe when served with a solemn expression. Same with gangster movies when they are like The Godfather. I just find the tone unbecoming. Don't have this problem neither with Seikai... nor with gangster films made in Hong Kong. If The Wings... and Gundams are military anime's Godfather, then Seikai... is more like A Better Tomorrow.

Re: design, there are strong influences by sci-fi british comics (the way they dress seems out of a 2000 A.D. comic), so they chose poorly. Garegga fans should like the planes, though. The comparison with Last Exile (great series, in its limited way) is a bit unfair, as this latter show was built on Murata's Vision.

Well, when you make up a world, you'd better hire a good designer to do the job if it's for a film. It's as important as the music, the script etc. Speaking of 2000 AD, the world of Rogue Trooper is ace.

[chempop]

I just picked up three boxsets

Welcome to the NHK (three episodes in and I like it so far)

Moonlight Mile (something about astronauts, never heard of it before but it looked cool)

Speed Grapher (sounds interesting, no idea if it's any good yet)

[Randorama]

As if there was no adult Jump readers... The shit's been coming out since the last century's late sixties.

Including Gintoki and Hattori Senzou . During the first episodes I wasn't thinking that they were catering to older fans, hence the confusion. After a while I really grew fond of the series because of this aspect, among other things...and Hijikata-san.

Same with gangster movies when they are like The Godfather. I just find the tone unbecoming. Don't have this problem neither with Seikai... nor with gangster films made in Hong Kong. If The Wings... and Gundams are military anime's Godfather, then Seikai... is more like A Better Tomorrow.

I also agree that it is the least attractive aspect of the movie, to be fair. Although icertain aspects were meant to be parodic of military culture, their effort was not too great. The lacking in design was also a poor effort on their behalf, but to be fair I think that Gainax have always been remarkably lazy designers, often happy to use some stereotypes without effort. Back in the day, I remember people screaming blue murder on their rip-offs: Nadia and Evangelion contain tons of things which are blatant plagiarisms, if one is strict on these issues.

One rip-off that I can certainly point out is that Eva 01 is really an overgrown Guyver, but a friend of mine working in the industry once wrote a 10-pages article listing all the rip-offs for a Glenat anime magazine, including several aspects of the plot. I agree that, since I got used to their sloppyness on these issues, I never noticed them that much. I guess that the same could be said for a lot of anime, of course. I think that the Wings of Honnemaise or Evangelion succeed in having a few very powerful ideas amidst various sloppy ones. I find their successive output to be boring, too.

[GaijinPunch]

seems like i should consider getting a credit card. i doubt there's any real alternative to amazon.co.jp?

I can probably sort you out if it's enough books. Singles would kind of hurt. I assume someone sells on YJ as well (but I've never checked).

I remember an old anime from the early '80s in which the Earth risked being engulfed by the Sun and some "bad aliens" joined forces with humans, trying to save the planet. The design had a Matsumoto/Macross feeling. Does anyone know what series I am talking about?

This sounds an awful lot like the 3rd series of Yamato. I think a stray missile hit the sun, or something? I read this was meant to be something of a grand scale but the budget got cut and it basically turned into a piece of shit.

[ryu]

I can probably sort you out if it's enough books. Singles would kind of hurt. I assume someone sells on YJ as well (but I've never checked).

that'd be great, thanks for the offer. i'll pm you should i ever decide on wanting to buy manga there.

i've only seen used ones on yj so far.

[Randorama]

This sounds an awful lot like the 3rd series of Yamato. I think a stray missile hit the sun, or something? I read this was meant to be something of a grand scale but the budget got cut and it basically turned into a piece of shit.

Ah, yes, thank you. I had this powerful deja-vu of my dad making a comment on the Yamato plot being too depressing*, too, and the Yamato silhouette.


*I sent him an e-mail asking about this, he said that he found the plot more depressing than Harlock

[Zeether]

I'm watching Sgt. Frog and it's great. The dub makes numerous pop culture references, some of which are a bit outdated (Christian Bale for example) but they left all mention of Gundam intact (a no brainer seeing how it's a Sunrise series). So far I like Tamama out of all the frogs because of how psychotic he gets. I keep thinking he's a girl though because of his voice.

[Siren2011]

I'm watching Outlaw Star right now. Plot is much more engaging than Sunrise's Betterman, which aside from great visuals was a piece of shit. This is the same quality of animation, only better story.

[Danza]

Welcome to the NHK

I really enjoyed this series for the most part.

5cm Per Second has some extremely beautiful art and animation, although some people find the story/movie to be quite slow.

Madoka Magica from the last season was pretty different. A lot of radically different opinions of it from all over the internet. One of (if not the) most discussed series in the history of 2ch. Written by the guy who wrote Saya no Uta.

I'm kind of tired of anime, especially a lot of the new stuff coming out. I prefer VNs now.

[ryu]

Madoka Magica from the last season was pretty different. A lot of radically different opinions of it from all over the internet.

Character driven series with characters that have as much personality as a piece of paper.

I don't get why people are so all over Madoka. The series doesn't work for me at all.

[StarCreator]

Madoka Magica from the last season was pretty different. A lot of radically different opinions of it from all over the internet.

Character driven series with characters that have as much personality as a piece of paper.

I don't get why people are so all over Madoka. The series doesn't work for me at all.

I guess it works for me on the same level some VNs do (which makes sense since the series was penned by an author that mostly does VNs) - the plot is intriguing enough that I want to see it followed to its conclusion. It would be nice if the characters are anything more than devices to advance the plot though.

[Zeether]

Kenshin fans might be interested in this: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... -green-lit

[greg]

Wow, Tokyopop is giving up.
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/19869.html
I guess Kodansha giving them the slip in order to publish their titles directly to the English-speaking market and the bankruptcy of Borders Books, one of their major retailers, has really crippled them.

I don't get why Borders has gone bankrupt and closed most of their stores while Barnes & Noble is still everywhere in the US. I rarely shop at B&N. You have to pay for their discount program while Borders gives theirs out for free. And now that I have to drive so far just to get to a Borders, I may end up just buying more stuff from Amazon.

[Frenetic]

I have been on a real manga kick as of late. Have been exploring more seinen (young men's) manga. Here are some titles that the F-man gives his whole-hearted endorsements. Fukumoto Nobuyuki's art style is definitely very different but stick with it. The storylines are amazing and unique. They mostly have to do with gaming. Akagi is a bit difficult with the rules of mahjong being kind of obscure but stay the course--storyline is a real nailbiter.

Kaiji: Suspense suspense suspense. Made me think of Henri Clouzot's - Wages of Fear. Kaiji is a casualty of the Japan bubble economy, spending his days in utter dissipation--gambling and vandalizing. Finally it all catches up to him...the Gambling Apocalypse.

Akagi: The manga that got me obsessed with Riichi Mahjong. On a fateful rainy night, a young men emerges from the sea's depths to only descend into another kind of depths...Mahjong Legend Akagi: The Genius Who Descended Into the Darkness!

Gambling Legend Emperor Zero: Kind of like Case Closed meets Kaiji. More concentrated on puzzles rather than gameplay. Very gripping as well.

Buraiden Gai: Juvenile delinquent or visionary...you decide.

The Legend of the Strongest Man Kurosawa:
I leave the best for last. Very strange but wonderful manga.


Happy reading!
-the F-man

zawa... zawa... zawa...

[DragonInstall]

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai..... or simply Ano Hana

This series just started so I'm not sure if anyone wants to watch it weekly, but the first episode seems quite promising.

Plot:

Six childhood friends grew apart in high school. One of them is Jintan, now a shut-in. He gets a request to fulfill a wish for Menma, the only one of their friends to have stayed the same over the years. In order to grant her wish, he will have to find and reunite their old friends.

Heres the intro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnsGJcLa2xw

Basically an anime showing childhood friends drift apart and change, and one trying to reunite them.

[greg]

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai..... or simply Ano Hana

Wow, that's a long title. "The flower we saw that day which we didn't know the name of."

From your description, it sounds interesting.

[Skykid]

The animation in Akira is nearly as awful as in your average Disney film. Even Japanese people do not move like that. Baffling, as it was the most expensive Japanese animation of its time. The plot... well, I guess that's how Lord of the Rings would have turned out had they made it an hour and a half long.

OMG MY EEEEYES WTF DID I JUST READ!

[GaijinPunch]

The animation in Akira is nearly as awful as in your average Disney film. Even Japanese people do not move like that. Baffling, as it was the most expensive Japanese animation of its time. The plot... well, I guess that's how Lord of the Rings would have turned out had they made it an hour and a half long.

OMG MY EEEEYES WTF DID I JUST READ!

What most anime dorks have been claiming forever. There's only 2 seconds of tits, very little cliche', a non-shit soundtrack (it's awesome, in fact -- best one from any Japanese film, and you can quote me on that), and a story line that doesn't include a young boy following in his father's foot steps to save the world. Why would people that like the standard anime tripe (which is 99% of the industry) like it?

Akira is awesome, and always has been.

[Obiwanshinobi]

What most anime dorks have been claiming forever. There's only 2 seconds of tits, very little cliche', a non-shit soundtrack (it's awesome, in fact -- best one from any Japanese film, and you can quote me on that), and a story line that doesn't include a young boy following in his father's foot steps to save the world. Why would people that like the standard anime tripe (which is 99% of the industry) like it?

Er, I admitted the OST was good. Skykid just did not deign to quote it.
I can jizz over artsy anime shows devoid of male protagonists (unless you count Hermes from Kino no Tabi as one), teachers, bespectacled girls, incest, pantyshots and all that to no end. The thing is, Akira happens to be animated badly. (Japanese can do bad animation too, but this exact feature of Akira was particulary hyped - 25 fps, don't you know, talk about elephant in the room.) Moreover, plot compression didn't quite work. They bit more that they could swallow with that one. It's a special film alright, but not in a good way.
Why don't you hear me badmouthing films by Hayao Miyazaki - the Ikaruga of anime? Because his puppy love stories have production values that can't be fucked with. The animations are not only rich in frames, but also have certain style I appreciate. Watching Akira, however, made me feel like a horse in a Polish movie.

[NTSC-J]

Its true, I`m afraid. Akira the anime and Akira the manga are top-shelf. Of course, when something gets popular enough, someone needs to come in and squeeze a lemon and harsh everyone`s mellows, but the fact remains that Akira is highly acclaimed and deservedly so. Save the elitism for bashing Naruto and Bleach and shit like that that does in fact suck (my third-graders like that stuff and these are people that shovel dirt into their underpants to see what happens).

In terms of detail of animation, Akira is obviously superb. In terms of fluidity, I still say its quite good and better than most other anime which is notoriously stilted.

The music rules.

The characters and scenes are memorable, etc. etc.

Although I must admit, I have a soft spot for any cartoon from the 80s or early 90s. I love how they look and sound, even the crusty ones. Plus, they often had bad-ass opening sequences that look far better than the over-produced, CG-y junk now.

[Obiwanshinobi]

In terms of detail of animation, Akira is obviously superb. In terms of fluidity, I still say its quite good and better than most other anime which is notoriously stilted.

It moves like uncle Scooby, only with more frames. Quality of animation is not only about numbers, but also about style, which is quite bad here. A cartoon about living beings could use more life-like animations.

[GaijinPunch]

It moves like uncle Scooby, only with more frames. Quality of animation is not only about numbers, but also about style, which is quite bad here. A cartoon about living beings could use more life-like animations.

"Have you had so much cum shot in those eyes you can't see 5 feet in front of you?"
-Ari Gold

In terms of detail of animation, Akira is obviously superb. In terms of fluidity, I still say its quite good and better than most other anime which is notoriously stilted.

Not to mention the detail. Disney didn't have shit closed to that in 1988. They were more fluid, but flat would be an understatement.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Both Disney and Akira suck at depicting body language in a convincing way and that is the problem. There's quite a few TV anime shows doing it miles better now (Windy Tales, Eureka Seven - to name actually top shelf stuff), and even a feature film as old as Doubutsu Takarajima shits on Akira from great height in this department.
Akira seems to be animated by people looking up to American animation, which generally gives me rash.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 has very few frames of animation (you can tell Bones were making it on a tight budget), but human behaviour as depicted in that show is not in contradiction with my real life experience.

[GaijinPunch]

Okay.

[Skykid]

You talk up some real goofy arguments about games n' frames, but Akira badly animated is it?

Real life probably doesn't have enough fluidity for you.

[NTSC-J]

I'm ashamed to admit it, but even though I've seen Akira over 100 times, it's been years since I last watched it all the way through. Gonna rectify that now and see if it looks or feels any different.

I think the only anime I've watched the past few years is all Ghibli, since it's something me and the old lady can both enjoy together. She doesn't like Commando and I don't like Ally McBeal, but everyone likes Kiki.

[Skykid]

Both Disney and Akira suck at depicting body language in a convincing way and that is the problem.

Otomo's animation style and Disney are totally different. The comparison is just shit talking. Akira follows all the basic rules of Japanese animation, just with the kind of attention to detail that caused people to die when building the Great Wall of China.

I grew up watching great anime. Most of what they make now is total and utter canned drivel, part soap opera part weeaboo fetishitic. It's tripe.

What I don't understand is how you consider well animated anime to have the same properties of movement as real life?
I studied animation in London's LCP school, and not even Disney with all it's guppy, sloppy movement imitates real life, letalone the stylistic nature of Anime.

Anime's typical and recognisable style was born from a lack of budget, not a will to properly emulate how we actually walk down a street, open a door, or bake a cake. By having less money to work with, the Japanese industry forged a (frankly masterful) method of animating by removing frames to give objects a sense of weight. For example, if a character leaps up, most of the frames are drawn at the peak of the jump, and in the landing - but very few on the ascent or descent. This 'weight' has a tremendously powerful impact visually, but it's fabricated. It adopts only certain characteristics of real-life, but accentuates them crazily. And they apply this to just about everything they do, whether someone throws a baseball or punches someone through a wall.

If I saw a girl moving in real-life the way she is in the that Earthquake trailer you linked, I'd probably call the cops and try to catch it in a net for scientific studies.

Akira follows the exact same methodology as any other Japanese Anime production. It isn't 'scooby doo', it's just a film with incredible detail. But the emphasis on frames is worked out the same as anything else. In the opening scene with the bike chase, there's a part where two bikes leap over a wall. Most frames are in the peak of the leap. When Joker kicks the bike down, it's almost instant, with most animation in the explosion. The guy leaps off his bike and slams down a pipe on Joker's neck - almost no frames.
Joker then headbutts the guy, and then there's almost nothing except the headbutt itself, with the majority of frames being on the slo-mo recoil.

That is Japanese animation and you can see all that here at 5:28