densuke

This series has one of the crazier opening gimmicks this season (well, not crazier than Midori no Hibi) but settles down quickly into a friendly comedy. The shounen-ai puns remind me of older series like [b]Mahou Tsukai Tai![/b], and that's not a bad thing at all. The first episode clued the viewer in on what was going on; I don't know why this is often too much to ask for these days. The scenes with Yuuri and his new companions were funny and the cast played off each other right away. This is noteworthy because not every series manages to achieve this quickly (or ever) and because interaction can be a good and concise way to develop the characters.

Are you talking about Galaxy Angel I? GA is a decent comedy. Within the confines of its tiny episodes, it manages to be cute and funny and avoids being super-sleazy or "wacky." Broccoli only had (the amazing!!) [b]Di Gi Charat[/b] going for it at the time and this made for a solid second string featurette. GA isn't really the same as Sailor Moon; it takes itself far less seriously and is also pitched at an older crowd. I think it's kind of wide of the mark to compare the two series. I guess Mint is my favorite character because she is less self-indulgent than most of the cast. She is also cute without being too flashy.

[b]Le Portrait de Petite Cossette[/b] irritated me no end. It just seemed like a big absinthe hangover to me. I have read quite a few Victorian drawing-room startlers firsthand; this lacks the context and sense of wonder which make those stories interesting. I generally have no use for shows which fail to engage me in the characters. Horror and gothic tales do nothing if they do not create hopes and fears in the audience. I just found myself rolling my eyeballs over and over at the pseudo-portentous dialogue. Given these failings, the rich score and often interesting visual design were a lost cause. I am all through with this one. [b]Mahou Shoujotai[/b]'s debut was a tidy 9:00 long but it packed a fair amount of attitude and action into the short episode. This is a rather breathless fantasy featurette concerning a middle-school brat busting loose in some kind of Magic Kingdom. Apparently she will be part of a squabbling trio of apprentice witches, which looks like fun. This is [i]not[/i] mahou shoujo like Card Captor Sakura or Full Moon o Sagashite, despite the name. I can't think of anything to compare it to yet, but I only ever saw 9 minutes of it... I am gonna give this the green light, I have a good feeling about it. [b]Sensei no Ojikan[/b] suffers by comparison to Azumanga Daioh. Already I have to give the nod to the latter show for better score and structure and more memorable characters. This new series is going to have to be pretty damn funny - but all it's given out with so far is an undersized teacher, a girl who likes girls and a boy who likes boys. Too soon to tell, but I am not incredibly hopeful... Scorecard: [color=green] Hi no Tori Kyou Kara Maou! Mahou Shoujotai Midori no Hibi Melody of Oblivion Aishiteruze, Baby Interlude[/color] [color=orange] Kenran Butou Sai Sensei no Ojikan Madlax Kono Mini[/color] [color=red] Phantom: the Animation Smash Hit Bakuretsu Tenshi Le Portrait de Petite Cossette [/color]

[b]Melody of Oblivion[/b] is the other series GAINAX is involved with this spring and I'm betting it is the better one. This anime is willing to deliver some storytelling. Bocca will be one of the most vivid heroes of the season. The plot is lurid nonsense, but at least it is [i]straightforward and dramatic[/i] nonsense. The first episode already delivered some very good scenes. Scorecard: [color=green] Hi no Tori Kyou Kara Maou! Midori no Hibi Melody of Oblivion Aishiteruze, Baby Interlude[/color] [color=orange] Kenran Butou Sai Madlax Kono Mini[/color] [color=red] Phantom: the Animation Smash Hit Bakuretsu Tenshi [/color]

Interlude is a 3-episode OAV being fansubbed by Triad (yay! for Triad). I could say it's a cross between Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, Shingetsutan Tsukihime and Kindaichi Shounen no Jinkenbo - but exactly who would that help ~_^ ? I'll just say it's a junior school gothic series apparently taking place on two different worlds. Anyway, this one has its ups and downs, but overall it is interesting enough to watch for three episodes IMO. I am not thrilled with BakuTen either. The little pastry-chef is a poor substitute for Yamazaki Linna as an entree into the series. I disliked the female characters to the extent that the fanservice just seemed like a waste of time. I think this show has zero charm or ideas and GONZO knows it or they would have given out with something better in the first episode. Kenran Butousai is goofy but there was enough in the first episode to make me want to see more. It didn't raise any big hopes or fears in terms of where it is going with all this stuff about water on Mars or pirates or whatnot. It did manage to come up with a couple of likable characters, which seems awfully hard to do anymore for some reason, and that's enough for now.

[b]Di Gi Charat[/b] was apparently licensed by SynchPoint, the same company who drew Tenshi ni Narumon! into a black hole for lo these many years... so either Tenshi ni Narumon! gets put off AGAIN (which happened when the company scrambled to cash in on FLCL, of all things (._.) ) or Di Gi Charat sits on the shelf for awhile. As for KnO, I wonder if Funimation really got the license for the whole series (102 episodes I think) and if so, how they are going to sell them. KnO is great stuff but after the first 20 eps there are really faint traces of any kind of story arc. I've never watched 100 episodes of [i]anything[/i] but the people who watch long series are hooked by the promise of a big ending, and KnO has little on offer there. Sure, Sana and Hayama are an interesting couple, but not [i]that[/i] interesting - they are too young. I don't mean to pick on the series really, I just don't see the money... Gee, Dokkoida... that was one of my favorites last year. So was Onegai Twins, actually, but Dokkoida is 100X as cool as Onegai Twins. So which one will sell like crazy? Probably neither ^_^;;; how many times can anyone watch Onegai Twins!?

^_^ 10-11 were one hell of a payoff! 10-13 really put all the goings-on at the school into a context of the outside world. Nicely done especially when you consider that the chronology of the whole series was juggled around from that of the novel. I think the order of events goes 1-5, 10-11, 6-9, 12-13, meaning that 10-11 were the only episodes shifted in time. [color=blue]edit[/color]: Compared to other shoujo titles I have seen, I would say that Marimite is more deliberate and character-driven than most. Only Fruits Basket comes to mind as a series which also builds up single-mindedly towards one true climax (although the two shows are different in tone). Also, the "gimmick" of an all-female school was rather transparent - the inclusion of the sole male character early in the series seems to have helped this. Maria-sama niwa Naisho is a little comedy skit - an omake from the first Japanese DVD. The humor is similar to that of the manga, which often defuses the tension with chibis. I can't resist plugging Oniisama E... (Brother, Dear Brother) here. It's like a blowtorch compared to the flickering candlelight of Marimite, covering much the same ground in baroque, almost gothic fashion. Technogirls' strenuous efforts provide the best-ever quality fansubs (available on VHS or homebrew DVD). To get more information simply google Brother, Dear Brother.

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1][b]Madlax[/b]... little more than an ill-conceived Noir knock-off, and uses the same tired visual tricks seen in other Koichi anime (such as Avenger and .hack//SIGN). Avenger had far more potential--but much as I wanted to love the series, I ended up growing tired of it rather quickly. Gunslinger Girl and Noir are vastly superior to Madlax. Do yourself a favor and avoid it at all costs.[/QUOTE]I can't really argue against your assessment of Madlax. However, I found Avenger really frustrating - Ali Project is capable of much better music and so on. I can get along with this series a lot better somehow. Also, having seen Phantom- the Animation, I have to at least give Madlax points for style - the fact that this is not the worst show of its type counts for something. My hunch is that this one will be no better or worse than Kono Mini, which didn't make any sense either. So far, I am up for Hi no Tori (by far my favorite) and Midori no Hibi, meh on Madlax and Kono Mini and down on Phantom and Smash Hit. [color=blue]edit[/color]: Whoa! I just saw [b]Kyou Kara Maou![/b] (translates as: Starting Today, I am the Devil!), a bit of alternate-world/fantasy foolishness featuring lots of bishounen riding around on horseback in uniform. Live-eviL has teamed up with Shoujo-Ai on this one - looks like L-E wants IN on the shounen-ai fangirl market... This is easily the most good-natured show I have yet seen this season. Even though Yuuri has no idea what is going on, he is able to take it all in stride somehow (although I get the feeling he is going to be awfully busy guarding his, um, [i]virtue[/i] from all these pretty boys). All the silly explanations were given right up front. I feel so... well-informed, so [i]empowered[/i]... Quote: "So the sewers are connected to the Alps!?" ^_^;;; I was just about to complain about the serious lack of female characters in the show but just remembered that this season they are mostly trained killers, the exception being 4" tall and connected to the main character's right wrist. Oh, and there's the one who fell naked out of a tree, but she is possibly dangerous too... and then the pirates... and the one who is 25 but looks to be about 13 years old... [size=-2]maybe I'd better not complain after all *sigh*[/size]

[quote name='Dagger IX1]...[b]Midori no Hibi[/b] seems genuinely weird. As far as I can tell, it's a comedy about a Kyo-esque boy with a pretty, diminuitive girl....um..... [i]attached[/i'] to one of his hands. o_O The corresponding manga is apparently rather amusing, although I haven't had the chance to read it for myself.[/quote] I saw the first episode of this one and liked it. Seiji is a dime-a-dozen character in many ways, a total loser at love with a heart of gold. He possesses fearsome fighting skills, but that just sets up a lot of grief when Midori becomes his right hand. The character designs in the anime adaptation are inconsistent but I liked some of the storytelling devices (of which I can't remember any examples). Although the story kicks off with a weird gimmick it plays out more or less along standard shounen romance lines, which is fine as long as it doesn't drag on forever.

According to the Japanese, the [i]great[/i] titles are those which have [i]stood the test of time[/i]. Top winners in polls are series like Doraemon (#1), Lupin III TV (#2), Heidi (#3), Chibi Maruko-chan (#6) and Dr. Slump (#10). Evangelion, you ask? [b]77th[/b] in a poll I am looking at (a top 100 from 1992), way behind Touch (#19) or Dragonball (#31). Sailor Moon? #82. I won't argue that Dragonball is better than Evangelion, but this poll points out that it is important to get to know older titles, especially for viewers seeking hidden gold. Older titles, with their simpler and more robust outlook and vital urge to tell a story, possess charms that more recent and (allegedly) more "sophisticated" titles cannot. I recommend "3000 Leagues in Search of Mother" (#18 in the poll). It is one of the "World Masterpiece Theater" series ("Heidi" is one of these titles) which are consistently ranked as some of the best anime ever made. Live-eviL began fansubbing it early this year. 3000 Leagues is an all-ages show, which makes it a good place to start for any viewer. Many of the other titles can be gotten from other fansubbers.

[quote name='Dagger IX1']Is Gokusen very much like GTO? I'm still a GTO virgin (so to speak), but if the show has anything in common with Gokusen, I might want to check it out.[/quote] GTO is more about the teacher than the students. Onizuka is much larger than life; the other characters actively note this as he bumbles and brags his way through their lives. Gokusen presents a different balance of characters. Yankumi is interesting but she doesn't dominate every scene and story in quite the same way. Overall they cover much the same ground in their different ways.

*sigh* just finished watching episode 13. I thought it did a good job of summing up the major characters and the series. All in all Marimite is a rare treat. Few series are willing to live or die by their characters in quite the way this series does; only Marmalade Boy and Kare Kano come to mind just now. Other media are capable of excellent characterization, but I think anime at its best is unbeatable in creating a sense of intensity and intimacy. This show was absolutely magical. A fall season of Marimite looks to be in the works. Gokigen yo...

This series is going to cover different eras in human history as per the manga. The last episode will probably take place in the present. The PBS co-production (by WNET New York, a PBS member station) seems to have to do with the fact that this series is made for HDTV, rather than any intent to broadcast the result in the US. HDTV is something American public TV is getting behind. I think that beyond the music and visuals, the skillful writing is what gives this series its epic feel. Instead of being limited to often confusing specifics, the characters and scenes are outlined in a bolder and more universal way.

Anime simply means "cartoons" in Japanese. Anime is originally derived from Western animation, and it will always have a certain amount of Western influence. Many manga artists can name specific cartoonists and comics artists as influences. Even the "big eyes" look which seems so characteristic of anime or manga was derived from "Felix the Cat" and other American cartoons. I found Kiddy Grade and the two ROD series interesting because they adopted a "comic-book" style of storytelling. The main characters in these series were basically superheroes. They possessed certain powers and didn't have to "level up" or anything during the series. I think this made a nice change from the Japanese style of hero, because it is more logical and understandable. The big problem with American animation is that was degraded due to budget constraints as it began to be made for TV. The low-budget look was developed by Hanna-Barbera back in the 60s. I don't think a cosmetic upgrade will solve this problem or the American cultural taboos which add up to make American TV content so bland.

Too little, too late just about says it all for this offering from KSS. This is a game-based series offering yet another story of young people coerced into being assassins. The first episode offered no interesting characters, next to nothing in the way of a story (what little there is was absurd) and little quality production work (looks like someone forgot to hire some animators). That makes 2 down out of 3 I've seen this season.

[QUOTE=ChibiHorsewoman]I didn't really like the OVA of Vampire Princess MIyu either. I never understood what was going on and I watched 6 consecutive episodes. It made my head hurt to watch the 2nd episode but I kept thinking it might get better. Another one I didn't really like was Sakura Diaries. The plot was a bit crazy for me. A girl is in love with her cousin. Her cousin is posing as a student from Tokyo U but he's really trying to pass the entrance exams and then the guy gets a crush on a female student. Whatever. Incest frightens me-even with CHibiUsa.[/QUOTE]In Japan cousins are allowed to marry. I find incest themes a bit much at times myself but I didn't think Sakura Diaries was extreme as the cousins in question were not very well acquainted at the beginning of the series. Miyu in Vampire Princess Miyu has the ability to induce delusional states in people. [SPOILER]She does this to the boyfriend, and that is why he is blissed out in the second episode. The reason she does this is because she deems him too weak to live with the truth of what has happened to his girlfriend. Miyu also wishes to do this to the possessed girl introduced in the first episode but is hindered by the spiritualist. Miyu finds humans contemptible because they are often self-deluded or unwilling to face reality.[/SPOILER] Some people (including myself) consider VPM OAV one of the best OAVs ever made - not that OAVs are always that great. On the other hand the TV series suffers from some monumentally bad artwork in the later episodes. [quote name='Dagger IX1']In my opinion, any show with more than 60 or 70 episodes is more than likely to be crap.[/quote] I can't really consider long series horrible just because they are long, but I hardly ever consider them great either. Even 52 episodes are usually too much for a series. The only long series I ever saw which managed not to sag in the middle was Card Captor Sakura. It seems that people who enjoy long series enjoy settling down with something familiar week after week. They enjoy their favorite characters so much that they will happily watch them do pretty much anything. This is my understanding based on some conversations I have had with long-series fans. I would also say that for any long series I watched I was definitely enjoying the characters a lot.

[b]Hitto o Nerae![/b] (called [b]Smash Hit![/b] by fansubbers, although the title translates to "Aim for a Hit!") is a strange new series by m*o*e. I have seen 3 episodes. The series is torn between telling a story about a young woman (Mitsuki) trying to make a career in live-action TV production. This could be a nice premise for a series. Expecting m*o*e to actually write and tell a story about it is apparently asking for too much though (._.) Instead of doing something worthwhile with this, they put Mitsuki in charge of a show much like "Cosplayers" (one of m*o*e's recent titles) - a truckload of fanservice in search of a plot. She dislikes and is embarrassed by this to the extent that she considers refusing the task ([i]arguably making her much healthier mentally than the people making this anime[/i]). They make her physically diminutive so that she can endure all kinds of abuse from her colleagues. And of course they go out of their way to provide as much nudity and rude comedy as possible. The episodes are short, which seems to give m*o*e carte blanche to forego much storytelling. Or maybe the jokes didn't add up to a 25-minute series and there never was a story... The main character is fairly likable; I keep hoping that the scriptwriters will leave her alone for a damn minute. So there's one down out of two new series I have seen (*_*)

[b]Hi no Tori[/b] is based on a manga by Osamu Tezuka and co-produced by Public Broadcasting System of the US (which doesn't necessarily mean that there are plans to broadcast it here, or that PBS holds a US license; PBS has co-produced other works in Japan which have never been released or broadcast in the US). Based on the first episode I think this is a very good all-ages series. Fansubs by Froth-Bite.

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]I decided to make this thread after seeing the first two episodes of Memories Off 2nd, a [i]horrible[/i] OVA which recently began distribution via Bittorrent. Learning that it was based on a dating sim did nothing to deter me; after all, other game-related series (such as Shingetsutan Tsukihime and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien) have done remarkably well. I didn't expect Memories Off 2nd to provide anything more than pretty artwork, high-quality animation and some decent fanservice. It fails miserably in all three regards, and its storyline and characters certainly won't win any awards. Yet Memories Off 2nd isn't ridiculous enough to inadvertently become a comedy, so I was stuck with an hour of insipid, boring "drama" and high-pitched teenage angst. What a waste of bandwidth...[/QUOTE] Expecting OAV series to provide high production values is unrealistic IMO. TV series have to provide much more in order to catch and hold the attention of a broader audience. OAVs are sold to fans of a manga, game or TV series and do not have to reach very far in order to please them. Oddly enough, these fans always find something to gripe about. Most complaints focus on the character design and storyline. It seems that it is easier to collect a bunch of scenes featuring different cast members and just call it a day than to try and present something a casual viewer can comprehend. Game-based series almost never provide much fanservice. The idea is to either distance the adaptation from a game featuring prurient content or adapt a game that never had any (Shingetsutan Tsukihime was the former, Memories Off II the latter). Anyway, as someone who has seen a lot of these short romance OAVs, I found Memories Off II to be above-average among its kind. I am not saying it is a great OAV ([b]Ajimu Beach Story[/b] is a great OAV), just that it is better than many. The show presents a definite story and ending. The characters are properly developed. I thought some of the scenes were decent. It doesn't compare to TV series like [b]KGNE[/b] but really wasn't meant to. As for series I really can't stand, I can usually sniff them out from miles away and avoid them entirely. If I hesitantly sample them I am hardly ever pleasantly surprised. In the last few months I was particularly offended by the following: [b]Airmaster[/b] has ugly characters and silly combat. Fanservice is pointless if it doesn't deliver anything [i]desirable[/i]... [b]Avenger[/b] pretended to be mysterious but didn't seem to be about anything. What was presented was a boring omnibus series with some stuff at the end to try and make a series out of it (I was long gone by then). I didn't like the characters. I thought the goofy "cute robot" stuff had died out in the late 90s... [b]Bobobo~bo Bo~bobo[/b] is just a bad action series with nostril hair jokes. [b]Daphne in the Brilliant Blue[/b] is warmed-over [b]Agent Aika[/b] with no decent characters. The story is a joke. The character designs are unappealing. The fanservice is intrusive. The production values are weak. [b]Nanaka 6/17[/b] was thoroughly and intensely annoying. I couldn't stand Nanaka and the story is too silly to bear. I can enjoy cute series but this was creepy. [b]God Mars[/b] is a lousy sentai-mecha series from the early 80s. The OP song is laughably bad. The story and production values are mind-numbingly crude. It is too boring to be fun the way the original [b]Devilman[/b] is.

Calling popular American cartoons "idiotic" is not a good place to start. You are slagging a bunch of American prime-time TV shows which a lot of people watch and enjoy. If you want to interest anyone in anything, making negative comparisons is not the best way to go - you will only offend people. Anime has some different qualities from the shows you mentioned but you will not get a chance to discuss these qualities with people if you tell them that what they like is garbage. Why not take a hint from the companies already trying to increase the audience for anime in the US? Disney has licensed plenty of excellent Ghibli movies - you can rent or buy them. There is a decent amount of anime programming on TV nowadays as well - there is a sticky in this forum showing the current offerings. These shows are attracting plenty of interest and people seem to be able to talk about them on their merits.

Mentioning movies like Blade Runner or especially the Star Wars trilogy as Omar Harris does is skating on thin ice as far as I'm concerned. Blade Runner is a weird concatenation of a couple of excellent Philip K. Dick novels, dressed up in a lot of Sid Mead design work. A lot of what it is remembered for [i]has nothing to do with the novels[/i], as per Mr. Harris' fond remembrances [i]of the sets[/i]. As someone who has read most of and respects PKD's work I found Blade Runner fairly silly. Star Wars was written for the screen and thus a different case as no compelling original works were maladapted in the making. The original movie was a clever return to classic space opera; it was simple but effective. As the trilogy went on, the paper-thinness of the original concept showed through; the finale was packed with a lot of nonsense about Ewoks. For Mr. Harris to adopt a patronizing tone on behalf of Hollywood is going [i]much too far[/i]. His tone does nothing to either support his claims or invalidate the legitimate interest Evangelion fans have in the movie project under discussion.

[QUOTE=Sephiroth]D&R isn't supposed to be a movie, EoE is the movie, D&R got classed as a movie because of ADV (or was it Manga? Can't remember) First and foremost, D&R is bought because of its features on the disc, one half of EoE was thrown in there just for the hell of it, remember, in Japan D&R was released AFTER EoE[/QUOTE] Most of this is off the mark. Death and Rebirth was released 4 months prior to End of Evangelion. It was shown in Japanese movie theaters in early 1997. Death & Rebirth certainly doesn't need the help of American distributors to "get classed as a movie." Any contemporary complaints about DR do not take into account the situation in Japan at the time it was released. As far as the new live action project, I think the main objective is to make money. I think it will wind up being some sort of Godzilla film, which is ridiculous considering the status of the original characters among the series' fans. The film is quite likely to foster further misconceptions about anime among moviegoers who are not anime fans.

[quote name='AzureWolf']...I'm wondering if there's any reference point, or is this thread just a "which is better: She and Her Cat or Animatrix" thread?[/quote] It seems that what is under discussion is only short [i]features[/i] and not short [i]series[/i]. It's hard to think of many anime which run under 20 minutes for the whole thing. Tezuka made some short features but they are hard to come by. I guess another nominee in short feature would have to be the "On Your Mark" MV by Chage & Aska/Studio Ghibli. It was a big deal when it came out and was certainly well done. Or "CLAMP in Wonderland" which I liked a lot. My top pick(s) would have to be the DAICON III and IV features by "the artists currently known as GAINAX." They are crude and just use old ELO tracks for music, but show real spirit and surehandedly encapsulate the wonders of anime. They even brought GAINAX into being, which is a hell of a claim to make!

[quote name='Twilight']Personally, I like the type of character that I can relate to. I very much enjoy the ability to empathize with a character because I share the same character flaw...[/quote]I [i]relate[/i] to characters but I don't [i]identify[/i] with them. After all, most anime characters are around 14-16 so there's a certain shelf life for that sort of thing. If I can't find any characters I [i]like[/i] in a given anime then I will quit watching after a few episodes. If the characters in a show get a chance to try and relate to each other I usually get to like them.

[quote name='iori503']Does anyone know if there is a new Berserk anime in the works? I know the original 25 episodes only covered like the first 10 books in the manga, basically just introducing how Guts became the Black Swordsman and his reasons for fighting Griffith. Dark Horse just started releasing the TPBs in English but I can't find any info on if there is a new season in the works or not. Off topic jumps about Berserk are welcome...[/quote] I have never heard of any sequel to Berserk. I can't see a middle ground between the 25 episodes already released and what would be required to adapt the entirety of the manga, which is still being serialized through its 27th or 28th volume. This was a late-night anime due to its violence and so a longer run was never in the cards. Although some quibble with the ending of the anime there was less material to work with back when it was made. The anime relates a complete arc explaining what turned Gattsu into a one-eyed hunting machine; the rest of the manga is more episodic. Most people who were concerned about Gattsu's fate or were puzzled by the harsh turn of events at the end have turned to the manga for answers. Answers can also be had by visiting some of the many fansites for the series.