EVA Unit 100

[quote name='Noside']I don't know what how anyone else feels about CN, but I feel CN has really helped Anime come into America and helped make it as popular as it is.[/quote] Certainly their past work with SM, DBZ, Gundam Wing, Tenchi, Outlaw Star, and Cowboy Bebop certainly helped anime get popular but they've had trouble keeping stuff up lately. Inu-Yasha is popular but it seems to be mostly from preexisting otaku and hasn't done much to get new people watching anime. Outside of AS they no longer show any anime on weekdays that isn't Transformers or Yu-Gi-Oh. They hardly advertise for any of Toonami's animes outside of DBGT. YYH is somewhat noticed due to its AS run, but Kenshin needs help and SEED didn't get any. AS seems to push their anime portion aside for the most part aside from Inu-Yasha (most of the "attention" it gets is making fun of its most rabid fans) and Ghost in the Shell and Full Metal Alchemist. The latter two shows are going to be the big hopes for anime on CN. If Champloo and an anime comedy better than Milk-Chan come anime will be prominent on AS but Toonami still gets zilch. Perhaps if CN gave DBGT and YYH (and maybe Kenshin or SEED) a weeknight run and if they got a show like Bleach or Naruto and advertised it like hell then Toonami's anime would be in good shape and then if Miguzi wisened up and got a kids' anime that isn't completely butchered then anime would be in great shape on CN in general.

My top 10 wants: 1. Samurai Champloo (Shinichiro Wantanabe. Samurais. Hip-hop music. That should be enough to get anyone to want to see it) 2. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (I saw a sub at my school's anime club. If not for the freaktastic ending it would be as good as Spirited Away, my favorite Ghibli movie. Not just that, but it comes out the day after my birthday!) 3. Porco Rosso (Miyazaki=good, though I doubt this movie will be as good as Nausicaa) 4. Ghost in the Shell: Special Edition (This is a must) 5. Tokyo Godfathers (I loved Millenium Actress, so I'd probably love this as well) 6. Paranoia Agent (This show is supposed to be incredible) 7. Full Metal Alchemist (Given the late timeslot on AS, the DVDs should be useful to following the show) 8. Gundam SEED (Particularly Volumes 6 onward, since they include the episodes not aired on Toonami yet) 9. Appleseed (The DVD release is very far in the future but want to see it in theaters) 10. Ghost in the Shell 2 (Good movie, though from what I hear it got a rather crappy release) Since I haven't seen any of these outside of Nausicaa, FMA, SEED, and the GitS stuff, maybe people could give me their opinions of the shows I listed.

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman][color=darkviolet']Hate to break it to ya, but some of the anime is a bit edited and hardly hard core. Ever watch both types of InuYasha. They messed up some of the dialog and a few of the attacks. [/color][/quote] Well, most of the recent anime acquisitions have been uncut. AS animes in chronological order of airing and what edits they've had: Cowboy Bebop: Some cursing muted, blood removed in some scenes, WTC edits Yuyu Hakusho: Pretty much uncut, except for some "finger" edits Pilot Candidate: Midnight Run standard editting Gundam 0083: Minimalized Toonami standard editting Outlaw Star: Toonami standard editting Tenchi Muyo: Toonami standard editting Mobile Suit Gundam: Toonami standard editting Inu-Yasha: Season 1 minimal violence edits, Season 2 onward uncut Char's Counterattack: Uncut Reign: Minimal blood removed (correct me if I'm wrong, don't remember this one much) Trigun: Some cursing muted, violence and blood edits in some scenes Lupin III: Uncut FLCL: Some cursing muted, nudity editted Blue Gender: Minimalized Toonami stand editting The Big O: Uncut Witch Hunter Robin: Uncut The Animatrix: Some violence and nudity editted in Second Reniassance, everything else uncut Wolf's Rain: Some violence editted in the OAV, everything else uncut Case Closed: Very few scenes editted Read or Die: Uncut Full Metal Alchemist: Uncut Ghost in the Shell: Uncut, except for the video reflection in episode 5 Super Milk-Chan: Some cursing muted As you can see, edits have been less and less as Adult Swim has progressed. At this point, only excessive blood, nudity, and a few strong swears aren't allowed, while everything is else is fair game. As for how hardcore the shows are, pretty much anything that aired on the original ASA except for Bebop was pretty much just for filler. Inu-Yasha was a fluke, FUNi didn't know what they where doing with Blue Gender, and Case Closed was too controversial for regular CN. Everything else AS has aired I would consider to be fairly hardcore.

[quote name='DeathRose']One thing I really don't understand is why do they put the anime shows in adult swim. With all the other crap and not on Meguzi where they belong[/quote] Um, Miguzi is about a billion times worse than Adult Swim in every aspect. Miguzi is just a pitiful excuse for CN to try to compete with Nick and Disney. Adult Swim at least feels like people are putting in effort behind it and are having fun at the same time, and "all the other crap" on Adult Swim has a few blunders (Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, and most of their acquired programming) and a lot of works of genius (Futurama, Family Guy, Home Movies, Space Ghost, Aqua Teens, etc.). Ultimately the only animes I could see hitting Miguzi are extremely Americanized ones, and even those ones would probably get first runs on Toonami if they have 26 episodes or less. Ultimately CN's action blocks chart out like this: Miguzi: Kiddy shows, girly shows, Americanized anime reruns, Teen Titans reruns Toonami: CN Original Premieres, hardcore editted anime Adult Swim: AS Originals, syndicated repeats, hardcore uneditted anime

[quote name='Kimmy][B]Neon Genesis Evangelion[/B']. I have watched all of it, in case anyone will ask. I got most of it. I was going fine. And then that one guy came in and was hitting on Shinji in the shower? And Shinji liked him and then he was an angel and.. just.. whaaa? I mean, I got the storyline and all but.. just.. why was Shinji so screwed up? Personal opinion here, but Shinji seemed really screwed up. And those last 2 episodes made me feel like I was actually going insane. I mean, I was literally cradling myself and sobbing for no reason at all. And I'm not someone who does stuff like that often. What the heck did that thing do to my head? It's either brilliant or mad and I just.. didn't like it.[/quote] So 3 episodes can automatically make a 26 episode series bad? The ending(s) of Evangelion admittedly stink (though I haven't played the video game, so that might be good), but the rest of the series is amazing. Ultimately I'm hoping you think the ending is one of the worst animes but not the series itself because bad episodes do not make a bad anime. Out of the 340 episodes of The Simpsons, I'd wager that apporximately 75 of them are bad, but the majority of the series is still a classic. Kenshin's third season was an absolute disgrace, but that doesn't change the awesomeness of the original 2. Evangelion having bad episodes doesn't make it a bad series. [QUOTE]I really don't keep track of the gundams, but I loved [B]08th MS Team[/B], [B]Gundam Wing[/B], and [B]Gundam Seed [/B] and kind of liked [B]Mobile Suit Gundam[/B]. Everything else, I absolutely dispised. I like human relationship stories more then fighting and fighting so a lot of the series I just was bored.[/QUOTE] You are talking about the ones on American TV, right? Zeta Gundam is another series that focuses on human relationships (if not for that, many of the big Gundam battles wouldn't even occur) and is up there with SEED and the original series. However, it won't get on American TV at this point, so either spend a lot on the DVD boxset or download to see it. [QUOTE][B]FLCL[/B] seemed pointless. It was okay, but rather pointless (which, pointless is like a lot of the cartoons here in the states so that can't really be good)[/QUOTE] OK, so all American cartoons just HAVE to be bad? Seriously, if not for American cartoons, Tezuka's works wouldn't exist, and if Tezuka's works didn't exist, anime wouldn't exist! If you want proof of good American animation, look at shows like Futurama or Samurai Jack, movies like The Incredibles or Return of the Joker! They're works of genius, no doubting that, and they do have a point. Heck, even something like Spongebob has a point, even if that point is just simply to be funny. Just because something is American doesn't change its quality. If something resembles something American it doesn't change its quality (and I'd argue there was a point to FLCL, although that is another story).

The 3 greatest movies of all time: 1) The Incredibles (Absolute perfection: it's funny, exciting, has beautiful animation, great acting, and makes you think. What more could you want?) 2) The LOTR Trillogy (Tolkien's work is classic, and this is the one series of movies that has been equal to the great books it was based on) 3) Spirited Away (Miyazaki is a genius, and this movie has a bit of everything he's great at) Honerable Mentions: Nausicaa, Mononoke, Laputa, Spiderman 2, Harry Potter 3, The Matrix, Millenium Actress, Shrek, Toy Story (1 and 2), Star Wars: Episodes IV and V

My wierdest dream: In one of the dreams, I was in a museum. I was in an exhibit on the science of "chocobroccoli". A portrait of Abe Lincoln told me to eat some. After I ate the "chocobroccoli", the portrait transformed into a giant Pac-Man octopus with mallets and chicken wings in its tentacles. It chased me and bit my shirt off. Then I woke up.

I'd say either giant sweatdrops or announcing attacks before they happen woul be the most overused anime cliches. They've been done so much in anime some American shows can just throw in one of these cliches and suddenly the show can be marketted as "anime inspired" (personally the only "anime inspired" shows I feel truely capture the spirit of anime are Teen Titans, the Batman Beyond movie, MEGAS XLR, and Samurai Jack).

If you want a good anime, look no further than Cowboy Bebop. Everything about it is great. There was only one episode I wouldn't grade in the A range (Stray Dog Strut), and even that episode wasn't bad. It's an enigma: all of the major characters (not counting Ed, whose just there for comic relief) have very dark, depressing pasts, and yet the show still manages to be upbeat, cool, and sometimes downright silly. A story of tragedy told in the form of a comedy. It's just pure genius. The shows' episodes can be dark, light, and anything inbetween. The characters are all fun and dysfunctional, yet deep enough for you to care for them. Plus it's episodic, although there is a deeper underlaying plot all leading up to quite an emotional ending. It's the greatest anime series there is. Watch it. Love it. Watch it again. 'Nough said.

Cloning animals? Fine. Cloning body parts to save a life? Definately. Cloning a human? No. It would just be pointless. (However, creating a real Newtype/Coordinator is another topic...)

I was doing a kids IQ test a while back, but I was annoyed by how easy it was and ended up doing the test for the next age group up. I did well, but I couldn't be given an exact number. I'm guessing mine's somewhere around 130.

Evangelion is the anime series to rewatch. It's so deep and entertaining that it almost requires a second or third viewing. I'm also enjoying watching Kenshin reruns on Toonami. Usually with more episodic shows, like Bebop and Azumanga, the quality of the episode usually determines if I'll rewatch it or not.

Oy, just more stupidity! It's only a while until we all become like the kids in Invader ZIM and go to "Skool" and act happy all the time and never notice the alien replacing our intestines with hall passes while the few intelligent folk are viewed as jerks who nobody listens to. It's not like restricting all Muslims and eventually converting them will lead to Osama Bin Laden turning himself in or ending the war in the Middle East. Geez, I thought that people once viewed giving more people equal rights were positive steps. It seems that way of thinking has reversed.

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]In my opinion, any show with more than 60 or 70 episodes is more than likely to be crap. A number of people have already complained about Dragonball Z, Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho and even the uber-popular Naruto. I can't say I blame them... all of these series suffer from what I call Kenshin syndrome. Despite the fact that they're marketed as action anime, their animation is usually sub-par--or, if it starts out well, eventually begins to degrade and become frighteningly erratic. Their combat sequences tend to be very long and often involve more talking, flash-backs, and poor artwork than actual fighting. The reason I prefer Yu Yu Hakusho to other lengthy shows is that most of its battles are relatively fast-paced and rarely last more than an episode or two. During the Dark Tournament saga, many episodes contain multiple fights; others are simply devoted to comedy and character development. But even YYH is far from problem-free..... I find it ironic that these kinds of anime are generally the most popular. ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] I'd also argue that the Japanese version of One Piece would be up there with YYH as a lengthy show that's good throughout though it isn't perfect. Other than that, I agree with you 100% (Naruto and Inu-Yasha at this point only have few good episodes, and DBZ has been milked so much and gotten so stale that I commonly reffer to DBGT as "the half-hour commercial break between YYH and Kenshin"). Another anime I strongly dispise is Wedding Peach. Granted, I'm not a fan of any magical girl anime that I've seen (the one show I occasionally watch that comes close to the genre is PPG, and that is fits under the title of "campy superhero action/comedy spoof with little girls" rather than "magical girl show"), but this show is just devoid of quality in any way possible. The lamest script ever, painful-to-watch characters, lots of rip-offs, just plain crappyness. I never understood how this got any fanbase whatsoever, and it's fanbase must be very desperate to watch this show (no offense if it actually has fans around here).

[quote name='KarmaOfChaos']Anyway, the ratings that REALLY bother me are those that my video rental store puts on anime. Apparently, all anime automatically has a "Youth Restricted Viewing" label put on it, from Sailor Moon to Heavy Metal (shudder). Occasionally my mom will read the rating just to make sure I'm not renting some horrible, mind twisting sex-filled film with no moral value, see the YRV rating, and freak out.[/quote] It can't be as bad as my local comic book store. They have the anime shelf set up like an "adult" section (with the beaded curtains and all) and you have to be 18 or over to purchase any of it. And yet the dealer seems to have no problem with selling an issue of a very violent American comic like, for example, Spawn or Johnny the Homicidal Maniac to kids younger than me. It's really annoying. Anyone can purchase a Gundam action figure there, but suddenly a Gundam video is pornography. I swear that in my sneaking I saw My Neighbor Totoro there, which is as G-rated as you can get while still being in the realm of quality! I think I might have to report the dealer.

[quote name='aznpennywatcher']i like anime but therew one that i really didnt like. i 4get wat its called, but it was about a guy who meets an older woman and they fight w/a guy w/HUGE eyebrows. and they fight w/guitars that they pull out of their chins. i thot it was weird and the story line was 2 weird that i didnt understand. it used 2 show on adult swim. either b4 or after big o.[/quote] The anime you are thinking of is FLCL. And I'd say it's one of the better animes out there. It's weird, but if you watch all 6 episodes in order there is actually a deeper plot beneath the madness. More plot than another wierd anime like, say, Super Milk-Chan, and I'd even go to say it has a better plot than Inu-Yasha (don't get me wrong, Inu-Yasha is a decent show, but it's plot just goes on forever and ever while FLCL has a definate beginning, middle, and end). Besides, even without the plot the show still isn't terrible due to the parodies and amazing artwork and music. The worst anime ever is Fighting Foodons by far. How could anyone even think up that abomination?

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]Boosting up the ratings is actually a smart move, in my opinion. Other countries can be extremely tough on anime--for example, New Zealand has banned Puni Puni Poemy for its loli content, and the fines for importing/owning it are nothing short of absurd. America is different, of course, but I'd say it's better to be safe than sorry. It's not as though many people pay attention to the ratings, and they have no actual power over the consumer, regardless of his or her age. Although I am forced to wonder how the heck ADV will rate stuff like Gantz and Elfen Lied... :sweat: ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] But Puni Puni Poemy actually got a rating (17+) it deserved in America. Seriously, why would something like Cardcaptor Sakura need to be rated 13+? Is it because of an obsessive crush on a teacher? Minor gay undertones? Sorry, but Rocko's Modern Life, an American show rated TV-Y, gets away with much worse. Or use Azumanga Daioh as another example. Some ecchi humor and a few "damn"s and "hell"s, but nothing worse than, say, a mild episode of Seinfeld or The Simpsons. I'd consider those shows fine for anyone about 8 and up who had the actual interest to watch them and a parent who would keep things under control. An example of how hard people can be on anime would be the Cyborg 009 controversy. It was controversial that the show ran uncut on Cartoon Network originally, which forced edits in repeats and a move to 1:30 AM to return to being uncut. But seriously, was there really that much stuff to edit? There was violence, but not a lot of blood, and even CN's extremely editted version of Antz got away with the same amount of bad language in a TV-G cut. Being one of the tamest action animes out there, just being able to air it uncut made it controversial. Seriously, does something like Pokemon or Astro Boy even NEED any editting to be considered "kid-friendly"? Anime should be put on the same scale as American entertainment.

NOTE: In this post I'll mostly be talking about ADV's ratings. I've noticed that ADV's ratings for animes seem to work like this in equivallent to American movie ratings: 12+=PG 15+=PG-13 17+=R With the exception of 17+ being esxactly equal to R, it seems as if ADV's rating system seems to lift the restrictions up from what they'd be if they were American made products. Never mind the fact that the choices of which shows get which ratings makes no sense: Di Gi Charat is would be more accurately be innapropriate for anyone OVER 12 rather than under, Evangelion's original release was 12+ yet the Platinum is 15+, Excel Saga's only real 17+ episodes (from what I know) are the last episode and the OAV and the dubbing studio just added in a few F-Bombs to the rest of the series to make it recieve that rating consistantly. In America, PG movies are often viewed as family movies, and PG-13 movies are recomended for, well, 13 and up (although kids still see some). I don't know why ADV feels the need to boost up the precaution. Maybe it's to get rid of the "cartoons are for kids" mentality. However, stuff that mentality is already breaking due to the Shrek and Pixar movies and the success of The Simpsons and Adult Swim. Just because a mild content show like, say, Azumanga Daioh would be deserving of a PG, which is a fairly family-friendly rating, doesn't mean the show is for little kids and people realize that. Maybe it's for marketting purposes. However, when you consider a lot of animes that would end up with a 12+/13+ rating actually are meant as family shows the ratings can be misleading. If American cartoons used ADV's rating system something like, say, Time Squad would get a 12+ and Invader ZIM would definately get a 15+, for some examples. Just some food for thought.

While I don't want a merge of church and state like Bush seems to want, teaching about religion in history class is fine. It's only teaching about religion, not telling you to convert to whatever religion is being taught about. It's amazing how idiotic people can be. You have Bush incompetently running the nation on one side, then you have these raging crusaders against teaching about religion on the other. People, ever heard of sensible compromise?

I have nothing against homosexuality or bisexuality. The Bible doesn't say it's wrong, people saying that it is "immoral" just supports what I like to call the "Philip Pullman Philosophy": people who say that is evil because of religion are just overabusing power as an excuse for their own xenophobia. Personally, I'm one of the younger members here just going through middle school and I'm still figuring out whether I'm straight or bi. Ultimately I always knew that no one here would disagree with me on this issue of being gay or bi. There's too much of a Gravitation fanbase here for there to be a lot of homophobes at this board.

My dream job is to work at Pixar Animation Studios. Either there or CN.

Does anyone around here like the show? Ultimately I think it's one of the few good shows (sans Adult Swim) on CN currently. The show does a good job with some satire on New Jersey and a bit of character development, but ultimately what makes it great is the parodies. It's almost like an American equivalent of the Excel Saga, only slightly better due to actually having a plot and being a bit more accessable given that it has a more equal mix of both American and Japanese refferences. A small list of notable things parodied from the show: MTV Escaflowne Gundam The Big O Downtown Dragonball Z Street Fighter Transformers McDonalds Dance Dance Revolution Bruce Campbell Return of the Jedi Regis Philbin The Matrix Reloaded The Iron Giant Gatchaman/G-Force/Battle of the Planets Power Rangers Voltron FLCL Halo Godzilla Every gaming system The Smurfs Pokemon The DMV The "pop-rocks-soda" legend Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Philly cheese steaks Sailor Moon Blockbuster Video Mr. T Macross Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead Area 51 Captain Harlock Princess Mononoke Batman: TAS Tim Burton's Batman Sonic the Hedgehog Mario Bros. The Terminator My personal favorite episode is either the first "S-Force" episode or the Thanksgiving special.

[quote name='QuincyArcher']but the manga is kinda lackluster i think mainly because the manga is broken up into 4-block chapters which makes it a bit hard to follow at times or just not enough substance there.[/quote] They aren't really chapters. They could only really be considered chapters if a 3-panel Garfield or a 4-panel Dilbert strip can be considered "chapters".

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]The theatrical release is slated for January 14, 2005. However, I wouldn't hold your breath--unless you live in one of the select cities where it'll be playing (and as of now I have no idea just which cities fall into that category), you probably won't be able to see it on the big screen. I haven't heard anything about Appleseed airing on television, either. ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] Given the general history of anime movies on TV, Starz will air it, unless AS thinks it's worth a 2-hour watch and it is dubbed and wouldn't surpase TV-14 with minimal editting, in which case they'll either get first dibs or wait for Starz to lose the rights.

There are pros and cons for both mediums. With manga, since you don't have to worry about animation budgets and stuff, the graphics can be more detailed and more consistant. However, in anime you are able to get a better sense of pacing and direction, and a lot of very good animes direction can mean a lot. Overall I tend to get mangas of unlicensed animes and get the animes once they're licensed.