EVA Unit 100

After having seen the entire first official "season" (episodes 1-53) subbed this is becoming one of my favorites very quickly. I know a lot of fans of the show were bored with it until the Arlong arc. I disagree with these people. The characters are so damn lovable and hilarious that they definately bring a much needed spark of excitement to the classic Dragonball-esque action-adventure formula. I was hooked by episode 4. However, I do have to say that the plotlines get increasingly better each story arc, as new characters get introduced, preexisting characters get more developed, and the gags and fights get crazier and crazier. The Lougetown arc, with it's various stand-alone stories and smaller subplots that have killed a show such as Inu-Yasha, is truely a statement about how the characters and the world of One Piece are so enjoyable that they don't need a big epic storyline to carry them (of course when One Piece does do big storylines it's still totally awesome). I seriously hope that sometime in the next 10 years an uncut dub or at least a less-editted dub of this show comes out because the 4Kids hackjob does the series no justice. When the brilliant satirical short subject "One Piece of Crap" looks unusually friendly to the dub in comparison to what's really been going on with the show's butchering, it's not a good sign.

[QUOTE=DeathKnight][color=crimson]Nope. The "offensive" ones were satire which is always, to some degree, offensive/caustic. I don't really see them as lies. Some facets of Islamic society [i]are[/i] nutso, psychotic terrorists and there are enough of them that it is A.) A problem. B.) Easily used for satirical takes on all of Islamic society.[/color][/QUOTE] Those cartoons fail at satire simply because satire is supposed to exaggerate issues to comedic extremes, thereby making them funny. The problem here is that these cartoons aren't funny because their target is misdirected. Since they were trying to make fun of psychotic Islamic terrorists, they should have tried doing something to make fun of psychotic Islamic terrorists instead of making fun of something that has never been implied in the slightest that Mohammed ever did. Some whacko in the world is always going to be offended by something, but it's not impossible to make a psuedo-offensive satire (which can be really, really funny) instead of a totally offensive hate crime (which is wrong on every level and has no comedic value whatsoever). For example, Wuncler's comment in the first episode of The Boondocks about "people of terrorist descent" is funny satire because it's making a statement about racism and xenophobia in America. Or to give an example making fun of religious belief in general, in the Invader ZIM Xmas special when Dib says something along the lines of "What's next? You're going to tell me that chimp in a Santa suit was the real Santa?" followed by some random guy in the crowd saying "Wait, he wasn't!?!" it's funny satire because it's making a statement about how people tend to listen to blind faith more than reason. The Danish cartoons in question, on the other hand, don't have any valid point to make about Mohammed and therefore are just hate crimes instead of real satire.

Howl's Moving Castle isn't one of Miyazaki's best movies, but it's pretty good still. Of course it's not as good as Spirited Away (very few things are), but I thought it was pretty close to par with Princess Mononoke. Thinking about it, Howl's succeeds where Mononoke fails, and vice versa: the excellent character development and general lightheartedness of Howl's makes up for the fact that the plot is rather poor compared to the book, whereas Mononoke has an excellent plot but with only one three-dimmensional character and a bit too much preaching. The one thing that makes Princess Mononoke better than Howl's Moving Castle in my opinion is the fact that Mononoke is entirely Miyazaki's own creation and therefore his obsessions add to the movie instead of detract from it. To be totally honest I found Miyazaki's least enjoyable (note that I didn't say "worst") movie to be My Neighbor Totoro, which despite all of its wonders, inventions, and realizations just lacked any solid plot to push the characters that Miyazaki had made you care about so much. Howl's Moving Castle is somewhat more enjoyable than Totoro, but its deficiencies still put it below classics like Cagliostro and Laputa. Note that I still need to see Porco Rosso, so my Miyazaki rankings might change in the future.

On the pork issue, my interpretation of it was that God didn't want people eating pork for environmental reasons. Pigs are slightly higher on the food web than cows and goats, and it's more energy efficient to eat lower on the food web. So the laws of Kashrut were put into place for those reasons. Of course, at least in modern Judaism (I don't know about Islam), the only commandments that you absolutely must follow in the religion are the first 10 and the remaining 300-something commandments are at most good-but-optional and at least well-meaning-in-Bibical-times-but-irrelevant-in-modern-day-context (the laws of Kashrut falling under good-but-optional in my interpretation), so no one is going to go to Hell just because they eat pork (then again, I don't even believe in Hell and personally I'd be more concerned about the effects your actions will have on you in the course of this lifetime).

Naruto's been seriously gaining in popularity recently. So popular that the Hidden Leaf Village headbands are the latest fashion trend at my school. Once the movie comes out in America I expect it to be DBZ-level successful. Also with Howl's Oscar nomination and the recent TCM (and soon CN) airings of the Ghibli movies, it seems that Miyazaki's movies are getting more and more popular. Even my grandfather loves them and that's saying a lot. Spirited Away is easily the most loved anime of all time, if not the most popular and recognized.

[QUOTE=r2vq]Do you really think it's tough competition? Whenever I hear about the three movies, HMC always gets compliments while the reactions seem to be mixed at best for the other two. -Arvi[/QUOTE] Who have you been talking to? Wallace and Gromit is almost universally loved along with being the best reviewed movie in wide release last year and The Corpse Bride, while not being that great a movie, has Tim Burton and some excellent animation working for it (and it's also pretty good as a whole as well). In retrospect Howl's Moving Castle is probably slightly better than Corpse Bride and slightly worse than Wallace and Gromit. And when I say "slightly", I mean REALLY slightly. If Wallace and Gromit is an A grade movie, Howl's would be an A- and The Corpse Bride a B+. It's really that close a race, and I'll be happy with whatever movie wins.

Just to let you all know, Howl's Moving Castle was just nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar today. It's nice Miyazaki is getting more recognition, but it's going to be a close match for the win against The Corpse Bride and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit. Howl's is a beautiful movie, but Corpse Bride could deserve a win for the piano scene alone, and how could you not love Wallace and Gromit?

I've seen the first 7 episodes and the show is excellent. One thing I'd like to note that something that bugs me about the show is the simple fact that it's animated. I'm all for animated series and movies that use realistic plots and characters, but other masterpieces of the genre such as Grave of the Fireflies and Tokyo Godfathers were directed using the animation medium for maximum effect. Heck, even the ultra-wooden Boondocks at least has Champloo homages which would be lost using live actors. Monster rivals King of the Hill for the title of "Most Live-Action-y Cartoon". Given Monster didn't run for 10 years and thus wouldn't have problems with an aging cast, I see pretty much no reason to animate a series that so far seems that it would be more powerful in live-action. That said, this is one of the most well-written TV series I've watched in a while. While the first episode or two didn't captivate me much, seeming too much like a slightly more mysterious Black Jack-type show, from then on it's a total mind-bender. And not in the prententious way of, say, Evangelion or the confusing way of shows like Paranoia Agent. It rivals Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in terms of the depth of the plot and surpases it in terms of character psychology. The plot has already advance very far in the first 7 episodes, and with there being 71 more for me to watch, I'm sure there will be lots of twists and turns in the lives of Dr. Tenma, Johan, Nina, and the others.

[quote name='Satoru']Disney can't keep up on classic animations? Why? Because we're living in a time where classical animation is the past. Kids these days don't want to see that stuff.[/quote] No, kids do. Otherwise, Lilo and Stitch would have bombed and Spongebob wouldn't be one of the highest rated shows on TV. And despite the fact that they're hand-drawn, I don't think anyone can call Brother Bear and Home on the Range "classics" simply because they suck. Despite using CGI, Pixar's movies are more deserving of that title. Anyway, this is awesome news. 2D was going to die at Disney anway, so it's better we have awesome 3D movies instead of crappy 3D ones. Brad Bird has been trying to pitch a PG-13 2D action movie for years, and Pixar is willing to take enough risks to get that done. Also, with Lasseter's dedicated love of Miyazaki we might end up with a wide release of Gendo Senki and other future Ghibli films.

[quote name='Chabichou][COLOR=#004a6f']If she believes that both Muhammad and Jesus were prophets, shouldn't she believe there is at least some truth behind their teachings? Islam for instance, isn't really about polygamy or women covering themselves, or holy wars or whatever comes to your minds when you think of the religion. It all really boils down to worshipping one God. So I ask you, logically speaking, if she believes Muhammad is a prophet sent by God, that the Quran is a holy scripture, why not at least worship God, why not just follow the fundamentals of the religion? Do you get what I mean?[/COLOR][/quote] Well, you're supposed to worship God in Judaism and Christianity as well. The 3 big monotheistic religions are basically just different paths to the same goal. It really all about which religion someone feels most comfortable with.

[quote name='Tyler Koregaten'](and It's illegal in Denmark :animeswea ) [/quote] How is it illegal? Is all NC-17 material illegal? Or is Denmark just extremely homophobic?

Top of my looking forward to list is definately Satoshi Kon's Paprika, followed closely by Isao Takahatta's new short film (whatever it's about, just as long as it doesn't involve inflatable testicles like that other movie he did) and Goro's Earthsea. I'm entirely looking forward to whatever Shinkai's doing, but from what I can tell he's not that interested in doing more work for a while (and with his extremely hard production methods, I can see why, but the fact that we have honest new brilliance in the industry while frontrunners Miyazaki and Oshii have shown some unusual declines in quality with Howl's and Innocence is getting me somewhat impatient). Hellboy the anime is going to kick *** in every way possible. The Toyko Tribes movie is going to be interesting; not exactly because it sounds that good, but because MTV is apparently going to give it a wide release and I'm interested to see how it does at the box office in America (then again, Disney said the same thing about Howl's, and look how that release turned out). Death Note's live-action movie is going to be amazing and it needs an anime fast. Does anyone know how FUNi's efforts towards a Fruits Basket season 2 are going? And when will Powerpuff Girls Z ever come out? On the US side of things, Mind Game needs to be licensed fast given how successful other more stylistic animes like FLCL, Dead Leaves, and the EVA movies have been in America and in my opinion Mind Game is way better than all 3 of those. BECK was made to hit in America (pun intended) and while it would be a pain to dub, it could possibly be the next Furuba-esque word-of-mouth phenomenon even if it was just available subbed (and while the licensers are are at it, Paradise Kiss has a fair deal of BECK's style with twice the mainstream marketability). Blood+ and Monster are awesome and would be perfect for AS, and given the movie tie-ins I could see them being licensed next con season. I loved the first 3 episodes of Hale and Guu that I saw at Anime Boston and based on the Newtype preview it'll have a pretty good dub, so I'm going to get the DVDs as soon as they come out. Black Cat and Eureka 7 both look cool, and the movies of Naruto and FMA should be at least half as good as their series (although with Naruto it'd have to be as good as the series to really hold my attention). And to continue the pipe dream, WE NEED UNCUT ONE PIECE!

I don't see why everyone thinks that running away is such a bad thing. As long as you acknowledge that you'll have to face your problems head-on and that running away doesn't solve anything, I don't see anything bad about it really. If you plan on doing it, do it, but try to get help and do something more about the problems you have with your dad. I'm actually posting in this thread because my family is taking in a runaway. He's actually my mom's co-worker at Waldenbooks. He lived with his mom and his mom was apparently abusing him pretty badly, so currently he's living with us until he can get a better job. Then again, he's just out of college, so his situation is probably different from yours. [QUOTE]Just realize that running away or [B]killing yourself is only a temporary solution[/B][/QUOTE] That has to be the most stupid thing I've ever read on the internet, and I've read about PABAAH and people praising Loonatics Unleashed.

[quote name='Ayane/Angel'] :animestun you have got to know that every anime lover knows that[/quote] No. Because there are many US cartoons that are better than a lot of the crappy animes out there. And an anime has to be Fullmetal Alchemist/Grave of the Fireflies quality in order to make me cry.

Well what have you already seen other than Lupin? If you haven't seen any already, I recommend seeing at least one of the Miyazaki movies. They're all amazing. Plus Miyazaki directed one of the Lupin movies (The Castle of Cagliostro), which also happens to be one of my favorites. Really I can only really give you recommendations if you tell me what genres you're interested in. If you want action, I'd recommend Cowboy Bebop. If you want comedy, I'd recommend Azumanga Daioh. If you want fantasy, Fullmetal Alchemist. Horror, Paranoia Agent. Historical fiction, Rouroni Kenshin. Romance, Voices of a Distant Star. Mecha, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Wierdness, FLCL. Realism, Tokyo Godfathers. There's pretty much an anime for all tastes. It just depends on what your tastes are.

[quote name='cherry blossom4][COLOR=Red']i enjoy anime because it's actually has a plot unlike those cartoons on Cartoon Network and stuff. and in the end of the episode sometimes they would just leave it as a cliffhanger when something cool is about to happen until the next new episode of it comes on. then it makes you want to watch it again to see what happens next. and the way the animes looks different from cartoons. they look a lot better and more colorful and they give the characters and the environment more details. but what i like most about anime is the action. there aren't many cartoons with action and fighting in it. [/COLOR][/quote] I find it ironic that your avatar is of Azumanga Daioh, a show which goes against all of the statements made in your post (don't get me wrong, I love Azumanga, but certainly not for the purposes of plot amd action).

[QUOTE=shinji172]I know exactly what you mean. I also have aspergers and at times, it feels like no one reallytrusts my abilities (mostly teachers). For example, in the chemistry A level, the exam board has predicted me a D. However, one of my teachers has predicted that I will get a U (failure) :animestun . What I find worse is when someone addresses any of my failings (e.g. [B]one[/B] poor practice test mark) as being due to my "special needs". For some reason it makes me feel retarded (especially scince i get high grades overall :( ) I also hate it when, in class, they describe processes repeatedly simply because i have aspergers syndrome (despite me showing clear understanding the first time they explained it :animeangr .Ah well...At least my family/friends dont treat me differently.[/QUOTE] Wow, I didn't know it was possible to get a U... :animestun I just realized how lucky I am and that my teachers at least understand that AS doesn't mean I'm retarted. Now if they could only figure out that the criteria for diagnosis AS is so vague that it's almost impossible for one person to have all of the symptoms without having some form of multiple personality disorder so they could stop making (admitedly plausable) presumptions...

[quote name='? Nomad Tical ?']My problem is that I want someone to be close to me but I continually forsake all that I care about. I screw up all my relationships, I never say what I want to, and nobody thinks of me the way I want them to. I want people to know me and know who I am inside, but it seems as though nobody wants to hear what's in my heart. Helping me is like taking care of a pet, you have to pay attention to it or it'll die.[/quote] I feel the same way at times... Maybe we could try to understand each other? :animeswea Anyway, my worst problem is actually people trying to say things "aren't my fault" and are because of the fact I have Asperger's Syndrome. Well, if things aren't my fault, then how they hell am I supposed to fix them? It's really annoying.

[B]His Dark Materials[/B] is probably the best book series I've ever read. The first book is [B]The Golden Compass[/B] (or [B]Northern Lights[/B]), the second is [B]The Subtle Knife[/B], and the final book in the series is [B]The Amber Spyglass[/B]. If you're a fan of sci-fi and fantasy stuff these are required reading, and even if you aren't typically a fan of those genres you'd probably like them anyway as long as you aren't the ultra-conservative book-burning type. Of course the [B]Harry Potter[/B] books are amazing, and if you finish all six of the currently books before the seventh book comes out you won't have to deal with major spoilers for the ending (I unfortunately had to cope with spoilers when reading HDM). Ditto on anything by Dan Brown. I also second the recomendation of [B]Ender's Game[/B] and [B]The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[/B]. Recently I read [B]Elsewhere[/B], a young adult book by a writer who lives pretty close by to me, and it's an amazing book that I feel everyone should read.

Why: As part of my ingenius plan to take over this forum! BWAHAHAHAHA! Favorite Anime: Essentially any Miyazaki movie. Other Anime: Paranoia Agent and Kino's Journey... Not exactly because they're my favorites, but because I know more about them than probably everyone else! And I even think I understand them! BWAHAHAHAHA!

My favorite anime... Hmm... This a tough one, but I'd probably say it's a tie between Spirited Away, Laputa, and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. I honestly can't think of anything bad about any of those movies. Honerable mentions go to Tokyo Godfathers (for it's excellent story, character development, and directing), Grave of the Fireflies (for being so damn sad and brilliant), Voices of a Distant Star (for sheer honesty of emotion and groundbreaking technical merit), and Mind Game (for amazing usage of experimental animation). Of those movies, I'd have to say I enjoyed Tokyo Godfathers the most. I'm anticipating it possibly becoming my absolute favorite after a few rewatches. TV-wise, Fullmetal Alchemist is the highest quality. It's an extremely powerful story that exceeds it's source material in terms of suspense and excitement. Unfortunately, while the characters are very deep and have enough personality to draw the viewer in, the show itself is curiously lacking in personality at times, probably due to the weakness of the source material that the writers tried to avoid but couldn't escape from 100%. Because of this flaw, I tend to stick mostly with shows that are original stories, with exceptions made for shows as high-quality as FMA or have as unusually entertaining source material as something like Naruto. Unfortunately, TV animes that aren't based off of tie-ins are scarce, but they can be found. Cowboy Bebop is the most popular of these (and with good reason; it is one of my favorites), but Paranoia Agent and Kino's Journey are personal favorites of mine that I'll be pimping to no end until they somehow make the top 10 best-selling DVDs of all time. ;)

I just watched Mindgame and I have to say it was one of the best anime movies I've ever seen! It was a RAW, so I could only understand bits and pieces of the diolouge, but I felt I understood what was going on pretty well. Writting a detailed summary of the movie's plot would be way too filled with spoilers for those who haven't seen it, but to give a basic idea of the plot progression it starts off as a rather generic plotline with the shy protagonist trying to impress the girl he likes, but as quick as a gunshot (*hint*hint*) the film becomes one of the wierdest, wackiest, and trippiest escape movies ever made while still holding on to the milder goals of the first act. If I missed out on anything from not watching subs I certainly wouldn't have known or cared, because while the story is a very original and intruiging creation,even moving at times if given some deeper thought, the real selling point of the movie is the groundbreaking animation. Bright, daring, bizarre, sexy, rough, unique, insane, artistic, there aren't enough adjectives to describe the sheer beauty of Mindgame's animation! While some of the design work might look unappealing on paper it gains an entirely new charm in motion, and yet other pieces of design are unparalelled in both style and fluidity. Different scenes apply unique forms of hybriding live-action with animation, CGI effects, and a particularly noteworthy scene where canvas paintings take the place of traditional cel work. There's nothing quite like it. While the visual storytelling and directing does feel slightly like The Triplets of Belleville, and the visual design does evoke The Yellow Submarine and Dead Leaves in some scenes, Mindgame stands alone as one of the most impressive works of animation ever made. See it any way you can. You owe it to yourself.

[quote name='? Nomad Tical ?']1) I've seen a kid of about 14 years of age, medium length brown hair who is apparently obsessed with bread. There are clips of him with like a million different kinds of bread. There was also an old man surfinng on brown water, if that helps. LOTS of bread.[/quote] Don't know about the other two, but that's definately Yakaate Japan (I think it's spelt like that).

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v421/Aquadementia/bobibibobobar.jpg[/IMG] Because you were all asking for it. ;)

I can sympathise with people who feel they need a sex change, but I don't really get why anyone would actually get one. It must be extremely painful and in the end it doesn't even fully change your gender. Now I've pondered my gender identity a bit. Heck, one of my best friends always wants to be called a boy (she's female). But I (and probably my friend as well) would never be so desperate as to get an opperation. If anyone could tell me exactly why anyone would feel they needed to get a sex change, it would be very helpful for my understanding of people in those situations.