EVA Unit 100

Well, given your apparent lack/minimal supply of patience and/or comprehension, there is only one good anime I can recommend that you'd almost certainly like: [SIZE=4]Excel Saga![/SIZE] Why? Because there's absolutely no plot whatsoever to wait for or comprehend! :animesmil

I prefer shocking, unpredictable stuff. Stuff like Fullmetal Alchemist, Paranoia Agent, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the plot-driven episodes of Cowboy Bebop seem to fit my tastes perfectly. Of course, I'll take a predictable story if it is done well, as with The Place Promised in Our Early Days. Also, Miyazaki's stuff and Gundam series always have some predictable elements (usually of the setting/character archtype variety), but often include a few less predictable plot twists that add to the enjoyment of the quality storytelling.

I'm not sure what my favorite anime fight scene is, but I think I might opt for Spike vs. Vicious in The Ballad of Fallen Angels. In fact, all of Shinichiro Wantannabe's fight scenes are awesome. You can definately tell that guy has a great time figuring out so many cool ways for cool guys to kick each other's *****. I haven't seen much Ghost in the Shell, but from what I've seen whenever they do fight scenes they end up looking awesome. Saito vs. Kenshin is a given, but the Shishio fight scenes towards the end of the Kyoto arc were some of the first things to get me really obsessed with anime. Seeing Kenshin's shoulder bitten off (and this was supposed to be the editted version!) was something I never expected to see in a cartoon back in mid-2003. Coming from someone who never saw the anime beyond episode 1, the fights during the Zabuza arc of the Naruto manga were incredible. Great artistry matched with a dark and gripping plot made quite an envolving read.

Cowboy Bebop has the greatest soundtrack ever of anything that ever was and likely what will be. No arguement there. Ghost in the Shell's opening is pretty damn cool. Does anyone have the lyrics for it? It doesn't sound Japanese exactly. The English bits are obvious, but the rest of the song I'm having some trouble figuring out which language they're singing in (is it French, perhaps? Latin?). L'arc en Ciel and T.M. Revolution are my favorite J-Pop artists, so it's no surprise I really liked "Ready, Steady, Go!" on FMA and "Invoke" on Gundam SEED. Also, although it isn't really anime, I always found Puffy AmiYumi's "Teen Titans" song (as well as the bizarro "Larry" version) amusing.

[quote name='fire+soldier']err..new here *waves* :animeblus ....*cough*..anyway I heard that they were going to bring naruto to toonami on cartoon network..am I the only one whose worried?..*sigh*..wonder how much there going to censor..they should have at least aired it durring the midnight lineup[/quote] They're going to be editting out most of the blood and avoid dubbing cursing entirely (duh), but they'll keep the Sexy no Jitsu and keep some violent scenes that are vital to the plot such as Naruto stabbing his hand and a slightly cut version of the Haku fight (and Toonami has delt with similar-level intensity fights before in Kenshin and YYH, so I'm guessing they'll slip a lot of stuff in). Viz said it would be TV-PG, but Toonami said TV-Y7FV. You could never know. Basically expect JLU-level violence: TV-PG content put under a TV-Y7FV label to sell toys s in a later timeslot just to be safe.and then when the complaints come in make certain repeats TV-PG and keep the show in the later timeslots just to be safe.

[quote name='bloodmoon0011]1. At the end of the TV series, [spoiler]Shinji resolves his mental issues I believe. However, in the following movies ( Death, Rebirth, and End of Evangelion), it appears that he has not resolved anything. All I want to know is why did he still seem afflicted by these issues?[/spoiler'] Did I miss something?[/quote] I always thought that [spoiler]Shinji didn't actually resolve his issues at the end of the TV series, but instead he decided to avoid them. We were just seeing it from within Shinji's mind, therefore making it look like a real conclusion to problems that were never solved in the real world of EVA (the first 24 episodes and the movie).[/spoiler]

I don't really get the point of this thread. Are you talking about stuff that's controversial for theological, political, censorship, or other reasons (EVA's the prime example in that catagory), or just shows you thought sucked (apparently, that is what this thread is mostly about)?

[quote name='xxMissAsukaxx']I don't understand why they are starting a new premier show on Thursday. I'm talking about Evangelion.. IT seems a bit odd for it to start on that day, dont' u think??[/quote] Maybe they're showing it on Thursday because that's the night with the best ratings. Family Guy and American Dad premieres air on that night, and Robot Chicken's encore does better than it's Sunday premieres (I assume the same with FMA, given how the Saturday ratings were steadily increasing and I doubt a show as continuity-driven as FMA could suddenly gain and keep 200,000+ new viewers halfway through a season, and I can hope that Paranoia Agent at least gets ratings on Thursday as it deserves them and seems to be a bomb on Saturdays). I'm guessing AS is trying to shoot for at least Inu-Yasha level ratings for EVA, given they could have aired it for years and only decided to air it probably to get EVA a fairly household name before the movie comes out, so Thursday is actually a pretty good choice, especially with Sunday packed with FMA, GitS:SaC, IY, Scryed, and soon Perfect Hair Forever and the rest of Samurai Champloo.

[quote name='Killer7']The fact is that anime is so much more advanced then a regular cartoon it is hard to mix them up. more blood, deeper themes, complex stories, and extensive character development. For example, Avatar's story is cliched, has no blood, no themes, and from what I have seen, no character development. The big-eyed style may be able to be compied, but the complexity can not.[/quote] This is a completely wrong statement. The most successful anime in Japan, Doremon, has no blood, isn't deep in the least, barely has a plot, and doesn't have extensive character development. Avatar may have a lot of cliches, but they're cliches that were also used in Dragonball and Saiyuki, since they're all inspired by the same book. No blood, but it does get pretty thematically heavy at times, with a lot of death and war and revenge and stuff. And the characters do develop (i.e. Aang starts to mature as he progresses towards his goals, Zuko's backstory is revealed). Have you actually even seen Avatar? Avatar might not be as mature as some animes, but it's a very good show. Also, there are several deeper and more thematic American cartoons. Personally, I'd recommend The Iron Giant, a wonderful movie that acheives Ghibli-esque thematic integrity.

To answer the topic question, a combination of mankind's tendancy to stereotype and the interview segments of Otaku no Video should be a sufficient answer.

[quote name='Otohime']I doubt that anime will 'die with our generation', even if certain shows do, the style will still live on. Just like any programme (even friends!), it will eventually come to an end. And some classics will not be treasured by future generations as they once were, only simply due to them being old, and out of date. But there will be new 'classics' to fill the old's shoes, and even more enginious shows will come, leaving all us "oldens" to quiver in our boots; so to speak.[/quote] Um, are you aware that the definition of a "classic" is something that is treasured by future generations? Anyway, I see anime lasting as long as people still have stories to tell and haven't come up with a more effective method of telling them that completely blows anime out of water. However, I hope the anime industry is shooken up more in the near future. I want the anime "factory" system used byu studios such as Toei done away with and to have more independent-style producers similar to Makoto Shinkai, Madhouse, and the type of stuff GANAIX did before their productions started oversaturating and becoming increasingly generic. Though the American animation industry needs that sort of stuff seriously more than Japan does.

I seems nearly all of the anime video games that aren't DBZ seem to go to PS2. I have a Gamecube, and while they have better controls than PS2 and have some awesome games like Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Viewtiful Joe, Wind Waker, Tony Hawk Underground, etc., there seems to be a lack of anime games for Gamecube. I think there's a Gundam game coming up, and a One Piece game which will definately be screwed to fit the 4Kids version, but that's it. Hopefully the Naruto GC games will be released it America but ShoPro and Hot Topic seem to be hyping the PS2 ones much more. Will there ever be a good Yuyu Hakusho or Stand Alone Complex game or something along the lines ever coming to Gamecube? [color=navy][size=1]I moved your thread; video game discussions should take place in Play It, even if the games in question are related to an anime. - Dagger[/size][/color]

Relax. Hardly anyone has Anime Network. Everything they show is on DVD. And a lot of it isn't even good. For every Neon Genesis Evangelion or Azumanga Daioh or some show with any brilliance whatsoever you have five Happy Lessons or Gravions AKA shows that have terrible plotting and style and the only way to enjoy them is to laugh at the rediculous cliches. Besides, Adult Swim's Holy Trinity of Fullmetal Alchemist, Paranoia Agent, and Samurai Champloo (you can add in Stand Alone Complex to make a quartet) beats even the best shows on Anime Network. Also, you can also find anime on G4TechTV and Starz if you need more and can't afford a good set of DVDs. Although I have to agree that reluctance to show Anime Network is stupid. Although if they would give some outlet (AS possibly, but HBO might be an even better option for maximum mainstream notice) one run of EVA and then take back the rights before the other outlet could do a second run, it might cause just enough controversy for EVA to actually be a way to sell to the stations instead of a just a way to look good on paper to the fans who don't get it.

[QUOTE=Dagger]I have to confess that I never did understand the reasoning behind the disco guns. What are they trying to teach kids--that it's better to kill people with lasers than with bullets? :animeswea I got up early to watch Eureka 7 this morning (what kind of timeslot is 7:30 a.m.!?), and I was reminded of how ridiculously awesome the series is. When is it coming to Toonami? I feel like I should know the answer already, but ah well. I apologize if someone posted this a few pages back; I've been very forgetful lately. ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] The disco guns are even more pointless given that Justice League Unlimited shows realistic guns (heck, they show nearly everything that most of Toonami's animes are editted for) at an earlier timeslot. Eureka 7 actually hasn't been officially announced for Toonami, but basically Bandai+Bones/Sunrise+"Next Big Thing"=Cartoon Network. Bandai can basically pitch anything to CN and they'll buy, despite the fact they've had a lot of flops in the past. And given that Eureka 7 is neither a show you have to wait 5-10 episodes before it starts getting interesting (i.e. SEED) nor crap (i.e. DICE), I doubt it will flop.

[quote name='Dagger']Come again? :animestun [/quote] Well, it's hardly faithful by general book-to-movie standards (although certainly more enjoyable than most adaptations). However, Studio Ghibli is infamous for completely changing the movies from the source material they're based on if they aren't based off of Miyazaki's own works (I haven't read Grave of the Fireflies, so that might be the main exception). The fact the movie even resembled the source material is actually very faithful by Ghibli's standards. While the plot and characterizations were heavily altered, whenever Miyazaki didn't seem to wander off with his own obsessions to make some design elements as wierd as possible, most of the character and setting design was nearly spot-on to how I had imagined it while reading the book.

Did anyone see it? Well, it was certainly better than any other movie to come out this year (this is coming from someone who hasn't yet seen Batman Begins). The animation is some of Miyazaki's best, and he stayed unusually faithful to the book it was based on. Also, it seemed to do an amazing job of combining Miyazaki's calmer slice-of-life style (i.e. Totoro) with his blockbuster on-crack style (i.e. Spirited Away). If anything, it was Miyazaki's strangest film, and thus his funniest. However, it was missing something. It's statement was muffled compared to past Miyazaki films, the plot less envolving and more predictable. It's by no means a greaty Miyazaki film, but it is still by all means a great film. And that is enough to make it and enjoyable way to spend an evening at the theater.

[QUOTE=Bloodseeker]For starters, there's character developement. How many American movie characters do you really connect with? In my case, there's not very many. Maybe James Bond, the cast of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and the main characters from Last Samurai and Gladiator. And that's about it. But the anime medium as a whole has a lot of characters that I connect with. Onizuka from GTO; pretty much the entire main cast of Evangelion; same with Love Hina; Guts and Caska from Berserk; most of the Fullmetal Alchemist cast, hell, I'm even starting to connect with some of the characters from Elfen Lied, and I've only seen the first 4 episodes... and there are plenty of characters that I didn't bring up here. The story writers in Japan seem to understand the importance of strong, developed characters. Second would be the focus on story and setting. Honsestly, I think that the general depth of anime storylines and the worlds that they take place in are severely overrated by anime fans, what with the constantly repeated themes and situations, but its still better than what we usually get here. How often in American media do you see a universe as grand as Cowboy Bebop's, Outlaw Star's, or even Inuyasha's or Tenchi's? Once, maybe twice, in a decade. Those grand scaled storylines and universes are almost common place in anime. Third would be that its simply a different breed of action. Have you ever seen a fight like Yusuke vs. Togoro in our media? I know that I haven't. Or how about the battle between Ryoko and Kagato? Nope, you won't see that coming from here. Or the last battle on Berserk? Nope. Inuyasha vs. Sesshomaru? Nope. Kenshin vs. Aoshi? Nope. Unit 01 vs. Sachiel, or any of the angels for that matter? Hell no. Simply put, you won't find this bread of action coming out of America.[/QUOTE] So basically what you're saying is that Lord of the Rings is anime, and Sailor Moon isn't? ;)

.HACK was completely uncut on TV in both series. And DN Angel isn't even close to being editted since it was never on American TV (outside of Anime Network, but they don't edit anything unless it's Gantz, which was editted in Japan as well). You are aware that it is possible for you to not like an anime the way it was invisioned it Japan, aren't you? Case closed.

[QUOTE=Dagger]Everyone needs a little trashy fun sometimes. s-CRY-ed makes for great mindless entertainment--it's all about the fighting, but it's done in such a way so as to not be completely boring. Plus the series has a great sense of fun. I'm rather surprised that you don't like its animation, given that it's more or less on par with that of Gundam SEED (and I'm not saying that because of the character designs). As for Fullmetal being a ratings powerhouse... it hasn't done poorly or anything, but do you think it would really have the same ripple effect as something like Futurama? It seems to me that an all-anime night still isn't feasible, ratings-wise. As far as I'm concerned, the SJ attack translations range from weak to completely appalling. But I'll let the Naruto fans hash that one over.[/QUOTE] Gundam SEED's animation isn't that good, actually. I guess it was just easy for me to praise it because most of the rest of the show is interesting and I'm a sucker for the awesome mecha designs in the Gundam series (other than G and Turn A, which despite Turn A being a good series the designs were attrocious). And Scryed's animation I actually think is actually pretty good. I'll admit I was being rough on that part. The show just doesn't appeal to me as a whole. Meh, maybe I'm just being spoiled by the much more awesome brand of mindless fun that is Samurai Champloo. Fullmetal often would beat Futurama's Saturday showing in the ratings and it gets more advertising than any other reruns (not counting FG/AD which are new to AS but reruns in the general scheme of TV). It could probably hold on it's own pretty well. Think about it. Assuming that most Futurama fans (who aren't sick of the constant reruns) only watch anime casually, they probably have tuned in for Futurama on Saturdays often and then decided to keep the TV on after it. Then they caught a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist and thought "Hmm, this show's pretty good, I'll try to tune into it." Then after 6 months of watching FMA after Futurama they'd see that their favorite show wasn't on for some reason. Then they'd realize FMA was on and think "Hey, I like this show. It's not Futurama, but I'd watch." Whereas if they saw it replaced with Inu-Yasha, a show they probably had much less obligation to follow they'd think "Aw, why'd they have to replace Futurama? I'm not tuning in next week!" Yes, the Naruto attack translations are bad but it seems that a lot of hardcore fans of the series think that Viz "ruined" the manga with them, which seems quite an overstatement. I'd say that the attack translations on Naruto have the same effect as the disco guns on SEED: I hate them, but as long as the integrity of the rest of the show is kept I'll manage. As long as the actors are decent, the original background music is kept, the edits are minimal, and the plot and character development is completely preserved, that's all I would need.

[quote name='Dagger']Yes. :animesmil[/quote] I honestly don't get what you see in that show. Awfully cliched plot and characters, uninspired action scenes, average animation. It's honestly no better than Inu-Yasha's worst points, except that Scryed has at least some sense of pacing. In fact, the current episodes of Inu-Yasha I find more involving than Scryed. Not that I feel that happy watching even a good episode of Inu-Yasha since the show has no ending. Adult Swim, just move Inu-Yasha premieres to weeknights and send Scryed to the Friday late night/Saturday early morning Bandai deathbed block and then put Fullmetal Alchemist reruns as the ratings powerhouse to boost premieres instead of Futurama and I think we can all be happy with AS Saturdays. Also, something that might be interesting to Naruto fans is this interview concerning the dub: [URL]http://narutofan.com/index.php/content-americanized%20naruto,interview%20with%20naruto%20staff[/URL] Some things of note in the interview: --All of the characters have been cast, although no announcements were made (other than the previously made announcements for Blum as Kakashi, Vic as someone, and an unknown as Naruto). --The first season of 52 episodes has been about halfway scripted, and recording starts in late June/early July. --It seems that the people who are producing the dub are fans of the show, which combined with TV-PG DBZ and a pretty bloody Naruto promo on the CN Summer Special increases the chances of it airing with little-to-no edits. --The Shonen Jump translations for the attacks will be used (which in all honesty aren't all that terrible). --Most of the original music will be used, though they say that they need to produce some new music for it. This could mean covering up silent scenes ala Pokemon (which would be a negative), but since most of ShoPro's productions that completely change the music still have some silence, it could just mean that they couldn't get the rights to some of the songs and thus they will be dubbing them (which is pretty positive).

Please keep in mind that there is a difference between best and most popular. Miyazaki's movies are currently the most popular animes. TV-wise, Yu-Gi-Oh is biggest with young kids, DBZ with older kids and teens, and Cowboy Bebop with adults. Of the poll options, Fullmetal Alchemist seems to be the one with the most mainstream popularity. Of course, Naruto will crush everything in terms of mainstream popularity when it comes out.

[QUOTE=r2vq] Newer Anime is directed towards you, older Anime isn't. When the movie Batman came out, it was given Four Stars. Some thought it should be "The Movie of the Decade." But when comparing it to Batman Begins, it just doesn't stand. Batman Begins has a much more solid storyline, fight scene, and characterization. The reason for that is because a different generation expects different things. This is also why I don't think Akira should be considered overrated. Remember not only the target audience's perspective, but their age.[/QUOTE] No, older anime can and should be enjoyable towards newer generations. I personally think that Grave of the Fireflies is better than anything Takahatta has done since then and Gundam Wing can't hold a candle to the original. Also, Batman is an OK movie. Better than Returns, Forever, and lightyears ahead of Robin. Why the reviews made it out to be so much more awesome than it was is simply because people's memories had been tarnished by Adam West's Batman and didn't expect to see anything grittier from Batman outside of his comic book form. If I remember correctly, most diehard comic book fans weren't so keen on the original Batman movie, yet they're completely obsessed with Batman Begins. And if the higher quality and the recentness are somehow linked, remember that Phantasm is one of the best, if not the best Batman movies of all time and it completely clobbered the two Schumacher films in quality, both of which came out a few years after it. So quality and age are not linked, and if anime fans today say that Cowboy Bebop is better than AstroGigantoGatchaVoltronLionRacer, I'd think most anime fans from 30-40 years ago would think the same had Bebop existed back then. The age of the target audience is an invalid matter in deciding if something has quality or not. Kids are smarter than you think. All of my friends at school (including myself) saw The Matrix in fourth grade and not only liked it, but completely understood it. If that example sounds a bit too specific to make a wide statement, think about this: the Harry Potter books are the most successful books geared towards children. Also, they are 300-900 pages long each and feature intricately described action scenes, political conflict that parallels the real world, an amazingly well thought-out history, a convincing and harsh coming-of-age story, some discussions concerning heavy philosophical issues, some downright disturbing graphic violence, and other stuff that goes against the stereotypicial notion of what is "for kids". And yet nearly all kids love them.

[QUOTE=juzzam]I would have to choose Evangelion or Akira. Evangelion starts off with your typical mech storyline, but every 10 episodes thee story seems to get a whole lot deeper. Alot of people say the endings bad, but I disagree. The series wasnt about the Angels it was about Shinji and his emotional struggle.[/QUOTE] Um, if you are going to quote something, you should at least attribute the quote to that thing. You don't want to sound like a bad school lunch menu. And you're right. The show was about Shinji's emotional struggle. And the last two episode did not resolve his emotional struggle. They were just wallowing him in self-pity and expect us to believe that his mental defeat is positive. The first 24 episodes and movies allowed us to view Shinji from an outsider perspective and thus gave us more sympathy for him because we knew that he was only destroying himself.

[quote name='Stealth_Knight']Wolf's Rain had an excellent story. Great character development. The story moves along at a good pace and doesn't feel rushed or dragged on. Just what the characters do to get by and reach paradise is moving.[/quote] Is it April Fools' Day late? Because that certainly sounds like the polar opposite of what I saw in Wolf's Rain.

[quote name='Fruggie89']I love Ed and Envy yaoi!!!!! :catgirl:[/quote] GLOTTONY ADN HUHGESEZ GOHST FO EVAH!!11!1!11!1! Seriously, I hate it how yaoi fangirls always seem to make annoying pairs out of characters that have showed absolutely no interest in each other! I mean, finding subtle-yet-substantial clues can be kind of fun, but just making pairings for the sake of pairings is just dumb. Honestly, some of you people are so crazy make the "INU-YAHSSA IZ MEIN!11111111!!1!" people at AS.com sound like Jeff Harris (and DON'T tell me that you're geeky enough to post on an online animation message board and haven't heard of Jeff Harris, and ESPECIALLY DON'T say that you are above the crazy AS.com people simply because you talk about shows not on TV instead of shows on TV, WHICH IS A COMPLETE AND UTTER LIE!). Honestly, I once saw someone selling Azumanga Daioh yaoi! And honestly, who in the deepest depths of Hell would write about Mr. Kimura ****ing The Father!?!?! And even if the couple you are writing about has been hinted at/established, nearly all fanfiction is stupid drivel. Some of it is readable, and some of it is actually downright cool (the only one that comes to mind immediately for me (other than my own works, of course;)) is Bleedman's PPG/Dexter/Samurai Jack manga crossover), but so much of it is poorly written drivel. AND THIS INCLUDES YAOI FANFICTION! You can run from the truth, but you can't deny it. As for actual shonen-ai/yaoi itself, you cannot say that "all yaoi has great artwork and loveable characters", because guess what: NO GENRE HAS GREAT ARTWORK AND LIKEABLE CHARACTERS IN EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF IT! Star Wars (the universal example for most comparisons I make in terms of this type of thing) rocks. Star Wars is sci-fi. The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D is also sci-fi. Does this mean The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D rocks? NO WAY IN HELL!!! You can't say that all yaoi is great because 90% of every group of things, regardless of how great the remaining 10% percent is, sucks. And this includes yaoi. In fact, nearly all yaoi anime I can think of look downright cheap! And most yaoi nearly abandons plot entirely. I can go for something with a lousy plot if I can be entertained by the characters and the style (Samurai Champloo comes to mind in this regard), but unfortunately most yaoi lacks style, and angst and sex do not make me care for a character much more than him standing still and silent for 10 volumes would. I am not being homophobic here; I know a few gay people who are really cool, and I'm not entirely sure on my sexuality. I'm even writing a shonen-ai anime... WHICH DOESN'T SUCK! And unfortunately, quite a lot of yaoi does.