(This guest post was written by our very own Kimmi.)
The television must be the most derided artistic medium, short of, perhaps, comic books. The boob tube, the idiot box, the list goes on. And yet, what makes a play better than a script? The actors. The props. The music. All of these exist in television as well. The strength of the silver screen is it’s ability to bring to life the unexpected, to portray things that we could never see otherwise, and make them believable. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the very best cinema — integrating not just pictures, but music and acting together, is priceless [If you’ve never watched “The Emissary” from the second season of ST:TNG, I highly recommend it].
But we all know that nothing ruins verisimilitude quicker than cheesy effects (or dialogue, for that matter). Which brings me to the real subject of this diversion — anime. In anime, the strengths of the visual medium are magnified — you can truly envision things that are wonderful — or monstrous. In such a medium, the actors require a true talent in vocal expression (and it’s for this reason that most American dubs are to be avoided) — to capture emotion purely through voice.
Jaybird’s asked me to compile a few diverting selections — I must confess that I have selected a few options for each category, rather than confine myself to one genre (If someone asked you to recommend one American movie… The mind boggles!).
For the two-hour tour:
Anime traditionally doesn’t do many movies, both because of expense and the time constraints involved. I’m going to give a few suggestions here, picked for both quality and artistic significance.
1) Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
This is a classic tale (actually dubbed quite well, Patrick Stewart takes a turn, among a host of good voiceactors) that’s simple enough for the children, and with a depth of backstory that rivals Game of Thrones (albeit with a bit less time to spell it out.). It’s a show that actively encourages thinking about more than just the events that occur within the confines of the movie. Take the kids, they’ll love it too.
2) Cowboy Bebop – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Noir in Space, with Yoko Kanno’s fantastic score, deliciously smooth animation. It’s a story about down-on-their-luck bounty hunters, out to solve another case.
3) Ghost in the Shell
This is another dark futuristic flick, with a bit more cyberpunk feel than Cowboy Bebop. It’s a show that asks what does it mean to be human, what does it mean to have a soul… The sort of show that will linger in your thoughts long after it’s gone from the screen.
4) Azumanga Daioh, Vol. 1: Entrance
(first 5 episodes)
Bright, Lively, Cheerful and Nostalgic! This’ll remind you of what high school was like, in a warm and heartfelt way. Based on a four-panel comic, it’ll bring laughter to everyone, including the kids. It’s about a class (with the focus on the girls and the female teachers)… It’s not your American Pie or Kids, but something that focuses more on friendship, and less on intergender relationships.
5) Read Or Die
:
Yomiko is a secret agent for the Royal British Library’s Division of Special Operations, her codename: The Paper. This is an excellently animated, very fun and heartstopping action series.
6) His & Her Circumstances
: This has got to be the best romantic series ever, bar none. The sort where you have an entire anime club of college-age guys completely spellbound. It’s about two people who have spent their entire lives developing fake personas, and just what happens when they recognize a kindred spirit in each other.
7) Legend of the Overfiend
Not For Kids Nor Overly Squeemish people. This was the only anime that my college had in its film collection… To call it soft-core pornography would be an understatement. Still, this is basically the foundational piece for an entire genre of hentai (they’re japanese, they classify everything). So, a recommendation on cinematic value, if nothing else (the same reason I have to watch Shaft someday. Bollywood demands it).
For those with a Weekend to Kill (13 Hours, enough for one 26 episode series, or two 13 episode series):
Escaflowne
(26 episodes): A girl from our world is whisked away to another planet, only to discover she has magical powers. It’s got Magic, and Love, and Mecha (giant robots). Futuristic fantasy, with superb characterization. Seriously, this is one awesome show — probably one of the first to truly draw a huge following from both guys and girls. And it has an awesome soundtrack.
Trigun
(26 episodes): Vash the Stampede, known as the Humanoid Typhoon, is an outlaw with a six billion dollar bounty on his head. Two insurance ladies are sent to follow him, to ascertain if he’s really responsible for all the damage that happens whenever he enters a town. How do you have a show about a gunslinger who is a pacifist? Come and watch this one, it’s truly a barrel of fun.
Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex 
(26 Episodes): Okay, on one level, you can just take this as a fun cyberpunk story, complete with hacking and gumshoe detective work. Or you can see a director explaining the American political situation to a Japanese audience, who is rather unfamiliar with the diversity of America. Or you can lay about ten other allegorical references on it. This is a complicated show that has multiple plotlines moving behind the scenes. And LOTS of references to Salinger, including the Laughing Man.
Cowboy Bebop (26 Episodes): Like GITS:SAC, it’s better than the movie, in a lot of ways. More time to develop characters makes everything more fun. Noir detective/bounty hunter, with great characterization (Mushroom Samba is my personal favorite).
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
(14 Episodes): Ain’t that title a beaut? You want to watch these episodes in the order that you download them, not in chronological order. Trust Me. Yeah, it’s one of Those Kind of shows (if Memento made your head hurt, skip this one). On the surface, you’ve got a school comedy situation (with the titular character creating a school club devoted to finding espers and timetravelers and aliens)… but it’s a little more complicated than it seems.
Full Metal Panic!
(24 Episodes): Ai, this show is rather manic at times, switching seamlessly from comedy to action. I’m just going to quote animenfo’s blurb:
“Sagara Sosuke is an elite soldier employed by the independent mercenary special force Mithril which fights terrorism across the globe. Using battlefield technology far superior to that of most nations, Mithril intercedes on behalf of justice.
Second Lieutenant Sagara’s newest assignment is to protect a Japanese high-school girl, Chidori Kaname. To accomplish this task, he pretends to be a new transfer student attending Kaname’s school.
As Sagara attempts to settle into his new role, a massive plot unfolds beginning with the kidnapping of Chidori. Why is Chidori the target of this conspiracy? Why does she seem to be born with knowledge of technology that has not yet been invented?”
Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu
(look at animenfo for translation. it’s punny)[26 episodes]: This is a surrealistic gag anime, which is a lot of fun.
Boogiepop Phantom
(12 episodes): awesome music, awesome interwoven plot. Five years ago, there was a string of grisly murders that shook the city to its core … and in the present, psychic echoes reverberate.This is the sort of show that you watch multiple times to get everything (or discuss with friends). It’s… umm… mindblowing.
Strawberry Eggs
(13 Episodes): about a teacher forced to cross-dress as a woman in order to work as a high school athletic teacher in a school run by women. It’s funny and charming, and a great schoolyard romp.
Cromartie High School
(26 Episodes): This is a laugh riot about a school inhabited by delinquents, and their subsequent stupidity. It’s hard to really say exactly how awesome this show is — just watch it!
I’m Gonna Be an Angel
(26 Episodes): Munsters, meet straight man. The normal kid down the street is inducted into a house filled with monsters. And the daughter wants to be his angel. It’s done really really well, if this plot seems silly, the whole thing achieves a surprising amount of depth.
Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoi yo!! Masaru-san(48 15 min episodes): This is a hilarious, hilarious show, about the Sexy Commando Club, which is a martial arts club that focuses on distracting the enemy, rather than punches and kicks. It gets even more funny when the school principal decides to join, and the club manager is a mustache-afficianado. (This one is not licensed for sale outside of Japan.)
Fate Stay Night
(24 Episodes): an animated version of the bestselling porn game (anime is PG), it tells the tale of a war fought over the Holy Grail. As you might expect, a lot of subtext/background is elided… but the endproduct is a triumph of both animation and storytelling.
Elfen Lied
(13 Episodes): How can you tell a story about the darkness of humanity, and still have it be a life-affirming tale? Believe it or not, this ‘un manages it. It follows a mutant’s escape from captivity (NOT for kids. features a 4 year old losing both arms and both legs within first five minutes. Kid survives. Scene insanely creepy.), and her subsequent adventures.
Genre Breakdown:
Warm&Fuzzy–Ai Mai Me! Strawberry Egg! /Tenshi ni Narumon
SciFi–Trigun/Cowboy Bebop/Ghost in the Shell:Standalone Complex
Comedy — Hale no Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu / Cromartie High School / Sexy Commando
Fantasy– Fate/Stay Night / Escaflowne
BrainBreaking–Boogiepop Phantom/The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
Horror — Elfen Lied
[If there are other genres you’re interested in, I can also provide. I’m missing sports, mostly — does anyone care?]
Oi, you want some more??[Otherwise known as Halp, I iz Addikted!]
Excel Saga
: This is basically the simpsons for the Japanese Anime Watching Audience. Lots of in-jokes. Won’t be funny until you’ve seen enough to get the jokes.
Evangelion
(the new movie series): This is seriously the best anime ever — fantastically animated, a true masterpiece. But it’s not done yet (and a brief perusal of porn for the original tv series might be necessary if you want to get all the jokes. The director is laughing a lot in this — the last time he made this show, he spiraled into a massive major depressive episode).
Fullmetal Alchemist
(51 Episodes): A little kid, and his younger brother, Alphonse, whose soul inhabits a large suit of armor. They embark on a journey to get the Philosopher’s Stone, to get Alphonse’s body back. This show shifts seamlessly from funny to serious, from creepypasta to action-adventure.
Finish Full Metal Panic (It’s got two seasons you haven’t seen. and they’re awesome): one is funny, one is really heartmoving and action-packed. Watch This Show.
Hunter x Hunter
(oodles of episodes, manga still in production): Gon wants to become a hunter so that he can meet his father, who is a famous hunter. This is a fighting show — I want to get that out there first and foremost, as it fits within the same big category as YuYuHakusho and dragonball Z). It blows away the competition in terms of quality. There are real, believable characters, and people grow and change throughout. This does NOT devolve into a monster of the week deal. Battles get more important, and some antagonists follow throughout.
Ouran High School Host Club
: A girl breaks a vase, and in order to work off her debt, is forced to be a Male Host (basically a job where men flatter women for money). It’s really fun, and the spiralling out of control is even more fun to see, as people in the club attempt to stop people from finding out that they’ve got a girl in the club…
The Twelve Kingdoms
(45 episodes): This is what a fantasy should be like, following the journey of a young girl pulled into another world, where she is mistreated and learns what it is like to live in feudal times, growing stronger in the process.
School Rumble
: God, this show is so funny — it’s about a gangster-type kid who is secretly in love with the main female protagonist, who is in turn pining for a different guy. Okay, love triangles, quadrangles abound. But this is seriously well done.
Kodocha
(102 Episode): This is the best “girls” show ever. For a show about 6th graders, it touches on some pretty deep themes, including suicide and teen pregnancy. It’s lead is a hyperactive girl, with a dark and brooding antagonist “demon” (just a kid, but that’s his nickname). Or at least that’s how it starts… This show is seriously no-holds-barred fun.
My enthusiasm has exceeded my time constraints I fear… And I find that my ability to give good synopses is rather lacking.
Anime Fans, how’d I do? Got ten more things I forgot? Anyone think I’m mean for recommending the first six episodes of longer series?
Anime Noobs, what will you watch first? Are the category breakdowns at all helpful? Are you more likely to watch something in a category you like?
Whew!
Kimmi, let me say that this is absolutely *AWESOME*. Thank you so much!
Don’t know which i’m going to watch first, but i’m going to tick a few things off this list. Thanks.
Let me know what you like!
Anime watching update:
Cowboy Bebop: the movie was very good, great use of music, I’m about 10 ep’s into the series which is also good. Nice style and good characters.
Ghost in the Shell: Liked the movie, not great but good. i think it was a little over long. Just started the first series which I’m liking.
Read of Die: Fun and entertaining.
Nausica: Good enough, not great. A bit to long i thought.
Afro-Samurai: i’d heard good things about it and it was on Netflix streaming. Very entertaining. Glad it was short or it would have become boring fast.
Space Battleship Yamato: I had SBY as a desktop wall paper for a while and i’ve always like the goofy flying submarine/spaceship/battleships in Kaiju movies like Atragon. It has all the faults of a tv show cut into a movie and is clearly old, but still entertaining.
I’m definitely going to keep digging into this stuff especially the sci fi and fantasy material. Thanks. I have a few more series in my Netflix queue.
Oh, man, this is a good list. I’ve seen little more than a fraction of this.
Thanks, Kim! Anytime you want to guest post over here, just chime in!
Let me know what you do end up watching.
I’ll give you guys a bit to chew through this post… Maybe a month or so?
Then, let’s see… maybe webcomics?
Webcomics were going to be a Free Thursday post, coinkydinkily. But everybody has a different list and different reasons for that list, so ya.
It’s a different thing to review something, than to say “this is what I Must Read now!”, which is probably how I’d respond to such a post 😉
Very interesting list. I’ll have to start poking around for some of these. If anyone sees these on Netflix On Demand or Amazon On Demand and wants to flag them as available to save search time, you’d have my thanks 🙂
Kinda surprised to see Nausicaa as the Miyazaki selection. It’s good, but I think Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are much, much better.
I know Cowboy Bebop is part of the c anon now and most people love it, but I could never hang with it. Just left me completely cold. Same with Escaflowne.
As for ones not on the list, I loved Death Note, and will admit to enjoying Code Geass as a guilty pleasure in the “weird Japanese high school with superpowers” genre.
I like post-apocalyptic fantasy that doesn’t throw in the kitchen sink about moralizing (and can stand up in a kid’s mind, as well).
Cowboy Bebop and Escaflowne? Really? Is it the genres that you don’t like? Did you think they were overplaying emotions? Somehow, I have a much easier time seeing people hating My Girlfriend the Ultimate Weapon, or Lain, than those two shows. And it’s not just because I like them…
What would you list as your top ten anime?
With Escaflowne it was pretty much the genre; way too kid-oriented and unfocused/fluffy for my taste.
Cowboy Bebop was the opposite — I really wanted to like it, but found it way too self-absorbed and pretentious in a way that just didn’t work for me. Noir needs to be cool and smooth as silk, not smug and self-conscious. I fully realize I’m in the minority on this, and all my anime-loving friends think I’m fishing nuts when it comes to Bebop.
I’m really not a huge anime guy, which is exactly why I appreciate this list. I’m an unabashed Miyazaki fanboi, and loved the Ghost In The Shell movie (but not the sequels or TV series so much).
I’ve only found a couple TV series that I enjoyed for more than a couple episodes. In addition to the two mentioned above, I liked Patlabor a lot, and Afro Samurai is just plain fun.
I’ve got mixed feelings on Lain. Some of it was massively cool, and the animation is incredible, but I suspect I’m missing too many of the cultural reference points to fully get it.
I also still have a soft spot for some of the classics that introduced me to the genre, too: Space Battleship Yamato, the better parts of the Macross saga, and Record of the Lodoss War.
A few things you might like:
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor
Crest of the Stars (and sequels)
RahXephon
Lain was just… a bit too slow for my taste. Not as bad as Noir, which was just “stare at watch for ten minutes, while awesome music plays.”
I think you got the wrong impression of Cowboy Bebop. To be honest, I look at it more like “Firefly”, in that it’s a fairly generic sci-fi story with set dressing inspired by something other than “Star Trek”.
Firefly was funny and occasionally thought-provoking but not really science fiction, and Bebop just tried way too hard to be something it wasn’t for me.
Thanks for the additional recommendations above, Kimmi. I’ll see if they’re on any of my on-demand services whenever my wife and son next let me at the TV 🙂
I dunno. I never got the impression that “Cowboy Bebop” was really trying all that hard. If you were assuming it was, then I could understand why you wouldn’t like it, although the issue there isn’t the anime but the viewer.
I loved many of the Anime’s on the list but my hair stood on end at Overfiend. My god(ess?) dear lady, are we trying to encourage people to watch anime or run screaming into the nearest full body scrubbing device.
And Excell Saga was one of the most hysterical things I’ve ever watched to come from that expensive little island. Major kudos for including it.
Well, we did recommend that for cultural significance, and put enough warnings on it that people ought to think twice. (Agga Ruter is better, in my humble opinion, but a lot less widely known).
Besides… Jay asked me to find things that people could watch in two hours.
I stand by that request!
It was a couragous choice and I salute you for it.
Thanks, but I get something of a free pass here, for being female. Recommending something like that as a guy would be a lot bolder. And get more raised eyebrows. (mostly because the assumption would be that the guy really liked the genre…).
Mmm yes, I hate to admit it but I would have probably had a more negative reaction if a guy had reccomended such a thing.
Now, not having seen it but hearing all this assumed context swirling around, I’m feeling a strong pull to see what the big deal is.
Let me know what you think.
It’s not as bad as Two Girls One Cup anyway.
There’s a large margin of “badness” between the mean and “Two Girls One Cup”. This is not reassuring.
Picture Heavy Metal as done by the Japanese with no regard to MPAA ratings.
It is the original source of the various jokes and horrified references to tentacle rape you hear regarding anime.
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/overfiend/
DarrenG’s right. It’s basically one artist’s response to censorship. Not NEARLY as disturbing as some things (vore, for example, which seems to be rather inherent in the human condition, just like fear/attraction to snakes).
holy crap, you recommended Overfiend? Seriously? Seriously.
“Ninja Scroll” has better action, a clearer story, and it’s rated R rather than NC-17.
Ninja Scroll was pretty fun.
well, if I wanted to recommend a good story that’s NC-17, I’d recommend School Days (not the anime, the game) or Fate/Stay Night, both of which are absolutely awesome.
But the subject was anime, and I was trying to get something for everyone’s tastes (I assume someone likes p0rn, if only to laf at). And I missed a buncha genres, anyhow. I’ll post more once I actually find something recommended for ’em.
Did you forget “Akira”, or specifically exclude it?
Also, people who are fans of David Weber’s work (or ‘space opera’ in general) should look for “Legend of the Galactic Heroes”.
… haven’t seen it. And I haven’t read derivative works, which makes me loathe to recommend it (not that it stopped me from recommending a coupla things above, without having seen ’em.)
Agree with you on Legend of Galactic Heroes.
How is it possible that anybody who has watched that much anime hasn’t seen “Akira”?
You must be younger than I am by a margin 🙂
ya probably.
Plus, I showed up to anime club, which showed current releases mostly. and my friends didn’t like Akira enough to want to watch it again… (unlike, say, the Simpsons, which I’m currently watching…)
Allow me to say: See it. It’s worth the seeing.
Although you get an entirely different experience depending on whether you watch the Streamline dub, the newer dub, or the original Japanese. I’d always go for the latter, but the Streamline dub has a certain…Streamline-ishness about it. Kaneda sounds like he’s thirty-five.
Ugh… bad timing on this as I cannot respond as completely as I would like to.
How does new Eva compare to old Eva?
A lot of people who like anime don’t like it, but I thought Wings of Honneamise was a stellar film.
Hated Ghost in the Shell (the movie). Well, didn’t hate exactly, but while it was visually amazing, I guess I “didn’t get it.”
I really liked Cowboy Bebop. I’ve been pondering watching Outlaw Star lately, which I’ve had forever.
I liked Serial Experiment Lain, though it has a low re-watchability factor due to its pace. I enjoyed Key the Metal Idol a lot more. Which is bizarre, because if I’d read what Key was about before I watched it, I would never have watched it in a million years. I’m not sure how eagerly I would recommend it to others, but it gripped me in particular.
A lot of the stuff I watched and enjoyed, like Blue Seed, was nothing very special, but the whole anime thing was so new to me that the novelty went a long way. I love the whole 26-and-done format.
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor (recommended by Kimmi above) had a great start, but plodded a little bit as time progressed. Golden Boy is ridiculously adolescent and shares some of the same humor, but is only six episodes long and kind of fun if you have an inner Beavis.
On the goofy-fun score, I liked Ushio & Tora. Dragon-Half is very short and extremely trippy.
Mad Bull 34 paints a hilarious picture of the US and American cops.
Kinda pissed that Ranma never concluded and that Tenchi and El Hazard would keep re-starting rather than progressing.
It should be pretty obvious that my viewing is ridiculously out of date.
Oh, and one of my most prized t-shirt possessions is a Curse of the Undead Yoma shirt.
Sanctuary had a really interesting premise, but needed to be more than a feature. I might like the manga more.
And I forgot to bold Dragon-Half above.
This is why I should not post late at night. I forget important details. The Curse of the Undead Yoma shirt has a story behind it: It was one of the few shirts that did. I made a mega-order that I later regretted. Between its arrival and my picking it up and paying for it at the store, a hurricane hit. The Yoma shirt was the only thing that survived. Even then it was water-damaged. They gave it to me for free. I was out driving for four hours during that hurricane. Brings back all sorts of memories.
1) Respond more as you get a chance. I’ll still be on this thread, in no small part because I’ve been a bad reviewer, and missed entire genres (no excuse because I don’t like ’em! Work Harder!)
New Eva is FUN, and HAPPY. Anno is no longer in the grips of a major depressive episode without treatment. And he’s got more budget — this is seriously the best animation ever. He’s added a new character, and the show is seriously off the rails of the earlier series. Also, this new Anno knows how to laugh at himself — the watermelon scene in particular is Hilarious (again, it’ll make more sense after a brief perusal of the p0rn — and I do mean brief.) Plus they have Maaya Sakamoto (a friend of a friend of mine) playing extremely counter to her own personality, which is fun in of itself.
In my opinion, for the quality of production, it is the best anime ever. (and the original evangelion, particularly end of evangelion, really looks shoddy in comparison. particularly when they ran out of budget. With this, Anno seems to say, “You fans actually gave me enough money to do my dream right. Thanks!”)
Ghost in the Shell SAC is really worth watching, even if you didn’t like the original movie.
Yeah, Lain was fun, but too slow (much, much better than Noir, however. which had a killer pilot, and then stopped dead.) Key the Metal Idol is a seriously awesome show, I highly recommend people watch it (it kinda slipped through the cracks, as I was trying to get good “if you like this genre” shows… and Key straddles a couple).
Yeah, I maybe should do a post on the 26-and-done thing. It’s a very different paradigm than American TV.
As to Tenchi — you should watch Agga Ruter (it’s done by the same people — that’s why it’s not finished, they got scalped by a real studio before it got done).
I’m not sure what I think of a happy Eva. I liked the dark turn that the original took (though I’m happy for Anno that he got better). Beyond that, it just kind of fell into the Blue Seed ilk. Which is not a complaint since I liked Blue Seed, but it wasn’t the stand-out. True story: I once got a date due in part to my NERV knapsack.
Here is Greenwood was a short (6 eps) romcom that I liked. I pseudonamed my own college dormitory after it. Recommending it, though, makes me realize how much better the animation has got. Love Hina and its ilk weren’t out when I started watching it and having seen LH first and going back to HiG might make the latter look cheaply done. Ditto new Eva and Blue Seed.
I mentioned Dragon-Half, which was pretty good (not exactly my fare but my friends liked it), but the one I was thinking of was Elf Princess Rane. The former was goofy-fun, but the latter has a spastic quality that made it infectious and infinitely re-watchable. Both require little time investment, too, since they are only two episodes a piece. Neither of the two can be well-explained by the plot.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked 3×3 Eyes (two parts: 4 single length eps and 3 double) and Master of Mosquiton (4 eps). Neither has a particularly inventive plot, but both go in a direction slightly different than I expected.
Moldiver (the Japanese take on superheroing) was fun and short (the movie 8-Man After is also superhero, but of a more serious vein, and Birdy the Mighty (about a space-cop who shares a body with a Japanese teenager) qualifies as the same. Nothing to bend over backwards to see, but something to take advantage of if you get the opportunity. Being the Ugly American that I am, I get a kick out of the ones that take place in the US, so Gunsmith Cats (about some bounty hunters in Chicago) scored some points with me (also because it actually had the bad guy being a politician advocating gun control – something I am not used to seeing).
As my time gets limited, I have a greater appreciation for the shorter serials. I enjoyed the first 15 episodes of Monster, for instance, but didn’t have time to keep going, lost track of where I was, and so on. Monster is a 72-episode murder mystery about a Japanese doctor in Germany. Fushigi Yuugi(in contrast to Magic Knight Rayearth) was good for what it was (girl gets sucked into alternate universe), but I never got around to watching the second season.
Shows to avoid: Fist of the Northstar (the movie), Iria (6 episodes never took so long to get through), MD Geist, Gunbuster, and Magic Knight Rayearth (see Fushigi Yugi, if girl(s)-in-magical-world is your thing).
Stuff I’d like to watch: Trigun, Dual, Outlaw Star, Excel Saga, Love Hina, and Dot Hack Sign.
Stuff I started and would like to someday finish: Monster, Fushigi Yugi, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sorcerer Hunters, and Those Who Hunt Elves.
… the show feels happier. Shinji’s still an emo git, and his father is still mostly emotionless towards him. But … it’s hard to describe. Can you take the same tale, and tell it with a glint in your eye, that says that though this is bleak, it will get better?
It’s seriously fantastic cinematography — and it really feels like how Anno originally wanted to tell it, before he ran out of money.
Here is Greenwood
Random pedantic note: This is a horribly overliteral translation. “This is Greenwood” would be better. Is the actual dialog translated that badly?
Magic Knight Rayearth
Haven’t seen it, but I have several soundtrack CDs. I really can’t say that the songs are good by any objective criteria, but they make me happy.
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Not a huge anime fan, but words cannot express how much I love this. You wouldn’t think that high drama and utter absurdity could be combined so well, but there it is. And the instrumental background music by Shinkichi Mitsumune is excellent. Though the chorales, by J.A. Seazer, I could take or leave, and the theme songs are just meh.
The movie…did not live up to the standard set by the series.
“Cowboy Bebop” and “Outlaw Star” don’t have a whole lot in common except for the “bounty hunters in space” thing.
What about the Bubblegum Crisis?
watched the remake. Seemed Okay, but not Great. It’d fall along Hana Yori Dango in my list of things to recommend. (which, by the way, is far below Neo Ranga, Marmalade Boy, or Yu Yu Hakusho).
Did I actually Forget Whole Genres? Yeah. I kinda did. Gonna try and capture some of the better ones from these:
1) Harem Comedies (this is a subgenre of “girly stuff”, in that it generally involves some romance. also a lot of misunderstandings!)
Love Hina (this one runs more to the funny side)
Ai Yori Aoshi
Fruits Basket (god this show is so sweet)
2) War Movies (This is NOT the american genre. Japanese war movies are inevitably bleak, dark and oy vai)
Grave of the Fireflies
Now and Then, Here and There
My Girlfriend The Ultimate Weapon
[personally, I Hate this genre. but if you’re in the mood for murky dark, this might be for you]
3) Shows about Sports
Hikaru no Go
Initial D
Tennis No Ohjisama
4) Geeky
Genshiken
Comic Party (most notable for coining the phrase “Oh! My Brother!”)
Okay, I think I’m done, for today at any rate. 😉
The best posts that have ever appeared on this blog are the posts in which the author has said “Here is a thing that I love” and then gone on to talk about this little niche thing that they love.
If you (anybody!) find yourself saying “hey, I have something (or something more) to say about this thing that I love”, please consider sending it for a guest post.
We all benefit from reading those essays (even if they’re for genres that we’re not likely to ever swim in ourselves).
I’m kinda backed up right now, but whabout a post on BBS nostalgia?
I would delight in reading it.
Ditto.
That’s an absolutely great idea, Jaybird! As a matter of fact, I have on several occasions done just that–commented on things that I obsessively love and sometimes even worship, usually within in the world of classical music. But you know what happens–a certain bloodless, Philistine douchebag has taken it upon himself to delete all of my comments to protect you! Yes, you. You should not have to be subjected to such dangerous and subversive ideas, dammit, because I run this show…the lowest of the low was when he continually deleted all of my postings about Ben Franklin and his role in developing the Glass Harmonica. Role? What the hell am I talking about, “role”–he invented the damn thing! He continues to manifest an utterly painful, vapid, dull, intellectual affect. Absolutely zero curiosity about just about anything. Hey, fine. I’m sure he has plenty of sock puppets to keep him company. Maybe even a few Marilyn Monroe inflatables for those extra special risque evenings in front of the fireplace.
Putting all that aside, my friend, (don’t worry-I don’t think for a second such sentiments are even remotely mutual) but love your idea Jaybird. It’s the best idea for a post that I’ve ever read and am sure you’ll get well over 500 responses. Good luck–looking forward to reading this endeavor of yours. (don’t worry-I don’t think for a second such sentiments are even remotely mutual) I’m sure you’ll do very well with this.
that glass harmonica sounded completely wonderful on the Simpsons. 😉
Hi Kimmi! Glad you liked–never heard it on the Simpsons, but you should hear it under the stars—complete rapture! Best, H
I like the war movie sub-genre, and can’t believe I forgot to mention Grave Of The Fireflies in my response above. Creepy, creepy (in a good way) film.
Thanks for the additional recs, I think. Too many titles, too little time now…
… and this is why I’m going to wait a while before posting about anything else. Feel free to post what you watch from this list, I’d love to hear about it!