posted
I know a lot of you watch Anime. When I'm done watching one, I usually post reviews over at AnimeNfo. The problem is they don't have a lot of people who write a good review, so it's really hard to find a good opinion on anime I haven't seen, so...
I brought this to you. I think of you all as a "higher tier" of intellectuals, but maybe I'm just biased. Anyway, I'm going to post a few of my reviews here, and hope to see some of you post your own opinions on some shows:
Posts: 2523 | Registered: May 2000
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Trigun showed me an interesting approach to telling a story, but one that I didn't entirely embrace right off the bat. The background in a nutshell: Vash the Stampede is a wandering gunman on a desert planet with a sixty billion dollar price on his head. Because of the severe amount of damage that tends to follow him around, an insurance company dispatches a pair of investigators to follow him from place to place and report on what exactly happens when it all hits the fan, and whose fault it really is.
When I first watched the character he seemed to be a real moron. This disappointed me right away because he seemed to be very invincible, and I hate invincible, moronic characters. But I gave it a chance and it paid off, because soon after I realized this Vash that we've been following isn't exactly the moronic facade he pretends to be. Not only that, but we begin to realize that there's a lot more to him than his flawless gunmanship. That was risky because I could have easily given up on it based on its first impressions.
He developed into a real character, which I greatly appreciated. He had a heavy amount of pain that he carried with him due to the gargantuan amount of tragedy that followed him everywhere, and a reputation that was so vile that there was almost nothing he could do to reverse it and convince the world that he might really be the most decent person walking on it.
The story, though, is chalk full of ideals that I don't personally agree with, so for some that might be a turn off. That might not be a big issue, except for the fact that it directly influences the ending, so I felt that the story ended unresolved, or even unrealistically. That was perhaps the biggest letdown I've come across in anime, because I loved his character so much, and I wanted to see him succeed, but I had to believe in the ending, and I didn't because the ideal was not proven to me. There wasn't even an attempt.
So it's hard to know what to make of this show. It had such great potential, and I feel like it was squandered because somebody somewhere sacrificed good story telling for the nagging value-pushers who must have decided that it was more important to teach us their optimistic ideals, which they failed to do, than to make this show more timeless in the scope of great anime. Its strong points will keep it loved by many, but it will never be complete.
Posts: 2523 | Registered: May 2000
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When a series goes on for only one season, you expect it to be eight hours and forty minutes of continuous plot. That's not the case with Cowboy Bebop. All though it does have a general theme that it follows with a main story underneath it all and ends with that main story in mind, you only see four or five episodes dealing with that plot. The rest of the show is one twenty minute short story after another.
But that's not a bad thing. I found this show to be one of the most enjoyable pieces of work that I've ever seen. The creators took great pride in making it what it is and they aren't shy about telling you that either. If it weren't so incredibly popular it could easily have had an underground cult following.
The show lives in its four main characters. Their stories are very personal and easy to relate to, and they manage a perfect balance of comedy and seriousness. Each character has something to say about life, and each chooses a different way to approach it. But despite their differences they compliment each other rather well, and you realize that only THEY could possibly live with each other.
The soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard for any series. If your title suggests music in any way, it darn well better have a good soundtrack. Because of this, the atmosphere of the show was just as powerful as the characters. I suppose you could look at the universe and time in which they live as a fifth main character.
When it came to the end I wasn't ready to let them go. But it was probably best for it to happen while they were in their prime. I knew how it would be, and I didn't want it all to happen as it did, but I knew that it couldn't have ended any other way. Any show that produces this kind of attachment to its characters is typically the type of show I love the most, and would recommend to just about anyone who asks for my advice. It's one of the few sure things in Anime.
Posts: 2523 | Registered: May 2000
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I chose to watch this title because it was recommended along with other shows that I have come to enjoy. But I'll try to put my expectations aside.
It provided the thought provoking, dark, and surreal qualities I sometimes like to see. It also gave a viewer a good perspective on loneliness and made you question what was really real.
But that was it. The relationships between the characters were actually depressing if they even existed at all. I didn't find her relationship with her best friend believable enough to make me think the amount of emotion they had for each other should be expressed. I think more background between them could have been created, so that when the end of the series came I myself could feel the emotion that they intended to show us.
The explanations for the mysteries might have answered some things satisfactorally, but they didn't go very deep at all, or at least enough to sate my desire for more description. But maybe that just reiterates the gist I got from this series, which was something like "Life is but a dream. There is no why. Do what you want with it," in which case not a lot of deep searching is really required.
I think it had a lot of potential, and it was very artistic, and certainly worth seeing at least once, but even with thirteen episodes you can do a little more than that.
Posts: 2523 | Registered: May 2000
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Naruto is a subject of division inside even myself. There's not much of it that is original at all. In fact, it's Dragonball for the modern viewer. You have most of the characters whose only ambition is to be stronger than each other. You have rediculously drawn out battle sequences that go on for episodes. If you don't believe me, look up the creator of the manga. Even he admits that Dragonball's creator is his inspiration. And you can see it right down to the facial expressions and the technology.
The story is really simple. Defend the village of Konoha and its inhabitants from bad guys, do various ninja jobs for other villages, and become a stronger shinobi. The characters are very predictable. Naruto is a simpleton, Sasuke is introverted and cool, both are very dedicated (obsessed?) towards being better than one another, both don't have any family (that can be considered welcome). Every other main character fills a family type role for each other. As the story goes the plot becomes predictably dire, and then always (somehow, miraculously) manages to find a way to go in favor of our heroes.
But it does have one strength, and that's variety. Naruto makes up for its inability to hide what's next with a wealth of characters, ninja lore, and techniques. All of it may have initially served to feed the main group of characters and plot, but they're beginning to rework their way back into the story, all though in my opinion the most interesting characters aren't getting enough stage time.
All in all, Naruto doesn't bring anything new. But it can be fun to watch, and I still manage to catch a new episode every week. If this were the only thing I were watching I wouldn't have the patience to wait for it. It's that slow. I think I watch it to balance out my taste in Anime. But it has its moments.
This is one of the most popular Anime series of all-time. When I came across it I was ready for something a little more bubblegum than this.
It started off like a light Anime on the surface with a few serious issues to tackle. It went on with the whole Mech approach which I usually like to steer clear of. Yet I couldn't help but sense the darkness beneath it. The characterization was what drove this story, and how everyone related to each other. Even the Mechs had some personality.
As it continued, and I started to understand the characters a little more, I found them to be very realistic. Nobody was perfect, but nobody was really evil. Even the characters whose only underlying intent was to damage the program that our main characters protected had a great deal of likeability, and I may have even thought that they were more virtuous than our heroes. The regular enemies, "Angels," that the main characters often fought with were very ambiguous, and weren't really very important to the plot except to serve as a learning experience for our characters. Otherwise they might as well have been as personable and original as a natural disaster.
But philosophy wouldn't walk out of this tale. In fact the entire last third of the story was a downward spiral of depression into the questions everyone has about life and purpose, why terrible things happen and how much we need each other. It exposes the ambitions and false hopes we try to cling to, but in the end tries to tell us that we're not wrong for wanting to believe.
The most questionable thing is of course the infamous final two episodes. I thought they were a great mindjob, but they didn't wrap up the series very well. They had to make not one, but two movies to follow it up to finally satisfy the fans who soaked themselves into 26 episodes of scrambled-brain.
Really, I thought it was very good and it's probably one of my favorites. So I can see why so many people enjoyed it. But I can also see why so many did not. If you want a think piece, then maybe this is for you. If you like something a little more simplistic, traditional, and light, you'll probably hate it. But one way or the other it's hard to deny the imprint that it has left on Anime.
posted
Those are great reviews. You even talk about the music, something a lot of anime reviewers tend to overlook. I haven't checked out the reviews at AnimeNfo, so I'm not quite sure what exactally they're looking for.
My feedback on the four anime I've seen out of your list:
TRIGUN: I personally love Trigun because Vash is an idiot. He makes me laugh, that's why I loved it so when I first saw it. Especially when the second half of the series started, you saw that he was smiling though the pain of what he had lost and knew he would lose, a kind of 'life is short but enjoy what you can of it', if you will. Also, the soundtrack is AMAZING, and provokes images of the anime while listening to it (as all good soundtracks--anime or liveaction--should, IMO).
COWBOY BEBOP: Before Adult Swim played this one into the dust, I enjoyed it--heck, I still do. The music is great, the action is fast-paced and--though I personally hate computer generated stuff in my anime, this one did it in a way that makes me hopeful for anime/CGI hybrids to come. Also, the one-liners are fantastic. I can quote those babies all day. Although it's set in the future, it invokes a kind of nostalgia, a longing for the past that you can't quite put your finger on. All four (five, if you include Ein?) characters have a darkened past that makes them cloaked and--ultimately--cool.
SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN: This one just confused me and while the artwork was beautiful, I just lost interest. Not my kind of anime, really.
NARUTO: I follow both the Naruto anime and manga (which is a pain, considering that the anime is wayyyyy ahead of the manga). The plots are predictable, it is a little DBZ-ish, but I'll be damned if it isn't addicting. I just find it fun. That anime always leaves me with a smile on my face.
So there's another view for ya, Khavanon, just thought you might appreciate it.
Oh, and on a sidenote, if you liked Evangelion, you might enjoy Gundam Wing; it's very character-oriented and slightly head-spinning, but I enjoy it immensely.
Posts: 873 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Ahh... Evangelion is the GREATEST Anime of all time. IMHO.
I liked your review, but I would say that not only were the characterizations the driving force, but equaly the religious implications. The Angels are not just plot devices, they really are Archangels sent by God to destroy humanity before we destroy Him. And in the end, when Gabriel himself comes, he and the divine sacrfice THEMSELVES so that humanity can replace the heavenly court, completeing the final evolution into a single consummate being.
While I am an agnostic/atheist, I still find stories about the divine very very powerful.
And of course after the main body of Evangelion is the movie "Death and Rebirth", documenting the end of the world and the process of the Human Instrumentality Project.
(Oh and the fact that our main character turns out to be gay, or at least bi, at the end of the series is super cool too!)
[ November 19, 2004, 05:45 AM: Message edited by: Telperion the Silver ]
Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Actually I've seen most of Gundam Wing. I'd like to get around to finishing it sometime, but like I said, I try to avoid the whole Mech induced style, unless of course it has a good story. What I've seen of GW wasn't too bad. I've gone as far as episode 34, but that was four or five years ago. There aren't too many left after that.
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The things I remember most about Eva were its continuous tendency to jerk me down further into the depth of their depression, and all that philosophy. But it was great. Everytime I would finish an episode in the latter half of the series I would think about what it was suggesting, and wonder where it would go. Thank God for the movies. It could have been a disaster without them. I think they even enriched the story, not just wrapped it up.
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posted
My mom thinks the greatest anime is Sailor Moon, I think the best one is the one I'll make someday. As for manga, I LOVE ANGEL SANCTUARY.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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The final two episodes of Evangelion are real genius.
Their only problem is the fact that the series as a whole tricks many viewers into thinking it is a story about a team of giant robot fighters rather than a story about interpersonal relationships and self-identity. As a story about giant robot fighters it fails, because it simply drops that plotline altogether, without giving the conclusion at all. But as a story about existentialism, I don't think I've ever seen anything comparably well done on any television program ever.
Besides... you've got to respect any story that can drop the plot entirely, rest the entire series on the strength of its characters, and still succeed.
I'm actually disappointed the makers bowed to the pressure to follow up with a movie explaining it all.
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Resolving their emotional problems was one thing, and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring their feelings, but they did establish a whole lot of conflicts that needed to be resolved. I don't think I could have been satisfied unless they were.
The characterization was what made me love it more than anything else. It really was the meat of the story. But I can't have any major loose ends untied.
Posts: 2523 | Registered: May 2000
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I don't know why I did it. I watched Sailor Moon when I was like 15. I was an uber-insomniac then (Didn't go to sleep until 8am), and since I was in homeschool, and it was on right before I went to seminary, I think I just got absorbed by it. Then they canceled it and uhh, never been able to stand it since. <shivers>
Tri-Gun, on the other hand, is an insanely cool show. I just wish Vash wasn't so much like the character I've been developing since I was 10...<grumble...back to the drawing board>
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I don't use this name enough. Here's my annual SamIAm post. Sorry it couldn't have been more eventful. Posts: 14 | Registered: Jun 1999
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At first I thought it was silly...I had to be forced to watch it. But like all good anime the initial story was only cover for the real meat. I can't watch Trigun now without crying! The themes are so powerful.
Vash is SO totally devoted to life and to PEOPLE. To the strangers around him. It is one of the only shows that during/after the action the common citizens around are thought of as real living beings, instead of fillers for gore or spectators or whatever.
At first I though the idea of two insurance agents following Vash around was a silly idea, but once you realize that the only thing keeping the last remnant of Humanity alive are our machines...it all makes sense. And Rem...the mother/lover figure... the icon for Humanity. That episode when we see how we got to this horrible Dune-like planet...the destruction of the colony fleet... wow.. so freaking sad.
And Vash so desperate..DESPERATE to save us... doing what Rem taught him and for her very memory too.
I love it!
[ November 20, 2004, 05:12 AM: Message edited by: Telperion the Silver ]
Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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My favorite Vash moment was when he sat on that bench with a bag full of donuts, his favoite food, and he took one bite. Then he relished in how good it was to eat it, how satisfying it felt for him to enjoy something. Then he looked around at all the people in their day-to-day lives and thought about how much he appreciated their livelyhood, and how badly he wanted to be a part of it, and have them appreciate him. But knowing it was something he would probably never have, and letting the whole bag of donuts fall to the ground and spill out, he buried his head in his hands and sobbed, all the while commenting on how delicious his donuts were.
posted
YES Khavanon! That is one of my favorite moments too.
For me, in addition to your observations, I see Vash looking at the people, loving to be around them...and forced to remember why he loves them... and forced to remember the horrible day when Rem and most of humanity was killed by his brother. And for myself I am also saddened by our great fall and loss of our original culture and technology.
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posted
Of the anime you've reviewed, I've seen two: Cowboy Bebop and Serial Experiments Lain. Bebop is one of the members of my Holy Trinity of Anime (the other two are Gundam SEED and Video Girl Ai). I love that show for all the reasons you mentioned - the atmosphere, the music, and most of all, the characters...It's a great show. Spike
As for Lain...I thought it was okay. It was very confusing - I'm still not entirely sure what happened at the end. (Although that's partly due to the fact that I was experiencing a severe emotional crisis while watching it, which kind of interfered with my ability to make sense of what I was watching. ) The artwork and the atmosphere were beautiful, though, and the opening song is at the top of my iTunes "Top 25 Most Played" list. It's been played 103 times.
posted
Gundam Wing: GW is in my opinion the anime that got me addicted to anime. Nice plot development, alot of political intrigue and geopolitics (which I like) and the whole sci-fi thing to it. The philosophical side to it esp. in GW: Endless Waltz was a nice touch.
Gundam Seed: An interesting show but different from GW, it focuses ALOT more on plot/character development, so it's a little slower. I liked the whole genetically enhanced coordinater thing. (Reminds me of Bean)
Posts: 1567 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I agree, Gundam Wing was what got me addicted to anime; before then all I had watched was Sailor Moon. *wince*
I've recently got on a CLAMP studio binge, buying CLAMP's latest manga XxxHolic and Tsubasa, as well as the CLAMP School Detectives anime (only on VHS, not sold anymore except via places like Amazon and Ebay). Those women sure know how to write/draw a story.
Posts: 873 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Gundam Seed: An interesting show but different from GW, it focuses ALOT more on plot/character development, so it's a little slower. I liked the whole genetically enhanced coordinater thing. (Reminds me of Bean)
The focus on plot and character development is what I like most about the show. Especially compared to Wing, which does not have good character development at ALL. I connected very strongly with the SEED characters in a way that I never could with the Wing ones (the Wing boys are just weird! ).
The SEED characters all seem very human, very real. Even Patrick Zara, who is one of the only SEED characters who can really be called "evil", has a motive for what he does. We don't agree with him, but we can understand him. I think that's very true to life.
posted
More Spoilers!!! (Sorry, should have warned people before)
More favorite moments, Cowboy Bebop: I have two.
#1 - Spike Spiegel, after three years of tropsing around the Solar System with Jet in his dazed reality due to his trouble with the Syndicate and Julia, who was just killed, is walking down the corridor to his ship to finally end his dispute with Vicious. Faye, who had just returned to them after realizing that the only place where she belonged was there, told him not to go off and die because of the past. Spike leans over into her face, stares directly into her eyes and says, "Look at these eyes. One of them is a fake because I lost it in an accident. Since then, I have been seeing the past in one eye and the present in the other. I had believed that what I saw was not all of reality. I thought that I was watching a dream that I would never awaken from. Before I knew it, the dream was all over." She becomes very upset, after all she had learned of herself, that she had finally found where she wanted to be, that he would leave to go and die, then asks him why he has to go. He says, "I'm not going there to die. I'm going there to see if I really am alive." She points her gun at him as he walks away, then points it up into the air and fires one shot after another until he is gone.
#2 - When Spike comes down the staircase at the end, having killed Vicious, then stopping in the middle. He looks to all the security people standing there, still reeling at what had just happened. He lifts up his right hand, pointing at them, mimicing a pistol with his fingers, and says "bang" in a soft tone, then keels over and dies.
Posts: 2523 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
While we're discussing the last moments of Bebop, did anyone else catch the reference (and to me, relevance) to the end of "Sympathy for the Devil"?
posted
There was a rumor on the 'net for a while that a sequal to Bebop was going to be made, but I think it was all lies.
My favorite Bebop moment is... well, two come to mind: During the lobster episode, with Ed skipping down the hall singing, "Exploration, experimentation, exploration, EXPlanation!" My other favorite part (and my favorite quote) is Spike's 'apology' for breaking the Beta player: "My ship works better when I kick it." Posts: 873 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Telperion the Silver: Oh yah... FullMetal Alchemist ROCKS! I've only seen the first episode, but great animation and initial plot! I'm curious how it turns out!
*still waiting for Big O II to come out on DVD*
*akadavara* *Resurrects thread*
I'm currently going through FMA right now as a complete newbie to the series, and I have to say it's not bad at all. One of "Bones" best imo. It's also a testament to their switch in artists/animators/directors because I didn't recognize their style in this one. Except for Scar (tsume, wolf rain anyone?) everybody seems to have a distinct look, which helps keep track of the various characters.
Also, the soundtrack is great. Some might say it's formula romantic sounding orchestration, but I don't think so. Rakuyou is a very pretty piano piece.
The animation is cool, but it's nothing TOO spectacular. The detailing isn't very good compared to Bebop, but what the animators do with the lighting in this, is very cool.
And frankly, this is one of the most refreshingly (new?) concepts for a plot that I've seen in a long time. Even some of the anime formulas are tweaked or non-existent.
posted
Is anyone with me on making Trigun a feature length, live action movie? you could drop some of the middle incidental sections and tell the same story in 3 acts pretty easily... Introductions, the middle section where we realize this isn't quite as goofy as we thought, and then the final showdown(s). I confess, though, that I couldn't resist the urge to change the very end though.
Oddly, as much as I identify with Vash, Wolfwood is also one of my favorite characters and his story arc is phenomenally powerful to me.
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This anime has gripping characters. While being on the surface a show for children, it grapples with complex issues, such as the horrifying actions that can be taken for love, the price of action ("for everything there is a price"), and how the two kids come to learn that for one thing there is no price, and that is...
This is a show that I'm making my child-relatives see so that they can both have a good time and learn some values. They can learn complex issues, and the value of brotherly love, of dedication, and of preserverence. This show is beautiful.
We see episodes where: (spoiler)
A man turns his wife into a dog to get funding. He later does the same to his child, a cute girl, whom we see for an episode. The dog-girl is then blown up and the protaganist stands there, crying, his hands on the bloodstain, trying to conjure the girl back to life.
The main character is taken by a serial killer and is almost killed. He suffers several cuts. He is forced to grapple with the fact that he almost died, and sits with his brother, stunned, repeating "I could have died..."
Thousands of people are slaughtered at once to fuel...
A non-human monster contemplates the horror of her own existence, turns against her former masters, hopign to be become a human. She is killed, but first realizes that she just wanted to become a human so that she could die.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Also, here's a nice Anime Music Video that does a good job (imo) of getting some real characterization across. I didn't see the series when I first saw this, but the author was still able to communicate a lot of the er...conflict. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1311127858945301265&q=inversePosts: 1236 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
I've been watching a series called Samurai 7 lately. It's based on an old Japanese movie. If you guessed The Seven Samurai, go have a cookie, you earned it. I'm three discs into it (I believe it's six total), so I'll post a full review once I finish. It started out a little slow in a world that's half old Japan (not quite feudal Japan, but after the rise of the merchant class), half high technology, but with a few action sequences to keep the viewer there. It's really picked up since, though, so that was gratifying, and the plot/character elements they've introduced along the way are nearly all interesting. One thing that's annoyed me so far is the presence of giant mechs, which seem rather pointless. Also, some of the characters seem to do things from time to time that don't jive with the character that has been established for them. I'm hoping this particular issue will be resolved in the future though.
-SPOILERS-
quote:Oddly, as much as I identify with Vash, Wolfwood is also one of my favorite characters and his story arc is phenomenally powerful to me.
Seconded. His death scene in the church was so terrible/amazing. For me, it just edges out the donut/crying scene that was mentioned above and the scene in the episode after Vash has to kill Legato where it shows how heavy the toll is for Vash for favorite moment.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Well, don't think me crazy or anything, posting for the first time in Hatrack's forum about anime but... I've just watched another time (is it four? or five?) the excellent Samurai Champloo, which i highly recommand! The author is, as you maybe know, the author of cowboy bebop, some of the animatrix... You'll never see samurai the same way. 24 episodes of pure madness!
If you have a bit of time, try Bleach to see evil spirits and the orange-haired 15 years guy who destroy it with some toast and a big sword. Or Monster, for those who have some will to put their stomach apart. Or Vision of Escaflown, for those who like big "mechas", love and epic stories.
Where can I stop?
Feel guilty: because of you I'm going to watch all episodes of Trigun... I will be as good as dead tomorrow, because of you! ^^ And happy to be.
posted
What I've seen of Champloo I've really liked. It's on my list of anime to watch in full whenever I can rent the DVDs. It's right behind Full Metal Alchemist. That show is so tragic, it's hard for me to believe that someone was ballsy enough to make it.
One of my favorite animes is Fooly Cooly. The plot is almost impossible to follow, but if you can get past that, and just take it as it comes, it's really awesome. Plus, the animation is spectacular. It's as good as, or better than, Naruto on a good day.
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quote:Originally posted by Xaposert: I'm actually disappointed the makers bowed to the pressure to follow up with a movie explaining it all.
I agree. I've never seen the Evangelion movies. At this point, I don't feel that there is much need to. There's a lot to be gained from figuring things out on your own, and any explanation only takes away from the original. Can you imagine if every poet attached an essay explaining her poetry? I don't think anyone would care to read poetry anymore.
Posts: 866 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I saw "End of Eva" after watching one episode of the series. Can you guess what happened to my mind? I'll give you a hint, it also involved orange liquid.
Has anybody read OSC's latest article? I love it, especially the part about how the only reason he's getting spoken to by his 12 year old is because they agree Miyazaki is a great director.
Now that you think about it, animes really do have a lot of weird titles. Bleach? Neon Genesis Evangelion? Full metal panic/alchemist?
Posts: 1236 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Those are great reviews. You even talk about the music, something a lot of anime reviewers tend to overlook. I haven't checked out the reviews at AnimeNfo, so I'm not quite sure what exactally they're looking for.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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) The artwork and the atmosphere were beautiful, though, and the opening song is at the top of my iTunes "Top 25 Most Played" list. It's been played 103 times. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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