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Post by pyrozombie on Feb 16, 2010 23:34:09 GMT -5
Lupin The 3rd, the first time i watched anime I watched this. I have high expectations because of this show.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Feb 22, 2010 0:37:57 GMT -5
Wow, who'da thunk? Coji-Coji's opening theme. This was a delightfully bizarre show: Rough stab at translation: Near you, that's where you'd expect it to be Still it's a pleasure to search for it (?) Strange things are no accident Not to go down looks foolish Probably what you see surprises you But that is The difference between reality and meaning ( ) Soon now the cares will drain away and I suppose we'll realize That it isn't difficult Near you, that's where you'd expect it to be Near you, that's where you'd expect it to be Near you At first I didn't include the end credits because my translation is more speculative: "Pocket Cowboy" Come back cowboy Come back cowboy Come back cowboy Come back pocket Cowboy come back Manly and shining cowboy A lively posture splashed with color(?) He hasn't got a horse but still it really suits him Laughs with guns in both hands (refrain) Nihilistically cool, the great cowboy Continues his long journey and grows prouder Battered but still splendid cowboy Parents thrown aside and wet with dew (refrain) Setting out at daybreak cowboy Ponders things in the moonlight Feeling lonely anywhere cowboy But still he gets up tomorrow morning
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Apr 24, 2010 18:57:59 GMT -5
I went to the library to pick up some literature on HTML. Since I was there, I thought I might as well pick up a video to watch. I noticed in their collection of VHS tapes, in random places as a matter of fact, there were videos called Magic Knight Rayearth. I couldn't find any that indicated a first episode, so I picked up the tape that seemed to indicate the earliest of episodes I could find.
Probably about 10 or 15 minutes into it, I was saying to myself, "Okay, I've got things to do. I'm too busy to attentively sit through two hours of this." So, I grab my notebook and do some work while I got this playing. I was left asking, "Why was this at the library?" Not to be mean, but it's Sailor Moon; I've seen it already. It's for the kids. It's not to say I find it atrocious and I don't mind it being background noise, but it's a monster-of-the-week TV show and I'm not going to watch every second of it. Also, and I can't believe I'm saying this, Sailor Moon was funnier.
A couple things struck me, though. One thing is that the first episode on this tape, indicating that it's the ninth episode of the series, is called "The Magic Knights' Greatest Crisis"; needless to say, that's a gross overstatement. Secondly, what was the point of dubbing that white creature? All it ever says is "boo". Third, the one thing I could appreciate about this was that I easily recognized Lenore Zann's voice in the cast; I always thought she had a sexy voice. Fourth, I noticed the logo for the Media Blasters splash screen featured the very same cat-woman featured in the Kitty Media logo, which is curious to say the least. Finally, I was struck by the presentation of titles in the previews. There was one anime in the previews that I would sort of describe as animated Power Rangers super sentai fare. It's definitely not Satoshi Urushihara quality, but it looked competently decent. What particularly struck me was the dubbing. Now, when companies do dubs, the one thing I have absolute appreciation for is liberal interpretations of the dubs. It doesn't have to be word-for-word what the character said in Japanese. If the company can come up with dialogue that still fits the situation and makes more sense to the audiences that you are dubbing for, then use it. However, for this one title in the previews, it's like that the company created a dubbing that simultaneously mocked the material they were dubbing for, as if they were turning the title into some sort of Mel Brooks parody.
I want to avoid repeating points I made, but I want to mention that I consider my introduction to anime to be through Go Nagai's New Cutey Honey; I may or may not have been informally introduced to anime through Nickelodeon series, but for the argument's sake, let's just say it was Cutey Honey. Now, Cutey Honey is hardly a great work, but I still like it better than most things. Ultimately, I think I would consider Cutey Honey the bar by which I would measure other anime against. Elements such as the voice acting, art style, character design, animation quality, amount of action, and level of nudity or sexual content would be measured against Cutey Honey, with Cutey Honey being the bare minimal requirement. However, when I encountered things such as Studio Ghibli pictures, measuring them against Cutey Honey is impossible because they are an entirely different breed of dog.
Speaking of previews, I am reminded of one preview I saw on my Variable Geo tape (which fails the Cutey Honey test, but I'm not getting into that now). The preview was for something called Battle Angel which seemed to have an intriguing influence of cyberpunk, Blade Runner, and maybe even Terminator. The sealing deal was the synthesizer theme that was played during the preview. It's something I defintely would like to buy the video of to see what it's like. Much to my chagrin, the video does not seem to be available and its fate seems to be sealed by ADV's liquidation; I guess I'm only so lucky that I got my Cutey Honey DVDs when I did.
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Post by torgortega on Apr 30, 2010 18:10:50 GMT -5
Outlaw Star and Full Metal Alchemist are the only animes I ever really got into
Outlaw Star ending 1
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Jun 14, 2010 19:11:49 GMT -5
Variable Geo I recently found this video on YouTube by a user named “BionicSlime” who does one of the few, if not the only, reviews that captures a fairly close approximation of my opinions of this anime. I have to differ on a few of the ways he assesses it, but he still largely captured my opinions and experience by saying he got “suckered in by the boobs” and describing it as “a snore-fest”.
I think I might do a more thorough critique of this anime on my website. As it is, I could go on a diatribe about all of this series’ failings. I still have the VHS tape I bought when I was younger, and yes, I do pop it in occasionally to serve as background noise when I’m doing housework. However, I just cannot sit through the whole thing because it’s just so boring. I feel somewhat bad to put it down since it isn’t particularly annoying and, since ADV has liquidated, criticizing it is like kicking a dead dog. However, this was still a big disappointment and a waste of my money. I look at the previews at the beginning as being the best and worst part, since they highlight titles that I probably would have preferred, yet this is the piece of crap I bought.
A particular thing that strikes me is that, on Amazon, the DVD is selling upwards from sixty dollars! Did ADV at least do a better job packaging it as a DVD? I kind of doubt it; my Cutey Honey DVDs don't particularly have that exciting of extras: press conferences and cosplay shows. With Variable Geo, ADV would need to offset for what is 90 minutes of tedium.
Well, between this and Final Fantasy VII, I seem to commenting on a lot of bad anime. I have found somebody on eBay who is selling DVDs of Battle Angel and am now waiting on the copy that I’ve purchased. Hopefully, this will not disappoint. I should also note that, based on commentary from this thread, I did buy Porco Rosso some long while ago and have watched it. I’ll probably relay my brief thoughts later.
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Jun 16, 2010 13:50:23 GMT -5
Battle AngelWow, was that dark. No matter how many times I've watched RoboCop, I still can't deal with gore, and this feature has it in spades. Jesus Christ, there is no happy ending to this thing. I don't dislike it. Admittedly, the disappointment I feel right now was my unawareness that this was only two 25-minute episodes. The trailer I saw in Variable Geo seemed to allude to there being something more epic. Unfortunately, this story stops short of revealing what is the terrible secret of Zalem ... well, aside from the dark fate that was laid upon Chiren at the end. Oh, God. The quality is spectacular and I find myself incredibly impressed with Gally's "anatomy". Gally's voice is kind of grating, though, but not so much as to dismiss it. I'm going to go crawl into a corner and cry now.
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Post by braindeadzombie on Jun 19, 2010 10:46:02 GMT -5
Well, between this and Final Fantasy VII, I seem to commenting on a lot of bad anime. I have found somebody on eBay who is selling DVDs of Battle Angel and am now waiting on the copy that I’ve purchased. Hopefully, this will not disappoint. I should also note that, based on commentary from this thread, I did buy Porco Rosso some long while ago and have watched it. I’ll probably relay my brief thoughts later. Out of all the titles you've mentioned so far, the only anime I've seen {beyond the Miyazaki movies, naturally} was Magic Knight Rayearth. Which I liked in spite of the dubious animation and production design failures. On the other hand, I was able to watch it in order starting from the incident in Tokyo Tower so that probably helped. By the way, it also has one of my favorites anime lines: "It is a line." "What is it?" "I do not know. It is just a line." It turned out to be a two dimensional pool. Well, it made sense in context. Ok, it didn't but still... My own favorite series: {From Ishihara and Kyoto Animation. Top stuff or so I think. Light comedy, heavy on the plot induced drama} Air {Not a happy ending to be found} Kanon {The one with the happy ending} The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya {No ending but then again, they're still making more...} There's also Clannad but that one is just strange. And at 40 plus episodes, it's a bit bloated compared to the other series. {From Akiyuki Shinbo and Shaft. Heavy comedy parodies} Moonphase {Vampires!} Pani Poni Dash! {10 year old genius high school teacher!!} Negima?! {10 year old all girl middle school teacher genius magician fights an eight hundred year old vampire student and her robot!!! And that's just the first five episodes. It gets weird. OK, wierder...} {From Shinichi Watanabe and various studios. Heavier parodies} Excel Saga {No sacred cows left unturned, including space, sports, magical girl and apocalypse animes} Nerima Daikon Brothers {Blues Brothers in Japan with white radishes. It's a musical...} Tenchi Muyo GXP {Everything in space mocked without mercy. Warp! Space Police!! Space Pirates!!!} Hee, space pirates... {From Junichi Sato and various studios. More dramatic but not as pretty or staged as well as Ishihara's work} Aria the Animation {Venice on Mars as seen through Japanese eyes. AKA Gondolier Girls. Ok, it's not but it should be} Princess Tutu {Don't knock it because of the title. Duck becomes a girl becomes a superheroic Magical girl. Yes, she starts out as a duck. She's also named Duck. On the other hand, Sailor Moon's real name is Bunny. Which Sato also directed} I suppose I should list manly action shows but they don't impress me as much as it's harder to show off directing chops through cost cutting action scenes. But is it obvious that I approach anime from the perspective of it being actual animation?
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Jul 2, 2010 11:49:20 GMT -5
Porco RossoWhy A-list Hollywood movie stars? In Howl's Moving Castle, you've got Christian Bale and Billy Crystal. In Armitage III, you've got Kiefer Sutherland. In this Afro Samurai that I've heard about, you've got Samuel L. Jackson! With this one, you have the hero played by Michael Keaton. Why? Jackson I can understand. But Sutherland? Bale? When I think of these two characters' qualities, their voices are not the first things that come to mind. I think the same thing can be said about Keaton. Now, before I bought Porco Rosso, I was well aware of Keaton's presence from articles I glanced at. However, listening to it, I doubt I would be able to say, "Hey, that's Michael Keaton." He's just not a recognizable voice. Now, if he said something like, "Hey, Liz, say my name three times," I might recognize his voice. Otherwise, Keaton's voice is not particularly a memorable one. I suppose the logic of casting an A-list star is to give the picture some mainstream appeal. I have to admit that I was very intrigued reading that Michael Keaton was involved in this project and I had to give it a look. My point, though, is that Hollywood actors are not particularly great voice actors and often times they seem to be bored with the role they're performing. This is not a bad picture, but I think some critics are overrating it. I feel it completely avoids explaining the reason that Porco is a pig and what it takes to break his curse. What I can appreciate is that it doesn't follow predictable Hollywood clichés. One might think that the film would evolve into a grander epic battle with the sea plane pirates a la Star Wars, but that would conflict with Porco's anti-fascist and anti-violent morals. In fact, I'm starting to see a reoccurring theme in the Miyazaki pictures: the refusal to deal with conflict by killing your nemesis. I can also appreciate the symbolic scene of Porco's vision after his World War I dogfight. I also have to admit that I found it funny. In the one particular scene where the sea plane pirates are all clamoring for a photograph with Fio only to have the Mamma Auito Boss push them out the way at the last second, I sincerely laughed and I still find it funny every time. That's what I appreciate about Miyazaki: his humor doesn't involve stupid standbys like making goofy faces or a giant sweat drop. Why the hell are those supposed to be funny? For kicks, I did take a small listen to the French track which features Jean Reno as the lead. Reno, however, sounds really disconnected to me and almost poorly mixed into the action. The two performances from the French dub that I do like are from Sophie Deschaumes as Gina and Jean-Pierre Carosso as the Mamma Aiuto Boss.
I think this roughly covers every DVD I've got, not counting those of the *cough cough cough* genre. I'm not looking to buy anything soon. I also have to comment that I was really left reeling for a while from that ending to Battle Angel. Top candidates when I do get into the mood to buy something include Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke, as far as Miyazaki goes. However, based on a recent review I watched, I really want to check out Agent Aika.
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Sept 28, 2010 1:24:22 GMT -5
AIKaAfter I saw a video review of this, I knew I had to check it out for myself. This is refreshingly itself. For those of you who are unaware of what this anime is about, allow me to sum it up for you in one word: panties. Yes, forget about whatever cookie cutter plot that this series uses as a backdrop. The true purpose of this anime is a shameless parade of pretty white panties. And for somebody who happens to like New Cutey Honey, this is a boon. However, that does bring up a certain detail: Aika Sumeragi is no Cutey Honey. Cutey Honey comes off as a three-dimensional heroine when contrasted against Aika Sumeragi who only seems to be a one or two-dimensional character. In fact, I would dare to say that Cutey Honey probably bares more in common with Aika's partner Rion than she does with Aika herself. Now, in several respects, particularly in the voice casting and art style, New Cutey Honey is vastly superior. However, what I appreciate is that it knows what it is and it is true to its nature. It succeeds where Variable Geo failed. Furthermore, I appreciate that it all appears to be hand-drawn and does not incorporate computer animation as a shortcut for things like planes or spaceships. Now, I have to ask: was seven episodes overkill? The main plot was resolved by the fourth episode, and the last three episodes are a sort of plotless meandering as a means of bringing the Delmos back into the picture. I have to admit, and maybe it's because I was tired, but I was bored trying to watch the last three episodes. Now, I don't mind it. Maybe it's just overkill trying to watch seven episodes in a row. Hell, I don't think I could watch all eight episodes of New Cutey Honey in one sitting.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Oct 16, 2010 17:18:02 GMT -5
Best or not I leave to you, but this has to be some of the earliest, dating back to 1933. No subs, but it's all visual anyway. A magical fox invades a ruined temple in which a magical tanuki (this is usually translated "raccoon-dog") lives with his dad. Actually looks a lot like US cartoons from the era aside from the character choices and setting, but I thought it was fun:
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Post by angilasman on Oct 16, 2010 18:05:59 GMT -5
Porco RossoWhy A-list Hollywood movie stars? In Howl's Moving Castle, you've got Christian Bale and Billy Crystal. In Armitage III, you've got Kiefer Sutherland. In this Afro Samurai that I've heard about, you've got Samuel L. Jackson! With this one, you have the hero played by Michael Keaton. Why? Jackson I can understand. But Sutherland? Bale? When I think of these two characters' qualities, their voices are not the first things that come to mind. I think the same thing can be said about Keaton. Now, before I bought Porco Rosso, I was well aware of Keaton's presence from articles I glanced at. However, listening to it, I doubt I would be able to say, "Hey, that's Michael Keaton." He's just not a recognizable voice. Now, if he said something like, "Hey, Liz, say my name three times," I might recognize his voice. Otherwise, Keaton's voice is not particularly a memorable one. I suppose the logic of casting an A-list star is to give the picture some mainstream appeal. I have to admit that I was very intrigued reading that Michael Keaton was involved in this project and I had to give it a look. My point, though, is that Hollywood actors are not particularly great voice actors and often times they seem to be bored with the role they're performing. This is not a bad picture, but I think some critics are overrating it. I feel it completely avoids explaining the reason that Porco is a pig and what it takes to break his curse. What I can appreciate is that it doesn't follow predictable Hollywood clichés. One might think that the film would evolve into a grander epic battle with the sea plane pirates a la Star Wars, but that would conflict with Porco's anti-fascist and anti-violent morals. In fact, I'm starting to see a reoccurring theme in the Miyazaki pictures: the refusal to deal with conflict by killing your nemesis. I can also appreciate the symbolic scene of Porco's vision after his World War I dogfight. I also have to admit that I found it funny. In the one particular scene where the sea plane pirates are all clamoring for a photograph with Fio only to have the Mamma Auito Boss push them out the way at the last second, I sincerely laughed and I still find it funny every time. That's what I appreciate about Miyazaki: his humor doesn't involve stupid standbys like making goofy faces or a giant sweat drop. Why the hell are those supposed to be funny? For kicks, I did take a small listen to the French track which features Jean Reno as the lead. Reno, however, sounds really disconnected to me and almost poorly mixed into the action. The two performances from the French dub that I do like are from Sophie Deschaumes as Gina and Jean-Pierre Carosso as the Mamma Aiuto Boss.
I think this roughly covers every DVD I've got, not counting those of the *cough cough cough* genre. I'm not looking to buy anything soon. I also have to comment that I was really left reeling for a while from that ending to Battle Angel. Top candidates when I do get into the mood to buy something include Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke, as far as Miyazaki goes. However, based on a recent review I watched, I really want to check out Agent Aika. Porco Rosso is one of my all-time favorite movies (so I'm totally biased), and I think the vagueness surrounding Porco's curse is fantastic. It appeals to a kind of fairy tale logic that's rare in modern storytelling, except maybe in Mike Mignola comic books. Every character in the film is wonderfully realized and the old Hollywood adventure style of the world is just so cool - and the whole thing is so damned understated! Each time I watch it it is richer and richer. It's a bit like The Princess Bride, a movie that just makes you feel better when you watch it, but better!
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Oct 17, 2010 20:28:21 GMT -5
Queen's BladeBefore I begin, let me say a word to those reviewers that go out of their way to review titles like this and Ikki Tousen: if you dislike the genre of the title that you are reviewing and it is thus completely impossible for you to like the title that you are reviewing, DON'T REVIEW IT! I'm not impressed with your efforts to prove that you're morally superior or that you're surprised by the level of sexual content. Look at the goddamn box cover. It's a genre that's out there; get over it. I'm not going to go review specific games from the Grand Theft Auto series when it is impossible for me to like any games from the series. Oh, yes, you are certainly not a pervert. I guess you get to go to Heaven. A**hole.With that said, if Ikki Tousen is anything like Queen's Blade, then I have to say that some of the criticism that has been levied against it is well deserved. The art of Queen's Blade is very beautiful. I like the level of detail they put in the character's corneas and the women are all beautiful and wonderful to look at. However, while the art itself is very nice, the animation is extremely, extremely static. This series pulls every trick from their sleeves to avoid the chore of fully animating characters. Contrast that with Princess Mononoke where Hayao Miyazaki even has the board ramp that Yakul walks on animated. Because of this, whatever fight sequences that exist here are very lackluster. It is pretty much this team's main priority to make sure all the characters' butts and boobs look big. Well, I can't argue with their prioritizing. Part of my interest in seeing this came from my realization that Jessica Calvello was in the cast. Calvello was already known to me for playing Cutey Honey, a performance which I very much adore. Unfortunately, in Queen's Blade she plays Nanael and she employs a high-pitched variation of her voice that is not so fun to listen to. Still, I have to admire Calvello's professional and comic delivery. Maybe Media Blasters will give her a secondary role in the next release. So, does that reason that I find Nanael to be the most annoying character in this series so far? Oh, no, my friends. No, that distinction goes to Tomoe, the self-righteous, self-important, overly-conservative, soapboxing bitch. I already feel uneasy enough about this plot that bears a number of parallels with the disastrous Variable Geo, but now you have to include a character whose pompousness trumps that of Yuka. Between Tomoe, Yuka, and Final Fantasy X's Yuna, I'm starting to see an ugly pattern. Either make Tomoe the villain (since she already shows signs of the megalomaniac), get that bug out of her butt, or write her out of the story. It is an interesting series and I do want to see more of it. I like the Leina plot thread so far, but I completely detest the Tomoe subplot which the series seems to be alluding as being critical. The release I got featured four episodes plus two short OVA episodes that succeed in looking even less impressive than the main show; Media Blasters wouldn't even dub the OVA. The series is generous in the nudity, but very stingy in the animation.
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Jan 30, 2011 2:35:01 GMT -5
I recently watched some stuff on Netflix and will probably look into getting DVDs for later. I want to just quickly comment on one.
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie You know, I have to give Variable Geo more credit than what I've given it before. While it was a disastrous disappointment that failed to live up to its softcore erotica premise, at least it was better dubbed and has a more elaborate story than Final Fantasy VII. And now that I've seen the movie that it was deliberately trying to emulate, I have to say that it's even better than that, too.
I was particularly annoyed and amused at the same time at this sequence where Bison and his three lieutenants are walking to a special conference room. It was so long that I started humming the Get Smart theme! Then later in the movie, there's a video that Bison's lackey wants him to watch, but Bison actually has to go to his SPECIAL monitor to watch it. So, I groaned as I expected another tedious walking scene.
And while I can complement it on including all sixteen characters from the arcade game (including a cameo by Akuma), many of these characters have nothing to do with the story! When I saw Cammy at the beginning of the movie, I thought things were going to look up. However, she roughly disappears for the rest of the film. Blanka and Zangief have a brief fight scene that has nothing to do with the plot. Hawk, Fei Long, and Dee Jay have pointless cameos, with Dee Jay's being the most pointless and atrocious of them all. And now I just realized: where the hell did Sagat go?
I also took exception with Ryu who just seemed to be all over the map, and yet the movie alludes that he uses no other mode of transportation other than his bare feet. I'm glad I don't have a sense of smell because that guy must be rank. Then, there's a scene where he's climbing up a steep mountain with no equipment ... just to show that he's a bad-ass. If he fell off that mountain, would you still consider him to be a bad-ass or more of a jackass? You know, Ryu, building stairs can be exercise, too.
Now, if I look around, I'll probably find a couple of pretentious critics questioning whether it was relevant to show Chun-Li's breasts during the shower scene. Well, here's my answer: yes. Yes, it was. Thank you, Capcom.
I'm going to make the daring statement that the live-action Street Fighter film was a more cohesive and more entertaining flick that this animated version. It features virtually every character from the arcade game and gives them some level of relevance to the story. I might even say that Jean Claude Van-Damme's Guile was far more dimensional than his animated counterpart.
Sometime ago, I finished a lengthy essay review of Cutey Honey; I'll probably post it here since my site doesn't seem to get much views. I've gotten to see the rest of the Queen's Blade release by Media Blasters and I might review those later for my site. However, currently I'm trying to write a review for Kiki's Delivery Service and I plan on following that with Variable Geo. It's rather critical that I review Variable Geo before I review Queen's Blade.
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Post by angilasman on Jan 30, 2011 19:39:17 GMT -5
I absolutely love Hayao Miyazaki's films and the Cowboy Bebop series. As for other anime: I loved Toonami and early adult swim anime when I was in junior high and high school and I have my Outlaw Star, Big-O, and Tenchi Muyo DVDs to prove it... hmmm, hopefully a reasonably priced Trigun set will come out soon to complete that collection. I'm actually watching Trigun right now. It was one of my all-time favorites from the early days of Adult Swim and I remembered several times waiting for an economically priced boxed set - those were the days when companies were getting away with 3 episodes per DVD and $25 price tags! $200 looked like an insurmountable task to a high school student. Well, a nice boxed set of Trigun just now came out Oh, and since I made this post I finally discovered a new anime that got me as excited as I was when I watched anime as a young teen: Gurren Lagann. It's a kind of homage to the campy super-robot shows that came to prominance in the '70s. It's really fun and funny, but not a parody; the show is actually rather earnest in its ridiculousness and all the better for it (a bit like The Princess Bride in that way). Outlaw Star and Full Metal Alchemist are the only animes I ever really got into Outlaw Star ending 1 Outlaw Star was the first anime series I got on DVD - it was a few years after I saw it on Toonami and I got a real hankering to see it again (this was around 2004). Which reminds me: this year is the 10th anniversary of Cowboy Bebop. I'm gonna haveta' watch the whole show again.
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Post by The Mad Plumber on Feb 6, 2011 0:45:08 GMT -5
Having the opportunity to watch a few anime episodes and movies, I felt I would briefly comment on two films in which I have two very different opinions about.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Question: did they rotoscope that intro? Now, you'll have to forgive me that I've not watched this supposedly acclaimed series that this is based on. I suppose it's not really necessary anyway; the focus of this film is on the caper and not the characters. And is that one character a boy or a girl? I can see that this film gets a lot of acclaim from those who like the anime genre. I must be one to differ. This might have made an occasional diversion, but I don't think I'll ever be able to stomach watching this again because the music is just ...
... AWFUL!!!
Who picked this ****in' music, man!? I hate the 90s and this soundtrack is symptomatic of everything I hate about the 90s. The music is loud and lousy, and I dreaded every time another song came up.
You know, when I see the acclaim for this, I have to ask: what criteria are you judging this on? Admittedly, I have my guilty pleasures like Cutey Honey and House II, but I don't go about proclaiming that they're the ultimate pinnacles of film artistry. What the hell was the whole point of this film? It seems to be another cookie cutter plot of a villain wanting to bring about the apocalypse, and incidentally only the team of Cowboy Bebop are anywhere close to stopping his terrible scheme. However, on top of that, they want to make this villain a tragic character. I'm sorry, but this film is no Blade Runner and Vincent is certainly no Roy Batty.
Again, what's the point? With Blade Runner, it can be seen as a commentary on prejudice, humanity, and the value of life. With Battle Angel (as short as it probably unintentionally was), it can be seen as a commentary on poverty, the upper class, and chasing the (literal) pipe dream. What's the point of Cowboy Bebop? I'm not saying there necessarily always has to be a point, but it helps to have one if you're going to critically acclaim the ****in' thing.
So, in the end, the macho-hipster-sideways-gun bull**** rubbed me the wrong way. Is the series better than this movie? I hope so, but I'm far from entertaining any curiosity at the moment.
The Castle of Cagliostro Now, on the other end of the spectrum, I found this entertaining caper from freshman Hayao Miyazaki. Now, like Bebop, I am grossly unfamiliar with the universe of Lupin the 3rd. However, that's the beauty: familiarity with Lupin isn't necessary and probably might even be unrecommended. Like Bebop, the central focus of this film is on the caper and not the characters.
First, I want to comment on the music. "Honoo no Takaramono" is an absolute gem of a title theme. It's a beautiful, dignified, and entertaining ballad that I enjoy hearing. It treats me with respect and is indicative of the quality that the rest of this film is going to exhibit.
This film is actually quite uncharacteristic of Hayao Miyazaki films I've seen so far. In his films, there are characters such as Lady Eboshi or Curtis that can be probably be defined as villains, but still have redeeming characteristics and are far from evil. Furthermore, Miyazaki seems to have a philosophy that one can reason with one's enemies and that death is not the necessary solution to a dilemma. In Cagliostro, though, the film's villain is quite an unforgivable, lecherous, Nosferatu-esque monster. Furthermore, while he doesn't die at the hands of the hero, he does meet a Disney-like clichéd demise by his own bumblings. In fact, despite having already seen Princess Mononoke, I was surprised to see a character get killed in a Miyazaki picture.
What this film stands as testament to is Miyazaki's skillful storytelling and his method of revealing the caper. Admittedly, the "treasure" is a little underwhelming given that I would have thought that it would have been discovered long before Lupin started getting involved.
The animation is quite dated and certainly not up to par with most of Miyazaki's more acclaimed (and even less acclaimed) pictures. Actually, I find it has a certain Nickelodeon cartoon charm that resonates with me.
This was a very entertaining picture and another testament of Miyazaki being an artist who legitimizes the anime genre.
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