twas the original animated version. the film is pure pants.

To be honest, I've never seen the point in hentai. Rather watch the real thing if I had to choose.

Exactly. I guess the only thing is that in Japan they dont have proper porn so Hentai is the best they've got.

Theres a Fist of the North Star animated movie? Never seen that anywhere. Was it modern?

saw it around the same time that i saw akira-nearly 12 years ago.

They do have proper porn in Japan but they have to block out the vagina and cock with mosaics they borrowed from crime watch. I don't know what the fixation with cartoon porn is in japan other than people live all kinds of manga fantasy lives in Japan. If you go to Harajuku on a sunday it's full of geeks dressed as manga characters.

I thought it was pubic hair they don't allow or something?

And I've managed to steer clear of Urotsokiduji so far, and I intend that always to be the case.

Has anyone seen Get Backers? Need some new anime. Any recomendations? Something action/comedy wise would be good.

Hm

If you havnt seen it, I recomend Fruits basket. Its funny and kinda dark in some places. Im currently buying the manga and have just finished watching the dvd's (only 4, each having 6 episodes on = good value).

Full metal panic is great if you like action n mecha with decent comedy rubbed in. FMP Fumofu is a more school/rcomedy version.

At anime society we are currently watching Eyesheid 21 wich is about an american football team which is good. Another is Y@£$%^&** Japan (cant remember/pronounce first word, beguins with y i think) which is about a guy who wnats to make a bread to represent Japan. Sounds stupid but its brilliant. We are wanting to make a fan dub of it.

I'm a bit disappointed nobody's mentioned Mobile Suit Gundam yet. Possibly one of the most seminal anime shows ever made. And I'm not talking about Wing and all that bollocks, I mean the original late 70's-mid 80's stuff.

Until Gundam came along, all anime with mecha in were just "big robot made by scientist fights aliens using super powers". Then came Gundam in 1979. A gritty and emotional war drama at its core, it was a revolution for its time. Naturally it was cancelled, but it became popular when it was re-made as a trilogy of films (cutting out all the crap that was in it, because it still retained a bit of the "super robot" stuff to it). Think about it. Without Gundam, there'd be no Macross, no Patlabor, no anything that shows mecha in a realistic light.

Zeta Gundam and Char's Counterattack are much, much better though. No crap at all in them, they're pure gritty war story. Too many people look at Gundam and just see the "big robots fighting each other", or even worse think it's like Gundam Wing (the only Gundam to be released in the UK until a few months ago). Seriously though, it gets as heavy as Band of Brothers or something in places. A true sci-fi classic, pure and simple. Nothing will ever beat Zeta Gundam I don't think. I would highly recommend Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket as a starting point though. It's short (6 episodes) and it's amazing. It's not out on DVD in the UK yet, but it can be picked up as a region 1 pretty cheaply now.



Other great stuff include Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Last EXILE, .hack//SIGN, any Ghibli movie, Ghost in the Shell 1 and 2 (the TV series was rubbish I thought), Akira, Patlabor, Steamboy, and more I can't think of right now.


EDIT: and Amazongirl, I think Yakitate Japan is what you're looking for. I've not seen it.

Ahhh, original Gundam. I still have a load of Mobile Suit Gundam: 0079 and MSG 0080 War In The Pocket books and stuff kicking about from when I was a nipper. And countless (mainly broken) models. I wish it were available in a DVD styled medium.

the 3 MSG movies are available on DVD now in the UK, as is the sequel to the sequel (to the sequel, though it doesn't matter), Char's Counterattack, at the slightly large price of £19.99 each, with no special features.

I just borrowed Excel Saga off a friend - god it's weird.
I enjoyed it the more episodes I watched - but it was a bit too shouty and manic for my tastes. I generally preferred Dragon Half.

Love dragon half (one of my favorite animes of all time!)and Excel saga (you do need to beable to stand the shouting). best excel saga episodes are the rock, dating game and final episodes i think. Oh and ones where hyatt dies alot

If you were scared of Excel saga, dot watch Puni puni poemi, your brain Will explode. Im suprised Britain let it be sold here!

Oh and that sounds correct GundamGuy_UK. Its suprisingly good, made me dreama bout bread the following night after watching it.

Haha, that made me chuckle.

Well, as part of my plan to expose my housemates to anime continues tonight when I'll be showing them Spirited Away. I've already shown them the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy, Gundam 08th MS Team, War in the Pocket, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Evangelion (all 26 episodes and both movies).

I'm making a friend watch Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex and the Tachikoma Specials with me. To educate him.

Am I the only one who thought Stand Alone Complex was rubbish? It started off good, but then just decended into cliche and technobabble in an attempt to make its story something more than it is. By the end I was just laughing at it.

I really liked the first season, but after that they did kinda lose the plot.

I really like both series, although they do have distinctly different styles. The first series is much more slow paced, with shirt periods of action, whereas the second is a lot more action packed and relies on that a lot more to keep you interested. However I really enjoyed both series. I like the fact that they can go off on tangents and have whole episodes reflecting on, and cementing previous aspects of the story. For example CHAT!CHAT!CHAT! - The man that hides in the Shadows of the Net is a prime example of this. The episode seemingly goes nowhere, just rehashing whats gone before, but in fact it sets up Motokos deepening interest in the Laughing Man character, and also brings in the 'You're slick' kid from the closed shell syndrome school later on. I also like the homages you get in the episodes, for example the school, and the matron, being basd around One flew over the cuckoos nest.

They also do the action really well, and the characterisation. It does take a couple of series to get through all the characters, but by the end i think Bouma is probably the only character who you don't really get a background for. Evan Pazu and Saito (very cool) get back stories eventually.

Also, and finally, i believe it sticks to the original stories a lot more closely than the movies, which are really just films based on the same characters.

I've only seen the first series. It was shown at my Uni's anime society last year, and I thought it was terrible. It follows the manga closely, but the manga is rubbish apparently, which is why the movies are different.

See, I really like the manga. In my opinion one of Shirows best works. I do know lots of people that maintain that it's shite though. Generally because they get horribly confused by the fact that the whole thing isn't really about a bunch of secret service type bods but is an exploration of the nature of sentience and what it would mean to be human in an increasingly cyborged and technology driven society. The film I thought, was nowhere near as good as the book, or even as good as Stand Alone Complex, as it fell into the trap of dropping about 80% of the story and dumbing down what was left so that it could appeal to as wide an audience as possible, turning a deeply thought provoking and genuinely thoughtful piece into another by the numbers cyberpunk action movie. Albeit with Masamune Shirows always exemplary design work.

Exactly, which is why i like the series, they actually think about stuff, and take time to discuss it. That was a bit more lacking in the second series, which started expanding on the 'Stand Alone Complex' rather then the 'Man Machine complex' which dominates much of the storylines of the first series and the manga (Tachikomas, cyberbrain closed shell syndrome, cyberbrain sclerosis etc.)

Watched some more Yakitate Japan today at our societies stall for sign up. Chatted to some lovely people in the Drama society who were having a discussion on disney films. Got a fair bit of interest in studio ghibli films.

I believe Elfin Lied comes out today. Was going to buy it, very good, but im going to use the voucher i was going to spend on it, on upcoming ds game.

I havent seen much but i have enjoyed what i have seen. Any suggestions that are easy to get hold of?

Try Spirited Away, the new AppleSeed movie (I think it was released as AppleSeed 2004 here), I usually recommend Neon Genesis Evangelion, but that sometimes proves a tad strange, BubbleGum Crisis 2040 is good brainless shooty fun, Grave Of The Fireflys and My Neighbour Totoro always make me cry and are among my favourite films of all time.

So in short, what sort of thing do you like?

I wouldn't recommned that to someone new to anime. I didn';t get it and I at least have some idea of what anime is about, if you know what i mean. Sometimes you have to wait a bit before the story starts to make sense... But Neon Genesis... well it never really makes sense, and after a bit, the episodes feel like inceredibly violent giant epidoes of pokemon... hero meets monster type A, fights and eventually destroys, Hero meets monster type B, fights and eventually destroys. I suppose in a way it does hark back to a similar root, but it doe put me off ever so slightly.

I tend to explain it as being a subtle allegory for the way that western culture is slowly destroying traditional Japanese values and society. Played out by giant stompy robots.

Finished what I have of Bleach yesterday (up to episode 60). WOW!
I thought that things were going crazy by episode 12 but I was waaaaay off. By ep49 its like a different program. Unfortunately it finished on a big cliff hanger. Great while it lasted, hope its not too long before more is available.

Does anyone know their stuff with regards to anime soundtracks? I searched cdjapan but there are so many different cds for each anime that I dont know what to look for. I'm looking to get the Bleach, GTS and Full Metal Alchemist theme songs first. They're just so catchy and cool.

Trigun and Hellsing are great to get into for a beguiner, as well as full metal panic

Can anyone suggest some decent action/comedy anime for me to look at. Heres a list of what I've seen/what I want to get to give you an idea of what kind of stuff I'm looking for-
GTO
Trigun
Berzerk
Hellsing
Naruto
Get Backers
Full Metal Alchemist
Dragonball Z
Fist of the North Star
Bleach
Samurai Champloo

I've been scouting around for something new but I'm having a hard time finding anything that appeals. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Latest all-nighter if it hasn't already been posted, can't see it anywhere.

http://www.sci-fi-london.com/2006web/movie...imeallnight.htm

Wow, there's also am 8 hour Mystery Science Theatre 3000 marathon!

Again I suggest Full Metal Panic. When I fisrt started to watch it i thought it would be a mecha anime (nothing terrible about that) but it turned out to be a great action comedy with drama and mecha.
Full metal panic fumoffu is a romantic comedy sequal with actuon (explosions and stuff) but not robots

It sort of gets a bit ropey after the fantastic Soul Society raid. Apprently that's when they start a sub plot new from the manga to let the manga people come up with more story for them to animate.... so in other words "filler". They have vampires called BOunts and Chado/Sado gets kidnapped a shocking amount of times; such a great character but he always gets beaten up!

Watched Patlabor one and two the other day.

What a load of shit.

So wrong! Ah well, each to their own, I really quite like them though.

I got given Mobile Suit Gundam, the original novelisation by the guy who created the manga, obviously translated into English. Just started it yesterday.

I'd recommend Cowboy Bebop to anyone. It's brilliant.


I love that show so much!! But I can't buy it anywhere.
Curse you Sci Fi Channel!

I'm more into the action packed violencey side of anime really. Although I do adore the Studio Ghibli collection.

Still making my way through Full Metal Alchemist.

Only another 30 odd episodes to go.

Keep at it. The end is well worth it (if only for the moment of WTF as you see a fairly instantly recognisable, alien, setting...)

I did a search but it came up blank - anybody else enjoyed the wonder of the Vision of Escaflowne?

I spent loads of money tracking down the old first editions of those, so I could finally get a chance to read them. Soon as I do, it's announced all 3 are coming out for £10 the lot. I felt cheated, but ah well. Good read, though nothing like the original series (he wrote the books as his "true vision" of the story, without anyone telling him what to do/making there be lots of mecha for toy-selling purposes).

And Patlabor is a great film.






Ooooh, I'd be very careful saying stuff like that. If I'd had the ending of that show spoilt for me in ANY way, I'd have cut the throat of the spoiler. It's too big a revelation to hint at.




As for me, I have mostly been watching Called Turn-A Gundam, Sailor Moon S, Full Metal Panic!, Paranoia Agent. All in Japanese, of course. Can't stand English dubs unless it's something like Cowboy Bebop or the handful of movies with good dubs (most Ghibli is pretty good, but I still choose Japanese unless watching with my kid sister).

I prefer Bebop with the Japanese track. The voices suit the characters alot more.

I watch it in English because the dub is done well, and whatwith it being a heavily American-influenced show it seemd better suited in English. Some of the humor doesn't flow as well if you're watching in Japanese, I don't think.

The little girl's voice in English is far superior to the Japense voice. Totally crazy and wacky.

But mainly yes, Japanese dub.

Except when I'm watching one of these never-ending series (stand up Bleach/Naruto!) which would make my brain melt reading text for 50+ eps. So I stick on the english and 'multitask' with it in the background.

I actually came to like the english dub on Midori Days. Seji was well done. I flitted between the two dubs from time to time.

Anyone seen the incest-fest that is Koi Kaze?! It's good, but also so very wrong
[27 year old falls in love with his 15 year old sister]

Started Full Metal Alchemist over again to show my mate its greatness. The added bonus this time is that I now have a cable to hook my PC to my 26" flat screen LCD tv. Thankfully the copies of the show are high quality so it looks great on it.

Monkey man recently got a shit load of new stuff (Cowboy Beebop, Naruto, Bleach 60-71) so I've got a ton of good anime to watch soon.

Thats the only problem I have with anime. Most of what I watch is downloaded, and I have no way of gettting it onto a TV screen, so I have to watch it on the laptop, which is no good for sound, and not great for video. Oh for an LCD or Plasma screen...

Speaking of dubs (earlier posts) I usually watch things subtitled, because the voices fit much more with the characters. I got the 1st Gig of Ghost in the Shell:SAC and the english dub, while reasonably good on voice similarity, made the whole thing seem a bit tongue in cheek. The occasional 'doh' or something similar completely changes the tone of the series for me, and makes it seem a lot more childish. On the other hand, the last couple of Studio Ghibli films, and Comboy Bebop, are excellent dubs.

I also tend to stick to the subs. More often than not I like the tone of the origional dubbing more than that of the translations. The actors they get to do the voice overs for the translations often dont seem to grasp what makes a character interesting. Listening to the American dub of Advent Children is a prime suspect on that front. The Japanese origional wins out for me because apart from Barrat the voices all fit nicely. However the American dub has the bonus of Barrat sounding like Mr.T, Cait Sith as a Scot and Cid as a good ole' boy type. Where it falls is with Tifa for me. In the Japanese dub she seems to have a decent amount of emotion in her voice, where in the American version she is an emotionless, overly softly spoken voice.

I've lost what my closing point was going to be but whatever, origional dubs for me.

In anime especially if it is more then 20 episodes I will generally choose the dubbing, if it isn't utter shit. The lip sunching in animation is generally out anyway so it's not that noticeable. However if the voices are utter shit, then I will stick to subtitles. With foreign movies I always stick to subtitles as the lip synching and general shit emotion put into the dubbing annoys the hell out of me.

Aninme I own and like:
GTO
Hellsing
Berserk (<3)
Full Metal Alchemist
Samurai Champloo
Ninja Scroll
Trigun
Bleach (<3)

Thats all I can recall att he moment.
I guess I have a hard on for big swords and violence (I like Berserk and Bleach beyond any words I can use to describe).

@Zeden: I'll have all of Cowboy Bebop and nearly 200 episodes including movies, of Naruto in the next few days.
Oh and another 17 Bleach episodes.

Mmmm, anime marathon... Dont forget Sword For Truth and Ninja Resurection! They sucked balls.

And Kai-do-maru