Anime: Life, Death, Anime Inbetween

[Legatus Legionis]

Both the animated and live action movie have gore, but I've seen gorier.

I don't beleive the shows killed any of the Espeda yet, although all the Faction are dead. The last epside to follow the manga was about to have Ulquiorra vs Ichigo (Soi Fon had just defeated Barragan's Faction before that), but they were inturrpted by Renji and Chad saying they had to stop because the Executives wanted a break from the main story. Since then they've been on filler. When it goes back it will be Ulquiorra vs Ichigo again.

that would be so nice, I've been looking forward to

Ichigo's full hollow transformation.. the manga was awesome, looking forward to the anime version.

[Oniomancer]

I heard about The Avatar movie! Can't wait for it! It won the award for best children's show.

I haven't seen Blood: The Last Vampire. I've seen "Blood+" though. When I aired on Adult Swim.

They had B:TLV on scifi/scyfy a couple times as part of their ani-monday block. It looks like it's going to be on Chiller's version of ani-monday too if it hasn't been already.

Edited August 13, 2009 by Oniomancer

[Talon]

Blood+ and by extent anything else influenced by Seiji Takeda is just anti-American propaganda thinly veiled as something else. Overly pretentious preachy garbage. Good example is Code Geass, he had influenced on that as well. What a piece of preachy, pretentious, rushed overrated garbage. Oh yeah and he's racist against white people, blacks as well.

Since I can’t read Kanji or see any evidence to a source, I’ll have to give the man the benefit of the doubt, sorry - he may be anti-white, but I don't know him so I can't comment. Having only seen a few episodes of a Blood+ I really don't know whether its anti-American or not. However, as for Code Geass, as far as I'm concerned it has to be one of greatest animes of all time. Along with Giant Robo and Death Note it has to be in the top five at the very least. Now while in CC the US, Canda, Mexico… and in fact all of the Americas (the Holy Empire of Britanna) are the shows villains, that does not mean its anti-US. For a start there are many good Britannic characters, including the main character himself who is an American helping the Japanese resistance. Also just because the baddies of the show are from a country does not mean its anti-*insert country*, for example the new G.I. Joe movie has a Scot as the lead villain (or rather an Englishman doing a really bad Scottish accent), but it doesn’t make it anti-Scottish.

Code Geass may have been influence by the US's current war on terrorism, and a political comment on the number of civilians being caught up in it, but I must admit I didn’t get that from the show. I just saw it as a sci-fi about the world major superpower invading the world, and the show portraying the story of the Japanese resistance movement during this time. It was a great show, I wouldn't get so bogged down in the politics of a single individual who worked on it.

These quotes are directly from a Japanese person, for the record.

Yeah, but that doesn’t make it automatically reliable. Given my views of religion, and Islam and Christanity in particular, a lot of people would call me a racist, doesn’t make it true, just makes me is an atheist who is pro-democratic and anti-religious.

All I know was that Blood+ (from what I saw) was an rather dull anime, and Code Geass was an awesome anime, I don’t really know anything about the staff who worked on them, and to be honest don’t really care.

Man, give me Gunsmith Cats any day.

GSC was indeed a very good anime, it was criminal it only lasted 3 episodes.

Edited August 13, 2009 by Talon

[Talon]

So no "Americans" are really portrayed in the show at all, in fact the USA doesn't exist in the show. Now while this may seem to even further your point that the show "isn't anti-American", for some reason I get the vibe that specifically no USA even ****ing EXISTING in this show is a spit in our face, plus the obvious fact the Brittanians are meant to represent us.

Maybe I'm being paranoid.

I think you are, no offense

Firstly, in case someone reading our posts has no idea what we're talking about, yes indeed Britania represent the Americas, maps of the alternative time-line frequently show North American being the political centre of the Empire.

http://neoshinka.files.wordpress.com/2008/...nnia-empire.jpg

But I don’t see how this equates to a spit in the face. Canada, Mexico, Brazil etc don’t exist either, neither for that matter does most of Europe, Africa and Asia, they’ve been merged into the Euro Universe (yes, it’s a bad name). Therefore it would be a spit in their faces too if its a spit in the face of America.

It’s a sci-fi, so its taken the modern map and changed it, and it so happens your country is part of the evil empire. But you’re taking it waaaaay to seriously if your upset about that and taking as anti-American. Other shows do it as well, in Ghost the Shell for example, the US is a totalitarian state that started both WW3 and WW4 and now brutally occupies a good chunk of the world. But the GITS show frequently discusses Japan's own social problems, or moral issues over self, as opposed to lecturing the US about how to live their lives which it might if it we anti-American.

Plus, the US isn’t above it either, in Star Trek for example ‘the eastern coalition’ was responsible for WW3. Does that mean that Star Trek is anti-European, Asian and African? I doubt it. And there are plenty of other US shows which depict Asia or even Europe as the evil empire, particularly Russia. Now some of that will be based on racism because of the whole anti-Soviet attitude still going on in America, but by and large its just because if you've going to write a timeline were a single country has taken over then its likely one of the superpowers ie. America, Russia or China.

Why was the US the centre of a Nazi-like Empire in CG? Likely because its today’s main superpower and the one capable of it. Remember China was also a brutal superpower in CG, it wasn't occupying Japan, but it was controlling much of Asia – does this mean CG was also anti-Chinese? I doubt

Seriously, I think your nationalism is getting in the way of your objectivity. Its a show, enjoy it for its worth and don't try and read to much into it.

And if makes you happier about the producers ideology, remember the main hero of the show was white and North American (of French descent), not Asian and Japanese.

You just think geography makes a difference, no it's political/historical entities existing or not-existing.

Again, if your arguing its anti-American because its written the US’s history, then CG is anti-everyone, including Japanese, because it rewrites the world's history. By the same arguement so’s Star Trek, it must be anti-US because it has a different time line (we should be in midsts of the Egenics War right now according t Star Trek, and according to Star Trek in 2010s the US is going to begin enslaving its working class population (until the Bell riots in 2024 restore democracy). Also Star Trek depicts a Utopia future were everyone is a communist, which I imagine from you're profile you find anti-America. And the list goes on.

Seriously dude, in the end it’s a Science fiction show, so what if its ignoring 300 years of US history, if you believe that’s anti US then yes, you are somewhat paranoid.

The whole point of sci-fi, is that they are free to rewrite history

And I think Code Geass is overrated, for being relatively generic, annoying, melodramatic and rushed; and preachy to boot. Overtly cliche`. I swear they did as much in the first episode as one should normally accomplish in TEN.

Granted I mean from a purely neutral perspective, not counting my paranoid perceived political motives, the show is just kinda average and overrated. I don't like Death note ether but that's because I find it dull and have weird standards. I even think Hellsing is beyond overrated for having a flat, soulless plot and this is coming from someone who loves vamps. Cowboy Bebop is good but also overrated.

Well, I don’t agree with you there - particularly about pacing, I felt season 1 was really well paced, it was the last few episodes of season 2 I felt need a little more time to built up, but everyone has different tastes. But these are two of the most rates animes of all time. Then again I found the Godfather series long winded and boring… and Cassablanca… and Citizen Kane (that movie made me want to kill myself)… and yet all I hear is how great they are… so yes… everyone has different tastes.

Actually my first anime was Blue Gender. I still consider it a favorite,

I hated that show. I know it has a cult following, but I found it just to be an excuse to kill as many people as possible. I watched up until the episode were the little girl Yue was killed (5 or 6 I think), and then never watched it again. I see they’re bring out a new anime called Kings of Thorns which has a similar story – sick people put in storage, and wake up to find the world has been taken over by human-eating monsters.

However I have to give Gasaraki credit for having the most believable and realistic mechs I've ever seen in any anime.

That’s another one I hated. Bought the entire boxed set for £40, watched it over the weekend, and couldn’t stand it. It was too realistic, I just found it boring. I believe my favourite mecha show would be Full Metal Panic.

Well, to be fair, the most overrated anime that I think is pure garbage that I've ever seen was Elfen Lied. I mean God, what the hell. Moe` Harem bull thinly veiled as social commentary. Beyond pretentious. That anime definitely has the highest ****/overrated ratio divergence.

I never got around to watching it, the violence of the trailer turned me off. I think Akira personally is the most over hyped movie. Everyone seems to love it, but I just found it boring myself.

Oh and about Gunsmith Cats well the manga was longer (obviously), and debatably better.

I only have two volumes of the manga myself. I’m not that big on manga or comics in general. Prefer anime and even western cartoons like Avatar if they’re mature enough.

Edited August 13, 2009 by Talon

[Talon]

No offense but if you're going to judge Blue Gender watch the whole thing first. Yes the first eps seem unoriginal and it's overtly gory but it has a point and a fairly original bit of plot twists; it's meant to be dark and disturbing, albeit depressing.

And thats why I don't like it I know its meant to be violent, I've read the plot of future eps on wiki, I know that almost everyone is killed off after a few eps of being introduced. Thats why I don't like it. Just not my kind of thing, and I can tell that within a few episodes. Now if I was trying to write a review or something I agree I should watch it all before judging, but just from personal taste I know I hate it, even if it was just from the first 2 dvd volumes. The opening episodes alone made me want to vomit. Not since MD Giest and Violence Jack had I seen such anapolgetic violence. Urg, I just hated it. But again its personal taste, if you liked it then good for you, but it just wasn't my thing - I prefer light heart and cute comedies... preferably with lots of shoujo-ai.

And cult following, really? It has no following. Most people hated it or never heard of it.

Weird, I remember back when it came out everyone seemed to be listing it among their favourite animes, its one of the reasons I got it despite the bad reviews. But then again the world's a big place, we were likely talking to different people. Certainly its not one of those series people in any great numbers still talk about like Trigun and Oh My Goddess.

When I first saw it I was hooked yet everyone else was blabbing about Inuyasha or Trigun or something. And now everyone is blabbing about Code Geass and Bleach and Death Note and whatever.

Trigun's cool, but I beleive generally overhyped. I don't beleive its half as good as some people make it out to be. As for Inu Yasha, urgh, it was okay, and I'm glad they are going back to finish the series now after 10 odd years, but it only above average. Bleach is the modern DBZ, its not a masterpiece, but it is enjoyable; and despite a rather simplistic plot even its critics have to admit its imaginative.

But I fully beleive Death Note and Code Geass deserve the hype. Both are very complex in story and character development. They don't rely on mindless gore like Blue Gender, or episode after episode of fight scenes like Bleach or Trigun, or indeed monster-of-the-day eps like Inuyasha. The animation of both is fantastic, and they have more twists and turns than a twirly wirly. Seriously, almost each and every episode left me screaming the the tv, 'what happens next! No don't want until next week tell me now!' simply because Leouch and Kira were put in situations that they managed to get out of only because the writers were ingenious in their creativity.

And granted a good chunk of Gasaraki was boring as all hell. The concept was interesting though, and the conspiracy aspects of it really intrigued me. I, admittedly, prefer realism and something believable to the generic flashyness of most animes, which is why the vast majority of anime just turn me off with their flashy colors, spastic concepts and general disregard for the laws of physics; AKA nearly every mainstream anime turns me off.

See I watch tv for escapism. If they disregard the laws of physics I'm quite happy.

[Talon]

I understand if you're squeamish, but the gore in Blue Gender wasn't like the gore in Elfen Lied; it had a point, it wasn't just for eye candy, and it did have a sophisticated if not somehow depressing plot and a rather original explanation for the Blue (not aliens, not mutants). The ending was...weird, beyond weird in fact, but it was still rather nerve wracking. I do admit that having characters I liked killed off, essentially 90% of characters being redshirts, was depressing even for me, but that kinda led you into the gritty reality of it all. It didn't candy coat ****.

Oh trust me, I'm not squeamish, okay vomit was a bit of an exageration. The only movie that has even made me want to vomit was Hostel, and the only movie I've turned away from the screen at was Feast 2 when the monsters ate the baby. But I just don't like mass gore, I think tense drama can be achieved without mass amounts of blood (one of the problems with modern live-actions horrors actually is the directors thinking blood or tension is scary). I just like bright colourful shows like Full Metal Panic and Oh My Goddess the most, or if it is dark like Claymore, builds on atmosphere over gore - although I will admit BG did have atmoshpere.....

...oh great, all this talking about it has me curious and I almost feel like watching it again... *eying my DVD collection wearily*

Gasaraki I won't continue to defend. I liked many parts of it (the military and government conspiracy aspects), but the middle parts when they focused on the medieval Japan flashbacks constantly bored the **** out of me, in fact I think I zoned out during those parts which is why I barely remember the freaking plot as a whole. God the story was a big convoluted brain****, ironically extremely original as a result.

I must admit I barely remember it, save for the giant samurai robots.

I think you should check out Last Exile, it might be more up your alley and it's a bit obscure and underrated. It's a beautiful anime definitely. Interestingly it bares one huge similarity to Code Geass; the constant chess motifs, in fact every episode is named after a chess move.

I already own vol 1-3, so I've seen half of it. I rather liked it, my problem was DVDs are released every two months and I got sick of waiting, it Chobbits, Chrono Crusade, DN Angel and number of others shows I gave up on because I just was sick of being forced to wait so long between espides. That was several years ago and I just have never gotten around to getting the rest (except Chobbits, bought that cause my gf caught hold of it and liked the first few dvds enough to warrent buying the rest).

[Princess Serenity]

Both the animated and live action movie have gore, but I've seen gorier.

I don't beleive the shows killed any of the Espeda yet, although all the Faction are dead. The last epside to follow the manga was about to have Ulquiorra vs Ichigo (Soi Fon had just defeated Barragan's Faction before that), but they were inturrpted by Renji and Chad saying they had to stop because the Executives wanted a break from the main story. Since then they've been on filler. When it goes back it will be Ulquiorra vs Ichigo again.

Okay.

I've seen the screencaps. So I just assumed that they were Espada.

o-o

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I went to the local anime con, The Okaton last month. And I bought Ukitake's Captain coat and Aizen's Lieutenant Armband. (I didn't know it was Aizen's though. >< Stupid website with the wrong symbol!) I had fun and dressed up as Empress Augusta Vradica's manga verison from TB. :3

[Talon]

I went to the local anime con, The Okaton last month. And I bought Ukitake's Captain coat and Aizen's Lieutenant Armband. (I didn't know it was Aizen's though. >< Stupid website with the wrong symbol!) I had fun and dressed up as Empress Augusta Vradica's manga verison from TB. :3

I've never seen Trinity Blood. In fact the only reason I knew what TB was is because I did a google search. Is it any good?

[Princess Serenity]

I've never seen Trinity Blood. In fact the only reason I knew what TB was is because I did a google search. Is it any good?

You should. It's got some blood in the start of it.

^^

Yeah. Because of Sunao Yoshida died of cancer before he could finish the novel. He had some notes lying around. Because of his death, the anime was short. It's mushed together with Rage Against the Moons and Reborn on Mars together. It has a novel (obviously) and a manga. None of them are finished yet. But the manga in Japan has reached the Albion arc and we're in the middle of the Istavan arc.

Don't wanna spoil too much.

Troy Baker who did Prince Schiezel also did Abel's voice. I like hearing Abel's voice better than Scheizel's.

Edited August 14, 2009 by MoonPrincess

[GreyWeather]

REVIVAL!

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Bought K-On!, Azumanga Diaoh and Blood a few days ago on DVD. Got through K-on! (very funny anime about a girl joining an after-school club - a light music club - thinking it'd be easy, as she'd play the cabernets. But then finds out it's more serious than she'd anticipated.)

Azumanga is hilarious too. Worst thing about buying whole collections of a show, is that when you get to the end you're always feeling a lil depressed when it's over...

I'm gonna get round to watching Blood soon, maybe start next week. I'm still wanting to watch the Live-Action DeathNote movies, seeing as I'm still waiting for the next two 20th Century Boy L-A films to arrive.