Winter 2012 Anime Thread 2.22: You Can (Not) Outpost Cajunator
- Thread starter Haly
- Start date
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Not the cute age anymore, she's 21.
Mars of Destruction!
Infinite Justice
Member
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
hosannainexcelsis
Member
For general recommendations both old and new, check out this thread and this thread.
My personal list of top priorities:
Dennou Coil
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (both seasons)
Gintama
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
Memories
Millennium Actress
Mononoke (+ episodes 9-11 of Ayakashi: Classic Japanese Horror)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Time of Eve
Tokyo Godfathers
Just don't act like this thread wheneverappears and it should be fineSchool Days
Heh, I recommended she watch
School Days,
To which I responded, "It's a coming of age story."
I agree
Infinite Justice
Member
Too late, Oh well
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
You could have been a good oniichan if you had recommended Utena instead.
I dunno, I don't really pay attention to anime songs because they usually don't appeal to me; judging the OPs by them rather than by the efforts of the director and the animators isn't something that I personally do. I think this is the only recentish anime OP that has engaged me musically. As long as the editing in the video fits the song and the tone of the song fits the visuals and isn't physically annoying, I'm fine with everything.
Crash Station
Member
I see you are a brounen. That means we shall be friends. The ones I see missing from there are Deadman Wonderland, Getbackers, Buso Renkin (not amazing, but fun), Needless (if you can tolerate some... interesting fanservice), and Toriko.
Can't get a good grip on your taste in comedy for the most part, but I see Detroit Metal City, so I assume you're okay with absurdist stuff like Sexy Commando, Dororon Enma-Kun Meramera, and Yondemasuyo Azazel-san. Maybe Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt too. On the tragedy/horror side of things, you could check out Saikano, Shiki or Bokurano.
Street Fighter II V
Mad Bull 34 (dub)
She actually saw it before me, but didn't know what the hell was going on. I eventually watched it, as you know, but maybe her and I will have to watch through it again for her sake, and also because I love Utena.
Persona 4: The Anime 19
This was a lot of fun. From the game, they made a few changes that I really dug, and a one that I didn't (
), but giving the protag a voice and then writing him in as a total dog seems to have made the anime a lot better/funnier than I thought it would be. I'd watch it all, but I'm trying to forget as much of the game as I can for 'The Golden'
This was a lot of fun. From the game, they made a few changes that I really dug, and a one that I didn't (
why wasn't Teddy the announcer at the pageant?
Ultimadrago
Member
This is the one thing I like about the anime. Yu is actually...a guy to an extent and not a complete husk of a human. It makes for some good chuckles seeing 'im go.
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
I'm kind of jelly. The only anime my sister's ever really watched is Spirited Away, and she has no interest in seeing more. She's also a few years older than yours, so I don't think I have much chance of salvaging her woeful tastes.
Any advice?
Interesting. Kind of sucks for you, but your appreciation for the visual content probably makes up for it.
The start of that song feels really familiar.
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Eiken
One thing that does make me feel a bit better about humanity is I've yet to meet anyone who HAS liked Eiken. Dear GOD that show is awful and insulting in every way! >_<
Gankutsuou 19-24 (end)
So tonight I'll sing a song to all my friends,
Also to those we won't be seeing again,
To those I knew and those I still adore.
And I want to see once more
I just pray that you will love me,
And trust me,
Laugh with me, and cry with me,
Spend those silent times with me.
Love me evermore,
Love me evermore.
Fantastic series. Unique style, excellent music, and I was more invested in the characters' fates than for a good number of shows I've watched.
The timeskip ending was alright, but we don't even get to see Albert and Eugenie reunite (even though it's obviously implied)? Ah well, can't have everything, I suppose.
You should all give it a try, if you haven't already.
Truly a great show, the best show I ever saw come out of Gonzo.
I need to get around to seeing Madoka even though I already know everything about it. Just so I can say I've seen it or whatever.
lvl99 Pixel
Member
Thanks everyone got a good stock pile to watch now.
........*In my head* Guess I better add all the weird shit I took off my list before I posted.
Ha have a good one guys.
........*In my head* Guess I better add all the weird shit I took off my list before I posted.
Ha have a good one guys.
Typographenia
Member
Trigun: Badlands Rumble
(feel free to skip this part)
I would be remiss if I didn't briefly mention my past with this series. I was never a big fan of anime (I mean, I liked DBZ and all), but I never took it seriously until I saw Trigun. Most people would attribute it to my age/nostalgia, but it took a fond place in my heart because of the setting, characters, music, and the specific themes it handled. It spoke to me in a way no other form of animation ever had, and I still watch the series annually to this day. It remains my favorite animated series, and is possibly my favorite series period. I quite enjoyed the manga, and it was my preferred version for about a year or two, until I came back around to appreciate the focus and execution of the anime more.
I was one of the people that longed for a movie, and when the announcement finally came that it was getting made, I nearly lost my mind. I put off buying it for so long because... well, I don't know. Maybe it was the fear that it would never measure up to the idea I had constructed in my mind for so many years? Either way, I finally decided to purchase it yesterday, and sat down to watch it in all of its bluray goodness tonight.
Story
Brief(ish) Plot Summary: 20 years before the current events (relatively speaking) of the animated series, Vash intervenes in an armed robbery, gone awry, by a man named Gasback (teehee).
Flash to the present day, and
Gasback, and he is rumored to be heading to the city owned by the man. He has a giant bronze statue, of his likeness newly erected, that he believes will be the target of his ex-boss. Loads of bounty hunters have come to collect the price on Gasback's head, while simultaneously acting as bodyguards for the man.
Milly and Meryl show up to protect the statue (which was recently insured by their employers), Vash comes to see through the cast of his dice from 20 years prior, a mysterious red-headed woman has a score to settle, and... Wolfwood?
Yup, it's Trigun.
The story itself wasn't anything terribly fantastic. It worked kind of in the same way the Bebop movie did: it's essentially a self-contained episode that takes place... sometime during the course of the series. It falls more inline with the "filler" of the series, as it doesn't ever once make mention of Knives, the Gung-ho Guns, or really anything tied to the central progression of the series, outside of the Bernardelli insurance company.
Many of the point and motivations felt kind of weak, but it's excusable to a certain degree as "hey, we just wanted to have a reason to do this." I was watching some of the extra features, and Nightow mentioned how he wanted to keep in mind that many of the public wouldn't be acquainted with the work at all, so he wanted to keep it approachable for any first-time viewers. It's understandable, but it was disappointing that they basically just reused a lot of what they did in the series in the film. I guess they thought it would count as a nod to the audience, but I would have loved to have gotten some new material instead. The one thing that, personally, was annoying was they pulled an
My biggest gripe would have to be that the story wasn't about Vash. It was about the red-head, Amelia. That's all fine and dandy if they were going to do that for a random episode of the series, but a movie that comes out 12 years after the series, primarily for fans, would likely prefer to see it be about Vash. Amelia wasn't anything truly special. She honestly could have been a character from an episode of the show, but it didn't really translate as strongly to a feature film. Gasback felt like the second most important character, and I think the movie would have benefited from having him developed more and Amelia far less.
I will say, I'm very proud that they didn't fall back on any of the more fantastical elements that come into the series at later parts, but there was one rather large contrivance later in the movie with Amelia and her past that made me roll my eyes. It was something that could have easily been removed and nothing of value would have been lost. Heck, they could have left a portion of it in, and it would have been fine. Just the way they handled it felt clumsy and last-minute. Then again, most of the more "important" story elements concerning Gasback and Amelia felt rushed, while the more relaxed, character building parts felt like they went on too long. Probably should have had someone edit the story a bit better, but I digress.
Performances
It was definitely good getting to see some familiar faces once again, after so long. I'm one of the people that prefers the english voice cast to the japanese, and it was a relief when they originally announced that JYB was returning to do Vash's voice. Unfortunately, since Vash wasn't the main focus, he didn't really get a great chance to do anything with it. Vash was pretty much written as a more watered down version of the television character, so it was a little flat, in thanks to the writing. The rest of the three out of four main characters had been re-cast, which didn't bother me too much with Meryl and Milly. They sounded true enough to the original performances that it was easily acceptable (though, they too had rather miniscule parts), but Wolfwood wasn't there for me. It was by no means bad, but it just didn't have that extra bit of something that Jeff Nimoy's performance did. It just sounded like some average joe doing it. Gasback was decent enough, but he too just felt like "yup, that's a badguy voice."
Presentation
I have some really mixed feelings on this. The movie was rather beautiful to watch, and they certainly went the extra mile in many scenes. The amount of work put into the background characters and random tidbits was easily the best part of the package, in my opinion. They managed to really capture the feel of Nightow's work (for better or worse) in the lineweights of the characters, the look and feel of many features, the (sometimes) bizarre level of varying detail in places, and making the setting feel developed and occupied.
That said, I had some issues with the consistency of the world. It really bugged me when they had things like police cars with blue and red lights, people dressed up in very traditional looking japanese construction-worker suits, little robotic guardbots, and lots of giant glowing signs dotted the town. I understand updating some elements for an audience that has likely never seen the show, or has been a long time since their last viewing, but it really broke my engagement every time things like that happened. There were many instances of technology that I had to raise an eyebrow to (like the robot guards, and some strange medical equipment) that, while present in the series, were specific to certain scenarios that didn't really make sense in these cases. The signs probably bothered me more than anything, since the giant neon madness of Brilliant Dynamite Neon's presentation was really unique. Towns and environments really lost the western feel to them when you had lots of modern looking elements like that so commonplace. It's probably just me being nitpicky, but it really bugged me.
This is going to be extremely vain and stupid sounding, but the colors, while gorgeous, felt overdone. Things felt too new and vibrant, and lost the dusty, rag-tag feel the original series had. The reason the characters popped in the show was they had a rather traditional setting as the backdrop to their actions and presence. The setting, while an excellent execution, often felt like it was competing for my eyes, rather than what the focus of any given scene was about. It's probably contradictory sounding of me, being as I've given some consistent praise for Lagrange's scenery/backgrounds, but it just didn't feel balanced in the movie.
HOWEVER! The greatest surprise of all was the cgi. It was used far too much, and it didn't feel like they ever really reached a great integration of it, but the actual renderings were great. They were extremely successful at emulating Nightow's lineart, and I found myself smiling at it more than once. It would have been much better, in my opinion, if they had just drawn it all, but I give them props for doing a good job with it, regardless.
Probably the saddest disappointment, however, was the music. I was crossing my fingers, as the credits rolled, that it wasn't Tsuneo Imahori, yet it was. The music of the television series is one of my favorite soundtracks to any media form, and I listen to it regularly while working. The film really only featured music around six times or so, and rather briefly. However, every single time it came on I felt my heart drop. It was either a rather cluttered sounding remix/rerecording of a previous song in the series, or just some piece of work that didn't feel like it matched the subject material at all. In fact, the places where the music was used felt like it detracted from the scene because it just wasn't up to snuff.
Final Thoughts
Did it measure up to my expectations? No. Did I like it? Yeah, I did.
I think it's not going to be a great device to pull people into investing in the rest of the series, either anime or manga, but it's a decent trip back to a land, time, and experience that I think many people who originally liked the series will enjoy. It's sadly lacking a lot of what made Trigun go from a good to an excellent series, but has enough of the magic and heart of the early part of the series to still be entertaining and fun.
There's no way it could have ever met all my hopes for a Trigun movie, but I'm glad they didn't try to make some strange offshoot that would have just been frustrating. It's a great "untold" detour story from the course of the main series. I'm glad that this exists, and I'm glad I was finally able to overcome my fears and watch it. It helped remind me why I love the show and manga, and reinforce much of what I already felt (both good and bad). If you've ever liked Trigun and haven't seen it yet, I'd really recommend giving it at least one viewing.
(feel free to skip this part)
I would be remiss if I didn't briefly mention my past with this series. I was never a big fan of anime (I mean, I liked DBZ and all), but I never took it seriously until I saw Trigun. Most people would attribute it to my age/nostalgia, but it took a fond place in my heart because of the setting, characters, music, and the specific themes it handled. It spoke to me in a way no other form of animation ever had, and I still watch the series annually to this day. It remains my favorite animated series, and is possibly my favorite series period. I quite enjoyed the manga, and it was my preferred version for about a year or two, until I came back around to appreciate the focus and execution of the anime more.
I was one of the people that longed for a movie, and when the announcement finally came that it was getting made, I nearly lost my mind. I put off buying it for so long because... well, I don't know. Maybe it was the fear that it would never measure up to the idea I had constructed in my mind for so many years? Either way, I finally decided to purchase it yesterday, and sat down to watch it in all of its bluray goodness tonight.
Story
Brief(ish) Plot Summary: 20 years before the current events (relatively speaking) of the animated series, Vash intervenes in an armed robbery, gone awry, by a man named Gasback (teehee).
Gasback's men decided to ditch him due to his romantic visions of a life filled with bigger and better holdups, in favor of the easy life. Vash saves his life, and Gasback warns him that he has cast a dice he has to be prepared to own up to.
the three men that threw Gasback under the bus have become considerably successful. Well, at least, they were. Two of the three have had their fortunes and empires destroyed by a vengeful
Milly and Meryl show up to protect the statue (which was recently insured by their employers), Vash comes to see through the cast of his dice from 20 years prior, a mysterious red-headed woman has a score to settle, and... Wolfwood?
Yup, it's Trigun.
The story itself wasn't anything terribly fantastic. It worked kind of in the same way the Bebop movie did: it's essentially a self-contained episode that takes place... sometime during the course of the series. It falls more inline with the "filler" of the series, as it doesn't ever once make mention of Knives, the Gung-ho Guns, or really anything tied to the central progression of the series, outside of the Bernardelli insurance company.
Many of the point and motivations felt kind of weak, but it's excusable to a certain degree as "hey, we just wanted to have a reason to do this." I was watching some of the extra features, and Nightow mentioned how he wanted to keep in mind that many of the public wouldn't be acquainted with the work at all, so he wanted to keep it approachable for any first-time viewers. It's understandable, but it was disappointing that they basically just reused a lot of what they did in the series in the film. I guess they thought it would count as a nod to the audience, but I would have loved to have gotten some new material instead. The one thing that, personally, was annoying was they pulled an
"oh no, Vash is dead!" stretch. That's pretty pointless, as this is just supposed to take place during the series at some point, so, yeah. He's not going to die in the middle of the timeline.
My biggest gripe would have to be that the story wasn't about Vash. It was about the red-head, Amelia. That's all fine and dandy if they were going to do that for a random episode of the series, but a movie that comes out 12 years after the series, primarily for fans, would likely prefer to see it be about Vash. Amelia wasn't anything truly special. She honestly could have been a character from an episode of the show, but it didn't really translate as strongly to a feature film. Gasback felt like the second most important character, and I think the movie would have benefited from having him developed more and Amelia far less.
I will say, I'm very proud that they didn't fall back on any of the more fantastical elements that come into the series at later parts, but there was one rather large contrivance later in the movie with Amelia and her past that made me roll my eyes. It was something that could have easily been removed and nothing of value would have been lost. Heck, they could have left a portion of it in, and it would have been fine. Just the way they handled it felt clumsy and last-minute. Then again, most of the more "important" story elements concerning Gasback and Amelia felt rushed, while the more relaxed, character building parts felt like they went on too long. Probably should have had someone edit the story a bit better, but I digress.
Performances
It was definitely good getting to see some familiar faces once again, after so long. I'm one of the people that prefers the english voice cast to the japanese, and it was a relief when they originally announced that JYB was returning to do Vash's voice. Unfortunately, since Vash wasn't the main focus, he didn't really get a great chance to do anything with it. Vash was pretty much written as a more watered down version of the television character, so it was a little flat, in thanks to the writing. The rest of the three out of four main characters had been re-cast, which didn't bother me too much with Meryl and Milly. They sounded true enough to the original performances that it was easily acceptable (though, they too had rather miniscule parts), but Wolfwood wasn't there for me. It was by no means bad, but it just didn't have that extra bit of something that Jeff Nimoy's performance did. It just sounded like some average joe doing it. Gasback was decent enough, but he too just felt like "yup, that's a badguy voice."
Presentation
I have some really mixed feelings on this. The movie was rather beautiful to watch, and they certainly went the extra mile in many scenes. The amount of work put into the background characters and random tidbits was easily the best part of the package, in my opinion. They managed to really capture the feel of Nightow's work (for better or worse) in the lineweights of the characters, the look and feel of many features, the (sometimes) bizarre level of varying detail in places, and making the setting feel developed and occupied.
That said, I had some issues with the consistency of the world. It really bugged me when they had things like police cars with blue and red lights, people dressed up in very traditional looking japanese construction-worker suits, little robotic guardbots, and lots of giant glowing signs dotted the town. I understand updating some elements for an audience that has likely never seen the show, or has been a long time since their last viewing, but it really broke my engagement every time things like that happened. There were many instances of technology that I had to raise an eyebrow to (like the robot guards, and some strange medical equipment) that, while present in the series, were specific to certain scenarios that didn't really make sense in these cases. The signs probably bothered me more than anything, since the giant neon madness of Brilliant Dynamite Neon's presentation was really unique. Towns and environments really lost the western feel to them when you had lots of modern looking elements like that so commonplace. It's probably just me being nitpicky, but it really bugged me.
This is going to be extremely vain and stupid sounding, but the colors, while gorgeous, felt overdone. Things felt too new and vibrant, and lost the dusty, rag-tag feel the original series had. The reason the characters popped in the show was they had a rather traditional setting as the backdrop to their actions and presence. The setting, while an excellent execution, often felt like it was competing for my eyes, rather than what the focus of any given scene was about. It's probably contradictory sounding of me, being as I've given some consistent praise for Lagrange's scenery/backgrounds, but it just didn't feel balanced in the movie.
HOWEVER! The greatest surprise of all was the cgi. It was used far too much, and it didn't feel like they ever really reached a great integration of it, but the actual renderings were great. They were extremely successful at emulating Nightow's lineart, and I found myself smiling at it more than once. It would have been much better, in my opinion, if they had just drawn it all, but I give them props for doing a good job with it, regardless.
Probably the saddest disappointment, however, was the music. I was crossing my fingers, as the credits rolled, that it wasn't Tsuneo Imahori, yet it was. The music of the television series is one of my favorite soundtracks to any media form, and I listen to it regularly while working. The film really only featured music around six times or so, and rather briefly. However, every single time it came on I felt my heart drop. It was either a rather cluttered sounding remix/rerecording of a previous song in the series, or just some piece of work that didn't feel like it matched the subject material at all. In fact, the places where the music was used felt like it detracted from the scene because it just wasn't up to snuff.
Final Thoughts
Did it measure up to my expectations? No. Did I like it? Yeah, I did.
I think it's not going to be a great device to pull people into investing in the rest of the series, either anime or manga, but it's a decent trip back to a land, time, and experience that I think many people who originally liked the series will enjoy. It's sadly lacking a lot of what made Trigun go from a good to an excellent series, but has enough of the magic and heart of the early part of the series to still be entertaining and fun.
There's no way it could have ever met all my hopes for a Trigun movie, but I'm glad they didn't try to make some strange offshoot that would have just been frustrating. It's a great "untold" detour story from the course of the main series. I'm glad that this exists, and I'm glad I was finally able to overcome my fears and watch it. It helped remind me why I love the show and manga, and reinforce much of what I already felt (both good and bad). If you've ever liked Trigun and haven't seen it yet, I'd really recommend giving it at least one viewing.
Just find something they can latch onto (just need that one gateway show for that spark), and then just build from that. Her gateway show was the old Detective Conan shows on late at night, and from there she just completely did her own thing.
Also, we're on Madoka 5 right now, and she's all "I reaaaaaalllyyyy don't trust that Kyubey".
Oh for sure. The journey is still fun even if you end up being mixed on the end result.
Distrusting the only trustworthy character in the show . . . kids these days.
the best ops of 2011
Level E
Dororon enma-kun
Steins gate
Fate zero
Kamisama dolls
Toriko-gatsu gatsu
Nichijou op1also op 2
Nichijou op 2
*drum roll*
The winner of best opening of 2011 is
A tie between Level E and dororon enma kun
Level E
Dororon enma-kun
Steins gate
Fate zero
Kamisama dolls
Toriko-gatsu gatsu
Nichijou op1also op 2
Nichijou op 2
*drum roll*
The winner of best opening of 2011 is
A tie between Level E and dororon enma kun
Living the life.
lvl99 Pixel
Member
magical talking cabbits are more trustworthy than teenage girls by default
I wish Megumi Nakajima would let me play the piano with her while she sings.
That man is living my dream, or one of them.
I know, right?
This is pretty good.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Yes.
This too. Oh and Angel Cop, sub version for the antisemitism.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Persona 4: The Cartoon 19:
), but still awesome. If you liked the comedic summer episodes from the middle of the series you owe it to yourself to watch this one.
I didn't like the social link stuff though. If they were gonna cram Music Girl's story and throw it away so quickly they shouldn't have included it at all. It worked in previous episodes because the joke was about Charlie being a min-maxer, but here they try to play it seriously and it's, honestly, bad.
Not as good as the game's version of these events (
the bikini contest was hotter in the vidya
I didn't like the social link stuff though. If they were gonna cram Music Girl's story and throw it away so quickly they shouldn't have included it at all. It worked in previous episodes because the joke was about Charlie being a min-maxer, but here they try to play it seriously and it's, honestly, bad.
Crash Station
Member
Highschool DxD 7
Best dodge ball game ever. We need an entire anime like this.
Also, I'd totally pick the body-building water sprite.
Best dodge ball game ever. We need an entire anime like this.
Also, I'd totally pick the body-building water sprite.
Jex
Member
That's a creepy sounding question.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Higurashi No Naku >>>
Big O
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
Love Hina
Usagi Drops
Tenchi Muyo
Ghost Hunt
Shiki
Amagami
Clannad (After Story)
Gundam Wing
Ghost in the Shell (1st movie and series)
School Days if you want to feel weird for a day or two, then be in on 'it'.
Jex
Member
Yes, because the other movies and shows take place before the series.
Infinite Justice
Member
Highschool DxD 7
Best dodge ball game ever. We need an entire anime like this.
Also, I'd totally pick the body-building water sprite.
I think i got sold on checking this out LOL
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
I kept trying to come up with a better way to word it, but it only went from bad to worse.
The only things completely lacking that I'd go with are probably 08th MS Team, probably Moribito, decent shot with Slam Dunk, and maaaaaaybe Rozen Maiden?
I honestly barely remember anything about Rozen Maiden besides awful main character and sister plus some moderately amusing antics. I think there's a good shot I'd enjoy it less if I were to rewatch it.
For backlog prioritization I'd probably go with Spice and Wolf as a safe bet to earn a reasonably high score.
Jex
Member
Do both - they're both excellent shows. You might as well start with Haibane Renmei because it's shorter.
I really don't need to add more shows from the current season, but after the impressions from today and looking at the cast list again for Inu x Boku SS, it's difficult for me to not want to start watching something with Yuuichi Nakamura, Mamoru Miyano, Tomokazu Sugita, Yoko Hikasa, and Kana Hanazawa all in lead roles.
Jex
Member
At this point I'm expecting actor guy to NTR Natsume with Tanuma.
It's ok. I understand.
Jex
Member
Right, that's a very conventionally edited and themed trailer which, I suppose, is an improvement over most anime trailers.
Kai is definitely Maki's greatest 'rival' that isn't totally insane. She's got that whole 'worthy equal' thing going on.
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