[General Discussion] General Questions

I need some recommendations of new stuff to watch from the past few years. I haven't really kept up and have only really seen FMA and the second Full Metal Panic! series (not Fumoffu). I generally like more "serious" mecha (Gundam, Eva, etc...) or series that are a mix of drama and action. Space Operas and good old dramas are awesome too (GitS:SAC, Jin-Roh, Space Operators, Haibane Renmei, etc...). I'm also into the fantasy stuff (Twelve Kingdoms, Fushigi Yugi for example). I looked over some threads and came up witha list of things that might interest me, so I'm looking for some mini reviews in addition to any suggestions of stuff not listed below:

Ayakashi Ayashi
Busou Renkin/Weapon Alchemist
Chevalier d'Eon
CODE GEASS - Lelouch of the Rebellion
Coyote Ragtime Show
Death Note
Ergo Proxy
Fate/Stay Night
Flag
Innocent Venus
Mushishi
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Nighthead Genesis
Planetes
Project Blue Chikyuu SOS (Project Blue Earth SOS)
Pumpkin Scissors
Shinigami no Ballad
Tales from Earthsea
Twelve Kingdoms
Zegapain

Thanks.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

If you haven't seen Karas: The Prophecy yet, it's a great OVA (well, 1 hour and 15 minute long movie) with the second half coming out in the spring of next year. Features superb animation, great action sequences, and a really compelling story with lots of cool plot devices.

Hm...what about X TV? Sure, the movie, X/1999, kinda sucked, but the series is fantastic. The animation is very, very sharp and clear. Lots of philosophical end-of-the-world hoohah, but it's pretty well done. Of the two factions the series has, Dragons of Earth and Dragons of Heaven, neither is characteristically good or evil, something not too often used.

The Guyver series is getting a re-release in the U.S. as well. The first DVD came out earlier this month, and although I haven't checked out yet I definitely will -- this sort of remake is, for me, has been long overdue. The original Guyver anime was cut off after 12 episodes and, being old as it was, was kinda choppy and the dubbing was awkward at best. I'm very anxious to get the first of the new DVDs.

There's also RahXephon to consider, though chances are you've seen it. If you haven't, and you liked Evangelion, you'll at least find RahXephon intriguing. The main character's not quite as angsty as Shinji is, or at least he gets over it far sooner than Shinji. Animation's good, music's good, characters're good, and the story's the best thing.

Samurai 7's a cool take on Akira Kurosawa's original novel. It's set in the future, but bushido is alive and well. After a big war, some samurai became bandits and turned their bodies into machines (effectively dubbing them "machine-samurai") while others simply vaunted around looking for work. It's a cool story though, again with very smooth and great animation. Lots of cool characters and the story's pretty good too, if not a little sad. Very interesting plot point regarding the relationship between a trio of characters though.

Not sure how well this fits in to your list, but Gungrave is pretty solid too. It's a good coming-of-age tale of a group of guys (they're actually a gang, but the series focuses on their friendship rather than their actually gang activity to enough of a degree where calling them a "gang" might misrepresent them) who want to join the ranks of Millenion, the most powerful crime organization in their city. The only bad thing about this is that for the entire middle portion of the series, the story is, for most aspects, believable. Like it could actually happen. But the beginning and toward the end, they bring the "anime" back into the story by introducing these zombie-fied gangsters and super-powered mob bosses. It kinda throws you off after being sucked into such a dramatic, quite-possibly-true-in-reality tale.

I'll throw in Zone of the Enders for the last of my recommendations. It's really funny and not quite so serious, but it's got fun characters and good story about family bonding and what-not. Lots of big robot fights. Better ones toward the end--Dolores, the robot, is kinda bad at fighting for a little bit. Makes for fun times though.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Thanks SJ, but I'm looking for recent stuff. ZotE, RahXephon, X are rather old. Samurai 7 is awesome. That's a series that I totally forgot about. Karas is also good. I'm patiently waiting for the second R1 release.

Also, how is being believable a bad thing?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I don't know for sure, but I guess we should just give up forever on having an actual recommendations thread.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Mucknuggle

Also, how is being believable a bad thing?

No no, it's not the believable that's bad. It's the extreme-ness of the unbelievable that makes Gungrave feel a little awkward toward the end.

Heh, sorry Saka. That reminds me though, I need to update my recommended's here soon.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Sakabadger

I don't know for sure, but I guess we should just give up forever on having an actual recommendations thread.

Maybe I'd use it if it, I don't know, actually answered my question.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

Maybe once I finish the series. I wouldn't want to ruin the story while I'm still into it.

Next question. Can anyone tell me the name of the vocal song played during tonight's GITS: 2nd Gig episode (the one where Saito reminices how he met the Major; it plays while he begins telling the story).

Hi Soldier,

Thought you might be interested to know that this song is called

FROM THE ROOF TOP-SOMEWHERE IN THE SILENCE(SNIPER'S THEME)

And it's available on the new OST from "Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society". This OST was just released on November 22nd in Japan.

It's available from CDJapan, among other places.

So I think this is probably why no-one's been able to tell you for sure until now what this song was, as it wasn't available until now. I've been dying to know the same thing, so I'm glad they've finally released it (I had driven myself nuts listening through all of the previous GitS: SAC OST's thinking it had to be there somewhere).

-Zadillo

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Anyone know who composed the music for Samurai Deeper Kyo? Just got the CD and don't see anyone listed...

FELIPE NO

For all you anime music people. I like Kanno and I like the person that did Tsubasa Chronicles vol. 1, oh and Last Exile. Can you

a) Recommend me other anime composers similar to them (and name albums they've worked on)

b) Recommend me some other good composers (and name the albums they've worked on)

c) Tell me a good place to go to get high quality mp3 rips of said albums.

It's been a long time since I downloaded any anime music and I've forgotten where to look. Thanks.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I've been thinking about getting some more anime but I don't know which ones considering I've just begun to buy anime. The kind of stuff I'm searching for is anime like Love Hina, Azumanga Daioh, and Fruits Basket. I really like the comedy in three of these anime titles especially the romance/comedy of Love Hina. Anything like these (english dubbed is preferred but I would buy japanese as well) would be great. Any recommendations? Thanks!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

HD crash #352281604

Lost most of my goodies, here's all I have on DVD at the moment, looking for PM suggestions and/or master lists of stuff to get

What I own/downloaded and burned/ am downloading:

Evangelion / Platinum / Movies
GitS: SAC Season 1 / GitS Movie #1
Love Hina Movie Collection
Azumanga Daioh Set
Abenobashi
Escaflowne Movie
Eureka Seven
Ah! My Goddess
Excel Saga
Hare Guu
Akira
Armitage III
Outlaw Star Set
Everything Ghibli I could care to get (Looking for Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea) still)
Vampire Hunter D
Naruto
Bleach
Chobits
Macross 7
Cowboy Bebop
Gundam SEED
Girls Bravo
Colorful
Dragon Drive
Tenchi Muyo OVA

Looking for some more Romantic Comedies and less Sci-Fi, ATM, but open to legendary shows I should be getting, thanks in advance for any suggestions on this massively broad question.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Alright, I know this is going to be a very vague question in terms of the amount of information I can give you due to not seeing this anime for over 8 years, but can you help me identify the following anime movie/ova.

Facts I know about this particular movie/ova.

1) It was broadcasted in English dub on the SPACE: IMAGINATION STATION in Canada.

2) It was made prior to 1990, that I'm pretty sure of.

3) It features a rather dark haired male who was somewhat dumb witted.

4) It also featured a young white/silver haired lady who was rescued in a life pod.

5) Possibly one of the defining icons in the movie was a spaceship that sailed in space, filled with the masts and sails that let it achieve "hyperspace".

6) One particular moment I remember is this particular silverhaired lady in question needed some surgery or medical attention done. The doctor in the room needed the dark haired lad to take off her shirt to perform medical proceedures, and of course, he gets all jittery.

I know these are extremely pathetic descriptions, but a name of this anime would really solve the mystery of this anime.

It is NOT the following titles:

Venus Wars
GoShoGun: The Time Estranger
Galaxy Express 999
Macross

Again, any help would really be appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Spatula

Alright, I know this is going to be a very vague question in terms of the amount of information I can give you due to not seeing this anime for over 8 years, but can you help me identify the following anime movie/ova.

Facts I know about this particular movie/ova.

1) It was broadcasted in English dub on the SPACE: IMAGINATION STATION in Canada.

2) It was made prior to 1990, that I'm pretty sure of.

3) It features a rather dark haired male who was somewhat dumb witted.

4) It also featured a young white/silver haired lady who was rescued in a life pod.

5) Possibly one of the defining icons in the movie was a spaceship that sailed in space, filled with the masts and sails that let it achieve "hyperspace".

6) One particular moment I remember is this particular silverhaired lady in question needed some surgery or medical attention done. The doctor in the room needed the dark haired lad to take off her shirt to perform medical proceedures, and of course, he gets all jittery.

I know these are extremely pathetic descriptions, but a name of this anime would really solve the mystery of this anime.

It is NOT the following titles:

Venus Wars
GoShoGun: The Time Estranger
Galaxy Express 999
Macross

Again, any help would really be appreciated.

I've never seen it, but the masts on the ship immediately made me think of Odin. And looking at screens of it, I see the silver/white haired lady and the dark haired protagonist, so it's quite probably it.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...ime.php?id=704

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Holy shit. I think you've got it! At first I was afraid that people might have taken it as Star Blazer/ Space Battleship Yamato because the description can be taken as a WWII era battleship, which is what the Yamato looks like. This Starlight does ring a bell. Shit, I better start looking this up on DDD or rightstuf. Thanks Q.

I was speaking idiomatically.

It's said to be really, really crap, though

Maybe give it a download before paying money for it? Money you could be using on something more worth it like.. socks. Or the Tylor TV box.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Sure, why not. Although it probably does suck, which is why people haven't heard of it, and me being totally new to anime at that time, didn't know better and declared it as being animated awesome. How naive of me back then. Torrent time!

FELIPE NO

I don't know, I saw Odin on the Sci-Fi channel and liked it a lot. Probably should buy the DVD...

Can't say the film made any sense though!

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Spatula

Sure, why not. Although it probably does suck, which is why people haven't heard of it, and me being totally new to anime at that time, didn't know better and declared it as being animated awesome. How naive of me back then. Torrent time!

Well, round here it was one of those titles that was sold literally everywhere (imported) much like timeless classics like Venus Wars, Vampire Wars, Psychic Wars and Red Hawk, so a lot of people know them.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

Venus Wars, Vampire Wars, Psychic Wars

Mind as well throw in Big Wars in there as well.

Man that movie was stupid, and quite grotesque.

Back to Odin, I love the unforgiving nature of the following review:

Originally Posted by The Anime Critic

http://www.animecritic.com/odin/anr-odin.html

Odin
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaawn...

This is, without a doubt, one of the dullest movies I have ever watched. It's so boring, in fact, that I had to watch it in three installments. There's just no way I could get through all of it in one sitting.

Being a science fiction fan, I was hoping this would hold my interest. The space ship design harkens back to 18th century sailing ships, and seeing these ancient ships floating in outer space was kind of neat.

Unfortunately, there is nothing else noteworthy in this movie. The story is simply boring at the best of times, and very convoluted and unfulfilling during the worse. It involves the crew of the "Starlight" space craft who discover a mysterious ship while cruising in deep space. They find a survivor on board, which only leads them into a much deeper mystery. It seemed like segments were missing, and apparently about 40 minutes or so was cut from the dubbed version. This led to some head-scratching as I tried fathom where certain elements were coming from. Not to mention that the ending was an incredible let-down.

There was a fair bit of action, but even it proved to be tedious as well. The sound effects were incredibly cheesy, reminding me of the Atari video games from the 80's. The voice actors were also quite anemic, lacking proper emotions and the ability to act.

There is nothing to recommend about this movie. Want outer-space science fiction? There are dozens of better titles to choose from. Need something to cure insomnia? Hey, maybe Odin's got a use after all.

The Verdict: * (awful)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Is there an indexing site similar to Animesuki which lists unlicensed anime, too? Thanks in advance.

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http://www.baka-updates.com/releases.php

and

http://www.tokyotosho.com/

are good places for that

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Both of those are brilliant, thanks a bunch.

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I was wondering if anyone can help me. A few years back I came across a manga (in Chinese) which I thought was pretty interesting. It was found apparently left behind by a customer in the store I was working at and after a couple of months waiting for someone to claim them (vol. 1 & 2), I was told to get rid of them. Well, I just kept them...

Anyway, as I can't read chinese, I was wondering if there was an english translated version, either legit or fanscanslated. The thing is, I don't know the name of the manga. The name on the manga is in chinese and I guess if I want to find out more about it, I would probably need to know the original Japanese name. However, from the inside back title page, I can see that they've included the mangaka's name and the publisher's name in English. The mangaka is Muraeda Kenichi and the manga was originally published by Shogakukan Inc., Tokyo in 1991 (first volume).

I tried googling the mangaka's name but all I can find is another of his work, probably a lot more recent, called Red. I can see the art style matches almost exactly.

A brief summary (or as much as I can make out) is that the story concerns a westerner (I pretty much guess he's an American) who comes to a seaside town in Japan to teach in the local high school. I'm guessing he can speak Japanese though it appears that there's a running gag of him mishearing or mispronouncing words. He also has problems writing kanji. He's almost like GTO, except not a reformed thug. He can fight and is pretty tough. He almost always carries a surf board around and sometimes just surfs around when he feels like it (he sometimes even surfs to school fully clothed!). He teaches well enough but isn't above taking his class outside during school hours and just goofing off. Some title pages have him saying in English "Don't call me Teacher!!".

Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?



What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Hahaha, I'm having just as shit luck searching. A whole lot of mention of Red, Kamen Rider Spirits and Kamoshika!, but no teacher manga. I did find the manga on a korean site:

http://www.ecomixshop.co.kr/comic/de...e=3070&start=0

I'm assuming this must be it. Babelfish brings up hilarious results (He! Mote wife (1))

My guess is that it's so little known no one's bothered coming up with even mock translation for the name. ANN only lists Red and Kamen Rider Spirits for Muraeda's works.

FELIPE NO

what a fucking teacher! ='D

That looks so awesome.

Additional Spam:
There's also this one manga he did called Matchless Antelope.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.asp...id-1000019443/



Same style so I guess a lot of his manga is undocumented or something.

Additional Spam:
I found a name for what Qwarky found.

Kwong Lo Long

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.asp...id-1003304963/



It's 7 volumes long.

How ya doing, buddy?