The Anime/Manga thread (quote, Bell)

[adidasss]

Hmm...I've seen most of Ghibli films, my favs are Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa of the valley of the wind and Howl's moving castle (My neighbor Totoro was pretty bad, aside from Totoro himself who was adorable, there was a mountain of seriously annoying Asian, patriarchal/misogynistic stereotypes, the plot - non-existent).

Other anime I've enjoyed:

Akira - in retrospect, the animation was pretty bad, so was the humor, the story was fucking mind blowing...(I downloaded Steamboy in pure exuberance, turned it off after 20 minutes, utter drivel)

Grave of the fireflies - well, everyone loves this one, how can you not?

Ghost in the shell - this is where I started to get really excited about anime. Having previously seen most of Ghibli films, this came as a pleasant surprise/shock to the system. A cartoon aimed exclusively at adults, with an intelligent plot and amazing animation. Only Asians could make this, because really, is anyone else this obsessed with the dystopian future (perhaps it's because for them, it's very close to reality).

Paprika - one word - insane. After this I downloaded;

Paranoia Agent - haven't managed to finish it, but Satoshi Kon is definitely a genius (I actually changed my nick and avatar on the Croatian queer forum into Agent Paranoia). Granted, I have had only a limited exposure to this particular genre of movies/TV, but it seems to me that more auteurs should be going in his direction.

I have yet to see Perfect blue (the animation on the copy I have seemed kinda 80's which was a turnoff...it wasn't made that long ago) or Millenium actress...

Cowboy Bebop - only watched a few episodes. The first one was really impressive, then the second one went childish and I gave up on it (I'm sorry, I just don't dig Japanese humor). Plus, it seemed like it should last longer than 20 minutes, there isn't enough time for a proper plot development.


I have bookmarked some TV anime (is there a special name for that?) because I have a feeling it's an untapped well of ideas, but there's so much of it out there I got discouraged (I shop based on animation primarily, I hate those big-eyes, huge beads of sweat and whatnot animation styles). So I'd like some help in that department, I want serious, preferably brutal anime, with good animation. Any ideas?

[boo boo]

Paranoia Agent. Dammit I knew I forgot something.

[boo boo]

Originally Posted by adidasss

My neighbor Totoro was pretty bad, aside from Totoro himself who was adorable, there was a mountain of seriously annoying Asian, patriarchal/misogynistic stereotypes, the plot - non-existent).

Akira - in retrospect, the animation was pretty bad

Either you're joking or you're absolutely insane.

Totoro was a amazing, and it's pretty much impossible for Miyazaki to make a bad film, the english dub is pretty bad, but Anime should never be judged by the english dubs. And the lack of plot is bad criticism, since that's wrong anyway, and what I think you meant is that it didn't have an anime plot. But that's really one of the great things about the movie, it took a very simple plot and made something out of it. It's one of the best kids films ever made, you have to be out of your mind to say it even comes close to being less than a great film, let alone being a bad film.

I have absolutely no idea what your standards for animation is, but it must be ridiculously high if you think the animation in Akira was bad, it was made in the 80s and even for that time the animation was very detailed and fluid for an anime, I still think it looks amazing.