Anime!

[Regular Chicken]

I'm a complete beginner in this field, but I figure I'm probably missing out on some really good stuff. I'm sure there's some Anime experts amongst you, so come forth!  In terms of feature length films, I've seen Akira and the first Ghost in the Shell (pretty much the two films every non-anime fan has seen). I haven't seen any Anime TV shows except Afro Samurai.

Which films/programmes would you recommend? I understand you can get any genre Anime so maybe I'm being too vague, it doesn't have to be sci-fi, just...good!

Any recommendations are welcome, but if anyone could pinpoint any stuff imparticular from this TV Links Anime page that'd be extra nice, so I can test some stuff out (for free).

[Emma Raducanu]

Straight away I'll recommend Only Yesterday (1991?). The artwork is just tear inducing and it tells a lovely little story about growing up in Tokyo. It's non offensive, there's little to dislike about the picture and it may even help you look back on your own growing up (It is considered an adult film mind). I think it has everything that's good about Anime but I'm no expert.

To add, this is a 'Studio Ghibli' production and though a lesser known film compared to Miyazaki's stuff, I guarantee it is as charming and loveable as anything he has done. Damn I'm going to go and watch it.

[The Widow of Brid]

(going solely from what's on tvlinks) Chobits and Cowboy Bebop are quite fun, DragonHalf and Excel Saga are HUGE fun, Von Trousers likes Last Exile. Though I find it pretty but dull.

The manga that Paradise Kiss is based on is fab. But I've never seen the anime.

[munkybitch]

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=13554.0

[gatchamandave]

Definitely  Cowboy Bebop -  good art, great music and excellent dubbing. But get the episodes, not the movie, if only because you'll enjoy the latter more if you know who the characters are. Personally I also like Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex and since they are pretty widely available you might get them from Amazon for not to much.

Movie wise - well, everyone else is going to recommend Miyazaki so I'll pass on to Perfect Blue for an idea of what anime can do that no other medium can, and Metropolis for the beautiful animation. Steamboy is OK - not as good as Akira - but what is?- but is nice to look at.

If you have cable then there is Anime Central on Sky 199 which has some pretty eclectic stuff.

I'd recommen avoiding nostalgia stuff like Robotech or Starblazers simply because they were of their time and whilst fun for us old farts, might put a new and keen would-be fan off. Simlarily, and it hurts to admit this given my call-name, don't touch Battle of the Planets with a barge-pole.

Just dive in - but I would recommend shopping through e-Bay and getting box -sets from the Far East because Western firms charge about £ 70 for a complete season of a show that might cost you about £ 20 from Hong- Kong, with  a  fiver for post and packaging. Most sellers are very, very reliable and quick - hey, if it's subtitled you can always improve your Japanese.

Enjoy...

[Consignia]

The manga that Paradise Kiss is based on is fab. But I've never seen the anime.

The anime is top notch, if you can stand how mundane the subject is. I lap it up, as I prefer anime based in "real-life", rather than fantasy or Sci-fi, which anime is traditonally famous for.

Overall though, my favourite type of anime is slapstick comedy. I don't think I've ever failed to laugh at a bath tub falling on someones head.

Anyway recommendations:

Perfect Blue (or indeed anything by Satoshi Kon)
Excel Saga (or indeed anything by Shinichi "Nabeshin" Watanabe)

Anything else it pretty much depends what you want to see.... I can commend anything from pretty much any genre if you have any preferences. Or if there's anything from my collection you want any info about just ask: http://consignia.dvdaf.com/owned/anime

[Pogue Mahone]

Is there a significant style difference, if any at all, between manga and anime, or are they one and the same really? I'm not an expert in the field, but I believe that manga are Japanese comics while anime clearly means Japanese animations. Is the only difference the fact that anime applies to moving images while mange applies to stationary ones? And what makes something such; the fact that it's Japanese or the fact that it is drawn in a certain style?

On the topic of the art in general, I decided to do one of my A-Level art pieces in the style a few years ago. I still have it so I'll try and get a photo to upload if I can some time.

[Regular Chicken]

Thanks people, some stuff to get my teeth into for sure.

Yeah I've heard good things about Cowboy Bebop, sounds very fun. The Grave of the Fireflies movie is meant to be superb too. Just been reading into it, seems that this show Elfen Lied is pretty highly regarded also, anyone seen it?

[munkybitch]

Samurai Champloo

Gantz

Paranoia Agent

Paprika (movie)

[Consignia]

Is there a significant style difference, if any at all, between manga and anime, or are they one and the same really? I'm not an expert in the field, but I believe that manga are Japanese comics while anime clearly means Japanese animations. Is the only difference the fact that anime applies to moving images while mange applies to stationary ones? And what makes something such; the fact that it's Japanese or the fact that it is drawn in a certain style?

On the topic of the art in general, I decided to do one of my A-Level art pieces in the style a few years ago. I still have it so I'll try and get a photo to upload if I can some time.

Manga is more diverse than anime as a style, usually because production of anime requires a large amount of throughput per project which usually ends up leaving a more homogenised image. If you pick up a Japanese manga anthlogy and flick through it, you will  see many different drawing styles. Yet if you do the same with anime, you'll probably notice that there are very similar styles.

That's not to say that manga doesn't have similar constraints. Some of the weekly mangas have generic drawing styles as there is pressure to produce quite large amounts per week. Even the monthlys sometimes suffer from this. Generally though, the author of the manga will have his or her own style which will vary more signifcantly than anime of the same subject.

[Consignia]

Yeah I've heard good things about Cowboy Bebop, sounds very fun. The Grave of the Fireflies movie is meant to be superb too. Just been reading into it, seems that this show Elfen Lied is pretty highly regarded also, anyone seen it?

Grave of the Fireflies is alright, if a bit dull. It lays on the emotional crap a bit too much, but there is an interesting insight to Japanese life in there.

Elfen Lied is quite a viseral anime, but is very enjoyable if you disengage your brain. If you took away the gore, it would be a typical shounen (boy) anime. I like it, but it may put you off if expect too much of it.

[glitch]

You want non-typical anime art? Dead Leaves.

Just don't expect to make any sense of it. A shame, as it's got a phenomenal mix of graphics and audio - almost like watching moving graffiti.

[micanio]

Spirited Away is essential viewing. That is all.

[munkybitch]

http://www.tv-links.co.uk/video/3/7895/12778/77112/108384

probably one of the best anime i've seen

[The Boston Crab]

Bebop I also love - funny, sad, endlessly inventive playing with conventions, tremendous (really tremendous) music, plenty of meaningless (fun) diversions...basically an incredible show. I just found the boxsets here in China, never watched any before and ploughed through them all. It was a joy.

I think the only anime I've ever cried at is Millennium Actress, just beautiful. Perfect Blue by the same director is fine stuff, even though it's a bit confusing on the first sitting(s). Millennium Actress tells the story of an elderly actress who was a bit of a looker in her day, via a modern-day interview/conversation with an adoring fan we're given her heartbroken life story in flashbacks which meld into various movie scenes she's played in. We're occasionally unsure as to what is reality/fiction/acting and whose life we're really following, similar in this respect to Perfect Blue. For me it's a much more interesting and moving film than Perfect Blue though, the meshing of crystallized memories with present-day reality really made me think about truth and nostalgia. We remember things so actively in hindsight to put some kind of narrative on our life, when the reality is an incoherent series of unrelated events. The ending is also staggeringly good. Damn, I lent it to one of my students who loved it so much she never gave it back.

Memories, a collection of three shorts originally written by Otomo (I think), is also brilliant. The three are remarkably different in style and tone (different directors of course, too) but definitely equally watchable. The first part about a kind of deep space siren/ghost of an opera singer (pardon?) is just fantastic in every way.

[samadriel]

Excel Saga is crucial; really funny stuff.  Unfortunately they don't have Keroro Gunsou ('Sgt Frog') on TV Links, but I recommend that as well, nonetheless.

Trigun starts off fairly peurile, but it turns into something special a few episodes in.

[alan nagsworth]

In my opinion, everything I've seen so far from Studio Ghibli is exceptional, especially Pom Poko, Spirited Away and The Castle Of Cagliostro (not strictly a Ghibli film but still done by Hayao Miyazaki). Appleseed is pretty sweet aswell, from the makers of Ghost In The Shell.

As for TV shows, Death Note is fucking incredible, Golden Boy is hilarious, and Fooly Cooly/FLCL is both incredible and hilarious, making it the best anime I've ever seen. The animation is pretty top-notch aswell.

[The Boston Crab]

Porco Rosso might be my favourite-looking Ghibli, anyone seen that? Fighter pilot turns into ladykiller Mediterranean pig fighter pilot.

[alan nagsworth]

Yeah that's a great film. Ghibli always have these awesome morals concealed behind ludicrous yet understandable plots. Then again, that's the same with almost every anime I've seen.

[glitch]

Yeah that's a great film. Ghibli always have these awesome morals concealed behind ludicrous yet understandable plots. Then again, that's the same with almost every anime I've seen.

I'm guessing you've not see Urotsukidôji then ;)

[alan nagsworth]

I'm guessing you've not see Urotsukidôji then ;)

No, but looking it up...

One idea that Maeda brought to the manga world was an almost archetypal image of a tentacle, which became a staple in his later work. Below, he explains the meaning behind this idea in the same interview:

At that time, it was illegal to create a sensual scene in bed. I thought I should do something to avoid drawing such a normal sensual scene. So I just created a creature. [His tentacle] is not a [penis] as a pretext. I could say, as an excuse, this is not a [penis], this is just a part of the creature. You know, the creatures, they don't have a gender. A creature is a creature. So it is not obscene - not illegal. (In Japan, it is illegal to depict genetalia.)

Hahahaha.

[alexl]

Another vote for Perfect Blue - probably the most intelligent and adult anime I've seen. I'd also recommend Ninja Scroll if you like samurai type movies, Blood: the last vampire, any Studio Ghibli, Angel's Egg (great animation, but confusing).

[Glebe]

In my opinion, everything I've seen so far from Studio Ghibli is exceptional, especially Pom Poko, Spirited Away and The Castle Of Cagliostro (not strictly a Ghibli film but still done by Hayao Miyazaki). Appleseed is pretty sweet aswell, from the makers of Ghost In The Shell.

I never finished watching Caligastro-the DVD was damaged and I got it replaced, but haven't sat down to watch it since. Grave Of The Fireflies is another (more serious) must, I think I pointed out here before that it actually made me cry! Whisper Of The Heart is a Ghibli film that surprized me, thought it might be a ho-hum kid's thing, but it turned out to be a beautiful, unpretentious and intelligent little gem. About as far away from Hollywood as a whisical film can get. The scene with the musicians had a generally wonderful classic old movie feel, for me.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Rent Grave of the Fireflies, as you'll only ever watch it once.

[alan nagsworth]

I never finished watching Caligastro-the DVD was damaged and I got it replaced, but haven't sat down to watch it since.

Yeah, if you enjoyed what you saw of Cagliostro, watch the rest at all costs. It's easily the most stylish and funny film by Miyazaki - effortlessly cool. Doesn't the lead character, Lupin III, have his own show/string of films?

Whisper Of The Heart is a Ghibli film that surprized me, thought it might be a ho-hum kid's thing, but it turned out to be a beautiful, unpretentious and intelligent little gem. About as far away from Hollywood as a whisical film can get. The scene with the musicians had a generally wonderful classic old movie feel, for me.

The side of Ghibli which appeals to a much younger audience still never fails to amaze me, modest films like Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbour Totoro are just as enchanting and mind-blowing in their own right as the jam-packed classics like Spirited Away. It's annoying when all people look for in an anime is leggy birds with huge tits and a bionic arm saving the Tokyo from the fifth world war or whatever. Fucking hentai nerds.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Doesn't the lead character, Lupin III, have his own show/string of films?

There are dozens of films, tv series (probably both live action and animated), and comics series.  He's a very famous character in Japan - but none of the other films or tv series are as good as Castle of Cagliostro.

[Regular Chicken]

I watched Perfect Blue for the first time last night. At first I wasn't sure whether I liked it but by the end I was pretty much loving it. I liked how about an hour in everything sort of turns on its head and the story gets progressively stranger and more complex, the exact type of thing I like in my films. I did find flaws however. Firstly, the main character Mima is hella annoying, and the ending...

Spoiler alert

Well unless I completely misunderstood, I'm sure about 3/4 of the way in it was revealed that Mima wasn't infact a pop idol / actress but infact she was an abused girl with multiple personality disorder, and she'd created the character so in her mind she wasn't really gang-raped, it was just a scene in a movie. But then it went back into her 'imaginary world' where the story went that the manager woman was mental, and believed she was the real pop-idol star Mima. But then in the end, crazy manager woman is locked away in hospital believing she's Mima, and Mima turns to the viewer and says "I'm real!" Then it ends!? I might have to watch it again, I'm still not sure whether that crazy stalker guy Me-Mania was real or just a figment of someone's imagination! Any help?

[close]

[mister_enmity]

FLCL. I didn't manage to get past the first episode yet; it's extremely insane! Anyone here a fan of Full Metal Alchemist? I only watched the first two episodes and wasn't terribly impressed. Does it get any better?

[Consignia]

FLCL. I didn't manage to get past the first episode yet; it's extremely insane! Anyone here a fan of Full Metal Alchemist? I only watched the first two episodes and wasn't terribly impressed. Does it get any better?

I like Full Metal Alchemist, but the first two episodes set the tone for the rest of the series. The problem, the is a long flashback after episode 2, and the series doesn't really kick in until after that which is somewhere around episode 10. The great thing about Full Metal Alchemist, is everything has a part to play in the overall story, it's amazingly well constructed for something of the genre. Unfortunatly, if you don't like the genre, you won't like the series one bit.

[alan nagsworth]

FLCL. I didn't manage to get past the first episode yet;

Can't you find the rest, or is it just too x-treme?