Indy's anime thread

[Indy13 5]

Well, I was trying to pester gogo on MSN with some youtube videos mostly related to anime, but he was too busy and he just kept refusing to watch them. So I told him that I'm going to pester the forum instead and he said ok.

 

First of all I'm going to start with the definition of what animes are. Most people would just say that animes are japanese cartoons, but in fact the term is much more than that. And since I might not be able to provide an exact definition by my own I'm going to post something from an anime-related wiki page:

So what IS an anime?

 

An anime is an animated, professionally produced, feature film created by a Japanese company for the Japanese market.

 

What does this mean?

* First of all, an anime needs to be animated. Live action, or something with just a few animated scenes is not an anime.

* An anime has to be professionally produced. This means that fan made shows are not considered anime.

* It has to be a feature film, that means it has to have a plot. For instance an animated soap commercial is not an anime.

* The anime needs to be created by a Japanese company. The company can collaborate with other companies out of the country, but it has to have some involvement with a Japanese company.

* The anime needs to be created for the Japanese market. For instance, Disney may collaborate with a Japanese company on the making of a film for the United States, but it is not an anime even though a Japanese company is involved.

Now that we got that sorted out it's time to say what exactly this thread is about. What I am going to do in this thread is post from time to time information about some of the animes I watched, providing for each anime a few words of my own, a link to wikipedia and a link (or more) to a youtube video of it. (usually an opening or ending, or if not an animated music video of it. I wont be posting any download links for full episodes)

 

So that's what I'm going to do, now moving on to what everyone else can do. Well you can discuss about animes you've seen as well, or about the animes that have already been mentioned here and you would like to find more about them. If you have doubts about this then feel free to send me a pm about it and I'll do my best to provide the answer you are looking for.

 

Now moving on to the next topic, why am I doing this you might ask? Basically because I like animes and because I usually like to share information about what I like with other people. Also if you're wondering so far I've watched more than 150 animes totaling up to over 5000 episodes. Before you say "woah! freak!" , I'll just add that in fact more than 60% of those I actually watched as a kid on tv, without knowing back then that those were in fact animes and not just regular cartoons. Eventually, as I'll start posting information about older animes, you'll probably realised that you've watched more animes than you thought you did in the first place.

 

As a final note I don't know how often I will be updating this in terms of adding new animes but the first ones should come in fast in order to provide a starting point.

 

 

Dictionary:

• AMV - Anime music video, a music video containing images from one or more animes. While there are some official AMVs, most of them are actually fan-made.
  
• Manga - Japanese-style comics, basically a comic made in Japan.
  
• Mecha - Walking human-piloted robotic vehicles, usually built in a human-like shape, only bigger
  
• OVA - Original video animation. OVAs are animes not released on TV or at the cinema, but instead directly to video, such as on DVDs. The majority of OVAs have multiple episodes, though there are some made of a single episode. One of the main characteristics of OVAs is higher budgets than TV series.
  

.

Anime list:

• Aa! Megami-Sama! (Oh! My Goddess!) OVA
  
• Basilisk: Kouga Ninpou Chou
  
• Bleach
  
• Ergo Proxy
  
• Full Metal Panic!
  
• Hyper Future Vision: GUNNM (Battle Angel Alita)
  
• Koukaku Kidoutai (Ghost in the Shell)
  
• Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
  
• Noir
  
• Samurai Champloo
  

.

 

Post history:

v1.0 - 22.03.2007 - post created

v1.1 - 27.03.2007 - added dictionary and anime list

Edited June 18, 2007 by Indy13

[Guest gogoblender]

This is an amazing idea. I am fascinated and at the same time excited by your new addiction to anime, indy lol. I've always known about this word "anime" and just used it as a very broad-based categorization of japanese cartoons. It looks like we're going to be shown something that will be entertaining and insightful at the same time.

I"m buckling the seatbelt.

I have a feeling this thread's going places fast and far.

Claire, let's bring along a few bottles for this one.

 

+++

 

 

gogo

[Katran 0]

Sweet I will be here love to talk about this.

There you go Gogo in your second sentence made a mistake LOL manga is comics Anime is cartoon.

 

P.S.: Go Voltron team Go!

[Guest gogoblender]

hahah

corrected!

 

 

gogo

[Indy13 5]

BLEACH

 

And now for the first anime in the list named Bleach. Bear in mind that at the moment this counts as my favourite anime (entertainment-wise) so the post might be a bit biased, dunno.

This anime follows the story of a manga (japanese version of comic books) by Kubo Tite. At the time of this post the anime had 119 episodes and the manga 267 chapters, both of them still running.

 

Story:

In a city in Japan, Karakura Town, lives a 15-year old high-school student named Kurosaki Ichigo. He isn't quite the average teenager basically because his natural hair color is orange which makes him stand out and sometimes gets him into trouble. But what really makes Ichigo special is the fact that for as far as he can remember he has been able to see and talk to ghosts.

 

One day his life changes when he meets a girl named Kuchiki Rukia who tells him that she is in fact a shinigami (actual translation would be god of dead, but it's meaning is more like soul reaper). She tells him that she comes from a place called Soul Society and that her job is to deal with the spirits of those that have died. There are two types of spirits, first are called "plus" and are the normal friendly ghosts and a shinigami's task is to send them to soul society through a process called "soul burial".

 

The second type of spirits are called "hollows" and are characterised by a monster-like appeareance, a mask on their face as well as a hole in their chest. This spirits live only to consume the spirits of those who have died as well as the ones of those who are still living. In order to fight them shinigamis use special swords (called zanpakutou - meaning soul cutter) which have many unique powers.

 

Rukia's explanation is cut short by the appearance of a hollow and while fighting it she gets seriously wounded (due to Ichigo getting in the way foolishly). In order to kill the hollow she tells Ichigo that she will temporarily grant him half of her power. However something goes wrong and Ichigo gets all her powers and in fact appears to be even stronger and kills the hollow easily.

 

Due to the fact that Ichigo received all of Rukia's powers, he is reluctantly made to temporarily take over her job as shinigami and fight the hollows. However as Soul Society finds out about this everything takes an unexpected turn and so the real adventure begins...

 

Wikipedia

Bleach on Wikipedia - Warning! Here there be spoilers!

 

Videos:

Bleach opening 1 - Orange Range - "* ~Asterisk~"

Bleach opening 2 - UVERworld - D-tecnoLife

Bleach opening 3 - HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR - Ichirin no Hana (High-quality version)

Bleach opening 4 - Beat Crusaders - TONIGHT, TONIGHT, TONIGHT

Bleach opening 5 - Yui - Rolling star (High-quality version)

Bleach opening 6 - Aqua Timez - ALONES

 

Personal notes:

Now why do I like this series? Well probably the main reasons would be the plot and the sword fights. The sword fights just rule. This anime is part of the same genre as Dragon Ball (information on this anime to be posted later on), however unlike in Dragon Ball where about all episodes were filled with fights that had little role in the storyline, here all the battles count to the development of the plot. And well, watching fights with swords that have all sorts of magic (kinda) powers is way more entertaining than watching fist fights.

 

Other than that there would the humor, even though most animes have a certain degree of humor in them. The show has a lot of running gags during the episodes as well as a few seconds, usually 10-20, at the end of the episodes where the characters get involved in funny situations that have no effect on the plotline but just offer comic relief.

 

The voice acting is very well done, each voice suiting its character perfectly and the actors put a lot of emotions in it.

 

And then there's the music... Bleach has by far some of the best opening and ending songs found in animes and the songs used during the episodes usually match perfectly with the action.

 

What else to say... So far I have watched all the released 119 episodes. as well as read 214 out of the 267 released chapters.

 

 

That's about it for the first anime description. Well, this is the first of many to come and it might not be exactly as good as I would like it to be, but I'm sure that with practice my descriptions will improve.

[Indy13 5]

Sweet I will be here love to talk about this.

There you go Gogo in your second sentence made a mistake LOL manga is comics Anime is cartoon.

lol!

P.S.: Go Voltron team Go!

Ah, funny that you mentioned Voltron. When I started watching anime again, I ried to track down which of the shows of my childhood were anime. Well, I wasn't able to remember the name, but the show with the "transforming mechanic lions" was definetly an anime in my opinion and had to find out how it was called. After lots of search I managed to find out that the show was called voltron yet it turned out that in fact it's a combination of two japanese series, Hyakujuu Ou Golion (Hundred Beast King GoLion) and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV (Armored Fleet Dairugger XV). (description of the two will come eventually...)

 

So basically Voltron isn't really an anime since it doesn't meet the "must be made for the japanese market criteria" but since it's made based on animes and because it's just oh so cool, we can still talk about it. Anyway, I only saw the american version of it that was based on Golion so I don't really know what happens in the second series, though you might have seen those as well. Also that show has taken a great impact on my childhood. Basically it was the first giant mecha anime I've seen and back then I was like "woah, awesome!".

 

Oh yeah:

US Voltron opening

Japanese Golion opening

So which one do you think it's better?

 

As a side note I was analyzing my description of Bleach and wondering, should I generally expand the story presentation (thus providing more info yet more spoilers as well) or not?

[Indy13 5]

AA! MEGAMI-SAMA! OVA

 

Continuing our list of animes in no particular order we have Aa! Megami-Sama! (Oh My Goddess!/Ah My Goddess!) OVA (original video animation). This anime is based on a manga by Kosuke Fujishima which is still running after almost 20 years. The OVA series had 5 episodes an were based on the first chapters of the manga. This episodes where made at the beginning of the 90's so the graphics in them are something between old and new.

 

Story:

The story revolves around Morisato Keiichi, a student at the Nekomi Institute of Technology. Keiichi is what one would call the opposite of a babe-magnet. Even though he has good grades and is a skilled mechanic and driver (being part of the Nekomi Motor Club) nature wasn't as generous when it came to his height and so Keiichi is only 1.60 meters tall. If that wasn't enough, his personality is also shy and somewhat indecisive. All this lead to the other motor club members tend to make him do a lot of choirs.

 

It all begins with Keiichi being forced to remain at the motor club and do a lot of tasks while everyone else goes out (I think it was for a movie). Also among the list of things to do is to call his sempais (ergh, kinda like a colleague but sorta higher ranked) once he gets everything that. As he does that the wheels of fate turn and he reaches the Goddeses' helpline and soon a beautiful girl appears coming from a mirror in the wall. She says her name is Belldandy, first class goddess - license unlimited, and that she will grant him a wish.

 

Mostly believing that this is all a joke made by his sempais and not thinking that much he just says the first thing that comes in his mind "I want a goddess like you to be with me forever". As he does this everything around goes all shiny and after the lights settle down Belldandy says that the heavens have aproved the contract and that she will stay with him forever or untill he no longer wishes so.

 

The story goes on with Keiichi's new life and with the fact that he fails miserably at any attempts to improve the relationship between him and Belldandy in a romantic way, despite the fact that they now live together and alone in a new house. Also she is nice, warm and loving with anyone around, no matter what. As such he has no idea how to approach her mostly due to his shy nature and due to fear of not angrying a goddess.

 

As time passes Keiichi's romantic troubles grow as Belldandy's big sister, Urd shows up. She is a goddess second class, limited license as well as self-proclaimed goddess of love. As such she has become bored of watching the two not doing anything and has decided to come down and help him. However her plans usually involve magic potions and are almost guaranteed to fail miserably.

 

If living with two goddesses wasn't enough, then what happens when you have to live with three? Well of course Keiichi's chances at Belldandy become even lower once her smaller sister, Skuld, appears. She is still young and has no magic powers yet, however what she lacks in magic she compensates through mechanical ingeniousity. As such she always build all sort of contraptions that, like Urd's potions, usually fail in one way or another. She has come to earth due to the fact that she misses spending time with her sister Belldandy and as such wants to end the contract between her and Keiichi. This leads to her viewing Keiichi as a rival in getting her sister back.

 

Wikipedia:

Oh My Goddess! on Wikipedia - Warning! Spoilers ahead!

 

Videos:

Oh My Goddess! opening - Goddess Family Club - My Heart Iidasenai, Your Heart Tashikametai (High-quality version)

Oh My Goddess! AMV - Foreigner - I want to know what love is*

*Despite this song being slow and a bit depressing, the anime is in fact lively and cherful, certainly not depressing. I just couldn't find a different AMV. =/

 

Personal notes:

Well, the main parts in this anime are definetly the romance and the comedy. Probably some of the guys might say "ugh, romance?". Well in fact it's not bad at all as it isn't the sugary type of romance with "I love you!" and "I love you too!"; it's the "they both like each other but don't know how to work on it" type of romance.

 

As for the comedy, what can I say? It's golden! When was watching a guy who is a complete failure at girls try to get along with three of them not fun? Or if romance and comedy fail for you, you can always try just going for the eye-candy.

 

As I said at the beginning, the graphics are something between old and new, at their time being classified as very good. In terms of music, apart from the opening and the ending, there's only background music since the anime isn't a fast-paced action one and adding songs during the episodes wouldn't have been a good choice.

 

And now a final note, there are more anime works of this series, however in order to keep the post's lenght to a acceptable level I decided to describe them one at a time in chronological order. There shall be more of this in the future.

[Indy13 5]

NOIR

 

Noir is a 26 episodes long anime that generally focuses on gunfights and uncovering the memories of two female assassins. As the title sugests (noir=black in french) the anime has a dark and mysterious tone, features no humor at all and has a lot of drama.

 

Story:

Mireille Bouquet, the daughter of a former powerfull corsican organized crime family, is a female assassin living in Paris. One day she receives a note saying "make a journey to the past with me" as well as a musical watch, which is identical to one related to a traumatic event in her childhood. Thus she arrives at a construcion site where she sees a schoolgirl. Before getting to talk with her she is attacked by armed hitmen and, despite managing to kill some of them, she is eventually captured. However the girl she saw earlier appears and dispatches them all with incredible ease.

 

After that they both head to the girl's home where Mireille finds out that the young girl (who is 15 or 16 year old, can't remember exactly) has no memories of her past, except for one word, Noir (which she doesn't know what it refers to). The first thing she remembers is waking up in a lonely house having no clue where or who she was. As she searched through the clothes and drawers she found a student card with her photo and the name Yuumura Kirika (which she doesn't know if it's her real name or not), a gun and bullet box, and the musical watch.

 

Kirika is tormented about the fact that she can kill people easily yet she feels no regrets or sadness when doing so. As such she asks Mireille for help in order to find out about her past. Mireille, mostly intrigued about the musical watch, agrees to do so under one condition: once her past is revealed Mireille will kill her, to which Kirika agrees. Thus the two start working together as a team under the alias of Noir.

 

During the anime as they plunge deaper into the secrets of the underworld more and more of their pasts is revealed as well as about a mysterious organization, Soldats, which seems to be opposing them and wanting them killed.

 

Wikipedia:

Noir on Wikipedia - as always, major spoilers in here

 

Videos"

Noir opening - Ali Project - Kopperia no Hitsugi (High-quality version)

Noir AMV - The Rasmus - In the Shadows

 

Personal notes:

Well, Noir is kinda special since it's among the first animes that I watched (excluding those as a kid). What impressed me the most is the realism of the characters feelings and emotions which makes you forget sometimes that what your watching is animated and not real. This is also aided by the fact that most of the places and weapons featured in the series were made to look and feel as much as possible as the real world counterparts.

 

What attracted me the most as I started to watch the series was the plot of the anime, since I'm basically a sucker for characters with internal moral burdens. However what initially got me to watch the anime was seeing the

without knowing it was one in the first place. Seeing that video imediately made me want to find out what it was all about.

 

There aren't many major characters in Noir, just the two main ones as well as two more which are strongly linked to their past and future. However this allows the viewer to focus on what is really important, which is the story of the two girls, and not get distracted by subplots. The main plot on the other hand features some expected points, which are generally hinted to the viewer before they happen (such as what Mireilles traumatic event in her childhood is), but also many unexpected events which influence the overall story greatly.

 

The lack of comedy is a necessary thing as the anime follows a dramatic and mysterious plot. As such you wont see any jokes or deformed facial expressions in any of the episodes.

 

And then there's the music. The songs used in the anime are a mixture of italian opera, french music and techno music. All of them fit perfectly with the anime, however the greatest impact on the viewer is given by the opera music which gives a feeling of grandness.

 

So if you're interested in watching a great anime that is made as realistic as possible, as well as following the uncovery of a mysterious plot, then Noir would be the one for you.

 

 

Post history:

v1.0 - 26.03.2007 - post created

v1.1 - 27.03.2007 - added link to canta per me

Edited May 3, 2007 by Indy13

[gogoblender 3,347]

I'm sold. The convication, passion and amazing amount of detail you've put into this thread has convinced me to at least devote some time to Noir. I'm actually interested in what you had to say about you being a sucker for toons with moral burdens because I think that a lot of our interest in characters from movies, animations, literature have a lot to do with how others grapple with their problems and either conquer or perish.

The heroes journey is a much written account of suffering, trials and tribulations that help us connect with a la pathos with the life of the storied. It sounds like Noir has an interesting sort of symbiosis happening between two toons who we will journey with down this road of the mysterious time piece.

Good post

 

 

gogo

[Indy13 5]

I'm sold. The convication, passion and amazing amount of detail you've put into this thread has convinced me to at least devote some time to Noir. I'm actually interested in what you had to say about you being a sucker for toons with moral burdens because I think that a lot of our interest in characters from movies, animations, literature have a lot to do with how others grapple with their problems and either conquer or perish.

The heroes journey is a much written account of suffering, trials and tribulations that help us connect with a la pathos with the life of the storied. It sounds like Noir has an interesting sort of symbiosis happening between two toons who we will journey with down this road of the mysterious time piece.

Good post

Wow, I'm not sure wether my thread really deserved such an elaborate reply, but I thank you for it nevertheless.

As for the moral burden, don't know how to explain it, but the topic just seems to always get my attention when it comes to anime, yet I could care less when it comes to a real movie. Maybe animes just have a better way to get messages accross to me. This is probably because when watching anime you don't analyze the acting as much as when watching a real movie. When it comes to real actors you can easily see the unconvincing acting, but when it comes to anime you tend to be less harsh on bad acting. I'm not saying the acting in animes is bad or unconvincing, I'm just saying that it's more prone to getting away with minor mistakes and thus not spoil the overall viewing experience.

 

Note: added another video link to an amv with one of the opera songs in the anime. The amv is more like a slideshow, but that's mostly because all the othe ones with opera songs contained way too many spoilers.

[Indy13 5]

HYPER FUTURE VISION: GUNNM

 

Gunnm (also known as Battle Angel Alita) is a 2 episode long OVA based on a manga by Yukito Kishiro. Initial public response to it was somewhat unenthusiastic which is why even though the manga now has 18 volumes the anime was never continued.

 

Story:

In the future are generally divided between two distinct societies. The high society lives in sky cities, while the lowers society lives on earth, feeding on the garbage dumped by the sky cities. One example of this is the sky city Tiphares and it's earthbound counterpart, Scrapyard. In the latter lives Ido Daisuke, a cybernetic doctor exiled from Tiphares. His job consists in installing, mantaining and repairing the cybernetic body modification that are a common thing about humans. Even though he is the most skilled at his work he doesn't charge his clients much as he gets his profits from a different venue, which is hunting wanted criminals.

 

One day as he is searching through the piles of scrap metal for parts to salvage he finds the head and torso of a female cyborg and his equipments tell him that her brain is still intact (only the body is that of a cyborg, the brain is that of a human). As such he takes her back home and manages to bring her back to life, however the girl doesn't remember anything of her past so Ido names her Alita and adopts her as a daughter.

 

Even so, Daisuke doesn't tell Alita about his other job in order to keep her mind pure and innocent. However she notices the fact that he has the tendency to leave home in the middle of the night and sometimes the second day he has injuries. Initially Alita fears that Daisuke might be an organ thief which makes her follow him one night. Due to this he gets both herself and the doctor in danger when attacked by a really powerfull brain junkie (one who has an addiction of eating human brains, the future is weird, I know) yet she also the one to get themselves out of trouble, defeating the outlaw with some hand to hand combat moves that she didn't know she possesses.

 

Daisuke recognizes the moves as being those of an ancient martial arts technique called Panzer Kunst even though that still doesn't bring any memories back to Alita. Due to this experience Alita decides that she wants to be a bounty hunter as well and enlists as one despite Ido opposing the idea.

 

The first episode followes the part of Alita uncovering her forgotten hand to hand moves, while the second episode follows a part where Alita falls in love with a boy named Hugo. However he is seems more interested in fullfilling his dream which is reaching Tiphares one day.

 

Wikipedia:

GUNNM on Wikipedia - not much info on this page, but there are spoilers on the related pages

 

Videos:

*Video contains blood and violence as well as spoilers

 

Personal notes:

GUNNM is a great anime as it illustrates the manga so well, which makes me wonder why it wasn't that succesfull. Also the fact that it wasn't continued leaves the story hanging and the only way to ge around that is to start reading the manga which also reveals the mysteries of Tiphares, Alita's past and much more.

 

What got me into watching the anime was the video that I uploaded to youtube as I found the images from it to be very interesting and as such I gave it go, which proved to be the right choice.

 

The graphics in the anime are ok for the time it was made as for the music not much to say about it. There's no opening or ending just some background music if I remember correctly.

 

I would like to be able to say more on this however the anime isn't that long and the story isn't that condensed since it's only a part of a much larger story. However as that one is only found in the manga and not in the anime, talking about it in this post would stray away from the original subject. (feel free to ask me more about it though should you be interested)

[Crunchie 0]

Wow An anime fan!

 

I have soo many animes I doubt I will ever have time to watch them, Been downloads gigs of it on IRC for 2 years now.

 

ALways looking for a new series to get, ill check this thread often ^^

 

 

Crunchie

[Indy13 5]

Wow An anime fan!

 

I have soo many animes I doubt I will ever have time to watch them, Been downloads gigs of it on IRC for 2 years now.

 

ALways looking for a new series to get, ill check this thread often ^^

Lol, I know how you feel about time. I can never seem to find enough time to watch all the animes I want. For example at the moment I have more than a hundred episodes that I have yet to see for which I would need more than 40 hours to see them all. On the other hand getting a hundred new episodes would take only 10 hours. So ugh, there's no way I'll ever get to see all the animes I want. =/ But I can always try.

 

 

Note: made some additions to first post.

[Indy13 5]

SAMURAI CHAMPLOO

 

A 26 episode long anime with action taking place in a slightly altered version of Edo period Japan. By slightly altered it means that historic facts are modified in a comic way. The show is a sword-fighting one with a slight twist, one of the main's character moves being more a combination of traditional samurai moves and breakdancing (in other words he fights in a funny and chaotical way )

 

Story:

The story of Samurai Champloo focuses on Fuu, a young waitress who even though is poor is in fact of samurai descendence. She has one wish which is to find her father, whom she refers as "the samurai who smells like sunflowers".

 

One day a man starts picking on her in the bar and a vagabond named Mugen offers to help her in exchange for food. He easily defeats the man's bodyguards using a very strange and chaotical fighting style, however the man claims to be the son of the region's governer and threatens Mugen that he will be in trouble should he harm him. Mugen doesn't care and says him to bring out the best fighter should he wish to live.

 

In a different part of town, a wandering samurai named Jin gets involved with the governor's bodyguards who where abusing a man unable to pay his taxes. Jin doesn't explicitly say that he helped the man just that the bodyguards were blocking his road and leaves on his way, with the governor left behind frightened.

 

Coincidentally after this Jin happens to enter the bar where Mugen was who mistakes him for the best fighter and attacks him. As they fight they trash the bar and eventually start a fire which ends with the building collapsing and themselves waking up in jail, awaiting death sentence at dawn.

 

Fuu on the other hand is now workless and decides to sneak into jail and help the two out on the condition that they will help her find the samurai who smells like sunflowers. They agree to it eventually and even though the original plan didn't go out well, they escape their death sentence partly thanks to Fuu and partly thanks to their fighting skills.

 

After they escape the first thing they do is attempt to finish the initial fight, however Fuu stops them reminding them of their promise. After flipping a coin to make a decission they have to obey the girl and follow her, however they both vow to kill the other once the journey has ended.

 

The story continues with their journey during which most of the time they're starving and without money as well as Jin an Mugen occasionally attempting to finish their duel or leave the girl behind. The end of the anime has all three of them forced to confront a part of their past.

 

Wikipedia:

Samurai Champloo on Wikipedia - p.s. spoilers

 

Videos:

(High-quality version)

*

*This one is surprisingly well made

 

Personal notes:

Lets see now, this anime is a comic/action one which clearly stands out from others. The cool thing about is the contrast between the fighting styles of the two main male characters. Mugen has his chaotical, yet effective way of fighting which is based on a lot of moves, while Jin uses a traditional fighting style, which uses precise and effective moves, and is extremely skillful at it. This difference in fighting styles makes the two want to fight even more in order to see which one is the best as the original reason for fighting is forgotten.

 

The comical alteration of historic events, most related to Japan but also some related to European countries (such as Holland), such as changing how things exactly happened or adding modern day elements. Among the modern day elements added for example are hip-hop and graffitis.

 

The graphics used in making it are of excellent quality and the drawing style fits the anime's theme perfectly. The music is mainly hip-hop themed which blends well with Mugen's fighting styles as well as with some of the introduced elements in the show. Also Mugen's voice actor in the japanese version has by far my favourite voice so far and I enjoy it in all the anime's he plays in. This is mostly because his voice fits so well with the somewhat unchiseled characters.

 

Probably if I were forced to make a top 10 list of best animes I've seen then Samurai Champloo would have a place in it. The show is great and I recommend it to everyone.

[Indy13 5]

FULL METAL PANIC!

 

Full Metal Panic! is a 24 episode long comedy/mecha anime adaptation of a series of graphical novels written by Shouji Gatou.

 

Story:

The action of FMP takes place in the modern world (1999+), however some details are changed such as the cold war still being in place or China being split in half between communists and democrats. Also a significant boost in technology exists under the form of giant mecha robots (called Arm Slaves), advanced AI systems, etc. Most of this technology has become available due to the existence of extremely gifted people (called whispered) who have a latent ability of developing scientific breakthroughs.

 

Chidori Kaname is a typical Japanese high-school girl who has no idea that she is in fact a whispered, yet this attracts the attention of different organizations, both good and bad. One of this organizations is Mithril, a powerfull secretive paramilitary organization possessing superior weapons and technologies to any existing countries and having the mantainace of world peace as charter. To do so another of it's obejctives is securing and protecting whispered.

 

In order to protect Chidori Kaname should any terrorist organization threaten her, Mithril assigns a team of three skilled soldiers to protect her. Among them, Sagara Sousuke (a sergent of Kaname's age) is assigned to protect her by engaging in direct contact and thus posing as a foreign transfer student. Yet all this are easier said than done. Sousuke has no idea how school life actually is as he has spent most of his life fighting in different conflicts around the world.

 

Even though he presents himself at start as a sergent nobody believes him and everybody starts looking at him like a military-obsessed freak, especially Kaname. The fact that he is always following her and that his reactions are always impulsive and over-exagerated (always taking any situation as something dangerous and a threat to Kaname's life) doesn't help their relationship either as she is always yelling or hitting him for his reckless actions.

 

The series does change a bit when Kaname is actually abducted by a different organization and thus realizes that Sousuke's claims were in fact real. Yet is that enough to change their relationship?

 

Wikipedia:

Full Metal Panic! on Wikipedia - uhm, spoilers, duh!

 

Videos:

Full Metal Panic! opening 1 - Mikuni Shimokawa - Tomorrow

Full Metal Panic! opening 2 - Mikuni Shimokawa - Tomorrow*

Full Metal Panic! AMV - Spineshank - Beginning of the End

**

*Second version (episodes 17+) - same song, different images

**This one is awesome! It clearly points out why FMP is extremely funny! Some of the images are from a different season though.

 

Personal notes:

This show is definetly a great one due to its blending of comedy and mecha genres. Episdoes usually fall into two categories. One is the school related part of the story, which contains most of the humor and focuses primarily on the relationship between Sousuke and Kaname. The second one has a more serious tone, containing the arm slaves missions and battles and focusing on Mithril's conflicts with other organization as well as on Sousuke's personal conflict with a person from his past.

 

Wether you need a dose of comedy to lighten up your day or a dose of action to keep you hooked up this anime has them both.

 

The graphics used in the making of this anime are top notch, with excellently rendered characters as well as the giant mechas and combats.

[Crunchie 0]

Fumo? Fumo? FUMOFFU?

 

Ive seen the first set and the mini series.

 

Havent Seen FMP Second Raid yet, buts its downloaded. ^^

 

Im glad you haven't gone into Naruto yet, best to avoid it and stick to Good anime heh

[Indy13 5]

Fumo? Fumo? FUMOFFU?

 

Ive seen the first set and the mini series.

 

Havent Seen FMP Second Raid yet, buts its downloaded. ^^

Haha! Fumoffu is so cool and funny! (note for those that don't know, FMP Fumoffu is the second series of the show, I'll add a description for it sometimes in the future) Though by making it they kinda split the show, fumoffu gets most of the comic school story arc while the second raid gets most of the action story arc.

 

And btw, you definetly have to see FMP TSR. Since lots of important things happen such as the identity of the main rival organization being revealed, new technologies (such as weapons capable of disrupting ECS) being used or the introduction of Tessa's brother. (if you rememeber she did mention having one in the Behemoth story arc of the first season ) Also the one commanding the enemies in this series is the cherry on the top. He's a clinicaly insane madman and by far the best character in the season. His lines and actions are always hilarious.

 

Im glad you haven't gone into Naruto yet, best to avoid it and stick to Good anime heh

Aww, Naruto ain't that bad. Sure it's by far the most overrated show of the moment with way too many people watching it, but even so it's a decent show. Well, of course for that you would have to ignore the filler episodes (that make half of the series).

 

Also you would have to get used to Naruto's biggest problem which is... well... Naruto. Naruto (the character) is basically anoying, but he's anoying because that's the way he's suposed to be. So if you can accept that then you might have a better chance of enjoying the show. Though in the end it's everyone to his tastes.

[Katran 0]

Hey Indy I am a big Guyver fun but I am sorry to say I dont know much about it. Seen the movies as a kid and some anime that a friend gave me around 10 episodes but any info you can give me on it would be a great help. Thanks!

[Indy13 5]

Hey Indy I am a big Guyver fun but I am sorry to say I dont know much about it. Seen the movies as a kid and some anime that a friend gave me around 10 episodes but any info you can give me on it would be a great help. Thanks!

Aww, sorry to say this, but I probably know less about that show than you do , as I haven't seen it.

 

(or at least not yet )

[Katran 0]

Not seen it But you have heard about it right. Watched the movies as a kid right?

[Indy13 5]

Not seen it But you have heard about it right. Watched the movies as a kid right?

 

Well, not really...

 

Though now that I've looked into it I noticed I've seen a live action version of it (which was kinda bad), but had no idea it was connected to a manga/anime.

 

Well, I might try the anime in the near future provided I have enough time and that I don't get temporarily bored of SF anime. At the moment I"m working on watching the entire gundam series (though I'm having difficulties finding the first few series) and that's almost 600 episodes of SF. I wonder if my brain can take it, lol.

[Indy13 5]

ERGO PROXY

 

Ergo Proxy is a 23 episode long science fiction/psihological anime. This post is going to be hard to write lol, since the show is so complex and has so many different aspects...

 

Story:

The action of Ergo Proxy takes place in a post-apocalyptic future. Mankind has completely destroyed the worlds ecosystem and now the entire planet is permanently clouded, frozen and bare. As such the remaining humans now live in gigantic dome cities (which are isolated one from another) where they await the day when the sun will shine again.

 

Even so the technological level of humankind is very advanced, personal companion androids (called auto-raves) being a common thing. Mostly everyone has at least one auto-rave, who's task is to serve and protect his/her owner.

 

But even in this seemingly ideal place not everyone has the same social status. There are still people who do what can be consider low-end jobs, in this case technical mantainance.

 

The story begins with Re-l Mayer (first name pronounced "real", exact spelling is actually revealed later in the show, until then it leaves you wondering lol) who is a detective/investigator in the city of Romdeau assigned to a series of murders which apparently have been caused by infected auto-raves. This auto-raves are infected with a virus called "cogito" which causes them to gain self-awareness and free-will.

 

One day she spots a glimpse of a strange humanoid, yet all the traces remaining are a handmark on a wall. That night the misterious humanoid breaks into her house and she gets to see him better. The appearance is that of a male human, however he's taller, has darker skin, glowing eyes and a strange mask. The moment after, another one breaks into her room and they start fightin at which point she loses consciousness.

 

The next day noone believes that she was attacked by a "monster" and sugest that she should have a mental examination. On the other hand she has been forbidden from entering her apartment for the time being, however she sneaks inside and finds the place traced, confirming the fact that her memory wasn't playing tricks on her.

 

On the same day, security cameras record images of a auto-rave mantainace worker being chased through a mall by one of the two "monsters". The name of the worker is Vincent Law, an immigrant with no actual memory of the past from the city of Moscow (which was destroyed in previous war by Romdeau, thus leading to Vincent becoming an immigrant).

 

As Vincent is now a wanted man by the security forces of the city, he decides to escape outside in the frozen wasteland and travel to Moscow in order to find out about his past. Wanting to know more about the monster, now revealed to be named Ergo Proxy (or at least I think it was revealed by now), Re-l follows Vincet as he seems to be connected to it. With them also travel Re-l's personal auto-rave and a cogito infected auto-rave model of a child (named Pino).

 

Well, I hope all that made sense, since it was hard to write...

 

Wikipedia:

Ergo Proxy on Wikipedia - Spoilers, also their introduction seems to be focusing on other points than mine lol

 

Videos:

Ergo Proxy opening - Monoral - kiri (High-quality version)

Ergo Proxy AMV - Alexisonfire - Crisis*

*A bit violent, but really cool nevertheless

 

Personal notes:

This show is definetly complex, as it follows more than just one topic. The anime focuses on the psichology and thoughts of the main characters, especially on those of Vincent. At first Re-l appears to be the most important character, but as the series progresses the importance tends to shift towards Vincent.

 

Each character must adapt to a new way of life. Vincent must learn about his past, Re-l must get used to living a life deprived of luxury and Pino has to understand her new existence as a fully conscious being.

 

The graphics in the show are top notch with excelent blending of 2D and 3D. Some might find unpleasant the fact that most of the episodes have dark images, but that was made to emphasise the difference between the different parts of society and of the world, all with a deeper meaning. Well, I belive that finding the meanings of all the elements in Ergo Proxy should be left for each one to do on his own, so I'm not going to elaborate on it in this post.

 

The show manages to keep one interested for its whole duration, always coming with something completely unexpected. Very few of the plot changes can be actually foreseen from previous elements in the episodes.

 

Somehow I feel that I might have pushed my luck with this post, as maybe it would have been wiser to leave a complex anime like this one for describing later on. Oh well, I hope that what I wrote provides at least some valuable info about the show...

[Katran 0]

Indy come one man it has been more then 20 days wake up I want to read something new.

Can you give me a long anime like a movie not a series better said give me several.

[Indy13 5]

Indy come one man it has been more then 20 days wake up I want to read something new.

Can you give me a long anime like a movie not a series better said give me several.

Oh dear...

 

I've been planning to update this thread since I got back from my vacation, but everytime there was something else I had to do. =/ (most of the times it was Imperia lol)

 

But now that you've asked me to update it I definetly must do it. I promise I'll update it tomorow by adding at least 2 movies to the list.

[Indy13 5]

MONONOKE HIME

 

Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) is a very succesfull anime movie, being ranked 3rd most popular anime movie in Japan. The movie last a bit over 2 hours and has quite a fair amount of blood and violence in it, but not enough to make it disturbing in any way.

 

Story:

Ashitaka is the young prince of a small village and a very skillfull archer. One day the village is threatened by an enraged demon and as such Ashitaka fights him to protect the villagers. Despite the fact that the demon is going berserk and feels almost no pain, Ashitaka manages to defeat it but his arm is wounded in the process. The demon who is revealed to be an enraged boar god has placed a curse on him through that wound, which even though it's limited only to his arm, it will eventually spread through his entire body, kill him and turn him into a demon as well. Inside the boar's corpse a piece of metal was found, which the village elder believe it's the source of the curse. As such the only hope for Ashitaka to find a cure is to leave the village and head towards the regions from where the boar came.

 

On his journey Ashitaka passes by a group of soldiers pillaging a village and decides to take action against them. He prepares his bow and arrow, but once he shoots the curse in his arm activates and the arrow flies with incredible speed, enough to cut off a soldiers head. Thus he discovers that when he uses his arm for combat he gains incredible strength from the curse, but also the scar on his arm expands, meaning that the time he has left decreases.

 

Continuing his journey he is helped at one point to buy food from a town by a monk named Jigo and ends up traveling and camping with him. When shown the piece of metal from the boar's corpse, Jigo says that the piece of metal is a bullet and comes from a place named Irontown. After that the two part ways and Ashitaka heads for Irontown. On the way he encounters two wounded soldiers that came from Irontown. He decides to save them and to take the shortest route to Irontown through the forest, even though the soldiers are reluctant and say that the forest is inhabited by evil spirits.

 

Once he reaches Irontown the leader of the town, Lady Eboshi, tells him that they are currently in a war with the spirits of the forest, due to the fact that the town chops down the trees and the spirits want to keep their habitat. One of Lady Eboshi is a girl name San, who has tried many times to assassinate her. San is a girl who was found as young child by the wolf goddess Moro who decided to raise her as her daughter. As such San hates humans and fights on the side of the forest spirits.

 

Thus Ashitaka is caught in the middle in the war between Irontown and the forest spirits. Now not only he must find a way to cure his curse but also a way to stop the conflict before it's too late.

 

Wikipedia:

Mononoke Hime on Wikipedia - Lots of spoilers, as in the entire movie action...

 

Videos:

Mononoke Hime AMV - H.I.M. - Sacrament of Love

 

Personal notes:

Well I tried to keep my story description as balanced as I could between information and too many spoilers. Kinda hard to write a description of a movie without giving too much info away as a movie has a limited length and thus less content than some series.

 

But by less content I'm refering to the overall content not the content/length ratio. For the time it runs this anime has an abundant amount of action and scenes. The characters are all well-built and the way they evolve throughout the story is illustrated perfectly.

 

The graphics top notch as the movie benefited of a huge budget (highest budget ever for an anime movie at that time). Even though the movie uses 3D rendering, all the frames were drawn by hand with incredible skill.

 

The movie is definetly a great one to see for its story and character development but also if you want to have a list of things to do research on as a homework (provided you watch a subtitled version of the japanese audio) as it has a lot of asian mythological references.