Anime

[greg]

Well, at least I got someone to watch Elfen Lied. He told me he watched the whole series and it was "pretty badass." 

[CD]

Someone recommended Angel's Egg and Kino's Journey. The art style for both looks pretty. I might actually watch an entire anime!

[greg]

Someone recommended Angel's Egg and Kino's Journey. The art style for both looks pretty. I might actually watch an entire anime!

I have never heard of Angel's Egg, but Kino's Journey would be something I'd recommend.

To describe it simply, I'd say it's a mainly non-violent show with an indifferent, subjective character who travels the world to learn about other cultures. These cultures she learns about- I have to say, are so incredibly dumb that it's beyond belief. If you think people in the real world are dumb, just watch this show and compare and you'll feel a little bit better.

I also wonder if you'd like Serial Experiments Lain or Fooly Cooly... (these I'd consider avant-garde anime, the former having a very serious tone, and the latter being, I don't know, just "crazy" (almost like a youtube poop)  ).

[greg]

Anyone ever watch Full Metal Panic? I've watched the original and the Second Raid, but now I just finished watching the first episode of "Fumoffu" (which is technically the second season).

The whole show is basically a back and forth of the life of Sagara Sousuke- during the beginning of the series, he's just being his old military self, doing crazy stuff and getting into trouble at school, and then during the series it always goes to episodes where they are on a mission, which gets a bit more serious instead of lighthearted and comical (for example, the terrorist hijacking in the first series). I tend to prefer the more comical parts of the show, though.

This is what I was watching... I thought I was going to injure myself laughing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acBtQAh7lkk&feature=related

[greg]

And here's an anime that turned out to be so great that I don't even feel worthy enough to talk about it...

I finished Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni ('When They Cry'). It's a 26 episode anime series, that has two more seasons which I haven't watched yet. I had started watching it a while ago, but stopped after a few episodes, because it felt like it was getting repetitive, but it turned out to just be my own impatience. Now, I can't possibly be more happy that I decided to finish it.

Initially, I watched it just because there were some scenes that were really violent and gory, but it turns out that horror is just a smaller element, and the whole show is more of a drama/psychological/mystery story.

The whole story line is NOT straightforward. It's based on question and answer arcs, which retell the story (or just parts of it) from a different perspective, or shows different events each time (each lasting about 4-6 episodes). The more you go through it, the more things make sense and you absolutely HAVE to watch it until the end to understand stuff somewhat (although I hear season 2 really explains everything).

Honestly, if you can get past the strangeness of this format, you'll be in for something else. Probably if I had to say the best aspects of the show I would say the development of the characters and how they all end up losing it (the way their insanity is portrayed with the expressions and voice is pure genius) due to fear for their friends, or themselves. Also, the atmosphere and the very intensely dramatic scenes involving dialogue between characters that goes deeper than you can imagine. And, basically, the whole show keeps you thinking constantly, so it's very entertaining intellectually, and it's great once you learn how to enjoy the "confusion". I can't say I've ever encountered a better overall storyline in any movie or TV series. Probably the only type of story that could top something like this would have to be a classic novel.

[greg]

Here's an example of the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/dVcev_WJdJM&feature=related

I guess this clip would show off the acting and intensity of the characters (the best part being the end, when she pushes her twin sister down a well). That's just a small part of it, really.

[greg]

What would be awesome would be to do an opera based on this show.

I can just see it now:

instead of Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, etc.
it would be like "Question Arc 1", "Question Arc 2", "Answer Arc 1", etc.
The whole thing would be 9 hours long, since that's how long the show is in all. It would have it all- be the most disturbing opera since Wozzeck, the most atmospherically sensitive opera since Pelleas et Melisande, and the most passionate since Tristan und Isolde.

People would pay good money for something like this, though it'd have to be spread out to two or three evenings (or just make it abridged to 4 hours instead of 9). It'd be the greatest opera of the 21st century. 

[drogulus]

      Greg or someone,

      1) If you were to recommend a single instance of anime to convince a doubter that it's worth watching, what would that be?

      2) Could I acquire this on the (arrgghh!) Bay (arrgghh!)?

[MN Dave]

      Greg or someone,

      1) If you were to recommend a single instance of anime to convince a doubter that it's worth watching, what would that be?

      2) Could I acquire this on the (arrgghh!) Bay (arrgghh!)?

Is this where we say AKIRA?

[Renfield]

Is this where we say AKIRA?

End of discussion.

[drogulus]

      Google is supposedly my friend, so I'll see what I can find out about it. Oh, "someone", that clip was interesting. I'm at work watching without sound. Maybe I'll check it out again when I get home.

      I don't know....it's not the cultural strangeness that bothers me, because I like samurai and other Japanese films. It really must be the animation. Also, what will my GF say? She likes samurai films (especially when they act "like doggies" as she puts it, when someone bows to a superior), but anime is a bridge too far. I put a Firefox anime girl on my desktop (high class....no tarts....that's right out) and she looked at it with a very dubious expression, as though I had dragged a dead animal into the house.

[greg]

      Greg or someone,

      1) If you were to recommend a single instance of anime to convince a doubter that it's worth watching, what would that be?

      2) Could I acquire this on the (arrgghh!) Bay (arrgghh!)?

1) I've never seen Akira... (yeah, go ahead and stone me, everyone).  These guys have great taste in stuff, so I'd trust them... as for what I've seen so far, my top, safest recommendation for that would be Death Note- the reason being is that a lot of people like it and it's intelligent as hell at the same time.  Just ask Joe- when he started watching it, he became addicted for a while, though I don't know if he ever finished the series.

2) I don't know, I haven't looked. I watch all my anime from the huge, intimidating list:
http://www.kumby.com/anime-list

and if the video doesn't work there, I always go to youtube.

      Google is supposedly my friend, so I'll see what I can find out about it. Oh, "someone", that clip was interesting. I'm at work watching without sound. Maybe I'll check it out again when I get home.

      I don't know....it's not the cultural strangeness that bothers me, because I like samurai and other Japanese films. It really must be the animation. Also, what will my GF say? She likes samurai films (especially when they act "like doggies" as she puts it, when someone bows to a superior), but anime is a bridge too far. I put a Firefox anime girl on my desktop (high class....no tarts....that's right out) and she looked at it with a very dubious expression, as though I had dragged a dead animal into the house.

Haha, don't care what she thinks. 
What about the animation do you find hard to get used to? Is it the style, or does it just feel weird to watch a "cartoon" so seriously? If it's the first, then I guess it's just hit-and-miss depending on which anime you watch. If it's the second, then I can understand. Somehow, anime for kids and teens such as Bleach or Naruto tend to be lumped in with ones intended for adults. Must be a Japanese thing- I hear they have stuff next to each other, say, in book or video stores, that should never be that close together. 

(btw, i can't really say i care about the actual art style of the clip i posted, just sayin')

[drogulus]

     
      See, there's nothing objectionable about it.

     

      Yet she says it's an "awful thing". The eyes look like nostrils, so she thought it was a cow. Try squinting at it, maybe....

[greg]

Yeah, well, maybe she's just retarded.

I went to the bookstore and picked up like 5 different manga to read the beginning of for 5 or so minutes each. The first 4 weren't that interesting- too hyper, childish, flashy, etc.

Then I found this horror manga called "Uzumaki" that has an art style that doesn't even look very much like anime/manga. I just read the first chapter and WHOA!!!  This is genuinely creepy (yet sort of funny) stuff.


Here's the link to the chapter:
http://www.onemanga.com/Uzumaki/1/02/



What happens is...
in short, this guy develops an intense fascination with the spiral shape that he drops everything to study them. In the end, he...


(don't read if you don't want to be spoiled)
is found inside a large container, his body in the shape of a spiral because he killed himself by crushing his bones in order to form the shape. That is one disturbing image.

[drogulus]

Yeah, well, maybe she's just retarded.

     Either that or nearsighted. But she did get me the Samurai Trilogy for Christmas! 

     

     
     

     

[greg]

Cool gift! 

[greg]

So... I'm on episode 11 of Clannad now. The reason I've gone through this series is because I want to watch the sequel, Clannad : After Story, which is rated on Anime News Network as the 2nd best anime. (The best, Samurai X : Trust and Betrayal isn't really a full series since it's only 4 episodes long).

The plot is pretty simple, and overall it feels somewhat like watching a mixture between Haibane Renmei and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The main character, Tomoya Okazaki, one day meets a strange girl (in the very first episode). Then on, his life changes. (i was expecting something supernatural at the beginning, but oh well).

During the first 10 episodes, they hang out after school with this girl, Nagisa, their age who happens to be a lot shorter and they try to take care of her as if they were her parents. This girl, Fuko-chan (no, it's not pronounced "Fucko", it's "Fooko"  ) is a strange girl that carves wooden starfish and gives them out to random people at school and tries to get people to attend her sister's wedding.

The strange thing about her is that she's really in the hospital in a coma (this version of her is not completely explained, I assume she's a ghost or something), and people stop seeing her or start forgetting about her. Eventually, even Tomoya and Nagisa forget about her and the whole day are struggling to remember her. Then, all of a sudden they remember and they look right between each other and there she is! "You were here the whole time?" lol...

But I guess this is just the beginning of the bittersweet side of this show. In After Story, I hear he marries Nagisa, has a daughter, and Nagisa dies during childbirth and his daughter dies later or something. Interesting how a show as innocent and charming as this one can also end up in an "the main character loses everything he loves" thing at the end. I saw a youtube comment that said if you're suicidal, you should stay away from this anime... aw, shucks, can't listen to that now, can I? 

[greg]

Here's a clip from Clannad: After Story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/7Msu5_3yCXs

Holy shit, this hurts to watch (especially 3:00 on). I just ruined the show for myself...

Okay, I'm off to cry for 5 hours and jump off a cliff now...

[greg]

So, from another website, Clannad After Story ranked #1 as the top rated anime, with an average score of 9.01 (out of 10) out of 19,830 votes:

http://myanimelist.net/topanime.php

The one that came in second place is 8.96, then 8.95, etc.
There's something compelling about this anime, despite it being so simple (me not being the biggest fan of simplicity).

Here's a very nice review I found. I think in the last two sentences, this aspect is summed up- this show doesn't tell us anything new. It's about the presentation.

I felt like I was going into viewing this series as I would if I had a loaded gun pointed at the back of my head. The high expectations I had for Clannad were shattered and I was left wondering if I had seen the same show as everyone who loved it. I watched this mostly because I was setting out to prove to myself that I was one of the few people who saw nothing special at all in it. I vowed never to watch another show in the slice of life genre again - at least not without extreme precaution. Five episodes in and I still felt the same way except this time I was starting to get angry. So many things in this show were grating on me – the cliché moe girls, the cliché loud girl who is permanently in PMS, the straight man main character, and, most predictably, the unwelcome comic relief. Such simplified characterizations and it would be stupid of me to expect any depth whatsoever from a show that breeds off of cliché after cliché after cliché.

And here I watched a continuation of the story of these characters whose lives I deemed far less interesting than my own.

I loved Clannad ~After Story~.

No amount of effort could bring me to choose to stray from the crowd and say it sucked. Even though it had clichés. Even though it had stereotypes. Even though I was dangerously close to dropping it.

None of that matters now because this anime means much more to me than anything else I've ever seen or read. Despite my tendency to scrutinize, I was able to look past its faults and highlight and focus on its strengths instead. Does that mean I pretended that they never existed? Of course not. But they were such minute annoyances that I realized I would only sound whiny if I let them affect my overall opinion on this show.

I was able to see Clannad in a different light, even if I couldn't change my original opinion of it, as this follow-up finale series brought about twists and turns in the lives of the characters, changing them indefinitely (for better or for worse). These friends go to great lengths to guide one another and it's inspirational. It's the best kind of feel good show because it makes you wish you had this same effect on those around you. It makes you wonder why you don't feel that same twinge in your heart when you spend time with your own friends or family. It makes you wonder why you take life for granted and it makes you realize why reality will rarely be preferable to fiction.

The main protagonist of Clannad is Tomoya, a certified delinquent (although he is the nicest and most rational delinquent you'll probably ever see) who has an indifferent attitude towards school, his relationships, and life in general. That is, until he meets a soon-to-be special someone who turns out to be just what he needed to turn his life around.

Nagisa is the soft spoken girl whose inner strength and unrelenting optimism motivate Tomoya throughout all of his ordeals. As soon as he begins to feel exhaustion creeping up on him all he needs in order to keep going is to be reminded of the simple things which make him truly happy - like listening to Nagisa talk about the progress she made in school or being offhandedly, yet shockingly, praised by a coworker. Things most of us wouldn't give a second thought to mean the world to him. And it's not pathetic or farfetched; it feels so natural and heartwarming.

The beautiful thing about Tomoya and Nagisa's relationship is that they aren't lovey-dovey and they aren't all over one another. I'm not sure if they even kissed once throughout the series (or at least if it was shown). What's expressed here is that what matters is the notion that they will always be there for one another. And that nothing will come between them no matter what happens. Not even Nagisa's dad.

This brings me to the supporting cast of Clannad ~After Story~. In high school, Tomoya was often seen hanging around with his unlikely best friend Sunohara. Sunohara provides a lot of the comic relief in the show. The show has many running gags, one of which is that Sunohara is the butt of jokes and is often at the receiving end of physical abuse. He gets beaten up almost every time he encounters the anger-prone Kyou. It's hard not to sympathize with the guy after a while because he's clearly misunderstood by all of his friends. It's a relief to see that he gets some actual character development and more of his and Tomoya's back story is revealed. Normally it's hard to take comical characters seriously because seeing them placed in or replaced by an intense dramatic situation feels laughably absurd when compared to the exaggerations and outlandishness we've grown accustomed to. But that's not the case here as comedy and drama are blended so well that it's impossible to appreciate the show if it only had one or the other.

I loved when Tomoya would deadpan reactions to the people he surrounds himself with. At first I wondered to myself 'Is this supposed to be funny?' but soon I realized that the thoughts Tomoya voiced were often those of mine as well. And I couldn't help but laugh soon after. It's a shame that these lines and moments fly by so fast that it's easy to forget even the funnier quotes. Although my personal favorite was when he stated something about Nagisa's family being stupid.

Another running gag is that everyone hates Nagisa's mom's bread. It's an incredibly simple joke but it actually gets more amusing as the series progresses. This is one of the few anime I've seen where the parents actually play a vital role in the main characters' lives and they aren't annoying in the least. In fact, they're lovable and endearing. Nagisa's dad is one of my top 3 favorite characters of the show. I found it amusing that his seiyuu also voiced the engrish-speaking Mr. K in Gravitation.

Now, family plays a major role in this series. Tomoya is often distanced from his father and their relationship is very strained. Over the course of the series, Tomoya's seemingly concrete stubbornness is gradually whittled away to nothing and it becomes easier to see why this show moved many people even if it didn't do the same for others. It feels so good to see the characters come to terms with their mistakes and mature into adulthood that all of the pain and misery they went through amidst all of that ends up feeling minuscule.

The art here is of higher than average quality. The colors are very easy on the eyes and pretty to say the least. The most distinguishing features of the characters are their eyes which are difficult for me to describe because, well, they're eyes. If I had to make a comparison I'd say they appear almost gem-like. They're shiny and detailed with very beautiful colors. The characters' appearances clearly represent the purity and beauty of the show itself.

The soundtrack often switches between being either soothing or lighthearted. The fact that it is so easy to forget that there even is background music during some of the more involving scenes is a shame. Especially considering these tracks add so much while still being so subtle and low-key. I loved the show's ending theme. It's lively and enthusiastic and it always seems to promise that happier times are ahead even if I seriously doubt it. At times it seems unfitting due to the significant decline in mood towards the conclusion of the series, but at the same time it's so much easier to appreciate it after being drained of emotion.

The voice acting is good all around although it does depend on the type of character and their significance to the plot. I guess it should be guaranteed that with a substantial increase in conflict and depth there will also be more chances for the seiyuu to really impress. Yuuichi Nakamura is perfectly assigned to the role of Tomoya. It can't be too difficult to fall into the trap of unintentionally overacting in emotional scenes. However, he never does and he gives a stand out performance. Mai Nakahara does a wonderful job voicing Nagisa. Although I wasn't a fan of how childlike her voice was (not that it's entirely the actress's fault) I don't see any reason to disapprove since it does fit her character's personality. Other performances I was impressed by were for the characters of Sunohara (he's loud and over-the-top, but somehow not annoying) and, as I mentioned earlier, Nagisa's dad. A very honorable mention goes to Ushio's seiyuu who produces one of the most adorable voices I've ever heard.

Did this show manipulate my emotions a bit? Yes. Was it cheaply and distastefully done? No. Every scene in this series is integral to the conclusion. Friends drifting apart, accepting and appreciating the company of others, reconstructing broken bonds. On the surface, these are mundane things that can only be expected from what lies ahead in our lives. But what matters is the process of getting there and the decisions we make that will make or break our futures. Clannad ~After Story~ tells us nothing new. It's about the presentation.

And it's truly moving and inspiring.

[greg]

Well... I finished with Clannad and now am on Clannad After Story, episode 6/25.
I watched the movie which has the scene where Nagisa dies, but overall (other than a few moments) it's not really that good.

I went to a site that showed the videos of After Story and consistently, through each episode the ratings were very impressive (the lowest was like 4.53 or something).

The most impressive was episode 21: (41 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) 

How is it that if I never had the internet I'd never have heard of this show? I know popularity and quality are different things, but... so far, I'm still not convinced it's that good, but I can't wait to see for myself.