Tuesday
Apr132010
Discussion: Anime!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 ;)
Welcome back with this weeks episode of the Dollar Bin where we ease back in by discussing another love of the bin, Anime. In this raw and uncut storytime we discuss our gateway drug, preferences, theme songs, and other awesomeness.
From Wikipedia: “Funimation Entertainment has licensed Dragon Ball Kai to be released in North America, airing on Nicktoons Network starting in May 2010, under the title Dragon Ball Z Kai.”
Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes 13 seconds
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Reader Comments (14)
DBZ, Vampire Hunter D, and Rouroni Kenshin were my Anime loves. I still have an old VHS I of Vampire Hunter D I taped off the Sci-Fi Channel back in 1993. I watched it about a year ago. It seems like it held up, but the commercials did not. WOW. There was a commercial for Prodigy (the internet company not the shitty band) that was just.... Wow. The internet sure has come a long way.
DBZ was the shit!! I'd haul ass from my daily classes in college to get back to my apartment to see DBZ everyday. Vegeta is the motherfuckin' man.
I can also admit to watching some Sailor Moon for a while. I lost interest in it pretty quick as I'm not a teenage girl.
What a coincidence, that's how I discovered Vampire Hunter D.
I'm not an anime fan, for the most part. I've tried. Got burned. Tried. Burned. Try. Burn. Etc.
I can't get into most of it, but I do enjoy Vampire Hunter D (like the story of the first one and animation of the second), Ghost in the Shell (film and TV) and Ninja Scroll (film only). The Golgo 13 films are okay. If only the second one animated its action instead of freeze frames... sigh.
Crying Freeman was my introduction to hard R-rated anime. Both films and manga have the same I-can-do-no-wrong-therefore-nothing-is-a-threat character problems. The first installment is the best.
I've tried Cowboy Bebop. Bleh. And, won't try DBZ/Pokemon or any version of an extended toy commercial with seizure inducing visuals. Sorry.
Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are good.
I like the idea of enjoying animation that isn't directed at kids and anime seems to be the only place to look. But, good lord, I've tried.
I'm with John here. I've enjoyed a limited amount of anime such as Vampire Hunter D, and some of Lone Wolf and Cub but i've tried stuff, been disappointed, tried again, been disappointed, rinse and repeat so many times it's not worth my time anymore to seek it out. I don't know why it doesn't appeal to me.
Wow, John...no on Cowboy Bebop? That's the first time I've heard someone say that they didn't like the series. How many eps did you watch?
Another great/fun show guys. My thoughts...
I watched all the shows everyone else watched back in the day: Starblazers, Robotech, Battle of the Planets, Voltron
Subbed not dubbed
About the shows that you did mention...
Never seen DBZ or Ninja Scroll.
Cowboy Bebop - favorite anime, period, love the music, I've got two of the albums
Outlaw Star - lots of fun, loved it
Samurai Champloo - pretty good, didn't quite live up to what I hoped it would be, can't remember exactly why
Ghost in the Shell - enjoyed the movie, wasn't so crazy about the tv show, I gave up on the show about halfway through the first season
Bleach - fun but repetitive series, I dropped the anime to read the manga, finally gave up on the manga after 25 volumes
Akira - this seems to be one of those movies that people either love or hate, I loved it
Princess Mononoke - great story, loved it
Grave of the Fireflies - Most. Depressing. Movie. Ever.
I'm not too into anime at the moment but a few years ago I was into it in a big way. Here are some shows that I enjoyed watching that you didn't mention:
Monster - fugitive type story about a Japanese surgeon (living in Germany) who is accused of murder and (while on the run from the law) has to hunt down the the actual killer, who happens to be a former patient of his
Noir - two women, both assassins, trying to unlock things from their past they can't remember clearly, loved the music
Yakitate Japan - bread baking competitions, sounds crazy but I loved it, it can get a little trippy, after the first season the show kind of went downhill
Paranoia Agent - 13 episodes, very trippy and confusing, but I loved it
Hikaru no Go - junior high student learns how to play go (japanese board game) from a ghost, joins the go club at school, improves his game, not for everyone but I enjoyed it
Midori Days - crazist premise ever, a guy's wakes up one morning to discover that his hand has been replaced by a girl, she's in love with him, he's disgusted by the situation, kind of silly and not too long (13 episodes) but worth watching if only for the situations they get into
Getbackers - adventure series about guys who (wait for it) get stuff back for people, I only watched the first season
"Getbackers - adventure series about guys who (wait for it) get stuff back for people, I only watched the first season"
I watched I think the first 2 episodes of that on a promo DVD. I really enjoyed it, but never follow it up. I may look into that again.
@Ted. I watched the first disc of the CB collection and that's all I needed to watch. My ability to enjoy anime/manga maybe much more narrow than the normal human being.
Thanks for having an episode dedicated to anime!! Although I'm a little disappointed that the entire episode seemed to revolve around Dragonball Z.
I got into anime (and manga) by watching Saturday Anime on the Sci Fi Channel (back when they didn't play so much shit) so my first foray into the medium was mainly really good movies and not Toonami crap.
I'd have to say that my top ten anime stuff (both movies and tv shows) are as follows.
1. Akira- very visually appealing and has characters that seem very realistic (despite the superpowers). If the story is confusing, I'd tell you to pick up the manga (which is one of my favorite comics of all time) to find out the secrets.
2. Cowboy Bebop- 'Nuff said.
3. Ghost in the Shell
4. Perfect Blue- Very suspenseful movie with a great twist ending.
5. Venus Wars- Very underrated movie.
6. FLCL- Yes. I don't care what you think.
7. Ninja Scroll
8. Monster
9. Trigun
10. Blood: the Last Vampire
I'm glad that you had an anime show. I just wish that it wasn't all based on Dragonball Z!
See Mitch is one of those Toonami is crap people I was talking about...
The reasoning behind the bulk of the DBZ was because that's where the idea originated and I've been watching it from season 1 for the last few months and am currently on season 8, so its up front in my mind.
Perfect Blue is really good I forgot all about that. That is a movie. That shouldn't even be in the animation section. It should be in suspense/triller because those characters are so real it hard to believe they aren't.
Dude, Shawn and I both LOVE FLCL and that's what we think.
Its called a warm up show. You settle down Mitch. We'll do another one with a little more focus next time. And srsly it wasn't all DBZ, maybe like 40%. You want me to re cut it for you and take all the DBZ out, get it down to an hour?
Also, the real reason I came here:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2010/04/19/rip-carl-macek-1951-2010-cartoon-brew-leading-the-animation-conversation/
@adam
Getbackers is kind of like a superhero show, without the capes and tights: all the main characters have supernatural abilities. It is available through netflix.
I checked last night and Hulu is in the process of adding one of the other series I mentioned, Hikaru no Go. So far they've got about 42 eps and are adding more at a rate of 2 per week. It is subbed not dubbed.
And you guys were giving me shit for having the Transformers soundtrack...geez! ;)
I've dabbled in anime, but wasn't making a concerted effort to do so, I was just watching really cool cartoons! I grew up on G-Force (Gatchaman) and Voltron (along with Godzilla and Ultraman). And while in college I watched movies on recommendations from fellow comics fans. Vampire Hunter D, Ghost in the Shell, Akira and all the other fringe movies everyone else has seen. I'm just old enough to have missed the Dragonball Z and Power Rangers craze, not to mention Pokemon and all that card related crap.
I like it for the most part, but can't see myself really getting sucked in. I would like to try Ninja Scroll and Cowboy Bebop at some point though...
@Big Dog
Ninja Scroll is pretty good with a fairly coherent story structure with the animation not throwing a lot of crap at you. Just stay away from the follow-up stuff.
Sorry if I seemed a little opinionated on my last post.
I forgot to mention for those that enjoyed Ninja Scroll, the director (Yoskiaki Kawajiri) of that movie released a film in the '80s you'd probably want to check out called Wicked City. It's a very twisted anime and probably not for the faint of heart, but still very enjoyable.
Ah yes, Wicked City, for those who want to feel their brains melting.