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Star Blazers Available Online
Amphigory writes, "Anyone who was young and geeky in the 80's remembers Star Blazers -- an anime sci-fi series. Anyway, some of the episodes are now available online in their entirety. The only problem is that most of them won't play in Xanim. " I absolutely adored this show in my younger years. Lately watching Lain, DBZ and Battle Athletes has rekindled my adoration for this stuff. Highly recommended if you're nostalgic.
Yeah, my uncle used to watch Batman all of the time -- the first time that I remember seeing someone older than 15 be interested in a `cartoon'.. That show also had coolest opening animation and music that I can remember.
;-)
;-)
Of course, I have to say that I also thoroughly enjoyed some of the other WB stuff -- Tiny Toons was a favorite of mine as a kid, and Animaniacs was even better (some of the extra characters were especially enjoyable -- Pinky and the Brain is definitely on the top of the heap). Freakazoid was a short-lived show, but the few episodes I saw were very funny.
These days, the Simpsons is probably the king of the hill, but Family Guy is a great show that loves to play on the short attention spans of audiences these days. Futurama is pretty good, but it will probably take a while for that show to distance itself enough from the Simpsons to stand entirely on its own (although I thought the most recent episode was very good).
Of course, those are all comedies -- but I like to laugh, what can I say?
I have been pretty impressed with Batman Beyond, and Superman does have some pretty good stuff too. However, I don't like it when shows of any kind play too much to the ``moral of the story'' crowd..
Okay.. I'm rambling.. sorry
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Ski-U-Mah!
Stop the MPAA
Most of the time when animation buffs here the words "American Animation" they either gag, or they pretend like they have never heard the term before.
:)
However, I am opposing that opinion. As much as I enjoy Japanese Animation (and yes, it is better than American Animation - but I'm arguing that not all American stuff is in the gutter), I have enjoyed many purely american shows that have the same essential elements as any good anime series or movie.
The most anime-like American animation out there is, most likely, Batman: The Animated Series. The series, IMO, is the epitome of what American animation houses - even if it is Warner Brothers - can produce when money isn't everything. The original artists for Batman were given some extra money to do the series, and it turned out to be a hit. Dark though it was, the series took into account everything a good story should have - great plots, essential character flaws (for instance, Bruce Wayne's constant struggle between living a "normal" life versus the life of Batman, or the clash between his love for Selena Kyle versus the fact that Catwoman is a criminal). The new Batman / Superman adventures, and even Batman Beyond to an extent, aren't as great as the original Batman, but they are measuring up pretty well.
And who can forget The Simpsons? The show has definitely captured what it means to be "American" down to the most minute details (with exaggeration for laughs
[shameless plug] I have started an online petition to have Batman: The Animated Series published on DVD here NOTE: *PLEASE* don't Slashdot this site. As much as I would love to have a thousand people sign my petition, I'm pretty sure it's a small server that would just cringe at the oncoming traffic. [/shameless plug] Quite surprisingly (or should I say not surprisingly?), a number of people have answered the question "how much would you pay?" with the words "Whatever it takes!"
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
How many people out there actually like Lain? In my opinion, it was terrible.
:), Neon Genesis Evangelion, and many others.
Hey, I liked Lain. Sure it was confusing and wierd and they didn't seem to like explaining stuff, but once you get past that it is really rather enthralling. One thing you have to remember is that Lain is not ment to be understood, it is ment to be experienced.
As for bad dubs, I'm sure I don't have to reiterate how horrible a job some of these companies do. (cough)Streamline(cough)(cough)
There are better Animes out there though, Cowboy Bebop, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou[1], Card Captor Sakura
[1]: Kare Kano for short, which roughly translated means "His and Her Circumstances", just be sure you get the Pero Pero subs because they subtitle the text on the screen.
I read the internet for the articles.
Fairy Princess Ren Certainly an interesting choice. It was billed at an anime convention like so: This is your anime. This is your anime on crack. Any questions?
This could not be more appropriate.
If you like Fairy Princess Ren, I highly recommend watching Kodomo no Omocha TV. Just as spastic and much longer (there are something like 100+ episodes of this series).
If you're wondering what other people thought of a few series, you should want to check out the Fall 1999 VTAS ratings charts (with graphs). Beware that this chart is about a year old and severly underrates Kare Kano. ^_^
I read the internet for the articles.
Just last week I was trying to remember what crappy cartoon of my youth had the imagination capturing WAVE MOTION GUN. It could take out a whole fleet in a single blast -- but only infrequently and after the 'big things are happening' music had been playing for at least five minutes.
IMO Lain can be understood... Check out this link for more depth:
http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lain.htm
Lain looks AWESOME on DVD format, and when you play it back with a surround sound system it sounds fantastic, very immersive.
Thanks for putting out the full name of "Kare Kuno". I know that the Japanese like to give things shorthand names, but it took a long time for me to find that out, as well as the full name. Personally, I think the title "translation" "His and Her Circumstances" to be extremely stilted. I found one I like better: "He said, She said", it may not be totally literal, but I think it passes on the general idea much better.
I thought about not saying anything, but "information wants to be free!"
(For the record, I don't see anything wrong with Rob doing that -- I just find it amusing.)
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-- Slashdot sucks.
...you should see what they had planned for Sailor Moon sometime. Yes, you heard me right. Back in '93, Saban and DIC were in a bidding war for the U.S. rights to SM. Each made a trailer.
Now don't get me wrong; what DIC did to SM is pretty awful. But after seeing what Saban had planned for the series, I can forgive DIC for everything they did, simply because they saved the series from Saban's Evil Clutches.
By the way, I actually got the opportunity to see the first few episodes of Zyuranger (the series which would become the first season of Power Rangers. Loath as I am to say it, Saban actually improved that series a bit. Not much, mind you, but a bit.
And, oh yes, "bastardizing" is a word.
...but first, a few comments on your choices.
Utena - One of The Greatest Series of All Time. I used to be the self-appointed High Priest of Utena-Sama at the anime club here, but then someone else got tapes of the ending before I did. So I've been demoted to Chu-chu no Miko.
Evangelion - The Greatest Series of All Time. Particularly good for pissing off the Christian Right (assuming you can get them to watch, which will be a feat in and of itself).
Escaflowne - Haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to this weekend (honest; girlfriend's coming ans she insists I see this thing). Heard lots of good stuff about it though, especially the music.
Rayearth - I didn't much care for most of the series, but the ending to Season 1 has quite frankly the coolest plot twist I've seen in a long time.
Kenshin - Awesome series. Good action, great characters, greater story.
Oh! My Goddess - Sweet story. Saccharine, almost. If you want a really good laugh, check out SD Mini Goddess sometime (a continuation where the Goddesses go chibi-cute and befriend a talking rat which isn't cute in the least).
And now, for the ones I would add to your list...
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou - also called "His and Her Circumstances," or "KareKano." This can be summed up in three words: Anno does shoujo. For those of you who've seen Evangelion, this description should be causing your brain to bluescreen (you shoulda seen what happened when I unloaded it on a bunch of friends). But he pulls it off so well it's unbelieveable.
Marmalade Boy - Very long, very good. But if you don't like sappy stuff, avoid this series like the plague, 'cause it lays the warm fuzzies on thick.
Flame of Recca - The series said to have everything but mechs. One of my favorite action series. And its opening sequence is awesome to boot. Just avoid the Shinsen Gumi translation; they screwed this one up bad (of course, I'm still mad at them over the superfluous hyphens they stuck in Kenshin at random points).
Ranma 1/2 - The most ubiquitous anime out there. Love it or hate it, you've got to at least see some of it. Action, comedy, hyperdimensional 2-ton mallets, and relationships which skip the love-triangle and go straight for the love-polyhedra... oh, and plenty of fanservice for the ecchi out there. Not as much as some (cough... Bakuretsu Hunters... cough...) but more than enough for most of us.
Bubblegum Crisis - The classic mecha. Short series. At least see Episodes 5 and 6 if nothing else.
Vampire Princess Miyu - Take Sailor Moon. Vampire Princess Miyu is the opposite of that. In other words, absolutely amazing (then again, I suppose SM would be too, were it not for those $#%*#!s Usagi and Chibi-Usa...)
Princess Army Wedding Combat - I'm not going to spoil this one for you. Suffice it to say that anything with a title like that is worth watching once.
Kodomo no Omocha - also called "Kodocha" or "Child's Toy." I think the slogan of the fansubbers puts it best: "Cheaper than crack, and lots more fun." The second-season opening is one of the most surreal anime experiences you'll ever have. Trust me on this.
Fairy Princess Ren - Called Elf Princess Ren in the US, this is basically a spoof on just about everything. And from what I hear, one of the few good dubs out there.
The Slayers - Some of the best music out there. I think this series was meant to be a spoof on other anime. If so, it pulls it off brilliantly. I just hope it really was intended as a spoof.
Those are my favorites. I generally don't care for mahou shoujo (Utena, Miyu, and Rayearth being the major exceptions). I'm more for the straight shoujo, and shounen to a lesser extent.
Now, the major question: put Pikachu, Chu-chu, Mokona, and Ryo-Ohki in the ring together. Who wins?
Boku no Marie is a great little series, but it ends with the single most cruel cliffhanger I've ever seen... and then there's no more! I liked the series, but I have a lot of trouble recommending any series which left the entire anime club screaming for blood because there was no more after they showed 1-3 one day.
OMAKE! One of the animated series I mentioned here never actually existed. Tell me which one that was...
Almost perfect score. You got the non-anime question right. I'm very impressed to see someone remembered Wildfire; no one else I've ever talked to seems to know what the hell I'm talking about.
As for PAWC, yes, it really is an anime (two-episode OAV, subbed by Tomodachi). If you've seen Marmalade Boy then take that and add judo. That gives you PWAC.
I think its still being shown at some wierd middle-of-the-night time on the SciFi channel.
I remember watching an espisode maybe two or three months ago. It might've just been a BG marathon though...
Supermarionation!
**>>BELCH
>It felt like somebody watched Eva while stoned
>and said, "Hey, I can do more weird than that!"
O_o Oy vey. Seriousltyy
>That's right, all of Bishojou Senshi Sailormoon S
>and Bishojou Senshi Sailormoon SS, brutally
>butchered for American television!
Awwwwwww, FUCK. What are they going to do to Michiru and Haruka? I know for damned sure they won't have *their* dialouge accurately translated. Pricks... They should just broadcast the fansubs instead.
Maul dun said:
You too, eh? (We shall turn the editors into sho'nuff otaku yet! :)
I've not seen Serial Experiments Lain yet (friend of mine has it though)...I have a hard time believing it can be a worse mindfsck than End of Evangelion, though. (Basically, people whinged about the last two episodes...so the writer crafted something designed to be completely and utterly so much of a mindfsck that mind-altering substances are almost essential to keep one's head from hurting, much less understanding the plot. :)
Heyyyy...I've heard of Cowboy Bebop, at least :) (Heard the soundtracks before seeing the actual anime, which (if memory serves) JUST officially came out in the States)
Agreed, damn good story. I STILL think that Vash the Stampede from Trigun would win, though, if just out of dumb luck :)
*ROTFLMAO at mention of Nadesico*
Yes! Definitely one of the funnier anime I've ever seen (ranks right up there with Trigun and all the various Slayers series, IMHO)...one of the best pisstakes I've seen, hands down. :)
A few other picks I'd add:
Damn near everyone has already mentioned Rurouni Kenshin and Escaflowne and Evangelion. :) I'd REALLY recommend you get a hold of these if you can (Escaflowne and Eva should be no prob now, Kenshin's gonna be harder--most of it is only available in fansubs, most fansubbers aren't distributing it because Sony's officially announced it will be released stateside...though out west where you lucky bastards can watch anime on PBS instead of Red Dwarf can prolly catch it under the title of Samurai X (what the hell was Sony smoking when they came up with that title, anyways?)...) Same for Ah!Megumisama/"Oh! My Goddess" (you HAVE to admire any anime where the World Tree is Big Iron, there are programmer goddesses, one of the main characters is a CS major, and Fortran is mentioned :).
Slayers in any way, shape or form it comes. :) The first two series, Slayers and Slayers Next, have been officially released Stateside; supposedly Slayers Try is either planned to be shown or is being shown on Sci-Fi Channel. Pretty much imagine Lodoss War, or a D&D game, gone horribly, HORRIBLY wrong... :)
Lodoss War for that matter--rumour has it that this anime was based off a Japanese RPG that itself was based off AD&D :) (Maybe Slayers WAS based off a Lodoss War game gone horribly wrong... :) Good series though.
For that matter, if you like Slayers and Nadesico, try to get a copy of Lost Universe--basically, Slayers In Space :) (And done by the same crew what brought us Slayers, yet)
People have already mentioned Utena. :) I've not seen all of it yet but looks pretty good :)
Nazca is good if you're into swordplay...only thing that bothers me is the Incas with katanas (sometimes being into ancient American history can be a detriment... :) but VERY interesting series involving reincarination, etc.
Trigun, Vash The Freakin' Stampede. 'Nuff Said. :) (For those who have seen Kenshin: Imagine Sanosuke with blond hair, with the utter luck of Coyote. :)
One anime I'm really surprised hasn't been brought up yet is Princess Mononoke--especially since it's the first anime to receive a major US theatrical release. Gaiman's job at translating and the dub isn't bad at all; then again, I've seen both the official version and a fansub. (This is also one of the few dubs I've ever seen that doesn't make me wince.)
Bubblegum Crisis, if you've not seen it already. Stay the fucking HELL away from the dub; it sucks, sucks, SUCKS (it's possibly the best known way of inflicting torture on poor otaku other than repeatedly playing the Tenchi March :P).
El Hazard is a must-see--both the OVA and TV series. (The TV series is screamingly funny in parts.)
Probably Tenchi Muyo OVA; sub or dub is fine, even though Tenchi sounds amazingly like Kermit the Frog and Ryoko sounds amazingly like she's originally from Louisville, Kentucky :) The series does go downhill from there, so basically check to see if you like it first. Avoid "Tenchi Forever" like the goddamned plague. :)
Any Microsoft-hating geek owes it to himself to at least watch Magical Girl Pretty Sammy episode 2 ("Revenge of the Giant Electronic Brain" or something like that). Possibly the FUNNIEST pisstake I have EVER seen of Microsoft. Mac fans will appreciate it more, because Washu's computer looks VERY similar to an iBook (maybe Pioneer should sue Apple for gimmick infringement... :)
Card Captor Sakura, if you can get hold of a good fansub. (Supposedly will be officially released soon Stateside...not bad shoujo stuff, though, and I tend not to like shoujo. :)
People have already mentioned Vampire Hunter D and Vampire Princess Miyu. Go watch. Seriously.
If one is into more "adult" material, F-Cubed (especially "Night of the F-Cubed") and Ogenki Clinic are screamingly funny hentai. :)
People have already mentioned Macross Plus. Go watch. Seriously.
BGC 2040 should not be watched if one has previously seen any Bubblegum Crisis, as it's basically in an alternate universe and a failure to remember this may cause headaches and/or ranting. (Then again, Tenchi Muyo is even worse--no less than four or five SEPARATE universes with the same characters. Go fig.)
I really wish Sony would hurry the hell up and bring Rurouni Kenshin over Stateside to video so I don't have to watch fourth-generation Hecto Abysmal (HECTO is a fansub group; if you have a choice between HECTO and anyone else go with the other guys; for those of you who whinge on about Shinsen Gumi fansubs, HECTO makes Shinsen Gumi fansubs look like Masterpiece Theatre in comparison; it helps to have a working knowledge of Cantonese to understand HECTO subs--have I gotten it across that HECTO subs really ARE abysmal? :) fansubbed copies. Me want my Kenshin, damnit :)
I wish TV Tokyo would start an American version of Anime X (Anime X is a Japanese all-anime channel which TV Tokyo--the major broadcasters of anime in Japan--runs on the Japanese DSS service); if they did, I would WILLINGLY get digital satellite for that. Same for anyone who did an uncensored anime channel (have I ever mentioned just how MUCH I hate what the US Censorship Bored did to Sailor Moon and DBZ, and why I shudder in fear every time I read that one post that insinuates Cartoon Network might be carrying Tenchi Muyo? :P).
I wish one of the PBS affiliates would show Britcoms and the other would show anime on Saturday nights; then I could die a happy otaku :)
(OK, does it show I'm just a wee bit addicted? Blame it on my loving crack-pusher friends who have nearly 1000 tapes of anime between them and have formed an informal otaku society here. :)
-Windigo The Feral (NYAR!)
I would not reccommend Evangelion, because I was very disappointed with it.
I didn't sympathise with any of the characters, the plot of the series really went nowhere, and then it turned into an incoherent art flick at the end. None of the characters really change or grow (unless you count dying or losing their minds), and by the time it ends, you just don't care any more.
I forgive Anno, because Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyou , his next series, is really great, but Eva just left a bad taste in my mouth.
There are a lot better series out there: Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Irresponsible Captian Tyler, Slayers, Maison Ikkoku, Kimagure Orange Road, etc., etc.
Jon
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
He NEVER CAME BACK! (NEVER CAME BACK! NEVER CAME BACK! NEVER CAME BACK!)
I still remember seeing that episode, and it's probably been 20 years.
Jon
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
"Damn, I'm only about a 5 minute walk away from the Convention Center! Consider it marked on my calendar!"
We'll be glad to see you there! For others interested in attending Otakon 2000, the convention will be held August 4-6 (Friday through Sunday) at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MD. Registration for all three days is $45 at the door ($40 if you pre-register by May 27th). Single-day memberships and groups discounts are also available, see Otakon's website for details.
For more information, please visit Otakon's website at www.otakon.com, or write:
OTAKON(TM) 2000
PO Box 149
Morristown, PA 19067
"Lain, DBZ and Battle Athletes"
Well, that's a pretty eclectic selection. We've got:
Lain: Complex and surreal, at times expressionistic. A classmate of the main character, Lain, commits suicide. Shortly afterwards, members of the class start receiving e-mails claiming to be from the deceased girl. That's not what Lain is about, but to explain further would require interpretation on my part. I highly recommend you watch it and make your own interpretations. Requires patience. Also recommended for viewers of Lain: Key the Metal Idol, Angel's Egg, Neon Genesis Evangelion.
(Plug from an Otakon staffer: Both the creator and character designer for Lain will appear at Otakon 2000, the East Coast's biggest anime convention, located in Baltimore, MD.)
DBZ: Journey to the West meets the WWF, anime style with some SF thrown in. Loosely based on the ancient Chinese tale of a monkey king who was born from a stone, and I do mean loosely. Fun, but not very cerebral. The story breaks down in later episodes as characters spend much of their time hurling chi-blasts at each other. Also recommended for DBZ fans: Er... I haven't a clue what would appeal to DBZ fans.
Battle Athletes: Cute schoolgirls compete for the "Cosmo Beauty" prize. A little silly, takes a while for the story to kick in. Animation quality is pretty good, on par with most of Pioneer's other stuff. Also recommended for Battle Athletes fans: Sailor Moon, Gunbuster.
Close the World. Otakunize the Next
Oh, and as for it preceding a new Star Blazers...well, this project (courtesy of The Other Great Satan, Walt Disney) has been in the works for quite some time, and there's plenty here to make a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Starblazers shudder. (Even though I've never seen the show, but plan to remedy this soon...) Particularly the bit where the ship is changed to the Arizona...
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
One: It's being written by Carl "anime antichrist" Macek, who (as the stillborn Sentinels proves) can't write a series worth a darn--the only reason Robotech was so great is that he had 80% of the storyline handed to him completely intact on a silver platter, and all he had to do was switch some names and things around.
Two: It's set a thousand years after the original show. Which smells suspiciously like how they made the movie The Lawnmower Man--"let's use the name, because it's such a draw, but make it so we don't have to have any connection whatsoever to the original version." They'll probably end up screwing the hell out of the continuity of the original show, too.
And let's not forget Two and a Half: It's caused the cancellation/nongranting of all existing Robotech licenses for the last couple of years...no new computer games, books, toys, and so forth. Which is a good reason to be annoyed all by itself.
And by the way...Reba West was drunk when she recorded the songs for Robotech, because she was originally too self-conscious to sing on her own. If you listen close to a couple of the songs on the Perfect Collection CD, you can sort of tell...
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
And don't count Robotech 3000 out yet; it's looking like production is indeed proceeding on it...
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Do a Yahoo search on gatchaman and I'm sure you'll find the info. They start coming out... later this month I think, and they're going to release like one DVD a month until its all out. I think the price was something like US$40 per disc, so its pricy, but worth it.
D
hmm, well lets see here. i'm really tired but let's see if i can still respond coherently:
:)
Ah!Megami-sama [Ah!MyGoddess] actually takes place at a technical college.. Keichii is a CS student and he builds racing cars in his spare time. Which SCREAMS geek. AMG has a very interesting theological system going on, in that the Godesses are actually !!!sysadmins!!! for the system running the universe, Ygdrasil, which is portrayed as more or less a huge ethereal abstract mainframe or something, with little monsters running around in it that need to be "debugged". Ygdrasil has system outages, needs maintenence, and basically is a perfect allegory of a computer system. The only way they could make the whole thing cooler is by adding Daemons.
Skuld, besides being a Godess sysadmin in the Mother of All Sysadmin Jobs, appears to be a rather competent Electrical Engineer as well who can randomly design mecha in her spare time and, upon seeing blueprints for one of Keichii's racekart things sitting around, on the spot grabs a pencil and redesigns it to be more efficient. Just because she can.
Ghost in the Shell is vaguely geeky in that it involves androids, computer systems, and the idea of the human mind being transferred to a digital form and thus losing its meaning as it becomes an increasingly mechanical abstract digital construct rather than a real human soul. Meanwhile while mind decays, body becomes irrelivant; just a container that can be summoned and discarded at will, letting the mind, however little of its content the mind still contains, do its work. While this isn't very geeky in itself, it certainly describes prevailing geek lifestyle. Becoming a part of the machine.. hm. i can relate to that.
There's probably some others i can't remember at the moment. I'm _tired_.
I think Ah!Megami-sama takes the prize for one very important reason: it actually contains FORTRAN . Keichii knows it.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Yep, Channel 56 and Channel 25 in Boston aired Force Five, Robotech, Star Blazers, Tranzor Z, Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years, and maybe one other show when I was in High School (85-89).
Man, that was the shit!
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Mmm...Lum!
Boy, I wish we could get Urusai Yatsura on the air! Now that Maison Ikkoku comic has ended, I have no reason to go on...
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Having frame by framed some other scenes, I know that much of the "streaming code" is the actual 3D description language for the Navi scenes and a few CG backgrounds. When I mentioned this to our Anime Club, somebody shouted out the obvious - "Hey, does that mean that Lain is Open Source?"
-grin-
Ghost in the Shell (commonly known as GITS, notice that there is *NO* second 'R') is a good anime, yes. The manga (comic) upon which it is based, however, is MUCH more geek. Masume Shiro[1] is a ubergeek who loves throwing detail into each mundane bit (example: explaining how the touch sensors on a cyborg are built using nanites burrowing into the skin, leaving fiber optic channels behind them, plugging into receptors) and apologizing for the glossing over of technical bits.
The Ghost in the Shell manga definately has a deeper ending that is more fully explained than the Anime ending (or Lain or End of Eva, for that matter - but then, written word holds more bandwidth for abstract concepts).
obRant:
Incidently, I am a big science fiction/fantasy fan who likes quite a bit of anime. I am really getting sick, however, of otaku (anime fans, literally "geeks") who like anime just for the sake of the fact that it is japanese animation, and sneer at everything else. A closed mind, no matter how outside of mainstream, is still closed.
[1] - Don't complain about the spelling. I did the best I could, and it kept getting farther away the more I tried :)
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
My feelings towards Sailor Moon aside, how is butchering anime just so parents' groups can breathe easier actually a Good Thing(tm)? All you get when you cut out cultural refs and things considered bad for kids (like what's-his-name-y'know-that-evil-guy's "sex change" in Sailor Moon to not show homosexuality and DBZ's glasses of cold brown water (with a head of foam, no less) to not promote drinking) is either confusing crap or yet another American cartoon.
DiC did make one small step in the right direction -- they did produce "uncut" episodes of DBZ for their video releases (as well as subbed versions to get over the lousy voice acting =). I wish other groups (like whoever produces Sailor Moon on tape or Viz) to produce subbed, uncut videos, but (to be honest) that would be cutting into their production budgets.
I'm still hoping for the rumor about Cartoon Network starting up an anime channel to be true, though...... =)
(Sorry if this doesn't make sense -- I'm sick. =)
- HX!
- HX!
if(!caffiene){sleep(now)};
It takes some time for me to realize that Star Blazers is the anime I loved, Uchu Senkan Yamato, when I was 11 years old. It was in year 1975, and the show was the reason why I wake up before 11 on Sunday morinings. (My local station showed it on Sunday mornings.) I think that was the show that made ``anime'' mainstream in Japan.
But I never have seen Star Blazers. According to this, the show was made suited for American audience. Seems quite different.
After growing up, I had chances to see Uchu Senkan Yamato couple of times. I realized that there were so many right-wing things going on in the show. Some points were embarassingly nationalistic. Maybe that was the Japanese mentality in those days. And modifying the show may be justifiable.
However, the whole point of Yamato was that they used WWII battleship, which was already obsolete at the time it was born (ironically the Japanese made it clear that the time was not for battleships but for airplanes), but still the biggest and perhaps the most beautiful, as a spaceship. Many Japanese see the battleship as a tragedic ship. It was used for a Kamikaze attack. The ship being revived to save the earth naturally had quite a power to attract Japanese audience. The ship being named Yamato was a crucial point of the story.
It also seems that Star Blazers was tamed for younger audience. The original show was not meant for kids at least, it just seems that creators of the show created what they wanted to create, not thinking of marketing or anything. In fact, IIRC, the show was cancelled or shortened by commercial pressure. (But the popularity exploded after the show was over, and they made sequels, movies, etc.) But because of this show, and people realizing that creating good story in anime can be successful, anime in Japan completely changed.
So, if you could have a chance, I'd recommend to see the original. (Is dubbed or subtitled version available in the U.S.?)
they should put it on right after DBZ, although screaming "IT"S A GUNDAM!" and killing everything is really fun on Q3A. I actually wrote a paper in college comparing Japanese and American cultures using Robotech and G.I.Joe. I wonder if it still exists....
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I'm psyched to see this whole series. I'm having flashbacks about being glued to the screen as a young'un.
I for one, am VERY happy to see stuff like this on the 'Net, it's one of the things it's really good for. Here's to more old TV on the Net! For FREE! (beer). Sit back relax, have a beer or two, and click on a banner when you leave. The Net as it should be.
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+&x
from their "News" page.
9/10/1999 - Animanga Community 'Star Blazers on the Internet'
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+&x
Just point yer browser ate k1/download/ e k2/download/ e k3/download/
http://www.studionext.com/features/Starblazers/We
http://www.studionext.com/features/Starblazers/We
http://www.studionext.com/features/Starblazers/We
and so on and you'll be able to Save Link As... to your heart's content.
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Did you see the live-action version of this? It got canceled, but it was the one where the earth will be pretty much dead withing a small number of years unless our heroes leave in an alien-tech ship and find the solution. They have only their skills and a really big gun front-mounted in the nose of the ship that they can only fire in the most dire situations.
;-)
Oh sorry, that was Crusade
C'mon, Galen; tell them that we're looking for Trillana!
I remember watching Star Blazers religiously after school when it first came on TV. I was about eight years old. Then we moved out to the sticks where cable wasn't available and I couldn't get the station in that it was on. For a couple days I sat there trying to make out what was going on through the static. I was actually pretty heart-broken.
I eventually forgot about it until I was about 21 and met a woman that had it on video. The only problem was that when I went over to her place to see it she kept pushing her hentai collection on me--which might not have been a problem if she wasn't a nasty ex-biker chick and about 15 years older than me.
Maybe at last I can finally see how it turned out--I'll have to remember to check it out when the site is no longer slashdotted.
numb
Yeah, Sailor Moon couldn't have been screwed up more for American audiences than it was. Congrats (sarcasm noted) to DiC[k] for totally ruining the show. :/ Urusei Yatsura r0x my s0x.
But while we're getting a lot of overexposure from Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon and even (shudders) Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network, it seems that the average geek in North America is missing out on some better anime that Japan has to offer.
For example, I'm not quite sure if everyone here has heard of Cowboy Bebop. A must see series for a Japanese Animation fan, especially those into action.
And if you're a hard core fan of Japanese Animation, you can't miss out on Nadesico, which is a pretty much a parody of EVERYTHING, including those cheezily animated 70's giant robot anime. Yet it has a plot to call its own. I think it was declared by some to be the "Best Anime Ever." I'd agree with this. Of course, if you are a real hard core fan, you've probably already seen this one.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
The Beast Wars and Machines are produced by Mainframe Entertainment of Vancouver. They also create 'War Planets/Shadow Raiders', and did (and will do more) Reboot.
*All* of their CGI is top notch. If you watch Reboot from it's first season through to it's third, which spans the real world years from the fall of 1994 to the summer of 1999, you can see the effect of increasing hardware speeds and experience in the quality of the CGI.
Starship Troopers is the *only* other TV CGI which I've seen that approaches the quality that Mainframe turns out. You say it's done by Foundation Imaging? Hmmm, a quick look at their website doesn't clearly indicate to me what other series they currently have under production. Can anyone familiar with the company tell us what other shows (with good CGI and storylines) they are making, other than the Starship Troopers stuff?
Finally, are there any other CGI houses out there doing work of the quality of Mainframe and Foundation?
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If you liked robotech (Which was a basterdization of three seasons of macross) try macross plus.
Macross plus takes place long after minmei and the robotech saga takes place, but it still specializes in the Macross subtext of music (besides the big robots.) With yoko kanno doing the music, your ears are in for a particluar treat.. Not only that, the visuals are incredible and the story line is nothing short of amazing. Not even mentioning the references to HAL.
Goto anime on dvd
Oh yeah, shameless plug for the anime mag i write for, at anime
no
Here are a few sites that are still keeping the love alive.
:(
Battle Of the Planets Universe
Absolute Anime/Battle of the Planets
Battle of the Planets
Sadly it doesn't look like the show will ever come back. There are a few copies on sale at Amazon's Auctions though.
Why do they think I should have to download 50+MB every time I want to see an episode?
If you are giving it away free, why not just give it instead of dangling it in front of my bandwidth challenged face?
At first I was ecstatic, now I'm just pissed...
It's becoming more prevalent on the web. More and more sites are using Apple's Quicktime "feature" to make sure the user can't save a movie to disk for *gasp* another view.
I should of have realized it was coming when Quicktime came out with that braindead installation, forcing you to re-download the thing every time (I got around that, though).
And what does it give them except for excessive network traffic? They are giving it away for FREE for crying out loud.
Talk about clueless management...
Sigh. You shouldn't talk about places you've never been to. That's what they do in Russia.
Seriously though, in my experience, the only people who ever say stuff like this are:
1) People who have never been on acid.
2) People who are always on acid.
Please don't take this as a flame, but it just kinda strikes me as the "It tastes like chicken" crap. Whenever someone said this to me, it's always been disgusting, and not in the least bit like chicken. The only thing that tastes like chicken is chicken. The only thing like a trip is a trip.
In the last year, new versions of many old toons from that era have shown their faces. Some have been good - I point to the decent cgi Beast Wars and its magnificent sequel Beast Machines, which take off from a distant future (cast into the past) of the classic American version of Transformers - but most have been abysmal. G.I. Joe extreme was a joke, extreme Ghostbusters was lackluster, the cgi Voltron 3D is even flatter than the original, and seems to employ the same story and dialog writers, and I'm just relieved that the Robotech 2100 project that was being floated never got off the ground.
The only kind of cartoons that seem to be showing up these days are really crude brainchildren of Ren and Stimpy, cgi based shows, and superhero cartoons. And "generation 2" versions of classics. Of the above, some are rather good... the short bits on Cartoon Network can be rather witty, and of the cgis, the above mentioned TF derivative and the movie-and-book hybrid Starship Troopers are rather well done and, frankly, artisticly beautiful... and WB's Batman shows are actually very good... but for the most part, the "revival" category bites. I liked Star Blazers, but I have this horrifying vision of it in bad cgi with worse writing.
-- Still waiting for the Nike endorsement