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Robotech On DVD, Ghost in the Shell 2
Gendou_Knepper writes: "The ancient and beloved proto-anime classic, Robotech, is being brought to DVD by AD Vision at only $15 per six-episode disc. Check out the article at the new official site.
On a side note, the original Japanese version, Macross, is being brought to us by the wonderful folks at Animeigo." Now if only someone would do the same for Starblazers (in Region 1 anyway)... also interesting,
moonboy submitted an AICN story linking to info about Ghost in the Shell 2 .
Macross Plus was a 4 part OAV. And Robotech is a great show. I'm really skeptical of your assessment of Robotech and Macross Plus considering you don't even know how many episodes the OAV of M+ is.
Fair enough, not all dubs are bad, but I can honestly say that I have only ever seen one anime that had a good dub (and I can't remember what it was). In my opinion subs are usually much better, take the dubbed version of Akira for example with the voice actors trying to say long sentences in the same time that it takes to say them in Japanese, nightmare!
--
Hollywood representatives have publicly stated that skipping commercials is "stealing."
Just my two cents: I've always though that a lot of classic(Tm) sci-fi novels should be made into japanimation -- The Foundation Series, Ringworld, Helliconia Series or Dune are my candidates!
Well that's the thing: I've pretty much checked out what people say is good and the only anime I actually really liked was "Berserk".
Don't get me wrong here - I'm not saying all the previously mentioned stuff is crap, but stuff like Cowboy Bebop is just extremely good saturday morning cartoons. Evangelion had terrific voice acting and pretty good animation, but the story and the gobs of filler shows just made me puke; Lain.. Lain was OK, but it pretends to be philosophical without saying anything at all.
What I'm really trying to say is that anime isn't crap -- it just isn't what all the american fanboys and geeks like to say it is.
What's interesting though, is that a lot of older anime portrays sex roles like bond movies (especially older ones). I've noticed that newer anime is getting over it (besides the ever present jiggling tits and scant clothing) -- and one has to wonder if that says anything about change in japanese culture (yeah I know, thats like japanese people watching wwf and judging us).
I've been waiting 4 years for a GITS2. Now if someone would only finish Battle Angel Alita, make a non-crappy ending to both Neon Genesis Evangelion and Akira, and make a Macross+ part two, I could die a happy man.
JoeLinux
...those who can, program...those who can't, manage
Not sure where that's from, but it seemed appropriate. =)
Most non-otaku don't realize that Robotech was three series: Superdimensional Fortress Macross, Superdimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. All were done by the same animation house, but Macross and Southern Cross were actually designed by the same guy. He also did a third "Superdimensional" series, Orguss, which is also out on tape. (Makes you wonder why Macek just didn't pick up all three of the Superdim. series and glom THEM together. We should count ourselves lucky....)
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
The thing that struck me most when watching Ghost in the Shell was the traditional Japanese? soundtrack. It really all came together to add amazing atmosphere to the movie. My greatest hope for the sequel is a soundtrack of equal or better quality, as that is really what is still captured in my mind from the first.
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
Did anyone get that Ghost in the Shell 2 site mirrored before it went down hard?
Good points.
My personal favorite is 'Akira'. Why?
In American movies, things explode, buildings collapse... eh. The people always dive out of the way Just In Time, and we feel safe.
Akira removes that boundary. When buildings collapse, people are crushed into puddles. When a character is in danger (Kaori), she doesn't miraculously escape -- poof, she's squished into soup.
I'm not saying I'm a bloodthirsty ogre -- I'm just struck by the honesty of the violence. (Yeah, I know, honesty goes along with mutating bubblegum-flesh and orbital laser platforms.)
Also, it was a wonderfully pretty movie, even on the crappy VHS copy I have. Can't wait for the DVD. And I liked parts of the soundtrack a lot. (Some parts were just too weird... or "traditional", you might say.) And whoever did the English voice of Colonel Shikishima kicked serious ass.
Not to mention my list of reasons why Princess Mononoke was spectacular. I know... these are exceptions. But when anime is good, it's *spectacularly* good, at least for me.
As a side note, I appear to have developed a fetish for girls with pink, red, purple or blue hair. Must... cut... down!
-grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Is the tool of the devil.
I wonder if when they do 3rd season, they might include some of the cut Yamato season two footage that shows exactly who got killed and how... ;-)
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
- "By using this Web site, you are agreeing to the Terms of Use."
Yikes. To me, that's much like a shrink-wrap license (where the license terms are only listed inside the package), as there's no way I could have even seen the Terms of Use without going to the website first!Alex Bischoff
---
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
*spoilers*
Yeah. I actually liked the ending. It was much better than the stupid love triangle plot and the incessant whining from Shinji and Asuka. It was a sort of dialectic that showed Shinji coming of age (I think).
I haven't actually seen the death, rebirth, and end episodes 'cause the aren't out here on DVD yet, but I'm pretty much satisfied with the original ending.
Oh the poor linux geeks, they hate the MPAA and their region codeing and content scrambleing and developer sueing and government lobbying, but when it comes down to it, you all just rush out and buy the latest crap. You can bitch about it all you want, but if at the end of the day you buy some DVDs, the MPAA will just laugh and count the profit.
Yes, there are two distinct types of Proto-Culture.
/.).
Protoculture the Entity In the beginning Zor, of the Robotech masters set out on a Space Folding search for other "cultures" and exploration. He came across a small planet (Earth) devoid of reasonable life and found a plant with AMAZING powers. He stripped the entire planet of it and brought it back to his galaxy. The flower did not bloom well on his home plante so he set forth to plant it on other worlds (such as the Invid homeworld) to see how it reacted. The "Flower of Life" as it was named was spread throughout the Universe by Zor and it was harvested by the now power greedy Robotech Masters whom lusted for the power in the flowers juices (now called Protoculture). Battles began to break out over control of the Flower.
Actually, as I learned it, Zor seduced the Regis (the Queen of the Invid), who were then a peaceful race in symbiosis with the Flower, and he got the secrets of Protoculture from her. He had already been experimenting with extracting energy from plants, but the flower of Life was on an order of magnitude greater. When the Republic of Tirol (his people) got hold of it, the evil Senator Nimuul and his cronies used it to conquer first their people, then most of the galaxy, calling themselves the Robotech Masters. They used Protoculture, which also has powerful mutagenic / pschotropic properties, to create the Zentraedi, a race of giant warrior-clones brainwashed into beng their obedient and dependant slave underclass. The first mission of the Zentraedi was the razing of the Invid Homeworld. They were sent to take every last flower. The Invid, being dependant on the Flower, basically went berserk over this cruelty and mutated themselves into a race of fanatical warriors led by the Regent (consort to the Regis), and they then waged war on the Robotech Masters for millennia. The Zentraedi and Masters had technology and resources, but the Invid had sheer numbers and even greater ferocity and determination, so the war dragged out. The Regis was just as bitter as the Regent, realizing how Zor had betrayed her trust, though in fact Zor was just another naive scientist putting the keys of power into the hands of evil (how apropos for
Zor, whom died at one such battle against the Invid instructed his General (Breetai) on his last breath to send the SDF1, which contained the secrets of the Flower of Life and Protoculture to Earth so that it would be out of the hands of all in conflict over the Flowers power.
This is incorrect. Zor had a small faction of Zentraedi whom he secretly subverted (via music, emotion, culture etc.) to be loyal to HIM and not the Robotech Masters. His flagship, the SDF-1, contained the ONLY Protoculture Matrix in existence. He commanded his loyalists to take it to Earth, which he had never visited. However, while on the planet Haydon IV, he had a protoculture-instigated vision of the Earth as the nexus where this conflict would come to its end. He foresaw the Regis's final transmutation in this dream, and knew that this possible outcome was the last remaining hope for peace in the galaxy. So his loyalists sent the SDF-1 beyond the Robotech Masters' grasp, shortly before Zor was slain by the Invid. Breetai, in fact, did NOT know where it was sent, which is why it took him so many decades to hunt it down. In fact, as Zor lay dying, he said that if he had not sworn to protect him, he would kill him then and there.
That's when the SDF1 crash landed on Macross island in 1999.
See, the Masters had to pursue the SDF-1, because they were now wholly addicted to the Protoculture, as well as requiring it to drive the war against the Invid. The only Protoculture Matrix was on board, and no new Protoculture Energy could be extracted without it - they had only their reserves to go on. This made the SDF-1 literally the most prized possession in the galaxy - and it landed squarely in the lap of an Earth in the middle of World War III.
Add to this, that the Earth, being the planet in Zor's vision, is in fact the only remaining planet in the galaxy where the Flower can grow, and you can see why the Earth gets invaded 3 times!
What a cool way to start a story!!
(whew) whatta mouthful! But I thought someone might be interested in the in-depth story.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
What's with this "in Region 1 anyway" crap? You, of all people, would be the one that I would have thought rebellious enough to get a regionless DVD player. I mean, I did. And it even plays MP3 CDR's! It's not like they are that expensive. Yes, this could be considered a troll, but it's my honest feeling. I would have thought that CmdrTaco, with all his vast wealth, would have invested in a reasonable DVD player that didn't limit his viewing capabilities. I don't know, call me idealistic...
And random Americans aren't who the voices were supposed to be done by.
Subtitles let me hear and enjoy the original voice-acting. It's hard for me to imagine anyone but Megumi Hayashibara doing the voice for Nuku Nuku, for example. And I'm a Megumi fan -- if a movie has Megumi-chan doing a voice, that's a plus that makes me more interested in the movie. If she sings, so much the better.
The best thing about DVDs is that you get the sub version and the dub version at the same time. When small kids come over, I wish I had a dub version of Nuku Nuku to show them, but when I watch I want the subtitles. (If and when I see a DVD of Nuku Nuku I'll buy it.)
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Er. You're judging a MEDIUM, not a GENERE.
Lain, Key, GitS, Akira, are all seen as classics in there genere in the anime medium, not unlike how Casablanca and Gone With the Wind are considered classic movies.
Then you have Tenchi, which is Friends gone horribly wrong. Or, there's Kite and such, the Rambos of anime.
You have BubbleGum Crisis and sequels, the A-Team of anime, if you will.
Then you have things like Evangelion, Key and Lain, which have no parallels I'm aware of. Which I think is why they're so popular.
Or perhaps I'm completely off base here. Either way, I'm going to go back to watching Tenchi in Tokyo.
Well it depend on which version you go by. If I remember it right the Robotech version, protoculture is fuel for the Mecha. It is also food for the Invid. That is why the Invid invaded Earth, because protoculture is very limited. Protoculture seems to thrive on Earth.
On the Macross version, protoculture is just that pro-culture. The aliens don't have a culture of their own. They have been fighting each other for so long that they don't have a culture, ie no sex, no songs, nothing just fighting each for god knows how long. That is why the aliens where so scare of Minmei singing, they almost had a heart attack.
For more information you might want to check this site out. http://www.robotech.com/
Out site has a small recommend anime list for those people that want to get into anime. http://icomic.com/afn/dvdrecommend.htm
You also might want to see our DVD review section http://icomic.com/afn/dvdreviews.htm
I'd be happy to boycott them. Most of hte anime companies do not, but the only list of companies I see on the mpaa's website says members "include"
Walt Disney Company;
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.;
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.;
Paramount Pictures Corporation;
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.;
Universal Studios, Inc.; and
Warner Bros.
Is there a complete list of members anywhere?
-- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
No, they tend to release a box set FIRST, then release individual DVDs. The UY DVDs from the first box set are going to start coming out individually very soon now.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
I always have to laugh when people complain about ADV using overlays. The reason they switched to overlays in the first place was because the same people who whine and cry about them now, whined and cried about 'too many subtitles on the screen'.
They just can't win for losing.
Perhaps my language was a little ambiguous, but I was struggling to find *any* anime to like. I wasn't categorizing (or if I was, I apologize) and then taking the mean as a reason to put down the medium.
This is what I am struggling with:
I often hear that anime is sometimes a medium for adults, sometimes children, sometimes both. A lot of people in the subculture tend to believe that a lot of anime is somehow superior, not just in animation and sound, but in character development and story and portrayal of reality.
When I ask these people what shows or movies are good, I expect their general sentiment about the medium to pan out. So far what I've found, despite open mindedness and effort is that a lot of it is very much hype -- for example, character development and story in some anime that I am pointed to only live up to the hype when compared to childrens cartoons like he-man. They may talk about their feelings, make sexual advances, and develop as characters in a story -- but overall it's very juvenile stuff.
I'm not insulting the medium, I'm just saying that it doesn't live up to the hype -- at least in my experience so far. My confusion then might be not with anime, but the people recommending this stuff to me. That they are 20 or so (like me) and they find joy in entertainment potentially made for = 14 year olds.
That said, I'm not saying that I hate most of the anime I've encountered. I like some of the action movies. What triggered my original comment was people who believe Ghost in the Shell is so amazing, and who think that some shows are generally superior when they are pretty much parallel with television shows like "Saved by the Bell".
Yes, I know it's just entertainment.
Oen of the first DVDs I bought ebcause I had heard so muchabout it.
The animation is interesting, but for my tastes they coule have taken out half the gun battles to make room for some moee plot. The thing ends just as its starting to get interesting.
GITS2 soudsn promising, maybe they could actually finish the story they started...
Meh. I keep hearing that, but I can't see it. There are quite a few anime that are really good in terms of the animation quality and sound. (though _everyone_ cheats on the animation. When you know what to look for it gets a little sad. Plot is a different story. A well written anime is more important to me than a good looking one, though that would be the #2 concern.
But really, GitS was just okay. I think that the fact that it had CGI, and invisible cyborg chick warriors is what actually makes it popular. Not the quality of the plot, really. Personally, as far as near-future sf movies by Oshii Mamoru go, I'd put my vote solidly behind Patlabor 2. If you can believe it, it's even slower than GitS is; don't be put off by this however.
Now probably the best sf anime ever is Wings of Honneamise. Don't bother with the R1 DVD though, reports are that they really fucked up the transfer.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
I have not seen Orguss, but I have watched Orguss 02, which I assume is the second Orguss series and thought it wasn't too too bad. You can actually view Orguss 02 on the web. It is dubbed, but I still found it fun to watch. You can find Orguss 02, as well as some other short series or single episodes that have all been released by Manga Entertainment in North America at this site ( http://www.sputnik7.com/vod/anime/index.jsp ). Sure, all the anime that is there is dubbed, and you must be able to play Real media files or Microsoft .asf's, but the fact that it seems to be legit through a partnership between Sputnik7 Manga Entertainment or the like makes it pretty cool in my opinion. Free anime can't be an entirely bad idea :)
The record for Most Gratuitous Tit Shots in a movie not ostensibly about tits.
I mean really! Every ten seconds, guns are blazing, tits are flying, and someone's head comes off.
Well, at least the tits part.
-grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Don't believe me? Check out http://www.starblazers.com/
Fire the wave motion gun! For great justice!
Starblazers Episodes 1-13 are already on DVD, the rest are being released quickly. http://www.starblazers.com
I agree.. It's the first anime I ever saw - years ago - and it's still the best I've seen. Truly breath taking. That's why I was so happy when I saw it on DVD some time ago in a store here in Helsinki. I immediately bought it and was crushed when I played it at home and noticed that the sound was lagging with about 1 second. I watched it and then took it back to the store. I figure it must have been a bad master so I didn't bother to even try another disc. :(