My Neighbor Totoro and Ebert

peter_gzowski writes "Well known film critic and closet otaku, Roger Ebert, has a bi-weekly segment on his website where he reminisces about the greatest films of all time (in his opinion, anyway). The most recent installment covers My Neighbor Totoro. This is the second anime to make the list, joining Grave of the Fireflies. For those unfamiliar, Totoro is a film by anime master Hayao Miyazaki, the man behind Princess Mononoke, amoung many other great films (Castle of Cagliostro being my favorite)." Always pleased to see anime get more mainsream cred. And Miyazaki always deserves it.

Comments

Good starting point?

[TrumpetPower!]

I must admit, I've never gotten into anime. Would those who have recommend this as a good place to start?

b&

Re:Good starting point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out http://www.animeondvd.com/discdata/essential/index .htm
Apart from battle athletes ( i dont like sports anime to much ) they are cream of the crop (or near enough) for now on dvd.

Re:Good starting point?

[inv0ker]

Good starting off point that link.

Re:Good starting point?

[Kalabajoui]

How about Princess Mononoke? It's a great example of the genre and I enjoyed watching it very much. It has many of the tried and true anime cliches along with a rather unique and warm hearted storyline. It's almost worth seeing for the forest spirits, or 'maraca headed guys' like my friends and I who've seen it call them. I would go so far as to say that Princess Mononuke is to most anime what Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is to most kung foo movies. So, for what it's worth, I highly recommend Princess Mononuke because it stands on it's own as a great animated film.

Re:Good starting point?

[Anonymous Coward]

I recommend these titles:

- Princess Mononoke
- My neighbour Totoro
- Grave of the fireflies
- Kiki's Delivery Service
- Ghost in the Shell
- Akira

These titles cover vastly different topics, are all characterized by wonderful animation and, IMHO of real artistic value.

In addition, you might find interesting some of the following titles:

- Some of the Galaxy 999 movies
- Porco Rosso
- Cagliostro's castle

I'm sure I omitted soe great representative of the anime scene. These are good pointers, though. The first list is warmly recommended.

mario

Re:Good starting point?

[LazyBoy]

The Cowboy Bebop series is playing now
on the Cartoon network, BTW.

Re:Good starting point?

[CubeDweller]

I've been a beginner fan of anime for just under two years now. The biggest problem I've run into is that Anime is just like any other form of media out there. 95 percent of it is crap, but if you know where to look you can find some real gems.

In my opinion, the biggest pain is figuring out what age category a piece is aimed at. Most stuff isn't rated with the MPAA's G, PG, PG-13, R etc. ratings, or any similar system. Suncoast uses age recommendation stickers, but I've found them to be wildly inaccurate at times. Until recently, you couldn't find much anime at Blockbuster or other rental places, so you had to risk $20-30 on something that might be highly rated, but completely wrong for your interests or age.

I bought the first couple of disks of Bubblegum Crisis 2040 after reading very positive reviews, only to find out that the target audience is probably in the 12-14 range. The last couple of disks in the series turned into a glorified version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

But there is quite a bit of Anime that's good. I'll just list off a few of my favorites.

Cowboy Bebop: An excellent series of 26 half-hour episodes aimed at 15 and up. A small group of bounty hunters track criminals throughout the solar system while dealing with their own shady backgrounds. The music in this one is legendary, and really makes the stories pop. The plot bogs down a bit around episodes 12-15, but the series overall is excellent. This is my favorite Anime and has turned me into a die-hard fan of the music composer, Yoko Kanno.

Princess Mononoke: An incredible 120 minute movie aimed at 10 and above. I've shown this movie to dozens of members of my friends and family, and with only one exception everybody has liked it. A human mining community is destroying a forest populated by ancient animal spirits. A young boy is cursed by one of the displaced spirits, and goes on a journey to end the conflict. This one really stands out because there are no good or evil characters. Every side has their good and bad traits, and no side is completely innocent or guilty.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Another decent series of 26 half-hour episodes. The subplot is aimed at 15 and up, but younger can watch the surface story and be entertained. Giant robot combat on the surface, but with some very interesting religious undertones if you look closely. Basically, what would happen if technology progressed sufficiently that man becomes capable of resisting the will of God? Some don't like this series because the ending leaves so many unanswered questions.

Gunsmith Cats: A series of 3 half hour episodes aimed at ages 15 and up. This is the Anime version of Starsky and Hutch. A pair of female gun shop owners are forced to go undercover working for the ATF. One of the girls is an explosive expert, and is really the one that sells the show. She's always wanting to blow up anything and everything, and the other characters have to keep her in check. All her grenades have feminine touches, like a pink ribbon tied around the pin, or a lipstick kiss mark. This is a good one if you want to have fun but don't want to think very hard. My wife loves this one.

My Neighbor Totoro: A 90 minute movie, definitely aimed at children. My son is a bit young to follow most of the movie, but he thinks the Totoros are hilarious. The movie is a warm, fuzzy feel-good childrens movie all the way through. One of the best scenes is at a bus stop in the rain. A Totoro is loaned an umbrella to try to stay dry, and makes a game out of the sounds of raindrops hitting the fabric. My son laughs hysterically at this scene.

Lain - Serial Experiments: A series of 13 half-hour episodes aimed at 18 and up. A young girl discovers the internet, and a hidden world behind it. It quickly turns into philosophical ruminations on the nature of conciousness and existence. If you're not an armchair philosopher you may get bored with this one, but I liked it. There's not a lot of action here, but plenty of stuff to make you think.

Grave of the Fireflies: A 90 minute movie that can be watched by all ages, but will probably only be enjoyed by adults. This is a strong anti-war movie, and one of the saddest movies I've ever seen. It's set in the last few days of WW2 Japan, and centers around a pair of children whos parents have both been killed. The children are struggling to survive on their own surrounded by a society that's too caught up in the war to help them. This one's a tear-jerker, but a solid and enjoyable picture none the less.

Supposedly Garasaki is decent, with a strong political backstory, and I may get into that series next, when I have money again. That might be a while.

There's a couple of Animes I didn't like, as well. Bubblegum Crisis 2040, as I said above, is aimed for a younger age category than I prefer. Akira is supposed to be great, but I've never read the comic books, and it just didn't do anything for me. The Robotech series (I know, not really Anime) that I loved as a kid turned out to be nothing more than nostalgia. It's truly one of the worst things I've ever seen. The different Gundam Wing variants are awful. I don't know what people see in them. It seems like nothing more than one very powerful hero fighting off hordes of incompetent enemies. The different DragonBall series are very popular with the 8-12 year old category, and even some older people, but really it's nothing more than steriod pumped angry people in a never-ending run of trash talk a la Professional Wrestling.

If you're interested in Anime, I'd say the best thing you could do would be to lurk on a couple of locations on the internet and look for suggestions. Once you've seen and liked a couple of pieces, and know what types you prefer (political, comedy, action, etc.) people should have a much better idea of what other things you might like. If you go to a site that does ratings, make sure they are honest about bad ratings. Too many sides offer 8.5 of 10 as their lowest possible rating.

If you get the Cartoon Network, they're always playing Anime for the 10-14 year old category. Late nights on Sundays they play Cowboy Bebop. A lot of stuff on this channel is highly edited to make them suitable for television, but you can still get a taste. So far I haven't been too disappointed in the editing done to Cowboy Bebop.


Hope that helped!

Seth

Re:Good starting point?

[*ZiggyP0P*]

Out of the list I must agree with you.

My favorite anime would have to be Serial Experiments Lain. It had simply beautiful artwork, an interesting story, and it had a subplot that was QUITE away from what it originally looks like.

No spoilers for those curious but the creators said that this could not be understood by Americans (or, rather, non-Japanese). It deals with the struggle between western influence and the traditional Japanese way of life. Viewed under this context and with a shading of "What else could this mean" you can read a LOT of different plots into lain.

For this reason (if not the hundreds of others), Lain is definately worth the time of those interested. Describe in 2 words? Fun Headtrip.

Re:Good starting point?

[mr. marbles]

To anyone that is disappointed with the evangelion ending. Know that it's widely accepted that the last two movies are held as the REAL ending for evangelion. Essentially the movies says the same thing as the last two episodes, but with MUCH more money!
The story that i've heard is that the last two episodes resulted from the Studio running out of money at the end of the production of the series. Two years later the studio made it up to the fans with the release of the movies and redoing the ending. And IMHO the movies are the best anime out there, sit back and prepare to have your mind blown to pieces. It's actually more appropreate to watch the series up to the last two episodes and then watch the movie ending.

Re:Good starting point?

[aka-ed]

There is also a (very good) Cowboy Bebop feature film, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," which was released in Japan last summer. (Chronology nitpickers: timewise, it is set between episodes 22 and 23 of the series.)

There is an Official English-language Website, but no apparent details of a US release (I was able to find a very nice-quality subtitled dub on Usenet).

Re:Good starting point?

[wedg]

1. Cowboy Bebop is *awesome*. It's a lot more than the simple surface plot. It is a story about people. The characters are the single most important part, and almost all of them are developed incredibly well. You have to pay attention to the recurring themes, the background noise, to get anything more than "bounty hunters killing things" out of this season long series. And it's still entertaining on the surface. Oh yeah. The Art and subtle blends of CG and traditional cel animation is incredible.

2. Mononoke Hime is incredible. The animation is stunning, but the plot is even better. It really helps to know a little about Japanese myths and the idea of a 'kami', or spirit, as taken from Shintoism. Really a great movie.

3. Neon Genesis Evangelion (or Shin Seiki Evangelion) is one of the best season long series out there ever. Perhaps one of the most emotionally charged and angst filled too. If you want an idea of how much, the director, Anno, created the series in large part as a way of dealing with his own incredibly deep depression. The story is about the creation of Man, the meaning of Life, and our Purpose in the Universe. It is also very, very confusing at times. They made a 26 (season long) series, then made a movie to explain the series, then made another movie to explain the first movie. But the animation is beautiful, the characters are wonderful. The series is perhaps one of the best, ever, out of all mediums. Truely a work of art.

4. Gunsmith Cats is great. Sort of like a contemporary Cowboy Bebop. It's earlier animation, and it's a lot more 'fun', and less serious, but it's still great to watch, especially for the fight scenes and technical art.

5. I haven't seen My Neighbor Totoro yet, but you would suggest that it's for children only. I'm not sure, but most anime work on many levels. Digimon is still entertaining for teenagers, or even adults. If you're watching it with the viewpoint of a child, you'll miss much of the more important parts of the film.

6. Lain is a half-season long twisting path through the psyche of a 13 year old girl (Lain). I've watched it twice, and I still can't quite figure out what's going on. The movies raise the question of the next human evolution, the possibilities for human consciousness, and many others. And proceeds to answer none of them. The animation is very unique too, but also very well done. The main problem with this film is that you spend so much time wondering what's going on, you don't get to empathize with any of the characters. It gets better each time you see it though, as pieces of the puzzle lock into place.

7. Grave of the Fireflies is truely a masterpiece. Everything said about it is true.

There are so many more I can do. The best advice I can give is to go rent or borrow as much anime to watch as possible. The more you see, the more you'll be able to pick out the finer points of each one, and the more you'll learn to differentiate some bad animes (mostly in the 80s), from the really good ones.

Some you'll like. Some are ok. Some are intolerable. One of the other suggestions I give is to see them in the original japanese language with subtitles. Dubs are easy on the eyes, because you don't have to read, but there's a lot you miss out in terms of nuances of voice, inflection, etc, that just doesn't carry well into English, or sounds just plain stupid when translated. And some dubs are done just poorly.

And like I said, most anime work on multiple levels, so if it seems like there's something else there - there will almost certainly be.

Good luck anime'ing. Ganbatte! (You can do it!)

Re:Good starting point?

[Ehrine]

Actually, the problem with the ending of Evangelion (as I heard it from some _serious_ anime buffs in the UK) is as follows.

Throughout the making of Evangelion they would often finish episodes within a day of the transmission on TV Tokyo (the company that funded it). This was all well and good till an episode _fairly_ near the end that was just a little bit gory (and it was shown unseen by the TV Tokyo staff at 6pm).

After that they insisted on proof watching all the episodes before transmission. The final episodes were rejected and they only had a day or so to make a replacement (so had to use a lot of canned footage), hence an episode that turned out to be a major anti-climax. I've still got to see "End of Eva", the alternate/simultanious ending movie they made at a later date and is _meant_ to be much more what they had in mind...

(If my facts are wrong, I appologise, but this is what I was told after watching the series at an anime society I attend).

Re:Good starting point?

[aka-ed]

Vastly different topics/genres, true, but heavily weighted toward features and Miyazaki; it's like including 7 Disney films in a sum-up of American animation, and neglecting stuff like The Simpsons, South Park or Animaniacs. TV Anime has a lot of worthy "junk-food" titles that measure up well to the American titles I mentioned, like:

Excel Saga : In the first minutes of the series, the super-hyper heroine Excel is run over by a truck. Death is a frequent and very elstic occurence throughout this series about two young women who are devoted to the proto-Fascist Il Parazzo; the three together comprise the secret organization Across. The overall tone of the series is similar to early (comic-book format) Mad magazine. Try episode 16 (or perhaps 17, not really sure), where Excel travels to Los Angeles to try to learn the secrets of the American animation industry. A US release of the first 5 eps on DVD is imminent.

Fushigi Yuugi (Mysterious Play) : A fantasy "soap opera" and love story about a middle school student who is swallowed by a book, and becomes embroiled in a historical fantasy themed to ancient Chinese astrology. Eventually, the world of the book spills over into real life. The anime equivalent of a "chick-flick," but it does achieve a "fantasy epic" feel that overcomes its limited animation. The 52-episode series faithfully followed the plot of the popular manga.

Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu : A series that takes what is alien about anime in the first place, and raises it to an exponential level. Hale is a video-game-addicted youngster; his Mom is a borderline alcoholic who has adopted a young girl who, known only to Hale, has alien-like (possibly supernatural) powers.

Noir : Kirika, a young woman with no memories, is united with Mirielle, a paid assassin haunted by her past. Kirika's only belongings are an id card, and a watch that bears ancient symbols of the secret society known as "Soldats" -- the same society responsible for the murder of Mirielle's parents. Kirika, for reasons she can't fathom, is as skilled at the tasks of assassination as the more experienced Mirielle, and the two go into business together as paid assassins, under the name "Noir." When evidence starts to emerge that Kirika was involved in her parents' deaths, Mirielle agrees to help Kirika uncover her true self -- and also swears to kill her once that task is accomplished.

Re:Good starting point?

[Kizeh]

I'd also like to add a mention of Jin-Roh, which at least a while back was in theatrical distribution in the US. It's a movie which happens to be animated; it is certainly not for kids!

Porco Rosso from Miyazaki is also a nice, warm work, although with more conflict than Totoro.

Re:Good starting point?

[Squeeze Truck]

For the Slashdot crowd, try "Serial Experiments Lain", about a middle-school (?) hacker chick.
Very geeky, very complicated.

Can you get this in the states?
If not, almost any Anime worth seeing can be downloaded via the WinMX P2P network. Install the Japanese patch and search on the Japanese title.

(If you aren't able or willing to do this, then you are no fan and I SHUN you.)

Re:Good starting point?

[CaptainCarrot]

I wouldn't. Not that I don't recommend the movie; it's absolutely wonderful. But it is, I believe, almost sui generis. Other than the artistic conventions governing the way the characters are drawn, it has little in common with other anime, from other directors.

So watch the movie, and enjoy is as you almost surely will. (The American dub is a bit bumpy in places, with some translations not as well done as they might be, but that's just a quibble.) But do not regard it as an introduction to anime. It's just too unique.

Re:Good starting point?

[RockyJSquirel]

Actually, the problem with the ending of Evangelion (as I heard it from some _serious_ anime buffs in the UK) is as follows.

Throughout the making of Evangelion they would often finish episodes within a day of the transmission on TV Tokyo (the company that funded it). This was all well and good till an episode _fairly_ near the end that was just a little bit gory (and it was shown unseen by the TV Tokyo staff at 6pm).

After that they insisted on proof watching all the episodes before transmission. The final episodes were rejected and they only had a day or so to make a replacement (so had to use a lot of canned footage), hence an episode that turned out to be a major anti-climax. I've still got to see "End of Eva", the alternate/simultanious ending movie they made at a later date and is _meant_ to be much more what they had in mind...

(If my facts are wrong, I appologise, but this is what I was told after watching the series at an anime society I attend).


Hmm. You may be right though I have my doubts.

I loved the ending of the TV series myself, and didn't like the movie at all. I suppose the translation might have something to do with it, though. I don't speak much Japanese and the only version of the movie I've seen is a Hong Kong pirate DVD with the worst translation you can imagine.

But still the TV series ended with ideas that were much deeper and more interesting to me than anything I think you could express within the limitations of the sort of action you expect from a cartoon. I thought the effect was wonderful. You had 24 episodes to get to really know and care about some very complicated characters and then two episodes to use their lives to explore the problems that deep exist under the surface of peoples lives (and a bit of a solution as well).

Hideaki Anno, the writer and director of Evangelion said "Evangelion is my life and I have put everything I know into this work. This is my entire life. My life itself."

Here's a quote from an article about an Anime expo in California in 1996:

A few people asked Anno about why he did the final two episodes the way he did, while noting that they felt the ending was confusing. Anno replied, via his translator, that he did not think there was anything wrong with the last two episodes at all and that if we didn't like the ending of Eva, that was our problem -- at which point he picked up the microphone and, speaking in English, said "Too bad."

The end of the tv series does suffer from a lack of animation which suggests that there was some sort of problem, but the idea and script is incredible. I don't know if the ending of the TV series is what the author orginally imagined doing, but it's much deeper and so much more interesting than something action based could have been. Perhaps being forced to finish the series without the time (or perhaps the money) to animate it, freed Anno from the constraint of making something that LOOKS like a cartoon and let him express the ideas that really mattered to him better than a cartoon could have.

The story I heard was that Anno got pretty angry at the reception that the ending got among the fans (Evangelion was a very popular series so there was a big fan base). He shaved his head, made a public apology (I assume his apology was sarcastic, but perhaps secretly sarcastic) and went off to make his movie. The movie, on the other hand was violent where the TV series had been reflective and nilisting where the TV series had been hopeful. I got the impression that Anno was diliberately punishing his audience for not appreciating his original work of art. In any case, I think TV series was a masterpiece and that the movie falls very flat.

Rocky J. Squirrel

Re:Good starting point?

[RockyJSquirel]

I'd like to second the recomendations of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Princes Mononoke" and add one more to the list.

Sazan Eyes (or 3x3 Eyes): There were two series made, the first one "Imortals" is wonderful, though it looks like the producers ran out of money after four episodes and stopped the series right before the climax. The second series "Legend of the Divine Demon" isn't very good. I have a double DVD set with both series.

I'd rather not ruin anything by trying to descibe the plot, so I'll just say that the program was produced for 15 and up and is a lot of fun.

The second series changed the main character completely, she acts like a completely different person, eh I mean demon, and seemed to be too consciously aimed at girls (girl's animation, yuck) and at dirty old men.

Rocky J. Squirrel

Re:Good starting point?

[Nykkel]

> (If you aren't able or willing to do this, then you are no fan and I SHUN you.)

I might just as easily say that if you're going to get your anime by piracy (downloading it off the net for free), "then you are no fan and I SHUN you."

A real fan should help support the companies that produce the shows he likes, by purchasing them.

However, I don't really want to rehash The Generic Copyright Flame War. My only point here is that I don't think a willingness to download anime off the net (piracy) makes you a "real" anime fan any more than downloading MP3 files off the net makes you a "real" music fan, or downloading warez would make you a "real" software fan.

Re:Good starting point?

[ryusen]

your question is about as easy to answer as "i've never read a book, what would you recomend?"

there are great anime and manga works from all different genre's and what you should let us know is hat kinds of films you like to watch?

most people who are willing to "risk" watching anime are action/sci-fi fans, so things like Evangelion and princess mononoke are great... if you want serious drama, comedy, love stories, car racing, high school hi-jinks, pornography, horror, whatever.. there's probably an anime that is for you...
my advise is try watching some of the ones that got the "oldtimers" to watch in the first place:
Macross, Nausicaa, Akira, Bubble Gum Crisis... basically anything from the 80's back... back then it was much harder to get anime at all, so most of what could be gotten was decent

Re:On Ebert's opinions

[swein515]

Galaxy Quest *was* a good movie. Gladiator was good, but WAY overrated. In any case, LOTR makes them both look like grade-school shite.

WaiWai!

[Theodore]

Domo Arigato Miyazaki-sensei!
And thank you Ebert for helping to increase the otaku-diaspora!

something disturbing about totoro

[mickeyreznor]

I thought it was a somewhat disturbing movie. The animators seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with little children's underwear(panty flashes are ok in anime geared for older viewers, but this was a kids movie for christ sake).

Re:something disturbing about totoro

[Aron S-T]

Ahem.

So you think panty flashes of little girls in ADULT movies is ok, and in kids movies its perverse. Hmmmm...me thinks you got this one backwards. And why in hell did soeone uptick your comment? Sheez

Re:something disturbing about totoro

[Robotech_Master]

No one "upticked" his comment; pay attention. If someone had, it would have said "Score: 2, Something-or-other" instead of just "Score: 2." The poster has high enough karma that he posts with a +1 bonus automatically. For that matter, so do I, but I'm foregoing it for this comment because rating it higher would only cause me to lose karma when someone dings it for being off-topic.

Re:something disturbing about totoro

[Squeeze Truck]

So... Little girls showing thier underpants is unusual? I reckon you don't have any daughters then. ;)

Seriously, I don't think it was meant as any kind of a turn-on, just as cute realism.

Re:something disturbing about totoro

[Yosho]

This is completely offtopic, but -- not necessarily. If somebody mods a comment as "Underrated," it'd be bumped up to +2 with no something-or-other beside it.

but taco,

[llamalicious]

weren't you off to see the fam?
:)

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[ostiguy]

I agree to a point. It also seems so stereotypically geeky, which isn't so problematic when viewed as a art form, but when it seems to become lustful over two dimension female cartoon characters, then it is just a bit *odd*. I just have found traditional film to be much more interesting. That isn't to say I won't get into anime at some point, but I have found hitchcock and kurosawa more interesting and entertaining so far.

ostiguy

not only otaku

[kubota]

I like Miyazaki anime very much. However, in Japan, Miyazaki anime is not only for otaku people but also for all average children and adults. Miyazaki's anime movies earn as much as Holywood movies in Japan.

Re:not only otaku

[Squeeze Truck]

Funny you should mention that.

The bucho of my department, a 50-year old guy with only half his teeth, has a Totoro screen saver. I'm looking at it right now.

Attend your local Animi on Sunday

[nanospook]

Is animi a religion then?

Sign the petition!

[Fenris2001]

For those of you who don't yet know, Disney has NO plans to release any more of Miyazaki's films, despite owning the US distribution rights to 11 of his films.

There's a petition here to get Disney to at least release some of these films on home video.

Disney's position is based on the poor performance of Princess Mononoke in the US. That release grossed just over $2 million in the US (it grossed over $150 million in Japan). However, it should be noted that Princess Mononoke was a limited release (I drove over 150 miles to see it - twice!), with little advertising before it came out.

There is hope however. A previous petition convinced Disney to add the Japanese language track and literal English translation to the DVD relese of Mononoke.

Re:Sign the petition!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Disney finally seems to be considering a release of some of them. Amazon.com has put up two pre-order pages for Miyazaki films on DVD, apparently testing the waters for Disney. You can find them below:

Laputa: Castle in the Sky:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JKY G/ qid=1009298238/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_75_7/103-6213990-11 55808

My Neighbor Totor:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00003CXC Z/ qid=1009298238/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_75_6/103-6213990-11 55808

If you're interested, make a pre-order. Their sales ranking is already fairly high for something that may not even be released.

Re:Sign the petition!

[ll1234]

"NO plans" is incorrect. Disney has not stated they are totally pulling out of the US market. Believe me, there's been a ton of virtual ink spilled over this issue, lots of information in back issues of MML Traffic.(1)

Also, signing an on-line petition isn't that helpful. To really make your voice heard, write a _physical_ letter. Address.(2)

(1): http://students.washington.edu/llin/mmltraffic/

(2): http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/disney/writetodis ney.html

Re:Sign the petition!

[rde]

I got totoro (as well as a bunch of other movies such as Mamoru Oshii's excellent Avalon) from cdjapan . The only thing to watch out for is the language; not all of them have subtitles. For some things like Gatchaman it doesn't matter, but be warned.

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[jacoplane]

Have you even seen Princess Mononoke? Ghost in the Shell? (The anime that inspired The Wachowski Brothers to create the Matrix)

Personally I don't watch that much anime, but I've read a lot of mangas. Anyway, I think you're grossly oversimplifying in your judgement. Sure there are some very bad animes, just like there are bad movies. But you cannot judge animes as a whole, you have to judge each individual movie on it's own.

Re:Where the DVD..?!

[kubota]

I heard that Harry Potter is banned. How about the Kiki's Delivery Service? "Conservative Christians" may also hate Totoro.

Hey!

[Dino-Bob]

Hey, REAL people like the same things we like! WOW!

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[kubota]

Sure, saying "all animes are good/bad" is just like saying "all novels are good/bad" or "all movies are good/bad".

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[Fenris2001]

Why do you like [insert YOUR favorite here] so much?

Anyone can, if they want, find something bad about something you like. I like anime because I think it is a refreshing change from the dreck that spills from American studios. Yes, some anime is boring, and badly translated, and badly drawn, and some people know WAY too much about it, but everything is the same way.

How many people lined up in the cold to buy tickets for Lord of the Rings? Or Harry Potter? Or to go to a Baptist revival? Or a book signing? Or a software convention? Or.... You get the idea.

For most people, television and movies are passive entertainment. For the obsessed, however, it becomes active. Instead of just seeing something, the begin to live it. Anime is not alone in this. Witness the Trekkie phenomena, or the following some soap operas have. For otakus (a term which, in Japan, carries a strong negative connotation) of any sort, the world on the screen is real.

The point is that nearly everyone has something they obsess over, whether they do it quietly or not. It's not fair to condemn someone just because they happen to like something that you don't.

-----------

An enlightened man might use a Mac to edit a movie, Windows to play a game, and UNIX to write software. If his neighbor uses Windows to edit a movie, and a Mac to play a game, the enlightened man will accept, and perhaps even celebrate these differences. If someone tells the enlightened man that he should be using Windows 3.1 (the One True OS) the enlightened man will feel free to call that man an idiot. If the same man simply states that Windows 3.1 has always worked for him and he sees no reason upgrade, the enlightened man will nod his assent, and offer the man his copy of MS Word 1.0.

From the website of Rev. Jim Huber, Heretic

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[lymond]

I dont' know what flamebait is, and what it is not. I always feel a good debate is relevant, and that flaming can be artistic, as when William Buckley and Gore Vidal go at it, or Alex Cockburn and Chris Hitchens.
Let me instead address a couple of small points here, in hopes the poster really wanted some insights, rather than merely rhetorical venting only (which is their right, of course).

1. "Then I grew up." Well, being what I consider a sorcerer (in the Alan Moore/Grant Morrison sense of the term, or if you like, the Evrett/Wheeler/Graham model, grin), I think it is crucial to make distinction between childish and child-like behaviours. I would hope to lose the former, and never, even at teh advanced age of 48 here, ever, lose the child-like wonder and magick I still find when I visit the worlds of Kiki and Totoro and yeah, even Pooh. Those are nice worlds, utopian, and we maybe ought to try to make OUR world more like them. As to showing these things, as Goedel says, when we show things as they ARE, we make them LEss than they are.

2. AS to the xenophobic views, and the hideous work till you drop culture, i am in accord with disagreement with those values. However, and this puzzles me, the anime I speak of, Kiki's Delivery Service and Totoro, say, seem to me to teach toleration, tolerance, and the value of dolce fa niente, to mix cultural metaphors.

3. Use that energy to create? Yes...and no. By all means anyone who ONLY consumes and does not create is not doing all they could be doing to make our world better and more aesthetic. However, what good is a gift with no recipient, as my sifu would say? We must each be both creator and audience, in our turns, so that we may all make magick, and all EXPERIENCE it from others, and thereby inspire and draw inspiration by turns.

4. Obsession. By all means, anyone who obsesses about anything needs to broaden their horizons. HOwever, I would forgive obsession with sweet utopian benign materials before i would forgive obsession with vindictive acts, for example. Triage sir, triage!

Thank you for this forum. I am aware that the internet is a place for flaming and debate, and I love those. But I also love discourse of a gentlemanly and noblesse oblige nature. I hope that some of these observations might engnder some reasonabl replies, or rebuttles, as well as any flames. Thanks again, Zanvil

The problem with stereotypes

[ThePurpleBuffalo]

Alot of people are going to think that you are starting a flamewar. Some people get way too fanatical about anime. Being someone who likes *some* anime, I can find a few problems with your conclusions.

In order to cast vague generalizations, you must meet some criteria. Namely, that you have watched every single anime ever made. As this is unrealistic (and a waste of time) I'm going to prove by counterexample.

Another thing to keep in mind; just like in North America, some shows just suck. Will people still make the effort to bring sucky shows from Japan to North America? Yes. In fact, several animation translation firms have made alot of money doing this. *cough*animego*cough* *cough*disney*cough* *cough*vizvideo*cough*

Reductio ad absurdum:

1) Bad stories

My Neighbour Totoro doesn't even have a story. Or conflict. In fact, it's aimed at people about 6 years old, and is just a strange sequence of random events.

2) Bad animation, jerkiness with poor color composition

This is not true of all anime. For example, Cowboy Bebop had some of the nicest artwork and detail I've seen in years. Macross Plus is also up there.

3) Bad translations of

If you're watching it with english dialog, yeah. If you're willing to read subtitles, the translation quality will typically increase several times.

4) Bad dialogue

Some things simply can't be translated from Japanese to English. Having studied the language formally for a year, I can sometimes see when the English translation just doesn't cut it. Also, if the anime is geared at 10-year-olds, odds are it will sound lame in any language.

5) A bunch of people OBSESSED with this shit to a sickening point.

I hear that! I'm so sick to death of people whining about how much money they don't have because they *MUST* go to convention Y and spend $5,000,000 on trinkets. Let's get some perspective here.

And for all those posts in this thread that start with "Wai! Wai!"... YOU ARE NOT JAPANESE! STOP FOOLING YOURSELF. SAYING STUPID THINGS DOES NOT MAKE YOU JAPANESE. YOU WILL NEVER BE JAPANESE.

"Nobody should enjoy WATCHING something that much, you should save your fanaticism for creating things."

Agreed. In the last week, I've watched about half an hour of TV. In the past year, I don't think I've topped 24 hours. It's amazing how much more I can accomplish when I'm not tied to the idiot box.

I await the flames.

Beware TPB

Re:The problem with stereotypes

[Yusaku Godai]

Yep, pretty much. Actually I consider myself pretty damn otaku, but I think most American so called "otaku" are pretty dumb, mainly because of what you said about them thinking they're so 31337 because they can say "wai" and "sugoi" and "baka". I challenge any of them to actually learn Japanese, but unfortunately most of them have no more intelligence than the average trekkie.

Re:The problem with stereotypes

[nomadic]

YOU ARE NOT JAPANESE! STOP FOOLING YOURSELF. SAYING STUPID THINGS DOES NOT MAKE YOU JAPANESE. YOU WILL NEVER BE JAPANESE.

Oh thank you. That's probably the most irritating part of the whole anime fan community, especially when they set themselves up as EXPERTS on Japanese culture and language.

Re:The problem with stereotypes

[afree87]

YOU ARE NOT JAPANESE! STOP FOOLING YOURSELF. SAYING STUPID THINGS DOES NOT MAKE YOU JAPANESE. YOU WILL NEVER BE JAPANESE.

Actually, if I was Japanese, I'd probably hate it because they promote conformism heavily in their schools (as far as I've heard from transfer students). It's better to be an otaku than an actual Nippon-jin, I'll tell you.

Re:The problem with stereotypes

[aka-ed]

I await the flames

Actually, your opinions are mostly LCD...I dn't know why you expect flames.

We are on the same side of this issue, nevertheless, a couple of things you said rubbed me entirely the wrong way.

My Neighbour Totoro doesn't even have a story. Or conflict. In fact, it's aimed at people about 6 years old, and is just a strange sequence of random events.

You apparently can't recognize story elements when they bite you on the arse. From the initial frames, when we see that this family has no Mom, we are into the story, which is essentially about kids separated from a parent. Without that unifying theme, this would be a much less-great film.

Nobody should enjoy WATCHING something that much, you should save your fanaticism for creating things

Admittedly you didn't say it, but you agreed with it.

I've been that road; I'm in my mid-fifties now, and in the past I've edited several nationally-distributed magazines, had literally hundreds of magazine articles published, and have screenwriting credits on two produced films.

At this point in my life, I barely have the energy to create a good piss; I've had more than enough of poorly-compensated work that buys fancy sportscars for a publisher or producer. I work in tech support, and I write for pleasure on occasion, but mostly I don't write, I read and watch and enjoy. Who the hell are you to tell me that's wrong? Or to tell anyone, even if they've never "created?" Every-fucking-body has to be "creative" suddenly, and if you're not, well the world won't respect you? F___ that!

Re:The problem with stereotypes

[Skip666Kent]

No flames here, but definately a degree of puzzlement as to how one could watch the movie and see only a 'strange sequence of random events'. I'm guessing that you're recently out of college and still have your intellectual 'guard' up uneccessarily high. It'll losen up in another 10 years or so, and you'll start to see the fnords again...

; )

I'm with you 100% as far as throwing out TV, though. We have video and DVD and hardly touch those at all. TV is now a curiosity that I sip in measured amounts when visiting the folks...

Re:The problem with stereotypes

[ashitaka]

"nippon-jin"

Sorry, no.

Nihonjin.

Re:The problem with stereotypes

[Rob Simpson]

Well, considering you're using a language that has about half of its words derived from French b/c of England being conquered - and people using French words because it was "31337" to do so, until such words became integrated into the language - while still using grammar that is more comparable to the German that English derived from...

Er, what was my point again? Oh, right, languages are fluid. Hell, "kawaii" and "baka" will probably be in the dictionary in a decade or so. What's the problem? Do you need to be able to speak latin in order to use the expression "carpe diem"?

Studio Ghibli dvd's

[Yusaku Godai]

Yeah, I always liked Ebert's respect for anime classics, whereas lots of other movie reviewers don't even know what anime is. As for Disney holding the rights to all their movies, you can find grey-market dvd's of most of them, often with decent english subtitles

Re:Studio Ghibli dvd's

[ll1234]

The "Anime Cartoon International" sets are not "grey market", they're bootlegs. Grey market goods are offical, but reverse-imported from the sale country. I refer you to this page with a quote from Tokuma (parent company of Studio Ghibli): www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/video/answers.html

Re:Studio Ghibli dvd's

[Yusaku Godai]

So I see... Thanks for the correction ^^; Sometimes it's hard to tell with those things.

Re:Studio Ghibli dvd's

[Mononoke]

The "Anime Cartoon International" sets are not "grey market", they're bootlegs.

They are damn fine bootlegs, at that.

Flame me if you want, but I've given up on Disney ever releasing any more Ghibli films. They've been sitting on a ready-to-release version of Laputa for over a year now. I don't think it will ever be released, in any form.

Don't worry, I've spent plenty on official Ghibli merchandise: I've given over a dozen copies of both Totoro and Kiki as gifts; I've bought at least two Ghibli calendars per year for the last five years; I own multiple copies of Mononoke and GoF; I've bought plenty of other official merchandise. I've even preordered the Laputa DVD on Amazon.

Basically, at this point I say "Fuck Disney." They've had their chance to get my money. They missed out.

I'm sorry Ghibli doesn't get any procedes from my purchase of the Archives of Ghibli Studios DVD set. I understand the ramifications. But now I have a complete set of English subtitled Ghibli movies to enjoy and share.

BTW, the Archives of Ghibli Studios set is very nicely done: Letterboxed; reasonably well done subtitles; a few chapter stops. I'm very glad I bought it.

AMEN BROTHER

[cosmol]

Some anime is alright, but the vast majority fits your analyzition which people are calling a stereotype. Even Mononoke, though it had many redeeming qualities, seems like it was written by someone high on crack. And don't get me started on Ghost in the Shell. Can they try to make something that is at least partially believable?

I hate seeing anime banners on everything2 where they just show a character and some saying that is supposed to be cutesy. How lame.

Guys we aren't really trying to flame you, we "just don't get it"...

Quelch The Flames: Why To Watch Anime

[Catiline]

Okay, let's take these criticisms one at a time. Hopefully, I can get you to see my point of view- not change yours. You are welcome to your opinion; just hear mine out.

1) Bad stories
Methinks you have been watching too much Toonami. Yes, you watch a few eps of what CN puts on and you'll think "gawd what garbage!" But switch over to Friends and seriously compare the plot depth. Same for Buffy; now I'm serious here!! Think about it- there are, according to dramatists, less than a dozen basic plot lines (they'll give you different answers according to their view, but noone I know goes over about 10). And on top of that, you're viewing this across a cultural chasm (little bit deeper & wider than a generation gap). Sure, you might have to watch the same thing once or twice, but once you've build some sort of mental bridge you'll see that maybe, just maybe, some of this is deeper than American film. (Princess Mononoke comes to mind; similar enough to Aesop's tales you might find it a jumpable region, yet also a good film on just its' own merits.)

2) Bad animation, jerkiness with poor color composition
Hmm... two words. Abstract Art. Yes, you might not think it's 'real art' (I sure don't) but apparently it is to some people. After all, culture truly is a fluid thing and perhaps someday realism may be considered childish art. (But I truly doubt it.)

3) Bad translations [there]of
Hmmm. Define 'bad'. Are these translations literal? Most certainly not; but I'd like to see a literal translation preserve the humor of a pun. (Can't be done, except in exceptional cases). Also refer back to point one- that cultural chasm might keep you from understanding a word-for-word translation. True-to-intent translations? Perhaps; I'm not fluent in any language but English, so I've no real grounds to say. All I can say is: if it really is a bad translation, keep up the good work-- I enjoy what anime I've seen.

4) Bad dialogue
5) A bunch of people OBSESSED with this shit to a sickening point.
I'm going to deal both of these one swift blow. Ever been to a Star Trek convention?? I haven't, really, but I did attend Dragon*Con in Atlanta-- general sci-fi but still the point holds. I may enjoy Trek as much as the next geek, but I don't go out and buy the uniform and the badge and tricorder and makeup kits and wear all of it to every convention held. Some people do. Obsession is (IMHO- this is not a statement of fact) hardwired into today's American (if not general Western) culture because of the popularism ('be-like-us' Borg attitude). And after looking hard at trekkies talk to a non-trekkie- they sure as shooting won't 'get it' and the most cultured of them (nye kultoorni! Literal Translation: uncultured! or perhaps, with context: BARBARIANS!) will tell you that the dialog is soooooo hakneyed. Perhaps it is, but that does nothing to diminish the good parts. But these poor souls are so caught up in either critical examination of the medium or interest in what's-the-latest-brand-worn-by-the-latest-boy-ban d that they can't see the social criticism in Trek. (Not that Trek is alone in that.)

And so in conclusion: hopefully I have answered your question. If you haven't read between the lines and gotten the point, I'll spell it out. We like anime because it is a different take on drama- one not supported by live action nor explored by western animators. If you do not understand this, you are free to find your entertainment elsewhere.

"Americans would have done it differently"

[Monsieur_F]

What amazes me in the article Roger Ebert wrote is the number of times he compares Totoro with how American animations movies would have treated it. For example here:

The film is about two girls, not two boys or a boy and a girl, as all American animated films would be.

Why does he need to compare the two styles ? They are different, are based on different cultures and history... so they are not the same. As simple as it is.

Totoro is one of the movies I enjoyed most ! I do not care if it is Japanese or American or even Czech, it is just excellent :)

Re:Where the DVD..?!

[mocm]

It's already out on DVD in Japan (NTSC, Region2).
It's a 2 DVD pack with the film on the first DVD wit English and Japanese Audio. On the second DVD you have extra features which are not always with an English audio track. Just look at www.amazon.co.jp.
I ordered it from them, but ist was quite expensive and shipping was slow.(Got to know at least Katakana to find it)

This was submitted by Peter Gzowski?

[dstone]

The "real" Gzowski? If you're Canadian, your eyebrows may have raised like mine.

Anyways, Merry Christmas, everyone!

Re:This was submitted by Peter Gzowski?

[peter_gzowski]

No, I'm not the real Petet Gzowski. Long ago, and far away, I was trying to come up with a login name for something (Yahoo games, I think), and whatever I picked, it told me it was already taken. I reasoned that the majority of users of the service were American (or, at least, non-Canadian), so all I had to do was think of a Canadian personality and it shouldn't be taken. peter_gzowski was the first name I thought of, and lo and behold, it was unclaimed. From then on in, it was the user name of choice for me. This helps me avoid having annoying login names like mojojojo7687907.

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[nomadic]

Anime, like everything, follow Sturgeon's Law. The problem is the fans of it oftentimes refuse to distinguish between the occasional good stuff and the vast majority, which is not.

Re:On Ebert's opinions

[LarsWestergren]

I often agree with him, and even when I disagree I can usually respect his opinions. Being a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fan I bought his "I hated, hated, HATED this movie".

Most of it was laugh out loud stuff, but really didn't agree with his slagging of
a) Clive Barker's Hellraiser. Ebert listed lots of "plotholes" that were actually misunderstandings of the movie from his side. He also seemed very upset with the S/M and anti-religious themes and mocked those who call the film a classic. Well, it IS a classic damnit! :)
b) Priest. Again he seemed very prudish. His main objection is that joining the priesthood and taking a vow of celibacy is a voluntary choice, so claiming that you are opressed later for that or because you are gay is just PC whining. Maybe - but giving such a well written, acted and well shot film such a low score just because of that? One suspects he is subconsciously offended by the topic of the movie and the way it portrayed the Catholic church.

On the other hand, I really liked how he butchered these two films, so I guess it evens out:
a) Armageddon. "The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense, and the human desire to be entertained. No matter what they're charging to get in, it's worth more to get out."
b) Starship Troopers. "The action sequences are heavily laden with special effects, but curiously joyless. We get the idea right away: Bugs will jump up, troopers will spray counless rounds at them, the Bugs will impale troopers with their spiny giant legs, and finally dissolve in a spray of goo. Later there are refinements, like fire-breathing beetles, flying insects, and giant Bugs that erupt from the earth. All very elaborate, but not interesting in the way, say, that the villains in the Alien pictures were. Even their planet is boring; Bugs live on ugly rock worlds with no other species, raising the question of what they eat."

And he also made me aware of some weak spots in films I really liked and made me re-evaluate them, for instance Blue Velvet, Doom Generation, Dead Poets Society, Caligula.

Well, getting back to Totoro I must say it sounds interesting. I wish I had read this review before Christmas, it would have been a good present for my brother's kids, and then I would have had an excuse to see it too.
:)

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[simm_s]

I will agree that anime stories tend to be confusing to the point of torture or nonexistent.

Although, when an anime story is written clearly, I believe it is usually experience I cannot find anywhere else. That is why I watch anime. The good anime usually overflows with creative and imaginative characters and environments.

I see you are a fan of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons. I remember when they were xenophobic and sometimes blatantly hateful to minorities. I remember for a time there was a stereotypical Aunt Jemima type character in Tom and Jerry.

I do agree that some Japanese need to improve on there veiw of the gaijin, but you cannot generalize the Japanese people based on your closed minded views.

Also the jerkiness is not necessarily a bad thing. The anime style is cheaper to make than the american style.

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[nomadic]

I see you are a fan of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons. I remember when they were xenophobic and sometimes blatantly hateful to minorities.

Anyone ever see the Japanese stereotypes done by WB during WW2? Amazingly offensive.

Mod this up !

[tempmpi]

Most of time I don't like post like mine now, but here it is different. An anonymous coward posted a really important information for all ghibli fans out there, and very likely most people won't notice him because it has a score of 0.
You don't have to be registered at amazon.com or have your credit card information ready, in fact you must just enter you email address and amazon.com will send you an email when the disc will be released. You don't really preorder, if you enter your mail address there, you just tell them that you would very likely buy a dvd of this title if it becomes aviable. These films are really wonderfull, please help that they get a dvd release in english language.

Grave of the Fireflies

[Glytch]

This was the first anime I'd seen since Robotech when I was 5. It made me cry. Grab a box of kleenex or two before watching it.

The R2 Totoro DVD is quite good

[tuffy]

Find yourself a R2-capable NTSC player and an importer and you can enjoy Miyazaki films in letterboxed digital glory. For those who prefer dubs to subs, there's even an english language track on the disc.

The sad fact is, Disney acquired the Ghibli rights mainly for all the yen they'll get for the japanese releases as a distributor, not for any US DVD release - heck, they don't even *have* the DVD rights for anything but Monoke, last I checked. And Miyazaki doesn't give a rat's ass about whether his work is released overseas (which, frankly, is his prerogative and I can't complain). So, if you wanna see Ghibli flicks on disc, I highly recommend a multi-region player.

Re:The R2 Totoro DVD is quite good

[Cryptnotic]

This is sad, but true. Disney most likely has no intention of releasing the rest of the Ghibli library, including such amazing classic films as "Nausicaa", "Laputa", "Porco Rosso". Miyazaki's latest film, "Spirited Away", will also most likely never see release in the United States.

Thank god it's not illegal to modify your DVD player to play Region 2 DVD's. Oh, wait...

By the way, all of the releases of Studio Ghibli films on DVD in Japan (Region 2) have also included English subtitles and sometimes also English dubbing.

I'm sure Miyazaki wants his works to be enjoyed by as many people throughout the world as possible. If doing a commercial release in the United States doesn't make sense financially, that's fine. All the really hardcore fans will buy the Japanese DVD anyway.

By the way, you can order Japanese DVD's from sites like CDJapan or Amo-Tokyo or even Amazon Japan.

Cryptnotic

Re:The R2 Totoro DVD is quite good

[Robotech_Master]

There are also some legitimate Hong Kong versions of the Miyazaki films coming out on DVD more inexpensively; someone like HiViZone could get them for you. Reviews indicate that the quality of these discs isn't as good as the Japanese ones, and they are still region-locked, but even so, they might be a more economical alternative for the budgetarily cautious.

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[simm_s]

It is amazing what they could get away with in those days. They cut those offensive scenes in the repeats they show nowadays, but I will never forget them.

kin_korn_karn should not complain about the Japanese being xenophobic, while old looney-tunes as a counter example.

Re:Where the DVD..?!

[ll1234]

"Kiki's Delivery Service" was the target of the CWA (Concerned Women for America). You can read their "press release" here.(1)

(1): http://www.imasy.or.jp/~fukumoto/n/nshow.cgi?20697

--

Re:My thoughts on Anime lusers^Wfans

[Pxtl]

You know, I almost agreed with you until you made your arguments universal. Yes, there are some real freaks out there - there are some real freaks in here too - does that mean the internet sucks? Agreed, most anime is crap, and somehow the crap manages to maintain a substantial following (I remember trying to watch the pilot episode of something called "nurse angel" egad that was painful) but there is a good volume of good stuff out there, just like there are always a few episodes of star trek that are fun to watch.

Besides, you're posting on slashdot. Odds are, half the world finds you just as scary.

A master

[forgoil]

Miyazaki is a master story teller, and for those who are willing to embrace the media they are in for an emotional ride. Some might never find it interesting at all, others like me will be amazed by the stories he tells. It's a shame that Studio Ghibli themselves are not subtitling and dubbing (even though I will never be able to stand them) the movies to release them into the west.

So to give you all a chance to have something to do until the next installment of LotR, go out and see if you can find one of Miyazaki's movies and maybe, just maybe, you can also find what I found, a treasure worth keeping in your heart.

re: fanatics

[Anonymous Coward]

haahaa .. yes, fanatics of any sort are scary. i fear the rabid sports fanatic, who will paint their face and trudge through the snow to scream at the refs who must be blind. i fear the computer geek who rabidly defends any os / company, because everything has flaws. i fear the psychotic fan of any tv show / movie / author / director, for not being able to see that there are other things in life. rabid fans of anything are limiting their views on life. there is value in almost anything, if you take the time to look for it.

Some unabashed gushing about Totoro

[TekkonKinkreet]

Totoro is an unqualified masterpiece in my semi-informed opinion (I'm a CG animator). Even beyond the constraints of the imaginary cat-owl-bear genre. :) I've inflicted it on any number of friends and acquaintances, always with happy results.

At SIGGRAPH two years ago I was fortunate enough to see a presentation by a Ghibli AD in which he talked the audience through a bunch of scenes from this movie. "Here," he would say (through his translator), about a scene where the younger daughter picks flowers in the garden and stands on tiptoe to put them on the edge of her father's desk while he is working, "everything in the scene is intended to emphasize the innocence of Mai and the fatherliness of her father." Or waiting at a bus stop: "We kept the camera here for two more seconds to give the proper sense of spacial composition in time." (I've heard people call it slow, but I blame MTV fast-cut editing for salting the earth for more subtle techniques.) Amazing work.

Miyazaki himself is a gruff, chain-smoking perfectionist by all reports, but he writes some beautiful stuff, the acting is subtle, some of the backgrounds look like Maxfield Parish, in Totoro for once the dubbing is excellent, and the whole is greater than any description of the elements can convey.

YMMV, but I hope not.

Re:How about this one ?

[haggar]

I am an avid DVD collector. Got any links where I can order it? I don't mind if it's Region 2 or Region 1, I can watch both (modchip).

Thanks in advance.

mario

Akira

[Jormundgard]

Ebert was, I think, also primarily responsible for Akira's popularity in the U.S., as he was the first (only?) movie critic to review and praise it.

Re:spirited away

[aka-ed]

I just caught Miyazaki's latest film

Hey, AC, you can't get away with such a brief statement!!!

Where and how? My understanding was that Disney was running away in fear, and the link you provided only indicates French and Japanese release dates. Is there an English dubbed version?

Re:CWA

[blamanj]

Hmmm. Look's more like Concerned Fundamentalist Women. They trash "Kiki" because it portrays "witches" in a favorable light. Can't have that.

I recommend...

[Squeeze Truck]

Miyazaki's newest film, "Sen to Chihiro no Kami Kakushi". Just came out in Japan. I think the English title is "Spirited Away" or something like that.

I saw it in the theater. Absolutely spactacular.

Re:Cheers to that

[Skip666Kent]

Hear Ye!

It's so tempting for me to lose patience with people who see Totoro as 'slow', but it takes a while, I suppose, to get acclimated to a way of storytelling which often places as much emphasis on the spaces 'between the notes' as it does to scenes or moments of frantic activity. Those beats and pauses are very intentional and very Japanese, and immensely effective once you get over the ingrained Western horror of silence and subtlety.

The bus-stop scene with the droplets of water on the 'umbrella' is priceless.

Ne?

Laputa has a similar appeal, in a format that is more appealing to those who squirm uncomfortably in the absence of giant flying robots.

As long as it is, I just wish that Laputa was a bit longer...in the quiet parts. After awakening on the cloud city, I'd like to see an entire hour devoted to the characters quietly exploring an unconvering the ancient and overgrown wonders of the city. As it is, the sence of quiet majesty is a bit too quickly dispelled by the reappearance of the antagonists and the main story line. Great movie tho', and a must see if you can find it. I have it in Japanese, but I don't know if it's available with subtitles...

heartily seconded

[juno]

Tonari no Totoro is amazing :) He does such a great job of portraying the young girls... it never feels faked or like a gloopy paen to adult nostalgia. This is absolutely my favorite of the Miyazake films I've seen... no matter what, it always puts me in a good mood... and who wouldn't like the cat-bus?

Miayazaki's Animated Features vs "anime"

[ashitaka]

As expected there are no shortage of posts in this thread that confuse the "anime" of rabid fandom fame with the full-length movie features that Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli produces.

Simply put, they are two different things.

Comparing a regular anime with Totoro is like comparing "Superfriends" with The Lion King. One is churned out weekly in sweatshop production lines using repetitive themes and recycled cells. The other is major production where every cell is a piece of art (and usually ends up selling like it later).

The other thing Ebert neglects to mention is the music. Miyazaki's films have music that uniquely identifies the mood of every scene and which can be listened to endlessly afterwards to re-live the film. Coincidentally I spent part of this afternoon lying on the couch listening to the soundtrack of Kurenai no Buta aka "Porco Rosso". My son asked me why just listen to the music and not watch the movie? My answer was simple: Listening to the music, I don't have to watch the movie. It's that good.

North Americans have only seen two of Miyazaki's films: Totoro and Kiki. However, even better (in my opinion) films have yet to be released:

Kurenai no Buta ("Porco Ross")
Tenku no Shiro Laputa ("Laputa, Castle in the Sky")

If Disney is serious about not releasing any more Miyazaki films it will just prove what many suspected; Buy the rights to a vastly superior product, carry out a half-hearted promotion campaign emphasizing the wrong things ("A-List Voice Talent!" my ass), then bury the rest citing the "poor reception" to the first couple of releases.

The definitive resource for all Miyazaki/Ghibli films remains nausicaa.net.

Re:Miayazaki's Animated Features vs "anime"

[Lysander Luddite]

Well, I got to see a large chunk of Miyazaki's work in 1999. I saw Totoro, Laputa, and Porco Rosso. They showed Nausicaa and Lapin aka Castle of Cagliostro. IIRC, they also showed Mononoke a week before Disney's release.

The thing about Totoro that most people don't understand is it is, like most of Miyazaki's work, heavy on the relationships of its characters. In Totoro's case this manifests itself in how the children are able to cope with their mother's hospitalization. Of course, the theme of nature and man's role in interacting with it also appears in Totoro and is one of the main themes throughout Miyazaki's work, especially Monoke, Laputa and Nausicaa.

Unlike a lot of anime, Miyazaki films almosy always have the following characteristics:

1. themes of man vs nature
2. strong characterization
3. a female protagonist that is not simply a man with curves
4. some kind of awesome planes (miyazaki loves planes and flight)

I'll gladly watch some Miyazaki work, but most anime does blow, either being mindless drivel as an excuse for combat, or highly abstract crap trying to be philosophical (the highly acclaimed Neon Genesis Evangelion was a pain to watch for me) while justbeing boring.

Miyazaki manages to write stories that successfully entertain kids and adults alike. He is a perfectionist that actually allows that to work for him and not agianst him.

It is too bad that Disney won't release a lot of their films to the home video market. But they do the same thing with Chinese films as well.

Re:Miayazaki's Animated Features vs "anime"

[ProfBooty]

thats what imports are for. go to www.hivizone.com for region 2,3 and zero imports.

hivizone has great service and excellent prices and does NOT sell bootlegs.

Re:Miayazaki's Animated Features vs "anime"

[Lysander Luddite]

I've shopped there and a few other places. Nevertheless, it irratates me to no end that a lot of movies won't/can't be shown here because some MNC just sits on them.

Unfortunately, you can't screen a DVD or VHS format. I volunteer for a group that shows actual Chinese *films* and is in danger of going under like so many Chinese theaters because there's so little content that can be screened now.

Re:Miayazaki's Animated Features vs "anime"

[ProfBooty]

Believe me, I feel for you. I watch a decent amount of chinese cinema(not just the HK action stuff) and a lot of korean movies as well(korean cinema is on the rise).

I got in to it as an alternative to Hollywood cookie cutter movies. More original plots, not the same predictable happy endings of american movies, and far better use of CG. If it wasn't for friends who were in to this stuff themselves(or are chinese) I would have never seen many chinese movies. Granted there isn't a large market for them in the US, but I can't understand why many of them aren't released in the US but are licensed by companies here. The only thing I can think of (which is way out there) is competition with the american film industry since it is a refreshing alternative. Thats not to say that all chinese/asian cinema is good(there is a lot of bad stuff like american cinema) its just refreshingly different.

Otaku == Geek

[alexburke]

Well known film critic and closet otaku, Roger Ebert

AFAIK, otaku is Japanese for geek.

One more thing!!!

[RockyJSquirel]

Always watch Anime in Japanese with subtitles instead of listening to dubs into English. This isn't snobbery, it's just that the American voice actors just read the script placed in front of the them and never, never, never bother to understand the meaning that script. Even when the script they're given is good, the actors do everything wrong.

Part of the problem is that Japan, like much of the world, has years of experience dubing English shows into Japanese and so they have wonderful voice actors, while we, in our English-only isolation, have no need for good voice actors. Another problem is that the dubbing is usually done by very small companies on the cheap. They just shovel stuff onto a DVD and release it.

I've also noticed that learning a little bit of a language can add a lot to watching a foriegn movie, because there are lots of words that don't really translate at all. If you enjoy Anime it's worth while getting a Japanese dictionary.

Rocky J. Squirrel

Re:One more thing!!!

[zangdesign]

The voice-overs for American-released anime are done by professional actors from a "gist" script sent by the producers. The original script is translated into English in such a way that the English-language script writers know what the character is trying to say, but without knowing the actual wording. The scriptwriters then create an English-language version of the script that matches the meaning, but also has to match to number of syllables that the character appears to be saying on-screen (mouth-flaps). So you may only get 15 syllables to say "Your grandmother killed my grandfather twice-removed in a swordfight - prepare to die, you bastard" (23 or so syllables in English). The actors record the dialogue in a booth while watching the movie and it has to match visually.

I have this on excellent authority, from a friend who is a scriptwriter for ADV Films and another who is a voice actor.

Watch the subtitles if you like, but don't knock the translation too much - there's very little that can be done to improve it without re-doing the animated sequences to match the syllabization of American language.

Re:One more thing!!!

[RockyJSquirel]

You missed my point. When I said "Even when the script they're given is good, the actors do everything wrong" and "American voice actors just read the script placed in front of the them and never, never, never bother to understand the meaning that script" I thought I was making it clear that my problem isn't with the what is said but with the way it's said.

By picking the wrong intonation, an actor can completely miss a character's motivation and misrepresent the meaning of what's being said. I'll say it again, the American actors just read what's in front of them and don't understand the meaning of the dialog.

Rocky J. Squirrel

Re:One more thing!!!

[nomadic]

I don't think so at all; there are very good dub jobs. Look at Tenchi Muyo for example. And to say that they don't understand the meaning of the dialogue doesn't really make sense. It's not like they're just saying the lines phonetically, they interpret their character and the script in their own way. Just because it doesn't match with your interpretation doesn't mean they're clueless.

Re:One more thing!!!

[RockyJSquirel]

I haven't seen "Tenchi Muyo" but uhm, of couse it make sense to say "they don't understand the meaning of the dialogue."

There's more to a show than the words in the dialog. The original characters in a film have attitudes toward life, toward each other etc. Films have subtext too, meaning that's implied rather than explicitly stated. I've seen so many films where the American dubbers completely ruined the show by missing everything and trying to depict their characters with shallow American TV/movie stereotypes that had nothing to do with the original show. You know I don't think I've ever seen Anime well dubbed except in the case where the original show was a shallow kids show, so the shallowness of the translation fit the original.

Rocky J. Squirrel

Other good ones to watch.

[ProfBooty]

The following two schows are aimed at teenage girls but are pretty good too:

Vision of Escaflowne(not the version shown on Fox) its got great animation, excellent music, very good story, great characters(its even got sir issac newton in it!), sword fights and some mecha battles. Its got romance and action etc. The only annoying thing is that the girl can't decide which guy she likes. 26 episodes from bandai. Oh, btw the mecha are designed by the sameguy as macross.

Fushigi Yuugi, great story, got comedy, action etc. Again aimed for teenage girls, but AWESOME STORY. 52 episodes.

I'd watch macross plus to as an intro, good story, characters and music.

Nausica is good too.

If you want to see funny stuff, watch the Lupan movies. As my old roomate put it "He is like a crazy inspector gadget that scores."

If you like cars, Initial D is definatly the one to watch. With each season the animation(both cg and cell) get better and better. Its a fighting anime with car battles, no NOS here, just down hill action.

Totoro is a great movie

[perrinkog]

It has been a personal favorite for years.

Re:spirited away - last animated feature

[darkspade]

I saw somewhere that says "Spirited away" is going to be Miyazaki's last animated feature. Is it true?

Otaku != geek exactly, is not a good word.

[ProfBooty]

sort of

if anything it means obsessive fan and was used by a lot of anime fans at the time instead of using the word for "you".The actual meaing of otaku is "house".

being "otaku" of any type is not considered good. There are car otaku, sports otaku,basicaly otaku for anything.

The reason it is considered bad is that(according to my japanese professor) there was a guy who killed a number of people in japan and he was "otaku" and was really in to anime and had a ton of tapes. As a result a bad meaning got attached to the word.

Hence I find it funny when people refer to themselves proudly as otaku without really unterstanding the meaning. I wouldn't go to japan and refer to yourself as one(I saw people who did while I was at school there, it was funny).

Re:Otaku != geek exactly, is not a good word.

[haruharaharu]

The reason it is considered bad is that(according to my japanese professor) there was a guy who killed a number of people in japan and he was "otaku" and was really in to anime and had a ton of tapes. As a result a bad meaning got attached to the word.

There is that, but the enduring problem with otaku is that they never leave their house, hence the name.

Re:Otaku != geek exactly, is not a good word.

[ProfBooty]

"There is that, but the enduring problem with otaku is that they never leave their house, hence the name."

The actual definition my japanese professor gave was "Someone who has the computer, TV and VCR setup so they don't need to move at all." The social context was given later.

Anyways the above definitions were both true of a former roommate of mine, then once he got a girlfriend his Anime interest, and obsessivness of it dramatically decreased.

Re:spirited away - last animated feature

[ll1234]

Miyazaki said the same thing after finishing "Princess Mononoke", so take it with a grain of salt.

He's currently producing Studio Ghibli's next two films. A new Miyazaki-directed film will probably appear in 2004, if he hasn't retired for the third time by then.

Please check the Nausicaa.net news archives for articles on all of the above.

--

Geez! How did I forget "Ghost in the shell"?

[RockyJSquirel]

I highly recommend "Ghost in the shell". It's disturbing and thought provoking like a good Philip K. Dick novel. For those of you who don't know Philip K, think "Blade Runner", that movie started out as one of his novels, although it wasn't quite as strange or as distubing as most of Philip's writing.

I realize that anything I say about "Ghost in the shell" will ruin something. The first 15 minutes hold some mind-fucking surprises that have scarred me for life:)

Anyway, don't show this movie to anyone who doesn't have a philisophical bent. I've read reviews by people who just didn't get this one.

If you like having your mind blown or have a taste for existencial tragedy, you'll love this one.

I don't have to add that young children won't get this, right?

Rocky J. Squirrel

Re:How about this one ?

[gpinzone]

Ugh. "Twilight of the Cockroaches" and "Grave of the Fireflies" always come up. I've seen both and they are NOT good for Anime first timers. They are both slow moving stories that will bore many people. Check out some of the shows on Toonami (Cartoon Network). Hell, they're free.

Re:Geez! How did I forget "Ghost in the shell"?

[gpinzone]

I realize that anything I say about "Ghost in the shell" will ruin something. The first 15 minutes hold some mind-fucking surprises that have scarred me for life:)

I think you are confusing Ghost in the Shell with Urotsukidoji. :)

Nuku Nuku!!!

[MsGeek]

Sazan Eyes (or 3x3 Eyes): There were two series made, the first one "Imortals" is wonderful, though it looks like the producers ran out of money after four episodes and stopped the series right before the climax. The second series "Legend of the Divine Demon" isn't very good. I have a double DVD set with both series.

The guy who wrote 3x3 Eyes later went on to create perhaps one of the best satirical Anime series, All-purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku. The satirical angle isn't as obvious in the original OAV as it is in the Nuku Nuku TV series, but both are funny as hell and are ripping fun.

The trouble with Nuku Nuku is that it's getting very hard to find. AD Vision, the company that subbed and released the OAV in the US, has dropped their version and have no plans to bring it to DVD. Nuku Nuku TV was never picked up by any of the major Anime distributors here and seems to only be partially fansubbed. Nuku Nuku Dash! the second NN OAV, is pretty lame...it turns the series into a stupid shoujo story about the main character falling in love with the boy she was designed to protect.

NN OAV and NNTV are to Anime what Police Squad! was to Cop shows. Nuku Nuku rips through Anime cliches like so much kitty litter. If you know anything about Anime you'll love it. Oh yeah, and there's plenty of fanservice there for the drooling otaku boy contingent.

Please! Someone get in touch with Star Child Ltd. and King Records and get the rights to this series! Families of America! It is not too late for Nuku Nuku! ~_^

Re:On Ebert's opinions

[GTRacer]

...it would have been a good present for my brother's kids, and then I would have had an excuse to see it too. :)

I rented Totoro for my boys (4 and 2) since they like all kinds of movies. I was hoping they'd really dig it and then I could use it as an excuse to beef up *my* collection.

They liked what they saw but I liked it even more when I watched it later that night in peace and quiet!

On Grave of the Fireflies: I read Ebert's comments on this one months ago and found a SunCoast with it in stock. I bought it, took it home, watched it (subbed of course), and now I don't know if I can watch it again with my wife, who wants to see it. That movie really hit me hard.

GTRacer
- Still looking for non-pirated Lain Lunchbox set...

Re:Where the DVD..?!

[liquidbrains]

CD Japan for all your R2 needs (and in English, too).

Re:Otaku

[ProfBooty]

My professor was japanese and I was living in japan at the time attending college for a semester. (I studied Japanese not because of an interest in anime, but for interests in martial arts. I later had an engineering job offer in japan but didnt take it due to the lower starting salaries for engineers in japan who are working for japanese companies.)

There were a number of Otaku at the college I attended, from both america and japan. My point is that the word otaku applies to more than just anime liking people.

I have seen otaku no video by the way.

I'm making a judgement on all types of Otaku wether its anime, car or sports, being too obsessive about anything to the point where its your whole existance in life is unhealthy(my roomate almost failed out of college for an anime obsession.) Its also that people don't understand the negative connotation of the word.

Amen!

[Lysander Luddite]

I suspect the reason that distributors (seems to be mostly Sony/Columbia and Disney/Miramax) are holding the rights to the film for US release is they see a potential profit. The fact that some of these films *could* generate a large amount of profit (such as Crouching Tiger...) yet most don't (such as most Jackie Chan or Iron Monkey) makes them even more nervous and uncertain.

I know of very few commercials for Crouching Tiger here in the US when it was released and yet it did great business despite being subtitled. At the same time, Disney released Mononoke using the same lack of advertising and yet dubbed it. They made no money.

I suspect the real issue is like you said, quality. There are some great films outside the US and a lot of crap. Doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy it. And if I was Asian or a college student I certainly would like to have a venue for seeing cinema from another country. But Hollywood is locking it all away for their Region 1, dubbed and re-editted DVDs.

Best of luck to you. If you are in the Twin Cities area be sure to check out Cinema with Passion before it goes away. (http://www.amamedia.org/movies/)

toys!!!

[ryusen]

perhaps disney should consider licencing the toys??
i know lots of girls of all ages who are crazy for totoro anything.. if they were to sell stuffed totoros and squirl-foxes alone i think it'd be a boost to their coffers and then people will want to see the movies... hey it worked for transformers and gi-joe... not to mention bandai's gundam lines

Good timing...

[sunhou]

My Neighbor Totoro is one of the very few movies I saw where I immediately though "I need to get this on video when it come out". So I got it on video a few years ago. Just a couple of days ago, I suddenly wondered if it was out on DVD now, because if it were I'd buy that, and give my sister my VHS copy for her kid.

This is a very sweet movie, and I think it does a great job at portraying the innocence of childhood, and it's just so darn cute and funny at times. Definitely one of my favorites.

Re:Flamebait, but the perfect opportunity

[nomadic]

No, the comics weren't created by soldiers laying down their lives; they were created by cartonnists who were perfectly safe. And they were offensive, needless, petty little productions that didn't do a damn thing for us.

Re:spirited away

[aka-ed]

Think, my friend, of normal people. With kids. Who aren't born with the ability to read.

Miyazaki's stuff is slowly coming out in a form that the young ones can enjoy, but I fear Disney may drop the ball on thsi one, and market it only for adults (ie, subbed only).