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NY Times on Anime
An anonymous reader submitted a NY Times story (you know what that means: annoying free registration required) about anime as Japanese Film's 2nd Golden Age. It covers a lot of ground, as
well as a lot of really amazing films including (obviously) Miyazaki's
work, but also stuff like Ranma 1/2, Perfect Blue, Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion to pick a handful of my favorites. In short, it's a good piece with its share of criticisms and commentary, but it's cool to see a mainstream source talk up something that was so much subculture just a few years
ago.
Whenever you try and get an article from the NYT and are presented with that pesky registration screen, just replace the "www" in the URL window at the top of your browser with "archives" and hit return. Works every time.
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...but there is an anime showing today here in Vancouver BC, Canada at the main Douglas College campus (a block away from New Westminster Skytrain) at 2:00 pm. Admission is $3 and the following are playing:
1. Neia Under 7 #1, 2
2. Inu-yasha #1,2
3. Big-O #1,2
4. Hand Maid May #1,2,3
break (30 min)
5. Initial D #1,2,3
6. G-Savior
/end of off-topic.
A while back Roger Ebert did an article on various anime and it seems that he actually likes it after all (considering he seems a bit hard to please from my view-point). As well, an article in my local paper depicted that "Astro-boy," our atomic little friend from the 60s, is returning to DVD.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nyt/20020120/en/ani me_japanese_cinema_s_second_golden_age_1.html
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
Actually a pretty good article, but it reads like it has been sitting on the the shelf for ~18 months. Mentions Mononoke as Miyazaki's newest work (no mention of Sen to Chiro) and the comments on Astro Boy reflect that he must have recently seen the (semi) restored original pilot episode. Actually sounds like he was in the room at the Long Beach, CA film fest in ... late 1999?
-- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
If you don't speak Japanese, then watching it in the original language is pointless. Especially if you miss the entire visual aspect of the movie because you're too busy keeping up with the english subtitles.
If you've ever watched a dub while reading the subtitles you'll note the huge difference you'll find in most animé translations. They tend to make the dub easily understood by your average 8 year old (even in a non-kids show), while the subtitle translation is usually a more literal translation (occasionally some half-assed companies release "dubtitles" that just uses the watered-down dub script, which is fairly annoying).
Also, by watching a fair amount of Japanese movies/tv you'll begin to pick up on certain bits of the language anyway, which can help you understand the various intonations and techniques employed by the voice actors, which helps you understand the characters/plot/motivations better.
Also, some of the dubs are done without much care at all, so yes, it may be in English and you can understand what they're saying, but if they picked up Joe Six-Pack down the street from the recording studio to dub it, you'll find that there isn't much skill in the acting job. There are exceptions (Cowboy Bebop I will admit has a decent dub), but in general the Japanese actors are more experienced and more care is taken in the production of voice acting.
iluvpr0n.
Princess Mononoke was a very good movie. You can't forget the ever classic Akira though. It may be a bit much for some people well rooted in reality, but it's a must see. With the newly re-mastered versions, its breath taking. Also another highly praised "mecca" based series is Neon Genesis Evangelion. Anyone of these are very good movies for people who are not big anime fans, but would like to watch a good animated movie/series.