Slashdot Mirror
Escaflowne & Metropolis Hit US Big Screens Friday
darketernal writes "Escaflowne is appearing in theaters nationwide on the 25th, depending on your location. Rated PG-13. Here is a Yahoo! Review."
If you've seen Escaflowne in japanese, you probably know that
its a pretty cool show, and while its not one of my all time favorites,
if the big screen release gets anywhere near me, I'll be there.
Perhaps even bigger news is that
the mega anime film hit
Metropolis is
being release at the same time.
Nope!
Sunrise Animation Studios (Cowboy Bebop, Gundam, a trillion other great shows) requires that its licensors wait 6 months between the time that they (sunrise) start release and the time the licensor begins release (and they must not finish the series before they (sunrise) do).
Of course, the American studios are having a hard time keeping up with a lot of the stuff out there, so it's often not much of an issue (except for hot-ticket titles, like the Bebop movie will be).
Others force various wait times, some don't at all.
Those that do, do it to avoid R1 reimportation (they KNOW that region coding means jack shit).
Since when was "Metropolis" an Anime film?
I admit that I'm not deeply into Anime, but I've seen my fair share, including Bastard, Tyler, Utena, and other random stuff. Therefore, I feel comfortable with saying that the only well-known MOVIE called "Metropolis" isn't animated. It's still incredible, even in black and white, and it's definitely highly rated.
But if slashdot (which pretends to be a news outlet of some kind) actually wants to make any sense even to the people who read it, a footnote is in order here explaining what "Metropolis" is for the vast majority of us who only know about the much more well-known movie by the same name.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hate to rain on your parade, but they're releasing it dubbed.
Yes, the nerve-grating cast of the original TV series dub (that was panned by sub and dub fan alike) was brought back to do the movie.
So, no, Maaya won't be reprising her role of Hitomi for the North America theater release of the movie (to my dismay), but she will be on the DVD.
on DVD, and Im not talking the crappy verion you can pick up for 9.99 on Amazon either
They talk about it here
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
This seems to be becoming a trend. Out here in western mass, a local theatre ran a print of "Spriggan" for less than a week, and I think very few people showed up. I hope more anime films come out this week (and all over, too) but I can't blame theatre owners for looking at the numbers and deciding that another theatre for Riding In Cars with Boys would make more money.
According to today's Morning Edition article on it, Tezuka was inspired partly by seeing some stills from Lang's movie--there's no indication whether he actually saw the movie itself, but he did write his story based on similar themes.
Note that there is a trailer for the anime Metropolis in the trailers section of the first disc of the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within DVD. It looks pretty impressive to me.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Disclaimer: I used to be--and mostly remain--very much not an anime fan, due mostly to the art style of most animes. However, I've been 'turned on' through friends to a few abolutely stunning stories that happen to be conveyed using anime as a medium.
:o) The story is huge, complicated, and very deep, but for those who have no idea what the anime is about, perhaps reading this post will help.
Vision of Escaflowne comes in two flavors: series and movie. I'll talk mostly about the series, since I don't want to give out any spoilers.
Escaflowne tells the story of a 15 year old named Hitomi, a athletic Japanese highschool student who also happens to have a strange talent for 'hunches.' This comes out in her skill at foretelling the future using ordinary tarot cards. One day, when trying to break her speed record in the 100 yard dash, she has a strange vision that ends up dragging her into a strange alternate world called Gaea. Gaea is a land somewhere 'in space' out beyond the earth and the moon that has something to do with the sunken kingdom of Atlantis (to say more would ruin it). It is populated mostly by humans, along with many types of half-human-half-beast people. Although Gaea is by and large peaceful, when Hitomi arrives the entire land is plunged into brutal war, country by country, by a Gaean realm called the Zaibach Empire. The results of this war will determine the fate of Gaea.
From here, Hitomi is thrown into a series of adventures that change her outlook on life and most importantly teaches her much about herself. The entire time, she misses her home and wants to go back (Earth is known in Gaea as the 'Mystic Moon') but begins to care about the people she meets. In addition, her fortunetelling skills are mysteriously enhanced and become a major part of her life.
Unfortunately, to say much more about the story would ruin it for the newcomer. The plotline is very deep, and digs into several 'human' concepts such as destiny, fate, and luck. Family and chivalry are also very important and the source of some major themes. In addition, the mystery of lost Atlantis is somehow involved.
Battles in Gaea are fought by huge robots (think Mechwarrior with swords) called 'Guymelefs,' even though the tech level of Gaea is supposedly stea-engine level. These 'guymelefs' are for the most part huge robot samuri, and are very interesting. Although there isn't really 'magic' in Gaea (at least not in the D&D magic-missle-everything style), there is a lot of unexplained natural phenomenon that are harnessed by the locals, such as rocks that levitate--'wandering earth.'
Escaflowne tells an amazing story and is a good introduction to good anime. I won't say much more about the plot (don't want to give too much away), but it will hook you and drag you along for a fantastic ride. The series is 26 episodes long, and basically continues one story.
Other animes you might want to watch if you liked Escaflowne, or don't know if you want to rent/download it and watch it are Cowboy Bebop and Lain. Bebop is the best anime I've ever seen and one of the best stories I've been told in a long time. Lain is disturbing, but brilliant. Still, I would say that Escaflowne is a great place to start in on anime and definitely worth your time. Although it starts slow (at the begining, I wanted to throttle most of the characters), the character development is fantastic, and the story is truly haunting.
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Don't worry, being eaten by a crocodile is just like going to sleep in a giant blender.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/escaflo
Im just a kharma whore.
People think Microsoft is the answer. Microsoft is just the question, "No" is the answer.
Probably because you're only seeing the stuff they're putting in theatres? Tired of angst? Watch some Slayers sometime. Crazy powerful Lina Inverse doing crazy things, but silly and BOFHish instead of angst.
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