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.

Comments

First Religious Post!!

[Big_Ass_Spork]

It is a well known fact that Jesus, AKA the Lord, OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR, Son of God, Chuy, etc... Was in fact a troll. This whole turn the other cheek thing, for example is a fairly obvious troll. If only they had a moderation system in the first few years of the common era, this could have been mod'd out of our view.

There are other examples of Jesus trolling his disciples. Stopping the flow of blood for that old lady, for example. He invented the tampax, and trolled it as a miracle. The list could surely continue.

In conclussion, let us all make WWJD our mantra. Let us troll for Jesus.

Re:First Religious Post!!

[Fecal Troll Matter]

The Lord Our Savior
Diciples suck on the blood
Then we wore burkas.(sp)?

UNITED STATES ATTACKED -- PLEASE READ

[Anonymous Coward]

Breaking News -- Terrorists have attacked the United States.

Once again, middle-eastern terrorists from Osama bin Ladens' Al Qaeda terrorist network have attacked The United States of America. The attack of September 11, 2001 pales in comparison to this highly coordinated, massive attack.

The White House, the Capitol Building, and the United Nations building are smoldering in ruins after being attacked by truck bombs and hijacked commercial airliners. Thousands of government officials are presumed dead while rescue efforts are being hindered by intense heat and smoke.

There are reports of further attacks in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Miami.

* Unconfirmed: Rumors are surfacing that the heart of Los Angeles was attacked using multiple 10-ton ammonium nitrate truck bombs detonated in multiple locations.

* Confirmed: Large portion of downtown Chicago sprayed with anthrax via multiple cropduster aircraft. Sadly, the terrorists operating the cropdusters were able to disseminate almost their entire arsenals of anthrax before being shot down by US military F-16's. In this first ever wide-spread biological attack, millions of innocent men, women and children were exterminated like insects.

* Confirmed: Nuclear explosion in New York City. A rental truck carrying an unidentified type of nuclear weapon was detonated in New York City early this morning. Details are sketchy, but US Government officials are saying the blast was somewhere in the magnitude of 15 megatons.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney are believed dead in the White House destruction.

Nuclear strikes have been launched by the United States military against Phillipines, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and Somolia. All of these countries have been hit by at least five Titan II ICBM's and one 100-kiloton thermonuclear warhead; millions are believed to be dead.

Martial law has been declared across the entire US in an attempt to try and control the wide-scale looting in major US cities. High ranking military commanders have assumed control of the military retaliation, as the President and Vice President are presumed dead.

Government officials who weren't killed in the attacks are now attempting to keep control the chaotic country from the bunkers under the White House. The US Government is broadcasting nationwide television and radio announcements to inform the public of the status of the country.

I suggest you all stop what you are doing and spend some time with your families, because quite frankly, World War 3 is upon us.

More details to come.

Re:UNITED STATES ATTACKED -- PLEASE READ

[Anonymous Coward]

And freebsd.org got /.'ed today, too. We're fucked.

Re:UNITED STATES ATTACKED -- PLEASE READ

[Tasty Beef Jerky]

Hi, you all may not know me, but I'm one of the daytime (8AM-6PM EST) crapflooders here on Slashdot. While I don't normally hit /. at night, I decided to browse through real quick before bed and came upon this attempted troll.

While well crafted, it is full of glaring inconsistencies that detract from it.

1. ...Chicago sprayed with anthrax...millions of innocent men, women and children were exterminated like insects.

   Anthrax doesn't kill instantly. It'd be a couple of weeks before the millions of people ended up exterminated. Since this is "breaking" news, they likely wouldn't be dead yet.

2. Nuclear explosion in New York City...somewhere in the magnitude of 15 megatons...

   15 megatons is large even for military weapons. Most weapons in the US arsenal are 100-500 kt weapons, with only a few reaching above 1 megaton (Yes, we used to have a 25 megaton monstrosity, but those have been retired). It takes a lot of complex engineering and expensive materials to create a thermonuclear device. It's more likely they'd use a fission device which would peak at 500 kt (Largest ever fission device - Ivy King 1951).

3. All of these countries have been hit by at least five Titan II ICBM's.

   This is the most glaring error. Titan IIs were deactivated throughout the 1980's, and were completely deactivated in 1987. So unless you're implying that one of our embassy workers went out and threw model Titan II paperweights at people, this isn't too likely.

   Also, your target choices are kinda sketchy. We aren't upset with India, we're not too upset with Pakistan and the Phillipines, and Afghanistan and Somolia are festering shitholes. Iraq is really the only target in that list with even a remotely realistic chance of getting nuked.

Like I said, overall well crafted but lacking in a lot of areas. Modify and try again. However, since most people aren't blithering morons, you're not going to get many bites except for people like me who will correct you.

Oh, and one more thing, before anyone responds to this and says "YHBT blah blah blah," this is Troll Feed. I'm allowing myself to be trolled in order to try to get more trolling going on.

First Post

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahahh First Post!! Eat it Shit lickers!!!

does this mean...

[doooras]

... we'll finally be able to get some Region 1 anime without hunting for six months?

Re:does this mean...

[Microlith]

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).

Re:does this mean...

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably.

It could be an evil plot by the MPAA--they'd dump all kinds of anime on us very quickly & keep it up until we'd forgotten why we hate them.

With geeks so distracted by the shiny things & henti videos & such, they would no longer be able to oppose the MPAA until they had bought off Washington...

Nah, they're not that bright, are they? ;)

Yes!

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally a chance to enjoy quality anime on the big screen. I first saw Escaflowne as a 30-minute serial on a local TV network... it was good enough to catch my interest, but man, they really butchered it with the editing. This movie is going to rock!

Re:Yes!

[Anonymous Coward]

That Escaflowne you saw was one of those heavily edited US versions. Not as chopped as CardCaptors, but certainly not as good as the original.

Of course, it doesn't matter anyway. The movie is just a retelling of the story the series has, only darker (and, of course, shorter).

Re:Yes!

[dongkiru]

The movie sucked. I saw it few months ago after finishing the tv series. There's absolutely no character development.

I prefer the series

[StorminNorman]

As much as I enjoyed the Escaflowne movie, I still think the series is a lot better. The movie changed a lot of things, not always for the better. The new character designs weren't great, although I did like Hitomi more in the film, mainly because she had more of a purpose than she does in the series.

My problem really is that they neutered Merle in the movie, and almost neutered Allen. These two were my favourite characters from the series. I did like the fact they gave Merle a background though.

Of course, the movie is an excuse to listen to Maaya Sakamoto's beautiful voice for 90-odd minutes.

Then again, I can listen to it for 13 hours if i watch the series. :D

Re:I prefer the series

[JabberWokky]

As much as I enjoyed the Escaflowne movie

If you enjoyed the movie, you're a hell of a unique guy. While the anime club I used to be in loved the Escaflowne series (we even did a weekend showing of all eps back to back), the movie was about the only thing ever universally panned. It was amazingly bad, and I'm horrified that people will see it and get an impression of anime from it. Hell, we even watched Lensman for the self abuse factor and enjoyed it more. Gah.

--
Evan

Re:I prefer the series

[Microlith]

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.

Re:I prefer the series

[rgmoore]

Even worse, that means no Minami Takayama as Dilando. I thought that Dilando was a huge scene stealer in the TV series, and I'm going to miss Minami's voice for him in the movie. I can't remember a better deranged villain voice.

Re:I prefer the series

[Microlith]

Yeah, really sucks. I've heard the english Dilandau sounds more whiny than psychotic.

Interesting side note, after having had it mentioned that Minami-san was the singer for the japanese dance group "Two-Mix" I now have images of a derranged boy singing to the songs...

>_ it's bad....

Re:I prefer the series

[rgmoore]

She's also in DoCO together with the other women from Ranma 1/2. I just find it really odd to think of the same actress doing Dilando and Nabiki Tendo. I guess that's talent.

Re:I prefer the series

[StorminNorman]

Argh! NO! WRONG! EVIL EVIL EVIL! KILL IT!

Seriously, that is just so totally wrong I can't believe it.

Hopefully if they show it here in Australia, they'll show it subtitled, like they have with Mononoke Hime (which has been going around various cinemas here for a year now...) and Metropolis.

/me goes off to cry at the thought of not hearing Maaya in wonderful Dolby 5.1 surround sound... *sigh*

Re:I prefer the series

[havblue]

Not only are they releasing it dubbed, but if you watch the trailer @ www.escamovie.com you'll find out that it's poorly dubbed. Hopefully with the success of movies like Crouching Tiger, Iron Monkey, Run Lola Run and Brotherhood of the Wolf among others, the pathetic anime companies will realize that people prefer the untainted product. That being said, the voices of Final Fantasy X were more than adequate, they were pretty darn good IMO.

Re:I prefer the series

[Microlith]

Well dub fans hated it. And fact is, 90% of the north american anime market likes, you guessed it, dubs.

The majority don't want to read subtitles, but hopefully more will begin to tolerate them.

The "pathetic anime companies" know exactly what they're doing. They're aiming for the larger market, and using that to keep us dedicated fans happy.

Fortunately, the DVD release WILL have the original audio, and japanese will be the only language i'll ever hear Escaflowne in.

Re:I prefer the series

[rgmoore]

He's at least not completely unique. I saw the movie at the American Film Institute festival, and enjoyed it enough to watch the series. The problem is not, I suspect, the movie per se but that the movie is a huge letdown after seeing the series. You just can't redo a whole 26 episode series as a 2 hour movie and hope to do it justice, so they had to change everything to make it work. It's pretty good if you don't go in expecting it to be more than peripherally related to the TV show.

Re:I prefer the series

[Megane]

I downloaded it early last year. About halfway through watching it, I was really starting to wonder when the good part would happen. So I did a seek to the last five minutes and found out that I had saved myself from wasting half an hour more of my precious lifeforce on watching this steaming pile of crap.

So for those of you out there who loved the Escaflowne TV series, but hated how every damn Tenchi series had to be in a different continuity, think of this as the Shin Tenchi/Tenchi in Tokyo of Escaflowne. The first four episodes of TiT, that is, before they rewrote the plot from scratch.

I give it two guymelefs down. Save your ten bucks and watch something by Rumiko Takahashi instead. (Urusei Yatsura, Ranma, Maison Ikkoku, Inu Yasha, whatever you like best.)

Re:I prefer the series

[Bodrius]

The thing I did hate about the movie (even though I generally liked it, specially the aesthetics) is that they destroyed the "villain-plot".

They deleted relatively complex "bad guys" for an anime (Dornkirk and the original Folken, for example), and replaced it with a remarkably silly characters (the movie-Folken just makes no sense, for example).

Re:I prefer the series

[John_Booty]

Yeah, really sucks. I've heard the english Dilandau sounds more whiny than psychotic.

I've been an anime fan for roughly 10 years or so; Dilandu's English voice is possibly the worst acting job I've ever heard.

He ("he"... hahahah) steals most of the scenes he's in the Japanese version because he's so damn cool and psychotic... when he makes an appearance in the English version, I wanted to hurl bricks through my new $1000 TV and stab myself in the ears.

Re:I prefer the series

[ryusen]

I'm thinking for the thetrical release they would dub it so more people go and watch it (like a main stream movie), but for the DVD they would have to make the original language w/subtitles available.
Reason being, most of the peopel who will actually BUY the thing will be more commited fans... and from my experience the more commited fans prffer subtites. I will say that some dubbing jobs were quite watchable (Mononoke Hime) because they used actors with real talent...

Re:I prefer the series

[cpt kangarooski]

Well, she also did Kiki from "Majo no Takkyuubin" which makes for a really weird image.

Although I must confess, we had problems with Dilando. Because 'I' is a gender neutral pronoun in English, we were having the hardest time figuring out what his gender was. Finally we picked up on his regular use of 'watashi' and he took his shirt off, which settled the matter. ;)

First Post <--WRONG!!

[Big_Ass_Spork]

It was mine, Shit Licker!!!

Nationwide?

[Wakko Warner]

New York, Chicago, and a couple of west coast cities isn't really nationwide, is it?

- A.P.

Re:Nationwide?

[achurch]

New York, Chicago, and a couple of west coast cities isn't really nationwide, is it?

Sure it is. New York is on the east coast, Chicago is in the middle, and a couple of west coast cities are on the west coast, so the release area is "as wide as the nation"; therefore, "nationwide".

Then again, maybe not.

Re:Nationwide?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not from where I'm sitting in middle of nowhere North Dakota.

Re:Nationwide?

[firepile]

None of the places I checked even show it playing in New York. I always thought 'limited nationwide release' always meant NY and CA at the very least.

Re:Nationwide?

[aoihai]

Mteropolis at the Century in Chicago.

Re:Nationwide?

[ryusen]

hey now... we may be sperated by 2500 miles of ocean, but we should still be part of nation wide and all

Re:Nationwide?

[nomadic]

hey now... we may be sperated by 2500 miles of ocean, but we should still be part of nation wide and all

Bah, no you shouldn't. It's too cold, wet and dark here for us to have ANY sympathy for Hawaii for ANY reason.

release locations?

[elmegil]

So where are the locations? I see nothing in the Yahoo review that talks about how limited or not the release is.

Re:release locations?

[elmegil]

I will now answer my own question. Mighta been nice for an editor to try this themself.... The release dates and cities are here and are for LA, NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Pasadena, and Vancouver. Of course, only one theater is listed for each city, and the SF listing doesn't even have that info.

Re:release locations?

[Katharine]

You should be able to find the showtimes for most of the locations on Fandango.com at http://www.fandango.com/movie_page.asp?mv=41170

However, I checked just now and there isn't a listing for San Francisco. Perhaps they haven't yet decided which theater will be showing it?

well, he did

[Anonymous Coward]

is it possible to fuck your teeth up giving head to a horse?

I have shit in my mouth.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON

[rice_burners_suck]

Oh man! I'm gonna have to be the first one in my town to see that in the theater! I think this is the greatest movie ever made! Hey, I've only seen it about 10 times, but it couldn't hurt to see it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

Actually, I'm just kidding. I think this movie is really poorly made. The director must have been sleeping when they filmed this. Seriously, the dialog seemed "fake", the sound effects were horrible... In short, this movie is a waste of time, and I strongly suggest against going to the theater, and spending a bunch of money on

• tickets,
• popcorn,
• nachos,
• drinks,
• candy,
• and whatever else you normally spend all your money on in the movie theater,

because that would be a big waste of money if this is the movie you choose to go to the theater in order to see it. When it comes down to it, I think there was only one movie ever made in the entire world that is worthy of being displayed on the big screen, and that movie was How the West was Won . It was the most incredible movie ever made. Escaflowne & Metropolis remind me of How the West was Won every time I see them.

Oh well.

Re:HOW THE WEST WAS WON

[Microlith]

(replying to a blatantly nonsensical troll...)

Which movie would you be referring to?

And if Escaflowne, did you happen to watch it in english?

If so, then yeah, a lot of people (dub fans included) will join you in panning the dub. I've not heard the dub for the TV series, and I don't plan on it, but from what I hear it sucks rocks.

Now the Japanese mind you...

Anime is dead.

[Anonymous Coward]

The recent results from Netcraft confirm that anime is dying.

Just two weeks ago, anime creator Lik Mi Poo said he was getting out of the business because of a lack of revenue.

Anime is dead.

Who...

[Anonymous Coward]

...cares?

Didn't make it north of 49th

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad it isn't coming to Canada, I would have
liked to see it dubbed in english... at least I
can rent the Subtitled version tho.

Re:Didn't make it north of 49th

[Anonymous Coward]

You guys would have to get movie theaters up there first.

Re:Didn't make it north of 49th

[Anonymous Coward]

While I share your regret, at least we can all celebrate that Vancouver is apparently part of the US now. I always liked it better than Seattle anyway.

Metropolis?

[pb]

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.

Re:Metropolis?

[night_flyer]

Its based off of the Magna (Comic book) by Osamu Tezuka from 1949...which was (most likly) inspired by Metropolis (1926)

and actually parts of Metropolis (1926) were animated, as well as stop action photography and other nifty effects!

Re:Metropolis?

[Roto-Rooter Man]

Yes, I also assumed he was talking about the legendary sci-fi film. A re-release of that would be huge news. Instead, he was talking about a rip-off cartoon which broke no new ground.

It's like going to see Godzilla and finding out it's the Matthew Broderick one.

Re:Metropolis?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, bugger off and go PMS somewhere else. Do the rest of us a favor.

Re:Metropolis?

[night_flyer]

here is what this movie is based on...

Re:Metropolis?

[archen]

Although I consider myself a fan of anime, I'd have to say I was a bit let down when I realized that it wasn't the 'silent' Metropolis. I'm not sure I'd consider either one well known. Truthfully I don't even know a single person that's seen a silent movie. Which is in a way, sort of sad. You find that silent movies had a charm much their own, despite not having any voices like the 'talkies'. It certainly didn't detract from the power of Metropolis.

Re:Metropolis?

[Anonymous Coward]

What I find most interesting is that Mteroplis got a PG 13 rating for violence and scenes of destruction. I have no doubt it's violent, but since when do movies get rated on things being blown up?

Re:Metropolis?

[fleener]

Serious movie viewers know Fritz Lang's Metropolis. It is a testiment to someone's lack of knowledge that Slashdot could post a news link about a different Metropolis and fail to note the distinction.

This is like posting a link about an anime Star Wars without stating up-front that you're talking about a film with a completely different plot and a confusingly similar name. "No, it's not an anime-version of Star Wars. It just has the same name." Frankly, this is embarassing.

Yeah, go ahead anime lovers. Mod me down. I've got the karma to take your wrath.

Re:Metropolis?

[NeuroKoan]

Ha ha. Try clicking the link you idiot. Personally I was thinking, hmmm... can't be Lang's movie.. and guess what, it wasn't.

All cheer those who don't know what a link is.

Re:Metropolis?

[Chuu]

Metropolis definatly is an anime. The short blurb going around is:

This exceptional animated film is based on the classic manga by the late, great Osamu Tezuka -- with whom director Rintaro worked on such '60s classics as Astro-Boy and Kimba -- and is scripted by Katuhiro Otomo (Akira). In an enormous, retro-future city where robots and androids do most of the work, there is nonetheless great unrest. The government is really a tool of evil billionaire Duke Red, and the seeds of rebellion grow underground. Stir into this crucible of turbulence a young man, his detective uncle, a youthful assassin, and an angelic blonde who doesn't realize just what she really is, and the result is as compelling as it is eye-popping, and as unusual as the swing-era music on the soundtrack. Original Japanese version with English subtitles.

If you need some more info, Here's a link.

Re:Metropolis?

[-brazil-]

Since 2001-09-11, if the things being blown up are skyscrapers.

Re:Metropolis?

[geekoid]

Have you ever seen a non-violent explosion?

gay ass

[Anonymous Coward]

faggot gay ass linux suxks 10th post fuckers

They should get their priorities right...

[Xerion]

In my opinion, they shouldn't even bother releasing any anime movies until they decide to show Miyazaki's movies. It's like releasing ST Voyager without ever showing ST Nextgen!

Re:They should get their priorities right...

[Microlith]

Go yell at Disney. They bought the rights to just about every ghibli movie back in 96 up through mononoke (they don't have their new one though), and have been sitting on most of them.

Why?

There's a ton of theories, one of which is that disney want to be made to look bad by releasing licensed films that stomp on their own.

Go yell at Disney. On the other hand, laud Tristar and Bandai for trying to get anime out and on the big screen.

Re:They should get their priorities right...

[The Cat]

releasing licensed films that stomp on their own.

Although I'm sure the anime is better than Disney anyway, it doesn't take much effort to outdo sequels to Cinderella and Peter Pan *cough*

Umptilly billion dollars in revenue and you'd think they could at least buy something orig--

wait, never mind...

Playing in SF?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone in the SF area know where it's playing? The movie's site lists theaters, and there is no entry next to SF. It takes me about 3 hours to get to SF, but it's the closest city on the list.

Re:Playing in SF?

[Radnimax]

I'm wondering the same thing. Gah! It's driving me nuts. I'm only like 45 minutes away.

Linux is just like a turd:

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux is just like a turd:

-It really smells awful.

-It is really ugly to look at.

-Only a sicko would play with it.

This may be off-topic but...

[Nick Smith]

Surely, Microsoft can find a better use for its funds than... Oh, wait. That is off-topic.

OK. Cute Japanese cartoons. Cute Japanese cartoons that are somehow cooler than anyone else's cute cartoons.

Did they make them using Linux? Do they appeal to Lawrence Lessig as he whiles away the hours in the Supreme Court? Phew, at least they're not made by AOL/Time-Warner...

Re:This may be off-topic but...

[Anonymous Coward]

If cowboy bebop legally could be made in the us and aired on normal tv I think a lot of people would have watched it. Its that laws are restrictive that us cartoons suck. BTW the spawn series on hbo was pretty good.

Farther North

[TwistedKestrel]

I wonder when, if ever, the movie would hit Canada. I have a passing interest in anime, and while I'm far too lazy to go and find a place that I could rent/buy the stuff, I love watching it on TV. But having it in the theatre would be just damn cool.

Re:Farther North

[Anonymous Coward]

You want anime?

Take an episode of King of the Hill, cut the frame rate to 5 FPS, use thick black marker around the characters, incorporate lots of flashing lights, and come up with retarded character names like "Super Duper Atomic Man With Utmost Respect For Scallop".

There you go, anime.

Re:Farther North

[Microlith]

Vancouver, BC

This is, supposedly, going to be the only place (thus far) where the Escaflowne movie will hit in Canada.

I don't know about Metropolis, but hopefully Tristar will do what they did with CTHD and give it a nice, wide, subtitled release.

Its funny as hell...

[night_flyer]

on one page (dont remember where) they were saying that Metropolis was NOT based off of the 1926 Fritz Lang Silent Masterpiece, but off of the Japanese Magna (1949) of the same name... that may be the case, BUT I wonder where Osamu Tezuka got HIS inspiration from...

It probably wont hit any theaters around here, but at least the video will be available in May...

On behalf of coprophiliacs everywhere...

[Anonymous Coward]

I strongly resent the association with Linux users.

Anime

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless it's got tentacle rape, I don't want to see it! Bring on the tentacle rape!!!

Which will come first?

[Anonymous Coward]

1,000 mod points or 1,000 replys?

By the way; this post is currently at +2, informative; someone should go censor^H^H^H^H^Hbitch slap it again.

There -is- a link, y'know...

[Silverhammer]

...right there in the story summary. Howsabout you try clicking on it.

Whore

[Night0wl]

1.25.2002 Los Angeles GCC Galleria Cinema 3rd Level of the Mall,
1815 Hawthorne Blvd. Redondo Beach,
CA 90278, (310)777-FILM
1.25.2002 New York AMC Empire 25 on 42nd Street, 234 West
42nd Street New York, NY 10036, (212)398-3939
1.25.2002 San Francisco
1.25.2002 Chicago GCC City North Cinema , 2600 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60647, (773)394-1601
1.25.2002 Pasadena AMC Old Town Pasadena 8, Union at Fair Oaks
Pasadena, CA 91103, (626)585-8900
1.25.2002 Vancouver
CANADA Cinemark's Tinseltown, 88 W. Pender,
#3000 Int'l Village, Vancouver, B.C.
V6B 6N9, (604) 806-0799

Re:Whore

[Rob Simpson]

Yay! Vancouver isn't so bad, after all. Though it'll have to wait until after Anime Club. Trigun comes first...

Re:Whore

[NeuroKoan]

Now, is there any reason to call everyone a whore right now? : )

Re:Whore

[Night0wl]

I titled my post Whore, because that's what I was doing. whoring my self out for karma.. heh. Slight risk, as I could've been spotted as a whore. But success was with me. +2! muwahah

Re:Whore

[NeuroKoan]

Ah, my bad. I thought you mistyped "Where" meaning "Where the shows were playing"

Hell, I'd give you karma for admitting that you are a karma whore. (if I had the points....)

Re:Whore

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess you hang out in #gayvancouver?

38th post!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I win!

Suck my nuts you linux using lamers!

Get a life you pedophiles

[Anonymous Coward]

What do ya'll think is the overlap between anime fans and cartoon porn perverts? One in the same is my guess.

CmdrTaco's Shameless Plugs...

[Lethyos]

"Escaflowne" [www.escamovie.com] is appearing... *cha-ching..!*

...that the mega anime film [www.animefu.com]... *cha-ching-cha-ching..!*

...hit Metropolis [www.spe.sony.com/cthv/metropolis] is being... *cha-ching-cha-ching-cha-ching-cha-ching..!*

Re:CmdrTaco's Shameless Plugs...

[Madmanz123]

Or maybe he justs likes anime ::Gasp::.

Re:CmdrTaco's Shameless Plugs...

[gamgee5273]

Considering he runs AnimeFu (look at the right side of /.'s homepage, boys and girls), I think it's a safe bet to assume he likes anime.

And on a funny note...

[ainsoph]

Well I do not know the show/movie, yet I am a poser fan of japanese modern animated art.

As a linux user I went to the multimedia section to see some teasers. Hmmm... wonder if windows media works with linux? click...

" Setup detected that you are running:Solaris It is recommended that you download:

Windows Media Player 6.3 Total Size:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01f4'

Variable is undefined: 'L_size12_Text'

/download/download.asp, line 560"

Nope.. sorry, not using Solaris, whaddya stupid? Oh.. Hey.. MS, hows that VBScript treating ya?

Re:And on a funny note...

[J'raxis]

Almost as nice as
Use of unititalized variable at line 51120191 of /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/foo.pl
Use of unititalized variable at line 51120192 of /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/foo.pl
Use of unititalized variable at line 51120193 of /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/foo.pl
Use of unititalized variable at line 51120194 of /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/foo.pl
...
right?

Re:And on a funny note...

[Anonymous Coward]

Gotta love dumb web scripters, regardless of OS/language ^_^

There are equally many stupid linux users as stupid windows users. The difference is like that of sitting on a stack of dynamite. The linux users pile is considerably larger, dry, and surrounded by fire. The windows user's is smaller, not as dry, but still surrounded by fire.

They're both gonna blow and take the user's ass with it, it's just a matter of how long until each does so.

Of course, a smart linux user can remove most of the dynamite, a smart windows user must wait for the bomb squad...

Re:And on a funny note...

[BillTheKatt]

Why do you think that every story on Slashdot has to be about Linux, Microsoft or Steve (Hand) Jobs?
I can't believe some people have nothing better to do that bring this up under every article. Personally I'd be more interested in discussing if this movie is subtitled or dubbed, and why anyone would butcher anime with dubbing. Crouching Tiger proved that American audiences will watch subtitles movies. Dubbing is just wrong. Can you imagine The Terminator in French?? "We we, I'll be le back". IMHO language is just an integral part of a film.
And if you are determined to turn slashdot into a Linux/MS only discussion site, do us all a favor and just use the following substitution for slashdot:

lynx www.linuxtoday.com | sed 's/Linus/Cmdr Taco/g' | sed 's/Microsoft/Micro$oft/g'

Re:And on a funny note...

[doob]

However, if you point your browser here , here, or here you can download the various different quality full length trailers, which will play fine with the latest version of mplayer.

And, damn, that dub is terrible...

It's in English! Noooooooooo - No0o0o0o0!

[Anonymous Coward]

- No0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o!!!

Re:It's in English! Noooooooooo - No0o0o0o0!

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't I just kick and ban you?
Lo0o0o0o0o0o0oL! Stupid newbie.

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[MsGeek]

Please!!!!!

Yeah I know the movie starts with a bunch of terrorists blowing up a Martian colony, but everyone who's seen the fansub that's floating around says it kicks ass, and the series is certainly one of the best anime series I've seen. It's easily in Evangelion and Lain's league.

Besides, you can't NOT like CowBe...it's got Radical Edward!!!

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[Microlith]

Rumors rumors...

They say Columbia Tristar has it (since they're a subsidary of Sony), and Sony Entertainment had a hand in making the movie.

Give it time. They're releasing that one Arnold movie that was indefinitely postponed following the attacks, so I don't see Bebop's release here being delayed at all.

Let's just hope they do the same as CTHD with it (subtitled, nation-wide release).

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[Microlith]

A slight update, as I read on www.animeondvd.com -

Apparently the DVD release of Metropolis is going to include trailers for:

Metropolis itself
FF : TSW

and..............

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Well damnit, I'm sold.

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[Belly]

This just got released on DVD here in Japan. Got my copy yesterday..

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[NeuroKoan]

What? Cowboy Bebop and Lain are leagues ahead of that drivel known as Evangelion.

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[Megane]

In my opinion, it (and Ed/Ein) kicks as much ass as the Escaflowne movie sucks ass. I tried to watch the Escaflowne movie, but it was too painful. Whereas the CB movie is a solid two hours (almost unheard of for anime movies these days, I think) and keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[John_Booty]

Yes. Knocking on Heaven's Door is that good. I've seen it a few times and it's easily one of the best anime movies I've ever seen. In a nutshell, all the things that make the series great (animation, style, humor, great sense of kinetic motion, Ed, etc) are abundant in the movie.

This isn't to imply that it's just a 30-minute TV episode stretched out to 120 minutes, though... there's excellent pacing, and no filler. Awesome movie!

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[gamgee5273]

Actually, it isn't a "bunch" of terrorists - just a very small handful. My wife and I borrowed a horibbly poor dub of the movie from one of her cousins last weekend. Even though the bad quality of the tape, the movie is still nice looking and solid. It doesn't drag, even though the story could have been truncated for for a 30 minutes episode, it works nicely in the 120 minutes movie (making you think what they could have done if all the stories in the series took up 120 minutes as opposed to 30-60 minutes). And, for the Ed and Ein fans out there - Ed really shines brightly in the movie and Ein gleefully follows her lead.

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[elandal]

I'd rate the CB:KoHD about the same as a good episode in the series, but not on par with the best episodes. A little bit of a disappointment, as I had high hopes for the movie after the series. And it was "only" good, not excellent.

There are lots of excellent anime movies, including Ghost in the Shell, Mononoke Hime, Laputa, Porco Rosso, Totoro (now THAT's an excellent one, for whole family, young and old)..

On the series & OVA side, my list of favs starts usually with Area 88 and Gundam 0080 War in th Pocket, but there are so many that a comprehensive list is impossible to write from memory, and would take too much space anyway.

Of course taste is subjective, and differs from person to person. I'd guess from Your mention of Eva and Lain that ours might differ a little, as I'd say both Eva and Lain are good, but not very early on my list.

Eva starts well, then falls a little (some say a lot), and the end is anybody's guess (pick Your ending - I'm not sure which I like best).

Lain has EXCELLENT use of sound, but otherwise it's not all that special.

Key the Metal Idol is sometimes compared to Lain, and there are similarities. I'd say Key had more potential, but felt like after halfway suddenly the crew noticed that they have to bring it to end at once while they had planned for twice the length it ended as.

However, with those preferences You might want to check Gasaraki. I'm still waiting for my last disc, but up to that I'd say it's been very good.

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who thinks Cowboy Bebop is even comparable to Evangelion, let alone better, should go back to his action figures and coloring books and try watching anime in a few more years.

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[Chiasmus_]

Eva starts well, then falls a little (some say a lot), and the end is anybody's guess (pick Your ending - I'm not sure which I like best).

I have to strongly, strongly disagree with you here. Eva starts strong, gets a little weak around eposides 9-12 (the introduction of Asuka with that silly "syncronized dance" episode), and then just takes off and becomes phenomenal. The first ending is a little too abrupt for my taste, but the End of Eva movies have scenes in them with as much emotional impact of any great tragedy (the death of Dr. Akagi, in my opinion, was one of the best-written tragic moments in history - Shakespeare has nothing on Anno here). To sum up, Evangelion is a masterpiece - Cowboy Bebop is, well, fun.

Re:Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door next???

[elandal]

I agree that Eva takes off again after the silly Asuka. It's definitely good, no argument with that. But, I still don't think it's good enough overall to get into the excellent masterpieces -category.

And I agree that CB is fun. Good, too. Again, not the best series.

Why can't I rate Eva to the highest category? It made me think about many things, shallow and deep. But it didn't manage to trigger my emotions deep enough. It's not supposed to make You laugh, but the failing was that it didn't make me feel heavy at heart and cry. It kept me at a distance, didn't involve me, surround me, and take me in. I couldn't relate to the characters or moments well enough. I agree that it tried to evoke emotional response, but for me it failed in that.

Even CB made me come to tears. And Sabre Marionette J. And Nadesico. Watching those, I did laugh, too, and the tears were for happiness mostly.
Mononoke Hime entered my heart. As did Area 88. They made me feel sad. And many, many more.

Those that make me think are usually good. As are those that make me laugh. But the best ones make me cry, too. The best ones involve me, surround me, take me in completely. They make me relate deeply to some characters or moments.

mega anime film hit?

[tlotoxl]

I saw Metropolis on opening day and the theatre was half empty - and the film was only in theatres for around a month after that.

Metropolis was a bit of a letdown. The art direction was mostly just ugly for the first 45 minutes of the movie, and the animation quality was inconsistent from character to character and scene to scene. The use of computer animation made for some beautiful backgrounds, but they were often completely incongruous with ugly hand drawn foregrounds. The last 30 minutes were wonderful, though, and it was worth seeing for that alone.

GABE

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the Mtn. Dew, man.

I love you.

A fight & special effect show.

[Nindalf]

It's beautifully animated and full of exciting fight scenes. The big story, though, with the prophesy and crazy powerful people doing crazy things, is just plain stupid, with really overdone and tiresome religious/philosophical angst.

What it reminds me of is The Matrix, which I enjoyed watching once just for the cool special effects, but didn't feel like watching again. I feel almost exactly the same about the Escaflowne movie. I'm not going to spoil it, but there were things that made me cringe nearly as much as the "they're using us for batteries" scene.

The series is better (at least what I've seen of it), but the movie's definitely worth watching for anyone who can happily sit and admire beautiful animation without being bothered too much by an unintentionally ridiculous story.

Re:A fight & special effect show.

[cgleba]

" It's beautifully animated and full of exciting fight scenes. The big story, though, with the prophesy and crazy powerful people doing crazy things, is just plain stupid, with really overdone and tiresome religious/philosophical angst."

I'm not an anime nut and haven't seen too many anime movies, however every anime movie that I have seen has been exactly what you just described. I was starting to think that what you mention was a description of the genre. . .

Re:A fight & special effect show.

[Megane]

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.

Re:A fight & special effect show.

[elandal]

Slayers is great. Slayers the Movie is great. Slayers the Book of Spells (OVAs on DVD) is great. Slayers Next is good. Slayers Try isn't very good.

If there's a single word that sums up what's best in Slayers, it is .. Koala. After seeing that one scene, I dropped ROTFL every time I heard the word for a while, and still it makes me smile ;)

Re:A fight & special effect show.

[Hamshrew]

Oh my god... I nearly fell out of my chair when I remembered that scene!!! Need to dig out my Slayers tapes... or better yet, wait for payday and get the DVD collection :)

*sigh* Thanks a lot... more money down the drain ;)

Metropolis Magna vs Movie (1926)

[night_flyer]

The Magna

The Movie

From the press release

[Anonymous Coward]

From http://www.escamovie.com

Hollywood, CA (November 11, 2001) - Bandai Entertainment will launch Escaflowne into theatrical release on Friday, January 25, 2002 within top U.S. and Canadian markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Vancouver, opening the eagerly anticipated anime film prior to a February, 2002 national roll-out.

NO ONE is going to buy this story.

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, like we're going to believe that anyone really cares about anime. Stop wasting our time with your cartoon stories, Taco!

Re:NO ONE is going to buy this story.

[TrollBridge]

Yeah, who fucking cares? Anyone who seriously replies to this story is as sorry and pathetic as the Comic Book Store Guy on the Simpsons. Of course you don't know who I'm talking about since you turn your noses up at good ol' American cartoons.

The Original Metropolis is going to be re-released

[night_flyer]

on DVD, and Im not talking the crappy verion you can pick up for 9.99 on Amazon either

They talk about it here

Sure enough ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot (to MPAA): You fucking fascists. We hate you.
MPAA: But look at these shiny colors!
Slashdot: Oooh! How much?

Re:Sure enough ...

[Microlith]

Idiot.

The only companies that release anime and are associated with the MPAA are:

Columbia/Tristar and Manga Video.

So if you buy a dvd from one of them, you must make a contribution to the EFF.

Otherwise, you can enjoy Kenshin, Evangelion, and many other series without having to make a donation to the EFF/ACLU/other-freedom-fighting-organization-of-yo ur-choice.

Re:Sure enough ...

[Anonymous Coward]

idiot and a copy cat... This has been posted on this site more times than I'd like to count. And it's still NOT funny or true. Blithering hypocrite.

Anime is for pedophiles

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm serious. How many times do you have to see little Japanese school girls in little skirts doing "crotch shots" (see Sailor Moon for examples) to see that these cartoons are intended for pedophiles and monkey spanking zitfaces.

OH MY GOD

[foo fighter]

I miss living in Washington, D.C. soooo much. There are little theatres all over the place there, 25 maybe 30 seats to a screen. It's like a private showing. And they get all these great small-release films. I'm sure this release of Metropolis will find its way there in a month or so.

So what do I do? I move to Minot, North Dakota to get married. There are 13 screens in the entire town, and five of them were showing Harry Potter for 7 weeks, three more were showing Monsters, Inc for 6 weeks. WTF?

Everything you've ever heard about North Dakota is true.

Re:OH MY GOD

[bonzoesc]

Everything you've ever heard about North Dakota is true.

I don't know... according to the IMDB, the allegedly true story that is Fargo didn't actually happen. That's too bad, that movie was cinema gold.

Trend

[Milinar]

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.

Get over it

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see why movies like this get major release. I saw the Escaflowne movie a year ago off a bootleg fansub. In all seriousness, it was not that good. The story doesn't fit well into 90 minutes with that many characters and events... I'm sure there must be something of more substance from Japan that could be released here, because the movie is remarkably underwhelming.
-MrFreak

Those lucky canadians...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen Escaflowne in the theatres twice (both at anime cons).

I've been searching for the showtimes for over a week and they STILL haven't listed it at http://www.movietickets.com or http://www.moviefone.com
And it's the day before it's premiere...

This is turning out to be worse of a release than Princess Mononoke. I mean... even the Canadian theatre in Vancouver has the listings. Those Canadians get everything... =P

escaflowne? nothing better?

[sammyc/.]

note I am not bashing escaflowne because I'm a hardcore anime fan and I really like escaflowne the movie

however my real comment is that I don't know if that anime is really being presented to the public that it's unknown to, sure escaflowne is a great series and movie, but what about Ah My Goddess the Movie, a fairly unknown anime in the US, cept in Samgoody stores...
Or such other obscure anime that has a following online, but rairly are they able to communicate with other anime fans in person. there are so many good specials and series out there, but they don't get watched because the networks decided that they need to kill the plot by cutting scenes and screwing up translations. the massive amount of following around Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) after its big release is one of the only ways a show seems to get following, because the majority of people won't shell out for the dvd's cause they may not like them and the networks are to scared to show them

coincidence!

[pinkpineapple]

Funny, I just read this post as I bought my copy of Metropolis DVD today in Kinokuniya bookstore in San Francisco. They even let you have a pin of one of the hero. This version is Japanese (not region 1) and without English subtitles (there may be I am not sure) and it plays beautifully with VideoLan+DeCSS plugins on my AMD box.

For those of you who are waiting for the release on DVD with English subtitles, and bitching at the US being still centralized around a few spots only (the ones with an Asian population big enough to make the release of the movie worth, all according to these idiots who own theaters), let me tell you that it is so-so, not so good. The story is ok but I was expecting way better from 2 super stars put together to make this anime. So don't be too mad, ok?

PPA, the Japanese girl next door.

Central US, please

[steveo777]

Anybody know if it's playing in the Twin Cities area? I'm a fan and I want to see this movie.

Tezuka's inspiration; Metropolis trailer

[Robotech_Master]

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.

Re:Tezuka's inspiration; Metropolis trailer

[night_flyer]

Ive seen the trailer and It looks fantastic... but from sonme of the shots of the Magna that he wrote, Im quite sure he has seen at least parts of it... to much similarity in both the story and the artwork... too bad Ill have to wait until it gets released on DVD... hopefully the re-release of the B&W version will take place in April as slated...

Moderating blows

[Anonymous Coward]

It may be "interesting" but it is flat out WRONG... since when is Metropolis Anime... how about now? (at least since 2001 when it was released in Japan) read the story...

adsf

[The BOFH Troll]

Once upon a time there was a bishounen called... umm... Dilandau, yeah, that
was his name. Well, every1 called him Little Red Prettyboy cuz he had garnet
eyes and always wore cherry red armour. Not to mention he was totally drop
dead gorgeous! He had lovely eyes, and beautiful silver hair and an unhealthy
fascination with fire... Woops, I'm rambling. Anyway, one day his... umm...
Dad (*snicker*), Dornkirk, gave him a basket and told him to take it to his
cousins, Folken (Here birdie, birdie, birdie!) and Van (*beep, beep!*).
So, Dilly took the basket and went into the creepy forest. But he wasn't
scared. Nothing scared him. He walked, and walked, and walked, and walk...
Well, I think you get the picture. Then he came across a spring.
"Boing, boing!" it said, springing away. He shrugged and continued walking
to Folken and Van's house. On his way he saw some bee's, which looked like
this: >B (A B! *snicker* That was so pathetic, I know!)
Soon he came to a river. He sat down and had some lunch.
"Oh... umm... hello," said a voice. A boy with bonde hair and blue eyes sat
down beside him. "I'm Chesta."
"Dilandau," said Dilly.
"So, where are you going, Dilandau?" asked Chesta.
"My cousins house," said Dilandau.
"Oh. Well, I gotta go. Bye!" Chesta ran off. Dilandau watched him then
shrugged.
"Weird boy," he said. "Rather cute, though." (All right, who are you and what
didja do with Dilly-chan?!) He continued on his way.
Meanwhile Chesta raced towards Folken and Van's house, visions of naked
Dilandau in his head (*drool*). He got there and found Folken and Van (*beep,
beep* Sorry, couldn't help myself!). With them was Allen, Folken's
girlfriend; and Hitomi, Van's girlfriend. (I knew it! Allen is a GIRL!) He
shoved them in the cellar and locked the door. (Eeeww... Folken and Allen...
Hmm... Could be worse, though. Could be Allen and Van doing bad things. And
Hitomi with Folken...)
Well, anyways, 3 hours later (Jeez, how long does it take for Dilandau to
walk 5 miles?) Dilandau was nearing his cousins' house. But then he saw some
pretty little bluebells. He grinned evilly and pulled a flame-thrower from
Flamespace and toasted the evil little bells that were blue. (Yay! Die you
evil blue bells, you!) 5 minutes later he was at the house, feeling better
for setting the bluebells on fire.
"Folken! Van! I'm here with your..." Dilandau looked inside the basket.
"Always Ultra!" Dilandau paled and did a double-take. He was very confused.
"Always Ultra? Isn't that the stuff women use for when they have periods?"
"It's probably for their girlfriends," said Chesta. "Your cousins are out
just now. They said they're really sorry they couldn't be here to meet you."
(Hah! Even Chesta agrees that Allen's a girl!)
"Oh, hi Chesta," said Dilandau.
"Sit down while I make some tea," said Chesta. Dilandau sat down and Chesta
made some tea (*blech!*). He gave a cup to Dilandau and sat down beside him.
They stood up again after drinking their tea. Suddenly they had the urge to
dance. Suddenly they did... the macerina! While singing the Escaflowne theme
tune.
While they were dancing they somehow became naked and and in the throws of
passion. (Okay... wunder where they got the passion fruit and the
cat-a-pult...) So, anyway, they were have mad-bunnies-on-aphrodisiac-sex.
(*drools* Naked Dilandau and Chesta... *^_~*)
So, the next day found Chesta and Dilandau curled up together, sleeping
peacfully. Dilandau held Chesta and Chesta held Dilandau. It was sweet.
Adorable, in fact. Except that they were on the couch. And sweaty from all
the sex and fore-play. (I wonder where they got the lube from?)
Suddenly Dilandau's fiance, Merle, showed up! ( *-_-* Dilly and Merle?
Eeewww!) She was really here looking for Van (*beep! beep!*) cuz she was head
over tail for him. But then she saw Dilly and Chesta and scowled ferosciously.
"DILANDAU!" she shrieked like the bitch-that-never-dies from Gundam Wing.
The 2 boys were totally startled out of their cute little slumber and fell
off the couch. Merle pulled a giant pink mallet from Malletspace and proceded
to pound Dilandau and Chesta into mash.
Meanwhile in the forest the 14 Dragon Rangers were... umm... ranging, yeah,
that's what they were doing. Well, like I said, they were running around
raving about Dragons. And making sure the forest was nice and clean, too.
When suddenly, to their utmost surprise, 2 girls appeared. Both of them had
brown hair and blue eyes. 1 of them wore a red jumper and black jeans while
the other wore a lilac T-shirt and green jeans. (Green and lilac? Oh-kay...)
"Who are you?" demanded the boy with a mop of curly hair. (Here, sheepy,
sheepy, sheepy!)
"I am Lynn God, ruler of the multiverse and creator of... umm... creation!"
cried the girl in lilac and green.
"And I am the Author, Escagirl," said the girl in red and black.
"Oh. What do you want?" asked the guy with the rose who had this 'I'm vain'
look on his face.
"Your compatriot-"
"Is that a word?" asked Escagirl.
"If it isn't, it is now. Now shut up!" said Lynn God. "Now, like I was
saying, your compatriot, Chesta, seduced the incredibly gorgeous Lord
Dilandau. Now they are being beaten to a pulp by Dilandau's cat-girl fiance."
"Chesta's being beat up! We must save him!" cried a guy with purple-ish hair.
"And Lord Dilandau, too."
"Yeah, well, that's why we're giving you this nuclear bomb," said Escagirl.
"Really? Cool!" cried the sheep-boy. (Isn't that out of character for
Guimel?) They took the nuclear bomb and ran off for Folken and Van's (*beep,
beep!*) house.
"Was that wise, O Great Ones?" asked Raphael, the only loose angel.
"Sure. The bomb will only destroy Merle. It will also give Dilandau a really
big flame-thrower that he can use to toast that nasty draconian boy, Van. Or
'beep, beep' as Esca-chan keeps calling him," said Lynn God. They disappeared.
The 14 Dragon Rangers ran into the house and stopped at what they saw. Most
of them ran off, blood mysteriously spraying from their noses. (Naughty,
naughty!) All that was left was the vain dude, the sheep boy, uh... the
weirdly loyal dude, the messanger boy, and... uh... the one we never see in
the show.
Guimel, the sheep boy, pulled out the pin in the nuclear bomb and handed it
to Merle.
"What's this?" she asked.
"It's a rare and exotic fruit from the Mystic Moon, lovely Merle. You eat it
whole to get it's full effects," said Dalet, the vain dude.
"Oh. You're sweet." Merle, the niave and annoying little brat, ate the bomb
in 1 big swallow. Suddenly she was blown into smithereens. All yelled 'Yay!'.
Suddenly Folken (Here birdie, birdie, birdie!), Van (*beep, beep!*), Allen
(Die!) and Hitomi (Witch!) came rushing into the room. They stopped and
stared at the naked Dilandau and Chesta. (Ecchi's!) Van, Folken and Allen
fainted, blood leaking from their noses. (Naughty, naughty, naughty!) Hitomi
grinned suddenly.
"Hey, Dilandau, Chesta, wanna have a 4-some with me and Van sometime? Or
just a 3-some with me?" she asked. The Dragon Rangers and Dilandau fainted
from shock. "What'd I say?" Hitomi asked in bemusement.

Guess you're wunderin' why that giant flame-thrower never showed up, ain't
ya? Well, it was kidnapped by fire-crazed fire sprites who worshipped
Dilandau. *^_^*

~OWARI~

Dilly: I want my chocolate!
Chesta: *giggles, staring into the stars* Dilandau, Dilandau, where for art
thou Dilandau?
Gatti: Chesta, you do know that 'where for art thou Dilandau?' means 'why's
your name Dilandau?', don't ya?
Chesta: *blushes* Oh. *-_-*
Dilandau: I'm right here, and my name's Dilandau cuz it is.
Viole: Why?
Dilandau: Cuz that's the name I was given at birth.
Viole: Why?
Dilandau: Beacause they heard voices!
Viole: Why?
Dilandau: *>_* SHUT THE FUCK UP! *slaps Viole*
Viole: *dazed* Oooh, lookit all the pretty pink flowers doing the macerina...

@~}~~Escagirl

For those who haven't seen Escaflowne. . .

[stevarooski]

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.

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. :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.

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.

Re:For those who haven't seen Escaflowne. . .

[Kuad]

Yes, the 26-episodes series is fantastic.

Unfortunately, this is the movie. The Escaflowne movie blows goats. Just think about it for a moment... They're taking a 13-hour miniseries and making a ~100 minute movie out of it. Do you think any of the fantastic plotline will survive?

Re:For those who haven't seen Escaflowne. . .

[mal3]

You don't like the animation style of most anime, yet you can watch Escaflowne? I've not seen a style I like any less than Escaflowne's. The character designs are completely unoriginal. The only thing unique about it is the noses, and everyone seems to have the same pointy-ass nose. I suppose the storyline is good, I just can't get over the damn noses.

Re:For those who haven't seen Escaflowne. . .

[M-2]

It's what some of us call the Akira Syndrome: take a massive story and crush it into a single movie. It'll suck badly.

Akira was visually splendid, but a great deal of story was lost.

X/1999 was visually amazing, but MOST of the story got lost (especially since the printed version wasn't even FINISHED yet in Japan.)

(Thankfully, at least X/1999 is getting a series to tell the story. Akira had no such luck, but did at least the entire manga is being printed for US audiences.)

Re:For those who haven't seen Escaflowne. . .

[SomeGuyFromCA]

> Do you think any of the fantastic plotline will survive?

It didn't. They didn't even try. They changed the characters, the backstory, and rewrote the whole thing.

And it sucks.

What a moron...

[Rob Simpson]

If you're not interested, go to your preferences->exclude stories from the homepage->anime (it's near the bottom of the middle column).

Fritz Lang's Metropolis

[fleener]

I was rather excited at the prospect of an animated Metropolis, only to find out this recent news is about something else.

I know this is Slashdot, but I would still be very surprised to learn that Fritz Lang's Metropolis is lesser known than this anime thing.

That's not the REAL Metropolis.

[BigBlockMopar]

Perhaps even bigger news is that the mega anime film hit Metropolis is being release at the same time

Oh, for Christ's sake, that's not the real Metropolis. This is the real Metropolis.

<sigh> All you young pups, just wanting your talkies, their 3 FPS scantily-clad cartoon characters with their monolithic teeth.

So much excitement...for sony?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me get this straight:

Sony is evil for supporting DMCA, squashing the mod chip to the play station, and whatever other sins.

But YEA Sony, they bring us Metroplis! Lets give Sony money!

Gosh, what do you think they DO with that money?

In case you hadn't noticed...

[Robber Baron]

Metropolis (the original) was ripped off by Madonna for her "Express Yourself" video. I liked the original much better.

Re:In case you hadn't noticed...

[BigBlockMopar]

Metropolis (the original) was ripped off by Madonna for her "Express Yourself" video.

Feh. I'm not much of a Madonna fan, so I didn't notice. I guess I'm a somewhat atypical homosexual: we're supposed to love Madonna. (I, however, prefer Jimi Hendrix and Howard Stern.)

Hmmm... Maybe my distaste for anime stems from the fact that there are no hot anime guys?

I liked the original much better.

Oh yeah, for sure. Though I'll hit Gnutella and see if I can check out Madonna's video.

Re:In case you hadn't noticed...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a homosexual!? What are you doing on slashdot?

Re:In case you hadn't noticed...

[Carl Drougge]

Maybe my distaste for anime stems from the fact that there are no hot anime guys?

Aren't there? Certainly, assuming you consider std anime female hot, there are a lot more hot females than males, but still. They do exist.. Not that I will give any examples, I don't know what you'd like anyway, but you can find almost anything as anime. (Not in america of course, though.)

Search some filesharing network for fansubs. (After searching the web for something that seems to be to your tastes.)

Re:In case you hadn't noticed...

[vortmax(OU)]

Hmmm... Maybe my distaste for anime stems from the fact that there are no hot anime guys?

No hot anime guys?? What have you been watching? You've never seen Yami no Matsuei? Weiss Kreuz? Fushigi Yuugi? There are plenty of hot anime guys, you've just gotta find them!

Re:In case you hadn't noticed...

[ryusen]

Hmmm... Maybe my distaste for anime stems from the fact that there are no hot anime guys?

I guess it depends on what your tastes are really... The girls i've known have found the boys from Saint Seiya to be cute, and as for the Strong Dark types.. try Ashuram from Lodoss Wars or Yasha from RG Veda.. there's plenty of others, but trying to think of good looking 2 dimentional guys is not exactly inspirational for me .p

Metropolis and September 11

[Anonymous Coward]

Metropolis has some very beautiful sequences of high-rises exploding and collapsing in slow motion while Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" plays gloriously in the background. Great eye candy, but it will leave you with a funny aftertaste in the light of what happened on September 11.

The trailer in QuickTime

[Tide]

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/escaflow ne.html

Im just a kharma whore.

Re:Nationwide? Surely not, but why?

[clubin]

How well have previous 'ported anime movies done in the theatres? I would love to see the Escaflowne movie on the big screen (was too far back in the line for the OTAKON showing, years ago : \ ), but I wonder if there are any legitimate reasons for the producers to be so apprehensive with it's release.

I got the idea that anime was selling well in our (US) theatres. Why are producers only interested in releasing to such a limited area?

- kaoruAngel

No, nationwide has to include Maine

[2Bits]

That's why you have the expression "from Maine to California". If Maine and California are not included, it's not nationwide.

Death to CmdrVile.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fucking asshole. Anime sucks. Get it off /. and grow up you dirty fuckstick. I hope CmdrTaco wakes up to the needs and the will of his own community THAT UNDERWRITE HIS EXISTENCE.

CmdrTaco, you are a complete ass... This "SLASHDOT" is in the doldrums.

Taco, you are a far cry from a Linus Torvalds or an Alan Cox, who can work WITH people and their community to make things BETTER; you make this place suck worse. You suck. You wield your stick of power, you and you fag editors.

John-fucking-Romero selling a car on Ebay? Indiana Jones 4? Now fucking Anime? Jerk off on YOUR own time, not on "the communitie's time.

I would never presume to make Slashdot a 'freshmeat.net' or a 'sourceforge.net', that is to announce every picayune release of every little open-source project, but there have been some gross oversights here - particularly in light of the fact the very site and community relies on various core technologies and the distributions that in turn support those applications. My gripes are no longer relevant, as several releases of important things have gone unnoticed and honorable maintainers of the unsaid projects don't get recognized by the site that proclaims to be "news for nerds." What a crock.

I have also attempted to post using precedent. Doesn't help. What was front page worthy a week, month or year ago isn't again because I'm not an editor - even if the context and circumstance is the same. Bill Gates could die, and I'll bet anything I would never get the post, even if I knew a day in advance. Death, dark, painfull, death to you who hold the scepter of power.

You betrayed your community, you are a lucky bitch like Bill Gates, right place, right time. I hope to the powers that be you quit being the "leader" of this dirty unreadable mess you call slashcode and hand the scepter of power to someone who can RESPECT his community.

And a tip for you; you elitist jerk: Tell people why, besides blind stupidity or bias, you reject stories! You can't - that would be like seeing the M$ source code, it would be a laughing stock to actually reveal your twisted half-assed reasoning.

No wonder the Taco Snotting FAQs and all sorts of shit comes out on here, and all the crap flooding and trolling. YOU FAILED as a leader, you betrayed your community and you suck. I love slashdot for the others that come here, and the news ends up being better than shit (not hard to do in a world full of mega-omnipediaplex corporations that spew forth garbage 'news'), but the editors here are biased, unfair and categorically suck; I hope you all re-evaluate how lucky you are to have jobs, you suck at interviews, you suck at content and community management. You are not the "portal for nerds," the Yahoo for nerds if you will. You are a petty band of garbage vendors who have duped a larger company into giving you jobs so they can spray ads in our faces.

Give this project to a real person who has sex with people and doesn't fuck blow up dolls of anime characters and plays video games and "hack" Perl for a living. God damn loser. And pick up a book on Perl idioms. And your fucking arcade thing is so fucking gay, why would you want to stand and play a fucking game? Fucking retard.

DIE.

This is an innapropriate comment

[Anonymous Coward]

This question doesn't belong in this discussion. It seems more suited for an Ask Slashdot, since most of the community is experienced in equine fellatio. Give your question the exposure it deserves.

F-A-N-E-L-I-A

[Anonymous Coward]

i have fond memories of this series and would recomend the escaflowne compendium as the definative source online. The series' creator Shoji Kawamori also has something to do with the design of Macross/Robotech.

whorl.da.ru

Free Johnny Walker

Japanese porno...

[Anonymous Coward]

I just don't understand the obsession that some people here have with bad Japanese porno. It's not even real porno any more; the artists started drawing clothes on the characters in an attempt to make their drawings more accessible to married men (so their wives wouldn't object). I spent several weeks on leave in Japan while I stationed in Korea. I got tired of seeing "artwork" with grossly disfigured eyes peddled to US soldiers. Please spare us your fetishes.

UP YOUR ASS CMDRTACO!!!!

[Carp Flounderson]

Testing testing... is this thing on? blah im now typing random words to make the compression nag go away. So there I was, sucking on this girls ass. Crazy random words typed here in order to make this text less compressable.

0

1Lameness has filtered me... damn those troll countermeasures! 2 3 4 5 6 7Hmmm wonder how high these numbers will go? 8 9 10 11Damn the filter again!!! I will survive, as long as I know how to love, I know I will survive 12 13mayor mccheese enjoys double penetration from cmdrtaco and cowboy neal 14 15 16 ass master yoda found a wart on his penis 17 18 19 20 21 22 23page widening posts make me hard 24 in fact I may just cream my pants if I make it to 50 25 26 27is this going to work with it being this BIG??? - CmdrTaco 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35I will definitely cream my pants at 50 36 37 38 39 40 41 42Oh baby, gettin close 43 44 45Harder harder 46 47 48 49faster! faster! 50shit, I'm still going!! 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63Time for an essay on the fascinating mating habits of the penis bird 64 65 66 67 68wider wider wider wider who says size doesn't matter 69longer longer longer longer 70 71Hmm... I seem to be stuck here... is this the end of the line? 71 72 73hahahaha... lameness filter is no match for me!!! 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83There is no stopping me! 84 85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em 85 86 87 88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit 89 90 91 92 93 94Well its either this or masturbate 95 96 97 98 99 100!!!!! OK TIME FOR FUCKING CUT AND PASTE!!!!

1Lameness has filtered me... damn those troll countermeasures! 2 3 4 5 6 7Hmmm wonder how high these numbers will go? 8 9 10 11Damn the filter again!!! I will survive, as long as I know how to love, I know I will survive 12 13mayor mccheese enjoys double penetration from cmdrtaco and cowboy neal 14 15 16 ass master yoda found a wart on his penis 17 18 19 20 21 22 23page widening posts make me hard 24 in fact I may just cream my pants if I make it to 50 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35I will definitely cream my pants at 50 36 37 38 39 40 41 42Oh baby, gettin close 43 44 45Harder harder 46 47 48 49faster! faster! 50shit, I'm still going!! 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63Time for an essay on the fascinating mating habits of the penis bird 64 65 66 67 68wider wider wider wider who says size doesn't matter 69longer longer longer longer 70 71Hmm... I seem to be stuck here... is this the end of the line? 71 72 73hahahaha... lameness filter is no match for me!!! 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83There is no stopping me! 84 85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em 85 86 87 88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit 89 90 91gotta keep rolling gotta keep rolling 92 93 94Well its either this or masturbate 95 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83There is no stopping me! 84 85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em 85 86 87 88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit 89 90 91 92 93 94Well its either this or masturbate 95 96 97 98 99 100!!!!! OK TIME FOR FUCKING CUT AND PASTE!!!!

Minnesota

[Datasage]

Would anyone have an idea of when we might see either movie in Minneapolis or anywhere in minnesota for that matter. I'd much rather see them on a big screen rather than on DVD.

HERE YOU GO ASSHEADS WIDE AND LONG!!!!

[PotLegalizer]

Testing testing... is this thing on? blah im now typing random words to make the compression nag go away. So there

I was, sucking on this girls ass. Crazy random words typed here in order to make this text less compressable.

0

1Lameness has filtered me... damn those troll countermeasures!
2
3
4
5
6
7Hmmm wonder how high these numbers will go?
8
9
10
11Damn the filter again!!! I will survive, as long as I know how to love, I know

I will survive
12
13mayor mccheese enjoys double penetration from cmdrtaco and cowboy neal
14
15
16
ass master yoda found a wart on his penis
17
18
19
20
21
22
23page widening posts make me hard
24 in fact I may just cream my pants if I make it to 50
25
26
27is this going to work with it being this BIG??? - CmdrTaco
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35I will definitely cream my pants at 50
36
37
38
39
40
41
42Oh baby, gettin close
43
44
45Harder harder
46
47
48
49faster! faster!
50shit, I'm still going!!
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63Time for an essay on the fascinating mating habits of the penis bird
64
65
66
67
68wider wider wider wider who says size doesn't matter
69longer longer longer longer
70
71Hmm... I seem to be stuck here... is this the end of the line?
71
72
73hahahaha... lameness filter is no match for me!!!
74
75
76
77
78I'm not fuckin lame, take your filter and filter someone else
79
80
81
82
83There is no stopping me!
84
85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em
85
86
87
88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit
89
90
91
92
93
94Well its either this or masturbate
95
96
97
98
99
100!!!!! OK TIME FOR FUCKING CUT AND PASTE!!!!

1Lameness has filtered me... damn those troll countermeasures!
2
3
4
5
6
7Hmmm wonder how high these numbers will go?
8
9
10
11Damn the filter again!!! I will survive, as long as I know how to love, I know

I will survive
12
13mayor mccheese enjoys double penetration from cmdrtaco and cowboy neal
14
15
16
ass master yoda found a wart on his penis
17
18
19
20
21
22
23page widening posts make me hard
24 in fact I may just cream my pants if I make it to 50
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35I will definitely cream my pants at 50
36
37
38
39
40
41
42Oh baby, gettin close
43
44
45Harder harder
46
47
48
49faster! faster!
50shit, I'm still going!!
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63Time for an essay on the fascinating mating habits of the penis bird
64
65
66
67
68wider wider wider wider who says size doesn't matter
69longer longer longer longer
70
71Hmm... I seem to be stuck here... is this the end of the line?
71
72
73hahahaha... lameness filter is no match for me!!!
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83There is no stopping me!
84
85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em
85
86
87
88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit
89
90
91gotta keep rolling gotta keep rolling
92
93
94Well its either this or masturbate
95
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83There is no stopping me!
84
85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em
85
86
87
88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit
89
90
91
92
93
94Well its either this or masturbate
95
96
97
98
99
100!!!!! OK TIME FOR FUCKING CUT AND PASTE!!!!

60
61
62
63Time for an essay on the fascinating mating habits of the penis bird
64
65

60
61
62
63Time for an essay on the fascinating mating habits of the penis bird
64
65
66
67
68wider wider wider wider who says size doesn't matter
69longer longer longer longer
70
71Hmm... I seem to be stuck here... is this the end of the line?
71
72
73hahahaha... lameness filter is no match for me!!!
74
75
76
77
66
67
68wider wider wider wider who says size doesn't matter
69longer longer longer longer
70
71Hmm... I seem to be stuck here... is this the end of the line?
71
72
73hahahaha... lameness filter is no match for me!!!
74
75
76
77

67
68wider wider wider wider who says size doesn't matter
69longer longer longer longer
70
71Hmm... I seem to be stuck here... is this the end of the line?
71
72
73hahahaha... lameness filter is no match for me!!!
74

67
68wider wider wider wider who says size doesn't matter
69longer longer longer longer
70
71Hmm... I seem to be stuck here... is this the end of the line?
71
72
73hahahaha... lameness filter is no match for me!!!
74

82
83There is no stopping me!
84
85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em
85
86
87
88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit
89
82
83There is no stopping me!
84
85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em
85
86
87
88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit
89
82
83There is no stopping me!
84
85Wider longer wider longer, just like cmdrtaco likes em
85
86
87
88fuck... dont ask me how long it took to do this shit
89

11Damn the filter again!!! I will survive, as long as I know how to love, I know

I will survive
12
13mayor mccheese enjoys double penetration from cmdrtaco and cowboy neal
14
15
16
ass master yoda found a wart on his penis

11Damn the filter again!!! I will survive, as long as I know how to love, I know

I will survive
12
13mayor mccheese enjoys double penetration from cmdrtaco and cowboy neal
14
15
16
ass master yoda found a wart on his penis

11Damn the filter again!!! I will survive, as long as I know how to love, I know

I will survive
12
13mayor mccheese enjoys double penetration from cmdrtaco and cowboy neal
14
15
16
ass master yoda found a wart on his penis

I've got one word for you folks...

[Anonymous Coward]

Pussy.

whens the good stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

as a Playstation2 owner hating Nintendo products, I'm awaiting more MATURE stuff. This movie is SOOOO childish, gimme MATURE stuff like La Blue Girl, and other hentai on the big screen. Mmmmmmm... nothing like MATURE stuff to engage my MATURE cravings...

It's about time...

[RnKTessai]

That anime is beginning to get more recognition on the big screen. A lot of people, even with such titles as Akira, Princess Mononoke, and Ghost in the Shell playing in the theatres, still believe that anime is "Just For Kids (TM)." I think most of /. would agree that anime is for everyone across the board. It's a damn shame that most of the great things in anime (albeit somewhat graphic) get butchered to death when they come to the US. One good example of this would be "A Kite." Yes, it's hentai, but it's still worth watching unedited. I managed to get a DivX version of the director's cut. Aside from some of the sex scenes (which some people claim is child pornagraphy, even though all of the girls are in college), it's one hell of a movie. I will definitely be sending my order in to AnimeNation when I get my next paycheck.

Most of the anime fans here at /. already know that there are a lot of hidden gems of anime still not leaving Japan. Two animes that I'm anxious to get my hands on are Love Hina (which is out, from what I understand... although I can't seem to order it from anywhere...) and Hellsing (you gotta love that 13mm deagle-style gun). I know there are a ton of other lost gems waiting for the world to find them. The fact that companies are bringing them to the US proves it.

I guess this is one of the few times I'm happy I live in Los Angeles. I can at least drive down and see Metropolis this weekend.

Re:It's about time...

[M-2]

Hellsing's got US optioning in the US. Having seen the first 2 eps at New Year's Eve, I must state that it's probably one of the best vampire things I've seen in a long, long time, even compared to things like 'Blood' and 'Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust'. (Blood was irritating, but VHD:B had a VERY interesting twist to it which I enjoyed.) Besides, a vampire hunting other vampires with gun forged from a melted-down churck bell? Sign me up for the series!

Re:It's about time...

[Anonymous Coward]

Love Hina isn't out yet, but you can currently pre-order the first DVD of the set. There's also the option to pre-order the first DVD plus collectors box. They should be out next month, but I'm not sure what the release schedule for the rest of the series is.

no yoko kanno?

[notsoanonymouscoward]

I'm kind of surprised no one has mentioned the amazing soundtrack to the series. Yoko Kanno did an amazing job. Her music helped make Tenkuu no Escaflowne one of my all-time favorite anime series. Maybe I should start a "shadow of doubt" fanclub ;-)

Re:The Original Metropolis is going to be re-relea

[Inoshiro]

That 9.99$ USD copy might be more interesting than you think. First off, in Canada you can buy it at Walmart for 6.88$ CDN new (about 4.20$ USD). Second, it's encoded for region 1 DVD.

I mailed the MPAA about this. See, the prices on DVDs between Canada are within 1 to 5$ of each other numerically, but are way off when you calculate the value straight across -- Canadian DVDs always seem to be cheaper. Why are the prices artificially low?

Then you see things like this movie, released 3 quarters of a century ago in Germany. What point does region coding serve? It's not like any parts of the world are still showing it in theatres. The entire argument of region coding as a means of protecting theatre owners is proved WRONG by little things like this.

Metropolis

[onnellinen]

Not too many comments on this film, here is my take. I have to warn that some might take this as a spoiler.

I saw it at a film festival last fall, and the story is a sort of typical (based on my limited experience on anime) with simple characters, cybernetics and a massively destructive ending. Nothing special there.

The art, however, is something else. Apparently at least partially computer generated backgrounds of the city, obviosly inspired by the Fritz Lang's Metropolis, are amazing. There are some scenes where the backgrounds really take your breath away, with some of the characters on foreground and huge cog wheels or fish tanks on the background, with carefully considered lighting.

This film is worth seeing because of the art, not the story, and on the biggest screen possible

Everybody cares...

[Anonymous Coward]

...except you of course. Adapt or die. Give it up, you can't win.

The Difference Between Movie & Series

[iGawyn]

Escaflowne the series was originally a shoujo manga series, which then became turned into a 26-episode anime run.

Escaflowne the movie was originally a shounen manga series, which became turned into a movie.

That's why the story is different, the people look different, and so on.

The series spends a lot of time on the love story between Hitomi, Van, and Allen, while the movie is about Van's fight.

Each has it's merits, it's just up to you to choose which you like most.

Gawyn

Re:The Difference Between Movie & Series

[rgmoore]

Actually, this is incorrect. The series was not based on any manga. Escaflowne is a rare case of the TV version coming first and the manga being based on it rather than the other way around. It's actually an even rarer example of a series that managed to spawn not just one but two manga based on it, the shoujo and shounen manga that you mention.

Esca movie != Esca series

[glindsey]

For those of you who don't know, Escaflowne the movie is considerably different from Escaflowne the television series; people refer to it as an "alternate universe" telling of the story, where Hitomi appears considerably later in Zaibach's war of conquest, and things on Gaia are considerably darker. The most startling difference is that some characters in the movie can use a form of magic, something which did not come up in the series.

Overall, where the series has plenty of humor, political intrigue, romantic subplots and character development, the movie seems to be more for the sake of eye candy than anything else, although the overall "message" seems to be the same. Watch this if you want to see some really cool battles and assassination scenes. Just don't expect it to be anything like the series.

Of course, this is just my opinion. YMMV.

JKC

[Anonymous Coward]

Three words:
Jap
Kicking
Crap

Death to CmdrVile. <-- WRONG!!!

[Big_Ass_Spork]

Nice try at defiling my FP, better luck next time. No one gives a shit about your little rant. Why don't you get a life. Get out and meet people, meet a girl. Then you won't have to masturbate all the time locked in your room. Taco is not our leader, he runs a fucking website. Period. I personally have seven different webmaster@... addresses, it is not an accomplishment. Calling someone you do not know a loser for some rediculous (sp) reason, makes you look like a loser.

That is all.

Columbia/Tristar getting into anime in a big way

[inquis]

Though Metropolis may be Columbia/Tristar's first anime release, it won't be their last. AnimeOnDVD reported yesterday that the DVD release of Metropolis (expected in March) will come with a special mini-DVD that will contain trailers of Metropolis itself, FF: The Spirits Within, and... Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door.

If there's one anime movie that has a good shot of breaking the US market wide open it's Cowboy Bebop. Think about it, they have a ready-made market created by Cartoon Network, and everyone who has ever seen a 572398572th generation fansub (or digisub ^^) will /drag/ their friends out to see it, it's that good.

-inq

Opening scene

[autopr0n]

Actualy I have it up on my webserver right now (so a friend could download it). I could just paste in a URL and you could have it. Sigh. But that would put me over my bandwidth cap ;p

Actualy the opening scene is of jet and spike busting up a convinece stand up. It was pretty intresting.

A little later, there is a huge explosion on a freeway on mars, and every nearby dies of a mysterious disease. That's the introduction to the actual plot of the film, btw.

Hrm?

[autopr0n]

The origional Metropolis edit has been lost entirely.

Re:Hrm?

[night_flyer]

Original as in NOT the anime version...

Metropolis is very good!

[L1v1d]

I saw Metropolis last week in London, and it was very good! All you anime fans should see it now! :)

Mistaken Movie Identities

[DavidBrown]

I know exactly what you mean. Just the other day, I purchased the StarBallz movie when I was trying to buy Star Wars. Boy were my kids surprised!

Re:Mistaken Movie Identities

[Anonymous Coward]

you must be dyslexic. there is a world of difference between confusing 'star wars' with 'starballz' and confusing 'metropolis' with 'metropolis.'

This is all well and good, but...

[NetRanger]

...for my dose of foreign cinema today, I'm going to see "Kung Pow!"

Look at the topic icon, it should clear any confus

[ProfBooty]

well if you don't look at the anime icon, i could see how you might be confused. The topic icon generally accompanies the type of story which is being linked to.

Re:Look at the topic icon, it should clear any con

[fleener]

You missed the point. The anime icon merely indicates the movie is anime. It does not indicate anything about the content of the anime movie 'Metropolis.' The point of confusion is that this is not an anime-version of Metropolis, it is a completely different movie in its own right.

on that subject of voice actresses in ranma...

[ryusen]

little trivia:
Megumi Hayashibara who does the voice of the femal ranma also did the voive for Pai(3x3 Eyes), Video Girl Ai, and Hello Kitty among many other roles
and Kikuko Inoye (sp?) who does the voice for Kasumi also did Beldandy and the nurse in Ogenki Clinic
so i guess most of these girls are quite multi-talented (unlike the no-talent people they usually recruit to dub anime into english)

Re:Look at the topic icon, it should clear any con

[ProfBooty]

"You missed the point. The anime icon merely indicates the movie is anime. It does not indicate anything about the content of the anime movie 'Metropolis.' The point of confusion is that this is not an anime-version of Metropolis, it is a completely different movie in its own right. "

well there are plenty of movies with the same title, that doesnt mean its a remake of a prior movie. The IMDB has a number of movies like that.

Re:Look at the topic icon, it should clear any con

[fleener]

The point is that, a least among film buffs, "Metropolis" is a major film. That's why I gave a "what if" example of two films named "Star Wars."

If you think it's fine to talk about an anime film called "Star Wars" without explaining that the film does not have the same plot as the film by George Lucas, then there's really nothing more I can say.

Re:Look at the topic icon, it should clear any con

[fleener]

OK, to the uninitiated... Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis has influenced everything from Blade Runner's iconography to Madonna's 'Express Yourself' video to virtually every subsequent film rendition of Frankenstein.

So when I read on /. about an anime 'Metrpolis,' my immediate assumption is that we're talking about an anime-version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the world-famous movie by that title.

Re: Sucker, I'm going to see it tonight!

[Anonymous Coward]

At the dupont/19th st. theater. As Nelson would say, HA HA!

CmdrTaco's Lustful Thirst For Tenticle Rape

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't say he likes Anime in general. Taco just watches whatever he can get his hands on, then copies tenticle rape scenes to his archive of sticky VHS casette tapes. It's actually quite disgusting. Especially when he's getting snotted.