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An Extensive History of Anime
Ninja Master Gara writes "While it is a bit dated, Right Stuf has a fascinating set of in depth history of anime in Japan and the west and follows the development of both cultures, including landmark series from the 60s, the 70s, the 80s and beyond, the origins of today's major anime release companies, and commentary on various aspects of the industry and culture. While it is labelled an 'Introduction to Anime', it serves as a much more interesting look back for long time anime fans. Right Stuf also has a great timeline of important releases."
This isn't nearly as interesting as some of the bargain's they've been running recently. One of their higher-ups is a regular visitor in the animeondvd.com chatroom and usually pops up with insane new bargains to drain all our wallets every week or two. They had an insanely good deal going on almost-used cd's awhile back, a pack of 6 soundtracks that simply had marred cases, nothing wrong with the discs themselves and they were selling them for next to nothing, they clear out lots of older shows too if you missed them the first time around. Always a good thing to check right stuf's bargain a couple times a week if you're an anime fan.
Sign in, and turn off the category in your filters. Problem solved.
It's sad that the people who aren't into anime always post in the anime threads about how they don't like anime; just filter it out guys.
for people wanting to check out anime:
Movies:
- jin roh (2000/2001-something)
For anyone looking for something dark and moody. The drawing
style is realistic (no oversized eyes/breasts here), and the animation quality is really brilliant (studio IG know their stuff). The storyline is a little hard to follow sometimes because of the many different factions involved each with their own motives, but in the end, it's all very poetic and well executed. Also watch out for the soundtrack, by Mizoguchi Hajime; especially the theme melody is one of the best I've ever heard in any movie.
- sen to chihiro no kamikakushi / spirited away (2002/2003)
watching this at a cinema is truly a fabulous experience as it's like being swept away by thousands and thousands of brilliantly drawn paintings.. the visual qualities, at a cinema, are extraordinarily beautiful. Hisaishi Jo provides a great score, as usual, and all in all this is another masterpiece from the legendary writer-director-drawer Miyazaki Hayao. Probably gonna win oscar, too.
So just what is OVA?
Original Video Animation. This refers to an anime (usually a mini-series) that goes straight to video. There isn't the stigma attached to it as with American direct to video releases, and most of it is somewhere between theatrical releases and TV anime, as far as the animation is concerned.
It's like the opposite of a made-for-TV. OVA/OAV=Original Video Animation or the other way 'round. Think of it like Highlander and Stargate and all those movies that got made into TV shows, only the other way around. The OVAs are often either better or possessed of higher production values, though this is merely a probability--there are many exceptions. In general, the difference between a movie and an OVA is that a)movies show in theaters, and b)OVAs tend to assume that you're at least slightly familiar with the TV series, while movies are often quite different.
After reading the article, I think we have to emphasize two important things that made anime much more popular in the 1990's.
:-)
The first is the rapid acceptance of the DVD format. Unlike previous home video playback formats, DVD's allow you to have multiple-language soundtracks and multiple language caption/subtitling tracks on a single disc. In one fell swoop, the entire debate of subtitled versus dubbed anime has been rendered moot.
The second is the success of Bandai Entertainment in bringing over a good number of anime titles created by Bandai Visual and Sunrise (Bandai I believe owns Sunrise) to the US market. This really opened the floodgates for lots of anime titles to finally be sold in US-legal editions.
Let me update this history of anime to talk a bit about some of the new trends in anime.
Forget about seeing nudity any more except for a few exceptions. The Japanese are getting closer and closer everyday to adopting the Puritain view on nudity, i.e. that it's bad and abnormal. However, fan service (underware shots, provocative poses) is still rampant, especially in anime targeted toward women (trying to get male viewers).
Along with the new censoring of nudity, there comes the censoring of violence. I recently watched a series called Noir, a action-spy type series, where people shot guns and got shot, but there was no blood. Anything "gruesome" was off camera and or only shown in the shadows. This make the anime feel very fake. However, the censoring of violence isn't as bad yet as it is for nudity. There are some great exceptions out there, like Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, and Hellsing.
One bad trend, particularily irritating to me, is the overuse of the cliché dweeb who can't handle women, yet is surrounded by them. He'll bleed from the nose, can't say anything with confudence, be in constant fear of reprisal, and perhaps in the end, if he's lucky, get a solitary kiss. This is Japan's version of the hopless moron who's married to a hot wife on US's sitcom TV. They all need to die.
However, all is not bad in anime land. When Slam Dunk came out back in the day, it started what I call the sports anime craze. Now there's anime about soccer (Whisle), boxing (Hajime no Ippo), tennis (The Prince of Tennis), and even the board game Go (Hikaru no Go). This type of anime is great for buidling up suspense, and it'll get you addicted like a crack addict. The art of creating cliff-hangers that make you foam at the mouth has been perfected by the Japanese.
Finally, the other great trend I'm noticing is anime adapted from literature rather from manga. Two anime of this type that I can think off the top of my head are Juuni Kokki and Crest of the Stars. You won't find any other anime that can compete with the plot and character development. Let's hope Japanese anime studios don't adopt Hollywoods attitudes towards book to movie production.
Another great source of new anime is via BitTorrent, AnimeSuki provides links to most new fansubs as they come out. Since a lot of fansub groups now distro with BitTorrent you can often get new releases within hour(s) of them hitting the net.
Hokusai's - "Pearl Diver and Two Octopuses"
I hate Grammar Nazi's