For those unaware, the AniMatrix is a collection of Anime short stories about the world of the Matrix. The first one from this free series was an *excellent* protrayal of how the machines were created by man, became self aware, and then realized that the humans were exploiting them as slaves. The full DVD has many more short films about the Matrix universe.
Anime is literally the japanese word for 'animation'. Typically, it's used to mean all animation made in Japan, from Pokemon to Akira. Much like in America, there are several major schools of art, and many of them do have the big eyes, small mouth conventions, which are actually a derivative of early Disney cartoons that inspired early Anime. But there are certainly a number of shows that don't match these conventions. (And even more variety if you try and genre-stereotype - that perception is strongly tied to which shows get translated. There's a lot of anime that has no giant robots or ultra violence or graphic sex!)
Japanimation is a tricky word. Much like 'trekkie', it's hardly ever used in a positive fashion within the fan community. Commonly, it's used by people who don't know the word anime, and think they're more 'hip' than they really are - the calling card of a poser, per se. While I don't recommend judging people too strongly based on them not knowing the nuances of any fannish vocabulary, I do recommend dropping the phrase 'japanimation' from your personal vocabulary entirely, as it's likely to turn some fans against you in an a priori fasion.
And, to muddy the waters, there's a rising number of animated and comic titles made outside of Japan that are strongly in the tradition of anime and manga. (Manga is the Japanese word for Comic Book, though without some of the juvenile implications that we (erroneously) attack to the medium.) Like this Matrix. Or, to really walk the line, the fine comic Usagi Yojimbo, written by Stan Sakai. Despite a Japanese Title, and written by an author who is ethnically Japanse, Mr. Sakai is an American. The comic is written in English, and published in the U.S., but artistically and thematically, it's more kindred with Manga than most Manga.
My feeling is that it's hard to waste time more than arguing over whether or not something is, or is not, anime or manga. There's some content in describing something as in an Anime-style, and even more if one can tell what shows it is similar to, but beyond that, I really want to know if it's good or not. I'd rather spend my time watching great animated work, like Watership Down or Princess Mononoke, than trying to figure out the correct nomenclature. But, geeks love to argue over trivial details, so don't expect good sense to prevail.
Or, the short version: No, it's not technically anime, but it probably appeals to a similar audience.
-- -- Kate
How about a link?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 5, Informative
Re:Download Format Question
by
Sgs-Cruz
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· Score: 5, Informative
Um, yes, because even if they can reduce this 150 MB file by, say, 8 megs, then if 100,000 people download it, that's 800 GB (using crappy hard-drive manufacturer base-10 definitions of GB because I'm too lazy right now to convert properly) of traffic they've just saved themselves. Impressive how it adds up when you're talking about popular downloads:)
--
Karma: pi (Mostly due to circular reasoning in posts).
Re:What is it?
by
Sancho
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· Score: 4, Informative
It's an anime short based in the world of The Matrix. The first was posted about a month ago, along with a description. This is the second. There will be another one per month for awhile. And while it is Anime, it's (so far) been precursors to The Matrix, and very interesting in order to get a feel of how things got the way the are (in The Matrix).
XVid AVI conversion
by
nstrom
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· Score: 4, Informative
I'll download and convert this to XVID AVI, easily playable on Windows with Media Player and Linux with MPlayer. It should be done by tonight, and I'll post it to alt.binaries.multimedia.anime.
Re:What is it?
by
sweetooth
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· Score: 5, Informative
It's the second installment of the animated Matrix movies. Four of which are going to be released free on the Internet and then all nine episodes will be released on Junk 3rd on DVD. The first episode was released in February, the second today, the next in April and the final episode in May. The first and last episodes are Part 1 and Part 2 of the same story. They deal with various stories taking place in the Matrix, or in the case of the first episode before the matrix.
Springing forth from the world of THE MATRIX, THE ANIMATRIX DVD presents nine original short animated stories directed by preeminent anime directors.
The directors are: Andy Jones (Final Flight of The Osiris), Mahiro Maeda (The Second Renaissance: Parts 1 and 2), Shinichiro Watanabe (Kid's Story, Detective Story), Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Program), Takeshi Koike (World Record), Koji Morimoto (Beyond), Peter Chung (Matriculated).
Four of the nine episodes were written by Larry and Andy Wachowski, and all of the episodes are grounded in the world of the THE MATRIX.
DVD Special Features:
* "Scrolls to Screen: The History and Culture of Anime" documentary * 7 featurettes with director profiles, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of each of the films * 4 audio commentaries * "Enter the Matrix" videogame trailer * Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio * Widescreen Format [16x9 2.35:1] * Languages: English, Japanese * Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Bittorrent Link
by
Robotech_Master
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· Score: 4, Informative
FYI, Donkax.com is offering a bittorrent download of the large version of the movie.
-- Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
direct download (157MB)
mplayer is your friend.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
For those unaware, the AniMatrix is a collection of Anime short stories about the world of the Matrix. The first one from this free series was an *excellent* protrayal of how the machines were created by man, became self aware, and then realized that the humans were exploiting them as slaves. The full DVD has many more short films about the Matrix universe.
Travis
Glad to oblige...
Zipped Quicktime, 640 resolution (largest), 149 MB.
END OF LINE.
Um, yes, because even if they can reduce this 150 MB file by, say, 8 megs, then if 100,000 people download it, that's 800 GB (using crappy hard-drive manufacturer base-10 definitions of GB because I'm too lazy right now to convert properly) of traffic they've just saved themselves. Impressive how it adds up when you're talking about popular downloads :)
Karma: pi (Mostly due to circular reasoning in posts).
It's an anime short based in the world of The Matrix. The first was posted about a month ago, along with a description. This is the second. There will be another one per month for awhile. And while it is Anime, it's (so far) been precursors to The Matrix, and very interesting in order to get a feel of how things got the way the are (in The Matrix).
I'll download and convert this to XVID AVI, easily playable on Windows with Media Player and Linux with MPlayer. It should be done by tonight, and I'll post it to alt.binaries.multimedia.anime.
It's the second installment of the animated Matrix movies. Four of which are going to be released free on the Internet and then all nine episodes will be released on Junk 3rd on DVD. The first episode was released in February, the second today, the next in April and the final episode in May. The first and last episodes are Part 1 and Part 2 of the same story. They deal with various stories taking place in the Matrix, or in the case of the first episode before the matrix.
Check out all the info here.
From the site:
Springing forth from the world of THE MATRIX, THE ANIMATRIX DVD presents nine original short animated stories directed by preeminent anime directors.
The directors are: Andy Jones (Final Flight of The Osiris), Mahiro Maeda (The Second Renaissance: Parts 1 and 2), Shinichiro Watanabe (Kid's Story, Detective Story), Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Program), Takeshi Koike (World Record), Koji Morimoto (Beyond), Peter Chung (Matriculated).
Four of the nine episodes were written by Larry and Andy Wachowski, and all of the episodes are grounded in the world of the THE MATRIX.
DVD Special Features:
* "Scrolls to Screen: The History and Culture of Anime" documentary
* 7 featurettes with director profiles, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of each of the films
* 4 audio commentaries
* "Enter the Matrix" videogame trailer
* Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio
* Widescreen Format [16x9 2.35:1]
* Languages: English, Japanese
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
FYI, Donkax.com is offering a bittorrent download of the large version of the movie.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org