Must-See Films at L.A. Anime Festival

May Kasahara writes "The first annual Los Angeles Anime Festival is being held May 2-15. Among other films screening at the festival are Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns (making its US debut), Memories, and all nine episodes of The Animatrix. However, the film I really want to see is the trippy-looking Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat In Space. More information, including a full schedule of events, is available here."

Comments

Anime??

[Anonymous Coward]

Im not trying to troll, but...

I was wondering, just how popular is Anime amongst /.ers?

Is this really something that everyone likes?

Or is it just a category because Taco likes Anime?

Same thing with The Matrix? Is it really needed that there be a whole category just for the matrix?

There seems to be a HUGE range for these suject categories. Apple is a big category, so is Hardware. But I am confused why we have such general categories for most things, yet specific cetegories for others.

Re:Anime??

[tdelaney]

Obviously, I can't speak for slashdotters as a whole, but I can give my experience.

When I was a child (mid-70s - 80s) I found that there were some cartoons that I really enjoyed, and some that I didn't.

Somewhat later (when Robotech came around) I discovered that nearly all the shows I had enjoyed originated in Japan - Kimba the White Lion; Astro Boy; Voltron (vehicles and lions); The Mysterious Cities of Gold; Star Blazers; Battle of the Planets; Ulysses ...

OTOH, the shows I disliked were universally from the US - Scooby Doo; Flintstones; Jetsons ...

As time went on I discovered that I *still* didn't like most US animation, but I did enjoy most Japanese animation I watched. There were some US shows I enjoyed (e.g. Simpsons) and some anime I detested (e.g. Debutante Detective School).

Eventually I worked out the major things I liked and disliked. I enjoy story- and character-driven shows. I dislike episodic shows with no connection between the episodes and no character development. Of slightly lesser importance is character design and the overall look of the show - I *like* most of the anime character designs (esp. Miyazaki and CLAMP designs) and anime shows tend to look better in general - more attention to background detail, etc. OTOH, I'm currently watching "The Soultaker" and I don't overly like the look ...

There is a *much* greater percentage of anime which is character- and plot-driven than US animation. The Simpsons is a character-driven show - most of the episodes don't have much to do with each other (though they often refer to previous events), but the characters are well-developed - they have real (caricatured) personalities. There are others, but they're few and far between (and of course, there are shows such as "King of the Hill" that I'll never watch because the ads just turn me off).

I just finished watching "Burn Up Excess" today. It's a show with ridiculous storylines, huge breasts and unrealistic hair colours. It's also a lot of fun, with an on-going storyline that develops over the series, and characters whose stories draw me in *despite* the huge bouncing breasts. Of course, it's not a patch on shows such as "The Irresponsible Captain Tylor" or "Crest of the Stars" or "Kiki's Delivery Service" to name a few excellent shows. It's a (mostly) lightweight bit of fun, and much higher quality than most of the crud I occasionally catch on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon.

My personal collection is about 300 or so DVDs, and about 400 VHS (used to be more VHS, but I've managed to sell quite a few ...). All up I have about 200 complete series and movies. I tend to pick and choose my shows quite a bit (for example, I never got the El-Hazard TV series because everything I read said that it wasn't nearly as good as the OAVs) but I've got quite a few in there that I'll never watch again (fortunately, most of those are VHS). There are a number of shows though that I watch time and time again.

Fortunately, Madman is releasing lots of anime here in Australia now - importing was prohibitively expensive. Oh - and I have lots of manga as well - Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is definitely my favourite manga. However, the US comics I've enjoyed over the years have also tended to have strong storylines and characters - I don't find *that* great a disparity although no US comic I've ever read has had the depth of "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind".

The Real Story

[mib]

Is it just me, or should this really have been called the "Los Angeles Anime Advertising Fest". A significant proportion of the program is excerpts from forthcoming DVDs from American distributors (ADV Films, Manga Ent., Pioneer).

Here's my take on the real "must-see" films of the festival:

• Tamala2010 A Punk Cat in Space.
  Has an outside chance of actually being great, but at least it'll be strange and a good conversation piece.
• Jungle Emperor Leo.
  This became "Kimba" in its Americanized form. A chance to see some of anime history in its original form that you may not get again.
• Castle in the Sky/Kiki's Delivery Service.
  Do yourself a favor and see this superior double-feature instead of the lacklustre "Cat Returns."
• Arete Hime.
  Worth a look for the animation, for which it won an award at the Toyko Anime Fair in 2002.
• Memories.
  As anime films go, this one is a brilliant work of art.

I found some more PR guff about the fest at anime-tourist too.

I guess fanboys will want to see Animatrix as well (I probably would), though the three released online episodes don't seem anything to write home about.

Now, anyone want to buy me a trip to LA?

- mib

Re:Chojin Densetsu Urotsukidoji ..

[johannesg]

As far as I can tell this film single-handedly destroyed anime in the Netherlands. It was off to a promising start, until Uro... Iru... "Legend of the Overfiend" appeared. And then suddenly whenever you mentioned anime people would go "Ah yes, tentacles demons rape little girls, why do you watch that crap? Are you sick in your head maybe?" Soon after the video rental shops stopped carrying all anime.

I'm still waiting for an opportunity to see Spirited Away on the large screen. The way things are going I guess I never will :-(