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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."
Alas all of these wonderful fests seem to be in far off places like LA and Colorado or NY what about us folk in the midwest. Nothing interesting seems to happen much around here in the way of major cons or fests even though we have Chicago. What gives??
Animatrix at 9:15 pm. Running time 90 minutes. Walk a block from the Egyptian to Grauman's Chinese Theater and catch up with your buddy who's been waiting in line for you.
Plenty of time.
This sig intentionally left justified.
May 16-18, 2003 Rosemont
it's like 30 mins from chicago if traffic sucks
so that's your best bet, you could go see the animatrix and fly back for it!
Sweet deal!
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
The list of anime to be shown makes envious...why are there never any anime festivals here in Sweden...
Is Kodocha ever shown at anime festivals. This is the funniest shoujo anime I've seen. There a a bunch of torrents over at Animesuki.
Enjoy!
Im not trying to troll, but...
/.ers?
I was wondering, just how popular is Anime amongst
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.
That's your loss. Anime is a style not a target audience. Boycotting all movies presented in a particular style is incredibly stupid. Learn to distinguish the quality from the drek and you'll find entertainment everywhere, even in anime.
While I admit that there's a certain truth to that, there's also a truth to the fact that it IS just a style, and therefore the people who love anime because it's anime, and not necessarily because of the content are equally as wrong.
Personally, I like a lot of anime. I find that they often have decent stories, it helps me refine my rather poor Japanese skills (Even though I've been 'studying' it for three years. ugh.), and I find the art pretty decent. However, I realize that there are a great number out there that suck.
There are some people who can't stand the art, and therefore reject it as a medium. There are some people who refuse to give it a chance due to some series being bad. To both of them, that's their loss. But to love everything just because it IS in a certain style is also rather stupid, and I feel sorry for them too.
Note, I'm not criticizing you for this, you didn't say you were like that. I'm just making a somewhat relevant comment on a pet-pieve of mine. All the while simultaneously mispelling the word pieve, I'm sure.
I'm trying to get into anime and I've watched things like Akira and TBH thats about it. Whats a good series I should try to get to help into another spending habit? :)
rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Here's a bit of info about a film that will be appearing at the festival, Sacrifice Woods.
Yes, a great number of titles are targeted at "kids", which is people in college and younger. Other people (supposedly) do not have the time to watch anime.
But the age span of 'kids' is quite different. it goes up to about age 25, where cartoons in america plateau at about what, 9 years old?
But again, damnit.. anime is just a medium. There's nothing REQUIRING anime to be aimed mostly at college age students and younger, but the older working people here[in japan] often don't have much time to get in to a story like that, and the non-working people just seem to watch gameshows. Though my only experience is one family, from what I've read and observed, it seems to be true for a great majority.. *shrug*
I'm going to have trouble fitting them all in, what with the Must-See Star Trek Fan Film Festival this week too.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
There's a lot of gee-whiz techno-nonsense reminiscent of early 1980s cyberpunk. Just because you have a robot, a "hacker," and a scantily-clad schoolgirl in your show doesn't mean you can skip the plot.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Evangelion was a psychological anime. The 'robots' weren't really robots, though you appear to have realized that by now ^_^. I get slightly confused as to how many endings there are, and in which order they were released. The way I heard it/understand it is that there is the original ending, which is the psychological one. The last two episodes look like the animators did every single drug and mushroom in the world and then decided to write the script and draw it. It's all in Shinji's head.
:)
"Air & Heart" is the name of the other ending, which is for the people who thought that it was a robot anime, which they made after much pressure from fans and stuff who didn't like the original ending.
"Death & Rebirth" is a two hour 'recap' of the series, focusing mostly on the combat/robot aspects, for people who wanted to watch "Air & Heart".
That's basically the way I understood it, and I just confirmed it with a friend who thought the same way. So hopefully there's a little bit of factual information in there.
The Anime festival is gonna get slashdotted!
but would SOMEBODY please web-cam / tape it and make it available online somewhere?
Some people just can't make it to LA on short notices like this (not to mention it's a week long excursion). Especially (and ironically) people that have to be in Japan during that time, like myself, actually.
Got some good and bad news for ya.
The good news is that someone has already snagged a copy of most all of these movies! Heck, you don't even have to wait in line, much less visit lovely downtown Hollywood, or the really cool Egyptian theater.
The bad news... I know this is going to be one of those WAY out there wacky ideas. This is so OUT there that you probably would have never thought of it yourself. I'm here to help. Brace yourself for a monster paradigm shift without a clutch my friend, this may sting a bit.
You could *gasp* BUY these titles on DVD! That's right, you're hard earned Dollars and/or Yen can be donated directly to the artists and distributors that make this possible in an otherwise clandestine system known as "The Free Market", and sometimes by it's often derrided name, "Capitalism".
It may seem strange at first, but by utilizing this system you could then watch these movies at any time! It's wacky that way. So go and travel to Japan and enjoy your time there. "The Free Market" will be waiting for you when you get back at a variety of web sites and corner video stores near you!
The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
Not all anime is about huge breasts and sex. I'm a huge fan of the Trigun series because it depicts a tormented hero struggling to help a world that believes he's the worst thing to happen to it, ever. People never seem to hear about the good deeds he performs, yet, they all want to talk about any destruction that might result from those good deeds, and of course, the tall tales are often exaggerated.
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:
Has an outside chance of actually being great, but at least it'll be strange and a good conversation piece.
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.
Do yourself a favor and see this superior double-feature instead of the lacklustre "Cat Returns."
Worth a look for the animation, for which it won an award at the Toyko Anime Fair in 2002.
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
If you think all anime has neon pink colors, whiny girl voices and epilepsy inducing flashing scenes, you've been missing a lot. I would recommend any of Miyazaki's works. If you're in for a rather depressing yet amazingly well-made anime, my personal recommendation would be Hotaru no Haka (Grave of Fireflies). Or if you want less artsy-fartsy, you could try Cowboy Beebop or maybe Ghost in the Shell.
Shrug. I didn't care for anime myself until 3-4 years ago. I'd seen Astroboy and Transformers as a kid but I had boycotted anime from high-school onwards. I shared the popular opinion that anime was "cartoons" and "cartoons are for kids".
My opinion changed with a single anime. With a great deal of prodding from a fanboy friend I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion on SBS (an Australian TV station devoted to foreign films and shows). I'm a big sci-fi fan but stuck with the books because movies didn't and still don't do the stories any justice. Evangelion changed my opinion because it had a story on multiple levels; that's something I wouldn't expect from a Hollywood movie and definitely not from a "cartoon".
I've since realised that if you are careful in your selections then there is plenty of anime that is more than "cartoons for kids". Perfect Blue, Graveyard of the Fireflies, Princess Mononoke: these are all examples of anime that tell a great story without using the stereotypes of "neon pink colours" and "whiny girl voices".
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 :-(
I've never been able to really get into Anime since I watched Robotech as a kid. I loved that show, and still love watching it. It's not because I love Anime, but it reminds me of those cartoons.
For me, my cartoon loves are strictly American for the most part. I haven't been able to figure out why that is, since most of my friends love the Anime. I love classics like Transformers, G.I. Joe, things like that. I have quite the collection of downloaded episodes, and also have DVDs of my childhood cartoon loves.
I still watch the modern adult cartoons: South Park, KOTH, Simpsons, but don't really consider them cartoons. I have enjoyed some Anime movies, but to me, most seem watered down, or geared towards another culture and mindset. I can only watch so many cartoons with giggling girls, food jokes and the like. I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell, though I suppose that's qualified as Magna (I do not know the difference).
As for the other things, the Matrix rules, but it's just as much Sci-Fi as anything else.
"End of Evangelion" is the ending you're looking for. It's really quite good and it ties the end of the TV series together in a way which makes a tad bit more sense. (Although not a hell of a lot. ;-) BTW, Air&Heart is the first part of EoE.
;-)
I always liked the idea that the last two eps are going on inside Shinji's head while the first part of EoE shows what happens in the normal world at the same time. Others seem to prefer the idea that the last two eps of the TV show happen after the "third impact".
In any case, the main thing I like about Eva is that it really rewards those who think about about it. Just imagine what someone like the guy who had written an essay on how things in The Matrix worked. If someone like that began working on Eva I'd almost pity them.
There's a bunch of fansites which analyse the series though. Most likely you'll end up learning a lot about christianity as well, since that's the basis for a lot of the things in Eva.
It also depends on what cartoons are being compared. I've seen Evangelion, Gundam, Outlaw Star, Vampire Hunter D, and Cowboy Bebop as far as anime goes (oh yeah DBZ). American cartoons to compare with these include....Transformers, Batman, X-Men...that's all i can think of now in the genre of action, fighting and robots. Comparing what anime brings and American cartoons leave out, American cartoons are definitely watered down, at least in the genre of robots and fighting. The question of why American cartoons are watered down is most likely because of the censors in the US. I guess they get away with more stuff in Japan.
-Look lively. LOOK LIVELY!!! --Mr. Shmallow
spirited away.. isn't that the heartwarming oscar winner that ends in a VICIOUS TENTACLE RAPE
If you want to see what good writing can do for anime, I suggest you get the upcoming first season of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon on UNCUT subtitled-English DVD that ADV Films will release this July on a two-box DVD set.
Don't laugh folks: the original version shown in Japan is in many ways a VASTLY different show than the DiC English-language "adaptation" that was originally shown in 1995. The original version is a much darker series, with much more serious storylines and the end of the first season caused some controversy in Japan in the way it ended. I especially recommend watching the first seven episodes, which has some of the best-written stories outside of the Sailor Moon S (third) season.
I think the main reason for the censors cutting American Import "Anime" is the difference between audiences in America and Japan. There, Anime is part of adult culture. Here, cartoons are still overwealmingly targeted to kids.
Sex, violence, nudity, and adult themes are cut out because it's still not in public circles that Anime is an adult art form. With the most popular cartoons being things like Pokemon, it's getting harder to convince people. DBZ in America is targeted to kids and teenagers (personally, I've always hated that show, then again, I'm 25 so that could be it), but the Japanese versions I've seen are plainly adult.
It's not just about the actual show though. For a cartoon series to be successful in America, there has to be some marketability for toys, videos, video games or the like. Go to Target, and you see Dragon Ball, Gundam, Pokemon, but you don't see Slyaers toys anywhere.
The anime I've always enjoyed has steered towards comedy and a little bit more "mature" action, for lack of a better word. I've enjoyed Ranma, mostly because the premise is funny. I've also enjoyed Slayers and the Lodoss War series. Gundam is a straight hack ripoff of Robotech, though I'm basing this on their toys and the 10 mintues of the show I've seen.
Transformers was a Japanese comic book that won appeal as an American Cartoon. The toys ruled, and I had them. I don't forsee any of the modern cartoons having the sort of lasting appeal that Transformers has (and the modern, lame, cartoon of Transformers doesn't count). Kids that are growing up aren't going to talk about how Pokemon and DBZ affected their lives. However guys my age still talk about seeing Optimus Prime die, though typically among men or when drinking.
Batman (and Batman Beyond) are probably the most unique american cartoons that have aired recently. I watched them in college, and they were unique because they placed storytelling above animation and the "pizzaz" factor of other cartoons. If you ever had a chance to watch the series Gargoyles, it was very similar in the storytelling aspect. If you can dig up some of those, I recommend it highly.
Sorry, Gundam came before Macross (which is what was used to create Robotech). The father of giant robot anime is probably Tetsujin 28-go (Gigantor was the english version) from early 60s, though Astroboy from early 50s could also be considered the father of all robot anime, he wasn't a giant robot though.
Q.