According to the Yomiuri Shimbun Lucasfilm and the Japanese animation company Anime World Osaka, a start-up company, have reportedly agreed to co-produce an animated feature film, The Tiny Fairy Mirun (Chiisana Yosei Mirun). The newspaper said that George Lucas will act as executive producer of the film, whose $18.5-million budget will be shouldered by the Osaka-based company. Lucas, the newspaper said, is due to arrive in Osaka in September to sign the contract. Under the deal, Anime World Osaka will produce the master drawings for the movie, while Lucasfilm will produce the "in-betweens." According to the Yomiuri, the movie concerns a fairy who comes to Earth and communicates to others with the aid of a crow.
Thanks to the UMass Anime Club http://www.umass.edu/rso/umjams/
I would have to say that some of the best anime to watch is that of Mizayaki Hayao and studio Ghibli. A good comprehensive site to start with is www.nausicaa.net. Miyazaki's works' animation, music and drawing are all superb, and the stories are quite varied. For a very non-cliche anime story I suggest "Only Yesterday", which is set in modern Japan and has no violence, no robots and no monsters.It doesn't get mentioned as much as Nausicaa or Mononoke Hime but it is as good if not better.
Macross Plus is another visually beautiful story. It is a 4 (or 5) part mini-series about childhood friends who grow up to be test pilots.
Apart from this, there are many other good stories out there. Akira is good, although the story in the movie is rather incomprehensible;however the opening sequence is one of my favorites out of all anime and there is a lot of action throughout the movie.
Unless you think that you would like such a thing, avoid Sailor Moon and Pokemon. Their stories are boring and repetitive. Dragonball also is probably not worth watching as the content in each episode is incredibly small. I personally love dragonball but I would rather read the comic than watch the TV series...
One last thought, I don't think that anyone has mentioned City Hunter. If you have a sense of humor, City Hunter is definitely worth seeing.
This is by no means a comprehensive list. Just remember that anime is a very diverse medium compared to American animation. If you find that one particular series or movie is not right for you, please don't rush to thinking that all anime is worthless; instead, try to find something different that appeals to you!
Has everyone forgotten about Exosquad? Aired in the US in the early '90's, it was a serialized account of the occupation of Earth by genetically engineered "neo-sapiens" and the subsequent reconquest of Earth by humans. It was continuous and also had a large group of main characters many of whom died during the course of the series.
Of course, the fact that it was not very widely watched and was quickly forgotten despite the high quality of the storyline would seem to give some creedence to the fact that the American public as a whole is not accustomed to watching epic storylines. Why is this???
Many TV watchers seem to watch TV every day, but for some reason they would rather watch TV that is short and choppy, without a detailed story line. In my opinion this is probably because they are watching TV mainly as a way to kill time rather than out of any particular attraction to the stories they are watching. Obviously, this is not true of everyone, but it is an interesting question to ask yourself the next time you sit down to watch TV: "am I enjoying what I am watching?"
Japan may have been an amazing economic success 25 years ago, but these days their economy has some problems: recession, rising unemployment and high prices, for example.
Also it is damn hard to find a job and even harder to find a job if you have been laid off, or so I hear.
you raise a good point re: what percentage of Chinese e-mail is scanned. Having been in China for the past year I often wondered the same thing. While sending e-mail to friends in the US, I never felt any threat or menace I always wondered if I was being followed, my mail was being read etc. However, if this was the case they were doing a good job at it as I never once noticed a thing. Altogether, I have the feeling that as long as one does nothing suspicious, the government cares less than the american media would have you believe...
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According to the Yomiuri Shimbun Lucasfilm and the Japanese animation company Anime World Osaka, a start-up company, have reportedly agreed to co-produce an animated feature film, The Tiny Fairy Mirun (Chiisana Yosei Mirun). The newspaper said that George Lucas will act as executive producer of the film, whose $18.5-million budget will be shouldered by the Osaka-based company. Lucas, the newspaper said, is due to arrive in Osaka in September to sign the contract. Under the deal, Anime World Osaka will produce the master drawings for the movie, while Lucasfilm will produce the "in-betweens." According to the Yomiuri, the movie concerns a fairy who comes to Earth and communicates to others with the aid of a crow.
Thanks to the UMass Anime Club http://www.umass.edu/rso/umjams/
Macross Plus is another visually beautiful story. It is a 4 (or 5) part mini-series about childhood friends who grow up to be test pilots.
Apart from this, there are many other good stories out there. Akira is good, although the story in the movie is rather incomprehensible;however the opening sequence is one of my favorites out of all anime and there is a lot of action throughout the movie.
Unless you think that you would like such a thing, avoid Sailor Moon and Pokemon. Their stories are boring and repetitive. Dragonball also is probably not worth watching as the content in each episode is incredibly small. I personally love dragonball but I would rather read the comic than watch the TV series...
One last thought, I don't think that anyone has mentioned City Hunter. If you have a sense of humor, City Hunter is definitely worth seeing.
This is by no means a comprehensive list. Just remember that anime is a very diverse medium compared to American animation. If you find that one particular series or movie is not right for you, please don't rush to thinking that all anime is worthless; instead, try to find something different that appeals to you!
Has everyone forgotten about Exosquad? Aired in the US in the early '90's, it was a serialized account of the occupation of Earth by genetically engineered "neo-sapiens" and the subsequent reconquest of Earth by humans. It was continuous and also had a large group of main characters many of whom died during the course of the series. Of course, the fact that it was not very widely watched and was quickly forgotten despite the high quality of the storyline would seem to give some creedence to the fact that the American public as a whole is not accustomed to watching epic storylines. Why is this??? Many TV watchers seem to watch TV every day, but for some reason they would rather watch TV that is short and choppy, without a detailed story line. In my opinion this is probably because they are watching TV mainly as a way to kill time rather than out of any particular attraction to the stories they are watching. Obviously, this is not true of everyone, but it is an interesting question to ask yourself the next time you sit down to watch TV: "am I enjoying what I am watching?"
Japan may have been an amazing economic success 25 years ago, but these days their economy has some problems: recession, rising unemployment and high prices, for example. Also it is damn hard to find a job and even harder to find a job if you have been laid off, or so I hear.
by which I mean of course that the "government surveillance" in China is not extremely noticeable I was just addressing your Freud comment.
this is true however when I was there I didn't notice much either
you raise a good point re: what percentage of Chinese e-mail is scanned. Having been in China for the past year I often wondered the same thing. While sending e-mail to friends in the US, I never felt any threat or menace I always wondered if I was being followed, my mail was being read etc. However, if this was the case they were doing a good job at it as I never once noticed a thing. Altogether, I have the feeling that as long as one does nothing suspicious, the government cares less than the american media would have you believe...