Reply With QuoteI stumbled across Red Garden the other day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Garden
Pretty grim overall pretty gritty for regular tv....I kinda liked it.
edited for a better link
Glad I'm not the only one. :-) I'll also toss Kurenai on the pile of "anime I seriously did not expect to enjoy."Originally Posted by Scry
I stumbled across Red Garden the other day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Garden
Pretty grim overall pretty gritty for regular tv....I kinda liked it.
edited for a better link
So, yeah ... one the mangas i wanted to see on anime format was : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNNEG0nWc6c
AWW YEAH ^_^
I usually snag the Gattai subs because they're out fast and are always 720p. [gg] beat them to the punch this time but their release wasn't HD.
gattai ones are 720p but washed out compared to the aia iz ones. shinsen are avi and somewhere in between. less sub errors.
Well, the difference is that the Gattai sub is already out for 7, and AiA's isn't. I personally don't see any washout, and I'm viewing it on a pretty decent setup, so I dunno, your eyes might just be better than mine.
Macross Frontier ep. 8 - the good news is that they actually directly reference some of the stuff in Macross Zero, which I think will be a sign there's a further link to the overall plot. The bad news is that I think this was quite possibly one of the worst Macross episodes ever made in any series, OVA or movie form (but maybe a tad better than Macross II).
--- Alan
That's a buzzkill.
Some people seem to like it, mostly those used to the anime high school/whatever crowd, lots of face faults, etc. I'm definitely not in it. I hope that's the last one they ever do.
--- Alan
Anyone have any recommendations for anime that is non-geek-wife friendly? She loves Miyazaki, and enjoyed Seriei no Moribito (thanks to this thread) but that's about it. We tried GITS and Lain but they just didn't click for her. So I'm looking for something "mature", minimal gore, minimal techno-babble, minimal philosophic-babble. Any suggestions?
Maybe Porfy no Nagai Tabi, it's definitely different than a lot of anime. It may be a little too boring, though.
--- Alan
I'd recommend Millennium Actress, which is directed by the highly-lauded Satoshi Kon. In my opinion, he's a much better storyteller than Miyazaki.
Others here have already recommended it, but if your wife enjoyed Seirei no Moribito, she'll probably like Sword of the Stranger. It's more bloody but also boasts high production values.
Wow, man you weren't kidding. That episode was terrible. There were only 2 good parts: the 10 second cut from the Macross Zero lore, right down to the discovery of what I now believe to be connected to the Vajra, and second, Ranka's foreshadowing encounter with the strange Vajra pilot that also knows her song (and owns a harmonica apparently, although that was also revealed at the end of 7).
Oddly, the harmonica intrigues me the most... do the Vajra have a connection to humanity? Where else would he get such an ancient musical instrument? Is Harmonica Boy perhaps descended from Shin and Sara (in Zero, they both disappear into space in the unearthed craft and are never seen/heard from again).
I also agree with the connection of Sheryl Nome and Sara Nome from Zero. Same last names? Come now. They're certainly giving themselves a lot of material to work with, and I'm quite glad to see that Zero isn't being ignored in Frontier. I just hope they can deliver.
Twelve Kingdoms. Still my all time favorite. Oh and Mushishi too.
There's no solid inkling the Vajra and the pilot (Berna Stern I think is the name) are related at this moment--even the symbology on his fighter is typically different than what shows up on the Vajra.
--- Alan
Satoshi Kon in general is pretty awesome (though mindbendingly weird in most of his work). Tokyo Godfathers, in particular, strikes me as being more mainstream-viewer friendly, although I'd recommend trying her on Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, etc if she responds well to Tokyo Godfathers.
Haibane-Renmei would be another series that may go over well - it's from the same guy who did Lain (which I didn't like, for what it's worth), but it's much less chaotic and confusing. It's more of a slice-of-life affair in a mysterious (but gorgeous) low-fantasy setting, focusing on the relationships between a number of girls with angel wings, who are born into a small town from other worlds, via cocoon. I would definitely not recommend then proceeding into other series by the same guy - I actually really dug Texhnolyze after a while, but it is fucking impenetrable. Haibane-Renmei is by far the most accessible thing he's ever done.
Beyond that....I've tried Cowboy Bebop, RahXephon, and Samurai Champloo on my parents (who are semi-geeky, but not nearly as much so as I am), and they've all been major hits. (They liked Haibane-Renmei, too, but I haven't gotten any Satoshi Kon to them yet.) None are particularly gory. Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo vary widely in tone and content, though they maintain a common thread of the main characters being broke and hungry all the time (in a comedic way). RahXephon is a giant robot anime, but one with a very rich backstory full of mysteries that are slowly unraveled. It turns out to be, on the whole, a very sweet love story. It has certain similarities to Neon Genesis Evangelion, but in my humble opinion it is substantially better than Evangelion because a) the characters are more sympathetic, b) it actually bothers to explain things (not everything, but enough), c) the animation and visual quality is superior, d) twistier, richer plot.
Let me recommend my anime DVD shelf (I only buy DVDs of stuff my waifu likes). Witch Hunter Robin, Full Metal Panic, and "Fate Stay/Night" are in a similar genre as Seirei and GITS (action/drama). For the romance/shoujou genre, there's Fruits Basket, and "His and Her Circumstance".
Non-waifu-approved recommendations: There's also the school-setting-comedy-supernatural-drama genre: Air, Kanon, Clannad, Haruhi. And if you're really desperate, you can try for soap opera: Rumbling Hearts (Kimi ga Nozomu Eien in Japanese), Inu Yasha. (giggle...Inu Yash is not really a soap opera, but it never ends, and although my waifu loves it, she hates shows that goes on and on and on...)
Don't do that.
True, although he didn't exactly seem to be fighting them. I do feel, however, that there is a strong link between Stern to Sara and Shin; even the song he knows is very similar to the way Sara sang. I.E. mystical, otherworldly. With Ranka it's hard to tell. We know her family was massacred, and she can't remember how she knows the song because of her "condition." Still, if it's making us discuss all this in an anime thread, they've set it up well enough to keep us wondering and wanting to know more. It's the Lost phenomenon.
Unlike Lost, however, I believe the writers actually have this series planned out already from start to finish, and we'll get some real exposition. And like I said, I really dig all the "coincidental" Lost-esque character links that they've established, and at this point I think anyone watching Frontier that hasn't seen Zero should probably watch it now in case its lore starts becoming an even larger part of the storyline.
Well, also, reportedly Episode 10 is very Zero-centric.
They do seem to explain bits and pieces of the background through the intros, however. They talked about the cyberization of the people in the Galaxy fleet, which I think may tie in to the story as well.
--- Alan
Sky TV....I've been watching it with my GF lately, and even though she's more of an Desperate Housewives kinda girl, she's actually gotten a bit into it....or at least she will actually sit and watch it instead of (jokingly) rolling her eyes at me and wandering off.
Thanks for all the recommendations. We actually watched Perfect Blue too, but thought it was kind of meh. The build up was interesting, but I don't remember the payoff being that satisfying.
I meant to advocate this earlier, but Seirei no Moribito is probably my favorite anime to date. We watched all the episodes in one week, and the story came together really well. Even the "filler" episodes worked and were important in the context of the whole thing. And I didn't get poked in the ribs for fanservice.
If Wikipedia is to be believed, you're right about Stern. Apparently he's piloting a VF-27 (as opposed to the SMS VF-25's, which themselves have just barely entered production (!)), and given Galaxy's highly advanced technology it wouldn't surprise me to find out he's from Galaxy. Even his appearance suggests a high amount of cyberization. Now we just need to find out his connection to Ranka, or the possibility of his connection to Sara or Shin.
If you liked Seirei no Moribito, as I did, you may want to give Twelve Kingdoms a look. It's another superb character-driven fantasy anime that's based on a series of novels, and, as such, does not have an anime "feel" -- though it does use a lot of jargon (mostly the names of mythical beasts from its world).
Just watched Real Drive #5. Great episode, even if it didn't have much to do with diving and the overall storyline. Not to mention some excellent fighting scenes. I'm starting to think this show is shaping up to be genius; the preview for the next episode was so superbly devoid of information and yet I absolutely loved it:
There's no sound, and it begins with a shot of an old, dark building. The shot then changes to the inside of the building, where it pans through bookshelves and you realize it's a library. It then focuses in on the bind of a single book, titled "Love Letter," and then ends. I don't know why, but it was completely awesome.
I want something that has the superb action of the initial episodes of Serei No Moribito & Samurai Champloo. Anything?
Hmm. Nabari No Ou? There's some interesting ninja fight scenes in that. Mentioned above is a movie named Sword of the Stranger that also has some excellent fight scenes.
I'll check it out, Scry. Thanks :)
My god. I just watched Macross Frontier at 1920x1080. It was my first experience watching anime at that resolution, and it was awesome.
Wow, I highly suggest checking out Gonzo's new series, Blassreiter. Plenty of action, motorcycles, and some really stylized combat sequences. The characters are also being developed very well. There's 3 episodes out right now.
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