TMA, MMA and jing

[SevenStar]

1. DBZ was my intro to anime as an older kid - I watched voltron, ulysses 31, tranzor z, transformers, etc. as a kid, but that was all I had seen until I was about 17 and a local station started showing dbz. the action was fast paced and it made me search for more anime.

2. back in 98, I was given the nickname "trunks" by some guys I trained with, cuz I have legs like tree trunks. Trunks happens to beone of my favorite dbz characters...

3. now, my son loves dbz.

4. the idea of following a character from childhood, to death, to the life of his children was new in an animated series. PLENTY of time for character development and such.

There are shows I like better than DBZ, like cowboy bebop, but since I've been collecting dbz stuff for all these years, why stop?


Have you ever checked out cowboy bebop or fooly cooly? I bet you'd like those. Maybe even twilight of the cockroaches

[FatherDog]

I think DBZ is terrible, but I also freely admit I'm a huge snob about anime. I don't watch dubs under pretty much any circumstances, for example. And I saw the Kenshin OAVs when they first came out in Japan, with a bootleg script in my lap, trying to read quick whenever there was dialogue and look back at the TV so as not to miss anything.

Ultimately, anime is a genre; nobody likes all anime, and I'll venture to say I could find at least one enjoyable anime for just about any given person.

I just finished watching Love Hina and re-watching His And Her Circumstances, which are both very good. Currently watching Noir and NieA Under Seven. Probably picking up the rest of Outlaw Star, FLCL and Fruits Basket after Christmas, and then I'll decide my next batch buy based on whether or not I see anything interesting at Katsucon.

[yenhoi]

I just got the entire Robotech series on DVD off Ebay.

[SevenStar]

fruits basket, outlaw star and flcl are all great. I'm getting ready to check out chance pop session. Never seen it or heard much about it, but I'm gonna take a chance on it. Have you seen the hakkenden? what about ushio and tora?

dbz isn't terrible, you're just a snob.

[FatherDog]

Originally posted by SevenStar
Have you seen the hakkenden? what about ushio and tora?

Nope to the Hakkenden. I think I saw the first bit of Ushio and Toria at a con; it looked kind of Go Nagai-ish, if I'm thinking of the right thing. I see a lot of things at cons on very little sleep, so sometimes they blend together a bit.

[Daredevil]

Cowboy Bebop rules.

I'm sure everybody knows Kenshin, too. If you don't check it out (samurai action in the Meiji era).

Another one that impacted me hugely when I saw it was Neon Genesis Evangelion. More than an anime show, it's almost life-changing.

[FatherDog]

Originally posted by Daredevil
I'm sure everybody knows Kenshin, too. If you don't check it out (samurai action in the Meiji era).

They recently released another set of OAVs to that, by the way. It's 20 years after the TV series, and deals with Kenshin and his wife in the later days of the restoration, in their twilight years.

It's really, really, really fucking depressing.

[Chang Style Novice]

I've seen a couple episodes of Cowboy Bebop - seems alright, but it didn't really grab me.

I haven't seen any Fooly Cooly, but some folks who's tastes tend to run close to mine love it, so I'll check it out at some opportunity.

The rest of this stuff y'all are talking about I haven't heard of.

[FatherDog]

Originally posted by Chang Style Novice
The rest of this stuff y'all are talking about I haven't heard of.

Gimme some examples of tv shows and movies you've particularly liked (or are representatives of types of shows and movies you particularly like) and I could make better specific recommendations for you to check out... although it can be tough for an average fan to get into anime unless they've got a very well-stocked local video store. Although I'm told Netflix has a very good anime selection.

[Chang Style Novice]

hooboy -

in animation:

Simpsons up to about season 8
almost all of King of the Hill to date
almost all of Futurama
Looney Toons/Merrie Melodies, especially those by Chuck Jones and Tex Avery
early Popeye, from the Fleischer brothers studio, not the wack AAP stuff.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
early Pink Panthers, the ones actually made by Friz Freleng
Jackie Chan Adventures

I hate Ruby Spears (transformers, GI Joe) and Hanna Barbara (Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear) stuff with a passion. Bad voices, bad writing, bad animation - just plain baaaaad.

live action TV -

Daily Show
ST: DS9 (some of the other treks had ok stuff, but it was DS9 that was the asskicker)
first 2 seasons X-files
SCTV
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Young Ones
Fawlty Towers
The Office
Sopranos
The Wire

movies - I'll go by directors

Woody Allen up to the late 80s
Alfred Hitchcock (sad I had to defeat the censor to say so, though)
Sam Peckinpah
Mel Brooks up to "History of the World" (after that it got REALLY grim)
John Huston
Jim Jarmusch
Quentin Tarantino (although "Kill Bill" coming after "Jackie Brown" makes him look kinda iffy)
Coen Brothers
John Ford
Howard Hawks before about 1960
Kurosawa
Bud Boetticher
Robert Altman
Billy Wilder
Mike Leigh
Stephen Frears
Terry Gilliam
Charles Crichton (not to be confused with novelist/hack Michael Crichton)
Orson Welles
wow, I hope that gives you something to work with...

I'm pretty sure that in a geek-heavy town like Austin I can find most any anime release somewhere. Hell, I've got a couple of friends working in the Dragon's Lair comic store (!), which stocks a pretty good selection from what I can tell.

[FatherDog]

Hrm. That's a pretty broad range.

Kenshin is quite good, both the TV series and the OAVs, although in different ways. The TV series has serious plots, but it largely throughcut with comic relief. The OAVs are decidedly not.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is worth watching, as it's very complex and very well done. You may not like it, as it's something that not everyone enjoys, but so many other anime reference it or borrow from it or play off it in some way, it's really worth watching if you intend to dig any deeper into the genre.

If you enjoy romantic comedies, Love Hina is pretty much the best example of the genre. Kare Kano ("His and Her Circumstances") is like a cross between FLCL and a very well-written high school relationship dramas, and is one of those things that I recommend to everyone just because it's so **** good.

If you enjoy the Kenshin TV series, you might want to check out Trigun, which has a vastly different setting and characterization but is very similar in theme and feel.

Anything by Hayao Miyazaki is golden and beautiful.

Hrm... thought processes clanking and grinding. Need more lubrication. I'll try and think of some more recommendations later.

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by FatherDog


Nope to the Hakkenden. I think I saw the first bit of Ushio and Toria at a con; it looked kind of Go Nagai-ish, if I'm thinking of the right thing. I see a lot of things at cons on very little sleep, so sometimes they blend together a bit. [/B]

a boy from a long ling of priests releases the tiger-demon...

[Chang Style Novice]

Yeah, the main thing for me is that it be good, not that it be any genre in particular. I do tend to value black humor, social satire, surrealism, and macho stuff like film noir, westerns, and crime flicks pretty highly, but sometimes that means I'll be more forgiving of mediocrity, and sometimes it means I'll be less forgiving. I don't know why it's sometimes one and sometimes the other myself.

Also the OAVs of Kenshin are decidedly not what? Your sentence was a bit ambiguous, and I can't tell if you mean the OAVs are not serious, or not undercut with goofiness.

I think I mentioned above how much I enjoy Miyazaki (and Takahata - I guess Ghibli stuff in general.)

Anyway, have fun brainlubing (sounds dirty, but it's not!)

[SevenStar]

CSN, check out

ninja scroll
noir
hellsing
battle angel
possibly - descendants of darkness - I haven't seen that one yet.

same goes for boogiepop phantom, though I've heard good things about it.

[FatherDog]

Originally posted by SevenStar


a boy from a long ling of priests releases the tiger-demon...

I think that was it. I remember what I saw being okay, but I think that was the Otakon I went to with my ex-girlfriend, so I was somewhat distracted.

Originally posted by Chang Style Novice
Yeah, the main thing for me is that it be good, not that it be any genre in particular. I do tend to value black humor, social satire, surrealism, and macho stuff like film noir, westerns, and crime flicks pretty highly,

The thing about social satire in anime is that it's generally social satire of Japanese culture, which yer average American doesn't often "get".

With the surrealism, though, I can definitely re-recommend Kare Kano and FLCL. And Excel Saga, although that plays off a lot of common anime tropes in a satirical form, so you may want to wait till you've seen a bit more anime before you dive into that.

Also the OAVs of Kenshin are decidedly not what? Your sentence was a bit ambiguous, and I can't tell if you mean the OAVs are not serious, or not undercut with goofiness.

They're decidedly not humorous. Very serious, very dramatic, very good. You'd probably like them a lot. You can watch them without watching the TV series, although they have more impact if you've seen it. It's a very long series, though, and it suffers the common TV series affliction of not really having an /end/, as such; it just kind of peters out. I recommend watching up until the end of the Kyoto arc, at least, though.