[Conditioned]

Do we have any manga/anime fans other than me here? I started watching DBZ as a young teenager and a friend made me watch it on bootlegged vhs' from japan so we could watch it while listening to their cool voices lol. It made me realize how different anime and american animation really are. Even when the same show is edited and translated, the results feel like totally different shows, aimed at totally different age groups.

I know we've all dreamed about film/television adaptations for TSA, which is about as likely as Aurang dedicating himself to a life of abstinence in The Unholy Consult... anyway, I really think it could be taken seriously as an Anime. I'm not sure how one would go about trying to sell the idea in Japan but it just seems like it would be a good fit for an adaptation of the series, tentacle porn and all (I kid, I kid) .

Anyway, if anyone else reads manga/manwa/webtoons or watches anime and wants to share rec's and stuff let me know you're interested... I only started reading manga and manwa a couple of years ago but since then I've read a hell of a lot of em lol.

[Baztek]

Check out these movies:

Redline: Absolutely bananas, bombastic one-shot movie about a galactic car race that takes place on a militant robot planet. Equal parts Speed Racer and pure adrenaline. Some of the most beautiful, kinetic animation I have ever, ever seen.

Summer Wars: Worldwide MMO/Facebook hybrid gets attacked by a virus and it's up to a dweeb visiting his girlfriend's family to save the world.

The Berserk Movies: come on, it's berserk, you know this shit. great fight scenes would sit in awe again

[Wilshire]

I myself have watched lots and lots of anime, or at least my my own recognizing I have. DBZ and DB are classic, who didn't watch those growing up?

I've watched a mixture of stuff dubbed and subbed in english, the one that had the most significant difference between subbed to dubbed, that I've seen, was Rurouni Kenshin.

I watch the new subbed episodes of Naruto every week, but I started watching it dubbed in english. There doesn't seem to be a huge difference from subbed/dubbed, but I've watched only about have the whole series subbed so I could be wrong. A good anime, but lots and lots of filler episodes. Shippuden is far better than the original IMO.

I can't decide if I want to start watching bleach again (I stopped after the Final Getsuga Tensho stuff with Izen, before the Hell arc). That may have significant differences dubbed/subbed. I probably watched 90% of it subbed so I can't say for sure though. I will note though, that my favorite episode (maybe of any anime ever) is episode 270: :"Beginning of Despair...Ichigo, the Unreachable Blade". I originally saw it subbed, and it was amazing. Once the english dubbed version caught up and I re-watched it, I was sorely disappointing. The english version had not the same dark overtones and completely botched the delilvery, changing it from an amazing scene to a mediocre one. Needless to say I haven't watched one in english since.

Another that I've really enjoyed were Yu Yu hakusho (last seasons was the best) and Zoids (first 2 seasons, never watched fuisorz or whatever)
I've also found Deathnote to be extremely interesting, though not your standard anime.

I guess you could say that I've only ever watched the popular anime and am therefore way too mainstream to be a proper anime hipster, but I'm cool with that. Never liked that crowed anyway.

[Cüréthañ]

Currently reading Naruto and Claymore as they are released.  Don't really follow the anime of Naruto because the filler destroys my enjoyment and the animation swings from awesome to awful far too often.
Have read some Gamblefish and Highschool of the Dead.  Berzerk was great but I only watched the first series - intend to catch up with the Manga at some point in the future.
Fucking loved Evangelion, but waitning for the current rework of the movies to be complete before I watch them.
Watched all the Robotech and Astroboy as a kid.
Watched many of the more popular otaku movies - Akira, Gost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll etc etc
I really enjoy asian story telling in movies and comics because it escapes many of the predictable western tropes that I was bored to death with by the time I was 14.

[AimmarCair]

Yeahhhhhhhhhh stuff I could recommend that's recent:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Deconstruction of the magical girl genre, deals with dehumanisation and suicide and such. Exploded everywhere now. 3 feature length films as well as the anime series now. Two spin off mangas too.

Psycho-Pass - Dark dystopian mindf*ck. Computers read people's brains and determine your emotional state represented via a hue/colour and possibility of you committing a crime by a number. These affect everything in your life. Once you reach a certain state you're deemed emotionally broken and police will hunt you down. Enforcers (convicted criminals aiding the police) work with the police to help since being emotionally damaged by the job isn't relevant once you're "broken". Sounds like minority report, really isn't. One of the best of recent times.

Attack On Titan (orig. Shingeki No Kyojin) - VERY gripping. Humanity has been close to wiped out/eaten by "Titans". Huge humanoids with no sex organs or digestive systems. Ignore all other life, just seem to chew up humans for the fun of it. Starts with 100 years of the last human colony being all fine and happy.

Future Diary - God of Time and Space modifies a few people's diaries to tell the future (details of the future reflecting the person's diary keeping style, future can be changed easily). These people have to battle royale and there has to be only one winner/survivor or the universe dies, winner gets to be the new God too.


Ummm so those are all great. I checked out a lot of more mainstream stuff once upon a time. One Piece has an amazing convoluted plot with lots of details but I like that kinda stuff so it's fine and dandy with me. Toriko's the other one I still keep with. Not much else though in that respect. Dragon Ball was amazing as a child/still is.

I suppose if you want to dip your toe into stuff/explore you have to bear in mind there's a few different areas. The films are a lot more versatile than series' a lot of time since a manga or anime series needs to be kept going (though concise short anime series that end).


AIMMAR'S SHORT GUIDE TO MANGA/ANIME SERIES DEMOGRAPHICS

ANYWAY so there's Shonen (roughly means "young") stuff which is often in the form of "battle" manga. This has a young male demographic and notable examples are: Dragon Ball/Z, One Piece, Bleach, Naruto. (I don't get Naruto at all though).

There's also stuff denoted as Shojo (young female demographic) which is mostly romance manga/anime which is also very popular, a lot of them being set in schools.

Then there's Seinen which is marketed towards older males mainly, can be anything from warped mind-bending experimentation to just near-pornographic nonsense. Think there's a female equivalent called Josei (?)

Not everything you encounter is locked into these boxes obviously but they're helpful guides. Most popular genres are battle, sports, romance and comedy but you get virtually anything.

now...

AIMMAR'S SHORT GUIDE TO ANIME FILMS


Pretty diverse area, so you can get anything really. Well known recommendations right off the bat are:

Akira - Futuristic dystopian cyberpunk beauty. Masterful animation. Incredible for the 80s.

Steamboy - Large scale steampunk themes, set in victorian England, very well crafted.

Paprika - Dream based frolicking, probably inspired Inception, captures how we exist in dreams well too.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Made by the Summer Wars guy. Schoolgirl discovers how to time travel and just does relatively mundane things with it but lovely animation. Quaint? I'm not that good with language/describing.

Ghost In The Shell and Evangelion have been mentioned and they're radical too. They have manga, various TV series and films though. You need to mine those franchises because there's a bunch of good there.

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki
This guy (Hayao writes/directs most of these) and his studio make some of the best known anime films. Well animated and immersive worlds that are well realised and draw on all sorts of things but with a nice spattering of older japanese folklore/religion etc. Endearing characters, truly cathartic and you'll get a whole boatload of feelings from any of them.

You might have heard of: Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle

Other notable mentions: Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Really just watch all of them though, if you're starting out, the first two I mentioned are a good place to go from. You might find Ponyo a bit too happy though and a few of the ones I didn't mention were not by Hayao and noticeably have some magic missing.




AAAAAAAAAAAAND yeah I guess I'm done, off to top of my head some more good manga/anime I could recommend are:
 

Trigun - Space western kinda deal. Humanity's on a desert planet, sharpshooter with a murky past/alleged mass murderer wanders round trying to help people as he goes.

Hajime no Ippo - I never thought I'd be one for any sports themed manga but this is really well written and engaging. Boxing anime/manga. Special.

FLCL - Boy with a portal in his forehead gets trained to save the world from a looming threat. Interesting pretty short series. Nice sci-fi elements. Comedy angles but rather serious plot.

Cowboy Bebop - Sci-fi bounty hunters travel about space trying to resolve issues from their past as they go along. Relatively short but really well done. 26 episodes. Also excellent jazz soundtrack pops in now and then.

Outlaw Star - Eeriely similar to Cowboy Bebop, 26 episodes of a lovely space opera. Jack of all trades and his young sidekick become bodyguards for a girl then steal a spaceship with her and have crazy adventures. Gets all reality bendy towards the end. Great.



You may have noticed a lot mentions to futuristic stuff, welp in 80s-90s japanese anime was full of it and it's wonderful to look at.

Kay I'm done for now. Going to go back and make all my recommendations bold.




Or not.. yeah other obvious ones from my childhood I just remembered that all had token merchandise to buy into were: Pokémon, Digimon, Beyblade, Yu-Gi-Oh.

The last one is an excellent card game.

[Wilshire]

Didn't know trigun and cowboy bebop were considered anime.

Out of curiosity, what makes something an anime and not a cartoon?

[Srancy]

anime is the DEVIL!!!

[Cüréthañ]

Didn't know trigun and cowboy bebop were considered anime.

Out of curiosity, what makes something an anime and not a cartoon?

Generally, anime is adapted or derived from manga.  But really they are just Japanese animations. 
A cartoon is actually not even animated - its an extension of the olde world term for satirical or humurous illustrations iirc.

[Wilshire]

Ok so you are saying, at this point, that the main difference is just in the name?

[Conditioned]

Umm, no Wil, he stated some of the differences... Anime is generally (not always) adapted from Japanese manga, and in an instance or two more recently Korean manhua: these are basically Japan/Korea's version of our comic books, there are many genres but most contain somewhat mature content. I find anime to be on a whole different level when comparing it to American animation, even when it's content is written for American adults.

As I stated earlier in the thread, I can't even watch the American dubbed versions of anime due to the scrubbing of content for no particular reason, the absolutely horrible/dull American voice-overs compared to the original Japanese versions which are all done with passion and realistic sounding emotion, etc...

Anyway, I started this thread and I never really added my reading list/rec's, so here it goes...

Ajin (Japanese Manga)
Ao No Exorcist (Japanese Manga)
Aphorism (Japanese Manga)
Attack on Titan (Japanese Manga)
Bleach (Japanese Manga)
The Breaker/The Breaker: New Waves (Korean Manhua)
Berserk (Japanese Manga) *This manga has a very Bakkerish kind of feel and I think it's from the 80's
City of Darkness (not sure, possibly Chinese)
Deadman Wonderland (Japanese Manga)
Feng Shen Ji (another one I'm not sure, possibly Chinese)
Full-Metal Alchemist (Japanese Manga)
Gamaran (Japanese Manga)
Girl the Wild (Korean Webtoon)
God of High School (Korean Webtoon)
Karate Shoukoushi Kohinata Minoru (Japanese Manga)
Magi (Japanese Manga)
Mushibugyo/Joujuu Senjin!! Mushibugyo (Japanese Manga)
Naruto (Japanese Manga)
Tower of God (Korean Webtoon)

Lol, there are probably 20 or 30 that I'm not able to recall off the top of my head... Most of these are considered 'Shounen,' or are targeted toward teenage-30ish males. For the most part I read because the humor is fucking awesome... Berserk being one of the few exceptions, although it does have parts that crack me up, it is as dark and almost as philosophical as Bakker which is really saying something considering it has been around for like 25 years...

[Wilshire]

Umm, no Wil, he stated some of the differences... Anime is generally (not always) adapted from Japanese manga, and in an instance or two more recently Korean manhua: these are basically Japan/Korea's version of our comic books, there are many genres but most contain somewhat mature content. I find anime to be on a whole different level when comparing it to American animation, even when it's content is written for American adults.

As I stated earlier in the thread, I can't even watch the American dubbed versions of anime due to the scrubbing of content for no particular reason, the absolutely horrible/dull American voice-overs compared to the original Japanese versions which are all done with passion and realistic sounding emotion, etc...

I didn't mean to be offensive. Even by what you just said, the only difference I can really tell is the quality of the production, but that doesn't make them inherently different. I mean, a low budget 3rd party "B" movie, and a blockbuster AAA movie, are both still movies. Sure there is a difference in scope and quality, budget, etc., but at the end of the day they are pretty much the same thing. I see no difference between anime and animation. I'm sure there is some really terrible anime out there, just as there are shallow/uninteresting animated shows.

To me, at the end of the day, it comes down to personal bias and prestige. I understand not wanting to include something that's perceived as higher quality in the same group of something with a perceived lower quality, but for someone with no investment into either claim, it all looks really similar.

Then again, if you said that SFF and the new "Teen Paranormal-Romance" genres are about the same thing, I'd flip a table over.... But a case could be made by someone who knows little of either that they are pretty much the same thing.

*shrug* I probably just don't know enough about anime/animation to make the distinction 

[Somnambulist]

Then again, if you said that SFF and the new "Teen Paranormal-Romance" genres are about the same thing, I'd flip a table over....

lol  Thanks for making me laugh on a Monday morning.  I'd be right there with ya.

I'm not an aficionado of Anime or Manga, and I'm probably gonna cause someone else to flip a table right now if I get this wrong and mis-classify, but I enjoyed Record of Lodoss War a LONG time ago.  Ghost in the Machine, Black Magic M-66, Akira, Appleseed...  A lot of the 'classics' I guess.  I think you can see where this is going.  Haven't really been in the game since the 90's, and wouldn't even know where to begin, currently, to get reacquainted with the medium.

[Francis Buck]

I wouldn't mind checking out some good anime. I watched some when I was younger, but not a lot. Akira is still my favorite. I've tried a ton of different ones on Netflix and I haven't really enjoyed any of them though, so I kinda don't know where to start. I do want to check Evangelion eventually.

[Conditioned]

  LoL Wil, I am an avid reader of R. Scott Bakker, you would find it pretty difficult to offend me... I was just trying to say that sometimes things aren't that general... A drawn image is indeed a drawn image. Put that drawn image in motion and it is technically animation. But all animation is not the same (I don't think this is just my elitest genre ego speaking, lol), just as Game of Thrones as a television show isn't really in the same category as, say Teletubbies. There are differences in the subjects discussed, the quality/funding available to the projects, the nature of the programs goals, and target audiences.

But, yea, I can't really counter your 'a movie is a movie,' logic. I think it's just kind of over-generalizing.

For the most part, when it comes to anime, I think I'm in it for the cultural differences... I have always been fascinated by Japan and mystified by Shintoism. Even anime targeted at young children is usually full of tidbits of Japanese philosophy and religion. Another thing the Japanese seem to be particularly good at is evoking emotion-- and that is the key to anything being good (in my opinion anyway). When something can make me cry (a single manly tear, mind you... quit judging me!), I consider it exceptional. I can't even remember the last time American television or movies made me cry, or even made me laugh for that matter.

Oh, and I hope I'm not coming off as argumentative with all this and I certainly am not touting my opinion as better/more educated than anybody else's... just trying to be a little more active on the boards.

[Conditioned]

As far as the stuff I've seen this year I would highly recommend the anime 'Attack on Titan' and the 3 'Berserk: Golden Age' movies. I'm not certain if either of them are available dubbed in English yet, but you can watch them for free in original Japanese with English subtitles by doing a google search.

If you haven't seen 'Samurai Champloo' it is one of my all time favorites and one of the few anime I find to be tolerable dubbed in English (but still so much better in Japanese lol)