All about Anime

[Kristian Meller]

One person I know who doesn't like Samurai stuff, enjoyed this.

If it's me you're talking about, I'd just like to chime in and say that it's oh so fucking true. I've only seen half and I just sold off my crappy R2E releases, so I don't know when I'll be seeing the rest, but I'll see it some day. Hopefully not too long from now

 

[slerch666]

If it's me you're talking about, I'd just like to chime in and say that it's oh so fucking true.

Since you're probably one of the few people I have constant contact with about Anime, you would be correct.

 

[slerch666]

I finished Peacemaker Kurogane vol. 6 and 7 this morning.

The series is subpar. There's a lot of great content that is spread thinly. Imagine a piece of toast with a corner smothered in butter, but the rest bone ass dry. That's PK. If you were to even the butter out, you'd have enough to cover 1/2 of the bread at best. That's PK.

The show should have been cut down to 13 episodes and they could cut out all the bullshit. There were so many times while viewing it that I kept thinking to myself "just fucking get on with it already!"

To top it all off, the end, while an ending of one arc so to speak, leaves another piece just dangling in the wind.

The animation is terrific. It is Gonzo after all.

The last 6 and first couple episodes are probably the only well paced episodes of the 26. Everything else is just so damned uneven.

Plus they killed one of my favorite characters.

You will be able to pick up the complete thin packed collection (what a fucking surprise) for ~$50 or so online. This may be worth the price. At the $140 I paid, it certainly didn't feel worth the price.

There's lots of great extras, so if you really enjoy the show, you may wish to purchase the singles for the nice extras. Other than that, either steer clear or buy the cheap ass collection.

 

[slerch666]

Watched a few more things today.

I had the Kaleido Star Extra Stage OVA R2 DVD show up today, and in less than 15 minutes after the mailman left, it was in the player. Yet another great episode of Kaleido Star, this time focused on Rosetta. Damn good stuff, though with only one eps to develop it, it felt kinda rushed.

After that I watch InuYasha disc 35. Can be summed up by looking at my other recent InuYasha reviews. 3 eps of them not really getting closer to Naraku and now they have the Band of Seven (now 5) to go against. I was thinking, what with ~60 eps to go, they'd probably offer up 5-6 eps per character to fill up the episodes with. They've killed off 2, and I'm sure one will be dying soon on disc 36, so my assumption may be incorrect. Unless of course they keep getting resurrected, which, with the way the show goes on endlessly (much like this post), wouldn't surprise me at all. This show could have, and should have, only been ~75 eps tops.

Then finally I watched Mermaid Forest disc 2 and 3. Great stuff. It has the right amount of atmosphere and story telling to keep the viewer interested. Once all the discs are out, I'm going to go back to watch it again just to count how many times the main characters die. LOL This is definitley a much darker series than most Takahashi Rumiko fans would be used to, and it plays out well. If this series went on forever like InuYasha, I could understand, since they are immortal... InuYasha and the rest are not, yet MF is only 13 episodes. Definitely a good show if you're looking for something a little darker than usual.

 

[Neco_Coneco]

I finished

To top it all off, the end, while an ending of one arc so to speak, leaves another piece just dangling in the wind.
.

The anime only goes to Volume 2 of the manga (I picked up the 3rd volume expecting it to be the middle of the anime and i couldnt figure out where it was then i hit a page and realize this is all right after the end of the anime, i was like wtf is this)

I liked PMK a good deal though. Its not for everyone but i enjoyed the chars and action. Its a shame they had to spread out 2 volumes over the 26 episodes

 

[slerch666]

The anime only goes to Volume 2 of the manga (I picked up the 3rd volume expecting it to be the middle of the anime and i couldnt figure out where it was then i hit a page and realize this is all right after the end of the anime, i was like wtf is this)

I liked PMK a good deal though. Its not for everyone but i enjoyed the chars and action. Its a shame they had to spread out 2 volumes over the 26 episodes

If that's the case, then they should have WAITED to make the Anime. Whoever published it was retarded if they told Gonzo "here's the first volume, we'll have the second ready sometime during your animation period. You can animate that one too." And if Gonzo decided to animate it like that, then they deserve a big box of dicks.

I got the first Manga with my PK 1 + box. I read about 4 chapters and found it to be confusing and jumbled as all hell and stopped. It's a Manga I'm thankful ADV included with the series, and it had the opposite effect on me that they were hoping for. I'm definitely not buying it.

As I said, had it been shorter the series would have been a higher recommendation, but as it is it feels like it's 1/2 assed.

 

[toy_brain]

Well, I bought Sky Blue today and gave it a watch.
I was tempted to make a seperate thread about it because its not strictly anime (Its Korean), not many people seem to have heard about it, and its a rather groovy film.
But meh, I didnt because:

1) Its in PAL format and most people here have suck-ass TV's that only play NTSC
2) I doubt that many people here really care and.....
3) Its good, but not that great.

So, basic plotline?
Well its set in a post-apocolyptic word where the sky has turned so cloudy you can barely see the sun, and there is only one city left standing where the posh folks live in an idillic sociotey. Just outside the city are 'diggers' - workers who live in crap conditions mining fuel to sustain the city. The story fucuses on one female security guard and a 'digger' who is on a one-man crusade to put an end to the city's tyranical rule over the people on the outside. The two characters meet, clash, dig up each others past etc etc.

Basically its a decent enough popcorn action flick. The storyline seems a little disjointed at times and it dosent do anything (in terms of plot/characters/action scenes) that you havent seen a dozen times before. However, it does have some rather lovely animation.
Still screenshots make it look a lot like Appleseed, though actually the characters are drawn in the regular 'digital cells' way rather than CGI renders, but the backgrounds are mostly CGI and rather good-looking to boot - certainly on par with anything out of Japan, and all the animation is very smooth and there are some very explosive actioin scenes.
A couple backgrounds look like they were filmed from live-action or models which kinda jolts the flow of the film as you sit there thinking "wait, is that.....?", but this only amounts to a few frames here and there so its no biggie.

Anyway, at just over 80 minutes the film keeps things nice and tight, and I came away plesently entertained and determined to show this to at least a couple friends who had previously enjoyed the likes of Appleseed, Metropolis and Spriggan.

Anyway, now the bad news.
Its dub-only.
The dub is basically fine. A couple minor charachters sound iffy, but that always seems to be the way, otherwise the american VA's complement the action perfectly and the dialogue meshes well with the film, still, I know how picky some of you are about this kinda thing.......
For anyone not put off by that I'll mention that there is no region-coding on the disk, so if you can play PAL stuff (Like on a PC, or your DVD player can 'force' an NTSC signal) its all good.

 

[slerch666]

Well, I bought Sky Blue today and gave it a watch.
I was tempted to make a seperate thread about it because its not strictly anime (Its Korean), not many people seem to have heard about it, and its a rather groovy film.
But meh, I didnt because:

1) Its in PAL format and most people here have suck-ass TV's that only play NTSC
2) I doubt that many people here really care and.....
3) Its good, but not that great.

I'm not trying to learn Korean, so an English dub would be OK, unless it sucks shit or has HER in it.

Is the DVD a dual layer or single layer disc? I ask because I may pick it up, rip it and convert it to NTSC from PAL using DVD authoring software. My DVD player will play it, but my 6+ yr old TV wouldn't like it.

Doesn't sound BAD, but doesn't sound like a master work either. Any idea where a decent place onl-line that has it? I can't be bothered to search right now, Legendary Lone Wolf's Jojo thread beat searching out of me today.

 

[Hot Chocolate]

I finished Peacemaker Kurogane vol. 6 and 7 this morning.

The series is subpar. There's a lot of great content that is spread thinly. Imagine a piece of toast with a corner smothered in butter, but the rest bone ass dry. That's PK. If you were to even the butter out, you'd have enough to cover 1/2 of the bread at best. That's PK.

The show should have been cut down to 13 episodes and they could cut out all the bullshit. There were so many times while viewing it that I kept thinking to myself "just fucking get on with it already!"

To top it all off, the end, while an ending of one arc so to speak, leaves another piece just dangling in the wind.

The animation is terrific. It is Gonzo after all.

The last 6 and first couple episodes are probably the only well paced episodes of the 26. Everything else is just so damned uneven.

Plus they killed one of my favorite characters.

You will be able to pick up the complete thin packed collection (what a fucking surprise) for ~$50 or so online. This may be worth the price. At the $140 I paid, it certainly didn't feel worth the price.

There's lots of great extras, so if you really enjoy the show, you may wish to purchase the singles for the nice extras. Other than that, either steer clear or buy the cheap ass collection.

That's good to know, after getting suckered into getting the first disk and not knowing wtf was going on I'm still debating if I even want to bother with it. But like you siad it is another Gonzo anime and they do make some purty anime shows

 

[toy_brain]

I'm not trying to learn Korean, so an English dub would be OK, unless it sucks shit or has HER in it.

Dub was done in California - not Texas. Don't worry, she aint in it.
A few of the reviews I'd read said the dub was 'horrendous' - well I thought it was perfectly OK. Mabye I'm just too used to dubs, mabye the reviewers are just foreign-film-snobs, I dunno. Check out the trailer (follow my link on the previous page) which has a spot of the english dialogue to get an idea for yourself.

Is the DVD a dual layer or single layer disc? I ask because I may pick it up, rip it and convert it to NTSC from PAL using DVD authoring software. My DVD player will play it, but my 6+ yr old TV wouldn't like it.

Its Dual-layer I'm afraid, but surely if you rip out everything but one audio track and get the ripping software to do a 'deep analysis' you wont loose much quality. At 87 minutes it cant be that hard to fit onto a single-layer DVD.

Doesn't sound BAD, but doesn't sound like a master work either. Any idea where a decent place onl-line that has it? I can't be bothered to search right now, Legendary Lone Wolf's Jojo thread beat searching out of me today.

DVDConcept seem to be selling it, and they ship internationally for a very small fee.
Still, at £19.99 ($36.78) its probably a lot more pricey than what you are used to - even if it is a 2-disk set, and I've never ordered from DVDConcept myself so......

Probably best to wait for a R1 company to pick it up.

 

[slerch666]

DVDConcept seem to be selling it, and they ship internationally for a very small fee.
Still, at £19.99 ($36.78) its probably a lot more pricey than what you are used to - even if it is a 2-disk set, and I've never ordered from DVDConcept myself so......

Are you forgetting... I buy Japanese R2 DVDs... I know pricey.

Last night I watched InuYasha 36. Getting better as it's more action based, but still not where I want it to be (that being FINISHED).

 

[Kristian Meller]

I didn't know Sky Blue was Wonderful Days. I thought it was a different Korean animated film... Slerch, just go looking for the R3 that's NTSC anyway. No need to buy PAL R2.

Meh, seems it's out of stock most places. I'd wait for a re-release or an R1 release with the Korean language track.

 

[Shawn Carr2o]

Hey slerch, Should I pick up these Y's anime that is base off the video game and is it any good?.

It looks interesting and I saw the DVD's at Fry's the last time I went.

 

[slerch666]

Hey slerch, Should I pick up these Y's anime that is base off the video game and is it any good?.

They are OK. Nothing amazing, nothing too shitty either. Middle of the road and decent to waste some time with.

You can get the complete collection for $15, it has all 3 of the singles.

THIS IS THE COMPLETE BOX:

That's all you need. It collects the other 3 discs you have pictured.

 

[Shawn Carr2o]

They are OK. Nothing amazing, nothing too shitty either. Middle of the road and decent to waste some time with.

You can get the complete collection for $15, it has all 3 of the singles.

THIS IS THE COMPLETE BOX:

That's all you need. It collects the other 3 discs you have pictured.

I am going to order it real soon and the $15 is well worth it.

Thanks! slerch

I finally learned how to use photobucket.

 

[Shawn Carr2o]

Is the animated Lady Death DVD any good?.

 

[Tron]

They are OK. Nothing amazing, nothing too shitty either. Middle of the road and decent to waste some time with.

You can get the complete collection for $15, it has all 3 of the singles.

THIS IS THE COMPLETE BOX:

That's all you need. It collects the other 3 discs you have pictured.

What he said just make sure you.. watch it sub, Shawn Carr2o.

Becuse the dub of it is just awful

 

[toy_brain]

Is the animated Lady Death DVD any good?.

Pretty much every review I've read of it says 'no'.
But I havent actually seen the DVD myself, so I dont have a personal opinion.

 

[slerch666]

Is the animated Lady Death DVD any good?.

I like the comic, or I did. Even then, there's no way in Hell I'm buying that DVD. As toy_brain said, ALL of the reviews pretty much tell you it's shit.

Thank you ADV for ruining a great comic property. I remember seeing trailers for it and I was impressed with how poor the animation really was. I have no idea what they were thinking.

 

[slerch666]

So I watched InuYasha vol. 37 last night.

I have a question for someone who has watched InuYasha. I just realized last night that the show has turned into a fight Anime. My question is, is this true for the whole series and I've only just now realized it, 111 episodes into it?

With InuYasha, I think that once vol. 38/39 are released in Feb, I may stop buying the show. It's gotten too long in the tooth and really is only tolerable at best. This surprises me as I used to absolutely love the show. I even watched the first 15-16 2 or 3 times. *sigh* Next on Fox... When Anime Goes Bad and the People it Disappoints.

 

[slerch666]

So far today I watched Sousei no Aquarion vol. 4 on R2. Yet another disc where every episode they have to learn a new movie to defeat the bad guys. I don't mind formulaic Anime to a point, but using the exact same process EVERY episode? So far I've seen 12 eps, and so far they've all pretty much been the same thing. Weird training. Aqurion (whichever of the 12 billion configurations they can use is used) gets ass handed to it. The main pilot realizes they learned how to defeat the enemy in their weird training, then they beat the enemy. Rinse repeat. The animation is good. The story is good. The characters are good. The formulaic approach is bad. This type of show seems like something ADV would have picked up in the licensing insanity of 2003-04. Now it seems like it may be Geneon, if anyone at all. Today was sleeping. Then Reika's misfortune. Mixed in their somewhere it was Apolo VS Sirius. I guess the Apolo VS Sirius wasn't really "training" that brought forth the new attack, so that was a small break from the formula, though it doesn't change the fact that they get a new move every eps and every eps after they use it and it's useless again. I've heard of evolving enemies, but this is ridiculous. And it's also rare for them to go back and use a move from 2+ eps prior. Silly.

And then I watched Tsubasa Chronicle vol. 3 on R2. I really like this show. It also follows a sort of formula, but the formula requires several episodes to play out. So instead of the formula completing itself every eps, it's every 4+ episodes that it plays out. Animation is nice. Character designs are typical CLAMP (godd). Story is good. The fact that it's 4 eps a disc is nice as well, saving me a little $$$ for other R2s. Today they went to a world similar to an ancient China and were beating up an old man trying to run the town. Pisses me off it ended where it did though, as it was at a really juicy spot (Shaolan fighting the old fart whose name I didn't catch, surrounded by the towns folk). Good stuff. Thankfully the next CD Japan shipment, next week, should contain the next disc.

 

[slerch666]

Watched a few more yesterday.

I watched Golgo 13: The Professional. This one is a bit of a mixed bag for me. The story line was alright. Basically Golgo is hired to kill the son of a wealthy business owner, then the business owner vows to take revenge.

The reason it's a mixed bag is because I find with the first hit after the son, Golgo scores with the lady way too easily, and the entire thing plays out far too quickly. It's like "slam bam thank you ma'am" and it's over.

Animation was pretty high quality stuff for the era. The choice of what is probably 2nd generation CG was a total gamble and they failed the gamble. You go from traditional cel animation to this weird looking, choppy, CG. Stupid.

The remixed 5.1 audio is... OK, but probably should have been left as a stereo mix.

Violent and has plenty of bare breasts. Should be popular. This also happens to be my only Urban Vision purchase this year. Of course, when you do one title a year, that's to be expected.

Next up was GitS: SAC 2nd Gig vol. 1 and 2. The cases on this one, at least to begin with, all seem to be unrelated, but as time goes on we are finding this isn't the case.

This one continues on where the other left off with superb animation, a complex story and of course, great characters.

Interesting to note is that the subtitles on the second disc were smaller than those on the first. It looks like instead of using an 18 pt font (or whatever) they use a 16 or a 14. It's still legible, but kind of jarring when going from the bigger subs on the first disc to the second.

Good stuff.

I have plenty of goodies lined up for today, we'll see if I get through them

 

[slerch666]

Started in on Psychic Academy vol. 1 and 2. These DVDs are sub only and come bundled with the corresponding Manga. I haven't read any of the Manga yet.

As far as this show goes, I have to say unless you want to collect the Manga, don't bother. Animation quality is piss poor. The show uses digital animation (digitally painted I mean) and everything just looks... lame. The animation itself is only so-so. It reminds me of digitally painted shows from back when they first began the process, the ones where it was painfully obvious they were getting used to a new technique.

Story goes that a boy gets into the Psychic Academy and is reunited with his long lost female friend, Orina. Well, throw in another girl, Mew, as his other romantic interest and that's the plot behind the show.

It has a Maburaho feel to it, just nowhere near as good. Nowhere near.

All the characters suffer from the Divergence EVE problem, HUGE breasts. They aren't as ridiculous as DE's, but they rank up there. The only girl that doesn't have huge breasts is Fafa. Don't get me wrong, huge breasts are fine, but in this show they don't temper it with "normal" sizes at all.

The gimmick on this on in Japan was the Anime came with the Manga. I'm not sure how they broke it down, but I think a set of 3 eps came with the first 8 volumes or something like that.

Over all the show is a disappointment. I don't know that I'll bother with the Manga. If I can get each one used for a decent price, maybe.

 

[slerch666]

Tuned into The Mars Daybreak vol. 1 this evening. After sitting on it for a couple months (including the time it took to send the first tin I got back to TRSI thanks to some fucking in the mail... which was funny because there was one spot they had to hit in order to dent the tin, and wouldn't you fucking know it, they did!), I'm thinking I should have thrown this in sooner.

First, Now Loading, your girl, Houko Kuwashima plays Vess, the leading lady (or as close to a single leading lady as there has been thus far).

The story goes that Mars now has water on it. Gram is living on a colony ship (a giant boat) and lives day to day. The first thing we see is him getting fired from his job, as the econony on Mars is shit. After turning down a shady job for a shifty guy, he winds up getting dumped in the ocean and picked up by the pirates who were attacking the port.

Vess is a childhood (?) friend who has a thing for Gram, the problem is that she works for the military and her group is after the pirate ship Gram is on.

Animation is top notch. Voice acting is top notch. Story is great. Damn good show so far, though I've only watched the first 5 eps. I have the second disc and may throw that in tonight as well.

The Mars Daybreak is definitely a show to check out.

toy_brain- were you watching this one? I vaguely remember you posting about this or the other Bandai series, Planetes. If you're watching Planetes, is it any good?

 

[slerch666]

I forgot to mention, I won this on Yahoo Japan Auctions:

Uchu Kaizoku Captain Herlock.

Another golden oldie from the late 70s. I can't wait for it to show up...