Anime Apolyton

[Q Classic]

excel saga was great... except for episode 26, which was just...........
so the series is wierd, right?
it doesn't really hold a candle to ep26...

and i have to admit, i liked fruits basket. it's so over-the-top sometimes, and man, is the lead girl dense, but it's still a nice, soft series to watch.

been trying to track down a few other series. plan on starting hellsing soon; noir looks interesting, and the one episode of please teacher i saw looked humorous enough.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Thanks for the bump.
Wraith - I read when I come to this forum!

I never post much as I feel WAY out of my depth. You guys must get volumes more anime than ever appears in my little corner of the world.

Still trying to locate a (single) Ranma DVD in Sydney for a 21st present to a friend of mine. All I can find are boxes of 15 or so! May have to resort to the Net at this rate.

Yay for Azumanga! Is that anime really as dirty at times as I think it is? The few episodes I have seen make it really subtle.
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Female character changing in the changing rooms (nothing really to look at)

Picture of a kitten for a few seconds

Couple of girls who were admiring her athleticism: "Did I just see something really cute?"
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Suspicious or what...?

[Wraith]

--" that increases the chances of it never happening."

I think it'll be a slow-burn project, but will happen eventually. There's been a large number of anime-to-live-action movie talk lately. It's a bad trend that I see catching on at least until people realize it'll mostly turn out like D&D The Movie or worse.

Just a quick note about ADV, they're up to 12 directors working at once on different projects. We can expect their release schedule to continue to accelerate.

--"But you didnt cover any mangas."

I'm not in to manga as much as anime. At least, I haven't been in the past, although that is starting to change.

In Japan, the main manga I'm interested in is Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. It's a slice-of-life story set in a rather unusual post-apocalyptic world where Japan is kind of half-sunk into the sea, but the rest of the country is just getting on with things. The main character is Alpha, a robot who's running a cafe in the middle of nowhere while her owner is off on an extended trip.

Other than that, I've been kind of following Hikaru no Go (both manga and anime) and Hunter X Hunter (likewise). I don't expect YKK to get licensed any time soon, but these latter two are pretty likely.

As for US releases, I'm following Kodocha (the anime doesn't look like it will ever get licensed), Oh My Goddess (mostly for Peorth, who never gets enough face-time) and Alien 9 (which I mentioned above).
I'll be getting NieA_7 and Berserk (both mentioned above) when they come out, and I think the Fruits Basket manga has been licensed as well, although I'm not sure of the release dates or anything.

--"so the series is wierd, right?"

Make sure to check out Puni Puni Poemi and Jungle wa Itsumo, Hare Nochi Guu when they come out. Both are by the same team as Excel Saga. PPP is a two episode OVA, so they didn't have to worry about TV censors...

--"and i have to admit, i liked fruits basket."

Yes, this is definitely one of the better recent releases. I've been kind of waiting for the box set, but Funimation just plain hasn't been giving out any info about it, so I'm not sure how much longer I'll wait.

I personally didn't much like what I saw of Hellsing, Noir, or Please Teacher, but YMMV.

--"I never post much as I feel WAY out of my depth."

Ah, post anyway. Everyone should be off the deep end here ^_^

--"You guys must get volumes more anime than ever appears in my little corner of the world. "

The US anime market is actually a rival for the Japanese anime market in terms of size, so we do get rather a lot of it. Europe doesn't seem to get nearly as much for some reason. Your best bet would probably get a TV/DVD set up that can handle R1 and R2 DVDs and run both NTSC and PAL, then import DVDs from the US.

--"Still trying to locate a (single) Ranma DVD"

I don't think Viz has released them as singles yet. I'm not sure they've even got plans to, really. AnimEigo always releases the boxes first and then goes individual, but I don't think Viz is following their lead. The only individual Ranma DVDs I know of would be the movie DVDs.

--"Yay for Azumanga! Is that anime really as dirty at times as I think it is?"

At times, yeah. Kimura-sensei, for instance.
In the scene you're talking about, there's Kaorin (the girl noticing the kitty panties), who has this huge crush on Sakaki (the girl wearing the kitty panties) and is absolutely no good at hiding it. Kaorin is too shy to actually come out and tell Sakaki what she thinks, of course, so it's a running gag.

There's a lot of little mildly ecchi moments like that in there. Like the girls in the locker room getting ready for a swimming class, when Osaka points at Sakaki's chest and announces "An American!" Or when the girls are out on vacation and one of the female teachers gets drunk and has a little chat with them.

Wraith
"You have a swimsuit tan. You could jump in a pool naked and no one would know you weren't wearing anything."
-- Osaka ("Azumanga Daioh")

[Harry Seldon]

I picked up a couple of new movies this weekend. Bloo: The Last Vampire was excellent. My wife doesn't really get into anime much but she even thought it was good. I also got the Escaflowne movie; a little boring I thought. Should have picked up the Akira collector's edition instead. I guess there's always next paycheck.

Has anybody seen Blue or Noir? I looked at these but couldn't form an opinion just reading the covers. I've seen previews for both and they looked pretty interesting...

[Wraith]

--"Bloo: The Last Vampire was excellent"

Blood was okay, but I wouldn't call it excellent For vampires, I much prefer the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA.

--"Has anybody seen Blue or Noir?"

I've seen part of Noir, as I've mentioned. Great soundtrack, high production values, but didn't really care for the story, characters or pacing.

As for Blue... blue what? Blue Seed? Blue Gender? There's probably others.

Wraith
Any technology, distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.

[Frankychan]

How's Jinryo?

Oh, my friend mentioned to me that there is a very good anime out there that's about World War II. Germany and Japan use mechs or something....the title escapes me so I don't know what I'm talking about here.

[loinburger]

Jin-Roh is fantastic.

I agree with Wraith on Blood -- didn't much care for it, myself. OTOH I did enjoy Vampire Hunter D (the old and the new), though I wish that the dub weren't so bloody awful.

[Wraith]

Jin-Roh is one of my favorite movies. Definitely recommend it.

The WWII with mechs thing doesn't sound familiar. There's one about a WW3 using mechs where the war's quite similar to WW2 that I've heard a little about, Maschinen Krieger ZbV 3000. I think it's just a manga, however.
Remember anything else about it?

Vampire Hunter D was one of the first anime I ever saw. I was RPGing a lot at the time, so things fit in nicely. It's not bad, but it's not one of the best things around.

Wraith
I prefer to remain anomalous

[Harry Seldon]

Vampire Hunter D was a good one. Perfect Blue is the full title of the movie; got a little confused there. It's about a pop star that gets involved in mysterious goings-on of a former life. Listed as a psycho-thriller.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000JL42/002-2525540-7239237?vi=glance

[loinburger]

I'd definitely recommend that one. Fair warning, though, I've shown it to several people, and they've all considered it to be something of a mind****.

[Harry Seldon]

Aren't those the best one?

[Wraith]

--" Perfect Blue is the full title of the movie;"

Yeah, that is a good one.

You definitely sound like a candidate for Serial Experiments: Lain and Boogiepop Phantom ^_^

Wraith
"I can resist everything except temptation."
-- Oscar Wilde.

[Harry Seldon]

I watched the Animatrix last night. Very good. Of course, the people who didn't understand Reloaded probably won't get it.

[Wraith]

Just found out something interesting, so I thought I'd bump the thread.

AnimeNation recently entered the dubbing business. Their first title is Risky/Safety. I've mentioned that part before. What's new is that they've put the first episode up for download on their site. Both sub and dub versions.

Wraith
"Yoroshiku, Baby, desu no"
-- Safety ("Risky/Saftey")

[Jon Miller]

I have started going through movies with one of my freinds

I think Perfect Blue is next (Was going to watch it last night,fell asleep first)

Jon Miller