Anime Apolyton

[Wraith]

--"Spread them out more, maybe,"

Almost did this time, actually. But between the Oscars and Cowboy Bebop hitting the theaters soon, I decided not to wait.

--"The other place I post on has an Anime forum"

One of the other message boards I post on is an anime forum ^_^

--"I held off watching because I wanted to ideally get the whole series first"

Not a bad idea. I will also mention that you should at least watch them in the manner they were broadcast. The first five episodes were run singly, and the rest were run in pairs.

That said, it'd be nice to get a conversation going on the show. All the interesting theories I've seen so far have been mine.

Wraith
"Whaaat? And it's just getting interesting! Boo!"
-- Rabi-en-Rose ("Di Gi Charat")

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Wraith
--"anime in Finland is horribly expensive."

Holds pretty true everywhere. Check out Japanese prices some time. (I should know, I've started collecting R2 DVDs...)

Yeah I know. Kind of surprising really, it appears the Japanese otaku are so desperate that they'll pay anything for anything...

I was more referring to the "in the sense that I am a sixteen year old student without any personal income" expensive. ^^

Originally posted by SnowFire
If you managed to get that out of Eps 25&26, more power to you, but they don't really give you any tools to work with to understand why Instrumentality has come about. You just jump right on in. Again, having seen EoE first, I knew, but I think I would have hated it even more if I hadn't seen EoE.

I see. I have no clear recollection of what I thought about Instrumentality after my first viewing... the rest belongs inside spoiler tags...

Spoiler:

But I do recall thinking that it involved some sort of melding of personalities (since we had people seeing each other's memories and then the notorious "Congratulations!" scene.

Showing the corpses of Ritsuko and Misato helped around a good deal too. I imagined that Gendou had been conducting some experiment (involving Rei), and Misato and Ritsuko had tried to stop him, so he had shot them. Not that far away from the truth...

The whole Rei/Lilith thing was pretty clear also, with all those hints Kaworu gave in ep 24, and Rei's angst over "a person inside her who was not her".

But to counter that, there was a huge array of things I found completely wrong later.

It was only after thinking about it more and talking with friends that we managed to puzzle some sense out of it, and then it became pretty neat.

, the friend who got me to watch Evangelion watched it with me, and we discussed it for a good two hours after it had finished. Things began to make sense.

The other place I post on has an Anime forum instead of an occasional thread, and I never post there because they're all idiots. Well, 98%. I enjoy having one thread every two months or so where people can actually reason out opinions well...

Likewise, I frequent a Finnish Final Fantasy forum, or, well, used to. The average age of visitors there is below mine, and from my experience that isn't a good thing. Any meaningful discussion is seldom.

Just get a CD/DVD drive next time you upgrade/buy a new computer. I'm surprised they aren't standard.

They weren't standard in 1998 when this system was purchased, and I doubt this thing would play DVDs properly... But I am doing an upgrade in a few weeks. What I need now is a credit card to get the NGE boxed set... 200 euros in Finnish stores, 150 + postage on internet stores abroad. I'd share the costs with the other Evangelion nuts in my school, but I want to take the DVDs with me when I move to another city.

Oh, and I've been trying to get some opinions from people on Gasaraki. It's said to be heavy on the story side, and it's supposed to have diplomatic intrigue and philosophical points, so I'm rather interested. However, after the first two eps, I'm just a bit thrown off by the amount of stuff they (don't) give me. However, some say the first few eps are a sort of an introduction and are, to quote my philosophy teacher, "a way to throw you in".

Apocalypse didn't like it, but he didn't like Escaflowne either, whereas I loved Escaflowne.

[ColdWizard]

Lowering Wraith's post percentage for this thread

Originally posted by Wraith
But, more seriously, it is kind of pointless for me to keep running these threads if I'm making half the posts in them. Maybe I should either spread them out more or just plain stop.

don't stop! I've read every one of these threads that I've seen (partially for your sigs ), but I've only just recently started watching anime and so had nothing to contribute.

In fact, I still don't have anything substantial to contribute as I only recently finished watching Evangelion (watched EoE sunday). I'm planning on watching Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, possibly to be followed by Escaflowne. I'll have to rewatch some NGE eps and EoE to get something more out of it than a general sense of confusion.

BTW, there are no prizes for guessing who got me to watch NGE

[SnowFire]

The Japanese economy in general is weird. They pay something like 3 times as much for a movie ticket as we do here in the States, too. You'd think that somebody would be able to undercut ridiculous prices like that.

What I need now is a credit card to get the NGE boxed set... 200 euros in Finnish stores, 150 + postage on internet stores abroad.

Hmm... I just saw the boxed set at Best Buy for 130 bucks, IIRC. Maybe 140. And being that the US-Euro exchange rate favors the dollar right now, that should be even cheaper in Euros. They are ripping you off. Although I suppose you get the option of Finnish subtitles in exchange for the extravagence.

I frequent a Finnish Final Fantasy forum,

'yup, 'tis an American Final Fantasy forum I visit. Although while on the topic, for those with PS2s (okay, I don't have one, but I can steal one, at least for a little bit longer), I highly recommend Xenosaga. Excellent plot and surprisingly good game.

Gasaraki

This show, when our Anime Exco showed it last year, helped convince my roommate and I of the same thing you said you're running into- that we'd "run out" of all the good anime produced in the last 15 years, and all that was left was a sea of mediocrity. After stuff like Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop spoiling us... Gasaraki is probably the worst series anime that I've actually sat all the way through (missing only a few episodes in the middle). It has some good ideas, but the characters are all uniformily bland (okay, one of them has a good excuse), there are plot holes you can drive a small Scandanavian country through, it obsesses over details that are dumb, and the combat scenes are terrible. The idea of a political thriller involving mechs isn't bad, but the politics should be at least semi-plausible and the mechs should be put to good use. Instead they're the standard "wipes out all opposition when by all rights they should get blown to smithereens" vareity. What kept me going was A) They showed Key: The Metal Idol afterwards, which is good; and B) The "mystical" side of the plot- the bit with all the dancing & stuff- is actually vaugely interesting, partially because realism isn't an issue there.

Still, you apperantly haven't recoiled in utter terror of the first two episodes, which are in my mind the worst in the entire show. It's not a total waste of time, but there are definitely better shows to watch- especially in those wonderful early times when, as you've pointed out, you aren't quite caught up on all the classics yet.

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by SnowFire
Hmm... I just saw the boxed set at Best Buy for 130 bucks, IIRC. Maybe 140. And being that the US-Euro exchange rate favors the dollar right now, that should be even cheaper in Euros. They are ripping you off. Although I suppose you get the option of Finnish subtitles in exchange for the extravagence.

Finnish subtitles? Heh, a snowball's chance in hell... And I'd never use them anyway.

I highly recommend Xenosaga. Excellent plot and surprisingly good game.

I've only listened to the soundtrack, it's your standard Yasunori Mitsuda, not as good as, say, Xenogears though. Don't have a PS2, unfortunately.

After stuff like Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop spoiling us... Gasaraki is probably the worst series anime that I've actually sat all the way through (missing only a few episodes in the middle).

[...]

Still, you apperantly haven't recoiled in utter terror of the first two episodes, which are in my mind the worst in the entire show. It's not a total waste of time, but there are definitely better shows to watch- especially in those wonderful early times when, as you've pointed out, you aren't quite caught up on all the classics yet.

I see. Well, good thing I asked... but yes, there's lots of stuff unwatched yet. Hellsing and Gunbuster, for instance, lying in my CD case waiting for a computer that can play the files properly. And then there's Nadesico, haven't seen that either.

What about Full Metal Panic! and Noir? I've heard lots of positive about those, yet they can hardly be called classics yet. Also I'm waiting to get to watch His and Her Circumstances. And, well, I could continue this list for the rest of the night...

[Wraith]

--"it appears the Japanese otaku are so desperate that they'll pay anything for anything..."

That is why they're otaku...

That said, I still haven't gotten into it in a big way yet. Some that I know won't ever be released here, and one that I simply couldn't wait for (Haibane Renmei).

--"Oh, and I've been trying to get some opinions from people on Gasaraki."

I watched about half of it and stopped bothering, even though I was just borrowing the DVDs. Loved the mecha design, but the story never really caught my attention.

The politics and philosophy are there. Well, sorta. They're spread in amongst a fair bit of techno babble and a lot of really slow moving scenes (to put this perspective, one of my recent R2 purchases was Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou).

--"partially for your sigs"

I need to take some time and get some more anime focused ones. I've been using my current set for too long.

--"I'm planning on watching Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, possibly to be followed by Escaflowne."

I still haven't seen Trigun, but the other two are good.

I really did mean to borrow Trigun, but someone else wanted me to watch Fushigi Yuugi, and I am rather sorry I did so. It could have been a good story, but only if they had done it in half the number of episodes on the same budget.

--"You'd think that somebody would be able to undercut ridiculous prices like that."

Doesn't work as well with content-focuses stuff like movies. Good is good. I wouldn't pay $20 a DVD for a mediocre show, no matter how much cheaper it was than the good ones.

--"that we'd "run out" of all the good anime produced in the last 15 years,"

There's a lot of it currently coming out, and yet to be released, actually. Depending on what kind of shows you like, I'd have some recommendations.

Just a general list of the good stuff still being released in the US:

FLCL
GTO
Excel Saga
Berserk
Banner of the Stars
Card Captor Sakura
Fruits Basket
Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar
His and Her Circumstances
Revolutionary Girl Utena

as well as the stuff that should be starting soon.

--"Hellsing and Gunbuster"

Gunbuster is pretty good. It's one of the classics that got Gainax their name (and helped coin the term "Gainax Bounce"). If you like this series, also be sure to check out Voice of a Distant Star when it comes out.

Hellsing is another one that didn't catch my attention. High production values and all, but the characters and story didn't seem at all gripping to me.

--"And then there's Nadesico,"

This is another good one, although it is largely a parody. However, it's got a decent story on its own, so even if you don't know what it's making fun of you should enjoy it.

Plus it's got Ruri.

--"What about Full Metal Panic! and Noir? "

Didn't really like either of them, although Noir has an excellent soundtrack. FMP is one of those Studio Gonzo productions, and it's perfectly stereotypical for them. Some decent humor in it, but it wears thin quick.

Noir starts off pretty damn good, and it ends well, the problem is all the other episodes. It's really slow paced in some ways, and most of the fights are pretty pitiful. I mean, okay, these two are supposed to be the best-of-the-best assassins, but their opponents are usually dumber than Storm Troopers. The pacing just plain goes all over the place, too. Could have made a good thirteen episode series.

Edit:
Almost forgot to add, but Spirited Away is getting another theatrical release, starting this Friday. Check for theaters in your area.
It's supposed to be getting about 800 screens this time. If I recal correctly, that's about four times as many as the high point of the initial release...

Wraith
"Don't worry... I haven't come to steal anything. Please be assured... I've only come to kill you."
-- Excel (Excel Saga)

[Spiffor]

Excel Saga and FLCL rule if you are in absurd / hysterical humour. FLCL is better IMHO, because of better graphics and more absurdness than hysteria, bu Excel is pretty solid and stupid nonetheless

I became tired quickly of Noir, because I found the episodes were way too similar to each other. I agree with Wraith, Full Metal Panic grows thin quickly. But the first episodes are very enjoyable, being a blend of action, light humour and boy-girl interaction. Nice

His and her Circumstances (Kare Kano) is the only anime for highscool-girls I've ever seen thouroughly. In the genre, it rocks because of the wild imagination and daring direction. The director, Hideaki Anno (Evangelion) develops the anime a very interesting way, but the love affair remains touching. However, most of my friends disagree with me, so you might want to look at it before buying it.

[Wraith]

--"Excel Saga and FLCL rule if you are in absurd / hysterical humour."

At the anime club I go to, the viewing of FLCL occasionied the naming of a new unit of measurement. What had before been generally referred to as the "crack-smoke factor" was named the FLCL. FLCL being a 1.0 on the FLCL scale, of course.

Have you seen any of a show called Puni Puni Poemi? It was rated about 1.5 FLCLs...

Wraith
"I always wondered what the inside of a boy felt like"
-- Haruko ("FLCL")

[Spiffor]

I didn't see Puni Puni Poemi, but it is advertised in Excel Saga numerous times. I thought it was a cute anime, and I wasn't interested. But since you say it scores a 1.5 FLCLs, I'll look into it. I'll keep you in touch once I see some of them

[FrantzX]

I've seen Puni Puni Poemi. Imagine compressing all of insanity of Excel Saga into two episodes. It rates at least 2 FLCLs.

[Wraith]

--"I thought it was a cute anime, and I wasn't interested."

Oh, there's definitely cuteness involved. But you can't let cuteness keep you away, or you'll miss a lot of good insanity. You'd be missing out on shows like Galaxy Angel, Di Gi Charat, and I'm Gonna be an Angel. And, of course, Puni Puni Poemi.

You should probably also keep your eyes open for Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu, which was done by the Excel Saga team. Less plot, more crack.

Wraith
"If Guu's having fun everything's all right."
-- Guu ("Jungle wa Itsumo, Hare Nochi Guu")