Cowboy BeBop and other Anime...

[Alinestra Covelia]

Frankychan, if you're after an anime with a clear villain and dastardly plots aplenty, try Laputa: The Castle in the Sky (by Studio Ghibli, directed by Miyazaki). I know Wraith is going to recoil with horror, but I liked the film a lot.

Amongst Miyazaki's output, Laputa is one of the more standard "black and white good vs evil" films.

[monolith94]

Wraith, you are an amazing resource. I just felt you ought to know.

""Metropolis" is not a simple-minded animated cartoon, but a surprisingly thoughtful and challenging adventure that looks into the nature of life and love, the role of workers, the rights (if any) of machines, the pain of a father's rejection, and the fascist zeal that lies behind Ziggurat. This is not a remake of the 1926 classic, but a wild elaboration. If you have never seen a Japanese anime, start here. If you love them, "Metropolis" proves you are right."

- Roger Ebert

[Richard Bruns]

The Cowboy Bebop movie is what got me started watching anime. The school´s anime club was watching it on the big TV in the lobby with the sound way too loud, so as an RA I had to tell them to turn it down. By the time I located the person with the remote control, the movie had hooked me, so I stayed to watch it. The combination of visual style, music, narrative pacing, and assumption of audience intelligence was quite refreshing, though I assume the movie is only mediocre by anime standards.

The Cowboy Bebop series is still the best anime I´ve ever seen, so I can´t offer many recommendations. Gundam Wing is almost as good, though. It has a similar style. The only problem is that they absolutely refuse to let main characters stay dead. After seeing Lady Une and Trowa appear to bite the dust, I assumed that I had finally found a series with the guts to kill people off, but they both came back miraculously. Bah. The glorification of battle also gets annoying after a while too; I assume that´s some kind of holdover from the samurai culture.

[DaShi]

The glorification of battle was the main theme of Gundam 0080 (sp?) right?

I'm very much looking forward to seeing the Cowboy Bebop movie. Hopefully, it will have a wider theatre release.

[DinoDoc]

Voltron!

[Wraith]

--"I know Wraith is going to recoil with horror, but I liked the film a lot."

You're thinking of Chegitz. I recommended all the Miyazaki movies.

--"Wraith, you are an amazing resource. I just felt you ought to know."

Heh. Maybe I really should ask to have my title changed to Otaking.

--"The only problem is that they absolutely refuse to let main characters stay dead."

Yeah, and zombies are highly over-rated fighters. You'll never find a maid again, for one thing. Even the home-built robot ones really hate...

Oh... wait...

But yeah, you're right. The "I'm not dead yet" problem. The good stuff can stay away from it pretty easy, but it is one of the irritating cliches. I loved how Nadesico handled it, though.

--"The glorification of battle also gets annoying after a while too; I assume that´s some kind of holdover from the samurai culture."

More that samurai culture was an outgrowth of the same thing this is an outgrowth of. It's rather interesting, but only Japan has raised things like swordsmanship to the high spiritual level they place it at. This is reflected in their version of Buddhism, Zen Buddhism. It includes the belief that you can obtain satori, spiritual perfection, through a path of spiritual forging, saishen tanren. This was linked with the martial arts, and developed into bushido.
This isn't limited to martial arts, though. Almost anything can become saishen tanren if you master it. Traditional ways include things from archery and swordsmanship to tea making and flower arranging.

--"The glorification of battle was the main theme of Gundam 0080 (sp?) right?"

Glorification? Probably not. I haven't seen this particular Gundam series, but they tend to try to portray the harsh side of war more than glorify it.

--"Voltron!"

GoLion!

Wraith
"Let's Gekiga in!"
-- Gekiganger crew ("Nadeisco")

[Wraith]

That was weird. Took the post, but didn't bump the thread up the list.

Wraith
"No, no, no, not MORONIC, BIONIC!"
-- General Chelsonia ("Prefectural Earth Defense Force")

[GePap]

ROBOTECH!

Actually, having seen Metropolis twice, I did not like it that much. For example, the motivation of the higher ups, like Count Red is not that well explained. Fine, he wants to rule, but why? Just personal greed and hubris? That makes him a little too "regular". The actions of the President, his advicer, the General and the revolutionary are all sort of muddled. I think that whole President, revolution storyline arc could have been done away with: there is enough action and drama with Count Red's son chasing them down and then the finale.

[spiritof1202]

Metropolis was formulaic...

I can't believe I'm agreeing with GePap so much...

[Tuberski]

I have only ever watched one anime movie:

"Vampire Hunter something something"

ACK!

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Wraith
--"I know Wraith is going to recoil with horror, but I liked the film a lot."

You're thinking of Chegitz. I recommended all the Miyazaki movies.

Actually, I haven't seen it. Since my move to the cultural wasteland known as Jacksonville, my anime watching days have pretty much ended. At least I can still get manga.

Speaking of Coybow Bebop Salon.com had a review of it. Salon's got great reviews, and I've pretty much found them to be bang on.

[monolith94]

metropolis was formulaic??? WTF??? Yeah - crime and punishment was formulaic too because all it is is this story of redemption - TIRED! And don't even get me started on the clichéd nature of ALL of Nabokov's works!

Seriously, it's HOW you use the format of the story and what you say in it that is important. There are no original stories. It thrilled me from first frame to last.

[monolith94]

Salon has horrendous movie reviews - they are the definition of the modern jump-on-the elitist bandwagon mentality, without nary a thought given to movie quality.

[Wraith]

--"ROBOTECH!"

At least watch Macross instead.

--""Vampire Hunter something something""

D or D: Bloodlust. They're pretty mediocre at best, although I do like the way they make it seem like D is talking to his sword in the first one.

The best anime vampire stuff I've seen so far is the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA.

--"Actually, I haven't seen it"

Too bad. I thought it was one of the ones you didn't like, but I must be mixing it up with something else.

--"Salon's got great reviews,"

Maybe, but their page layout sucks rocks. Never seem to manage to get a full article of theirs, but it's not really a big loss.

Wraith
"Who dares enter the sacred and awesome presence of the everlasting know-it-all, Yogurt!"
-- Yogurt ("Spaceballs")

[GePap]

Nah..I rgew up on Robotech, and it came before Macross anyway.

Metropolis had multile storyliens, and while the main one, of the boy and girls running through the city with the uncle investigating was good, the other one, the one of the politics above was not fully flehsed out and felt stale, added on.