Anime Apolyton

[Jon Shafer]

I never really liked Akira that much. I'm probably the only one with that opinion based on everyone I've spoken with.

[Wraith]

--"I watched Akira last night. Pretty good! I hear its a classic."

Pretty much. It was really the first big-name title to be brought to the US, and it made a big impact. It hit the theaters here in the early ninties.

--"I hope other seasons are coming on DVD. "

As far as I know, Stand Alone Complex was just one season. Not sure how much they followed the manga, or how many story arcs would be left, but I haven't heard about another season.

--"I never really liked Akira that much."

Which version did you see? The newer translation helps a fair bit.
However, neither one is really as complete as the manga. IIRC, it was made while the manga was still ongoing, and doesn't handle all the themes quite as well since there wasn't any closure yet on them. Still, it was pretty good in spite of that.

Wraith
"Tetsuo!"
-- Kaneda ("Akira")

[Nostromo]

As far as I know, Stand Alone Complex was just one season. Not sure how much they followed the manga, or how many story arcs would be left, but I haven't heard about another season.

Too bad, its a good show AFAIK, Stand Alone Complex doesn't follow the manga at all. It all happens before the pupeteer.

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Wraith
As far as I know, Stand Alone Complex was just one season. Not sure how much they followed the manga, or how many story arcs would be left, but I haven't heard about another season.

Actually there is a second season, it's called "2nd Gig". It will probably air this fall along with Fullmetal Alchemist season 2 on Adult Swim.

[SIZE=1]Which version did you see? The newer translation helps a fair bit.
However, neither one is really as complete as the manga. IIRC, it was made while the manga was still ongoing, and doesn't handle all the themes quite as well since there wasn't any closure yet on them. Still, it was pretty good in spite of that.

Not sure... I borrowed a friend's DVD a few years ago. I've never been big into the 'cyberpunk' theme though so it's not much of a surprise to me. Plus, I generally don't like the movie format much, as I perfer to have more development than the time allows.

Lately I've been watching Bleach and Gundam Seed/Destiny. Yeah, I know, I'm boring. I generally prefer series' of this vein with a lot of character development. I found Naruto entertaining at the start but it degenerated pretty quickly as the characters became stale and things became more about defeating the next big bad guy (for the most part). Of course, this is typical of Shounen which run more than 50 episodes so it's not a surprise. Perhaps people can recommend some stuff for me to check out? I've recently completely emptied my latest recommended queue.

[Wraith]

--"Actually there is a second season, it's called "2nd Gig". "

Hmm. There does seem to be one, then. Like I said, not a show I've been keeping up with.

--"Not sure... I borrowed a friend's DVD a few years ago."

Well, the newer translation came out late in 2001, if that helps.

--" Perhaps people can recommend some stuff for me to check out? "

Character development, eh?

That means I get to recommend my favorite show, Haibane Renmei. It's only 13 episodes, but the focus is on two characters in particular, and they get some great development in. Beautiful series.

Another good one for character development is Twelve Kingdoms. It's been mentioned already. The two Youko story arcs are probably what you'll be most interested in. She's a whiney little brat at first, but by the end she's something quite different.

Bersrek would actually be a decent choice, as long as you don't mind the violence. And the first episode is not a good indication of what the rest of the series is going to be like, so if you don't like it don't stop there. If you do like the show, you'll want to check out the manga. More characters and more development.

Figure 17 is a possibility, as long as you don't mind the age of the main character (she's 10). It's got a mix of slow character drama set in rural Japan mixed with pitched sci-fi battles.

This isn't the kind of recommendation I normally make, but Revolutionary Girl Utena is a good show. Not a starter choice, mind. It's about as packed with symbolism as can be. A lot of people think it's repetitive, and it is in a way, but it's like classical music; each major story arc has a main theme, and most of the episodes are variations on the theme. The minor differences are important.

You mentioned Bleach, so I'm guessing you're open to suggestions for unlicensed titles.
Despite it's shounen action standing, Hunter X Hunter would probably interest you. They spend a lot more time on character development than on fighting, at least until the Greed Island OVAs. It's got the usual superhuman and physics-ignoring feats, of course, but the characters make up for it. There is, late in the TV series, a requisite tournament arc, but they actually leave most of the fighting off-screen. There's only a couple, character important fights, that get shown. And if you stop there you'll miss the Phantom Brigade arc, which is excellent.

Of course, for character development, pretty much any hard-core shoujo series would fit the bill. Oniisama E, The Rose of Versailles, or (more recently) Maria-sama ga Miteru for instance.

Let me know what else you've seen and liked, and I can give you some more.

Wraith
"You know the times you can see the dust in your eyes? I'm chasing it right now."
-- Osaka ("Azumanga Daioh")

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by nostromo
Too bad, its a good show AFAIK, Stand Alone Complex doesn't follow the manga at all. It all happens before the pupeteer.

The puppeteer thing does not happen in the SAC universe at all, it's an alternative setting. The puppeteer may have existed, but Section 9 never got involved.

[DinoDoc]

Puppeteer? Is he similar to the Laughing Man?

[Kassiopeia]

Not really, only in the way that they are both targets of a Section 9 investigation or parts of a play Section 9 is involved in. A deeper analysis may reveal some connections, but I don't remember enough of the first season for that.

[DinoDoc]

What did he do then?

[Kassiopeia]

This is going to really, really spoil the first GITS film. Anyone, please correct me if you remember better.

Spoiler:

The Puppetmaster was an AI routine developed to do the dirty work of some ubiquitous government agency (IIRC). It was advanced enough to spontaneously rise to sentience. It wanted a to become a recognised sentient being with rights, so it entered, despite its creators' attempts to the contrary, a cyborg body which ended up in the hands of Section 9. Political intrigue and a web of skulduggery emerged, and the Puppetmaster was stolen from Section 9 by another agency of the government (the foreign ministry, I think; the Puppetmaster was of American origin, they probably wanted to prevent an international incident. Not sure of that).

In the end the Major managed to get the Puppetmaster back, but she did not take it back - due to her own existential crisis, typical for cyborgs I suppose, the Puppetmaster managed to convince her to meld with him in order to create a third, entirely new being, a combination of them two - their child, if you will. This story, AFAIK, continues in the film Innocence, but I have not watched that on yet. The Puppetmaster was, right after the meld, shot by snipers working for the "bad" gov't agency, and their child lived on in the Major's form.

[Nostromo]

Can't wait to see the second season of GITS: SAC. Just saw Spirited away. An excellent movie!

[SnowFire]

Late to the party, here...

a title I was not expecting to make it to release here, thanks to one of the rather unusual weapons the tanuki have.

Oh dear. I haven't seen the movie, but I know the general substance of tanooki legends.

Berserk is another great one, a dark medieval-era swords and sorcery setting.

I watched the anime not too long ago, and liked it all right. I can't say I have any interest in the manga though; the anime told an interesting story that, at least as far as I was concerned, ended quite nicely. The first episode and any future episodes would seem more appropriate to a game of Diablo; with everything dead and presumably conquered by demons, I can't see much else than "Welcome to the Land of the Demon of Fire" followed by lots of combat.

I dunno. Maybe the manga does keep things interesting, but I'm perfectly happy with where they chose to cut it off in the anime- the interesting plot climax & decision was made, and all that remains from then on out is just the resolution of that little feud.

This translates roughly to "goddess is a middle school student". It's about a middle school girl, Yurie, who one night suddenly becomes a goddess, in the Shinto style.

As in becomes a Shinto goddess, or "becomes a goddess in the Shinto style?" If it's the second, could you elaborate? I'm not familiar with how one ascends to deityhood in Shinto.

it involves a maid and member of the gentry falling in love,

What is it with this maid fetish that seems to have come across anime as of late? I already avoid lots of the bad ones, but random maids seem to show up with odd frequency in more recent anime shows. Worse, they tend to utterly conform to the uber-loyal Ruth stereotype. Any idea where this came from?

Hopefully said maid is actually a developed character.

Howl's Moving Castle was excellent - I saw it twice in theaters.

That movie was less than the sum of its parts. Individually, most of the scenes weren't bad, and could have been made to work; strung together, not so much. Call me silly, but for certain things, I happen to think "motivation" and "consistency" count for at least a little. (Even being consistently inconsistent.)

[Wraith]

--"I can't see much else than "Welcome to the Land of the Demon of Fire" followed by lots of combat."

While there's certainly lots of combat, it isn't quite like that. The God Hand still aren't running things out in the open, after all.

--"the interesting plot climax & decision was made, and all that remains from then on out is just the resolution of that little feud."

Interesting. The Band of the Hawk storyline is actually just the prequel to the story in the manga. The vast majority of the story happens after that.

--"As in becomes a Shinto goddess,"

Yes, this is it. As far as I've seen of it they still haven't explained why she's a goddess or what she's a goddess of.

--"What is it with this maid fetish that seems to have come across anime as of late?"

They go in cycles.

On another note, Naruto has started airing on Cartoon Network. As I've said many times, I never really got into it, but it is quite popular. The dub is actually fairly decent (not like the One Piece dub), and the edits are fairly minor, mostly matting out blood. They even leave in Sexy no Jutsu. Name pronunciation is all over, of course; they get Naruto wrong for starters.

Wraith
"I like you. Do you want to be a guinea pig for my experiments?"
-- Washuu ("Tenchi Muyo")

[monolith94]

I'm sick of all the howl's bashing. I've seen it three times now, and it never fails to move me on a profound level.

Saw the escaflowne movie last night. It was very decent, and -extremely japanese-. Somehow more japanese than other animes, in the sense that such a story seems somehow deeply ingrained to that particular culture.

[DinoDoc]

Does Naruto ever fight pirates? I'd like to put the whole ninja vs pirates debate to rest.