Does anyone besides me watch Japanese animation?

[Black Omega]

Yes, I saw the subtitled version at Gencon. Excellent stuff. A little more fantastic than Princess Mononoke but with a little more of a creepy feeling than My Neighbor Totoro. Well, aside from the Cat Bus in MNT Spirited Away is well worth a look.

 

[WizarDru]

So, um, has anyone seen _Spirited Away_?

Awesome stuff.

Indeed. As heavy on the allegory as Monoke, but suitable for a younger audience (though not as young as Totoro). I can show Kiki and Totoro to my kids (and have, and they luv 'em), and I can probably show Spirited Away to my daughter.

We picked up the 'Art of' book back in May, but I'd avoided really looking at it until after I saw the theatrical release last month (didn't want to spoil anything). As I sat on the couch, flipping through it, my daughter came up, immediately made the visual connection between Chihoro and Kiki, and then DEMANDED that I explain what was happening and the story in the pictures show (which luckily are chronologically ordered).

Eagerly awaiting the DVD release.

 

[Drakmar]

The thing I love about Anime... is that in Japan it is king.

Highest Grossing Movie in the Cinemas in Japan....
Spirited Away.
2nd... Titanic
3rd... Princess Monoke.

I love Anime. It Rocks.

I think that Bebop is one of my favs because of the music.. it has a fantastic musical score.

 

[Mallus]

jdavis...

... agreed that you should absolutely not think of Overfiend as representitive of anime. All hentai is a small part of the anime market. And the interesting thing about the Overfiend series is, taken as a whole, it demonstrates how the pornographic elements begin to overwhelm the everything else, kind of cancer-like. The 2nd was less interesting, and the next I found it utterely without value.

On a lighter note, any Miyazaki fan should hunt down the Studio Ghibli {sp?} anthology set. 5 disks, 10 films {including Grave of Firelflies, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa: Valley of the Winds, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Tortoro, and Mononoke}, all the original cuts w/subtitles. A friend of mine got it when the Wizards Comic Convention hit Philadelphia for around $100.

 

[WizarDru]

Re: jdavis...

... agreed that you should absolutely not think of Overfiend as representitive of anime. All hentai is a small part of the anime market. And the interesting thing about the Overfiend series is, taken as a whole, it demonstrates how the pornographic elements begin to overwhelm the everything else, kind of cancer-like. The 2nd was less interesting, and the next I found it utterely without value.

On a lighter note, any Miyazaki fan should hunt down the Studio Ghibli {sp?} anthology set. 5 disks, 10 films {including Grave of Firelflies, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa: Valley of the Winds, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Tortoro, and Mononoke}, all the original cuts w/subtitles. A friend of mine got it when the Wizards Comic Convention hit Philadelphia for around $100.

Really? What region are they? I assumed they were Region 2, and you'd have to hack to make them play on a normal DVD player. Are they region 0, do you know?

 

[Mallus]

WizarDru...

Really? What region are they? I assumed they were Region 2, and you'd have to hack to make them play on a normal DVD player. Are they region 0, do you know?

The disks play fine on my U.S. release PS2 and their owners low-end JVC player, so they can't be region 2. No fancy tricks needed.

And nice job summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of anime. And if I may, may I recommend FLCL {if you haven't already seen it}. I picked up all 6 eps at the Wizards con for $20.00. My knowledge of anime seems far less than yours, and I loved it {damnit if its not one of the most emotionally enganging animes I've ever seen, but its tremedously meta. i caught a fraction of the references to other amine in it.}

 

[Tsyr]

Regarding the Studio Ghibli collection... I wanted to get that at one point, had it all called up on E-bay, ready to bid, then I noticed this...

Audio Tracks: Dolby Digital
Dialogue: Japanese
Subtitle: English/Chinese (On/Off)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Released By: Manga
Running Time: 1440 min.
Genre: Miscellaneous
Region Code: All region, NTSC ALL
No. of Disc: 6

English and Chinese subtitles? Uh-uh. If those are normal "english-like" subtitles you get on most chinese imports, I'll pass.

Any word on their quality?

It is all region, though.

 

[WizarDru]

Re: WizarDru...

The disks play fine on my U.S. release PS2 and their owners low-end JVC player, so they can't be region 2. No fancy tricks needed.

And nice job summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of anime. And if I may, may I recommend FLCL {if you haven't already seen it}. I picked up all 6 eps at the Wizards con for $20.00. My knowledge of anime seems far less than yours, and I loved it {damnit if its not one of the most emotionally enganging animes I've ever seen, but its tremedously meta. i caught a fraction of the references to other amine in it.}

Thanks, and thanks for the info. Scorch has recommended FLCL to me, so I'll prolly watch it. Most of the time, his tastes and mine are spot on (although our level of dedication to a show may vary).

The beauty of fandom of any kind these days is that the Internet has grown so huge and so much a part of our daily lives that we have virtual communities like ENworld and access to untold amounts of information.

I remember when I joined the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization (the C/FO, the first attempt at a national anime fanclub before anime became a household word) back in the mid-80s, when a bootleg of Castle Cagliostro from a laserdisc copy ran me $35 (no subtitles, thank you very much)...and getting the program guide to the San Antonio Anime Convention. Those plot summaries, horrible as they are in today's light, were like shining gems back then.

These days, if I want info on a series, I just hit the web or a set of community sites. It's a beautful thing.

My only problem with anime fandom these days is that so many fans are ignorant of shows that were made more than five years ago. When I hear someone refer to Evangelion as one of the old shows, I kind of goggle. Xabungle? Now that's an old show. Lupin the Third, first series? Yup. Cats Eye, MS Gundam, the original Dirty Pair, Aura Battler Dunbine, Heavy Metal L-gaim and Votoms? You betcha. Some shows weren't great, but some were, and I've run across some fans who won't give a show the time of day because the animation isn't as fancy. I realize some of the old material just isn't as available as more recent stuff, but it's worth the effort, trust me.

 

[Mallus]

Any word on their quality?

I had no problem w/the subtitles. Sure, there are gaffes, but nothing that took away from my enjoyment of the films. Miyazaki is such an intensely visual filmaker {"painterly" gets thrown around a lot when critics discuss him} anyway, I can't imagine that a few translation goofs would have much impact on the experience of his films.

And as a side note, can you accurately translate Japanese into English? Or rather, does anyone bother when it comes to video/film? I've read Murakami's novels in English and they're great --but everything I've seen has my believing we ought stick Japanese in the same boat as Linear B.

 

[Syunsuke]

Some of you might envy me becouse I live in Japan and I'm Japanese.
I haven't seen many anmime for several years but I'm interested in non-Japanese anime fan.
Do you know this site? I think this is a very good website to understand anime.
http://www.mit.edu:8001/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/r/e/rei/WWW/Anime.html

And, as Japanese, I'm not very happy tha word hentai used in English so please take a look on this one.
http://home.attbi.com/~kagamix2/H_does_not_mean_hentai/index.html


My most anticipated anime in futere is Tsuki-hime.
But I don't think any of you know this title
Tsuki-hime means "moon-princess" literally.
The story is...too difficult for my English



WizarDru,

the tale of a young buddhist acolyte in Edo era Japan

It's Ikkyu-san, I think.
Sazae-san is a family dorama focused on daily life.

yaoi or shonen-ai = male homosexuality
yuri or shoujo-ai = female homosexuality

shonen = boy,
shoujo = girl,
ai = love.

I think shonen-ai and shoujo-ai sounds pedphillia for me (Japanses) though shonen-ai implys male homosexuality, too.
If male adult loves a boy, it's shonen-ai.
I a boy loves a boy, it's not shonen-ai...for me, at least.

Yaoi is male homosexuality, but this term is used in the context of anime (manga, or computer game) only. This word have no other meaning.
Yuri is female homosexuality in the contexit of anime and porno. This word normaly means lily.

Sorry for nitpicking.