Good Fantasy anime

[WizarDru]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the ending. The anime was never meant to follow the entire manga. It was only meant to tell a story from within it, and it does a stellar job of that.

I understand that, I just disagree. How does Guts escape the event? What happens to Caska? Why aren't they consumed? Where did the dragonslayer come from? Who was Roshinu, and why even bother showing her in the anime? What happens to Rickerts? Manga readers know. Followers of the anime don't. That's not a different story, that's just sloppy work, IMHO. Miura has already gone on record as saying that he worked much closer with the video game producers for the Dreamcast game than for the anime series. Hence the inclusion of the Skull Knight, Puck and other characters.

I'm not arguing that the anime wasn't well done. I think it was fantastic. I think the ending was a major failure, though. As for the name, you're right: supposedly Miura has said he meant it to be Guts...I just think of it that way because of the way it was translated in the old fansubs back in the day.

Back on topic...I can't believe I forgot to mention Escaflowne. Auru Battler Dunbine is an excellent show in the same vein. There was an older anime with giant robot armies in a fantasy society, where the main character's robot was a centaur, as I recall...but I can't remember it's name for the life of me.

 

[Filby]

Rune Soldier Louie is another D&D-ish fantasy anime, as is Ruin Explorers.

Princess Mononoke, Inu-yasha, Slayers, Those Who Hunt Elves and Full Metal Alchemist are good anime that I have that are fantasy.

Geoff.

Rune Soldier Louie was actually created by the same fellow who created Record of Lodoss War (in fact they're set on the same world, albeit on different continents, and neither series openly says it straight out), Ryo Mizuno, who definately knows his way around D&D-style fantasy. I haven't seen it, but I've read good things about it.

It's comedy rather than the more dramatic "Lodoss"; the premise: an all-female party of highly competent adventurers needs a wizard, and is stuck with Louie, a musclebrained oaf who was trained all his life to wield arcane magic but in fact has no natural aptitude for anything other than melee combat.

A third show, The Legend of Crystania, is also set on the same world, on yet another continent, but from what I've heard, the quality is pretty bad.

 

[Black Omega]

I watched that anime New Year's morning this year, at 8am. The English dub. Yikes. I . . . I can't say I hated it, because I've got to appreciate something that lets me so joyously and guiltlessly mock it, but man, it was terrible.

*nasal voice* "I am Dark Schneider!"

The english dub is really bad and well worth ignoring. The original is silly fun.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Actually, that (terrible dubs) is the one thing that turns me off most anime. I really enjoy good anime, but yeah, that problem irks me no end. Why can't they do a decent job, just once?!

 

[tecnowraith]

I truely dislike all females or all males party in any anime cause Ilike the conflict of mixed party. I even dislike "one male with female party or vise versa" in anime as well.

 

[JEL]

I understand that, I just disagree. How does Guts escape the event? What happens to Caska? Why aren't they consumed? Where did the dragonslayer come from? Who was Roshinu, and why even bother showing her in the anime? What happens to Rickerts? Manga readers know. Followers of the anime don't. That's not a different story, that's just sloppy work, IMHO. Miura has already gone on record as saying that he worked much closer with the video game producers for the Dreamcast game than for the anime series. Hence the inclusion of the Skull Knight, Puck and other characters.

All that stuff is extraneous to the story being told: who this Guts person is we see in episode one.

I'm not arguing that the anime wasn't well done. I think it was fantastic. I think the ending was a major failure, though. As for the name, you're right: supposedly Miura has said he meant it to be Guts...I just think of it that way because of the way it was translated in the old fansubs back in the day.

I think the ending was spot on perfect, myself. I guess we'll just have to disagree about this.

As for the spelling, a friend of mine was helping with the fansubs back in the day and insisted they stick with the "Gatsu" spelling in spite of all the artbooks and other official sources using "Guts."

Back on topic...I can't believe I forgot to mention Escaflowne. Auru Battler Dunbine is an excellent show in the same vein. There was an older anime with giant robot armies in a fantasy society, where the main character's robot was a centaur, as I recall...but I can't remember it's name for the life of me.

Panzer World Gallient is what you might be thinking of.

 

[WizarDru]

I think the ending was spot on perfect, myself. I guess we'll just have to disagree about this.

Nothing wrong with that. We are talking opinions here, after all.

Panzer World Gallient is what you might be thinking of.

That is exactly the series I was trying to remember. The series was encapsulated into three movies, like the original Gundam series.

Actually, that (terrible dubs) is the one thing that turns me off most anime. I really enjoy good anime, but yeah, that problem irks me no end. Why can't they do a decent job, just once?!

I've seen more than a few good anime dubs, but again that's IMHO. I thought the dubs for shows like Cowboy Bebop and Inuyasha are good examples, especially with the challenges the voice-actors have to face with some of the cross-cultural material. The quality varies from title to title and studio to studio, but there have been good dubbing jobs. For example, I prefer the English voice cast for Big O to its original cast.

 

[Black Omega]

I've seen more than a few good anime dubs, but again that's IMHO. I thought the dubs for shows like Cowboy Bebop and Inuyasha are good examples, especially with the challenges the voice-actors have to face with some of the cross-cultural material. The quality varies from title to title and studio to studio, but there have been good dubbing jobs. For example, I prefer the English voice cast for Big O to its original cast.

I've seen a few good Dubs. I was fine with Ranma 1/2. On the other hand the first time I heward Tenchi Muyo dubbed I had to turn the TV off quickly, the voices for some characters were simply so bad.

 

[ShrinkyLink]

I'm interested in hearing how anyone managed to get through .hack sign without falling into a coma. That had to be the most 'deliberately paced' anime I've ever sat through. (No, wait, I forgot 'Witch Hunter Robin'.) I hung on for as long as I could, but if you like the idea of an online RPG world where something has gone wrong, why not just read Tad Williams' 'Otherland'?

And also, let me add my voice to the chorus praising 'Slayers'. It varies from stupid fun to drama at the most unexpected moments, and is recommended.

 

[ThirdWizard]

There's a manga called Blade of the Immortal which is just fantastic. No anime on it, unfortunately, but the manga is really good and I reccomend it highly.