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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chain Lightning" data-source="post: 2033259" data-attributes="member: 6791">Ah Pixar.....how I love thee. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Thank whatever diety for Pixar. They do great stuff. In fact, I often point to them as the "model" on how most animation productions should be run. Unfortunately, there's only one company that's like Pixar....and that's Pixar.  Okay, given that a couple of other companies have managed to squeeze out the occasional cool show too, but the hit ratio on Pixar is much higher. But it seems (unfortunately) that instead of other companies looking at Pixar and saying , "Hey, they must be doing something right....let's examine their methods", they still insist on running things their old way. *shrug* ah well - - I guess that's just something I should expect from all aspects of humanity eh?Most of all the American animation shows/movies we end up liking share very similar leadership/production method. But for some reason, no matter how often that method of producing a show works, it isn't adopted. Toy companies and network big wigs still insist on doing it their way.  Which...granted, sometimes works out okay. But often doesn't.  Not every studio. For the most part - especially tv shows, most studios get a lot of mileage out of the amount of money they spend on their project. But feature animation is a whole other ball game. For some reason, most feature projects have huge amounts of wasteful spending. Most but not all.  Ok, I don't 100% for sure...but I think "Iron Giant" ran smoothly without waste. Unfortunately, WB marketing dropped the ball on the marketing...but that's whole other story.  TV animated series are usually underfunded. But despite this, a lot of shows are able to bring some good stuff to the table regardless of that handicap. Now imagine if they had half the money the feature guys were spending....Yah, I'm not a big fan of Pokemon and/or Yu-Gi-Oh either. More dislike toward Yu-Gi-Oh than Pokemon.  Hmmm...that's tricky. Not sure if Joshua will like it. The animation is fine, but it isn't a good example of the best of recent anime animation. (like Cowboy Bebop) There are times where the animation art looks like 80's anime and not 90's anime. But story wise...man, I like it more than Cowboy Bebop (but that's me). I know this is gonna sound like blasphemy, but I like Cowboy Bebop but I don't love it. I don't think its as sweet as some people say it is. But it is pretty good at times anyways. Joshua, I don't know what you've tried so far. I'm not sure if you've only seen stuff that Cartoon Network shows. Or you'll only seen stuff like "Burn Up W", "Love Hina", "Dragon Ball Z",  and "Yu-Gi-Oh". And if you've only seen the badly dubbed versions. But there is some good anime out there.It is hard to get certain people to start "liking" anime. Obviously if you're trying to convert someone, you wanna start off by showing him/her the BEST one. But it kinda depends on the person and his/her tastes in stories too. Then there's weird combinations like "Berzerk". Animation is obviously on a small budget, but the series is good. And when you're into D&D like me. To heck with "Record of Lodoss War", its all about "Berzerk".  Then there's clever writing like in the original 6 episodes of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure". If only you can convince the viewer to get pass the odd names and odd outfits people are wearing. The whole thing about those "stands" and how their users use their powers is great stuff. Then there's the new "Appleseed" cgi movie. Man that thing is sweet as heck. But there's just one small flaw. At one point during some exposition dialogue, its kinda unclear about who's doing what. But I might attribute that to the poor Hong Kong subtitles. My favorites to recommend are: -"Laputa: Castle in the Sky" : anything by Miyaziki is great for both kids and adults, but this one is my favorite. "Spirited Away" is a close 2nd. But I think this one's pacing and storytelling is closer to western tastes than Spirited Away was. -"Memories" : a colletion of 3 stories, each with its own seperate director and art team. I like showing this one to people who think all anime is big eyes and small mouths. The first story "Magnetic Rose" is drawn with realistic proportioned humans. The Japanese do have differenst styles. The "iffy" part is maybe the third story. Its ponderous like a lot of anime. Its the most abstract. But artistically, again it shows that the Japanese have different styles too. Not all big eyes small mouths. The third story is done very much in the same kind of style you see in European comic books.-"Macross Plus": this might qualify as over melodramatic soap opera stuff, but where its done in an annoying way most elsewhere....I kinda like it here. Or is because I'm just a huge fan of the original series and enjoy this latest slicker more polished story set in the same universe? This was one of the first OVAs where I first took notice of Yoko Kanno. She does the music for this. Is not just some high pitched teen girl screaming. It could easily fit in the indy alternative section. In fact, when I have it playing in my house or car, no can tell its from an anime show. They always ask, "Hey what group is that?" Then they're always shocked when I say "Oh...its a soundtrack from a Japanese cartoon."-"Berzerk" : Again, may not be the flashiest animation, but if you play D&D, you gotta watch it. Plus, I think it'll appear to the same type of people that like "The Black Company"  I showed it to a friend who isn't into anime at all. But he does read a lot of fantasy books. He watched this series when I loaned him the DVD set. At first, he just thought it was just okay. I mean, I can see why. At first glance and in the beginning......its got the earmarks of certain things most people don't like in anime. The main character is a cool fighter type, but another major character is your usual semi-androginous pretty boy type. You think "oh here we go....." But the series gets better and better as you watch it. Nice build up. Yeah....the last disc makes you go "F**K!!! Oh my .....gawd......" But I think in a good way. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Plus I hear they're about to start releasing the episodes that come after that.Also, a little less Euro looking, but still very fantasy . . there's "Twelve Kingdoms". I really don't like anime like Slayers and the goofy fantasy. I like the serious stuff more. And yes, the whole story about someone from our Earth getting transported to a fantasy land is old and been done...."Twelve Kingdoms" does it fairly solidly. I didn't like the "Guardians of the Flame" books by Joel Rosenberg. Yah, when I was young it satisfied my need to vicariously live through the character's adventure of being transported to your own gaming rpg world...but ......didn't quite do it well enough for me. I've only seen the first 2 discs of this series, but so far so good. I'm not voting it the best looking anime, but its solid enough to get by and not distract me while I'm watching.-"The Cockpit": I actually don't own this. I saw a friend's laser disc copy. But I've been looking for it ....for a long time. Its a series of stories all told during WWII. Each story revolves around aviation or a pilot.  Has heart and also has great animation. -"Ninja Scroll" : not the tv series...(that's garbage), the original movie. Although one particular scene may make you think its a perv movie....the movie is a great ninja flick. Solid story, solid pacing, great animation, good design work.Now, it could be that you'll not like any of these....but I think they're pretty good. If you know someone who owns them. Maybe borrow one and check it out. Be interested in hearing your thoughts.</blockquote>

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