Top Five Anime Picks

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

That'd be it.

Oddly, I'm OK when the Loonies shell the earth in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but then again they did everything possible to avoid civilian casualties there.

J

I guess that's understandable...they DID drop the colony to take out civilians and military. Didn't matter who they took out. Of course, there are worse in the UC Universe...

Well, there were other colony drops early on in the Zeon War, but what I always find the worse(and is shown in almost too much detail in Zeta) is

Spoiler

the gasing of a complete colony and just leaving the bodies/etc there without any effort to clean it up.

 

[Rackhir]

Bubblegum Crisis, Tokyo 2040: chicks in power armour battling rogue androids. No bubblegum to be seen and I have no idea why it's called that. Was quite enjoyable.

The basic answer is that there is no real answer to why its called "Bubblegum" Crisis. It was probably mostly that it sounded "cool" the people behind it. You have to remember that for all it shows up on things in anime, English is not a language to the japanese so much as it is a design style element. The most reasonable and somewhat backed up theory is that things in the series are about to "Blow-up" like a bubblegum bubble.

*covers ears*
NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I'm still having nightmares over the Mars flashback sequence where Lisa Hayes' voice actress does the little girl voice. Like fingernails on chalkboard!

Bad Beretta! No cookie! No cookie for you!

Oh stop being an anime snob. Did Robotech have flaws, yes. Did it horribly distort and change major plot elements, yes.

However, it and the efforts of Carl Maceak? are largely responsible for anime getting established and grown into the substantial market segment it is today. It was also a mindblowing revelation to anyone who had been raised on american cartoons. I still strongly remember my reactions when Ben died. I think my jaw dropped open at them actually killing a main character and even showing it (sort of).

Despite what many anime fans like to think, most anime is aimed squarely at that 10-16yr old boy category it always has been.

That'd be it.

Oddly, I'm OK when the Loonies shell the earth in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but then again they did everything possible to avoid civilian casualties there.

Hmm, I guess I saw that as more of a military action and not really a terrorist attack. IIRC it did hit in the midwest grain production area.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Hmm, I guess I saw that as more of a military action and not really a terrorist attack. IIRC it did hit in the midwest grain production area.

Well, with how small the number of Zeon are and the One Year War being over...I always considered them terrorists by 0083.

 

[Arnwyn]

The basic answer is that there is no real answer to why its called "Bubblegum" Crisis.

Actually, that's incorrect. The original creator (Kenichi Sonada) has explained it: it is a metaphor refering to the difficulties created (ie. the "crisis") when blowing a bubblegum bubble and having it pop and get bubblegum stuck to everything (including one's hair). Weird!

You're definitely right about your statement that "English is not a language to the japanese so much as it is a design style element".

 

[WizarDru]

Actually, that's incorrect. The original creator (Kenichi Sonada) has explained it: it is a metaphor refering to the difficulties created (ie. the "crisis") when blowing a bubblegum bubble and having it pop and get bubblegum stuck to everything (including one's hair). Weird!

You're definitely right about your statement that "English is not a language to the japanese so much as it is a design style element".

Kenichi Sonada tends to blow smoke about lot of stuff. That quote is attributed to Toshomichi Suzuki, who might be a little irritated to find out that the character designer on Bubblegum Crisis is being listed as the creator, instead of him.

 

[CCamfield]

My favorites:

1) Lupin III - it's just plain fun
2) Cowboy Bebop
3) Trigun
4) Spirited Away

I also liked Akira, Dominion Tank Police(?), Ninja Scroll, Macross Plus, Naruto, and probably some others I've forgotten... but the ones above I like a lot more.

 

[jarlaxlecq]

I forgot to mention Macross Plus, its what got me to watch the Original Macross im Japanese

 

[Beretta]

The basic answer is that there is no real answer to why its called "Bubblegum" Crisis. It was probably mostly that it sounded "cool" the people behind it. You have to remember that for all it shows up on things in anime, English is not a language to the japanese so much as it is a design style element. The most reasonable and somewhat backed up theory is that things in the series are about to "Blow-up" like a bubblegum bubble.

Thanks Rakhir! Bizarre...

I haven't seen Macross, but Robotech was where I first encountered mecha and I have loved the concept ever since. I too enjoyed it for what it was, and I couldn't have been very old at the time.

 

[Halivar]

I haven't seen Macross, but Robotech was where I first encountered mecha and I have loved the concept ever since. I too enjoyed it for what it was, and I couldn't have been very old at the time.

I only wish Harmony Gold wouldn't have tried to mesh Macross, Southern Cross, and Moespaeda (sp?) into one show. I especially hated the end of season two, where verything was just "and the world blew up again, everyone you cared about for the last season died, and now we start over." It was too depressing. Taken individually, the three seasons were fun to watch (again, voice acting aside).

BTW, someone mentioned Dominion: Tank Police. I completely forgot about that! That's from way back when (at least ten years ago), when all my anime came from Sci-Fi Channel's Saturday Anime, where I got to see cool stuff like Vampire Hunter D, Record of Lodoss War, the cleaned-up version of Project A-ko (don't watch it uncut; it's Japanese kiddie-porn), Robot Carnival, Venus Wars, Akira, and Lensman. What fun!

EDIT: As a pre-adolescent, I thought the cat-girls from Dominion: Tank Police were too fine. My current aversion to "furries" and "furry-like" manga art makes me cringe at this memory somewhat.

 

[WizarDru]

I only wish Harmony Gold wouldn't have tried to mesh Macross, Southern Cross, and Moespaeda (sp?) into one show. I especially hated the end of season two, where verything was just "and the world blew up again, everyone you cared about for the last season died, and now we start over." It was too depressing. Taken individually, the three seasons were fun to watch (again, voice acting aside).

As Rackhir pointed out, you have to take Robotech in context. Back in 1984, it blew a lot of folks right out of the water. Up until the late 90s, anime was still a secret subculture. Every few years, a show would cross over into the mainstream, and usually end up attracting a new generation of anime enthusiasts.

Even edited, rewritten and oddly reworked at times, Robotech still stands as a pretty impressive series.

As for the combining of the series, that was a necessity born out of U.S. syndication policy. Originally, Harmony Gold bought the rights to Macross and was planning on distributing it primarily on video. I still have an issue of Heavy Metal in my collection somewhere with an add for the first 90 minute video (which was episodes 1-3 edited together). Before Hikaru Ichijo was Rick Hunter, he was Rick Yamada, first, in the pre-Robotech Macross adaption.

However, Macross proved somewhat popular, and they decided that they'd shoot for a syndicated TV series to resell, since that was Harmony Gold's main business. Consequently, Macek got two other similar series. Why? Because Macross only runs 36 episodes, and U.S. syndication buyers only were interested (at that time) in shows that had at least 65 episodes. That's the same reason for previous shows like Voltron being comprised of three different shows or the five giant robot shows being combined.

To an anime fan of the early 80s, we're living in Anime Babylon, as my friend Scorch puts it. Shows like Yu-YU Hakusho, FLCL and Wolf's Rain on US television? Well dubbed, and using the character's actual names? Shows being made available in the US mere months after they are released in Japan, in some cases? Conventions dedicates purely to anime?

Pardon me while I gush. Luckily, Otakon is only a few weeks away.