Anime

[The Damned]

Teen Titans, for all that it wants and tries so hard to be, is not anime.

Avatar The Last Airbender is the same. It uses the style to make people think it is (that's another rant altogether). Would you count Martin Mysteries or Totally Spies as anime? I don't think anyone would.

Korean animation is sort of a gray area. In the 80s, and even up to now, some shows contracted out to Korean studios. Again, I think it's a matter of how much they want to copy anime. So, it's not. Copycat != same thing.

But no, if it's made, written, produced and animated in Japan by Japanese companies, it's anime. Period. Where they market it, even if it is intended for outside of Japan, it's still anime.

[oppoppo]

I can understand exactly where you're coming from because I have a friend that has the same opinion as you. But it's more of the viewers opinion to justify what's an anime and what isn't, not where the show originates from, even if Japan DOES make the best anime.

[Fenrir]

Having not read much of the thread, I'll hazard a few suggestions

Shingetsutan Tsukihime: A few years old, 12 eps. Based on a graphic-novel type game. There was a whole lot that I liked, and not a lot I didn't. I didn't know that I would get as emotionally attached to the characters as I did.

Ergo Proxy - post-apocalyptic cyberpunk awesome

My-HiME - yay boobs

Also fuck all you haters Avatar is awesome.

[Z3120]

My bad spamming youtube links, but speaking of the what's anime in general question, then what would you guys consider this recent project I found out today: an anime, cartoon or what?

Batman Gotham Knight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLXWZ_SvTWk

Edit: Alright, to be fair, I really should add something instead of merely posting things.

In cases of shows like Teen Titans, Totally Spies and Avatar, I'll always recognize them as American cartoons based on presentation, visuals and drawing style alone. The definition of what's an anime has been obscure lately with shows like Avatar drawing inspiration from Japanese animes (perhaps W.I.T.C.H. too?), but I wouldn't exactly categorize Avatar and some Korean animations as anime. Like when Robin and them from Teen Titans fight, it's resembles closer to a comic book style action (considering the origin of Teen Titans) rather than a typical Japanese shonen (or however it's spelled)

What would I call American shows like Avatar and Korean animation instead? I don't have an exact answer for that but the anime market in general did originate in Japan and only recently has America started to catch on and draw an interest the last decade. I can't imagine calling Korean animation anime, but I wouldn't mind I suppose if I actually saw some Korean shows.

(shoot, the rest of what I was trying to say escapes my mind at the moment)

Speaking of which, to those who ever saw Akira and gotten interested in anime from there or heard of such movie projects going on lately like DBZ and Chun-Li, I present you my post from animesuki:

Alright, so I've recently heard of yet another anime to American live-action movie adaptation again today on G4. Never bothered with any news of these sort of things because I automatically assume they'll bomb like the DBZ and Chun-Li movie projects I've recently heard of. Now Akira movie is a special something to me because the movie had a lasting impression on me and was one of the very first anime movies I've gotten into as a youngster. Right now, I'm confused and a bit speechless at the moment yet I definitely have this passion to hate the very idea right now. Any Akira fans?

Quote from AnimeNewsNetwork:

The Hollywood Reporter and Variety entertainment trade periodicals both report that Warner Brothers and Appian Way, the production company of actor Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, The Aviator), will adapt Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira manga into two live-action films. Each film will cover three volumes of the renowned science-fiction manga about a governmental genetic project and a teenager's attempt to save a fellow biker gang member.

Taken From aceshowbiz:

This project won't be DiCaprio's first time being a producer. He has been involved as executive producer as well as producer of several films, including "The Assassination of Richard Nixon", "The Aviator" and "Gardener of Eden". His next project as the producer are "The Chancellor Manuscript", "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt", "Conspiracy of Fools" and "In Dark Woods".

movieblog.ugo:

Now, back to Leo: AICN reports that he wants to play the part of the Tetsuo character from the original Akira. The site also reports that they know who would play the Kaneda character: Joseph Gordon Levitt. You know, the guy that played Tommy on 3rd Rock From the Sun? He’s in his 20s now and currently starring in the G.I. Joe movie.

[Kenobio]

ANIME. AN. I. ME. Japanese, not American. Are you going to start including Bugs Bunny as well? Hey, why not Pixar's work? That's totally anime, right kawaii desu ne?

This is a micro-rant, so just skip over it if you want.

Ahem.

If you're Japanese, and you're currently living in Japan, then yes, animation in general can be called anime. But if you aren't Japanese, and you aren't living in Japan, then anime only refers to Japanese made animation.

I see this all the fucking time and it annoys the hell out of me. Even the fucking old white men from Merriam-Webster know this. Batman, while cool, is not anime. Disney is not anime. Teen Titans, for all that it wants and tries so hard to be, is not anime.

If it's made in Japan, by Japanese people, and marketed for Japanese consumers, and is in fucking Japanese, it's anime. And don't give me that "anime comes from 'animation', so that means all animation is anime" crap. Shut your otaku-hole, weeaboo. Japan isn't some glorious Awesomeland where all your favorite things become the world standard. Only in Japan does that apply. If you speak english, you're using "animation".

/micro-rant

//self-admitted ex-anime nerd

///came to my senses years ago; realized how much of a fucking weeaboo I was becoming

////slashies!

.

Are you serious? So oppoppo's an anime newb, naive, or just has a different opinion than you, but does it really bother you that much that you have to shove your e-ego down his throat? But yeah, chocobo150 pretty much nailed the coffin on the head with his response. Not trying to start a flame war either (it's actually pretty cool this thread has lasted so long without flaming), so PEACE The Damned. Just sayin'... :/

[OverCoat]

ANIME. AN. I. ME. Japanese, not American. Are you going to start including Bugs Bunny as well? Hey, why not Pixar's work? That's totally anime, right kawaii desu ne?

This is a micro-rant, so just skip over it if you want.

Okay!

I disagree, animation is not country-specific, if they like certain anime they might want to check out some American, some Korean, maybe even some French animation. So I think we should include stuff like Batman in the discussion. Mainly because Batman kicks ass.

[Audity]

So far I've seen one mention of Monster here, and only in a list.

It doesn't have any of the anti-artistic features typically associated with anime, ever, at all. Zero. The story is very deep, making the series sort of drawn-out, spanning 60-some odd episodes. But that just adds to the irregularity of the show among other anime, in a good way. http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=1539 (amazing site, btw).

As for music, One Piece has an amazing soundtrack. PM me if interested in a mixtape I made of it, with songs most impactful (outside of the show, even [many of them just sound really, really pleasant]).

It's also my favorite show...until recently (~250-current [342]), where they made the art/animation really low-quality by comparison to the old days of even sometimes pristine beauty. (It helped that when viewing the first half of the series, I didn't even know about manga/filler, which was an incredibly awesome ignorance I wish I still had.) Some people just really can't stomach the art (love-it-or-hate-it) or a couple of other initially unpleasant premises*, which is a shame since it brings together complex strings of events, both emotionally and uniquely, and dare I say timelessly. Seriously, all of the main stories are amazingly fresh, if not solely in their detail, and the author has an amazing sense of humor and personality. I supremely recommend watching episodes 1-130. I watched them in 5 days, two of which days were 9 hour work days (6 hours of sleep lol). You can skip most of the filler by following this guide of episodes.

I like the fusion of the show and its music so much that I singlehandedly started something wacky and crazy back when I was in baby college (community college aka waste of time if you're planning on a university). A list of all the music cues, up until episode 229.

*Typically, I hate every anime I start watching, because of presentation, but I still watch past the first few episodes.

For an artistic anime out of this world (in many senses), check out Gankutsuou. The story might appear amazing, but I didn't really care even if it was amazing; I was too busy chillin' and enjoying the expression of such an artform.

Generally if I see praise from someone regarding an anime, who likes other shows I like, and then look on anidb to see that it has overall ratings of ~8.0 or higher, then I pretty much immediately bookmark the corresponding page. Thus, I shall provide a list of shows I enjoy the most!!! Samurai Champloo, Mushishi, Death Note, Cowboy Bebop (for old-time's sake), GTO.

Gurren = overrated, and if not, then it takes an amazingly long time (read: the entire show) to reach a point where everything makes sense, along the way tricking the viewer into thinking that substance is being ignored in order to give cheap thrills. At least the animation is enjoyable. I thought basic inguinity was lacking, however, even after all the wild technicalities are grinded down.

Thanks to i-n-j-i-n, I think it was, I have a decent amount of new bookmarks.

[Zanz]

[Fenrir]

I forgot how much I love zanz

[Z3120]

I don't think 5cm has a manga because it was an anime original.

Actually, yeah, the manga is probably based on the movie considering it was out a few months ago.

I only said this like three times or so in this thread alone.

My bad but I'll still classify it as such because it's some inspirational stuff and nice insights

Ashita no Joe

You wouldn't believe how long I've been looking for a name of that...

So far I've seen one mention of Monster here, and only in a list.

It doesn't have any of the anti-artistic features typically associated with anime, ever, at all. Zero. The story is very deep, making the series sort of drawn-out, spanning 60-some odd episodes. But that just adds to the irregularity of the show among other anime, in a good way.

That is a quite surprisingly good show but definitely not everyone's cup of tea. (I wonder why I didn't mention it) The animation of Monster reminds me of Yugo the Negotiator.

Gurren = overrated, and if not, then it takes an amazingly long time (read: the entire show) to reach a point where everything makes sense, along the way tricking the viewer into thinking that substance is being ignored in order to give cheap thrills. At least the animation is enjoyable. I thought basic inguinity was lacking, however, even after all the wild technicalities are grinded down.

You could say the same for Code Geass I suppose.

[Brushfire]

Living here in Japan, one can see the sinister hold that anime has on the country.

Nowhere is this more appearant than with the Toyota Emina

For those who are slow that's "Anime" spelled backwards.

[Dhsu]

Something with that name definitely wouldn't sell in the US, that's for sure.

[q-pa]

Something with that name definitely wouldn't sell in the US, that's for sure.

Yeah, Toyota is a registered trademark, what's up with that?!

Also...

Watching the Toyooootaaaaaa.

Ohh, that rhymes with Yooodaaaaaaa.

Toyootaaaa... Eminaaaaaaaa....

[The Damned]

Would a Japanese person realize that it's anime backwards? Considering the massive difference in English letters and Japanese characters are designed, I would think it would take a fair bit of knowledge in English to realize that one word is just another spelled in reverse. And that's if it's something that they would even think of in the first place. You can rearrange English letters a lot to get new words, but can you do the same with Japanese?

I wonder what kind of interesting jokes and situations you could have with this in Japan.

[Knives]

You can rearrange English letters a lot to get new words, but can you do the same with Japanese?

Kanji compounds, so yea, you can. If you wanna learn more about kanji then I consider this to be the most educational and entertaining site on the web to do exactly that: http://www.hellodamage.com/kanjidicks/main.htm

[chocobo150]

[The Damned]

Is that... is that Clannad with fighter jets? For no reason?

[I-n-j-i-n]

Totally-from-leftfield videos are.... hard to describe but always pretty fun.

I guess it's typical if you combine Japan with Youtube. They have literally gotten Youtube/NicoNico crazy in the last year.

My favorite anime running right now + my favorite platformer ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S2m5lOUm8g

[Gafgarion]

What a wondeful combination!

[mr.wholesome]

Beserk=WIN

Also School Rumble 3rd season needs to hurry up and become anime.

Read or Die TV, i really enjoyed that.was just pure substance.

Currently reading a manga called Eternal Sabbath, its pretty good has lots of potential. Brain hacking and all that.

worst anime ive come across so far would be Samurai Deeper Kyo. Soooooo dull, and they constantly remind you of the leads alter egos name "demon eyes kyo, demon eyes kyo, demon eyes kyo, demon eyes kyo" next level bullshit.

[DarkeSword]

I just watched all of Kamichu this weekend. Amazing supernatural slice-of-life series. A few episodes actually got me tearing up. It's got all the charm of a Miyazaki film with none of the pretentiousness.

[Knives]

I just saw Darker Than Black and HOLY SHIT was it good. It's a little hard to follow sometimes, since it throws a lot of pieces of information at you without always clearly explaning the current situation, but that doesn't change the fact that's one of the best animes I've seen in a long while and that I was thoroughly satisfied by the end of it.

[I-n-j-i-n]

Are you serious? I thought Darker than Black was one of the biggest pretentious and shallow anime since Evangelion. The end part didn't make any sense to me either. I admit it was well made, but just didn't have substance to me. That and the constant deus ex that never went explained nor did it even make much sense.

And it's hard to even listen to the Yoko Kanno influence in the music. Probably one of her weakest soundtrack works.

[tgfoo]

Also School Rumble 3rd season needs to hurry up and become anime.

YES. This is one my all time favorite comedies (both the anime and the manga). Oh well, I'm still counting down the days till Macross Frontier and season 2 of Code Geass (though I am enjoying some of the current season's shows).

[Knives]

Are you serious? I thought Darker than Black was one of the biggest pretentious and shallow anime since Evangelion. The end part didn't make any sense to me either. I admit it was well made, but just didn't have substance to me. That and the constant deus ex that never went explained nor did it even make much sense.

I think that's the main complaint about it, that it's too damn hard to follow because they never clearly spell anything out for you. You mostly have to piece stuff together and assume things if you wanna get through it. Like at the end, where they try to describe that the only way to navigate to the core of hell's gate requires like 20 dolls and broken pieces of a meteor shard: I didn't get that shit AT ALL! But the process of getting to the core wasn't really a main aspect of the plot, it's just that they needed to get there, and they did. But at the actual ending, I understood why Hei did what he did. I guess Darker Than Black is probably one of those "you love it or hate it" kinda things like Evangelion, though I hated Evangelion. To each is his own, right? I also hated Cowboy Bebop and can't understand why everyone loves it. Oh well.