First off - WOW - you said a mouthfull. You're quite the expert. I knew my definition of Otaku wouldn't be acceptable. It seems to be used to describe a geeky collector nerd. I don't know - Do you even think an FAQ is worth it? This thread seems to go overlooked. I saw 4 Anime threads above this one. Guess people aren't catching on.

In reply to the above portion of your post, you seem to think I'm a newbie to the whole Anime thing... I'm not. When I say there aren't that many good anime out there, I'm talking about anime that's accessible to me. Living in the states, I don't get to see all the good stuff. There are several titles I have been itching to see but that aren't available here. Like I said though... I'm just not into mecha anime. It's not that the jokes in Nadesico were over my head... I got the jokes and knew where most of the references were coming from. I just didn't find them very funny. I got all the jokes from the A-Ko stuff and I found that to be an amusing show. I liked it heaps more than Nadesico... But I also like Kekko Kamen, so my taste is questionable.

I grew up on healthy doses of Robotech and Voltron and stuff like that. I saw Akira when it first hit the states. I saw Ghost In the Shell the day it hit the shelves in the video store I was working in. I had seen stuff like old bubblegum crisis, fist of the northstar, old sol bianca, wicked city, ninja scroll etc etc.. I didn't really start getting into it until DVD came around. DVD put anime in a collectible price range for me. If only I was fortunate enough to have ALL anime available to me, then my life could be complete. Seriously though, I do know my knowledge of anime is limited, but I'm neither an "otaku" nor am I a newbie. I have about a dozen different animes on VHS and about 100 anime DVDs.

I have my own tastes when it comes to anime, I like certain things and I dislike others - just like with regular movies. I don't think that I am required to see every anime in existence before I can decide whether or not I like or dislike a particular show. I'm glad to have an expert like you around though so I can consult with you before buying into another stupid series. I picked up 3X3 Eyes having passed over it several times over the years... I had only started hearing praises of it recently surrounding the DVD release. I can see that the story is developing nicely despite a rocky start, but I don't think I can handle the artwork. It's the guy's eyes in particular. I thought they stopped doing those half-moon slits ages ago (ages before this was inked). I can't remember the last time I saw that... it was sure annoying though. It's making it hard for me to get into the series cuz all I can think about is "when is he gonna open his regular eyes??". I'm only about 40 minutes worth in to it... I'm hoping it will get better.

Blue Seed is cool too. I picked this one up on DVD. I saw an episode or two a long time ago and remembered it being much cooler, but it's still pretty cool. Very involving story. It's reminding me a little bit of Urotsukidoji without the tentacle porn. Urotsukidoji was my second anime DVD. :) I actually am among the few who think it's a good story with a little tentacle porn thrown in now and then. Speaking of hentai - Imma Youjo isn't bad either (storywise)... it's better than Cool Devices in that respect.

Anyway - thanks for all the info - I appreciate it. Keep it up. :)

As for 3x3 Eyes, the whole joke is his eyes. He only opens it once...and only once throught the 2 OVA series. Remember, he has a "Wu" on his forehead, which means "nothing"...basically a body w/o a soul. His eyes are a reflection of his souless nature. It's an inside joke. It's better explained in the manga which the anime ova's are based off of.

As for Nadesico, it's not really a mecha show as it is a comedy. The mecha is more a sub-plot to the comedy, but the characters are what pulls Nadesico into a great series.
The new series created by the same producers and production company called Gatekeepers is not a mecha show as it is a more "super-hero" type show, but still along the same comedy lines as Nadesico. This new series has more CG in it and you can really tell the production cost is pretty high per episode. Don't watch for the mecha. Watch for the comedy plot.

And as for your anime history, sorry about that. Sometimes, people in the states don't really understand all the significance of the little subtleties of anime jokes or the Japanese culture. ANd what makes it worse are Japanese puns which are impossible to translate in dub and can only be expressed in subs. I always say the more you know, the better you can appreciate the little subtleties of anime. Even I don't like everything I watch either, but I will watch the whole thing to make a final judgement because you will never know, sometimes the series will get better or worse as you continue to watch.

And be lucky anime became more popular in the U.S., it was a niche market in the past and a highly expensive hobby because we had to import all of our stuff from Japan. And Japan is still pretty expensive.

I'll be getting R2 of GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) (43 eps), which is a great series (gonna translate it for our club).


Eigey

I saw the first 5 or 6 episodes of Orphen at our campus anime club last semester -- very good stuff and I like the music a lot too. I'm waiting to pre-order it since it arrives 3/27, but not too many places are listing it. I wrote to the guy at bestprices.com though and he said he'd talk to their pre-order person about listing it and NGE vol 5.

Tuan Jim

Hey... We're looking for someone to pen an ANIME column here on DVD Talk and people to do more anime reviews.

Interested?

E-mail me at [email protected] with a writing sample if you are interested.

I just wish animeigo would get off their butts and get us Crusher Joe on DVD....

I also can not wait until someone gets Galaxy Express 999 to us!!!!!

Has anyone here seen the new Sol Bianca DVD series?? It's fantastic. I was not sure if I liked it at first, but once I got past the computer animated style (like Blue Sub 6) and got into the story, it really grew on me. I've only gotten the first disc so far and I'm really looking forward to the other 2 I have on order. It is somewhere between Cowboy Bebop and Blue Submarine No. 6 kinda...

Have you watched the first two movies of Sol Bianca?? The first two movies were actually better than the OVA series. They also came out in the early late 80's/early 90's. But overall, the OVA series is not bad. The style of CG coloring is really gonna be part of anime nowadays. That won't go anymore since it seems to be a whole new wave for Japanese studios to explore and work with.

No - I've always been curious about the previous Sol Bianca stuff... my video store has this really old VHS copy of Sol Bianca, but it's in episodes, so I don't think it's a movie. Never watched it. Much of the older anime is leaving me cold these days - much like when I go back to my old punk rock records... I'm just not in the mood. Sol Bianca is something I'd be interested in seeing the older stuff though. Is it available on DVD?

Never thought I could get into Love Hina until I actually sat down and watched it. Right now it is in Japanese and not released in the US yet.

what's Love Hina?

Anybody know where I can find the uncut Kite? I know that Media Blasters released it on VHS in the US this past January... I don't know if it's still cut or what - 800.com lists a Director's Cut version on VHS, but it's out of stock - they also say it came out in 98. It would be nice to get the Region 2 disc if it's NTSC (even if it's PAL) - anybody know where I can find that? I believe the UPC code for the US VHS version is 631595993233. I don't care if it's sub or dub. I have the cut version on DVD and it's a decent show... I'm curious to see if the uncut version is better.

anime is good
 

i don't know about you guys but i thought black heaven is really cool, with the music theme and references to heavy metal and the 80's (although the 80s kind of sucked), trigun is awesome cool characters and just hilarious hijinks, cowboy bebop is sweet, outlaw star is also good but doesn't have as high production values as cowboy bebop, martian successor is hilarious and the characters and their development is what makes this series good (the occasional fight helps too) and of course the macross plus series is in my opinion one of the best out there.
oh by the way is anybody else excited about the macross box set coming out?

All that was cut are scenes of the girl having sex with the man, basically, you're lacking pedo sex... yay...

It's a comedy serie about a guy who lives with a bunch of girls, it's not ecchi in the sense of the term, but it's a lot of sexual enuendo and stuff. (I think, I heard tons about this last summer, but was too lazy to ever get any of it, the first part is right though)

Odds are slim that Galaxy Express will be released... I don't think it's popular enough and the animation is kinda horrid :p

You'll have to settle for Queen Emeraldas and some Harlock DVDs which I think are all you'll see of that storyline.

Geoff probably won't see this... but have one person do an anime column is a bad idea. I used to review anime fansubs a while back and it's very hard to get people to agree on a review... It's like having 1 person reviewing every type of movies at once since there are so many different types of anime.

While I'm on such a padding spree (although I switch ideas at every post), another couple of series that will eventually come to DVD that you should look for are :

Initial D - a racing series of anime, very popular among the fansubbers and in Japan, will be on DVD eventually.

Mamotte Shugogeten - Reminescent of Oh! My Goddess and just as cute, I saw the first few episodes and it's extremly well made and funny.

Well I don't want to get into a Kite debate with you, but I'll just say that I'd rather have films from overseas get to me as-is and uncut. I'm not into pedo sex, but it's just such a controversial topic that I want to see what the fuss is about. Some say the missing scenes are crucial to the development of her character while others like you say it's just pervo kiddie porn fan service. I want to form my own opinion since I seem to be one of the few people left who still haven't seen both versions (so it would seem).

I've not seen both versions and really don't plan on it. I think the uncut version was actually banned from North America for what it depicts... the only way I knew to get one was a bootleg VCD off the internet. Didn't we have this debate when you originaly started the anime threads?

heh - probably - although I don't have anything to debate about since I haven't seen both versions. I brought it up again cuz I wanted to know if anyone knew of where I could score an uncut copy of it cheap. I know Mediablasters was petitioned to release an uncut version and they caved in and were supposed to release it on VHS in Jan of this year.

here's my $.02

i'm relatively new to the anime scene but i started with robotech back in the days. i really like escaflowne and i'm surprised no one has mentioned that yet. i've seen PM and evangelion and really loved both. now i'm currently watching record of lodoss war (decent so far) and flame of recca (really good so far). i've seen a few episodes of slayer (kinda cheesy but i will watch more to see if i will eventually like it), trigun (kinda cool), and kenshin (very good). i want to watch the gundam series since people say it's good. ah, so much anime and so little time. heh

You sound like someone who is into the mecha and space stuff... You're pretty much guaranteed to like Cowboy Bebop. I could suggest Gasaraki and Dual and Sol Bianca and Jubei Chan: Ninja Girl - Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch... Those should keep you busy...

Somebody want to educate me on the whole Rurouni Kenshin thing? I got the OAVs and I guess there's just the 2 DVDs. The TV series seems to have 9 discs available for order and no end in sight... I guess there's something like 97 episodes or something. The movie is supposed to take place some time during the TV series and since I've only seen the OVAs - I probably won't like it. I ordered the movie anyway. I didn't really like the OVA much after seeing the first DVD - I didn't find a reason to like the characters - but after watching the second DVD, I think it's a pretty decent show. Great twists near the end. My favorite series so far has been Cowboy Bebop - I wasn't into Trigun much... would I like this Kenshin TV series? Is it worth the investment? What's it like? Educate me.

Also - could someone educate me on the Fushigi Yugi series? Worth getting? How much is there? Would I like it?

Since I'm not a large Kenshin fan, I'll skip that, but I can provide you with a bit of Fushigi Yugi information.

Fushigi Yuugi (also refered to as Mysterious Play), is comprised of three main sections:
A 52 episode TV series
A 3 episode OAV series
A 6 episode OAV series

The TV series, which comes first, is actually comprised of two 26-episode seasons. Pioneer has released FY TV on DVD in two boxsets, each one containing 26 episodes, and retailing for about 200 bucks each. Pioneer released the FY OAVs on three tapes (Treating all 9 OAVs as one series, basically), and has plans to release all the OAVs in one DVD box set (Around 70-ish dollars, I think). The TV series is generally the most-loved of the FY anime, and can be viewed independant of anything else (it has an ending that ties up the assorted loose ends). The first OAV series, which apparently has no basis in the original manga, is really confusing, and not usually well liked. The second OAV series covers the last few volumes of the manga, introducing a whole new plot thread; opinions on this series vary.

FY is shoujo, and was/is an extremely popular series (though it did start experiencing the backlash common to any anime that becomes too popular). Common complaints are: it falls pray to a lot of shoujo anime cliches (the hyper heroine with a huge appetite, the fact that anything male in her vicinity is instantly smitten, the quiet best friend), the episodes all seem to follow an extremely similar formula, and are often given to melodrama.

However, I love this series. There is little filler throughout the run, almost every episode moving the plot in some way. If you like most of the main cast, the melodrama is enjoyable; there are some moments that are blatantly trying to tug at your heartstrings, and they're usually extremely successful. The heart of it is a romance, but there's enough going on around the edges to keep it from being pure mush.

If you like shoujo, then you should definately try FY (It's not a guarantee, but it's one of those series you just have to try). However, if shoujo is generally not your thing, pass it up. If you're totally unsure, try finding the first two tapes used on e-bay; it's way cheaper than springing for the DVD boxset, if you end up hating FY.

And, no matter what, do not purchase the OAVs (coming in a single boxset-type release from Pioneer) before watching the TV series. They rely heavily on the TV series, aren't quite as good, and will spoil the TV series for you.