The Anime Thread

Here we go again?

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ne...attle-angel-film-1st-trailer-streamed/.125042




It's been a while since I watched the original, but what I do remember is seeming pretty spot on so that's encouraging.

Not sure about the eyes, though.

Oh, so Salazar is just the VA for Alita?

I honestly don't know. They could have gone with the whole "motion captured" physical performance similar to what Andy Serkis has done over the years and done CGI work for Alita's appearance.

I'm sure as the movie gets closer some more details will come out.

Quick review time, as Recovery of an MMO Junkie has finished up.

There's a part of me that wants to declare this year as a year of adorkable couples after watching both Gamers! and Recovery. Fortunately Recovery stands on its own quite well, in part because of the age of the main characters (late 20's/early 30's) being different from the Gamers! cast. It sets up a different dynamic than Gamers! and it's done really well. Some of the story coincidences might be a bit much for some viewers, but they do hit some of the classic MMO tropes pretty well for comedy while also exploring the folks who play them as well as why they might play. And watching the relationship between Morioka and Sakurai develop is very sweet and fun.

My only real disappointments in the show were that it was only 10 episodes total (fortunately Crunchyroll got access to the OVA to make it 11, and the OVA is well worth watching) and that we didn't get to see much a whole lot more exploration of the other members of the guild the main characters play with (both in game and out).

I'd call it well worth the time to watch.

Few other shows wrapped up.

Blend-S: A decent workplace comedy, if not a little hit and miss on the comedy at times. Watching the cast balance their work and real-life personalities at the café was the highlight of the show, though.

Konohana Kitan: Highly recommend it. The characters are cute but on top of that they tell some really good, well-rounded stories all through the show, right up to the end.

Anime-Gataris: It's a fun show but it goes in quite a few directions and gets progressively bonkers as the series goes on. Kinda meta about looking at anime and anime fandom at times. For an interesting challenge, though, it can be fun to go through the series and see how creative they get with tweaking anime titles and which shows they reference (Fresh Prince of Tennis was a favorite of mine LOL).

I have been watching Dies Arae. So far it has been great.

Just adding this for anyone who hasn't read the manga or seen the anime ova. And based on the trailer, it seems they're using elements from the ova as well

Huh.

I had been seeing reports of some of the winter shows that were licensed by Sentai Filmworks being simulcast on the Hidive streaming service, and it seemed odd because they had paired with Amazon's streaming service for some of the fall shows Sentai licensed.

Well, it turns out that Amazon's Anime Strike service has been shut down. Guess folks really weren't ready to pay extra on top of Amazon Prime to watch new anime. Now it remains to be seen how many of the Anime Strike exclusives remain on Amazon and how many may show up elsewhere.

Hey Everyone
So I just wanted to post an idea of the potential NINTENDO has at their disposal.

For example, they created a animated short that was included with their Starfox Zero game which left many fans asking why not have that as a animated tv series?


In addition, I know that Legend of Zelda is apparently getting another tv series via Netflix but I feel based on this fanmade trailer, an animated movie would be better


What do you think?

Being as much of a video game nerd as I am an anime nerd (particularly when it comes to Nintendo LOL) I'd be down for that.

I think there's already been some talk about an animated Mario movie due to Nintendo's partnership with Universal (mainly with the Japanese Universal themeparks so far), so if that proves fruitful we might see more. Hopefully they'd do some as anime, though, as I can really see that fitting the Zelda series really well.

didn't realize it at the time but first watched anime in the early 80s when Sandy Frank bought, chopped up and repackaged Gatchaman into Battle of the Planets. (also saw Speed Racer a few times.)
became more aware of anime as the years went on but didn't start watching it seriously until I started dating a girl in 1999
together we watched
Fatal Fury
Slayers
Fushigi Yuugi (The Mysterious Play)
City Hunter (Movies)
Princess Mononoke (which i used to annoy her by calling princess mono-nookie!)
Cutey Honey
Rurouni Kenshin
Outlaw Star
Lost Universe
Dirty Pair
Sorcerer Hunters
Night Walker
Escaflowne (Which I also used to annoy her by calling Esca- Flo-Nase!)
and a few others that slip my mind. after we broke up i went off on my own binge, collecting
Shinesmen
Virtua Fighter
Comic Party,
City Hunter (original series.)
Full Metal Panic
Gatchaman
Gatchaman '94
L/R Licensed by Royalty
and various Hentai titles.

It can be surprising where anime can creep in with shows from the past. Shows like Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers were probably the first anime folks watched before realizing anime was a thing. For some of the younger folks I'd imagine shows like Ronin Warriors and Sailor Moon were their intro.

Something from your list just reminded me of some news I saw, though. There's going to be a new Cutey Honey series coming out this year, called Cutey Honey Universe.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ne...ney-universe-anime-announced-for-2018/.125609

Have "New Cutey Honey" DVD somewhere, got it a few years ago
Can't ever remember, but 'anime' is specifically Oriental Cartoons (not just Japanese), like 'Manga' is Oriental Comics?

Originally I think the "anime" description was for animated shows from Japan, but that line is starting to blur a bit. There have been some shows that are co-produced with companies in China and South Korea now, so that does expand it to Asian countries rather than just being Japanese.

On top of that, you've got shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra that aren't from Japan specifically but DEFINITELY have a strong anime influence to them. That influence is strong enough that you usually find those shows stocked in the anime section at stores like Best Buy in the US, and cosplay from those shows is not uncommon at anime conventions.

I'm pretty sure the Answerman section on the ANN site may have already addressed this topic much better than I have, so it may be worth looking in those archives to see.

Winter season has started, so that means a few new shows for me to watch.

I've checked out:

Katana Maidens-Interesting but I'm not sure about the tone they're going for. The opening and closing songs highlight swordfighting just as much as they do the main characters hanging out and goofing around, and the story itself already has some dark territory it's gone into and can explore.

Slow Start-Cute girls in high school, but I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with it. There's a lot of slice-of-life shows like that this season, and even with the premise of the main character I'm not sure it's going to stand out.

Citrus-A little on the pulpy/trashy side, but the animation is great and the story has me hooked. When the end of the show has me going, "Augh, they have to end it THERE for this week?!" then it's got me for sure.

Karakai Jozu No Takagi-san-A show about a boy in way over his head in trying to outwit a girl who lives to tease him? Again, hooked.

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody-I'm being cautiously optimistic about this one after how dull and frustrating In Another World with a Smartphone ended up being, but the first episode has some good potential. It's yet another "guy gets sent to another world" show, so take that as you will.

There's also new seasons of Overlord and Dagashi Kashi as well, but I may wait for the dub versions of those shows on Funimation's site.

The one fresh in my mind and a front runner for "cutest show of the season" right now is How to Keep a Mummy. The first episode preview/reviews on ANN all talked about how adorable the show was, but every time I saw the artwork for it I wasn't exactly convinced. Even so, I gave it a try this morning, and I have to agree with them. The three words that best sum up that show are So. Freaking. Adorable. I don't know if we're talking Kana from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid cute yet, but it's up there.

Another one that got a LOT of good initial reviews that I might check out is DARLING in the FRANXX, but I'm kind of hesitant to give Pop Team Epic a try. It sounds like one of those "you love it or hate it, no in between" shows, and one of ANN's reviewers gave the first episode a score of "I think my brain is bleeding." LOL

Hey Everyone
So on my lazy Sunday today, I decided in re-watching some past anime movie titles in my movie library and I highly recommend these if you haven't seen them

Toki o Kakeru Shōjo aka The Girl Who Leapt Through Time


Neko no Ongaeshi aka The Cat Returns

Also, here's a video that anime fans should have a look at

They both look good

THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF NARUTO AND OTHER ANIME

Someone asked at another site "is Naruto the biggest cultural phenomenon regarding anime culture in the West?". I am a hardcore Naruto fan and i have to say no it's not. This crown belongs to Dragon Ball and this is undebatable. But Dragon Ball had two advantages that no anime has today.

First of all, it came out in the prehistory of internet when the only media to watch anime were television and VHS. Today, until Viz Media have localized an episode of Naruto Shippuuden to the Disney XD viewers, everyone else and their mother have already watched the same episode online in its original cut. Also, the discrepancy between the localized cut and the original cut alienates most of the potential viewers, what leads us to the second advantage DB had:

It came out in the pre-Pokémon era, when animes got away with gore and nudity. If DB came out today it'd have been mercilessly butchered and everyone'd have noticed it with all the torrents and streaming websites available.

Talking about Pokémon, the anime achieved the feat of being much more than a glorified video game commercial, what is more than you can say of its copycats. Yu-Gi-Oh epic failed in being more than a glorified card game commercial. Beyblade epic failed in being more than a glorified toy commercial. Monster Rancher epic failed in being more than a glorified video game commercial. The only Pokémon copycat that succeeded and became a worldwide classic was Digimon with its darker tone.

Now let's talk about Naruto. The anti-Naruto (and you can say something is a freaking phenomenon when it hás its anti- crowd) say Naruto is "niche". Either they don't know the meaning of niche or they have bad faith. A niche anime hasn't episodes released in pirate DVDs. Naruto had its 720 episodes released weekly in pirate DVDs for ten years, and the success continues with Boruto episodes being released weekly in pirate DVDs. When it comes to piracy, Naruto is the Game of Thrones of animes.

Naruto was an absolute success in Latin America, maybe because third worlders easily relate to an underdog-who-becomes-leader-of-the-pack story (i am a third worlder there's no prejudice in my statement). The demand for Naruto was so insane that the manga was reprinted twice in less than ten years. Also the Naruto franchise is the second biggest anime-based videogame franchise behind only the Dragon Ball franchise. Naruto even influenced gastronomy. Naruto's Ichiraku Ramen became a real food dish.

And in 2017 the world witnessed the phenomenon of Naruto Runs. Something that began as a Facebook meme became real with Naruto Run events being organized across the world and thousands of people showing interest. And most of those weren't even Naruto fans, what shows that Naruto is well known amongst people who don't give a **** to animes, what is NOT the definition of a niche anime. A niche anime never breaks out of the anime nerds community. Naruto totally broke out worldwide.

You can tell Naruto is a classic because eventually you see someone saying "[INSERT ANIME OF THE MOMENT HERE] is the next Naruto" and also the ********* who claim "[INSERT OBSCURE ANIME HERE] is more famous than Naruto".

Eventually some Piecer comes with the "One Piece is more famous than Naruto" ********. Their only argument is the popularity of One Piece in Japan. They dismiss the fact that the Naruto franchise kicks the *** of the OP franchise out of Japan. I mean, as an example, in Brazil (the largest and most populated country of South America) Naruto reran for six years non-stop in the third biggest TV station of the country (SBT). In the very same TV station, One Piece got pulled without a single rerun. That says a lot about the abyss between both animes. The two Naruto mobile games for Android sum 15 million downloads. The two One Piece games for Android sum 5,5 million downloads. As i said up there, Naruto broke out of the anime nerds community and became a worldwide phenomenon. One Piece never broke out. When confronted with the fact that OP epic failed out of Japan, Piecers blame 4kids, the dub, the censorship, they blame everything but the anime itself for being unappealing.

Edit: c e n s o r s h i p is replaced by maturity here. Lol.

Okay, a lot to unpack there. I'm not going to quote it because that was a long post, and since I can get pretty wordy I don't want to make a super long post in response. LOL

I think the whole question of which anime has/had the greatest cultural impact is generally tough to call, as a particular show coming out at just the right time can have just as much impact on a particular culture as a long-running fan favorite. Plus the country/culture in question will play a part, as some shows/show themes will play better to audiences in some countries but not in others.

Just looking at the lists of favorite shows in this thread can show how some shows, which are nowhere near as long-running as something like Naruto or the various DB shows, have had just as much of an impact on fans. Sure, you'll have some other long-running shows like Bleach showing up in lists, but then you've got shows like Death Note or Attack on Titan (which were either shorter series or relatively recent) that have captured the imagination of fans.

Unfortunately, when I step back and look at things as a whole, I think I have to give it to Pokémon. While it may have been made as a tie-in to the games, the overall impact of the franchise dwarfs just about everything else, and it's been a pretty consistent impact in all areas of the world. A new game gets a huge amount of press, the amount of participation in the Pokémon Go mobile game was newsworthy outside of anime/gaming press and the show just keeps on chugging along with new episodes and movies. At the end of the day, you're going to have the average person more knowledgeable about who Pikachu is rather than Naruto.

It really doesn't help that anime itself, despite all the inroads and efforts on both sides of the Pacific, is still a pretty niche aspect of entertainment outside of Japan. It's gained in popularity over the years thanks to streaming and companies like Funimation or Cartoon Network/Adult Swim being willing to air the shows, but when you go shopping for merchandise it can still be a struggle to find the stuff. It's for that reason I have to give the nod to Pokémon because it's always been easy to find the videos, toys and cards in most retailers, and on a consistent basis. You'll have some DBZ or Naruto merchandise make their way to shelves, but it's nothing near what Pokémon has available regularly.

Just as a couple of side notes:

• DBZ might have come out in the same era as some of the more sensationalized anime (the "whoa, nudity and hyper-violence" stuff), but it really wasn't in the same category as that stuff. Sure, it was action-packed, fast and fun with more than it's own fair share of "WOW!" moments to it, but it was FAR from something like Ninja Scroll or the original Vampire Hunter D in terms of content.
• I can't dismiss the complaints of One Piece fans. The show was never really my cup of tea (the art style always bugged me for some reason), but the treatment it got from 4kids did NOT do the show any favors in gaining traction outside Japan. Besides, the show is still going after 800-odd episodes and movies and continues to get dubs and releases from Funimation (which would at least hint at steady business for the company), so I really don't think it can be dismissed out of hand.