What Anime are you Currently Watching?/Anime Recommendations

[SamuraiMegas]

I just finished Akira the manga. Holy fucking shit, that was a ride.

[marurun]

Really? I think the Akira movie was well-done. The story was stripped down enough to fit in the time allotted. I feel like most things were explained adequately. The pacing isn't the same as it would be for a western film, but it's still solid and better paced than a lot of Japanese films of the time.

[SamuraiMegas]

Akira Manga ending spoilers

What did y'all think of Kaneda telling the "peacekeeping" forces to fuck off, and naming the nation Akira? It confused me at first, but I realized that he did that because he was tired of being controlled by a tyrannical government, and wanted to "use" Akira as a way to stop others from trying to invade. No one really knows that he died, so all the other nations would be scared to go near the land of Akira.

[Exhuminator]

Really? I think the Akira movie was well-done. The story was stripped down enough to fit in the time allotted. I feel like most things were explained adequately. The pacing isn't the same as it would be for a western film, but it's still solid and better paced than a lot of Japanese films of the time.

I agree 100%. The Akira film is absolutely awesome. A timeless masterpiece. Considering how much it covers in its limited time allotment, I don't see how it could have been any better.

[Gunstar Green]

Really? I think the Akira movie was well-done. The story was stripped down enough to fit in the time allotted. I feel like most things were explained adequately. The pacing isn't the same as it would be for a western film, but it's still solid and better paced than a lot of Japanese films of the time.

I agree 100%. The Akira film is absolutely awesome. A timeless masterpiece. Considering how much it covers in its limited time allotment, I don't see how it could have been any better.

I agree as well. I've seen the movie more times than I can remember and I'm always engaged from start to finish. Akira is the cyberpunk film for me. The world feels real and lived in and it avoids many of the tropes common to its setting to instead focus on its characters and themes.

On the manga vs. the anime they really are their own separate things that have to be taken that way. Otomo wisely understood you can't do things in comics that you can do in animation/film and vice versa and used the inherent strengths and weaknesses of both media splendidly to tell the same basic story in two very different ways.

I'll admit the ending of the movie gets a little wonky but I also have difficulty coming up with a better way to end it and it's so crazy and unsettling (early 90's me is still traumatized) that I have to give it a pass just for that.

[chuckster]

On the manga vs. the anime they really are their own separate things that have to be taken that way. Otomo wisely understood you can't do things in comics that you can do in animation/film and vice versa and used the inherent strengths and weaknesses of both media splendidly to tell the same basic story in two very different ways.

Amen to that, I've been slightly confused trying to construct the panel-by-panel action a few times while reading the manga, but the overall composition is killer. The breadth of the story is also something no movie could do in two hours or so. It makes me wish for a 6-part OVA or something. I heard there may be an anime coming soon but I just don't see it garnering the necessary budget to recapture the feel of the movie.

Then again, I've just came off watching the second season of the new Berserk, so I'm a bit sour regarding modern anime versions of classics. The story is fine but sheesh, the art is so boring and the CG and animation style just pale in comparison to any decent hand-drawn anime.

[isiolia]

Then again, I've just came off watching the second season of the new Berserk, so I'm a bit sour regarding modern anime versions of classics. The story is fine but sheesh, the art is so boring and the CG and animation style just pale in comparison to any decent hand-drawn anime.

I don't think I'm up to date on that one, but what I watched of it seemed to follow the manga pretty closely. I think it pretty much comes down to the cel-shaded animation being relatively cheap to do, especially for more dynamic scenes. It's kinda similar to how RWBY tends to look I think. It'd be preferable to have a more hand-drawn look, but would still probably either succumb to budget (like the original series did), or wind up with mediocre filler scenes with a lot of static shots/reused animation to offset the more expensive action scenes, like Attack on Titan.


Completely unrelated, I watched Your Name last night, since the US Blu-ray finally came out. It was nicely done, as is pretty much my expectation of Motoko Shinkai at this point.

[Xeogred]

Well, have any of you seen the original two Galaxy Express 999 movies? Or Arcadia of My Youth? Queen Millennia?

I prefer Mamoru Oshii's stuff to Akira. I don't really love Miyazaki's movies much either outside of Nausica. So you can all love my anime movie opinions.

[johnblade]

Well, have any of you seen the original two Galaxy Express 999 movies? Or Arcadia of My Youth? Queen Millennia?

I prefer Mamoru Oshii's stuff to Akira. I don't really love Miyazaki's movies much either outside of Nausica. So you can all love my anime movie opinions.

I did saw one of the Galaxy Express 999 when it came on North American TV channel space but can't say much as I didn't watch it from beginning to end.

I guess the only OVA I have watch from back to back is Queen Emeraldas both the North American and the Japanese version and I do like it a bit but it's kinda forgettable.

[Xeogred]

That OVA is solid, but yeah sadly a lot of the Leiji Matsumoto OVA's are pretty hit or miss. A lot of them from the 90's and 2000's look really bad too.

I'm very excited to see what Gainax does with their Leiji Matsumoto trilogy.

And Space Battleship Yamato 2199 was an incredible remake of the original series... the second season of the original is even better, so I can't wait for the remake of that too.