ANIME EXPLOSION: It's... Profitmón!

Fortune Magazine ^ | Dec, 2005 | Daniel Roth

[RogueIsland]

There ARE different types of shows but sadly that's largely what is imported.

Oh, I know. I was just teasing. I even enjoyed the remake of Bubblegum Crisis which I thought was quit well done. But the giant robot fixation in anime borders on the psychologically interesting sometimes.

[Dr.Deth]

Unfortunately, I don't know where to get "Evangelian Rhapsody" as a stand alone complex.

Has anyone been following the series Monster? Holy smokes! No magical girls, mecha, samurai, angels, spaceships, harems, or martial arts masters anywhere to be found. Just all plot, all suspense, all the time.

[No.6]

"It took many years for Lupin III to get to US shores (outside a couple of the many films/specials)."

Don't forget the laserdisk game "Cliff Hanger"...

[Pyro7480]

One of the best anime fight scenes of all time

[ThinkDifferent]

ASUKA is annoying!

Yeah, but I still like her for some reason. Although Rei was my favorite; I love her one-syllable responses to Shinji and Asuka's rants.

[weegee]

What I would like to know is why Mamo was dubbed three different times (you can hear part of the original English Mamo film in Cliff Hanger).

The later 2 dubbings had weak voice work and included some lame off script jokes. Oat Bran? Reagan? It was made in the Carter years.

And I understand that different companies want to "own" a unique translation, etc. but if you have not improved on the original, you are only cheating the consumer.

The Australian Akira DVD has both English dubbings as soundtracks.

[Dr.Deth]

There is one frustrating thing with the Elfen Lied release here in North America. There's another episode of Elfen Lied that fits right between DVD 3 and DVD 4 that wasn't picked up. It explains a few things, like how Lucy was first caught. The only way to get it is online though. If you have Torrent, you can go to animesuki.com and search for Elfen Lied OVA.

[Sir Gawain]

My favorites: Trigun, Kenshin/Samurai X, Berserk, Noir, Hellsing, X, Escaflowne, 12 Kingdoms.

Best soundtracks: hack//Sign, Kenshin, Noir, X, Escaflowne.

[Joe Brower]

I was wondering about that. I saw some info that this one episode was going to be released on it's own DVD, which is rather whacked. Oh well. The Torrent info is interesting!

One thing that bugged me throughout the series: human bodies simply do not spray the enormous amounts of blood depicted in this show, even when vivisected. That whole bit could have easily been toned down and still made the point clear.

[Joe Brower]

My overall fave soundtrack is Yoko Kanno's work for Cowboy Bebop. An incredibly eclectic mix that is all done well with an extremely tight group of musicians. Some of it defies categorization.

[Dr.Deth]

But if you do like enormous amounts of blood spraying in highly comedic fashion, almost in torrents if you get my drift, look up "Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan".

[Little Ray]

Watched the whole thing. Regret the waste of time intensely. The only character I liked in the series was Misato - and how a woman who drank that much beer could look that good, I'll never know.

I like anime, but they usually lose me near the end when they jump over top - like Last Exile.

Now that I am married I try to feed worthwhile anime to my daughters, but I have a lot less time for it myself.

[Dr.Deth]

Hmm... worthwhile anime. You know, there is one series that comes to mind that has a very positive message, and that's Haibane Renmei. Probably not good for under 10, but it's a real nice series that touches on lots of spiritual themes without really being preachy.

[DTogo]

Tank! & The Real Folk Blues are part of my CD compilations and on my MP3 player. Kanno also did the opening theme for GIS, among many others. Very talented!

[Joe Brower]

Yes, Yoko is all over the map, and doing a great job wherever she goes. She also did the soundtrack for "Wolf's Rain", which had a good dose of a Spanish classical/old european feel to it.

The theme for GITS: SAC is "Inner Universe", sung by a Russian gal named Origa. (She also sings the new theme for SAC 2nd GIG, but I can't recall the title of that song at the moment.) I was blasting it in the Sequoia the other night and my two kids were simply listening, taking it in, but my wife didn't know what to make of it. $:-)

[SauronOfMordor]

Japanese anime making inroads in America, already very popular for years in my house.

Japanese animation was popular back in the 60's as well. I well remember "Astro Boy", "Speed Racer", "Tobor the 8th Man", "Simba the White Lion", etc, etc

[Joe Brower]

Yes, those were the days. I remember running home from the bus stop after school in New Jersey, just in time for the 3 PM kickoff of the cartoon coming out of the TV station in Philadelphia. The played all of those. And "Gigantor" -- don't for Gigantor!

Oh, and it was "Kimba". Simba was the Simp-a in Disney's "Lion King". A few years back, some Canadian company bought the rights to the series and redid the whole thing into one big mess of redubbed eco-pansy happy-crap. I couldn't believe it.

Speed Racer was redone in 2000 or thereabouts, and was a decent modernization of the original, although as one could expect, Trixie was more feminized and Speed was a bit more wussified. Astro Boy has also been recently redone with all of today's rich production values and is fun to watch with the kids.

[DTogo]

Yes, Kanno's music does go well very loud in a multi-speakered vehicle, as does L'arc en Ciel!

[ThinkDifferent]

She also sings the new theme for SAC 2nd GIG, but I can't recall the title of that song at the moment.

"Rise". I recommend playing it in a dark room with the iTunes visualization going on a big screen. Trippy.

[Simmy2.5]

Hmm. I never realized that Yoko was a woman. I knew she was everywhere in anime, just never bothered to do background research on her.

As for GITS: SAC, great songs to a great series IMO. Just recently Adult Swim began showing the 2nd Gig. So far, so good.