OAO Anime/Manga Thread

[Special K 0]

Ranma 1/2 was really, really funny for a while, but took a shit fairly quickly, as season 3 was OK, and the rest was filler.

 

Maison Ikkoku is great.

 

Never seen Mazinger. If it really is as good as oters say, then I'll check it out.

 

As to what got me into anime? Watching Akira when I was like, 13. MInd-blowing.

 

Jeez, has no one seen Vision of Escaflowne? Although that's a series that MUST be seen subbed.

[ragingfear79 0]

Mazinger is amazing, is considered by many the best robot anime, if you use bittorrent you could find the episodes.. Most files are in spanish thou.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

I actually think season 3 was Ranma 1/2's best season. The original episodes in that one were generally very funny. Unfortunately, Seasons 4 - 7 are for the most part not very good to put it lightly with the occasional great episode here and there (I did like when they finally introduced my board namesake in Season 6).

 

But Maison Ikkoku is far and away Rumiko Takahashi's best work.

[WukenBloodstar 0]

yeah, both Gundam seeds are horrible. I cringe everytime i hear about it.

 

Well, Gundam SEED was a shitty attempt at remaking First Gundam(Mobile Suit Gundam) and Destiny was great, until it hit episode 13 and the walking plot device known as Kira Yamato came back. However, the CE Mangas(Gundam SEED Astray, Destiny Astray, Astray X, Astray R, and one I'm forgetting) are fairly good, just..the american release is total shit. Though..they're releasing another SEED series: CE 73 Stargazer, directed by Susumu Nishizawa.

 

1. King of Braves: GaoGaiGar - Recently announced as licensed for release in america.

2. Macross Plus

3. G Gundam

4. Getter Robo G/UFO Robo Grendizer

5. Cowboy Bebop

 

Special K: Mazinger Z is really good, parts of the first episode are classic, like Kouji managing to close the scrander on his head.

[ragingfear79 0]

heres the first episode from youtube... its in spanish sorry but i figured you guys could get a feel for it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?search=mazinger+z&v=H3WOsd8YmKk

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

Here's a quick top 5 series, in no particular order, of course

Azumanga Daioh

Excel Saga

Martian Sucessor Nadesico

Gundam Wing

Noir

I'm realizing I haven't seen that many complete serieses, but I have 3 sitting here waiting to be watched, so I plan on having a fun summer between them, games, and Netflix

[pochorenella 0]

Seems there are more people that like Mazinger than I previously thought. For those of you I may recommend the Mazinkaiser OVAs from a few years ago. This is a return to glory for Mazinger pilot Koji Kabuto, after being unfairly demoted to piloting a fricking jet airplane after Great Mazinger and UFO Grandizer took over, in this out-of-continuity episodes he returns to be the true hero he deserves to be, now piloting the insanely powerful Mazinkaiser robot. The series is a bit more in the spirit of the Mazinger manga, more violent and risky than the regular series (Sayaka nude?) and features great animation that easily surpasses the crappy couple of last MZ episodes (the worst animation of the series, carried on to the Great Mazinger series as well.) As I said earlier, it is clearly out of continuity, since many main characters that had previously died are back (some only to die again in the last OVA, oh well) but I don't really care because it is truly a fucking great series of movies. I managed to get them in original audio with subtitles but there's the DVDs released by ADV a while back which have both japanese and english audio. Check it out if you're a mecha or Mazinger fan.

[ragingfear79 0]

Deff will check it out, ive seen them floating around so ill prolly get them tonite and post my thoughts tomorrow, did you ever see Gaiking?

[pochorenella 0]

Please describe him to me as I may have seen him when I was a kid but under a different name, possibly because of his spanish translation. Is he the one with the lion's head on his chest and the huge horns on the sides of his head?

[ragingfear79 0]

yeah dude, thats him... Where did you grew up?

heres a website with pics and stuff of almost every super robot anime

 

http://www.japanhero.com/index.htm

[pochorenella 0]

I grew up in Ecuador, South America. We had TONS of anime shows when I was a kid, from your Speed Racers, to Kimba the white lion, to that Sawamura guy who supposedly invented kickboxing, all those giant mechas like Mazinger, Tetsujin28, and many others I don't know the original names (but will look them up on that link you posted), and those space shows like Captain Harlock (sp?), Robotech, etc. God, I'm fucking old.

[ragingfear79 0]

I grew up in Panama and we had tons and tons of it too, i was watching Super Sentai (Power Rangers) and Kamen Riders since the early 80's. Did you ever watch a live action series called Jiban. It was a poof on Robocop it was cheesy but the fight scenes where gold. Man you brought memories with Captain Harlock.... I feel pretty old too.

[pochorenella 0]

We did have that Jiban show but I didn't like it. For those live action shows I was more into stuff like Ultraman, Ultraseven (my absolute favorite back then) and even the live action Giant Robo show.

[ragingfear79 0]

Duuude do you remember a show by the name of Sankoukai? I almost forgot about Ultraman.

 

Heres a video to the intro of Sankoukai

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZNyUR4tKii4&search=Sankukai

[pochorenella 0]

I fucking LOVED Sankuokai, man. I even had toys for both spaceships when I was a kid. Matter of fact, I had some fucking amazing toys back then, including these giant plastic versions of Great Mazinga, Dragun (one of the Getta Robo G combinations), Raydeen, and of course Gaikin (known to me as Gladiator). They shot their fists, threw stars, knives, etc. If I'm not mistaken, the toyline was called "Shogun Warriors" and even had a Marvel Comics limited-series, although with a different mecha line-up than the ones I had. Damn good times.

 

Now If I only knew what the hell I did with all those toys!

[ragingfear79 0]

Dude i remember those, they where great, i had the huge i think it was like 24 inches or something like that giant Mazinger. i also had the lil one that where made out of metal.. Talk about a fucking trip down memory lane....

 

Damn my aunt for selling them when we moved out of Panama. In fact she sold most of my old toys to make room in the house.

[pochorenella 0]

Now all I have left anime/japanese related are my Speed Racer toys that were released a few years back(Mach 5, Speed Racer, Racer X, and the little kid and chimp), a great Ultraseven action figure (found it in NY's Chinatown of all places), and a metallic modern Mazinger-Z figure. These babies are sitting on my shelf and God help the poor sould that dares mess with them.

[ragingfear79 0]

I have been able to collect quite a few Japanese things from anime and games, but my pride and Joy is my soul of chogukin (sp) black mazinger. That is a thing of beauty.

[Special K 0]

Ive got quite a few good recomendations in this thread. I so have to check out Mazinger Z now.

 

That said, I strongly, strongly suggest Vision of Escaflowne. (subbed) Fast-paced, amazing score, the best villain *subbed* ever in Dilandau. It's phenomenal. Great action sequences, and just to reiterate, the best music ever. You can biu the whole thing for cheap now. Plus the most amazing twist ever, and not one that's totally arbitrary. Great climax.

 

Most people won't check out Tylor, c'est la vie. It's so fucking great.

 

IN terms of funny? Azumanga, Slayers NEXT, first two seasons of Ranma.

 

The very first Slayers OVA is fucking hysterical. "Did you pole yourself with your spiked shoulderguards" "Weep Weep"

[ragingfear79 0]

The first Slayers is indeed funny, if anyone need help finding Mazinger Z pm me and ill hook you guys up. Has anyone seen Gantz?

[Anakin Flair 0]

The first Anime I ever watched was Princess Mononoke. After that I got Vampire Hunter D, watched some Adult Swim, and got hooked to Witch Hunter Robin.

[AndrewTS 0]

First: Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, way back on Nick in the mid-late 80's.

 

Yeah, surprising. I didn't get exposed or hear about Voltron, Kimba, etc until years later.

 

I have the entire Slayers series, OG, NEXT, and TRY. It usually keeps the balance of stupid humor to story well in check.

 

I hate Rumiko's stuff. I've never laughed at the Ramna I saw, all her character designs are so lame and repetitive they give Toriyama a run for their money. Plus, the animated stuff based on it tends to have lousy animation, and even poorer dubbing/writing. When I first saw InuYasha, I thought "wow, this isn't as big a pile of crap as I expected. It's still not *good*, but still..."

 

I have some affection for Toriyama because I kind of like original DB, and since my first exposure to his stuff was Chrono Trigger. Although I watched, liked, and got deathly sick of DBZ.

 

Madhouse's stuff I like, but I hate when they really slack on the animation and it looks really choppy. Lots of anime sacrifice detail for smoothness of the animation. More anime should go with simpler character designs.

 

Eva's okay, but is the most overrated anime ever.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how much "subbies" will claim even the most contrived and commercialized series are "ruined" by American dubs. Sorry, Yugioh and Beyblade could be written by fucking Shakespeare, and the animation would still be shit and the plots would still be utterly pointless and stupid.

[Ravenbomb 0]

ok, I just watched the first 4 eps of Lain, and it's definately weird. It looks like it could get good, though, I'll withhold judgement until I see the rest.

[World's Worst Man 0]

Eva's okay, but is the most overrated anime ever.

 

*waves to Cowboy Bebop*

 

The only knock I can see against Eva is the terrible ending (and really, even the movie ending wasn't that good). Whereas the pimped to high heavens Cowboy Bebop had almost no plot development, yet doesn't seem to catch any flak for it. To me, that's being overrated

 

I think PlanetES might be my favourite anime ever right now. I was originally interested in it because I like shows that take place in space. But it ended up being quite the intense drama, and I am such a sucker for human drama.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

. It never ceases to amaze me how much "subbies" will claim even the most contrived and commercialized series are "ruined" by American dubs. Sorry, Yugioh and Beyblade could be written by fucking Shakespeare, and the animation would still be shit and the plots would still be utterly pointless and stupid.

But there are shows that can be killed by a bad dub or editing. It's funny you bring up Yugi-oh, I actually kinda liked the manga when I was reading Shonen Jump(I need to get a subscription), but any time I try to watch the anime....ewwwww....

[Ravenbomb 0]

I'll usually watch whichever one I'm used to seeing the anime with (which is usually the dub). The only time a dub was too bad for me to watch was the Azumanga Daioh one

[daileyxplanet 0]

With me, I like to watch anime, if I wanna read, I'll get the manga. So I prefer dubs, but usually I watch it with the subtitles on as well, so I can get a feel for both at the same time. Sometimes I find it hard to concentrate with subs 'cause I'm a visual/audio learner, but what can you do?

[World's Worst Man 0]

For the stuff I own on DVD, I always watch it subtitled, with the intention of watching it dubbed the second time through, just for shits and giggles. This never works out for two reasons though. After I watch a series, I usually don't feel like watching it again for 2-4 years, and since it's been so long since I've seen it, I want to experience it the "proper" way again. And secondly, I've yet to see a dub that was any better than mediocre, with most of them being awful, so it kind of makes me wary of my viewing experience being ruined. Say what you will about dubs, but they more often than not leave me feeling embarrassed, which kind of ruins the whole atmosphere.

 

P.S. Anime female Triple H is fantastic.

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

I fucking loved Irresponsible Captain Tylor. I binged on that shit, entire 26 episodes in two nights. ... Then got it again and did it again.

 

I really don't like who he ends up with in the OAV at ALLL...so I haven't checked it out yet.

 

I also checked out Slayers...strikes me as a female friendly more childish Lodoss War, then anything.

 

... Which, BTW, is such a fucking awesome series. Legend of Crystiana? ... Not so much.

 

My first Anime that I remember noticing was Anime, was DBZ, way back in the Sayian saga. I still watch Anime on CN occasionally, but the way they screw with every friggin show has turned me off completely. The way they've completely fucked with Yu Yu Hakusho is pretty much the biggest piss off. The lack of advertisment for new episodes of IY...It's just...stupid. Anime used to be CN's big thing, but they've completely turned their backs on it. It's insulting really.

 

Favorite series is easily Zoids: Chaotic Century / Guardian Forces. Beyond that theres Rurouni Kenshin, which might *technically* be the best Anime I've ever seen...atleast up to Kyoto. Followed by the Lodoss TV, now that I know that it's supposed to be a remake of sorts of the OAV. Makes it much easier to appreciate.

[Ced 0]

Dubs are acceptable in my book, with a few exceptions (notables include the Kansai accent being dubbed into an American Southern accent at any time and Tenchi Muyo's Ayeka). However, I do have a preference for the original Japanese track with subtitles. In the end, I guess it's not too much of a deal with me, especially when I get it on TV for free.

 

Special K, do you know any places in particular to pick up Vision of Escaflowne? I remember watching an episode or two back in high school, but never got around to finishing the series.

 

On a side note, I picked up volume 24 of the Rurouni Kenshin manga. It's the first time an event in a manga has made my jaw drop.