AMINE!!! or is it anime?

[paulcs]

I have you all beat as far as ancient anime history goes, most likely because I'm older than most of the people posting here.

The first anime I ever watched was Astro Boy, which aired in the US in the 1960's. This was followed by Gigantor, 8th Man, Kimba the White Lion, Marine Boy, and Speed Racer. I wasn't watching much animation when Starblazers was airing in the US, so I've never seen it.

Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom in Japan) and Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Emperor Leo in Japan), I was to learn later, were the creations of the great Osameu Tezuka, who is thought of as a great pioneer in both anime and manga circles. Kimba is credited as being the first shoujo or girl's manga.

Japanese animators were outraged at the similarities between Tezuka's Jungle Emperor Leo and Disney's The Lion King, despite Disney's slealth-like efforts to cover up what many consider flat-out plagerism. (Jungle Emperor Leo's name is Kimba, while The Lion King's name is Simba. It fooled me! )

I believe Gigantor was the first of the popular "A Boy and His Giant Robot" genre.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Gurm]

What I'd like to know is who pioneered the "Teenage Girls with Super Powers Save The World From Demons With Tentacles" genre?

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[paulcs]

Who pioneered the "Naughty Tentacles" genre? Hmmmmm. I have no idea. As far as I know, the first example to be imported to the US was "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend." I could be wrong.

I have no idea of what was going on in Japan before the Overfiend series.

Not that I've ever seen one.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[C=64]

Quick question for you all: Have any of you had problems playing Lain? All the rest of my DVD's play just fine, except for all 4 discs of Lain. There are constant, annoying jumps that I know couldn't have been done on purpose. I try to concentrate on the story (reeeeal important with Lain), but those darn visual glitches really get to me...

C=64

[Alec]

Remember Conan, the boy of the future?

[Helevitia]

yes! StarBlazers! I knew someone would know what I was talking about. Thanks

Dave

[Mark F]

Kimba the White Lion -

I never heard or saw it here in the States; untill 2 weeks ago in a supermarkets "video"-endcap. But I did see it in Germany during my somers visiting my grandparents as a child. It is very strange all these years not hearing anything about it, then seeing it, and now seeing it mentioned here.

Mark F

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
and burped out a movie

[paulcs]

The manga version of Kimba the White Lion is now fifty years old. I think Kimba aired in the US in 1966, so if you're a few years under 40, the odds of your remembering Kimba are pretty much slim to none.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Jammrock]

C=64,

Sorry, I couldn't get into Lain, so I don't have any DVD's to test. You may want to get ahold of the US distributor (ADV?) and tell them your woes. They'll probably have a solution or send you a new disc.


Ash Catchem,

I know what you mean, but Bandai has been really good with their anime releases in the US so far. Okay, so their only TV broadcast has been Gundam Wing, but still they did a good job. Hopefully the only thing they will cut out of the Escaflowne will be the blood, like they did with Gundam. I really don't care, just as long ans the DVD's are all uncut!

Jammrock

[HollyBerri]

paulcs, I'm "a few years under 40" (37), and I watched Kimba every day when I went to my grandmother's house for lunch.

Spaghetti O's (with franks, please!) and Kimba. It was like heaven.

For some reason, though, I refused to ever watch Gigantor or Speed Racer despite their popularity. Or because of their popularity .

But who else remembers the "puppetoons" shows that aired about the same time period?

<hr>
Jammrock, why did you hate Ghost in The Shell? I was disappointed when I saw it in the theatre, too-- but it was still the first disc I bought to test out the wonders of DVD.

Just wondering what others found wrong with it; after all, the music was great, and so was that climactic battle. It's one of those movies that I don't know quite why I didn't like it.

<hr>
paulcs, what's "Whisper of the Heart", and why isn't "My Neighbor Totoro" on your short list ?

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Holly

my short list (yeah, it's all old, but I've been busy and at least it's a really good list... ):

• Black Magic M66
• My Neighbor Totoro
• The SuperGal (later renamed "Maris the Chojo" and added to the "Rumic World" series)
• The WannaBe's
• GunBuster
• Project A-KO
• Dominion Tank Police
• Plastic Little
• Sol Bianca
• and something I can't remember the name of, but maybe someone here can... it was about these police chicks who battled supernatural bad guys. I remember there being some kind of 'Magic: The Gathering'-type cards used by the good guys as well. Ring a bell with anybody?

[paulcs]

Gigantor and Speed Racer were for boys and Kimba was for for girls.

Holly, "(If You Listen Closely [or If You Strain Your Ears]) Whisper of the Heart" is a Studio Ghibli full-length animated feature that was scripted and story boarded by Hayao Miyazaki, but directed by the late Yoshifumi Kondo. Miyazaki actually did direct a short fantasy sequence. It was released in Japan in 1995.

Unlike many of Miyazaki's films, which involve girls in fantastic settings or situations, Whisper of the Heart takes place in a more banal urban setting. Although there are hints of the mystical, and that famous fantasy sequence is frequently used to market the film, the hocus pocus is kept to a relative minimum.

I could have named all of the Ghibli features I've seen, and put them on my short list, but then it wouldn't have been short. I certainly didn't mean to snub Totoro. Here's the long list of the Miyazki and Studio Ghibli productions I've seen, and I liked them all a lot:

Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind
Laputa: The Castle in the Sky
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service
Porco Rosso
On Your Mark (A long animated music video directed by Miyazaki)
Whisper of the Heart
I Can Hear the Sea (or I Can Hear the Ocean or Ocean Waves, depending on who you talk to)

I Can Hear the Sea was a full-length animated TV movie produce by Studio Ghibli, although I don't think Miyazaki had much to do with it.

I've also seen Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro, a pre-Ghibli Miyazaki feature and a few episodes of Future Boy Conan. (Alec mentioned this series earlier.)

Strangely enough, I have not seen Mononoke Hime. Disney picked up the rights fairly quickly, so I didn't have access to the fansub, and then my computer hobby replaced my anime/manga obsession. I'll buy the DVD when Disney stops farting around, finishes subtitling the damn thing, and releases it in the US. (Hopefully at the end of the month!)

I had heard that Princess Mononoke was to be Miyazaki's directorial swan song, but apparently not:

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/sen/index.html

I can't wait.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net



[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 04 August 2000).]

[Gurm]

Hey guys - is Evangelion any good? I want to snag some Anime on DVD, and instead of just re-purchasing what I already own on tape I figured I'd get something new and fun.

So, the first several episodes is available on a DVD (2 hours of video) - worth purchasing?

- Gurm

P.S. When oh when will Project A-ko be out on DVD? (GRIN)

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Jammrock]

This is going to be a big one...

HollyBerri,

I thought Ghost in the Shell was boring. It had pretty animation, good music and a couple of good fight scenes, but it wasn't enough to hold my interest. They tried to make the movie to 'Blade-runner'esque by throwing in too much philosophy. I can't wait to see Spriggan though, which is done by the same people who did Akira and Ghost in the Shell, but Spriggan is just an all out action movie.

Miazaki stuff...

In general, I need to see more Miazaki films. I've loved the ones I've seen, but I do not have access to some of his more classic ones.

As for Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke), the reason why that has been delayed on DVD, again, is because when the studio announced that the Japanese tracks would not be on the DVD, anime fans phreaked. Within a week thousands of petitions and fan mails hit the office demanding the Japanese track. The studio then said that they didn't think there would be any demand for it so they didn't put it in in the first place. But when the DVD comes out around x-mas time, it will have English and Japanese tracks, anamorphic transfer, Dolby Digital sound, and a ton of features.

Gurm,

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of my all time favorite animes. The show is well animated, has good music and a good story. As a caution, though, the story is extremely messed up and you will be constantly confused (I had to re-gauge my wierd-$#!*-o-meter after watching the EVA movies and shows). The DVD is a really high quality transfer of the show, a must get for anime fans. Only the first DVD is available so far, I'll explain why later if you are interested.

Jammrock

[Gurm]

Jammrock:

Ok then, I'll pick up the 1st DVD. Don't worry, I can handle weird. I actually full understand all the plot twists in X-Men over the past 20 years! (Or at least I'm firmly misinformed on some of them, and the misinformation meshes well with the rest of what I know to form a cogent whole).

Go ahead and explain why the others aren't available...

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Jammrock]

The EVA DVD Tale...or so I'm told:

In the beginning there was Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the name was too long so everyone called it EVA. And EVA was weird. Weird, but for some reason incredibly addicting. So addicting that whenever ADV announce a delay in one of the VHS' they got reamed by the fanboys. That and EVA made ADV so much money they bought up the rights to half of the anime coming out of Japan.

In EVA there is a lot of shots of store fronts, order forms, military papers and the like that are all in Japanese. Many of these are needed to understand some parts in the story so ADV put subtitles next to these things so we Americans who don't know more Japanese than koneshiwa could understand. The problem was that in some parts, the screen was 50% subtiles, thus you lost a lot of the artwork.

In the DVD, ADV decided to do something different. They took the Japanese signs and forms, scanned them to photoshop, translated them, made an English counterpart for them and re-inserted them into the video. That way people could look at the forms in English and the screen wouldn't get bogged down with sub-titles. This of course pissed of the 'anime purists', who think dubbing is a thing of the devil

So now ADV is trying to figure out how to make the purists happy and the masses happy, all on one disc. They have experimented with multiple angle shots, but some DVD players have troubles with them and they end up replacing too many discs (they did this with another anime). So until they figure out how to do this, all future release of EVA on DVD has been delayed with no ETA.

As for the EVA movies (and there are 3 or 4), Gainax, the people who made EVA, has been reluctant to send Manga (the people who own the movie rights in the US) the raw footage so they can dub the movies and make anamorphic transfers for them. Manga is hoping to have the materials soon, and have the movie out by mid next year.

That just about covers it.

Jammrock