 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| OH SURE. by Zseni: Warrior-Poet 03/27/2005, 6:39am PST | ||||
 |
 |
|||
| But I'm not giving you any links other than telling you to look up Baka Updates, which has links to everything else.
In general, anything new is awful. The genre began tilting downhill at an alarming rate at just about the time I was getting into it. The older the series is, the more watchable - I don't think there are really any exceptions. I am convinced that this is because the genre started as Japan's economy was ramping up and the most classic series were done at or near the pinnacle of Japan's financial prowess and social cohesion, and now anime is going to shit (extremely expensive and self-conscious shit but all the same shit) along with the rest of that unhappy country. But take heart, you can get lots of stuff both old and new. Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2 are old series by the same author (who later did Inu Yasha, which I don't like nearly as much.) Maison Ikkoku is very sweet, a romantic comedy that hews generally close to reality, and the end theme for the first 12 or 13 episodes used to practically make me cry (Ashita Haeru Ka?, lovely classic piece of 80's j-pop). Ranma 1/2 is silly and fun (and also a romantic comedy) with ludicrous fights and gleefully contrived situations for sex changes. You're dumb if you miss out on the original Macross series. Dubbed, cut, and presented as the first third of Robotech it's okay, but the original is superior and - much like the series above - full of that big happy sweet Japan-in-the-boom-years optimism. Plus: giant robots... GIANT PEOPLE! I think this is THE giant robot show to watch. Lots of people like Milk-chan and Super Milk-Chan, but I consider them Adult Swim rip-offs and prefer my parody series a little more homebrewed (and older.) My pick: Excel Saga, in which each show does to death some genre or another (action movie, sports show, baseball-heroes story.) Many, many, many affectionate tips of the cap to all kinds of classic Japanese series (anime and real) and movies, so the show gets more rewarding proportional to how much you follow that sort of thing. SAIGAKE! Cromartie High is more specifically a parody of "schoolkids" shows, also excellent, but for some reason it didn't catch on with the otaku. They stick the best joke front and center: all the huge beefy guys in the high school are 16. One new series that really did stand out is Witch Hunter Robin. Despite a rocky beginning, WHR is an absorbing and nuanced show that features probably the only teenager in anime who actually acts like a teenager. It's also probably the only anime I've ever seen that successfully develops and sustains genuine sexual tension. Witchy X-files-esque subject material. There are a lot of cutesploitation shows in which the feature is the appalling cuteness of the leads. Earth Defender Mao-Chan is very, very, very cute, so cute I have trouble choking it down, but you might like it; my cuteploitation pick is Card Captor Sakura (in its original, uncut, un US-ified state) which is ridiculously cute but also ridiculously sweet and idyllic, and plus bishies. And frankly, I'm sorry, I like Sailor Moon. I think Sailor Moon is a great shoujo (for-girls) show; I think Sailor Moon is a great sentai (five warriors of transforming justice!) show. Yes there are tons of filler episodes, yes the DVDs released for the first season are horrible quality, yes it enjoys a miserable reputation, yes the fans are mostly psychotic and very, very lonely, but Sailor Moon is a legitimately action-packed, funny, socially-observant, and heartfelt show. All 200 episodes of it. (And, you know, I watched the uncut Dragonball Z, and it's kind of fun. It didn't get under my skin the way Sailor Moon does, but it is kind of (sleepy) fun.) I do not like harem shows. Harem shows are where the totally ordinary dude is suddenly forced to live amongst 20 or so beeyootiful women who all surprise surprise want him. They're like porn without the actual cocks and frotteurage and whatnot; in general I think they're skippable. They're the one genre that improves upon moving into the realm of hentai. There are LOTS of these and they are getting more popular (and less enjoyable.) Oh oh actually one with girls that have absolutely ludicrous breasts is also a decent space opera as well, and fairly watchable... ummm what's it called... there were two seasons... Divergence EVE, that's it. Japan excels at making things smaller, and the shortest shows are often the best: Digi Charat and Kogepan, clocking in at three minutes an episode, are well worth seeking out. Sight gags, accordion music, and - best of all - a little over a half-hour to watch the entire series. Nor will I sugarcoat my love of The Slayers. This adventure/fantasy series is one of the classics that made otaku as bad as they are, squealing "FUUULAAAIIIRRRR ARROOOOOO!!!!" at each other in hallways and wearing capes and generally being dorks. God love 'em. Anyway Slayers is good. It's a satisfying romp through a D&D-ready fantasy world with plenty of slapstick and the odd bit of cross-dressing and nice tidy plot arcs - all three seasons are equally good, though the movies and OAVs vary. For pure space opera, you have to wait for Galaxy Express subs. And Starblazers DVD rips. And until then you have to go to the Tolkien of Japanese space opera: Seikai no Senki (and Seikai no Danshou, Seikai no Monshou, Seikai no Senki 2.) This big, chewy, hearty, full-on space opera had to be partially subbed in Japan because introductions and narrations are often in the alien language created by the author of the novels on which the series are based. Is this a selling point? I don't know. But if you want space opera, this is, I assure you, space opera. For lighter space opera fare, Mobile Battleship Nadesico is tough to top: less romance, more romantic comedy, and the source of the awesome Gekiganger 3 - the giant robot show that everyone on the Nadesico watches, which became such a popular concept they had to make it its own (brief) OAV. My only piece of otaku gear is a Gekiganger 3 t-shirt. Opera without the space, with costumes: Rose of Versailles and a show that owes much to RoV, Revolutionary Girl Utena. The former is a kind of If D'artagnan Was A Woman affair with luscious, though tightly restrained, lesbian subtexts and lots of swashes getting buckled - an older show, and of course a classic. Don't pass it up if you love costume dramas. The latter takes the central concept of RoV to its natural Japanese conclusion: lesbian schoolgirl swordfights with lots of bizarre ritual and mystery and surrealism. Don't get too excited about the dyke content: there's nothing much past kissing, and even that is exceedingly infrequent. But Utena has a very art-theatre feel and is the show most like FLCL in pacing and direction - which is right and good, they were made by the same production company. (Less pure innovation, less manic and rock, more roses and girl-fights.) (FLCL, if you haven't seen it, and I'm just assuming you have because everyone seems to have, is also very good, very worth watching, but I think it should be watched after you're familiar with the tropes and limitations of anime in general. It's no fun watching all that stuff get crushed if you don't realize how many rules they're breaking.) I could keep going, there are lots of good series, lots of good times. But this is all for now. |
||||
 |
 |
|||
|
