It's interesting that anime never got much of a foothold in the UK, or Ireland. The only time it really had mainstream visibility here was during the late 90s/early 00s Pokemon craze, with a few other shows with names ending in "mon" and a heavily butchered dub of Card Captor Sakura. There have been a few attempts at anime-focused satellite channels over the years, and they all disappeared in a matter of weeks.
It seems like France and Italy are the big European anime/manga markets, both countries have a long history of anime shows on television (going back to the 70s at least).
― Duane Barry, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 17:43 (three years ago) link
Germany is quite into manga, i remember a few years ago looking up books on amazon and getting frustated cos a few books I wanted to buy were only translated into German. iirc when Tokyopop collapsed in the late 00s the only bit that survived was Tokyopop Gmbh cos it was profitable, and is still going today.
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Tuesday, 21 July 2020 18:27 (three years ago) link
It's interesting that it has caught on in Africa so much too; how about south asia and middle east?
Another thing in that podcast above (which is quite well known to be fair) is about how much Chinese authorities view japanese cartoons as a threat, they were appalled when they found out that the majority of popular cartoons were japanese and I think they banned a bunch of stuff.
I heard a good theory that manga and anime have been so accessible is because the faces of the characters are mostly very simplified and almost like emoticons. That's disconcerting for me because that's the thing I most dislike about it. It's quite hard to find artists who draw faces like Dave Cooper (when he's not in his old timey cartoons mode) but I've found a few I can't remember the names of.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 18:36 (three years ago) link
I’m enjoying Carol and Tuesday on Netflix right now about two teenagers who set out to conquer the Martian music business. 11 episodes in the fact that they live on mars seems entirely incidental to the plot, especially as the bit of mars they live in looks like Brooklyn. Nevertheless there are lots of robots and AI’s, they hire a small drunken arsehole of a robot to direct a recreation of the thriller video in episode 4.
The whole arc is about the battle between Carol and Tuesday’s homespun, handmade, honest to goodness sparkly pop sounds and Angela, former model, who is working with the mysterious Tao and his AI to manufacture the ultimate pop career.
― American Fear of Scampos (Ed), Sunday, 9 August 2020 22:18 (three years ago) link
i think its on mars because its by the cowboy bebop guy and 'genre setting + music focus' is his entire thing
― ciderpress, Sunday, 9 August 2020 22:23 (three years ago) link
omfg I’m finishing up my second viewing of Kill la Kill which much to my delight my bf is LOVING, I wish this didn’t have so much gross sexual shit (incest, sexualized children, etc), it’s hard to like wholeheartedly recommended, but what a trip. Should I watch Gurren Lagaan next?
― vision joanna newsom (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 14 September 2020 01:02 (three years ago) link
kill la kill is the weakest of the big gainax/trigger shows imo, the second half is kind of a drag.
gurren lagann is better though still very much the work of the same director & writer so a lot of the beats are similar. same with promare though its a movie so its a nice concise take on the formula
― ciderpress, Monday, 14 September 2020 02:03 (three years ago) link
Isn't Gainax and Trigger anime for people who love anime?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 14 September 2020 17:11 (three years ago) link
for sure, but this thread was originally spun off of eva discussion which is also gainax...
― ciderpress, Monday, 14 September 2020 17:30 (three years ago) link
I feel like Kill la Kill is at once perfect for ppl who both love and don’t love anime
― vision joanna newsom (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 14 September 2020 19:00 (three years ago) link
also i mostly think of this thread more as 'anime with crossover appeal outside of anime fandom' which trigger stuff definitely is. imaishi's even making the cyberpunk 2077 tie-in netflix series lol
― ciderpress, Monday, 14 September 2020 19:24 (three years ago) link
I've been working my way through the original Patlabor OVA and it's interesting, it's slower in pace that what I would have expected from a mecha anime, like more of a drama with robots than an ACTION!!! series. The characters are well developed and it also has a timelessness about it, like it doesn't really lean into pop culture or era-specific tropes too much? I like it! It doesn't feel groundbreaking or mind-blowing but it's sturdy and pleasant. I'm almost done and then I'm going to watch the first 2 movies.
― vision joanna newsom (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 23 September 2020 12:27 (three years ago) link
the 1st movie is my fav anime movie
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 23 September 2020 13:21 (three years ago) link
I decided to watch some anime again this year after a long time of not watching it. I don't hate anime but I often feel underwhelmed. But figured there must be something worth watching from the past fifteen years
Mob Psycho 100 is funny and enjoyable and visually interesting for such a well-trodden genre. Several friends also recommended Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which was not bad but felt very standard for its genre (never saw the original series). I know there are much longer series but it still felt overly long. At least the ending was sufficiently epic
― Vinnie, Thursday, 24 September 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link
oh shit i should watch patlabor
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 24 September 2020 00:10 (three years ago) link
Yes do it, it’s only 7 eps and then 2 movies! Somehow I only just the other day realized it was Mamoru Oahii
― vision joanna newsom (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, 24 September 2020 03:35 (three years ago) link
my bf and i have been going through jojo's bizarre adventure: stardust crusaders and have been loving it
― orson around (clouds), Thursday, 24 September 2020 04:04 (three years ago) link
second patlabor movie is my fav oshii but I haven't seen the first one for at least a decade
kenji kawai score is excellent too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmlwhaEEgE
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Thursday, 24 September 2020 19:14 (three years ago) link
it's probably been even longer for the OVAs, but if memory serves, oshii directs some of the moodier ones there too
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Thursday, 24 September 2020 19:15 (three years ago) link
first movie is more like the ovas, 2nd is off doing its own thing
― ciderpress, Thursday, 24 September 2020 20:26 (three years ago) link
That's a beautiful piece of music.
As a young anime watcher the Patlabor movie totally confounded me with how little action there was. But then Wings Of Honneamise was similarly uncommercial for such a big production. Then I remember even the Fist Of The North Star feature length turned all the outrageous fantasy violence into a horrible disempowering downer of an ending and the very commercial seeming Street Fighter Alpha mortified me by having my favorite characters brutalized in such a depressing fashion by some schmuck who isn't even in the games.
It's weird looking back on all that and I wonder if anime is still doing this to kids these days.
I was 9 or 10 years old when the school janitor loaned me Akira and it made me feel really sick but I mostly liked it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 24 September 2020 21:08 (three years ago) link
the body horror stuff in akira still ooks me out
― orson around (clouds), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 14:39 (three years ago) link
can't remember if i said this here but my kids' mother-in-law bought them the entire series of tokyo ghoul
they are 11 and 9 years old
i think it's....... a bit fucking much
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 14:40 (three years ago) link
yeahhhhhhh probably not age-appropriate
― Nhex, Tuesday, 29 September 2020 15:42 (three years ago) link
i was still watching pokemon when i was 12. it was brand new at the time though and thus probably cooler than it is to tweens now
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 29 September 2020 15:58 (three years ago) link
my 9-y-o is dunzo with pokemon
they are HUGE fans of carole and tuesday. need 200 more episodes ASAP to wash the taste of tokyo ghoul out of my mouth
11-y-o is also starting to read assassination classroom, which i feel like would probably be actually illegal in the united states
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 16:01 (three years ago) link
i would say the age i saw akira at, 13, is the perfect age to see akira
pokemon/sailor moon/dragon ball z were my world at ages 11-12 but they were all airing "new" episodes at that time. evangelion broke open the rest of the anime world for me but i didn't see it in full until i was 14. i definitely watched ninja scroll not long after akira and i liked it but i was def 1) too young to be watching it 2) ninja scroll is the fucking worst trash. i think if my parents were at all interested in what i was watching they would've probably have not let me see a lot of these, but they had checked out of controlling the media i consumed by the time i was 7 or so? i grew up watching robocop and schwarzenegger and james bond movies, ultraviolence was my bag until psychologically and metaphysically deep art were my bag lol
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 16:17 (three years ago) link
in fact, anime basically conducted that transition
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 16:18 (three years ago) link
mtv and the simpsons were the last battles my parents waged and they lost both
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 16:20 (three years ago) link
my dad shunned the simpsons ever since they went up against the cosby show. 'i don't watch cartoons' was his line.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 16:26 (three years ago) link
my mom was really strict about that stuff until i hit high school and then she went back to work and stopped caring much. so i basically went straight from pokemon to cowboy bebop
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 29 September 2020 16:28 (three years ago) link
though bebop wasn't nearly as violent as i remembered on a rewatch, it probably just seemed that way at the time due to that jump lol
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 29 September 2020 16:30 (three years ago) link
xps Ass Class is actually pretty wholesome for the most part (except for the sexy honeypot teacher)
― Nhex, Tuesday, 29 September 2020 16:43 (three years ago) link
ultraviolence was my bag until psychologically and metaphysically deep art were my bag
"evangelion was my bag but then evangelion was my bag"
― vision joanna newsom (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 19:44 (three years ago) link
lol
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 29 September 2020 20:39 (three years ago) link
Just finished the two Devilman OVA’s from 1987/1990 and W O W, these were fucking amazing. The monster design was WILD, like so creepy and grotesque, and it had a lot of v filmy touches to it. Super fun to watch.
― Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, 25 October 2020 22:28 (three years ago) link
I am quite fond of them, I thought they were genuinely spooky at times but the fight with the demon bird lady in the second one didn't do much for me and it goes on a long time.
Always found it tad troubling that the blonde guy is perfectly happy to kill people to become a demon.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 25 October 2020 22:50 (three years ago) link
Fiiiinally finished Bubblegum Crisis and started the 3-episode AD Police Files OVA and it’s incredible, it’s a lot darker grittier trashier then Bubblegum Crisis, as someone w a soft spot for both cyberpunk and sleazy 90s OVAs this is perfect
― Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 2 November 2020 00:41 (three years ago) link
Tatami Galaxy, episode 1: this guy talks way too fucking fastCat Soup: I tried to watch this a few months ago but I rewatched it last night and I like it a lot more, prob bcz I already knew it was kinda dark. Weird and fun!Megazone 23, Part I: hahaha this is ridic and I love it so much, it is SOOO distinctively 80s and there is even a mall montage w pop music over it and I really enjoyed the direction it went in
― Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 9 November 2020 00:32 (three years ago) link
i finished the patlabor ova and it was quite nice even though, in this particular year, watching a show about the police clashing with environmental activists was... hm. last episode did have a quite funny joke and the expense of commies tbf
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 9 November 2020 00:39 (three years ago) link
gotta log back into hidive and watch the movies now
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 9 November 2020 00:40 (three years ago) link
i'm also glad that the ova ultimately did not deal too much with them apprehending "criminals" or "environmental terrorists" and kinda ended up being a cops vs. the military story
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 9 November 2020 00:43 (three years ago) link
the movies are incredible, enjoy
― ciderpress, Monday, 9 November 2020 01:28 (three years ago) link
I liked that the OVA was a drama with robots instead of like ACTION anime!
― Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 9 November 2020 01:43 (three years ago) link
Brad I think you might really love Megazone 23
― Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 9 November 2020 01:44 (three years ago) link
xp wait I literally just said that upthreadanyway incidentally enough I had the first Patlabor queued up and was abt to start watching (and am now 5 minutes in, the animation is stellar) and I just want to point out that every time I watch Patlabor in my head I hear Erykah Badu singing “Paaatlabor, you gon’ hurt your back”
― Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 9 November 2020 02:02 (three years ago) link
tatami galaxy is worth sticking with-- the rest of the episodes aren't nearly as fast as the first one
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Monday, 9 November 2020 05:34 (three years ago) link
still pretty fast though
made a rare attempt to watch an anime for people who like anime (Kill La Kill) and deeply regretted my decision within an hour, save for the enjoyable overkill of the animation style
like I get that it's making a meta statement about anime but still....not for me, oof.
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Monday, 9 November 2020 06:16 (three years ago) link
but, yknow, it's good to test yr limits of taste now and again
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Monday, 9 November 2020 06:17 (three years ago) link