Let's talk about Anime!

It is on Hulu and Crunchyroll.

OK, I've waited seven pages to wade in and tell everyone what they should be thinking about Anime. I really wish that it was still called Japanimation. That was when it was good. When I first started watching Japanese cartoons that weren't syndicated/dubbed, we were renting them from this Kroger grocery store that for some bizarre reason had an anime section in their video rental. This was absolutely not normal. They ahd a full display with magazine pictures and everything. Obviously someone that worked there had some sway and set it up. It started out as one shelf and was eventually a full endcap of virtually everything that was available.

Ground rules about anime:

- Hayao Miayazaki is not included in discussion about Japanese cartoons. Including his films into the same blanket categorization as Teen Boob Queen Shukokaze or Hamster Log 3425 (a giant mecha thing???) is like including Stanley Kubrick in a discussion of directors of "fan films"

- Most anime is made by, for and about pedophiles. Sorry, it's just true.

- It's true that 99% of all media is garbage. With anime, the number is actually closer to 99.99% garbage.

- If you're a tubby sub-20 year old girl that smells like cheap shampoo and wears cat ears in public while using random Japanese words, reassess your life.

WIth those out of the way, this is the REALLY GOOD STUFF.

- Robotech- Macross is the best Japanimation series ever. Robotech is a great version, but if you don't have time, then Do You Remember Love is well worth the 2 hours. The Southern Cross portion of Robotech isn't as bad as you might remember, the Invid Invasion (Genesis Climber Mospeada) is awesome and is almost as good as the Macross part. Macross II is horrible. Macross Plus is pretty good though. Never bothered with Macross 7, Shadow Chronicles or all of that.

- Space Battleship Yamato- Almost as great as Robotech. On some days, I think it's better. The US version rules, Captain Avatar has an awesome voice ("Wildstar!"), the song rules, and the epic story was way ahead of its time. AMAZING design work, the ships look incredible. I like all of the series (the new one, 2199, is awesome) and the movies are great. They all end with the Yamato getting destroyed. If I remember correctly, it actually breaks in half in Final Yamato.

- Space Pirate Captain Harlock- more Matsumoto, and the best anime character of all time. The movie, Arcadia of My Youth, is the best Japanimation film ever made (remember, Miyazaki is disqualified). I like the series (SPCH and Endless Orbit SSX in particular), some of the recent stuff is cool too like the thing where they did the Wagner Ring cycle with Harlock and the gang. "When you see my flag, turn your ship". Total bad ass.

- Galaxy Express 999- Matsumoto again. Train flies in space to creepy ass robot planet. Some really, really cool concepts and a melancholy tone. Prefer the movies on this one.

- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets)- Tatsunoko's best. Amazing costumes, cool characters, Godphoenix, 7 Zark 7...this was the greatest show ever when I was five. Didn't quite understand why that man was wearing lipstick. I like everything Gatchaman ever made, pretty much. ANybody have DVDs/torrents of the original series?

- Vampire Hunter D- Both versions. The first one makes no sense whatsoever, but that's kind of one of the things that makes it good. D looks amazing (Yoshitaka Amano). The newer one was pretty good too, totally over-the-top gothic.

- Mazinger- The best of the Super Robot stuff (although Golion/Voltron is up there too). Go Nagai's best, by far. I mean, just look at Mazinger. AWESOME.

- Neon Genesis Evangelion- It's actually really, really good. I thought it was just going to be junk, but the storyline was compelling and there were some interesting turns throughout.

- Gundam- This show was the shift from Super Robot to the more military oriented stuff. I like the old shows much better than the new ones. Char's Counterattack is pretty good.

- Record of Lodoss War- pretty much Western-style D&D with a full party of classes. It's fun, I liked it 15 years ago or so, not sure if it'll hold up.

-Golgo 13- I like the old movie much better than any recent stuff. Kind of seedy and very adult in a weird 1970s way.

-Lupin the 3rd- Again, Miyazaki's is not counted. But the other Lupin stuff is good in general. Granted, Castle of Cagliostro is far and away the best.

Throw these in the trash- Dragon Ball Z, Ranma 1/2, Uresei Yatsura, Full Metal Alchemist, Trigun, FLCL, Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo...far too many to name.

Attack on Titan has some really interesting things going on...but it's pretty dull..

tl;dr things I saw as a child are better.

TL;DR of any discussion of anime is that as usual nerd standards of quality are shockingly low.

tl;dr any discussion of anime as pedophilia by someone who watches their 4 year old dance to "blurred lines" is easy to ignore

Whoa there buddy. That's QUITE a leap you made there, implying that there's some kind of sexual or titillating connotation in watching my children dance to a song that has suggestive lyrics that they could not possibly understandable probably won't for a decade. That's innocent and silly. Watching anime with sexualized children and adults drawn to appear as children is not. Watching "tentacle rape" is a million miles away from preschoolers jumping up and down to a generic pop song that you can hear walking through Target.

Not a great argument you're making there. But it's par for course when someone tries to defend pedophilia masquerading as a science fiction cartoon or whatever.

i can't believe this thread got to seven pages before Barnes weighed in. I was sure it was going to be in the very first page. It's why I intentionally brought up La Blue Girl as a form of anime cuz anime purists tend to get really offended when you throw in Hentai into their genre. Probably because it hits a little too close to home.

and yeah i don't think dancing, in general, is a sexualized activity. Miley Cyrus obviously is one of many exceptions to the rule but overall, dancing is dancing. My little girl dancing is the cutest thing ever.

- Record of Lodoss War- pretty much Western-style D&D with a full party of classes. It's fun, I liked it 15 years ago or so, not sure if it'll hold up.

I love Record of Lodoss War, but it simply does not age well. Every character runs before making an attack... huge dragons are cool, though.

- Most anime is made by, for and about pedophiles. Sorry, it's just true.

Sorry that most caucasians look a lot older than asians of the same age?

I have no idea what is happening with people dogpiling Barnes for a legit observation (that is as true in any form of media, Eastern or Western). I was just making fun of him for being an old man and not knowing that other good shows have emerged~

Sevej wrote: Sorry that most caucasians look a lot older than asians of the same age?

This is seems to be accurate, possibly due to a less shitty diet. However, many animes I've seen (admittedly very few) seem to sexualize high school uniforms and teens, which is kinda pedo. I'm honestly not sure if this is a trend of anime in general, or if it's a result of fans being really into that stuff over here in the West, making it seems disproportionately common.

I'm guessing that in Asia anime is mostly focused on kids, but outside of Pokemon, I don't often see that. Instead I typically see the artsy animated films, action cartoons, and sex stuff. That's usually from forums, which isn't an accurate gage of what a medium is really like.

Western animation isn't necessarily better with that bronie shit. Doesn't mean that Disney and Pixar are bad. Or even My Little Pony. I just don't watch cartoons of any sort really (or much TV outside of a few series and football)