I'm trying to get into *some* anime and I think I found a winner...

[Delusive]

Miyazaki films. The only one I've seen was Spirited Away and I like that the films remind me of classics such as The Lion King from Disney. Anyway, how well are his films compared to other anime? What are good films of his to get that are available in the States? I'm still more of a Western animation fanatic but I do like the type of anime that doesn't have excessive content just to be "edgy."

Also, is Akira good? Bruce Timm (or someone else) mentioned something about it in the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker commentary.

 

[Da Docta]

His movies are definitely one of the most respected in anime films. I'm not sure how it would fare against other anime. That would be dependent on the person who watches it. I think they're all awesome, though.

Pretty much all of his movies are worth watching. You don't need to worry about their release in the US, either. As far as I know you can buy them anywhere, which is exactly what you should do.

As for Akira, many people have enjoyed it. It's a very dark and somewhat complicated movie. I'm not that much of a fan of Otomo, so I can't say it's "good." Now, if you were talking about Steamboy...

You should check out this thread for recommendations. I suggest you try other movies like Tokyo Godfathers or Pom Poko.

 

[Elijya]

Miyazaki is excellent, I'm glad you found him you will quickly realize that, yes, he trumps Disney. Personal favorites are Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (a bit long though) and Princess Mononoke. Howl's Moving Castle and Porco Rosso are also good

Akira is good trippy sci-fi, great animation, very different from Miyazaki, but you should probably give it a watch if you want to give the genre a fair try.

I would not call it an ESSENTIAL film by any means, but Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a stunning film that's thoroughly entertaining and well worth your time. It's Blade with class.

If you want to give a series a try, look into Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, or Fullmetal Alchemist. They're definitely for a more grown up audience and they aren't as "out there" as most series. They'll have greater appeal to you since you're coming from exposure to strictly western animation

 

[blind_fury]

Dagger of Kamui
Akira
Neo Tokyo
R.O.D. (Read or Die) the Movie
Phantom Quest Corp

 

[hippie_hunter]

Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal

 

[Goddessreicho]

Urasowa's Monster is one hell of a suspense drama and Junni Kokki (aka 12 Kingdoms), another drama, are some of the best things out there. I have yet to see a bad review or an unhappy viewer. Such high quality is rarely seen nowadays anywhere.

Check them out. They also have phenomenal manga's too. There really isn't much of a diffrence between the two.

Monster: 52 episodes. And it will also be a live action movie. Joss Olsen who wrote A History of Violence is condesing the screenplay.

!2 Kingdoms: 42 episodes, and the best music I've heard in a long time.

 

[animexcel]

Oh definitely Miyazaki, check out Ghibli's The Cat Returns. I agree with Tokyo Godfathers, that goes along with Millenium Actress too. =)

 

[animexcel]

Oh definitely Miyazaki, check out Ghibli's The Cat Returns. I agree with Tokyo Godfathers, that goes along with Millenium Actress too. =)

 

[cabel]

I loved Millenium Actress

 

[AndThePickles]

Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl's Moving Castle are some of my favorites

 

[Sloth7d]

See if you like this-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCnEesey_iU

 

[boywonder13]

Miyazaki films. The only one I've seen was Spirited Away and I like that the films remind me of classics such as The Lion King from Disney. Anyway, how well are his films compared to other anime? What are good films of his to get that are available in the States? I'm still more of a Western animation fanatic but I do like the type of anime that doesn't have excessive content just to be "edgy."

Also, is Akira good? Bruce Timm (or someone else) mentioned something about it in the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker commentary.

I have been getting into anime movies recently also and search online for wat is believed to be thebest anime movies:

I watched Akira and Grave of the Fireflies which i would both give a 7/10.

They were good but not anythingamazing, i was dissapointed.U should watch them though.

and my quest for the best anime movie continues......

 

[Elijya]

Grave of the Fireflies is the Schindler's List of Animes

 

[Delusive]

I'm going to check out this:

Urasowa's Monster
Junni Kokki (aka 12 Kingdoms)
Gantze
Princess Mononoke (I may get this tomorrow)
Howl's Moving Castle (isn't Christian Bale and Mark Hamill VAs for this movie?)
Any other Miyazaki film
Akira
Grave of the Fireflies
Trigun
Cowboy Bebop

That'll do it for now, I may not get into every single thing mentioned but I'll see. Right now Miyazaki is mainly on my list as I think that's a good starting place and then I'll move out from there.

And I also learned that, one of my favorite shows, Avatar just happens to be inspired by Princess Mononoke. One of the creators actually started to dislike anime until that movie surfaced and he really only cares for Miyazaki (and one or two other anime creators) works. With that said, Avatar is still not considered an anime, it's inspired from it but it has a lot of Western animation technique and whatnot but the creator of Trigun is apparently a big fan of Avatar too. And I just got a little off topic.

Ok, thanks for the suggestions everyone and sorry for the delay in replying!

 

[Elijya]

no apologies necessary, but I do appreciate that you replied. I hate when people ask for recommendations, and I type out a whole thing and they never reply

Yes, alot of Miyazaki films have some serious talents doing the voice acting:

Howl's Moving Castle had Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall and Billy Crystal

Princess Mononoke had Minnie Driver, Claire Danes, Gillian Anderson, Keith David, and Billy Bob Thorton

The Cat Returns had Cary Elwes

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind had Patrick Stewert


etc.



Bebop is a favorite amongst alot of people, even non fans. It has a heavily stylized use of colors, shades, music, and just the flow of the animation. The music is particularly nice - it's a sci-fi show about space bounty hunters, and it uses a Jazz soundtrack, that is undeniably cool. Just take a look at this simple establishing sequence from one of the best episodes, Jupiter Jazz (No plot or story, just mood) http://youtube.com/watch?v=_jZpLWHTtr4

here's some more info on the series:

Cowboy Bebop (カウボーイビバップ, Kaubōi Bibappu?) (1998) is a Japanese anime series, motion picture, and manga. It follows the adventures of a group of bounty hunters travelling on a spaceship, the Bebop, in the year 2071.

Cowboy Bebop was a commercial success in the United States and has featured on Cartoon Network's late-night Adult Swim programming block. Sony Pictures released the Cowboy Bebop movie, Knockin' on Heaven's Door to movie theaters in the United States and followed that up with a DVD release. The series has also been broadcast by the anime television network, Animax, across Japan, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and other regions, Two Cowboy Bebop manga series were created based on the TV series; as well as video games for both the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles.

Cowboy Bebop is strongly influenced by American culture, especially the jazz movements of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Nearly all of its action sequences, from space battles to hand-to-hand martial arts combat, are set and timed to music. Music is a driving force within the series. Episodes are called Sessions (in reference to musicians playing a "jam session"), and titles are either borrowed from an album's or a song's name (Sympathy for the Devil), or make use of a genre name (Mushroom Samba), that will influence the whole episode's action and musical theme.

read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_bebop

 

[Elijya]

where did you hear about Gantz? I enjoyed it, but it's not something I usually recommend to people given it's somewhat slow pace, hyper violence, and unsatisying ending

 

[The Question]

The first Miyazaki film I ever saw was "Kiki's delivery servive." My favorite movie when I was a kid. And I recently found out that it was Phil Hartman's last preformance.

 

[Delusive]

where did you hear about Gantz? I enjoyed it, but it's not something I usually recommend to people given it's somewhat slow pace, hyper violence, and unsatisying ending

Someone posted a trailer of it, thanks for your input and I'll put that into my consideration.

Anyway, Cowboy Bebop sounds awesome. What got me more interested in that is I like American culture and seeing as there are American culture-ish influences in it, that'll definitely hold my interest.

Also, Gundam is somewhat interesting to me too.

Also, if I may ask, what content ratings would you give each show recommended (you don't have to rate any or each single one, just the ones that you want to)? If you do, please include stuff like how much cursing, nudity, violence, etc.

And yea, I try to reply to everything that I start (unless it's just news that I posted and doesn't need my further imput).

 

[Goddessreicho]

Omg, I'm glad your gonna give Monster and Junni a try. Monster will suck you in on the first epidose. Junni gets painfully addictive after the first 5 episodes.

But here's some links http://animearimasu.wordpress.com/2006/09/04/monster-series-review/

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=650

If you like politics, complexity, and want a hella good story you shall not be dissapointed.

Also Grave of the Fireflies is great, and for a great laugh check out Excel Saga, and Ouron Academy Host Club.

BTW: Avatar is the best show on television!

 

[TheVileOne]

You really can't go wrong with any of the Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli films.

 

[sandwraith]

Hrmm...can't give you anything that no one else hasn't mentioned but if you want something that's lighthearted for the generic anime series, you ought to try Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X). It's what got me into anime. Its a little tamer than the likes of big name animes like Bleach and Naruto but for its time, it was pretty damn good.

 

[Sloth7d]

where did you hear about Gantz? I enjoyed it, but it's not something I usually recommend to people given it's somewhat slow pace, hyper violence, and unsatisying ending

I actually like some of the pacing. It shows real human nature in how they hesitate to put their own lives on the line to save complete strangers. I feel the show is well grounded and tries to capture ultimate realism while adding si-fi tech weapons and gadgets in the mix. As for the violence. I feel that was also an attempt to capture realism. I mean if a flesh eating alien is after you its not going to go easy on you or attack you in tv friendly way. Its going to try to mutilate you and not everyone will survive.
And thats what I love about this show. The realism and exploration of human nature really turned me on aswell as the oumped up gorey violence.

As for the ending. Yes it leaves you wanting more. But thats because those weirdos at ADV didn't continue animating episodes from the manga for some reason.
But if you do want to see how it ends you can always go web searching for manga scans and see how it continues. But I suppose you would only do that if the show interested you enough.

 

[boywonder13]

im gonna check out Barefoot Gen, people say it is better than Grave of the FIreflies, and i enjoyed GOF, so cant wait to see it,

so what r u thoughts on Barefoot Gen

 

[SLVRSR4]

The first Miyazaki film I ever saw was "Kiki's delivery servive." My favorite movie when I was a kid. And I recently found out that it was Phil Hartman's last preformance.

MY favorite too, probably because i was younger and the idea of a young person in the work force was a positive film

 

[Elijya]

I actually like some of the pacing. It shows real human nature in how they hesitate to put their own lives on the line to save complete strangers. I feel the show is well grounded and tries to capture ultimate realism while adding si-fi tech weapons and gadgets in the mix. As for the violence. I feel that was also an attempt to capture realism. I mean if a flesh eating alien is after you its not going to go easy on you or attack you in tv friendly way. Its going to try to mutilate you and not everyone will survive.
And thats what I love about this show. The realism and exploration of human nature really turned me on aswell as the oumped up gorey violence.

As for the ending. Yes it leaves you wanting more. But thats because those weirdos at ADV didn't continue animating episodes from the manga for some reason.
But if you do want to see how it ends you can always go web searching for manga scans and see how it continues. But I suppose you would only do that if the show interested you enough.

It did, but... I have a hard time reading Manga, the story-telling style I just find annoying