.... thought it' d be cool to start a proper Anime thread for you guys, so that people can post about what new productions they' ve seen, and to give a general overview in terms of story and quality of animation etc.....

...also for general recommendations, Q&A, where to find hard-to-find productions, release dates and so on...

...enjoy!

...ok, so i decided to to stop bitchin' and have a good look to see what classy DVD productions i could find on-line in my area....

...WOW... i just found " Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" for 9 Bucks! ...i didn' t even know there was a sequel.. looks good too, can' t wait for it to show up...

KiLLeR ...please tell me you were kidding about Lupin III... ....IT' S LOOKS SH*T!!!... ...that' s the lamest, crap excuse for animation out there... Asterix looks better...

Majikdra6on .. " The Darkness Series" titles look poor also... ...sites are practically giving them away...

Terry: Someone at work had loaned it to me and didn' t tell me what to expect, and I had never experienced ' Hentai' anime before that point.

..I never thought of them like that.... ....i always saw them as extremely well executed black comedies, with good plots, interesting characters and very well done animation.....

...i view hentai as that talentless sh*t amateur websites are peddling these days, where they get some retarded baboon to draw smutty pictures with crayons...

...hey Majikdra6on are you sure about the new " Appleseed" ? ..it looks pretty awesome to me... totally CG ' n all... never saw the originals, but i LOVE Shirow Masume... ...so i just ordered it on-line... ....thanks for the tips buy the way.... NOT!!

...so what' s " New Fist of North Star" like? ... looks like a series (Which i generally don' t like) ...is it any good? and why is each one only 55 MINUTES long??

It' s old i guess. Just like Urotsukidoji, the animation' s not up to much but if it' s your thing it' s worth watching...

I missed Appleseed in the cinema because when it came out in the UK i was abroad. I got the DVD the day it came out after being wowed by the trailers, but it was an utter disappointment.

It' s not quite CG, it' s a crappy halfway trade off. You' ll watch the first 8 minutes or so and think WHAT THE HELL IS HE TALKING ABOUT, THIS IS GREAT!!!, then you' ll see what i mean. The intro is freakin cool, and there are some stylish bits towards the end, but the bulk of it is utter rubbish! At least that' s my take.

See the 3D cell shaded characters look pretty out of place in the fully 3D backgrounds and the animation itself it pretty shocking. The women look like dolls and move accordingly, it' s not realistic at all.

It should have been handed to Production I.G, they' d have done a much better job of it i think. I mean, from a technical standpoint, Innocence blows Appleseed out of the water in every aspect.

The 3D effect in Innocence is faked by just using 2D animation and making it look like the camera is panning to give the effect of 3D. It' s much smoother and plain looks nicer. Only certain things in innocence are CG (cars, planes etc) and they don' t look out of place. It' s gorgeous!

So what i' m saying is i' d rather take this...





Over this...





Any day of the week, which i know some people won' t understand. I' m a massive Shirow fan and Appleseed does him a great dis-service!

Now, as soon as they do a Galhound anime...



I' ll be all over it!

Anyone who wants me to send them hi-res scans of loads of Shirows work (Galgrease/Galhound/Intron Depot/Hell Cat etc...) just PM me your email address!

Bishonen, anime' s don' t have to look amazing for them to be good. Lupin is old first of all, it' s not meant to look like the other anime, it' s meant to look " funny" and it is really funny and the story is great, trust me. Lupin III is really good, if you can get your hands on the episodes (not the movies, you won' t understand and won' t know the characters at all) watch them. Or at least watch the first few, give it a chance, I' m sure you' ll love it. I used to watch them on tv back in my country, like around 7-8 years ago. Yeah, it' s pretty old, but it' s good. It' s unique. BTW, if anyone can find me the episodes, downloading them or even buying them from the net, please let me know.

What do you guys think of Project A.R.M.S.?? Visually not impressive, but really good storyline.

How about The Getbackers? any anime you guys can recommend?

Bishonen, you mentioned te fist of the north star, what you were looking at are the 3 OVAs, about an hour long. unfortunately I' ve only watched one of them, but most of the eps. again, old skool anime, very well drawn out for those times, even the head explosions are well animated, really well animated. The story is really good. I also used to watch this back in the day, in Italian, just like Lupin IIIrd. There are 152 episodes and you can buy the boxset for 165 bucks at meganimedvd.com.
also, go here and read some comments by ppl who have seen all the eps.

http://www.discountanimedvd.com/detail.asp?dvdno=1674

I suggest for anyone that hasn' t watched this anime, do it!!

..the original Urotsukidoji' s were very good adult fantasy anime, with great (at the time) animation and sound... ..even the English-dub voice actors are good... ..the darkness (now that i have seen a couple) are of that ' sex cartoon' ilk which i find extremely nauseating and insulting...

...I still haven' t got ' round to watching Appleseed yet... just too busy.... i' ll let you know what i think soon hopefully... .. try to order Innocence this weekend too..

...Lupin... ..considering how old they are, my expectations may of been too high...and you are right about it' s humours focus... ...i guess being the CyberHead that i am, i was expecting bio-exo-skeletons, Repilcant babes and ultraviolence... ...not some random cop cartoon... ...not my thing i guess...

...for me anime is ALL about awesome animation... ...if it hasn' t got this basic prerequisite, then it' s just kid-brother cartoons to me...

..Thanks for the FOTNS tips KiLLeR, i' m still a massive fan of the film ..but i detest aimless 30 min tv shows... if it has to be a series, then it should be one overall story divided into parts, or there should be regular three episode stories like they do in Star Trek of something... ...otherwise i' ll pass...

..glad to see i' m not the only Shirow fan on this forum.... ..i' m still reeling from the excellence of Man Machine Interface... ..they HAVE to make an anime of it ..... it' s.... stunning...



...i' m disappointed that the collected edition was released in a traditional manga format... ..i would of preferred the large prestige format that the western publishers used for Intron Depot... the tiny Japanese style does not let you really appreciate his computer enhanced artwork...

...tell me about Galgrease/Galhound... i thought all his commissioned artwork was collected in Intron Depot... ..or are they new mangas?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Allright... ..the most recent big anime film i have seen is Vampire Hunter D:Bloodlust

" Based upon Hideyuki Kikuchi' s Graphic Novels Vampire Hunter D:Bloodlust combines elements of Horror, Romance, Fantasy and Graphic Violence.
D is a fearless yet outcast bounty hunter, half human and half Vampire, Who is shrouded in melancholy and scorned by both Vampires and humans alike... ...with only a wisecracking parasite on his left hand to keep him company.
He has been hired by the wealthy Elborne family to track down their missing daughter Charlotte and the notorious Vampire, Meier Link, who they believe to have kidnapped Charlotte in the night. However, D has some tough competition from a group of Vampire hunters called the Markus Brothers, who have been hired by the Elbournes for the same dangerous task.

Written and directed by Yoshiaki Kwawa (Animatrix, Wicked City & Ninja Scroll), Vampire Hunter D:Bloodlust was made in 2000 and, unlike most anime productions, the dialogue was originally recorded in English"

...It shows too.. ..there' s no mistaking this discs audio excellence...
Featuring voice actors such as Michael McShane and Dwight Schultz, along with a brooding score, this feature is amongst the best in terms of audio production. The animation too, whist not as flashy as current productions such as Appleseed, has that ' made for cinema' swagger that all great anime classics have.
...And that' s exactly what this is.. ...a proper popcorn-munchin' Movie ..if you want a 30 min Saturday-morning cartoon.... ...move on....

..I found the 97 minute adventure to be enjoyable, with good action set pieces, supporting characters, monsters and baddies. I did find the story frustrating in the directions it took, and it' s refusal to include any decent backstory for most of the cast was also annoying.. The parasite' s role was underused, and i had a distinct feeling of the film being watered down to reach a more general audience...
...With such potentially subversive material as this, i was expecting waaayy more ultraviolence and deviancy. Perhaps this is just an divergence in taste, because it plays out as a more-or-less standard lone hero adventure story (think any Clint Eastwood Western), with the Vampire angle and romantic shenanigans being played out by the rescuee and adversary, the only detours on a well worn fantasy-adventure path.

..Having said that, this film is still well-worth buying and is definitely one you' ll watch more than once, due to the excellent visuals, cool characters, monsters and story.. ..and if you' re one of those not impressed by blood suckers, you' ll enjoy it too, as it' s not really about vampires in the end... ..it' s about that L word...

Verdict: The perfect ' Date-night-in' Anime.... good action sequences and decent levels of violence for guys... ...melodrama and emotionalism for girls...
4 out of 5

is this the longest ever post or what?

Well, i' m not certain.

I know there are:-

Intron Depot
Intron Depot 2: Blades
Intron Depot 3: Ballistics
Intron Depot 4: Bullets
Intron Depot 5 (Orion Tabletop RPG-related art) announced
Intron Depot 6: Battalion (anime game related art) announced
Waste Depot (GitS-related anime and game art) announced

Exon Depot is still speculated.

The scans i have are from 1, 2, 3 and 4, though i have the paperback versions of 2 and 3 and a couple of posters that my girlfriend bought for me (they are currently on my ceiling!).





Now, moving away from anime for a second, does anyone here listen do Guano Apes?

If you haven' t heard of them go here...

http://music.aol.com/artist/main.adp?tab=songvid&artistid=295621&albumid=0

...and check out ' Open Your Eyes' , ' Big in Japan' and ' Lord of the Boards'

My favourite band!

..When did bullets come out?.. ..i haven' t see that one..

...i thought ' Eros Depot' was his next release..


...Guano Apes... ..bit too soulless for my tastes... ...weren' t they a one hit wonder in 2000?...

Dunno.

Dunno.

And they weren' t quite a one hit wonder, more of a one album wonder. I' m pretty big on Eastern (i guess) European music. I' m talking Guano Apes, HIM, Ramstein etc...

THE greatest one hit wonder was Agent Provocateur and their ' Red Tape' , ...that song is amazing!!!

Back to Shirow, for a moment:

I have the entirety of the Galgrease series (figures, don' t it)! It consists of 6 sets of poster booklets, and two sets of trading cards. I was actually on a forum where I collected all of them! They' re really high quality, in both artwork and materials. I tried to collect two sets of each... uh... sets of trading cards. So...close...!

I don' t have a scanner, though, so I' m pretty much useless to you guys.

What, no L.A. Blue Girl mention?

Majik - I' d love to get your hi-res collection - I think you have my email address :)

Anime movies I think are amazing :

Ghost in the Shell the Movie - SFX 9/10 (today) Audio 10/10 , Story at least 10/10 , Mood 10/10 - Overall - 10/10 my No 1 Anime movie.

Ghost in the Shell 2 -: Innocence - SFX 10/10 , Mood 10/10 , Story 9/10 , Music 10/10 --Overall 10/10

Grave of the Fireflies - Incredible WAR DRAMA - made my cry like some fuckin pussy -10/10

Ninja Scroll - No SFX , Audio 9/10 , Story 9/10 , Mood 9/10,Overall 9,5/10 (I love Samurai warriors and lots of blood) :)

Princess Mononoke - Audio , SFX , Style , Story - 10/10 (it' s like playing great game like Final Fantasy or any other with Epic plotline)

Tokyo GodFathers - 8,5/10 - nice comedy :)

Gungrave - the series - Story (the best gangsters tale ever) 10 , Visuals - 8/10 , Audio 8/10 - Overall - the only series that I care to watch (since it' s all connected into one huge amazing story). (You have to watch at least 2 Episodes since 1st one sucks a bit)

Chee Saw I don' t have a scanner, though, so I' m pretty much useless to you guys.

...got a decent digital camera? ...yes? ...good.. ...cheat by sticking the camera' s pre-defined photo resolution to it' s max threshold (on average 5mp), step out into your garden when the sun is bright and high in the sky, lay out your pics and snap away!.....

...they should come out pretty good...

Terry Bogard What, no L.A. Blue Girl mention?

..i know of it, but have not seen them.. ....is there good animation and a proper story? ..or is it just another cheap Hentai production?? ...it' s made by the dude who did the original Urotsukidoji, so there is hope of quality..
...i dont really bother with OVAs though..

Some good anime movies, well..

Glad Ninja scroll was mentioned, it deserves to be up there.

The CG appleseed started great, but it really got boring unfortunately. I haven' t watched ' innocense' , had no desire for it yet.

Urotsukidoji was cool the story was pretty good, never did get to watch the 3rd parts though, however there is a " new saga" got the first dvd now but i haven' t watched it yet.

Some good ones to look out for, for anime fans...

Dead leaves very violent, and obscure, nice art style, but not very long, around an hour.
Mind Game Very good, strange film, not much of anything happens but it is really worth a watch if you can get hold of it.
Memories From the guy of Akira fame, 3 short stories, pretty cool, didn' t like the 3rd one though but the other 2 were nice.

Series wise.
Berserk Old anime, very good, quite violent and quite similar to it' s manga counterpart, minus most things demon related. Unfortunately only 1 series, worth reading the manga.
there is another one but i really can' t remember the title right now... bleh.

As for the new FotNS - i only saw the first part, seemed ok, but reviews I read said it wasn' t very good. Head explosions looked great though, and the opening music was by gackt (as is the voice of one of the characters).

Ok, the next biggest TV series is gonna be Ergo Proxy which is currently airing in Japan (up to ep3 so far).

I' m willing to make them available on rapidshare if anybody wants them (the fisrt three initially, then the rest as i get them). Although i would need to re-encode them to get the filesize down but it ould effect the quailty drastically.

Check out the website and the trailer...

http://www.ergoproxy.com/

Yay somone else has actually seen Dead Leaves! I love that bizarre shit. Much like I love Cromartie High School and FLCL.

Would you count adult swim' s The Boondocks as anime? Who does the animation for that show? The style is so fluid and amazing for the kind of show it is.

Samurai Champloo is pretty cool.

The guys who did the anime sequence in kill bill more often then not make good stuff. I think they are called Production IG. They may have been involed in some of my above mentioned favorites.

Trigun & Initial D are pretty entertaining as well.

...hey, i' m only just getting into p2p filesharing... ...i' m with Azures, and am about to see if i can reconfigure my router to allow direct file transfers without the NAT f*cking it all up....

Do not forget to set up file header encryption, so that your ISP does not throttle you.

Anyway, Bishonen has redirected me here from http://forums.kikizo.com/tm.asp?m=46728&p=1&mpage=3&tmode=1&smode=1 " Is next-gen really next-gen?" so that I may continue my rant on Hokuto no Ken - Raoh Gaiden, a movie, not an OVA, and indeed one out of three coming out in the next few years.

For those who have not seen:

Thank you for liking the avatar. Took it from a 1024 x 768 wallpaper. Cropped and resized via Photoshop. Next up for my avatar: animated gif of Kenshiro getting ready to kick ass. That won' t be complete for a while though. Here is the page my avatar came from.
http://www.hokuto-no-ken.jp/index2.aspx

While I' m at it, if you want to see what Raoh Gaiden looks like in action, the trailers are available in the above link as well. I recommend trailers 2, 4, and 5. If only the regular anime looked that sick.

With that out of the way, make sure you are on the page with the scrolling background. If not, you are on http://www.hokuto-no-ken.jp/index.aspx. The link to index 2 is on the top right of that page, above Kenshiro' s golden portrait.

You will find yourself at http://www.hokuto-no-ken.jp/index2.aspx
To find the wallpapers, click the download link (menu is in English).
Trailer link for trailers. Trailers appear on the right as large and small flash video. Video appears to the left. I number them 1-5 going down. (top =1) 2, 4, and 5 are recommended, 2 for nostalgic anime intro theme, 4 and 5 for length and scenes.

Just when you thought this post could not get longer, other anime titles to look out for in quality are FLCL, which has so much ordered chaos in 6 short episodes that it ought to have entire essays on it, while still remaining so darn fun to watch, and Elfen Lied, a short yet incredibly violent anime series involving a woman with two distinct personalities, one being innocent, and one being a mass murdering psychic type. Guess which one this is.

Graves of the fireflies was ok but not as touching as people said or maybe I missed some of the sentiment.

Ninja scroll is fantastic-

The rorouni kenshin ova' s are really good especially the one when they get older and things take a turn (won' t spoil it).

You know, the Cowboy Bebop movie was a great flick to watch. Seeing favorite characters Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed do their thing in a movie flick is very interesting, as the plot is far more established than the anime and the almost always episodic content. If you have not watched it, do so.

Do not forget to set up file header encryption, so that your ISP does not throttle you

...yeah, done... ..Az has RC4 level encryption too!

Hokuto no Ken - Raoh Gaiden, a movie, not an OVA, and indeed one out of three coming out in the next few years.

O_O

*speechless*

...THREE??!!! .. ...you aint sh*tting me??.. ...

...do you have any good English language links? .... i HAVE to know more....