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Fortean Anime

Spookdaddy

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Spook recommends

Go and see Belleville Rendezvous and Spirited Away as soon as possible. I was going to say that I make no apologies for bringing up non-fortean subjects on a fortean website but on second thoughts they are both pretty weird...and absolutely, utterly beautiful in completely different ways.

I'm not an obsessive fan of animation but I can't emphasise enough how much better you'll feel after watching these two films.

The former is my favourite having a distinctly European sense of the bizarre and the beautiful that, paradoxically, you used to get in all those peculiar animated films from Canada.

Go see!

[Emp edit: Switching titles to a more general one.]
 
'Spirited Away'

I rented 'Spirited Away' when it came out and I loved it. One of the best films I've seen this year. Loved the story, loved the animation. Miyizaki can do no wrong.

:smokin:
 
Manga Movies

I love Manga films and I have been trying to find some more to watch but am finding it difficult.
I am not so keen on series like Neon Genesis but rather self contained films.
Some I have seen already are

Spirited Away
Princess Mononoki
Akira
Ghost in the shell
Orotsukidoji-legend of the overfiend
Porko Rosso
Alita-battle angel
Forbidden city (title?)
And one about a guy who joins the first space corp. (title?)

Does anyone have any suggestions to any good manga films that are worth watching?

Thanks
 
Yep - the best IMO is '3 x 3 eyes'

Not available on DVD at the mo tho :(

And the full vid series costs upward of £50, proving how popular it is.

Watch it and tell us what you think.
 
And one about a guy who joins the first space corp. (title?)

I think the film Fenris is referring to must be Wings of Honemaise (spelling?) which came out in the late '90s. An amazing piece of animation - set in a parallel Japan where they were trying to get a man into space, but the neighbouring countries thought they were building a weapon and declared war. The race was on to finish the countdown before the enemy overran the base.

I'd recommend Castle in the Sky by Hiyao Miyazaki (now available on DVD) - you already mention Porco Rosso, Mononoke and Spirited Away so you're familiar with his work.

Appleseed by Masamune Shirow is worth a look if you can find it.

I think the general public opinion of Anime is that it's all Pokemon, Battling Siezure Robots and demons fiddling with schoolgirls.
 
"Perfect Blue" is fantastic.

*Edit* and the first Golgo 13 adventure, with the various assassins. very eighties, but stylish and frightening.
 
I can recommend "Project-A-ko". A tale of schoolgirl jealousy and alien invasion. :D
 
Hello,

Thought i'd share my thoughts on the subject. Oh yeah - the animations are generally called "anime", while the word "manga" refers to japanese comic books.

About the films: many anime i have liked, but a few do stand out. I liked the oldies "Fist of the north star" a lot, mucho macho action in a fantasy setting. "Wind of amnesia" was nice also, about the world collectively losing it's memory. The abovementioned "Appleseed" is pretty OK too.

King Sprout: I believe it's "Wings of honneamise". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093207/
(and it is indeed nice)

Miyazakis "Kiki's delivery service" is one of the most uplifting movies i've seen, then again Takahatas "Grave of fireflies" made me feel blue for the rest of the day. This one is my one recommendation - a truly beautiful film about wartime (WWII) in japan.
 
Re: And one about a guy who joins the first space corp. (tit

Originally posted by King Sprout
I think the film Fenris is referring to must be Wings of Honemaise (spelling?)

Thats the one, I couldn't for the life of me remember the name though.

I realise the difference between anime and manga, however I thought more people would get what I was on about if I used the word manga.
Isn't there a company Manga Entertainment LTD who produce films?

Thanks for the input everyone:)
 
I, too, prefer the stand alone movies over the series. Here's a few that hasn't been mentioned:

Ninja Scroll ~ probably the best action anime I've seen, with some good 3 dimensional characters and a strong story

Millenium Actress ~ from the director of Perfect Blue, one of the best movies I saw last year, unexpectedly moving, and beautiful to watch

Metropolis ~ big budget anime, with a seamless mixture of cel animation and CGI, incredible visuals on this one, so much going on in the backgrounds, I had to pause it in some scenes just to marvel at it

Wicked City ~ earlier work from the director of Ninja Scroll, more sex and violence in this one, still a good story to follow though

Night on the Galactic Railroad ~ great adaptation of the classic Japanese novel, good for adults and kids alike

:cool:
 
Wicked City is great. And how could I forget Fist of the North Star?
 
One more suggestion...

Memories ~ this one came out in the mid 90's in Japan and is just now getting a home vid release. It's made up of 3 different stories, the last one is directed by Kastuhiro Otomo, the director and creator of Akira. All 3 are great. Don't pass this one up!

:cool:
 
no ones mentioned Neon Genesis Evangelion yet, that's a good one but pricey on DVD (4 episodes for 18 quid)!
 
I tend to like older anime (which seems to be a rarety in this day & age).

Hiyao Miyazaki did a great version of super-spy Lupin the 3rd - the film is called "Castle of Cagliostro" and it's well worth searching out. (came out mid-80's)

It was made into a video game at one time (like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace). One other anime film that is quite good that was also incorporated into a game was "Harmageddon", which invovled a centuries-old demon incarnating to destroy the world and a band of heros trying to come together to stop it.

I also remeber liking a feature film I saw based on a space spy character whio I want to way was "Cobalt" or something like that - it was like an anime Yellow Submarine meets James Bond, and the hero has a gun on his hand.
 
joester said:
BLOOD
The last vampire.

Incredible.

I saw that one about a year ago and thought it was good but if my memory serves me correctly it was very short, 30min long possibly. But very good.

I actually have Castle of Cagliostro in the video cabinet but watched only about 0.5 of it as there was a lot of distractions.
I couldn't get into it at the time and havn't looked at it since.
Ill have to rewind it and take another look.

Neon Genesis was good but it could never hold my attention for the whole series and I ended up missing the last couple of episodes twice. I know that is stupid.

Metropolis is available from a shop down the road for $30 AUD, thats about 12 quid. I havn't bought it yet because I thought it was a remake of Fritz Langs Metropolis which I already have.

Harmageddon sounds good

I havn't seen Perfect Blue around otherwise I would have seen it already.

:) :) :)
 
Metropolis is based on an old manga by Osamu Tezuka, the 'godfather' of manga. It's also produced by Otomo. It's not a remake of Lang's classic.

:cool:
 
Re: Spook recommends

Spook said:
Go and see Belleville Rendezvous and Spirited Away as soon as possible. I was going to say that I make no apologies for bringing up non-fortean subjects on a fortean website but on second thoughts they are both pretty weird...and absolutely, utterly beautiful in completely different ways.

AKA Les Triplettes de Belleville or The Triplets of Belleville (North American titles).
 
As good as (or better than) Spirited Away is Kiki's Delivery Service, Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbour Totoro. You should also check out My Neighbours the Yamadas, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

Heck, just watch every Studio Ghibli film ever. They're bona-fide geniuses over there.

There's a ton of great anime that would interest forteans or anyone else who's into sci-fi and fantasy, if there's not a dedicated thread already, there should be.
 
There's a ton of great anime that would interest forteans or anyone else who's into sci-fi and fantasy, if there's not a dedicated thread already, there should be.


WHERE is it? It sounds just what I want to watch! Would I have to order it as I'm in the UK? I read this earlier, and went to the video shop, but the unhelpful teenager there had ' never heard ' of them. ( The owner might, but I think she was just standing in )
 
I rented Spirited Away, and my 12 year old daughter pooh-poohed it.

Till she started watching it. 2 hours later, she sat transfixed on the sofa and asked if we could watch it again.

She is now obsessed with the Studio Ghibli films and cant watch enough of them

Belleville Rendezvous is one of those films I remember thinking 'I want too see that' when it came out, then forgetting about so thanks for the reminder too add it too my DVD rental list :)
 
Hokum said:
There's a ton of great anime that would interest forteans or anyone else who's into sci-fi and fantasy, if there's not a dedicated thread already, there should be.

Well if Spook doesn't mind with a light sprinkle of magic we could make this thread into that. There is certianly an uncatered for interest I'm sure - the advertisers seem to think so as they often crop up on the pages of FT (I'm sure I remmeber an ad for one of the Overfiends at one point!!).

I was looking through a big list of upcoming DVD releases and there is a whole shedload of anime coming out in the next couple of weeks: Ghost in the Shell, Trigun, Full Metal Alchemist, Gungrave, Haibane Renmei, Texhnolyze, Tsukihime Lunar Legend, R.O.D., etc. and then towards the end of the year more volumes of the same plus Burst Angel, Ramma and Tenchi.

Add in classics like Vampire Hunter D, etc., etc. and it can be difficult to know what is worth checking out.

People shouldn't be shy of dropping us reviews of their favourites:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22644
 
Lethe said:
WHERE is it? It sounds just what I want to watch! Would I have to order it as I'm in the UK? I read this earlier, and went to the video shop, but the unhelpful teenager there had ' never heard ' of them. ( The owner might, but I think she was just standing in )

I import most of my anime from the US, because they get all the good stuff. We have the big releases in the UK but some series take a long, long time to get here. You can download just about anything using BitTorrent. Try these sites:

www.animeyume.org
www.animesuki.com
www.anime-kraze.org

They all do fansubs - fanmade subtitles - so you'll get stuff that's just come out in Japan.

Ebay is great for buying series as you can get many of them really cheap, just be careful about the bootlegs. Watch for any that seem like they have too few discs (3 DVDs for a 26 episode series?!) or any that are Region 0.

Best online shop is www.animenation.com


I recommend the following:

Movies:
Akira (a classic sci-fi, must see)
Appleseed (2004 version, it's far superior to the original film)
Ghost in the Shell (great cyberpunk, see where The Matrix stole from! GitS 2 was rubbish)
Wings of Honneamise (very slow-moving but worth seeing)
And obviously all of those that I already mentioned...

Series:
Neon Genesis Evangelion (widely considered to be one of the best ever)
Noir (excellent series about two female assassins)
Trigun (awesome sci-fi western about a bumbling gunfighter)
Last Exile (stunning, one of the best)
Cowboy Bebop (don't ask, just watch. It was recently given a UK release)
Martian Successor Nadesico (very funny parody of mecha anime)
Elfen Lied (extremely violent sci-fi/fantasy)
RahXephon (good mecha anime)
Fooly Cooly aka FLCL (utterly bizarre, can't be explained)
Space Runaway Ideon (old 70's sci-fi, never got an English language release and it's just starting to get a fansub)

Well if Spook doesn't mind with a light sprinkle of magic we could make this thread into that. There is certianly an uncatered for interest I'm sure - the advertisers seem to think so as they often crop up on the pages of FT (I'm sure I remmeber an ad for one of the Overfiends at one point!!).

Do it! More people need to know about anime...
 
Hokum said:
Do it! More people need to know about anime...

Well you have effectively done it ;)

I'll just change the title to Fortean Anime.

--------
Availability?

Well check Amazon.co.uk - if they don't have it in their stock the stores they host often have them often with R1 editions for import and given the state of the dollar there can be decent savings too.

e.g. I was looking at Cowboy Be Bep the other day and they have a good selection (as well as someone offering the R1 boxset of the entire series). There are also good lists (check down the right hand side) with people recommending their favourites.

--
And Play.com have an anime section (and they have good prices on a lot of them):

www.play.com/play247.asp?page=front&sea ... &p=37&g=51

--
MVM are the company releasing a lot of the series into the UK (as I mentioned above):

www.mvm-uk.co.uk

and they run this store:

www.anime-on-line.com

which has a "New to anime?" page to help break you in gentley:

www.anime-on-line.com/anime/

--
Also if you want stuff from the East then try Yes Asia - they often have weird and obscure titles and various versions from the different countries:

Yes Asia (US)
Yes Asia (global)

They also have nifty deals for orders into the UK (currently free delivery over a certain amount and they'll pay the import tax).

---------------
Basically the goodies are easily within reach the problem can often be working out where to start (as an awful lot of them touch on Fortean topics) and this looks like developing into a good place to pick up some recommendations ;)

Holum - do you recommend the Cowboy Bebop film as well as the series? And is it a goo place to start? The reviews I read gave it the thumbs up.

I am looking forward to Samurai Champloo from the same creators and was thinking of seeing their previous masterwork.
 
Emperor said:
e.g. I was looking at Cowboy Be Bep the other day and they have a good selection (as well as someone offering the R1 boxset of the entire series).

The boxset for sale on Amazon is a bootleg. The only Bebop boxset is the R1 Perfect Collection, which contains the whole series, the movie and the soundtrack CDs. It was a limited run and is very hard to find. On the rare occasion it turns up on Ebay the price usually tops £200. I've tried several times to buy it :(

Amazon Marketplace is a great way to get cheap anime but you have to be very careful, check out the official release details against the details the seller provides (no. of discs, region etc).
There are a few stores on Marketplace that stock R1 anime boxsets and ship from the UK, with tax & VAT already charged, so you don't get any hassle from importing.


--
And Play.com have an anime section (and they have good prices on a lot of them):

www.play.com/play247.asp?page=front&sea ... &p=37&g=51

Thumbs up for Play. Great selection.

--
MVM are the company releasing a lot of the series into the UK (as I mentioned above):

www.mvm-uk.co.uk

and they run this store:

www.anime-on-line.com

which has a "New to anime?" page to help break you in gentley:

www.anime-on-line.com/anime/

ADV are also releasing loads in the UK: http://www.advfilms.co.uk/

Holum - do you recommend the Cowboy Bebop film as well as the series? And is it a goo place to start? The reviews I read gave it the thumbs up.

I'd recommend a tea cosy if it was Cowboy Bebop related. :)

The movie is great, can highly recommend that too, I watched it before I'd even seen the series, but chronologically it fits in somewhere around episode 23 or 24 so you're better off viewing them in order. Otherwise the characters can be a little confusing as nothing about them is explained. However, watching it first will not harm your enjoyment of the movie or series. Anyway, once you've got to the end of Bebop you'll want to go back and see it all again ;)

I am looking forward to Samurai Champloo from the same creators and was thinking of seeing their previous masterwork.

From what I've seen of Champloo it's just as good as Bebop, the first episode is fantastic and I've already started importing the DVDs rather than wait for the R2 release. The mix of samurai sword-fighting and hip-hop works really well, especially since one of the characters uses fight moves that look like breakdancing.

Shinichirô Watanabe hasn't done loads but Macross Plus is worth picking up, you can get a set with the series and the movie (the series is better) and I've seen it very cheap in HMV before.
 
Emperor said:
Thanks for the tips.

And Hellsing and Samurai X? They keep cropping up in my wanderings.

------
Oh and I've always enjoyed Ninja Scroll:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0107692/

Not seen Samurai X. I have Hellsing but I just can't get into it, not sure why. Loads of people recommend it though so I'd give it a try.

Ninja Scroll is on my must-see list.


Good site for reviews: http://www.animeacademy.com/
 
Hokum said:
Ninja Scroll is on my must-see list.

Yeah I have it on video but I see there is a swanky new 10th anniversary release:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001 ... ntmagaz-21

I haven't seen the series - MVM have the 3 volums individually:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001 ... ntmagaz-21

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001 ... ntmagaz-21

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002 ... ntmagaz-21

and there looks to be a swanky looking R1 4 disk boxset (which is reasonably priced if order from Caiman):

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007 ... ntmagaz-21

Actually checking Play..com they have the film in their summer sale so it'd be rude not to.... (this summer sale is killing me!!):
www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=genbrwa&pag ... tle=149328

and the 3 volume at a good price (seems not to be in the sale but at a permanent low price):
www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=genbrwa&pag ... tle=165872
www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=genbrwa&pag ... tle=168067
www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=genbrwa&pag ... tle=183044

They have a section for their anime summer sale:
www.play.com/play247.asp?page=promo&R=r2&id=843&pa=prp

and premamnetly low anime in their anime from £5.99 section:
www.play.com/play247.asp?page=promo&r=r2&id=1228&pa=prp
 
Wow, good links, thanks. Grave of the Fireflies for £8.99? Be rude not to.

I just got the 8 disc R1 Gasaraki Perfect Collection off Ebay for £12, brand new. Bargain!
 
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