Akira

I had a friend growing up that somehow got into anime and of course one of the first movies I saw as Akira. I remember it being nuts as a kid but liking it a lot, and that led me down the path of getting into anime. I haven't seen it in its entirety in a very long time. After that, it was Ninja Scroll, Ghost in a Shell, a bunch of Americanized translations of Japanese cartoons like Macross (Robotech) Ronin Warriors, and others. Then came the Studio Ghibli (basically Japan's Disney) classics like My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and more. Once Toonami on the Cartoon Network got going, I got into other shows like Trigun, Outlaw Star, and Cowboy Bebop. 

About that last one... Cowboy Bebop still stands out as my favorite anime series. Every episode is great, as is the movie, and I love the universe. I had high hopes for the live action series, and I thought it was alright, but I never finished it once it was announced that it was canceled. 

David S. Wallens said:

Anyone else ever watch Vampire Hunter D? I remember walking to the video store for that one. 

I have a VHS of Vampire Hunter D. I had to spend months looking for it because it was super hard to get at the time and already considered legendary. I also have Wings of the Honneamise on VHS. Thats still a beautiful movie to this day.

If you're into modern anime I'm finding Frieren: Beyond Journey's End to be one of the best animes I've watched since FMA Brotherhood.

Weirdly my 9 year old daughter has developed an interest in The Apothecary Diaries, despite not understanding exactly what is happening with the class structure depicted. It's also pretty good.

Anyone here seen the 1997 version of "Berserk"?  I tried finding it on Interlibrary Loan and all I got was a hit on Laserdisk.  What can you tell us about the difference between it and the later (2016?) version?

In reply to The0retical :

Last time I googled Vampire Hunter D, I found the full movie on YouTube. Didn’t get a chance to watch it, though. 

Figured this would be the thread...  I borrowed "The Sky Crawlers" on interlibrary loan and watched it last night.   It's kinda like an Anime movie created by Stanley Kubrick--very <ahem> deliberately paced.  My two main quibbles with it were that the alternate reality universe in which the story is set isn't explained until about 2/3 of the way into the movie and secondarily, the dogfighting sequences are way, way too fast.  But the redeeming quality of the movie is the artwork, which is simply mind-blowing, to me.  Easily on par with and probably better than Ghibli, IMHO.  

Has anyone else here seen it?

In reply to stroker :

Sky Crawlers looks interesting.

In reply to Noddaz :

Very existential. Theres a holy crap plot twist in there.

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to stroker :

I remember the commercials but never watched it. That good? 

Did you ever watch Firefly? 

Kind of the same premise, on multiple levels, but Cowboy Bebop follows the broke barely-scraping-by bounty hunters and not the broke barely-scraping-by criminals.

Sharing just because: Three decades of Akira slides. 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to stroker :

I remember the commercials but never watched it. That good? 

Did you ever watch Firefly? 

Kind of the same premise, on multiple levels, but Cowboy Bebop follows the broke barely-scraping-by bounty hunters and not the broke barely-scraping-by criminals.

 

Not a bad comparison, but misses some important thematic differences. Cowboy Bebop is thematically more cyberpunk. Where Firefly is very "Fight The Power!", much of the central theme or tension in Cowboy Bebop is that "The Power" is too big and decentralized to fight. The system chew up and spits out everyone.

Cowboy Bebop is about how different characters react to realizing that The System can't be fought. It's how they react. It's how do you live with principles in a system that won't allow it. I won't spoil it, but that's basically the story of all the main characters.

It's also one of the reasons I think the live action failed. It tried to make Vicious the villain of the story, but he wasn't. The System was the villain. Vicious was the dark reflection of Spike, and what happened when two people faced the questions but chose opposite answers.

Cowboy Bebop is in the list of greatest narrative TV shows I've ever seen (as opposed to informative, sketch, or comedy). That list in no particular order:

• Cowboy Bebop
• The Wire
• Breaking Bad
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Arcane

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Shows how hard it is to do for real if Kamen Rider, the longest running motorcycle hero show, only did it once and used CGI for it.

In reply to j_tso :

I should try one on my bike but, yeah, to slide the front tire like that....

I did it once, i think, when I was seven, and i'm not sure I didn't high-side or lay the bike down...  No pics because this was back in the times before phone cameras.  Jumps were much easier. 

In reply to 06HHR (Forum Supporter) :

I think running front and rear brakes would make it easier to do that slide on the bike.

But I only run a rear brake because I’m not Harry Leary (RIP).

In reply to David S. Wallens :

IIRC I had an Iverson Road Runner which did have a front brake, so that would explain it.  Found a picture of the exact bike on the interwebs..

Funny the things you remember from childhood..  But i digress, carry on...

In reply to 06HHR (Forum Supporter) :

My brother and I had a mint, original Pea Picker at our grandparents’ house. This was before BMX. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

That's hot. I'd have given my left nut for one back in the day.. 

In reply to 06HHR (Forum Supporter) :

Once we heard of BMX, totally lost interested in the Schwinn. I bet my parents bought it for $5 at a garage sale–and sold it for the same amount at another one. 

My brother recently came across a photo of him riding it. Might be the only photo that we have of it. But I remember it being totally original, down to the rear slick. 

So I finally loaded my BluRay of Cowboy Bebop (the Motion Picture) purchased about a year ago and settled down for 90 minutes of anime fun. 

It's in Japanese.  There is no provision for English dubbing or English subtitles...  

In reply to stroker :

Weird. was the box in Japanese?

I just remembered there's a Halloween parade so it's somewhat seasonal.

In reply to j_tso :

Nope.  English text on the jacket.  There are a bunch of 1-star reviews claiming the same problem.

stroker said:

In reply to j_tso :

Nope.  English text on the jacket.

 

Does it have closed captioning?  Is that in Japanese?

I was to young when it came out, and never got into it. I bet if it was cars (instead of motorcycles), like a adult Speed Racer I would have definitely tried to watch it.

If you guys are looking for something to watch, you should give Overtake! a go. It is a drama, but a good one, that centers on a Japanese Formula 4 driver. It can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

I watched "Wicked City" a couple of weeks ago on interlibrary loan.  It struck me that, done by US producers, should have been what Heavy Metal aspired to be.