Shouting out to kleinbl00 and determinedkid because I know you're both classy dudes with good taste.
I'm currently watching Patlabor on Hulu and I'm enjoying it. I also watched a few episodes of Starblazers last night after determinedkid said it was pretty legit, and though it's dated, I'm enjoying the hell out of that too. So, I was wondering if you guys have any recommendations?
If I were to be completely honest, I've never been a huge fan of Anime. I've seen a few things here and there over the years, but the majority of it just doesn't strike me cool at all (yes, I know I'm a grown ass man who still actively collects comics). There's a lot of things that turn me off, needlessly drawn out plotlines (Dragonball Z and Initial D come to mind), overly sentimental characters (what's with an emotional monologue in the heat of battle?), weird shit with teenage kids, over the top violence, sex, and gore that arguably doesn't have artistic merit, etc. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to be overly critical of anime, for example there's tons of similar garbage in comic books as well and I actively avoid that stuff too.
I'm sure there's some pretty good stuff out there though. When we first started dating, my wife made me watch both Cowboy Bebop and Trigun with her, and both were pretty decent. I saw a series when I was younger, called Teknoman that I didn't know was anime because I didn't know what anime was at the time, and I thought it was a lot of fun. I've also seen a bit of Gundam here and there, though I have to admit I was more into it because I thought the toys were just so cool. None of that stuff was too bad, though I think Trigun got a little weird towards the end.
With that in mind, what kind of recommendations would you have? Elements wise, I like cars, guns, detective and noir stories, mysteries, lone heros, heists, cars, fantasy, and other random crap. I don't really worry if the show is 50 years old or made 2 years ago, I'm very much able to watch things and appreciate them no matter when they're made (seriously, I geeked out when I saw that Hulu has Thunderbirds and I added it right to my queue) so even if something is dated, I'll probably still enjoy it. I'm currently limited to Hulu and Netflix right now, so if I can find it on either of those two providers, that'd be a plus.
Bro do you even click tags?
A lot of anime is pure shit. Some of it is great. War is right - I would consider Madoka Magica to be one of the top two or three television series ever made, right up there with The Wire. From a writing perspective it is a technically exquisite Yngwie Malmstein guitar solo that attempts the impossible, plants the dismount and gives the judges double eagles and still gets a 10. Sitting down to watch it unbriefed (which is how you should watch it) is like grudgingly agreeing to sit through a My Little Pony marathon only to find yourself watching Lord of the Rings.
Netflix has Genesis Climber Mospeada on DVD. You might recognize it as the third cycle of Robotech but Robotech re-edited it heavily to hammer'n'tongs it into their existing Harmony Gold narrative. I think it's unique and interesting in that it posits a future in which a malevolent alien race takes over the Earth, the armed forces retreat to Mars, then they attempt to retake Earth some years later, fail miserably, and then we follow a band of guerillas as they try to find their pickup point while also discovering that most of humanity doesn't much mind oppressive alien domination. Also one of the fighter pilots is a transvestite lounge singer named Yellow Belmont because Japan.
Having done a preposterous amount of research on schizophrenia for a script, I can honestly say that Serial Experiments: Lain is the best attempt at portraying a schizophrenic's view of the world. A very smart, computer-savvy schizophrenic. The design is also fucking incredible. Watch it in Japanese; the dub is shit.
PsychoPass is pretty good. It's Gen Uruboshi, who also did Madoka Magica. It's a little less nuanced, a little more rushed, still worth watching.
Attack on Titan is shit. Don't bother.
We've covered a lot of these under #animeclub.
posted 2938 days ago