General Discussion

[PaulMacC]

Good ED.

[PaulMacC]

I was in town today getting my haircut so I decided to go into HMV to check out some anime DVDs. For one they had the anime section titled 'Manga DVDs'. Secondly, there was literally nothing good and the things that were good were pricey. They had a lot of the typical Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Death Note stuff. I'm not saying they are nessecarily bad shows but they could stock a bit more. I guess it is a business and that is what sells. There were a LOT of Studio Ghibli films and Satoshi Kon films which is great but the prices are insane. Paprika in HMV was 9 pounds which isn't that expensive but seeing as I bought it on Amazon for 3 pound about 2 days ago is a bit stupid. My copy was also brand new too. Also took a trip to Forbidden Planet, they have a HUGE manga collection. They also had some Japanese One Piece merch (cards, figures etc), all of the writing on it was in kanji too. Forbidden Planet have scrapped their DVD section though, well in the Belfast store at least. I couldn't seem to find anything. Didn't really buy much as I do all my shopping online but just a few words lol.

I still prefer the little manga/anime/game specialist store I found in Bangor. It's privately owned and has a huge collection of manga, figurines and they constantly order custom merch in from Japan too. It sucks they had to scrap their DVD section though as it wasn't selling but they still have a LOT more merch, clothing and manga than HMV/Forbidden Planet combined. Pretty impressive for a private business.

[PaulMacC]

Also. I ordered all these to watch! Surprisingly I haven't watched any of them but the order total was like 40 pounds. Not bad.

Paprika.
Tokyo Godfathers.
My Neighbour Totoro
Akira
Grave of the Fireflies
Perfect Blue

[Neversoft]

Forbidden Planet down on Shaftesbury in London is like a gold mine for anime and manga. Pretty much the entire ground flood is dedicated to it. I even saw people cosplaying in there for seemingly no reason. Some great prices, too. There's also a really amazing comic shop nearby called Gosh! which sells a huge, unique selection of manga. All the HMVs here sell loads of anime too, along with the Fopp stores which are owned by HMV. Went in Forbidden Planet in Manchester and they had a huge selection of manga, too. I really only buy manga from Amazon and the Expo though, since they have deals on.

Also, in terms of Kon; Millennium Actress > Tokyo Godfathers > Paprika > Perfect Blue
Also also, should have gotten Ghost in the Shell instead of Akira.
Also also also, Grave of the Fireflies will literally make you want to die. Most depressing film I've ever seen. Really good, though.
Also also also also, Totoro is a humble masterpiece. It's very slice of life, don't go in with any expectations.

Probably blasphemy, but does anyone else feel anime needs to start being more daring and less Japanese?

[PaulMacC]

Probably blasphemy, but does anyone else feel anime needs to start being more daring and less Japanese?

I think it needs more of a western influence. Cowboy Bebop and Trigun are two of my favourites and to me they feel very western-influenced.

[Neversoft]

Anime is too stuck in its cliches and studios are so concerned about profit that they're too afraid to do anything new. It's a shame there aren't really any established indepedent animation studios that would fill this void.

[PaulMacC]

Also also, should have gotten Ghost in the Shell instead of Akira.

I'm unsure where to even start with Ghost in the Shell. There is so many series of it. What is the chronological order of it?

---------- Post added 20-04-2012 at 01:27 PM ----------

Anime is too stuck in its cliches and studios are so concerned about profit that they're too afraid to do anything new. It's a shame there aren't really any established indepedent animation studios that would fill this void.

Do they make much though? Judging by Bakuman the manga artists aren't exactly living the high life. Is it the same for the anime studios? I've seen some pictures of the studios and they don't look amazing. Especially with MADHOUSE who I thought was one of the best studios declaring it's financial issues earlier last year.

[Neversoft]

I'm unsure where to even start with Ghost in the Shell. There is so many series of it. What is the chronological order of it?

Ghost in the Shell is the first film, and is directed by Mamoru Oshii. He followed that up with Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence nearly a decade later which is, in my opinion, not as good as the first film but looks frickin' beautiful. Inbetween this Kenji Kamiyama directed an anime series called Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which starts a new chronology in the Ghost in the Shell universe. He followed this up with Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, and also three films, The Laughing Man, The Individual Eleven and Solid State Society. The first two are just condensed versions of the main arcs from the firt and second series respectively, but the last one is an original work to finish everything off. So basically, there's two different chronologies when it comes to Ghost in the Shell and the only thing that connects the two are the characters, so really you can start wherever you want. Personally, though, I think Oshii's films are a lot better. The first movie, especially, sets the benchmark for science fiction anime and was also a major influence on The Matrix. No Ghost in the Shell, no Matrix films, pretty much.

There's also Ghost in the Shell 2.0 which is just the original Ghost in the Shell film with 'better' animation. More CG, basically. I think they did that so it could look more like Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and be released on blu-ray.

Anyway, I'd recommend just checking out the original Ghost in the Shell film and go from there.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113568/
http://myanimelist.net/anime/43/Ghost_in_the_Shell

Also, you've seen Samurai Champloo, right? That's very Western influenced.

Do they make much though? Judging by Bakuman the manga artists aren't exactly living the high life. Is it the same for the anime studios? I've seen some pictures of the studios and they don't look amazing. Especially with MADHOUSE who I thought was one of the best studios declaring it's financial issues earlier last year.

Anime provides a larger income than film when it comes to sales in Japan, and Japan have like the 5th largest film industry in the world. There's a lot of profit in anime, but as far as I'm aware, they make most of it from DVD and blu-ray sales, along with merchandising. Which I guess is why they're so afraid to produce anything unique.

[PaulMacC]

I will check them out when I get my coursework done this week. I have a lot due for next Friday, damn!

On another note.


Anyone know anything for a Season 3 of Kaiji? The manga is still ongoing and he has up to 5 'books' done.

[Southe,]

Will post a proper comment when I'm home on laptop but question. There was One Piece in HMV?