Post by benwayshouse on Feb 13, 2007 9:31:14 GMT -5
We're all the healthy lot of anime nerds, no? Well why not recommend something that we could all enjoy?
Evangelion. It's super popular, and it's got all kinds of religious, psychological, philosophical stuff crammed into it. You've either seen it or you haven't, and if you haven't, for shame. My dear friend Buzz wrote a nice summary of the show itself, and I agree with it, so you can just read his.
I'd also like to point out that Eva has spawned its own manga spin-off, known as NGE: Angelic Days. Currently it's on its third volume, with Volume 4 for a March 31st release (according to Right Stuf's pre-order page, anyhow). And also, if the anime doesn't interest you, the manga's there too. It's 10 volumes long, the tenth volume is slated for an April release here in America.
Azumanga Daioh. Christened 'The Seinfeld of anime', Azumanga Daioh is an anime about five (eventually six, around episode 10-ish, and seven if you wanted to count Kaorin) girls and their life in high school. Each girl has a very distinct personality - there's Chiyo-chan, the exchange student who's super-smart.. Tomo, the idiotic, athletic girl.. Sakaki, the big (and I mean big..
) girl who, deep down, has a thing for cute critters.. Yomi, the normal one, with the exception of her desire to lose more weight.. and Osaka, the one who's batshit crazy, constantly getting into daydreams, a lot of the time involving Chiyo. Students aside, we then have our teachers: Yukari, the crazy English teacher, whose driving has psychologically scarred Chiyo-chan.. Miss Kurosawa, or 'Nyamo', the gym teacher; the kids generally like her, but they really learn a lot about life when they catch her drinking.. and then there's Mr. Kimura, the Literature teacher who, actually, only teaches for the high school girls. He LIKES those girls.
Anyway, the general plots involve the characters' lives, and how they interact with each other. It's supposed to be funny how the characters react to each other (like in one episode where Tomo sneaks into Yomi's room, and on the radio program she listens to, they read one of Yomi's letters and make fun of her). I do greatly appreciate this cartoon, because the characters are believable and they have really amusing lives. Really cool. If you don't want to spend a lot of time trying to find the anime, the manga is exactly the same, with a few other jokes thrown in. It's only four volumes long, so you might get a kick out of it while it lasts.
Excel Saga. It's a comedy, like Azumanga Daioh, but to a much greater degree; whereas Azumanga was just plain weird, Excel Saga is just RETARDED. But it's awesome for that reason. The plot, when it wants to have one, focuses on Excel Excel (or just Excel for short) working for her master, the love of her life, her savior, Lord Ilpalazzo. Every kind of word that can positively describe the guy, she'll find a way to use it. Later on, Hyatt comes along, who seems to be a princess from another universe. She's the calmer one between her and Excel (Excel talks a mile-a-minute, seriously), but Hyatt also has a problem dying in most episodes (That's why we have the Great Will of the Macrocosm. Continuity be damned!). The point of their missions is to bring ACROSS (Ilpalazzo's own organization, run by himself only) into the public eye, in order to conquer the city and eventually all of Earth. Their missions are hardly ever a success because Excel and Hyatt are just stupid. That, or just unlucky.
Excel's not the anime for children, as it does have some pretty whack themes (the entire last episode is a hentai parody, and it involves a love hotel, in most instances with minors), but if you can stomach it, you can probably find a lot to laugh about here. If you don't want the anime, the manga has a lot more, and a lot funnier, jokes than the anime, I'm told. Given that Viz publishes it, I'm betting it won't finally end for a couple more years, so I probably won't be buying into it.
Anime I've had a lot of fun watching
-Eva
-Azumanga Daioh
-Excel Saga
-Spirited Away
-Nausicaa
Anime that was pretty good, but not amazing
-Crest of the Stars
Anime I need to seriously finish
-Noir
-RahXephon
-Chrono Crusade
Anime I have my eyes on
-.hack//SIGN
-.hack//Legend of the Twilight
-.hack//Roots
-Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances
-Xenosaga: The Animation
Anime I'd rather stay away from
-Naruto
-PowerPuff Girls Z
-Anything 4Kids dubs
Evangelion. It's super popular, and it's got all kinds of religious, psychological, philosophical stuff crammed into it. You've either seen it or you haven't, and if you haven't, for shame. My dear friend Buzz wrote a nice summary of the show itself, and I agree with it, so you can just read his.
Eva. An anime that is set twenty years into the future (from 1995, the show's date of conception). Mechs based off the data collected through an Angel (mysterious beings from other dimensions that only have one thing on their smithers: Destroying us humans... or so we think). Nerv has been established in order to counter these behemoths, as the UN's forces are no match for them. They have powerful AT (Absolute Terror) Fields that shield themselves from any blows dealt from conventional weapons (missiles, nukes, guns, etc.). After the incident of Second Impact (which occurred in 2000), Nerv prepares for future attacks from these things by gathering children born of the same year as the said event. These 14-year-old kids are mankind's saviors, as they are the only ones capable of piloting the Eva (Eva are creatures themselves, but need a 'soul' of a human in order to function - They are also controlled from afar by personnel at Nerv H.Q.). The method in which these mechs are powered is from a cable which transmits electricity. Specially modified S2 Engines are what the Angels use for mobilization; however, little is known of these foreign sources of energy (for now, anyway). The three children are Shinji, who pilots Eva Unit 01, Rei, who pilots Prototype Eva Unit 00, and Asuka, who pilots Eva Unit 02: The second, first, and third childs, respectively. Asuka is somewhat hot-natured and arrogant, so this can get irritating at times; however, Shinji and Rei are reserved (in one episode, Asuka even claims she's 'just an emotionless android', and calls Shinji stupid several times) but still kinda interesting in their own ways. One more kid, the 4th child, comes into play later but never has a major impact on battling the Angels. Units 5-12 also start getting mass-produced and do not require children any more, instead opting with the 'dummy plug system' only, which was just a prototype in Eva units 0-4. SEELE is the organization behind planning the fights against the Angels - They were once human, and their consciousnesses are programmed into a computer mainframe from which other people like Commander Ikari can interact verbally with them. Think of them as the 'leaders' of Nerv, per se. Central Dogma is important since that is where the Dummy Plug System was first experimented upon, and is now stored. Terminal Dogma, likewise, is vital as it harbors Lilith (the second Angel) and the Lance of Longinus (an extra-terrestial spear that was found in Antarctica during the time of Second Impact). Allegedly, to the common man, a meteorite hit Antarctica, which caused nearly 90% of its ice mass to deteriorate, but that's just media propoganda... so, what really caused Second Impact? Well... it had to do something with the Angels, that's for sure. Watch the anime to learn about it further and derive your own answer. The combat is intense, the psychological effects these children suffer from are extreme, but it's all in the name of bettering humanity and, one day, 'evolving' it to a higher-level of nigh God-status (how, you ask? I won't say...). The end justifies the means, I suppose, and it's not like the children really have a choice if they want to survive and help everybody. Further, just what exactly is Ikari's 'Human Instrumentality Project', and what does he plan on doing with it...? While it's not really explained all too well in the shows, End of Eva covers it up quite nicely. Technically, EoE covers what happens outside of the bounds of Shinji's and others' minds, while the series' endings are more about the HIP. Even though there are kids, people like Katsuragi, Ritsuko, and Kaji often make appearances (people in their twenties). It's got a very adult atmosphere to it, so Eva should be enjoyed by most teens and adults watching it, as I enjoyed the show as well. The only thing I was somewhat dismayed at was the last episodes (the excuse is that the team behind the project, Gainax, was running low on funds, so they couldn't really put enormous amounts of effort into it; Xenogears, anybody?). An interesting anime to say the least; it got me thinking on numerous concepts, and, I think, it is fun to simply theorize after watching the shows over events & all. The setting takes place in 'Tokyo 3'; originally, many parts of Japan had been submerged into the ocean due to the rising water level, which was caused, as told earlier, by SI and Antarctica's melting from the 'explosion'. First Impact? When a meteorite struck Earth, whiping out the dinosaurs.
I'd also like to point out that Eva has spawned its own manga spin-off, known as NGE: Angelic Days. Currently it's on its third volume, with Volume 4 for a March 31st release (according to Right Stuf's pre-order page, anyhow). And also, if the anime doesn't interest you, the manga's there too. It's 10 volumes long, the tenth volume is slated for an April release here in America.
Azumanga Daioh. Christened 'The Seinfeld of anime', Azumanga Daioh is an anime about five (eventually six, around episode 10-ish, and seven if you wanted to count Kaorin) girls and their life in high school. Each girl has a very distinct personality - there's Chiyo-chan, the exchange student who's super-smart.. Tomo, the idiotic, athletic girl.. Sakaki, the big (and I mean big..
) girl who, deep down, has a thing for cute critters.. Yomi, the normal one, with the exception of her desire to lose more weight.. and Osaka, the one who's batshit crazy, constantly getting into daydreams, a lot of the time involving Chiyo. Students aside, we then have our teachers: Yukari, the crazy English teacher, whose driving has psychologically scarred Chiyo-chan.. Miss Kurosawa, or 'Nyamo', the gym teacher; the kids generally like her, but they really learn a lot about life when they catch her drinking.. and then there's Mr. Kimura, the Literature teacher who, actually, only teaches for the high school girls. He LIKES those girls.Anyway, the general plots involve the characters' lives, and how they interact with each other. It's supposed to be funny how the characters react to each other (like in one episode where Tomo sneaks into Yomi's room, and on the radio program she listens to, they read one of Yomi's letters and make fun of her). I do greatly appreciate this cartoon, because the characters are believable and they have really amusing lives. Really cool. If you don't want to spend a lot of time trying to find the anime, the manga is exactly the same, with a few other jokes thrown in. It's only four volumes long, so you might get a kick out of it while it lasts.
Excel Saga. It's a comedy, like Azumanga Daioh, but to a much greater degree; whereas Azumanga was just plain weird, Excel Saga is just RETARDED. But it's awesome for that reason. The plot, when it wants to have one, focuses on Excel Excel (or just Excel for short) working for her master, the love of her life, her savior, Lord Ilpalazzo. Every kind of word that can positively describe the guy, she'll find a way to use it. Later on, Hyatt comes along, who seems to be a princess from another universe. She's the calmer one between her and Excel (Excel talks a mile-a-minute, seriously), but Hyatt also has a problem dying in most episodes (That's why we have the Great Will of the Macrocosm. Continuity be damned!). The point of their missions is to bring ACROSS (Ilpalazzo's own organization, run by himself only) into the public eye, in order to conquer the city and eventually all of Earth. Their missions are hardly ever a success because Excel and Hyatt are just stupid. That, or just unlucky.
Excel's not the anime for children, as it does have some pretty whack themes (the entire last episode is a hentai parody, and it involves a love hotel, in most instances with minors), but if you can stomach it, you can probably find a lot to laugh about here. If you don't want the anime, the manga has a lot more, and a lot funnier, jokes than the anime, I'm told. Given that Viz publishes it, I'm betting it won't finally end for a couple more years, so I probably won't be buying into it.
Anime I've had a lot of fun watching
-Eva
-Azumanga Daioh
-Excel Saga
-Spirited Away
-Nausicaa
Anime that was pretty good, but not amazing
-Crest of the Stars
Anime I need to seriously finish
-Noir
-RahXephon
-Chrono Crusade
Anime I have my eyes on
-.hack//SIGN
-.hack//Legend of the Twilight
-.hack//Roots
-Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances
-Xenosaga: The Animation
Anime I'd rather stay away from
-Naruto
-PowerPuff Girls Z
-Anything 4Kids dubs
