Skip to main content
I'm working on DVDtalk's list of top ten anime of 2005. This is what I've seen so far:

1. Samurai 7. I don't if I'll watch this, frankly. Who needs a remake of a masterpiece like Seven Samurai. There's already a decent Hollywood version, a Japanese schoolkids-versus-bikers version, even an outer space version. Japan! Don't catch Hollywood's unnecessary-remake disease! If you do, what next? Citizen Kane: The Anime? The Godfather: The Anime? Once Upon A Time in the West: The Anime? Actually, the last one might be kind of cool.
2. Ghost in the Shell: SAC (2nd Gig). I've seen the first two DVD's. I loved the first Stand Alone Complex, and this is shaping up to be just as good. In addition to the issues of what it means to be human in a cyber-world, these shows built on the political intrigue that was part of the original comic book, but (understandably) did not feature in the movie.
3.Fullmetal Alchemist. I've seen the first six DVD's. This started out looking like an entertaining kid show, a super-hero story with alchemy replacing super-powers. It gets darker as it goes on and the hero realizes that to achieve his quest, he has sold out to a semi-fascist regime that waged an unnecessary war against darker-skinned people. Even kids' anime is more cynical about power than the most "adult" US TV show dares to be.
4. Planetes. I've seen the first DVD. It reminds me of Patlabor, but with regular-guys-in-outer-space instead of regular-guys-with-giant robots. There's a humanistic spirit that suggests the series could be close in quality to Patlabor as well. Besides, I really liked Quark, which was also about space garbagemen.
5. Samurai Champloo. I've seen the whole series, and all I can say is see it now! See it if you like Samurai, or hip-hop, or grafitti, or goofy humor, or 60's TV series where characters wandered from one place to another getting involved in other people's drama, or Cowboy Bebop, or any combination of the above.
6. Porco Rosso and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I've seen both of these. Nausicaa was one of my most-anticipated DVD's ever; I almost bought a Chinese bootleg, but I couldn't do that to Miyasaki--sensei. Then it was announced as coming out, but the release date kept getting moved back. Although nothing really could live up to the hype (especially since I'd already read the manga and knew the basic story), it still ranks as one of the best science-fiction movies ever, animated or live-action. The detailed world-building sure makes Star Wars look the the half-assed combo of kung fu movies and 30's movie serials it is. Porco Rosso is pretty good, but not in the same class. The flying scenes are wonderful, but it's probably the only anime (with the possible exception of Black Heaven) geared mostly to middle-aged men who feel they've "sold out". I appreciate it in a somewhat remote way.
7. Appleseed. I've seen this movie. It is basically a remake of the 1988 video series, but that one looked crappy and this one is the best-looking all-cgi anime I've ever seen, so it's definitely worth seeing.
8. Gankutsuou--The Count of Monte Cristo. I've seen the first two DVD's. So far, so incredible. The cgi backgrounds are incredibly lush and fantastic. If you are tired of giant robots, annoying kids, and cute animal sidekicks in anime, this is a refreshing change. There's more intrigue, secret love affairs, and revenge plots in one episode than in a whole season of Masterpiece Theater, but with more gender confusion, aliens and strange machines.
gankutsuou8
9. Gunslinger Girl. I've seen the first DVD. The Japanese ability to mix heartbreak and violence may have reached its apex with this series. I mean, who else would have thought of terminally little girls whose parents can't afford treatment being cured by a secret government agency that also transforms them into cyborg super-assassins. That would be a unique solution for the health care crisis in the US today. Somehow, though, it's tastefully done, with the emphasis on the kids dealing with the problems of their unique situation and their relationships with their "handlers".
10. Area 88. I've seen the first episode on a sampler DVD. It looks OK, but I'm not big on war movies, so I probably won't watch the rest.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MY BUBBLE

This is real heavy metal, by the way . So, this guy whose name I swear I'd never heard but appeared to have gone to my high school tried to friend me on Facebook. His main interests were the band Stryper and Republicanism, so I didn't add him. I mean, really, Stryper ? I thought teens in the 80s only listened to them because they liked metal and their parents forbade any other band as a direct path to the worship of Satan. When you leave home, you throw away their records and listen to real metal. But then I read this article that said we are all getting trapped in a bubble of like-minded people who parrot our ideas back to us, due to social networks and rss feeds and apps only giving us the people/opinions/stories we want to hear. And I thought--maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I'm OK, because I do have a lot of weird interests that make it pretty hard to find people who are on the same page with everything. I have social network connections with people around roleplaying game

TOP TEN LIPSYNCH FOR YOUR LIFE SONGS FOR A DRAG KING EQUIVALENT OF RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE

 The Advocate has suggested that the greatest (i.e. only good) reality show ever, Rupaul's Drag Race , have a drag king contestant.  That's fine, but it would be much more entertaining to have a whole drag king competition. One of the best parts of Drag Race is seeing all the different types of queens compete: beauty queens, funny queens, conceptual queens, androgynous queens, scary queens, singing and dancing queens.  I want to see punk kings, gangsta rap kings, cock-rocking metal kings, panty-dropping R & B kings, country kings, baggy-pants burlesque comic kings, and of course, Elvis. I picked out some songs that make me think of different aspects of masculinity:  swaggering men, heartbroken men, lustful men, romantic men, philosophical men, and suicidally depressed men (interesting fact: I can think of dozens of songs by men about suicide, but only one female one: "Gloomy Sunday". What's up with that?) "That's Life" - Frank Sinatra

HOME ENTERTAINMENT UPDATE: THE EMBIGGENING

  Chromecast CD storage Antenna Blu-ray player Apple TV Receiver Record player VHS Tape player So, I decided to spend my tax refund on home entertainment this year, as TV keeps getting better, whereas movies... not so much. My computer is old, but it still works, and replacing a computer seems less urgent when you have mobile devices. It feels like a long time ago when RAM and processor power seemed so important in order to use the latest bloated software, but now with so many webapps and sites designed for mobile, as long as your Internet is fast enough, you're OK. Lifehacker says to spend money where you spend most of your time, and I now use my tablet more than my desktop. Also, with all the streams I have access to, there was one chink in my entertainment system -- my TV was not actually big enough to appreciate high definition. Well, it seemed like a good deal in 2007, at $200 more than my new one which is almost twice as big. The main thing stopping me