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First, I don't consider myself anime fan, in this sense that I'm an avid follower of the genre.
Still, I find most of the stuff I've seen both entertaining and oddly revealing of the Japanese. As a child I watched Speedracer and the apparently lesser seen "Kimba the White Lion", from which Disney's Lion King seems shamelessly ripped.
I'm currently watching ".hack//SIGN"; yes, that's really the title. I'm not sure I could recommend this one, it's paced like a sedated slug with a skin condition. Strangely, it almost feels like an incredibly long Existential play. Like such plays, I find myself watching, looking for a point, fearing the point is that there isn't one. It seems to have a huge following, though. I only have a handful of episodes left to see, we'll see how it goes.
Ranma 1/2. I've actively avoided this one forever. There's a startling amount of anime pornography in the world, sometimes called hentai, literally pervert. Once you've seen some hentai, you tend to not want to see more. Or, you want to see lots more, that seems to be the way such things work. From the premise and the fans, I'd always figured Ranma was hentai.
Then, someone told me the only anime they'd every seen was an episode of Ranma. This struck me as odd, so I watched a few. Basically, this appears to be girl anime with boobies. It's sitcomish and consciously PG, in spite of many places where it could go farther. I didn't find it particularly engaging, but not real offensive either. It was "cute". It was also strangely representative of anime standards.
Ranma has it all. School girls, cute animals, martial arts, mild sexual innuendo, unpleasant characters, and gender bending. Many anime shows seem to support leading characters that are contentious and hard headed. I've yet to figure out the charm of this, but it's often there.
Gender bending appears quite often in anime, from cross dressing to magical reassignment. In Ranma, the main character is male who becomes female when doused with cold water. Warm water reverses the effect. There's lots of situation comedy, so everyone is well washed. Aside from the expected spontaneous boobies, it's all pretty tame.
One of the elements of anime that I constantly see edited out or translated for tameness is sexual preference. While main characters seem to always be straight, major supporting characters can be alternate pitchers without anything being really made of it. There's a really odd scene in Yu Yu Hakusho where one of the demons is a transsexual, an infamous hentai "dick girl." Almost all the dialog is misdubbed in the English version and you're left totally confused.
It makes me think that I'm missing some Japanese entertainment because their liberal attitude might be considered inappropriate by the powers that be. I'd be very annoyed were that the case.
Still, I find most of the stuff I've seen both entertaining and oddly revealing of the Japanese. As a child I watched Speedracer and the apparently lesser seen "Kimba the White Lion", from which Disney's Lion King seems shamelessly ripped.
I'm currently watching ".hack//SIGN"; yes, that's really the title. I'm not sure I could recommend this one, it's paced like a sedated slug with a skin condition. Strangely, it almost feels like an incredibly long Existential play. Like such plays, I find myself watching, looking for a point, fearing the point is that there isn't one. It seems to have a huge following, though. I only have a handful of episodes left to see, we'll see how it goes.
Ranma 1/2. I've actively avoided this one forever. There's a startling amount of anime pornography in the world, sometimes called hentai, literally pervert. Once you've seen some hentai, you tend to not want to see more. Or, you want to see lots more, that seems to be the way such things work. From the premise and the fans, I'd always figured Ranma was hentai.
Then, someone told me the only anime they'd every seen was an episode of Ranma. This struck me as odd, so I watched a few. Basically, this appears to be girl anime with boobies. It's sitcomish and consciously PG, in spite of many places where it could go farther. I didn't find it particularly engaging, but not real offensive either. It was "cute". It was also strangely representative of anime standards.
Ranma has it all. School girls, cute animals, martial arts, mild sexual innuendo, unpleasant characters, and gender bending. Many anime shows seem to support leading characters that are contentious and hard headed. I've yet to figure out the charm of this, but it's often there.
Gender bending appears quite often in anime, from cross dressing to magical reassignment. In Ranma, the main character is male who becomes female when doused with cold water. Warm water reverses the effect. There's lots of situation comedy, so everyone is well washed. Aside from the expected spontaneous boobies, it's all pretty tame.
One of the elements of anime that I constantly see edited out or translated for tameness is sexual preference. While main characters seem to always be straight, major supporting characters can be alternate pitchers without anything being really made of it. There's a really odd scene in Yu Yu Hakusho where one of the demons is a transsexual, an infamous hentai "dick girl." Almost all the dialog is misdubbed in the English version and you're left totally confused.
It makes me think that I'm missing some Japanese entertainment because their liberal attitude might be considered inappropriate by the powers that be. I'd be very annoyed were that the case.
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From:
no subject
Lain
Hellsing (the whole series)
Metropolis
From:
no subject
I've seen Metropolis. I recall it vaguely. I remember thinking there were elements of Asimov's Caves of Steel and Citizen Kane, though I couldn't tell you why.
I'll look into Lain.
Hellsing's already on my need to watch list. If you haven't seen it, "Blood: The Last Vampire" is exceptional, if a little short.
From: (Anonymous)
Oh man