What are you Watching?

[llj]

Thanks Steve. One question: the subs are soft subs, right?

I think when it comes to pre-80s anime TV releases in the west, Nozomi's Rose of Versailles is currently the gold standard.

I've been meaning to watch "Another", since it's up on a couple of legal free streaming sites. I like horror and I wish that there was more horror anime being made.

Yeah. Like I said, it's a fairly "young" genre on anime TV, having only really started to come on in the last 15 or so years. There just wasn't much "true" horror anime on TV prior to the rise of late night and satellite TV anime. So there's still lots to explore in the genre. When Death Note came out, it set a standard. Then Shiki came out a few years ago, it set another standard for horror TV anime, and then Another came out, and it also set a standard for horror TV anime. Prior to this you had shows like Boogiepop Phantom, Hellsing, Paranoia Agent, and a bunch of Scooby-Dooish ghost anime (Ghost Stories, Ghost Hunt, Ghost Hound), but they were a mix of various genres as well. There really haven't been many straight up horror TV anime, unlike the movie industry in Japan, which has a rich history of horror.

[SteveH]

Thanks Steve. One question: the subs are soft subs, right?

Ooops, yes, I should have mentioned that. Subs are indeed removable.

[greg]

I just finished watching the Wizardry OVA here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTHNoODYmY
Wow, this is how a video game-to-anime experience should be. It plays out like a dungeon crawl, with the heroes battling ogres, zombies, vampires, and giants, opening chests, and ultimately facing the evil overlord-type guy. Ilj and Danth, I'm sure you guys would enjoy this one. It's too bad that the dumb Final Fantasy anime couldn't have taken a lesson from this anime. As I had mentioned before of how I've been interested in seeing a straightforward fantasy genre anime, this certainly fits.

It's interesting to think of how Robert Woodhead, the head of AnimEigo, had once programmed the first Wizardry game, and how it became such a huge influence on JRPGs, and it eventually became this anime too. If only AnimEigo were to release this anime, it would come full circle.

[llj]

Wow, I never knew they even made a Wizardry anime. I'll definitely check that out. I'm kind of surprised Animeigo didn't license it sometime during the 90s, but they did seem to have a certain "type" of anime that they stuck to licensing in those days.

Anyway, I got the From Up on Poppy Hill DVD/BD. It's a very nice package. Actually, it's probably the best packaged North American release for a Ghibli film...ever! Disney tends not to stick their Ghibli releases with a whole lot of extras, but this one--which was handled by GKids--has about 3 hours of extras plus even a little booklet included! And it's actually even cheaper than a Disney release in most places! There's a certain irony to the fact that a Goro Miyazaki film got the best DVD/BD release in North American history. The booklet has a great little essay by Goro Miyazaki detailing his doubts, fears and being in the shadow of his father. It's pretty honest and self-critical, and I think it's helpful in understanding exactly why Goro persists in working in animation despite the looming shadow of his dad.

As for the film itself...I say give it a chance. The characters have a certain dignity and maturity in them not found in most films about teenagers, and there's a nice little dialogue here about the old battling against the new, which seems to echo Goro's own struggles with his father (who wrote the script). What's interesting about this is that the script obviously hammers home the message that we should respect history and our elders--but the film also has an underlying anxiety about being swallowed up by the past as well. I'd like to think that touch was Goro's. It's not the most sterling example of jaw dropping animation, but it's still got great art and has a certain formal beauty to the way each frame is composed. I'd rate it higher than Ocean Waves, The Cat Returns, and Howl's Moving Castle, for what it's worth.

[greg]

Yes, I just discovered the Wizardry anime last night and had to watch it. I'd put my little monster to bed early, so I had time to watch the 50 minute show. I've never played Wizardry, but the anime seems extremely faithful to the game. The fansubbers even put in lots of footnotes about the spells that are cast.

So the Up On Poppy Hill.. I can't think of the Japanese name, but I am sure the J-DVD has English subtitles, as does all of Ghibli's films. So by Ocean Waves do you mean Umi ga Kikoeru/I Can Hear The Sea?

[llj]

So the Up On Poppy Hill.. I can't think of the Japanese name, but I am sure the J-DVD has English subtitles, as does all of Ghibli's films.

Yeah, I think most Japanese Ghibli DVD/BD releases have english subtitles. But if you want to save a few bucks on a new copy of Poppy Hill, the NA version I'm glad to report certainly has nothing to be ashamed about.

So by Ocean Waves do you mean Umi ga Kikoeru/I Can Hear The Sea

Yep. That was directed by Tomomi Mochizuki, of Kimagure Orange Road fame. As far as teenage romances go, it's a massive step down from his own KOR movie 1, not to mention From Up on Poppy Hill. I always felt that Umi ga Kikoeru was like watching a bunch of high school seniors acting like 12 year olds. That may in fact be close to reality (18 year olds are hardly as adult as they think they are, not to mention 16-17 year olds) but it certainly doesn't make for interesting viewing.

[greg]

I always felt that Umi ga Kikoeru was like watching a bunch of high school seniors acting like 12 year olds. That may in fact be close to reality (18 year olds are hardly as adult as they think they are, not to mention 16-17 year olds) but it certainly doesn't make for interesting viewing.

When I watched that movie, it sure reminded me of high school. Kids being ostracized for stupid reasons, etc. On top of that, there may be some cultural differences. While American 14 year olds are having sex under the bleachers or while straddling toilets or God-knows-where, Japanese 14 year olds typically don't even have boyfriends/girlfriends. Of course there are exceptions, but for the most part, Japanese kids "mature" slower than American kids, especially in terms of relationships. I don't personally work with senior high school students, but these junior high school students are far less "worldly" than their American counterparts.

I know a guy who performs wedding ceremonies here, and he was acting so shocked and appalled about the teenage "shotgun weddings" he performs ceremonies for. I just told him that America has changed in the past 22 years since he graduated high school, and that it's gotten worse since then.

[kndy]

Right now, have a lot on my plate but Patlabor OVA, Patlabor TV episodes on Blu-ray, Golgo 13 TV sereis on Blu-ray and Is This a Zombie of the Dead TV series

[llj]

I've been thinking about Only Yesterday again. This is a film I watch at least once a year because there's something about it that really resonates with me personally. To some it's just a cute nostalgia piece but I see it as a pretty powerful portrayal of memory, individuality and conformity. It's really sad, too, when you realize how such a spirited and individualistic young girl became such a bland woman. It's the worst nightmare for a person--she's not a massive failure, she's not an outcast, but she's something worse: a no-personality nobody. Of course, that's what 1966 Taeko is for--to help her remember that she DOES have a personality hidden underneath all that conformity. Some viewers haven't noticed that a lot of the key moments in her childhood basically involve her family or the people around her stamping down her individuality. The pineapple episode, the math problem scene, the shoes episode, the acting episode...all of these contribute to her personality slowly getting chipped out of her. It's easy to chalk this up to Japanese conformity, but a lot of the stuff in the film seems to echo a lot of what we see in many cultures, even in America. No matter where you are in the world, there's always tremendous pressure to please family and friends, and if they're the type that thinks that the path to a "successful" life is a one-road path, you might be screwed like Taeko if you try to follow that path simply to please your family and friends.

It's this kind understated observation which has slowly vaulted this film into top-3 Ghibli territory for me.

I can't wait to see Takahata's flick later this year.

[greg]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Only Yesterday is a great film. It's like she is reunited with herself at the end of the movie ---the parts of herself that she'd lost---when she finds true happiness. Some may say the movie is "slow and boring", but I like it for the same reasons why others won't.

I was trying to follow a path to please my family. After living in Japan for a while, I moved back to America because I felt that it was what I should do. I was mainly influenced by my parents, who believe that the USA is like the "promised land" and full of the "American Dream" and all that. It was a painful experience to move back to the US, and I certainly felt that I lost a large chunk of myself. Whenever I came to visit Japan, it's like I was reunited with that part of myself that was left behind. It was always painful to go back to the US after a stay in Japan. My heart was yearning to come back here, but it took a while for it to sink in that the "American Dream" is dead (unless you come from a really crappy country), so I decided to cut my losses and move back to Japan where I certainly don't make as much money, but work is actually consistent and I am happier here. So now that I've moved back, I am (hopefully) permanently reunited with that part of me which I had lost. It was difficult, because my mom was near death when I left, and she died a few weeks later. But I don't have regrets. (She was dying gradually over that 10 years I'd lived in America, and it was finally her time to go. It wasn't a sudden thing.)