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Essential Anime: Bubblegum Crisis 2040 DVD, Vol. I
El Cosmico here, with a review of an anime DVD that is
not to be missed. Essential anime viewing.
Released this
week on DVD from
ADVFilms, are the first
four episodes of Bubblegum Crisis 2040, the lengthier, more
thorough version of the original (1987) Bubblegum Crisis series,
which is still available from
Animeigo, and is highly recommended as well, comprising
a total of three discs, for a total of thirteen episodes.
BGC 2040 is a bit lengthier, and made in 1998. It takes the original concept,
and completely retells it, starting earlier, and ending later,
all the while being more linear than the first series as well.
The length? Well, the first two VHS tapes had
three episodes each, the following NINE tapes have two episodes
a piece. Twenty-four episodes.
Here's some more math for you...with each VHS tape costing 24.95US
for the English dub and 29.95US for the Japanese sub version,
well, I think you can see the economy of getting four episodes at a
time on DVD at an MSRP of 29.95US. Not only does it look much better,
you'll save a ton of money collecting the whole series. Now, the company
line, the liner notes for the first few episodes:
In the aftermath of the great earthquake, one ruthless corporation stands
ready to take over the devastated city of Tokyo with an army
of synthetic monsters. Only one small band of female mercenaries
is ready to stand against the monolithic power of Genom, but in
this case four women are all it takes! Armed with the most incredible
combat suits ever designed, the Knight Sabers wage a desperate war
in the shadows, combating the monstrous by-products of technology
run amuck with courage, sweat and blood. It's a deadly trial by
fire as the acclaimed cyberpunk masterpiece is reborn in a new
action-packed series!
Face to face with the automated insanity of a mad boomer,
the newest Knight Saber learns the limit of her hard suit
in a traumatic exchange of mechanical fury. Genom unleashes
a new wave of rogue Boomers, and the AD Police declare open
war on the Knight Sabers! A bloody street battle is the only
way out as, trapped in a maze of intrigue carefully laid by
conspiring foes, the vigilante heroines fight to survive.
Sylia's brother Mackey joins the team as the whole town
goes up in flames in the second stunning volume of Bubblegum
Crisis: Tokyo 2040!
BGC 2040 is hardcore. While the series gets notably slower
in the middle, the beginning of this series is so thoroughly
satisfying, I found myself having trouble deciding whether I
like it or the original series better. Of course, I highly recommend
the original series, and I urge you to get it as well. There are
so many things to appreciate, cool characters, generally faster
pacing, and a better assault on the ADPolice tower, so this new
series by no means serves as a complete replacement. What it
does well, though, is go into greater detail, back story,
use an actual story arc, and use more modern animation and audio
recording methods. In other words, the two series complement each
other well, and to be honest, I consider both the old AND new
series to be essential parts of the serious anime collector's
library. In any case, the original series has long been considered
a defining element of modern anime.
First off, we meet the characters earlier,
and their designs are slightly re-done. For those of you who've
seen the original series, well, in 2040, Leon is more frustrated and
hard-core, Linna Yamazaki is a newcomer from out of town, and only
gradually joins the Knight Sabers (the team of tricked-out chicks in
Mech-Suits that fights evil). Silia is, well, still moody, running a
boutique, Nene still doesn't fight too well, and still works for the ADP,
and Priss, well, Priss is a bit more of a mercernary, a bit more
sexy. All of the characters are more well-defined.
Basically, the liner notes tell the tale, without giving too much away.
Four chicks in badass mech-suits what kick butt for justice. The disc
itself is a product of quality and care. Solid (not spectactular, but
solid) audio tracks, the Japanese track is of course preferable and
excellent, but the English track was surprisingly good, with some...
interesting translations. For example, "Leon-chan kowaii." (Leon's
so scary) is dubbed in English as "Leon's a great big poo-head."
Sounds odd, but it works. One of the things that impressed me the most
about the dub was the good sense with which the dialogue was re-written
into English. Unlike a great many dubs, this dialogue actually sounds
like natural, native-spoken American English. Well done. The English
voice actors, too, deserve a great deal of credit for providing
good work all around.
Most delightful on this disc, though,
is the excellent, well, just about flawless video transfer. There's
not a whole lot more to say, other than, it's a shame to watch this series
on tape when the DVD looks so beautiful. Menus are fine, the layout is
simple, with character profiles, episode and audio track selections. Sort
of bare-bones. Hopefully future discs will improve on the menu situation.
Anyway, this disc is awesome because of the content and
transfer quality, not the menus. It's a fine
series with plenty of mainstream appeal, that remains true to its
anime roots, and the lot of you should check it out. It hits the stores
this week. GO!
-El Cosmico
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well she does
that and this time round, as in refereence to the original series, the characters are characters, instead of being the
'priss show'.
that and the soundtrack rules.
btw anyone got any more news on the evangelion movie dvd yet? -
I don't care for this series. I didn't like the story develpomenet or music at all and the all-digital opening looked weak and souless. I'm a bit more biased towards the original series (well, episodes 5-7 were damn good, the rest I could take or leave) so take some of my reaction with a grain of salt. I also don't like the reusing of El-Hazzard style character designs. Makes the whole thing feel recycled to me. Couldn't they at least keep Kenichi Sonoda's character designs? Ah, well.
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Isn't this the DVD with the gawdy sparkly case? I can't stand to look at it when going through Best Buy so I may never have a chance at watching it. Anyway, has anyone here seen the Key - the Metal Idol series? If so, what did you think? The reason I ask is because I think it's an amazing series with little fan support and don't know whether it's due to people not liking it, or simply a lack of viewership. Personally, I would rank it right up there with Evangelion and Giant Robo. Speaking of which, when the hell are the Giant Robo DVDs coming out? That will be the day that Iron Giant kid can find out what a real robot ass tastes like!
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I haven't watched this whole series, so I can't comment on it's storyline yet. But El Cosmico's comment about the character designs being SLIGHTLY re-done is the understatment of the decade!
These designs look NOTHING like the incredable character designs that Kenichi Sonoda did for the original! Even when Masami O'Bari overhauled them for episodes 5 and 6 and with Satoushi Ushihara doing the same for episode 7, they at least look like the real designs still! This new series is just the re-used character designs from El Hazzard! It's a disgrace to see them with the name Bubblegum Crisis on it! It's just another example of the animation studios trying to make a quick buck by putting out substand series while trying to cash in on the fanbase of the original quality work.
If you enjoy anime, GOOD anime, GREAT anime, ANY anime, then please god don't pee-pee on the grave of the original Bubblegum Crisis by watching this new series!
Go out and buy the first 8 episodes on LD or DVD and enjoy the feeling of watching REAL 80's anime instead of some watered down, crappy CGI 90's re-hash. -
The old Leon was a great character. Wisecracking and somewhat of a lech, but definitely kick ass when it comes to action time. The new Leon's just a big muscle-bound idiot with a deep sepulchre voice, typical of most cop characters in anime.
I *do* like the hardsuit launcer though. I laughed my ass off the first time I saw that. ^_^ -
OK, so this 90s generic remake babes & mechs OAV is "essential" anime? It's more in-depth and linear than the original? Great... that means what? More of a bad thing is more of a bad thing. It can't touch the original in terms of the quality and talent behind it. El Cosmico seems to use almost any anime DVD release as an excuse to write another drooling non-review of something. It's "essential" but he doesn't give any reasons why it's actually good (which it's not). 99% of anime is shit, just like anything else. By the way, I love anime, but you have to be able to recognize that instead of loving something just because it's anime. There are far too many "fans" like that these days. That's like loving any Hollywood movie because it's a Hollywood movie. Ridiculous. To me, "essential" works are Miyazaki, Leiji Matsumoto, SDF Macross, 70s Mech shows like Mazinger, Grendizer, Gaiking, etc., Lupin III, Hokuto no Ken, Akira [read the manga first then you'll realize why the world went nuts when they actually made a movie ... I admit fans appreciate it the most, but Otomo succeeded in cramming the gist of 2000+ pages into 2 hours], etc. Basically the things that have stood through time and best represent what anime is. Nobody will remember cheesy dime a dozen 90s sopa opera girls with boobs OAVs, except that they existed. OK... here's my main reason for posting: I believe it was El Cosmico who heaped praise upon the Ghost in the Shell DVD at one point, saying it had a great transfer, the usual. I'm sorry but that pisses me off. It's widely known that the Ghost in the Shell DVD, an early DVD in the history of the medium so far, has one of the worst transfers ever commited to disc. The opening scenes (most notably the running troops and helicopters) are scoured with trailing images, double images, incredibly apparent aritifacts, etc. Basically the inexcusable type of DVD quality. It's got very inconsistent quality, at times looking like a SegaCD game, and in many scenes looking flawless. It's as if they just hit the "compress" button on their mpeg machine during the opening, and didn't set any keyframes. Recording the movie off laserdisc onto SVHS using a JVC HRS9800 actually looks better than the original source (gets rid of the video noise inherent in laserdisc and adds information to create a higher than SVHS resolution picture) but sadly, it EASILY beats the DVD. From a frickin tape (if you have the right deck). Whoever said the Ghost in the Shell DVD rocks just because they put the movie on DVD has zero credibility. And I can't think of who else would say that besides El Cosmico (I've been meaning to rant about this for months, this was a good excuse).
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Speaking of mindless, I hate to break it to you, but I've never reviewed the Ghost In The Shell DVD, which seems to invalidate the second half of your post. I don't know where you got that, you must have dreamed it up. Well done indeed. As for the first half, you seem to be of the mind that there's been no worthwhlie anime produced since the early '90s. We've got Patlabor, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Lain, and a ton of other content that pushes the boundaries of the genre, and you're still in love with proto-anime like Macross? Macross deserves credit, but it's infantile compared to more modern content. Seems to me like you're trying to sound like a hard-core fan by waxing nostalgic. Well, hard-core fans of a genre don't mindlessly bash great modern content that furthers the genre's development, by sinking into the past and muttering tripe like "Back in the good old days..." The good days are NOW, we've got more content than ever, and most importantly, we've got more GOOD content than ever. If you really loved anime, you'd realize that.
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BGC 2040 may be a good show with really nice animation, but I think El Cosmico would do better to review a show with more than one DVD out. I boldly suggest that everyone should acquire the first 5 Cowboy Bebop DVDs. The 6th and final one is due out in another month or so, and Bebop has the best transfer quality of any show in the world. The dub doesn't completely suck, it has a very well developed story line, great action, and insanely great music. Gee, that was kind of a review in itself wasn't it?
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I checked up on my previous posts, where, I mentioned that Ghost In The Shell was well known, and also commented: "Years before Mamoru Oshii did Ghost In The Shell, he turned out a film, which in my opinion is a good bit better. Not that I don't like Ghost In The Shell, but it's not in my must-have list of anime." Again, VOOT, I have to wonder what crack you're smoking. As for Bebop, I agree, goatbag, and I'll be reviewing it as soon as disc six is out.
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I believe you made a passing comment once that the DVD rules, or some such thing, seemingly because it simply existed. This was in a different review. If it wasn't you, then it was another Coax writer. Like I said, it was a while ago, and I know it might not have been you, but it "fits" something you'd say. I'm not trying to sound hardcore nor wax nostalgic. I have a good memory. I totally agree that the "good days" of anime are right now, but we have also been in the good days since... well as long as I can remember there has been at least some quality and worthwhile work being done. Don't call something infantile because it was the originator of a genre. That's a good thing! And worth remembering. Rehashes and remakes are not. I agree that there's more CONTENT in the 90s than anything. Quality? What do you consider quality? High production values, apparently. To me it's a timeless story I can always return to, and characters I care about (not just labeling it as "good content"). That right there narrows the field quite a damn bit. Perhaps there is more high quality content than ever, but the quality to shit ratio is also the worst it's ever been. I know that Eva is truly something special. I know that a handful of anime in the 90s was brilliant, just like any decade, including the 70s and 80s. I don't hate the 90s, I love it... it just has its downside. Sorry if I can see that....................... and don't take me personally, I do appreciate your reviews, El Cosmico. BTW, do you deny that the Ghost in the Shell DVD has a shitty transfer?
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You tell him, JavaDevil!
Macross is Proto anime and dosen't compare to current stuff?
HUH?
The good old days were called
good for a reason!
Give me Great Mazinger
or Urusei Yatsura
over BGC 2040, or any of these
other lame 90's re-hashes anyday!
Let's hear it for Old Fans Who Are Bitter!!!!
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I've been reading the battle between VOOT and El Cosmico... and I believe that VOOT is ripping El Cosmico a new asshole (pardon my french). Now is NOT the good ol' days, El Cosmico... and I think you should listen to the big otaku such as VOOT for their RIGHT opinions!
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First up, thanks to VOOT for seeing my point and actually discussing this. I still think Macross is infantile, but that's just my opinion. I agree, the GITS xfer was lame, which is a main reason I didn't recommend that disc. Again, next time, don't accuse me of something without a basis, and the idea that it "fits something I'd say"...come on VOOT, that's an utter BS argument, and you know it. You seem capable of more complex thoughts. As for Kik-sama, you take the idiot of the day award, for saying you are with VOOT 100%, then saying "Now is not the good ol' days," right after VOOT gets done saying "I totally agree that the good days of anime are right now." Once again, brilliant. Simply stunning acts of mental strength. I'll say it again, as much good stuff as there was in the past, and there was a lot, the stories in the best modern anime have only become 1)More challenging 2)More inventive 3)More serious 4)Better thought-out than before. Listen to the big otaku? I AM a big otaku.
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JavaDevil asked why no comments about the treatment of Escaflowne on Fox Kids, I don't discuss it because I don't have time to discuss all the things I don't care for. Much the same reason I don't discuss the shitty treatment of Tenchi on Cartoon Network.
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El Cosmico, you have some true points. But... 1) more challenging 2) more inventive 3) more serious and 4) better thought-out are not necessarily things that make something better. They CAN make something better, they can also make it drivel. It's all in the execution. They do make it better in the titles that genuinely work, which seem like rare gems these days. Missing from your list is 5) originality. Anime faces the same problem of all other media right now: it's getting harder to remain geniunely original. That's not its fault, but I don't see anime trying as hard as a whole. Hell, even ones that are original are mostly downright stupid or unwatchable. Like I said, the gems are really rare. And we don't agree on all of them but that's ok.
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I take pride in being the idiot of the day and I'd like to thank the academy! Anyway, El Cosmico, I think you're just biased and you take pride of wanting never to be wrong... and I give VOOT credit for admitting his faults... I think that you're just a big baby and don't wanna admit that VOOT's tearing your opinions to shreads. I agree with you only on one thing... that whole Cartoon Network thing and all that crap they have on U.S. TV saying they have good anime... bleh.
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first off, gits, i dunno about the region 1, but the region 2 was aweomse sound and video, maybe your just got a shitty dvd player, how should i know.
back to bubblegum, i got the first few videos of both the original and the 2040 series, which is better? its painstakingly obvious, 2040 is far superior. Come on, there is no arguemnt which can back up the original being better, other than its soundtrack, which is the real classic thing about bubblegum.
Now 2040, its not a sequel, its a remake, as for charcter designs being familiar, what the hell is your probelm, do you also complain when george clooney is in the same movie and , shock hororro, looks like goerge clooney BOITH times, OMG.
firstly, plot wise, the original was not THAT orginal, although it may have been at the time for all i know so its irrelevant. But it was the priss show, no one else got any screen time except priss. in 2040 linna starts off the series, and what makes the series so much better, is that its more like blade runner than the original was (having a character named after doens't make it so). The boomers are all aorund the society, and theres the whole, anti boomer racism issue regrding their treatment. in the original, they just turned into a big blue thing, with a gun from somewhere? 2040 makes more sense and loks a lot better. the characters are more fleshed out with their own mannerisms and styles.
it has a more techno soundtrack, ala the new style of futuristc, the 80s may have been 80s music, but today its techno, you see my point right. and to say there are just blank cells with nothing happening is a futile insult, its more of a genre framework these days, and in the 80s they animated eveyrthing, and i'll be honest, a lot of the time it looked messy.
The stlyistic lighitng, especilally in episode 4 on linnas first assignment is just, wow, this is a sophisticated sci-fi story, not your popcorn trash.
as for characters being different, differnet story, what did you want, another psycho 98 situation? i sure hope not.
Leon is different yes, but hes not just a dumb tough guy like is first given to a person who maybe saw the trailer and thats it. He fleses out in the later episodes as a guy, with guy problems, its not his fault his partner is a clever than him is it. i already mentioned linna, but nene and sylia also have real roles this time, nene isn't ditzy, shes young and fun loving, and you really believe shes is a master hacker, especially when you see her apartment and her custom made 'nene-grams'. and sylia, well, i won't spoil any of the plot for you regarding her.
and patlabor 2 was better than both gits and patlabor 1, its the most eeriest film you can see about society.
plus, macross is infantile, come on, who are you trying to kid, all i cna suggest is this, el cosmico, you should, if you aint already, check out sakura diaries, it would be great if some non sci-fi/mecha anime was reviewed for a change.
ps. i am not known for my good spellling either :P -
When Spriggan is coming out? Also, I understand James Cameron has bought up the rights to a number of anime properties. Anyone know what they are and what stages of development any of them are in?
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I have the original BGC series on VHS, but imo the spinoff "AD Police Files" series of three tapes are far better. Especially "The Man Who Bit His Tongue." Grisly in parts, but just great anime.
dsan -
Maybe it's just a symptom of the OVA nature (although at least through the first three OVAs they thought there was going to be something like a 12-tape run), but BGC 2032 created a tight story with mysterious circumstances and one completed story arc in just 3 eps. 3 eps into 2040 and I was bored and disinterested, despite "greater" character development and more backstory. And it wasn't just "the Priss show"...eps 2 and 7 were predominantly for/about Linna, for starters. At any rate, give me Sonoda's work (in the original dialoge) over the new stuff any day. I still have a hard time watching eps 5 and 6 without getting a lump in my throat.
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Dude, I can't BELIEVE how much stupid shit El Cosmico takes from assholes like you. I would have BANNED your ass. You actually said VOOT was tearing his opinions to shreds, AT THE SAME TIME YOU admitted that VOOT is admitting he's wrong and El Cosmico is right? YOU ARE THE BIGGEST FUCKING IDIOT ON THE PLANET, SO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STOP WASTING BANDWIDTH. How the fuck is VOOT beating Cosmico's arguments if he's giving in to all of them? HOW FUCKING STUPID ARE YOU??? God DAMN shut the fuck up.
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The audio and video are awesome, and more importantly, the series itself kicks a lot of ass. I really liked the original too, but 2040 is awesome too. I can't decide which one I like better, anyway go out and get this, it FUCKING ROCKS!!! Oh, and El Cosmico rocks too. FUCK anyone who says otherwise.
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Sep 11, 2000 10:57:36 PM CDT
What are you talking about? Ghost in the Shell was a great trans
by albert acisuan
I will come forward and argue that Ghost in the Shell was a GREAT transfer. Yes, I know there's artifacting, trails, and so forth, BUT IT'S ALL BELOW THE BLACK LEVEL! If you had your TV PROPERLY calibrated, like you're supposed to, and the Brightness NOT turned up too damn high, none of it would be visible! Get a copy of Video Essentials, go through the calibration process, and see if it (and every other DVD you have) doesn't look a million times better once you're looking at true black and white levels, and proper color. The only problem I see with GITS's transfer is that it's not quite as sharp as it could be, which I take as an early effort to stop shimmering and dot-crawl. Remember that GITS was one of the earliest animation DVDS.
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That I opened and need to seal back up, real quiet-like. This guy came out of nowhere. The artifacts are not below black level at all. I do have video essentials, I owned it when it was called "a video standard" on ld. My set is set to "correct"... To the other guy: I have a DVL-919. Back to this guy: That disc has taken a lot of flak for a reason. The opening has some of the shittiest artifacting ever seen. It's like they forgot to set keyframes and bitrates during some shots of the opening sequence. They are extremely visible when your set is calibrated correctly, and are puke-inducing. I'm not even what I would call a hardcore user and this stuff is really apparent. Even with a backlight set to the appropriate white-temperature. Back to some other guy: yeah I know the region 2 disc is awesome, maybe I'll get it some day. I live in region 1. OK I hope I'm done with the ghost in the shell stuff... although I brought it up. I searched for the El Cosmico quote where I said he praised it, and I can't find it. Maybe I dreamed that up but I do know what I'm talking about otherwise. And to the person who said I was "giving in" to "all" of El Cosmico's "arguments" ... um I agreed to disagree with him. He thinks the "good days" of anime are now, I stated that they've always been good, including now. But I'll go further and say the BEST days are defnitely not now. Just look at the anime industry and the way it's turned. When all there was were theatrical features and TV series, that itself dictated that the quality was higher than when you have a humongous direct-to-video market, 90% or more of which is lard. oh and Kik is a retard @_@
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People People! There's no need to trash either series both are terrific in their own way. The original series had great animation, great J Rock, and great characters, Largo and Quincy are some of my favorite villans in Anime,plus it wasn't afraid to kill off the "New Friend of the week" Sylvie, Irene, and Anri, but it also had its weaknesses; weak story arcs, story progressed to fast, for example between episodes 5 and 6 are maybe a month or two apart yet Largo was suppose to have taken control of the R&D facility from his predassor Flint and created several new Super Boomers, and other things that would or should logically seem to require longer time to develop. Plus it didn't do a good job of explaining everything a viewer needed to know to understand the series, the RPG helped out alot in this regard, but we can't forget that AIC and ARTMIC's divorce in 1990 cut the series short, thus causing some of these story problems and unfortunely brought in Bubble Gum Crash :(
BGC 2040 also has alot of strengths. It has good animation, good characters, people like Brian J Mason, Quincy are alot better fleshed out in this series. Not to mention they finally answer all the questions that have been hinted at from the original series; did Genom cause the great earthquake? Is Sylia and Mackie boomers? On the down side the soundtrack is super weak, and its not, how can one say? Hardcore enough. Their are no tragedies in this one. In the original series it was sad to see Sylvie and Anri die because even though they were boomers they wanted to be free just like real people. I'm up to Episode 7 so far and their ain't nothing like that in this one. Plus worst of all Largo is not in BGC 2040, because he was just a really cool villan!
Some final notes many of you have complained about the new character designs, and apparently the reason they were changed was that Kenichi Sonada actually requested that they be changed. On a BGC 2040 website I visited, they mentioned he requested this because his work in the original series was so strong, so popular, that it eclipsed all the work he did after BGC. This also happened with Nene's voice actress. So I guess BGC in the long run hurt their careers and they don't want to be associated with it anymore.
Plus El Cosmico, not to be a weiner but BGC was 1987 not 1985, it's dated enough no need to make it any older:)
If I made a mistake or you disagree on something comment but please don't flame me. Peace, Love, and Joy -
Are you sure it was 1987 not 1985, because the IMDB lists the original series as being in 1985. Maybe you're thinking of the US release? Check it out:
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0088863 -
I just read your post Soappr sp?and w/o putting the tape in my VCR I hav to say its still 1987, becasue Animego did not release BGC here in America until 1991, it was only subtitled than and it came in those video cases like Block Buster uses for their movies. At the end of each movie they showed the copyright date. EP 1-3 are 1987, EP 4,5 1988, EP 6 1989, Ep 7-8 1990 (You must be thinking what a nerd to know these dates, but I know this because I use to listen to soundtracks at the end of each tape, so naturally I would see the copyright date, and plus I like reading the end credits/music because they helped me understand Japanese better. Another piece of evidence is that my local Anime Club, the Cincinnati Anime Club has a huge archive of 1980's Anime magazines In one issue I saw a review for EP 4 Revenge Road and they had the release date of 1988. Also, to me its just marketing; if it was 1985 than that means they realeaed only ONE or less episodes a year from '85-'88, there's no way AIC/ARTMIC could have kept the cash flow coming in to finance the rest of the series.
So in conclusion I might wrong, like I said I would have to see the tapes again, but I think I'm right. If not that's cool because it means that a 15 year old series still has better animation, and music that is better than some of the "better" releases in the 1990s. BTW what was that web site about. They had BGC by its Japanese title and not English, that was really neato. Peace, Love and Joy! -
El Cosmico, I'm curious why you had to push the quality of modern anime by insulting the quality of older titles. I found Macross (both Japanese and Robotech) quite entertaining because of the story, music, animation and character development. For example, I've never thought of the ways an alien might view human societies until I saw this show and they did it in a funny, yet thought-provoking way. I've found other older works equally enjoyable. In the past decade, I've watched many titles and have not enjoyed them as much. Some have been very good, entertaining, thought-provoking, or all of the above. The majority, however have been disapointing. I believe Lain, Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Mononoke Hime, Black Jack and other recent works to be good. (Sorry, not fond of Evangelion) I also believe there are a lot of crappy titles being passed off as good because they are new (X, Slayers, Tekken, Fatal Fury, and Tenchi come to mind). You said The newer anime "pushes the boundaries of the genre (BTW it's a medium. Big difference.)" and can't believe people are "still in love with proto-anime like Macross?" I enjy something because it's good, not because because of its age (although sometimes, this can color my opinion.) I don't know if you seen the titles I'm about to list, but check out works like Wings of Honneamise, Arcadia of My Youth, Macross: Do You Remember Love, Tomorrows Joe, Rose of Versailles, Dallos, Robot Carnival, or Twilight of the Cockroaches and I believe you may find thaey stand up favorably to some of the best modern anime has to offer, in story, character development and, in some ways, animation. I can't help it, I tremendously enjoy this medium, and don't believe one period of anime (or any other medium of entertainment) should be used to dipsarage another.
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I MUST agree with Brian J Mason's post. He really hit the nail on the head with it.
Plus, Largo is the coolest and most interesting anime villian to be seen on screen yet.
And P.S.:
The_Great_One, seems to have great taste in classic anime.
Maybe El Cosmico should turn off the 40th alternate universe Tenchi Muyo sequel for a minute and check some of them out. -
When I was searching for his seemingly non-existent praise of the GitS DVD, I came across some comments of his... such as Robot Carnival is one of his all-time faves.
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To "Great One", well, I'll agree to let you not like Evangelion if you let me not care for Macross. As for genre vs medium...ANIMATION is the medium. I can just see it now, a talkback discussion on semantics. That would be original, eh? I actually have seen the works you mentioned, as VOOT points out, and in my mind Wings of Honneamise and Robot Carnival stand out, but I wouldn't say they're as old school as the other stuff folks have been talking about. To me, stuff like Wings and Robot Carnival are the beginning of modern anime. One man's opinion. I liked Twilight of the Cockroaches too, I thought it was outstanding, but very depressing. Well done, though. To cddiede, who asks me to "turn of the 40th alternate universe Tenchi Muyo sequel for a minute', dude, I just got done saying how shitty I thought it was. Next time, read previous posts first. Oh, and as for Largo, I definitely agree...he's the coolest villain anywhere in BGC, new or old. I'll be reviewing the upcoming box set of the old series soon.
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Just realized my previous post didn't make this clear. Wings of Honneamise is probably my favorite title of all time. Problem is, numerous (I'm sure you're all aware of them) DVD release delays. Anyway, rest assured, I'll be checking it out too if/when it finally comes out. The same is true of Robot Carnival, if it was out on R1 DVD, I'd give it the most glowing review around, but unfortunately it hasn't made its way out yet.
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if theres no need for him why are there so many remakes huh?
and com4e, tenchi isn't THAT bad, its fun, and surprisingly touching. one of the better series out there.
and X was very refreshing, it was a big budget monster city, and the final fight is just, poertic. and slayers too is funny, lots of people out there don''t like the 'tongue firmly in cheek' anime, but hey, eahc ot his own right.
and bgcrisis, i sorry, i have to go bac to it, its my fave series and its the topic you know. episode 2, when linna is running the vr flashback, thats just aweome in narrative, style, just awesome. and all i cna do is reccomend perfect blue to anyone with an ounce of credibility as an anime fan. -
I'm sorry for implying that you watch the new Tenchi Muyo's.
I'll admit that does hit below the belt and I neglected to read that you already dis-associated yourself from them.
I was just trying to think of a crappy 90's re-hash series and it instantly jumped to mind, of course.
Also, you realize how cool Largo is, therefore you RULE and any previously harsh statements I've made about you are now nule and void.
My friends and I just happen to love Largo so much that we compete to see who can obtain more cells of him (something that's hard to do since he was only in 2 BGC's and 1 Bubblegum Crash).
Fans of Largo, unite! We need not bicker so long as we all can rejoice in the knowledge of Largo's coolness. :) -
Can someone back me up on this so I don't look like I'm smoking crack again? I know about the impending Wings of Honneamise dvd release, but I swear it was released here already... and some new company simply got the rights to do a big release. I have very real memories of seeing it in Suncoast a few times within the last 2 years, and always telling myself "I'll pick that up on my next visit". As an aside, there's a great region 2 box set release of it on dvd complete with english subtitles... OK, now does anyone remember a little flick similar in format to Robot Carnival called Neo Tokyo? It only contained 3 short films. I believe this was assembled for the US market only, sticking these 3 short films together that were not related in Japan. That's just a guess though. The 3 short films that comprised Neo Tokyo were 1) Running Man, the futuristic psychic race-car short that used to play on MTV's liquid television. 2) a short about an actual robot carnival... the name escapes me and 3) another short who's name escapes me, written, designed, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo that dealt with a lone visitor to a remote city which happened to also be a robot (the city was a robot, not the dude). It was 6-7 minutes long, and was a great example of classic Otomo design & atmosphere. I happened to catch this Neo Tokyo thing once, in a theater around 1993-94. I think it was released on laserdisc, but I'm not sure. Anyone own it on video? Or know anything about it? Seen it? It was showing as a double feature with the silent mobius movie, in I think 93. This was a touring thing... probably distributed by streamline.
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El Cosmico, it's squashed man. We'll just agree to disagree. Voot, the film you're referring to is Manie-Manie: Labyrinth Tales. It's an anthology film about a strange little girl going to see a show. The circus sequence was directed by Rin Taro (X: The Movie). The Running Man segment was done by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll) and the robot factory story is by Katsuhiro Otomo. Streamline Pictures dubbed the film, focused promotions around the Otomo piece, and renamed it Neo-Tokyo hoping to attract audiences who liked Akira. It toured U.S. cities as a double feature with Silent Mobius: The Motion Picture and was subsequently released to general audiences on home video. You colud probably find it at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video or possibly specialty shops. Since Streamline merged with Orion and folded, I haven't heard anything more about Neo-Tokyo.
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Thanks for the compliment, cddiede.
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This will never probably happen, but I really, really hope that they make a DVD of Porco Rosso with both Japanese and English tracks. And i'm not talking about the new Disney dub. I heard that they were redubbing it. I've got Porco Rosso taped off TV in English, and in my opinion, it is the best dub ever. It is even better than the original Japanese version. Anyway, could someone confirm if this could happen. At a recent Japanime festival in Brisbane(Australia), the crowd simply loved Porco Rosso. Mononoke was showing for opening night. It sold out 2 weeks before the night, and about 200 people were ringing up each day, trying to get a ticket. This was at a small, somewhat unknown cinema as well. Maybe this will prove that Australia needs to get more anime releases theatrically.
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Tenchi has been slaughtered by them, Dirty Pair was improved by them, but BGC? I haven't seen the new series yet, but from what I've seen from art books, and other reviews, it's better looking, but it's the same story. 4 girls cheesed off at the powers that be, and the cyber-monsters they use to try to rule the world with. Of course there is angst, murder, conspiracies, and probably a few courtesy shots, but, I think that 2040 should be judged on it's own, as if 2032 is the "pilot" series.
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Hey Krang's right. That anime festival was definitely cool and Australia definitely needs more anime!! Seriously, I think we only get the crap series out here..oh well Manga (distributor) is back in business now so maybe things will start to look up. Anyone know who has distribution rights to Cowboy bebop..that series looks freaking amazing.
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You rule.
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Was released in Japan as Manie Manie. I rented a copy from Little Tokyo in Japanese packaging, in Japanese. I have no idea if it's available anywhere in any sort of buyable and ownable form. I want it on DVD yesterday! "The Running Man" directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, Wicked City) was presented, dubbed and edited of course, on MTV's Liquid Television. The circus segment was directed by Rin Taro (The Dagger of Kamui, Angel's Egg, and X)
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Sorry if this comes out looking like shit, it's supposed to be ASCII art of the coolest music artist in the world :) ... if it does look like shit PLEASE DELETE IT!
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Here's my own opinion, whether you want it or not.
99% of everything is crap, just like the man said. Most anime sucks, but there's also a lot of gems mixed in.
It's unfair to say that older anime can't stand up to a lot of the stuff out now. Given the choice between the original Macross and Gundam Wing I'd choose Macross, hands down. Sure Gundam Wing is better than a lot of animation on american TV, but it's not very good compared to a lot of other anime like Patlabor 1&2, Gundam 08th MS, or Cowboy Bebop.
Of course, Ranma 1/2 is good for a laugh every so often, but when given a choice between that or the much newer Excel Saga? Shampoo and Ryoga just aren't a match for Pedro the foreign laborer and Space Butler.
Also, it depends on your tastes. If you like huge mecha and action, you might not like Kodomo no Omacha, if you like gritty realism and compassionate story telling, then Dragon Ball Z wouldn't be my first recomendation.
Then again, I hate basketball, but I love the anime, Slam Dunk.
Umm, I'm starting to stare at the animation of Harry's man-boobs, so I think I'll cut this short and wander on to another website. -
Oh, and just becayse I noticed a lot of slamming onf Pokemon...
I used to hate pokemon, I despised it. It'd been thrown in my face, shoved down my through, and forced into my head over and over until I finally resolved to remove myself from anything relating to that Pikachu thing.
But lately, the fans have stopped yelling, the ads have stopped assulting my senses, the constant rambling of little kids continuously quoting the lines from the show and the names of all the critters they'd caught has all but gone completely away in my area, so I sat down and actually watched the show a couple times...and it's actually pretty funny. A few times I've been amazed at what's gotten past U.S. censors.
I'm still not a big fan or anything, but I'd be willing to give more of this Pokemon stuff a try. It was mainly the constant hype, promotion, and screaming fans that kept me out of it. -
I hate having to wait. I've nothing against Bubblegum Crisis, but the beauty of Anime is there's just so darn much to love! Escaflowne is one of my favorites and the DVD will be out Oct 3(or 13)! Plus it's bilingual, which is better than being stuck with just the subtitles IMO--I like dubbing, shoot me. It's also good to hear that the Bubblegum Crisis DVD has four episodes to a volume. I hope they put that many--or more--on Escaflowne discs(though I doubt it since it's only going to be $19.95 US)
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What would you consider to be the short list of anime which belongs in any serious anime collector's library?
I mean, specifically? Don't just say 'the whole first season of Ranma 1/2' or 'anything Miyazaki wrote.' If you had to really harvest the cream of the crop, say if you had to weed it down to ten specific DVD's (or videotapes), what would they be?
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