Anime
Anime is becoming more and more popular outside Japan. Distributors like Madman in Australia have realised this and are producing dubbed and subtitled versions anywhere from months to years after their release in Japanese. I still believe that it is best watched in Japanese (with English subtitles), as often the English voices don't match the characters particularly well.
Many bilingual anime fans will provide subtitles well before the distributors have their products ready. These days a large number of successful manga series are adapted for anime.
This page is a record of the anime that I have enjoyed, in alphabetical order (English titles). I make no promises that you will enjoy it, and I refuse to try to categorise these, as there are now so many variations used.
- Angel's Egg
- Appleseed, Shinji Aramaki
Based on Masamune Shirow's manga, Appleseed is set in the future, and follows the characters from the manga. Set in 2131AD, after the Third World War, Deunan Knute is brought to Olympus, a Utopian city of humans and bioroids, where she is reunited with her comrade and lover Briareos, now a mechanised cyborg in the ESWAT unit. Various factions in Olympus are warring, with many humans resenting the political control that the bioroids have. Deunan joins ESWAT, and with an elite strike force, searches for data that may restore the bioroids' life extension and reproductive abilities, after the bioroids' life extension facility was destroyed.
The animation feels a little old, but is still slick. The storyline is intense, action packed, and the characters are interesting. I actually preferred the movie over the manga (English version), unlike many of my friends. The music enhances the animation, and helps to give it a unique feel, distinguishing it from Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Collection series, although there are many similarities.
- Basilisk
The inspiration for the live action movie, Shinobi.
- Black Lagoon
- Blood: The Last Vampire, Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Saya, the last remaining original vampire, works for a secret organisation on an American Air Base in post-WWWII Japan, just before the Vietnam War.
Short, with little plot development, this almost feels like one episode of a series. The blend of CG and hand drawn artwork uses light and shadow very well to enhance the action. It's a bit bloody at times, but I enjoyed it.
A live action version is planned to be release mid-2008.
- Blood-C
- Elfen Lied
- Ergo Proxy
- Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children, Tetsuya Nomura and Takeshi Nozue
This CG movie is set two years after the events of the console game, Final Fantasy VII. Children are becoming sick with a new disease, geostigma, somehow related to the remains of Jenovah. Cloud Strife and friends search for a solution, while villians try to resurrect Sephiroth.
I had not played the game, so on the first viewing, the plot did not make much sense. The graphics and music were enough to get me hooked, so I read the background, familiarised myself with another Final Fantasy game to see how plots and characters develop, and then re-watched the movie. This time I enjoyed it a lot more. In many places the music drives the action beautifully.
- Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within, Hironobu Sakaguchi
- Geneshaft, Kazuki Akane
While investigating a mysterious ring artifact that appeared between the Earth and the moon, a massive energy blast from the ring destroyed a space station and damaged Earth's surface. The genetically engineered human crew of the prototype mecha, Shaft, and the spaceship, Bilikis, search for the origins of the alien technology, and attempt to stop further destruction.
A little short for an anime series, the combination of CG and hand drawn animation is action packed. There is not much story or character development, but it was still enjoyable.
- Ghibli
- Ghost in the Shell 2.0
- Ghost in the Shell: Innocence
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Collection I and II
- .Hack movies and series
- Hellsing
- Heroic Age
- House of Five Leaves
- Last Exile
- Macross Frontier
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Nodame Cantabile I, II and Paris
- Noir
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica
- Sakura Wars
- Samurai Champloo
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Stein's Gate
- Vampire Hunter D
- Vampire Princess Miyu
- Vexille, Fumihiko Sori
10 years after implementing a complete isolationist policy, Japan is infiltrated by a black ops group called S.W.O.R.D. to discover information about Daiwa Industries. Daiwa Industries experimented with extreme cloning and bio-engineering 10 years ago, which caused Japan to be ejected from the U.N. One of the commando units, Vexille, joins up with a renegade gang and attempts to stop Daiwa implementing a plan that endangers the entire world.
Stunning animation, although a little less emphatic than others in this genre and human movement is still a little stilted and unreal. The storyline initially develops well, with loads of intrigue and drama. The Jags remind me of sandworms in Dune, and the whole animation nods in the direction of Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Collection). Very enjoyable, but it felt too short and a little rushed at the end!
- Witchhunter Robin
- Wolf's rain
In 2065, scientists Aki Ross and DoctorSid and a military squad attempt to free Earth from an invading race of phantom-like aliens who arrived within an asteroid. Humans have moved into protected cities because these phantoms are deadly when touched. Aki Ross rases for a peaceful solution against the General Hein who plans to destroy Earth along with the original meteor.
The CG animation is incredible, and as my first glimpse of the Final Fantasy franchise, it was a stunning treat. The plot is deeply philosophical and carried well by Elliot Goldenthal's score. After having seen more of the Final Fantasy franchise, this movie very obviously has a different feel, although the depth of characters and story is similar.
