Forum - View topicANNCast - ¡Kamui Caliente!
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Lili-Hime
 Posts: 569 |
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Right on!  Rayearth is still one of my favorite anime & manga. Combines my two fave things (fantasy & shoujo). Nice cell too! So lucky I'd love some pretty CLAMP cels!! *A*
It's been like 12 years since I last saw the movie so I don't remember if it was in the movie much but woooo was it sure in the manga and promo art Funny enough I was super used to yaoi by then. Searching the internet for Final Fantasy VII art even back in 1998 yielded some pretty... interesting results, especially as far as doujinshis went. I agree with other posters though to a young teenage mind X seemed cool because it was so 'mature' and forbidden, what with all its gore, homosexual subtext and end of the world darkness. Probably coincided with a lot of our Hot Topic phases too lol |
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Cait
 Posts: 503 |
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All of the episodes are available for direct download on ANN. |
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CCTakato
Posts: 514 |
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I also went through a CLAMP phase back when I was in high school. Personally I still love their classic stuff to death even though I haven't bothered to watch most of their newer stuff other than the XXXholic anime which I enjoyed a lot. But I still occasionally go back and pop in an old school CLAMP classic DVD in my player and give it a whirl. Like I got the Cardcaptor Sakura NIS DVDs last Christmas as a Christmas gift and I still really enjoyed that show and I think it still holds up really well. Cardcaptor Sakura is still my number two favorite anime of all time and a show I feel like all magical girl fans need to watch. I still need to watch Kobato sometime as I feel like that's a show I'll really enjoy once I see it but it's just one of those things I keep putting off. I remember watching the X movie back in the day too and even though I knew it was a bad adaptation of the manga, I was one of those fans who had to have all things CLAMP no matter how bad so I still ended up buying the DVD for it and I still have my copy of it lying somewhere around here. I should find it and give it a rewatch sometime. I still need to read the X manga sometime but I remember always vastly preferring the X TV show over the movie as the TV series did a better job of expanding on the characters and actually making the plot make sense. Personally I feel like the TV show actually has better animation than the movie.
Maybe I'll feel differently about the animation doing a rewatch but I remember when I first saw it, I wasn't all that impressed by the animation in the X film. All the characters faces just looked weird and everyone looked too lanky to me in comparison to the TV show designs. One thing I don't understand is why is the X movie still listed as number eight on the ANN top over-rated anime list in the Encyclopedia? Isn't it about time to update that list? I mean, nobody really watches the X movie anymore expect for maybe these nostalgia lookbacks, but I remember even back in the day when the movie had some amount of popularity, I remember most fans thought it wasn't as good as the manga or TV show, so was it really that over-rated of a movie to still be in the top ten list? I mean, yes it's a convoluted mess but I feel like there's not that many fans out there that like this movie for it to deserve to be considered over-rated. |
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marcos torres toledo
Posts: 269 |
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Akria is animation classic now I must get it a really sit down and watch it. It joins the classic dystopian novels Brave New World an 1984 to have in your library.
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CCTakato
Posts: 514 |
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My personal favorite Rintaro movie is Metropolis though I haven't seen it in ages.
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Dragonsandphoenix
 Posts: 82 Location: Malaysia |
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Honestly, I think all versions of X (manga, movie and anime) fail to properly evoke its "larger than life" theme. There's the whole "Tokyo is the center of the universe" thing which I know is typical of Clamp and it always amuses me. But when all the characters are introduced and the plot starts moving (I use that term loosely cause it still felt like nothing was happening for 15 volumes) the conflict just felt so small.
So what Eryn said about its themes getting bogged down by characters and plot events can actually apply to all versions really, just that the manga and TV show had more time to flesh it all out. Not very well, mind you. One thing I had to come to terms with in my youth was that X was not very well-written. I guess it's not totally a bad thing for the conflicts to be kept small and focused on the relationships between the characters. I personally love character pieces. But I just never really found most of the characters to be very interesting save for Subaru and Seishirou. So now the only things I still remember fondly of are the pretty artstyle and the Subaru/Seishirou parts. I guess that's fine for a manga I picked up at 13. |
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CCTakato
Posts: 514 |
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I personally was fine with the characterization of X, at least the non-movie versions. Like I always enjoyed Sorata and Arashi's characters and seeing how those two were fleshed out over the story. The big issue to me is that all the versions seem to fall apart towards the "end." The manga just doesn't have an ending, the movie spoiler[just decides to kill everyone off], and the TV show's ending was always very rushed and made little sense. Like I still don't understand why Arashi spoiler[betrayed the Dragons of Heaven to protect Sorata as that didn't seem like a sensible plan of action to me and how Kamui defeated Evil Fuuma didn't make much sense to me either.]If I remember correctly, CLAMP was going to finish the X manga but then there was that earthquake that came out just as they were going to have a major earthquake in their story that was too similar to real life and they had some close friends who died in the earthquake. And then later they said the manga's ending was just getting too violent for the magazine that was publishing it and I guess they just never bothered to find another place to print the ending at.
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GVman
 Posts: 729 |
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How does an art style become "outdated?" Are you speaking from a purely business standpoint (in that, like you were saying, anime looks nothing like Akira today). Or are you saying that Akira's art style does not have any relevance in the current milieu of anime because the current common elements in the anime's look today are better? Part of why I ask is that your must-watch shows (apart from Evangelion) sound less like a "best anime guide" and more like a "here's a guide to get your ready for discussing stuff with the anime community." Granted, they could be the same thing; I don't know your opinions on either Madoka or AoT.
Anyway, Naruto's popularity has shown that people can still enjoy things that look like Akira. The thing that inspired Kishimoto to get back into drawing was the Akira movie, and it shows. Even with how his art style has changed as the manga ran, you can still see the resemblance, though it isn't as strong as it was in the earlier volumes (Zabuza looked an awful lot like Tetsuo in the manga). |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1748 |
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I thought anime Kobato was far superior to manga Kobato. Manga Kobato's ending was confusing (what CLAMP 'ending' isn't?), but anime Kobato was clean, direct and very lovely. It's a shame Madhouse decided to throw the artwork away. I remember the CLAMP heyday, with every female anime fan citing how much they loved CLAMP and that they were the greatest mangaka group to ever draw. At least in Japan, their star has faded quite a bit, if recent auction prices for their original artwork is any indication. I still love Kobato, xxxHolic and Cardcaptor Sakura, but I also think several other artists are far superior in terms of artistic skills. |
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CCTakato
Posts: 514 |
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I hadn't seen the X movie in a few years so this episode inspired me to dig out my DVD copy to watch it again to see if my thoughts on the movie have changed any and it seems like they've largely stayed the same. It's lovely animation and the action scenes are cool but it still suffers from the problems of trying to cram an 18 volume manga into a 95 minute movie. I was also annoyed that almost all of the dialog in the movie is exposition. Kamui's actions also didn't make much sense. Like he says he doesn't care about saving the Earth but he wants to protect Kotori and Fuma, but if the whole Earth gets wiped out, haven't you failed at that? It just came across as making Kamui seem more self-centered rather than a sympathetic lead character and I feel like the TV series did a better job of showing his fear and reluctance to fight and how he matures. I still wish though that someone would rescue license the movie and give it an HD remaster and a proper redub with the superior Bang Zoom TV series dub cast. The X Movie DVD's video quality is just very bad and it would look alot better if it was cleaned up some. Does Manga Entertainment even release anime anymore these days? I remember they used to be the go to company for your violent mature anime but it seems like they haven't done much since Redline maybe? I remember that cheesy dub trailer where they tried to make it seem like Mamoru Oshii made the X movie to get anime fans to watch it.
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scriver058
 Posts: 127 Location: NY |
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The Akira movie is really not that complicated at all, especially when compared to the manga. I actually enjoyed the X movie for what it was, and between this and the series the movie's ending made more sense despite being incredibly sad. |
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Prince Gotonoke
 Posts: 29 |
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KANEEEEEEEEEDAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I like Akira, not as much as I used to, but it still has some wicked imagery and a great score. The track that is used for the clown motorcycle chase is just magnificently freaky. As for X, I saw this before I learned what Clamp was. I had no clue it was made by the same people who did Cardcaptor Sakura till years later. I first came into contact with X the movie when it would routinely air on the Encore action channel, either in the anime midnight block on fridays, or just sometimes they would have it on here or there. I haven't gone back to see it since, nor have I checked out the rest of the franchise, but I liked it when then. It was perfect for 11 to 12 year old me. Having all the uber ultraviolence and what not. I also saw Akira for the first time on Encore Action, but have revisited every once in a while. Been thinking about picking up the manga for a while. Listening to the podcast makes me really want to go back to watch X. I'm fine with it just being all style, no substance. 90 minutes of my life that I at least get to see some awesomely animated violence. What more could a budding psych..... well adjusted human want. 
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roseversailles
 Posts: 236 Location: Washington, U.S. |
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Sorry I'm a few days late responding, but thank you very much! That was exactly what I was looking for
I never gave animated Kobato a chance, but maybe I will after what you've said. I'd always heard about crossover characters that I love appearing but, admittedly, never made it far enough to encounter them. Also a big Madhouse fan, so I'll check it out. Never heard about them discarding the artwork; is that a common thing for them to do? (can you tell I'm going to worry about the wellbeing of Chihayafuru's cels/artwork now?  )
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CCTakato
Posts: 514 |
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I recently rewatched Akira this past Sunday afternoon and it's still my favorite anime movie. I hadn't seen it in a few years so I was amazed at how relevant the political themes of the movie still were, like all the themes of political revolutions, police rioting, and mass terrorist attacks were especially relevant and I feel like it actually spoke to me more now than it has in the past. Ohtomo must be a psychic because I was also amazed at how accurately he predicted some things about Japanese politics in modern times. Like obviously Tokyo isn't this depraved city of nihilism or anything like that but like there's that one scene where the Colonel and the politicians are arguing with each other and the politicians complain about having to clean up the mess caused by the last PM's tax policies while preparing for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. How could he so accurately predict Shinzo Abe and that Japan actually would get the Olympics in real life in 2020? It's really an amazing movie and I feel like it's one of those films every anime fan has a duty to watch, whether you actually "enjoy" it or not. It's just such an important part of the history of anime and such an amazing feat of technical mastery.
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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