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i was sitting here on my computer today, which isnt different from any other day, but i thought of something.

Just how many space animes have been made? i kno there are a few from the old days, but recently there seems to be a decress in them. I sat down and thought on this issue for a good 5 mins and could only think of 2 recent shows, Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star.

(please correct me if there are more)

I know this is a retorical question but, why aren't there more shows like that? They all seem to be big hits when they do premire.

I sujest that we all band together and make the anime world produce more of these show! I sujest a revolt!

On a serious note fokes, why dont we the veiwes have a good way to get our ideas to the producers of anime shows? ( something like a script type of thing) I mean if a no name can go to Hollywood with a script and get rich over night, why cant it be the same for anime? ( honestly I would give them a script for free as long as my name got mentiond somewere)

*sorry about that i kinda mixed 2 subjects into one thread

At first I thought..."What are you talking about, there are tons of space-related anime series."

Then I went and looked at the anime I've seen and realized...wow...there isn't as much as I thought!

I havn't watched The Galaxy Railways yet...but I think that one is set in space.

There are some space scenes in Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito, but definitely wouldn't classify it as a space anime.

Stratos 4 also has some space moments, but the anime is also not space based.

I also still need to watch Infinite Ryvius, which, judging by the synopsis in the encyclopedia sounds like it might be partially space based.

But...you do raise a good point.

Last edited by Key on Mon Dec 19, 2005 4:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

Um, there have been plenty of space-based anime series both currently and recently.

Planetes, which is currently on its 4th volume in the U.S., is about a misfit crew of astronauts in 2070 that has been assigned to collect space junk which poses a navigation hazard to the various space stations and lunar jaunts of the time. It's one of the year's best series.

Stellvia, whose 8th and final volume is due out and week now (it's overdue as I write this), is a series set a few hundred years into the future about teenagers being trained on a space station to be part of an eventual Great Mission to protect humanity from a wave of matter released by a supernova, whose initial shock wave devastated the Earth two centuries earlier. (As it turns out, though, much of the series concerns developments which come up after that event.) Quite a bit more on the cutesy side, but it definitely has its moments.

Hakugei: Legend of Moby Dick, a late '90s series, whose first volume was recently released in the U.S., takes place in space hundreds of years into the future despite being partly based on the classic novel.

Crest of the Stars and its two sequels, Banner of the Stars and Banner of the Stars II form the first three parts of an epic space opera about a young nobleman who forms a relationship with the princess of a genetically-engineered offshoot race of humanity which has conquered his planet. Most of the action takes place in space or on space stations. It was all released in 2001-2003 in the States and shouldn't be hard to find, and a third sequel (Banner of the Stars III) should eventually come.

A lot of Kiddy Grade (from 2004 but its collected rereleases have been in ANN banner ads a lot lately) takes place in space, and what doesn't takes place on non-Earth planets.

Parts of Blue Gender (a bug-hunting-type sci-fi action/horror/romance series from 2002) and the late episodes of Bubblegum Crisis 2040 (a 2000-2001 cyberpunk series about young women wearing advanced armored suits) also took place in space, as did parts of Iria: Zeiram the Animation, an early '90s series about a far-future female bounty hunter which was rereleased last year.

And we can't forget Martian Successor Nadesico (from 1996, a mostly silly and light-hearted series about a misfit crew piloting a top-of-the-line battleship) or most of the various Gundam series, or the great one-shot Voices of a Distant Star from 2003, a melancholy love story about a teenage couple who try to stay in contact with each other despite the ultimately-interstellar distances which separate them.

On the sillier side, there's also Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko a parody series done in two three-episode parts which focuses on girls recruited from the past to fight space battles in the future.

And of course there's classics like Sol Bianca and Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato (getting tired of entering in links, so I'll drop it for now), Galaxy Express 999, parts of the Tenchi Muyo franchise, Robotech/Macross (and sequels), and many other series and movies out there; the above are just the ones I can name off the top of my head.

If you're not finding space-oriented anime series then, frankly, you're just not looking hard enough.

You mean a "decrease" in space shows? Maybe that's just the trend these days--space anime was popular for awhile, but now things have moved on to more low budget harem or dating sim-based shows.

I've been watching Nadesico (aka "Martian Successor Nadesico") lately, and it's definitely a classic; it's from almost ten years ago, and while it's not as action-packed as CB or OS, it is very funny. It parodies old "Super Combining Robot" shows like Voltron, and makes fun of anime fandom in general in the process. Make sure to get the re-released "Essential Anime" version, as the old disks have digital overlays that look terrible.

And btw, Cowboy Bebop wasn't such a big hit in Japan as it was here, or so I hear. There is also Planetes, which is being released on DVD at the moment. I've only seen one episode, but it also looks interesting.

Also, I don't think any no-names can just turn in a script to Hollywood and get rich overnight (this is a myth!), and the same applies even more to anime, especially when it's random American teenagers doing the submitting. Moreover, 日本語で書くことが出来ますか ~didn't think so.

While there has been a decline is space anime (especially in Space Opera) there's still a steady stream coming out. Some of the best has already been mentioned but you can try for a somewhat more diverse range of shows by going for Twin Spica, Gundam Seed, Vandread and Starship Operators.

As to getting your ideas across to anime producers... learn Japanese and then go stand in line behind the many otaku natives pushing their own scripts. You would have a bigger chance of seeing your ideas animated if you started your own studio.

Well.. all the serires that came straight to mind have been mentioned by Key already and summarised much better than I could.
A couple of really recent shows that haven't been released on R1 yet and aren't on Key's list are Startship operators and Xenosaga, but I've not seen either (other than the first episode or two of Xenosaga) so can't really comment. I can't think of anything space-based from the current Autumn lineup right now mind.

Duh... Galaxy Angel is a space based comedy anime. There are many more as people have already mentioned, I just needed to include my favorite. I can't believe only one person has mentioned the Gundam series/franchise though, probably the most popular space related anime (in Japan).

Ah! Your right! I didn't even think of Gundam at all...Which is defintely space-based.

Why is Gundam so popular in Japan anyway? I don't think it's nearly as popular here...

CyberViper wrote:

At first I thought..."What are you talking about, there are tons of space-related anime series."

I haven't seen many of those shows, I wish you had put release years on them. The point i am trying to make here is that with in the past 5 years of anime how many "real space animes" have come out?

I'll define a "space anime", if you look at Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star they trave the Universe and basicly do planet hopping. While Bebop is more realistic then Star it still has that idea to it, and yes they do go to earth a few times.

I have seen 2 many of the Gundam series to know im wrong about this, while it dose have space sceans in it, it is either on a "Collony" or on earth. When you compare it to the other 2 that i mentioned that seams rather dual, don't you think?

In alot of the "space animes" in the late 80's early 90's ( i have seen bits of shows and not too familar with names sorry) they did have the planet hopping theam and space fighting. The thing is...they are old. I'm not say they are poorly made or that they are not good, I'm just saying they are old. With the art work that is done in many of the recent ones, well they can't compare.

Anyway, if you look at that and reread my 1st statement prehaps you can see wut I am talking about. It seems the whole space theam is wearing off, but how many times can you watch shows about conquering the Uinverse?

That dosent mean the style has to end there though. Just in the time it has taken me to write this i could have thought up 5 different theams to a space story.

If u kno a recent show that has some of the specs I have mentioned please let me know.

Quote:

Um, there have been plenty of space-based anime series both currently and recently.

*please pay attention to wut words your using, you just basicly said new and new.

SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK (Herlock... the new one... came out in 2003 I think)

It's about a pirate with his badass eyepatch and how he goes through space kicking a lot of ass in pursuit of freedom.

It's great.

... I'm not quite sure what we're about, but the EARTH is in this one...

But then, it's like blasted and "disappears."

I'm currently heavily enjoying Planetes at the moment. It's a really facinating series, with nice visuals, and great characters as well as drama, humor, and romance.

Infinite Ryvius is also fairly recent and has an interesting plotline, and a huge cast of characters. It's kind of like the classic book "Lord of the Flies" only set in space.

2Real wrote:

*please pay attention to wut words your using

You are the person who should be observing this, dude.

2Real wrote:

I haven't seen many of those shows, I wish you had put release years on them. The point i am trying to make here is that with in the past 5 years of anime how many "real space animes" have come out?

Er, I did put release dates on a lot of mine, and if you'll note, several of those are from the last five years.

And I completely forgot to mention Vandread, a fun space-based planet-hopping series which came out in the States in 2002 but was on American cable TV last year. (Weird theme: men and women live on different planets and each believes the other to be an evil different race until a few members of each are forced to work together when their ships - and mecha - fuse. A cute, clean-looking series with a sly, racy undercurrent.)

Quote:

Anyway, if you look at that and reread my 1st statement prehaps you can see wut I am talking about. It seems the whole space theam is wearing off, but how many times can you watch shows about conquering the Uinverse?

That dosent mean the style has to end there though. Just in the time it has taken me to write this i could have thought up 5 different theams to a space story.

If u kno a recent show that has some of the specs I have mentioned please let me know.

Again, look at what I actually wrote. And I disagree that space theme are any less prevalent now than in the past; I've certainly seen plenty of current ones in the past couple of years.

Quote:

Key wrote:

Um, there have been plenty of space-based anime series both currently and recently.

*please pay attention to wut words your using, you just basicly said new and new.

First, as dormcat already mentioned, you're hardly one to be criticizing anyone on grammar use.

Second, my statement was correct both grammatically and in use of syntax. "Current" is what's being released right now; "Recent" is over the last 3-4 years. Not the same thing, friend.

ok well those words can be used in a numberof ways and can sometimes have the same meaning or relation to a time period, but this is hardly school and from from english class so im not dwelling on it. i wasnt too sure how you were using them i thought prehaps u had a typo.

oOo and btw.. im not a writer.

now that this is settled back to the discusion. When you say that they are space animes can u compare them bewteen say Outlaw Star and Gundam (refering to how the space ordeal is incorperated), its better for me to be able to have a reference that i have seen b4.

Out of the 5 or so animes u mentioned ( and yes i did notice that you put years on most), how many of them would you recomend to a avid space lover such as my self ( from a anime view point), would it be worth my time to look into these or are they just some half ass job that i see in more then one atempt at this Genra.

Last edited by Zalis116 on Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:56 am; edited 1 time in total

2Real wrote:

I haven't seen many of those shows, I wish you had put release years on them. The point i am trying to make here is that with in the past 5 years of anime how many "real space animes" have come out?

Since Key was nice enough to make most of the series titles into links to ANN encyclopedia entries, why not just click them, go to the page, and see what the release year is for yourself? Or would that be too much effort? I don't mind helping people with recommendations, but I resent it when people expect everyone else to do all the work and/or be their personal "anime google" service. [EDIT: okay, I unconsciously lifted this phrase from Nagisa, I confess]

And what does it matter if it came out in the last 5 years or not? Pre-CGI animation can be good too, and much of the time, older shows have storylines that are better than newer shows, which rely on flashy graphics to "shock and awe" audiences.

Nadesico, for instance, has graphics that look a little dated compared with Voices of a Distant Star or Planetes, but they are perfectly acceptable. Imho, the storyline is engaging and the comedy is far better than some of the new stuff that I'm downloading weekly (Shuffle, Mai Otome, Canvas 2, Suzuka). My point with all of this is that there is plenty of stuff in the wide world of anime to satisfy all our tastes and desires, but it's best to approach it with an open mind and without too many restrictions. (Though I still won't watch shounen-ai series like Gravitation and Sukisho, so I'm not perfect either.)

I was going to say the same thing that Key and Dormcat said:

2Real wrote:

*please pay attention to wut words your using, you just basicly said new and new.

*what
*you're
*basically
--if you were a Genin at Naruto's ninja academy, would you tell your sensei, "Hey, I think your legs are too far apart in that stance, and you need to relax your arm muscles"?

(If the above paragraph is deemed to be BSM, I will edit it out.)

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