FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:Funimtion just licensed Speed Racer, so.....

I didn't know that! Thanks for telling me! Aaanddd according to Google and Amazon, it doesn't have Japanese audio. Or a new dub. It's just a re-release of what was licensed before, but cheaper and on Blu-Ray. Still neat.

Dr. Nick wrote:Because retro anime is niche business, and the largest profits are obviously in the newer stuff. The best you can do is support the current retro releases, because that way we might get more, and pirate the things you can't buy.

Tokyo Godfathers is getting a BD release soon, by the way.

Also thanks!

I'm actually surprised that retro anime is niche. I mean, I believe you, and I kind of suspected it (because if it wasn't niche, there'd be more of it), but I don't really understand why people would be more interested in an anime just because it's newer.

Here's something else that may or may not truly qualify as "controversial". I was never really able to get into the Yu-Gi-Oh anime, abridged or otherwise. The issue I had with it is actually an interesting one. See, I did like looking at the pictures and flavor text on the cards, simply because of how freaking weird they could be. The problem was that it just didn't translate to the anime.
In the anime, all of those awesome and bizarre creatures are just holographic tokens in a card game, as opposed to it being a fantasy series where they're actually real (if that's changed in the sequel series, feel free to inform me). And that's why I never got into watching Yu-Gi-Oh or any other card game-based anime. I'd much rather be watching a show about the crazy, surreal world hinted at within the card game, than watching people standing around playing it.

... Even if it's playing card games while riding on motorcycles?!?! In America.


I watched Yu-Gi-oh! as Joey and 1,000 Dragon had me convinced the show was interested in strategy. Then I saw Yugi beat an opponent by forcing him to run out of cards to draw.

EDIT: Strange... it only shows there's a problem if I reload the page after several minutes, or look at it without being logged in...

Alaska Slim, Photobucket wants you to know that you need to update your account to enable 3rd party hosting.

Prepare yourselves...




I hate Cowboy Bebop!!! Yes, I know it's a very unpopular opinion but when I want to watch something good, I want it to be relevant to a flowing development, not just one random, interchangeable plotline after another. Plus the dub doesn't help matters one bit, particularly Steve Blum as Spike gets really grating on my ears. The farthest I could get on my most recent sit through was part of episode 16 and even then, I couldn't get through the intricacies of the film noir detective flashback. Maybe I am just of a more narrower mindset when it comes to my favorite anime but still, I wouldn't even recommend the show or it's movie to my kids if I ever have any.

Gus Hanson wrote:I hate Cowboy Bebop!!!

I can't say I agree with you (I do love Bebop), but at least you gave the show a few shots before downright hating it.

Bebop is okay but I might need to rewatch again. I remember that I was almost always half asleep when I watch it when I was younger.

Gus Hanson wrote:Prepare yourselves...

See also the second post in this very thread.

I'll just come out and say it. Comedy Anime, and comedic moments in serious anime need to learn. Violence by women against men ISN'T FUNNY. Especially in cases of anime like Love Hina.

Gus Hanson wrote: Plus the dub doesn't help matters one bit, particularly Steve Blum as Spike gets really grating on my ears.

It's fair to dislike the show, and indeed on point with the reason for this thread, but putting the blame on a dub isn't really fair, since Watanabe didn't have anything to do with it, as he did with the show's Japanese voice acting(which includes two of the greatest seiyus of all time). I personally think the dub is hot garbage, but I also think all dubs are hot garbage.

Ray wrote:I'll just come out and say it. Comedy Anime, and comedic moments in serious anime need to learn. Violence by women against men ISN'T FUNNY.

Agree to disagree. See; the final scene in the aforementioned Cowboy Bebop's "Ballad of Fallen Angels."

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My most controversial anime opinion would probably be that FMA: Brotherhood is a below average anime with an unpleasant animation style and flat characters. But I'm glad the show has made a lot of people happy, and I get why it would be popular.

I also found Steins;Gate to be a real let down, and a show that had a real cool premise but terribly boring and corny execution.

I also dislike parody anime, i.e One Punch Man, Konosuba, and Martian Successor Nadesico.

Joy Evangelion wrote:My most controversial anime opinion would probably be that FMA: Brotherhood is a below average anime with an unpleasant animation style and flat characters. But I'm glad the show has made a lot of people happy, and I get why it would be popular.

It would be common at this point to say (as I do) that FMA 2003 was the better show, in spite of not having the (then unwritten) completion of the manga. Is that your position?

Joy Evangelion wrote:I also dislike parody anime, i.e One Punch Man, Konosuba, and Martian Successor Nadesico.

Um:

Joy Evangelion wrote:I watched Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi for the first time this last week, and I was really impressed with.

As it happens I like Nadesico (and its film) but not One-Punch Man (I don't know Konosuba).

Okay so I watched Gurren Lagann and I just don't feel it like I love the off the wall concepts but I just couldn't get in to the characters and the gay character stereotyping with the flirty predatory male feels really horribly outdated and it sort of ruined it for me and it ended up feeling over rated. I know I'm gonna get flames for this as I realize its meant to be a ground breaking anime and is loved by a lot of people.

I didn't like Gurren Lagann either. I loved how it scaled from small battles to launching galaxies but all the rest was a mess in my opinion, and I have a lot of problems with the ending. To me it's just a pseudo-melancholic attempt at a bittersweet ending that it's totally out of place.

Ray wrote:I'll just come out and say it. Comedy Anime, and comedic moments in serious anime need to learn. Violence by women against men ISN'T FUNNY. Especially in cases of anime like Love Hina.

I agree with this because it gives of the idea that this is funny and not an issue when in real life it is a very serious issue that's still being ignored and if the roles were reversed you'd instantly go abusive bastard how dare he hit that girl just because she walked in on him while he's undressing. I realize anime uses the Tsundere a lot to get away with this and they should instead be working to progress and subvert that stereotype and calling it out on its bullshit more often like literality show a girl hitting a guy and being arrested afterwards because then its no longer fun and games and shows the real life consequences.

Ray wrote:I'll just come out and say it. Comedy Anime, and comedic moments in serious anime need to learn. Violence by women against men ISN'T FUNNY. Especially in cases of anime like Love Hina.

The violence itself isn't funny - but there may be a point in depicting it using role reversal to get across that violence by men against women (probably still the greater problem) is also not acceptable. (I don't know your example, so I can't comment if that interpretation could be applied to it.)

Joy Evangelion wrote:It's fair to dislike the show, and indeed on point with the reason for this thread, but putting the blame on a dub isn't really fair, since Watanabe didn't have anything to do with it, as he did with the show's Japanese voice acting(which includes two of the greatest seiyus of all time). I personally think the dub is hot garbage, but I also think all dubs are hot garbage.

Granted. That was bad thinking on my part, plus i just recently gave episode 16 another chance and i was fairly excited throughout. The dub didn't even bother me one bit but also because it was a Jet-centered episode with Spike only having about two scenes, more points to it. I may as well retract my entire negative mindset on Bebop if it interested me back to finishing what's left.

pwhodges wrote:It would be common at this point to say (as I do) that FMA 2003 was the better show, in spite of not having the (then unwritten) completion of the manga. Is that your position?

I haven't seen the 2003 series yet, and thanks to my thoughts on Brotherhood I may never. But if I ever get around to it I'd probably post about it on here, so stay tuned.
I figured it was a pretty controversial opinion because of its high ranking on MAL and that I assumed it was considered a classic.

pwhodges wrote:Um.

You got me there. Thinking on it, I did also enjoy Luluco, so maybe I like parody shows when they mix things up with each episode. But the three series I mentioned did really rub me the wrong way for some reason.

Gus Hanson wrote:I hate Cowboy Bebop!!! Yes, I know it's a very unpopular opinion but when I want to watch something good, I want it to be relevant to a flowing development, not just one random, interchangeable plotline after another. Plus the dub doesn't help matters one bit, particularly Steve Blum as Spike gets really grating on my ears.

Hmm...

I see where you're coming from. I tend to dislike American television for similar reasons. Well, almost similar reasons. I just don't like it when TV shows don't have a planned ending in mind. The show itself, to me anyway, can be as episodic or as serially entwined as it feels that it needs to be, but only if the end of the show pays off these elements of the story. To be fair, Cowboy Bebop does adopt a lot of story-telling techniques from episodic American television, which can raise all sorts of red flags to someone who generally hates most American television because of their terrible endings. I think a lot of this comes from the fact that American television tends to try to run a show for as long as it is profitable with little to no regard for telling a good story.

Oddly enough, I think that, if one were to make a show run for as long as possible, that it should be as episodic as possible, with absolutely no attention given to narrative flow. I consider The Twilight Zone to be one of the best American television shows for this very reason. But, if a producer is interested in telling a good overarching story with his TV show, then he should keep it as short as possible. Get to the point and don't waste anyone's time. Thankfully, for as much as Cowboy Bebop is concerned, it does tell a good overarching story despite its episodic nature. There is some continuity kept between episodes, but most of it is slight and subtle. The filmmakers also show that they did have an ending in mind the whole time, and each episode pointed towards that ending either directly or with background thematics. And, best of all, the whole show is only 26 episodes and a movie in length. So, it does get to the point relatively quickly.

Also, watch the Japanese dub. Some people, myself included, find the English dub more than tolerable, but the Japanese dub is objectively better simply because it features Koichi Yamadera and Megumi Hayashibara as Spike and Faye respectively, who have worked together several times in titles like Evangelion, Paprika, Anno's Animator Expo, Insufficient Direction, ect.

The most fond memory I have of Cowboy Bebop was a busker in Aomori who put a surgical glove over his head and then blew it up to the beats of the Cowboy Bebop opening.

Anyways, more on topic I really do despise the Welcome to the NHK anime. Now, now before you get mad at me and say I don't "get it" for being too much of a "normie"; I adore the novel and read it every year. I read it two times last year! The anime pulls its punches way too frequently and the way Yamazaki is handled is miserable. It'd get into spoilers for both the anime and the novel to get into it but it all boils down to half measures and happy endings. It does not get as dark or as deep as it should. Also the seinen equivalant of the shonen "transported to another world" trope is "Some cute girl likes me for no particular reason and we run away together." It needs to die and it keeps showing up more and more. Seriously! Look at some popular series like Aku no Hana, Oyasumi Punpun, Cigutera, Himizu or more. Yes the Seinen manga popular in the west is usually action series but in Japan gosh is there no shortage of boring indie american comic like series. At least there's some series like Ressentiment that fall into the trope but have fun with it.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:Hmm...

I see where you're coming from. I tend to dislike American television for similar reasons. Well, almost similar reasons. I just don't like it when TV shows don't have a planned ending in mind. The show itself, to me anyway, can be as episodic or as serially entwined as it feels that it needs to be, but only if the end of the show pays off these elements of the story. To be fair, Cowboy Bebop does adopt a lot of story-telling techniques from episodic American television, which can raise all sorts of red flags to someone who generally hates most American television because of their terrible endings. I think a lot of this comes from the fact that American television tends to try to run a show for as long as it is profitable with little to no regard for telling a good story.

Oddly enough, I think that, if one were to make a show run for as long as possible, that it should be as episodic as possible, with absolutely no attention given to narrative flow. I consider The Twilight Zone to be one of the best American television shows for this very reason. But, if a producer is interested in telling a good overarching story with his TV show, then he should keep it as short as possible. Get to the point and don't waste anyone's time. Thankfully, for as much as Cowboy Bebop is concerned, it does tell a good overarching story despite its episodic nature. There is some continuity kept between episodes, but most of it is slight and subtle. The filmmakers also show that they did have an ending in mind the whole time, and each episode pointed towards that ending either directly or with background thematics. And, best of all, the whole show is only 26 episodes and a movie in length. So, it does get to the point relatively quickly.

Also, watch the Japanese dub. Some people, myself included, find the English dub more than tolerable, but the Japanese dub is objectively better simply because it features Koichi Yamadera and Megumi Hayashibara as Spike and Faye respectively, who have worked together several times in titles like Evangelion, Paprika, Anno's Animator Expo, Insufficient Direction, ect.

All solid points, also maybe it's because I have a masochistic side of me that due to having seen the first 16 episodes in English that I wish to endure the pain of Blum's Spiegel for just 10 episodes and a movie longer. For the most part, I tend to pass him off as the scapegoat as to why I don't really like the dub but I don't really feel like going back to square one in subbed form.

As for the episodic formula, like I said before, my inspiration for why I think like that comes from Cartman from South Park and his burning hatred of Family Guy which extends to what the creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have said what they really think about that show.