So, speaking of anime...

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:05 am

I picked up Perfect Blue not too long ago, just based on hearsay and the occasional comparison of Kon to such greats as Oshii and Miyazaki. My thoughts on Perfect Blue are a bit mixed... it's overrated at the very least, but the film he did after it, Millennium Actress, looks freaking awesome and I really want to see it. So what's the deal with that? Is it as good as it looks, or if I didn't like Perfect Blue, am I also not likely to enjoy Millennium Actress? Pep, Silv?

And Innocence. It just came out and I want it really, really, really bad. Is it as good as the original?

Also, does anyone have any idea what's the status on the next batch of Miyazaki DVD's from Disney? The last I heard, they were supposed to be released in January or February...

Hey Pep, are you still reading Maison Ikkoku? Did you get to the broken leg incident yet? It's a real turning point in the series. Also, what do you think of Nikaido?

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:30 am

Millennium Actress - A famous actress near the end of her life relives her career and her search for love through the parts she played in her golden days.

Kind of like Titanic means Sunset Boulevard meets Chain of Memories.

Post by **Pepperidge** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:42 am

Personally, I prefered Perfect Blue to Milennium Actress, but it's still excellent. But if you want to try more of his stuff, I strongly recommend his recent TV series, Paranoia Agent. I think the first two volumes are out. He also did Tokyo Godfathers, which is pretty good. It's charming in the way it doesn't try to be extraordinary.

I still haven't seen GitS 2, but I hear the DVD it was released on is a piece of shit. The coverart is shit, the extras are shit, the video quality is shit, and to top it all off they gave the film "closed captioning" instead of a true subtitle track, despite the fact that the version released in theatres didn't have "sound effects" in the text. I'm just going to stick with the TV series.

Miyazaki DVDs are due at the end of February. It's rumoured that they're meant to coincide with the release of the dub for his latest film, Howl's Moving Castle, but considering that it's already January, it's doubtful that we'll be seeing that before late spring. Also, Totoro got pushed back for some reason and replaced with "The Cat Returns", which not only isn't a true Miyazaki movie (he was only an executive producer), but is actually a sequel to another Ghibli movie that still hasn't been released due to music rights issues. (Whisper of the Heart) That sucks, because Totoro was the DVD I wanted the most. Seriously, I'd gouge out the eyes of little puppies in front of a group of kindergarteners to get Totoro out on DVD.

I still haven't gotten Maison Ikkoku volume 8. I swear to God it will be the last title I ever order in through a comic store. Ever.

Post by **Squirrelknight** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:52 am

Personally, out of Kon's 3 movies, I liked Perfect Blue the least. Tokyo Godfathers is good.

And... Millenium Actress... It's... It's fucking magical. I almost cried.

Radrappy · Post by **Radrappy** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:57 am

mellenium actress is one of my favorite movies of all time. I was amazed by it and watched it over and over again to catch details i missed. I have never seen perfect blue, or Tokyo godfathers, but i deffinitly favor Actress over sen to chihiro.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:15 am

Paranoia Agent looks cool, but I'm always wary of TV series. How many episodes is it? And what about Tokyo Godfathers? The animation looks really nice, but the whole premise sounds a bit schmaltzy to me.

I think what bothered me about Perfect Blue was the way the characters were represented. They just weren't that believable, and I felt most of the acting was pretty banal. The story was good, though. I actually kind of felt the same way about Jin-roh, which had an excellent story wasted on an utterly lifeless cast. The cast of Perfect Blue isn't boring so much as... shallow. I think I'll check out Millennium Actress, though. It looks like it'd be right up my alley.

The Innocence DVD's only $20, which is one of the reasons I was wary. The cover art does suck. The lack of extras doesn't really bother me (I haven't even looked at the extras on most of the DVD's I own), but poor video quality is something there's really no more excuse for. I figured this would be a fairly major title, I'm surprised it got such a half-assed release. I really, really, really want to see it, though...

Have they released any non-Miyazaki Ghibli movies here other than Grave of the Fireflies? Most of them look really, really good, and I'm sure Miyazaki isn't the sole talent at the company.

Post by **Pepperidge** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:25 am

Actually, the video quality isn't really a big issue. And while it isn't what it should be, I'm not even sure if it's that bad in retrospect, I just tried to throw in a random complaint to emphasize that the DVD is really crappy. If that was your only concern out of the things I listed (Dreamworks put me off with the subtitle thing) and you want to see it so badly, just buy it.

Paranoia Agent is thirteen episodes. Hear Dache rave about it.

Post by **G.Silver** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:41 am

You can hear me rave about it too if you like. I didn't expect to like it nearly as much as I did, and it does really well as a TV series, it does things it couldn't have done as a movie and is a lot better for it.

Dache · Post by **Dache** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:12 am

Paranoia Agent rooooocks.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:15 am

You type how Yngwie Malmsteem talks.

Post by **Popcorn** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:24 pm

I fear screwdrivers.

Double-S- · Post by **Double-S-** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:17 pm

I have a friend whom I think watched Perfect Blue and he hated it.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:05 pm

There's lots of nekkid boobies, at least.

Post by **Pepperidge** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 2:21 am

Paranoia Agent has nekkid boobes.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:18 am

Really? In a TV series? I bet it doesn't have full frontal like Perfect Blue. (Actually, I believe Perfect Blue is the only non-porn anime I've ever seen with some muff included.)

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:10 pm

It has muff? I need to rent that shit again.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:26 pm

Just some fuzz, and it flashes by really fast. They have some screen grabs at anime-fanservice.org.

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 7:39 pm

Ownage. Colour me there.

Post by **Pepperidge** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:45 am

Green Gibbon! wrote:They have some screen grabs at anime-fanservice.org.

That website makes having to actually watch 90% of all anime completely unneccessary.

Psxphile · Post by **Psxphile** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 2:26 pm

Good. Most of it is crap and/or blatant fanservice anyway.

Post by **Pepperidge** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:39 pm

Pretty much.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:43 pm

I like blatant fanservice.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:07 am

I just watched Innocence, and as expected, it lost me about halfway through. It'll take another sitting or two for all the information to sink in, but in general, I liked it. It's loosely based on the sixth chapter of the original manga, "Robot Rondo," which was my favorite in the series.

Oshii wrote and directed this one (he just directed the original), and yeah, he goes crazy surrealist weird, but that's what I love about his stuff. It's much more bizarre than the original, and while it still has similar underlying themes, I can see how this would be difficult for some fans of the original to swallow. It has a very different feel, almost the sort of vibe you'd expect to get out of a Jeunet film.

The original GITS was beautiful, but this is still a showpiece for how far computer animation has come in such a short time. There are some truly gorgeous sequences, but it still doesn't always work with the traditional hand-drawn animation. I found myself wishing the entire movie had been one or the other, and as big a supporter of traditional 2D animation as I am, I think it would work better both visually and thematically to have a GITS movie completely computer animated, especially if the segments in Innocence are any indication of what it would look like.

The only immediately baffling question that I don't think another sitting or two is going to answer is the basset hound. What's the dog supposed to symbolize, if it is indeed supposed to symbolize anything, or is it simply Oshii indulging in his real-life love of bassets?

Also, not a goddamn nekkid booby in sight. Since all the central protagonists this time are male, that may be for the better, but I've come to associate the Ghost in the Shell name with three things: gorgeous cityscapes, existential philosophy, and nekkid boobies. Three of my very favorite subjects, and when one is excluded from the formula, its absence is noticed. It just isn't GITS without excessive display of the female form.

So anyway, yeah, the first sitting was good. Hopefully it'll retain the momentum as I watch it enough to catch the nuances (like the original, which I adore more and more every time I see it).

Post by **Pepperidge** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 3:24 am

You may be interested to know that the recently released GitS 2 graphic novel has all of the explicit sexual scenes intact. They also rereleased the first one with the lesbian sex scene in tact. But even though it's smaller than the original release, it's still the same price.

After weeks and weeks of innane delays, I finally got Maison Ikkoku vol. 8, but I haven't read it yet. GG!, are you still getting the DVD boxsets? I'm sure it's a bit of a pain since they're exclusive to Right Stuf now.

I also finished Zeta Gundam tonight. It's a fantastic series but, despite what old school fans keep insisting, it's only a little better than than the newer SEED shows. In fact, it suffers from quite a few of the same flaws. Of course, GG! hates Gundam, so whatever.

Oh yeah, in case you guys didn't hear, Samurai Champloo (the new anime from Bebop director, Shinichiro Watanabe) and Paranoia Agent (by Satoshi Kon) are both coming to Adult Swim this summer. Good to know they don't hate anime after all.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:06 pm

They also rereleased the first one with the lesbian sex scene in tact. But even though it's smaller than the original release, it's still the same price.

Are you talking about a US release from Dark Horse? Because I have the Japanese bilingual version from Kodansha. I am interested in the uncensored version of GitS 2, though, which I haven't read yet. (Though the apparently "lost" sex scene I saw pictures of was not nearly as delightful as the lesbian threesome from the original...)