Suggestions and General Discussion

[feihong]

I've been enjoying Monster. It does replicate the feel of reading a Naoki Urusawa book very well. The episode-by-episode twistiness of the story, the complex ethical issues surrounding responsibility, the sense of ordinary people taxed beyond their capacities by the challenges they're facing, the flummoxed desire to explain evil...all quality Urusawa qualities. And the art captures a lot of the style of Urusawa's forms and line quality. Pretty good stuff.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, and the reveals around the power of the villainy are so deliciously disturbing, I love it - especially since this fine works in friction with those ethics and the present compassion for both conditioning and one’s inescapable nature. There’s a great ep early-ish on (10 maybe?) where Tenma wagers his skills with criminals in need of surgery that’s maybe my favorite moment

[feihong]

There’s a great ep early-ish on (10 maybe?) where Tenma wagers his skills with criminals in need of surgery that’s maybe my favorite moment

Ooh, perfect. I'm almost there.

[Boosmahn]

For what it's worth, I considered dropping Bakemonogatari after the first episode but reconsidered after the second, which finishes its first arc. By the end of the fifth episode, I was hooked.

[feihong]

This time around, I watched a second episode, but I missed that conversion point where it becomes involving. I have trouble picturing what I'd be getting out of this show that I'd be into, and I found a lot of frustrations in this first arc. I don't watch a lot of supernatural shows like this––except for Kyokou Suiri, which I watch to punish myself. Are these torrents of dialogue a norm for the genre? I'm kind of surprised this seems to be a style choice.

[Mr Sausage]

So this vote isn’t getting much traction. Are people just not that enthusiastic about the choices? Should I scrap this one and grab another random 5, or try something else (like put everyone’s name into the random number generator, and the winner picks the series to discuss)? I hate the idea of dutifully going through with this when no one’s particularly enthusiastic, and the winner has only two votes.

[Michael Kerpan]

Give it a little longer.

I would say that primary virtues of Ping Pong are its art style, its animation quality, its capture of the spirit of its sport and interesting characters. It does NOT have a monumental story line -- no saving the world (or destroying it) or anything remotely similar. Kaiba has a great sense of (anarchic) energy, a very retro look art-wise, and a rather inscrutable (but not uninteresting) narrative.

[Mr Sausage]

Kaiba’s what I voted for. Sounded up my alley.

[therewillbeblus]

I’m not enthusiastic about any of them, but I’ll dutifully participate just to ensure we get to do another one. Part of the reason I keep harping on the recommendation of Evangelion is that it’s bound to get max participation. It’s not my favorite anime, and I’ve seen it many, many times over the last few years, including a revisit just a couple months back, so I have no personal stake in going through it so soon when I could selfishly discover a new series. But it’s gonna get asses in seats and spark a similarly layered discussion to Lain, guaranteed

[Michael Kerpan]

Here's a (perhaps) sort of fun two-fer to consider at some later point Shunji Iwai's 2004 (live-action) Hana and Alice and his 2015 (animated) prequel The Case of Hana and Alice. The teen stars of the initial film obviously could not reprise an even younger version of their characters "live" -- but they could as VA's in animated form.

[beamish14]

Here's a (perhaps) sort of fun two-fer to consider at some later point Shunji Iwai's 2004 (live-action) Hana and Alice and his 2015 (animated) prequel The Case of Hana and Alice. The teen stars of the initial film obviously could not reprise an even younger version of their characters "live" -- but they could as VA's in animated form.

Great suggestion. The rotoscoping really works to its advantage.

[feihong]

I'd like chatting about the Shunji Iwai two-fer, though I don't know that there's a lot of readymade subject matter there to discuss. Thematically, I feel like the Hana & Alice duet fall in the category of "lighter fare" for Iwai––though I adore both movies.

I can't say I'm excited about any of the nominations this time, though I did vote. I haven't seen Kaiba, but none of the rest of these shows sustained my interest––and I can't see Kaiba doing it for me, either. Just my personal reaction.

[vsski]

Similar to others here I’m not too crazy about the given choices. Kaiba is probably the one I’m most interested in, but I checked and can’t get a hold of the disc until 2 weeks from now (without paying an arm and a leg for shipping) so I don’t want to vote for something that I then can’t participate in.
One director who seems very interesting to me is Kon Satoshi, from Perfect Blu to Millenium Actress to Tokyo Godfathers to Paprika. Wouldn’t one of those be worthwhile?

Edit: Scratch my last suggestions, I forgot we are talking about a series here not a movie, got confused with the Iwai suggestions.

[Mr Sausage]

Similar to others here I’m not too crazy about the given choices. Kaiba is probably the one I’m most interested in, but I checked and can’t get a hold of the disc until 2 weeks from now (without paying an arm and a leg for shipping) so I don’t want to vote for something that I then can’t participate in.
One director who seems very interesting to me is Kon Satoshi, from Perfect Blu to Millenium Actress to Tokyo Godfathers to Paprika. Wouldn’t one of those be worthwhile?

Edit: Scratch my last suggestions, I forgot we are talking about a series here not a movie, got confused with the Iwai suggestions.

Kon has an anime series, Paranoia Agent, which would fit perfectly. Blus suggested it, but, sadly, the random number generator had other ideas. We could for sure do it at some point.

We could also do a Kon film for the regular Film Club. I love three of the four films you mentioned. They're gems.

[vsski]

Certainly be happy to see one of Kon’s movies in the film club. I haven’t seen his TV series yet, so didn’t want to recommend it, but if it’s anywhere near as good as his movies, I’d be game.

[Murdoch]

For those thinking Bakemonogatari is not up your alley based on reading descriptions of the plot, I urge you to give it a chance. The plot is very much secondary to the series' editing and exploration of anime's tropes. I feel like it would lead to some great discussions, if only for the frantic editing, where the inner dialogue of the characters as well as random asides pop up mid-scene as text intertitles. Every scene is dense with cuts and dialogue, and I think it's one of the most challenging watches in anime, but also one of the most dynamic series of the entire medium..

[therewillbeblus]

Similar to others here I’m not too crazy about the given choices. Kaiba is probably the one I’m most interested in, but I checked and can’t get a hold of the disc until 2 weeks from now (without paying an arm and a leg for shipping) so I don’t want to vote for something that I then can’t participate in.
One director who seems very interesting to me is Kon Satoshi, from Perfect Blu to Millenium Actress to Tokyo Godfathers to Paprika. Wouldn’t one of those be worthwhile?

Edit: Scratch my last suggestions, I forgot we are talking about a series here not a movie, got confused with the Iwai suggestions.

Kon has an anime series, Paranoia Agent, which would fit perfectly. Blus suggested it, but, sadly, the random number generator had other ideas. We could for sure do it at some point.

We could also do a Kon film for the regular Film Club. I love three of the four films you mentioned. They're gems.

I’d be interested to do a Kon, mostly because I believe the one you have mentioned disliking (Millennium Actress?) is the only one I used to be apathetic towards but rewatched last year and it shot right up to my favorite. It’d be interesting to discuss why his films work or don’t for people. They pretty much all work for me now, and I’d be up for discussing any of them.

[feihong]

I remember being really interested all the way through Paranoia Agent––though I remember nothing about it. I use some of the storyboards when I'm teaching concepts of point-of-view in my comics class, and they look intriguing. I remember really liking Millenium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers. Hated Paprika on first watch, hated it all over again reviewing it earlier this year (still planning to read the novel, maybe this would be good motivation to do it, finally), and I never understood what the fuss was about with Perfect Blue (maybe because I'd seen so many live-action movies in the same vein in the 90s? It's probably a more interesting film to watch now than it was back then). But I think Kon would be a good choice––a filmmaker with very particular interests and ideas beyond pure style, and Paranoia Agent would be a pretty good series to unpack in that regard.

[Mr Sausage]

Ok, we'll make Kon's feature work the next film club vote, and leave his series for whatever this thing here becomes.

[Mr Sausage]

I wouldn't say this poll was a success, given Samurai Champloo only got 4 votes (and one was me changing my vote to a forerunner to preempt a last minute tie).

I think going forward I'm going to try something else for choosing an anime watchalong.

[feihong]

I'm already pretty happy to revisit Champloo. I've chosen to look at it in the context of a) does it still not do for me what I wanted it to last time? and b) where would I have wanted things to go that they didn't? And that's been fertile ground so far.

I haven't seen the anime made of the manga Planetes. I guess it just came out recently, and I missed it? The manga is one of the most exceptional, and is often a successful gateway into manga for people. It's about shuttle astronauts in the near future who work essentially as trash collectors, risking their lives to remove dangerous debris we've left in earth's orbit. It's functionally a slice-of-life story, just set up in space. So I don't know if the anime does right by the manga (maybe someone can fill this in?), but I thought it might make an interesting suggestion for a future anime watchalong.

[beamish14]

I'm already pretty happy to revisit Champloo. I've chosen to look at it in the context of a) does it still not do for me what I wanted it to last time? and b) where would I have wanted things to go that they didn't? And that's been fertile ground so far.

I haven't seen the anime made of the manga Planetes. I guess it just came out recently, and I missed it? The manga is one of the most exceptional, and is often a successful gateway into manga for people. It's about shuttle astronauts in the near future who work essentially as trash collectors, risking their lives to remove dangerous debris we've left in earth's orbit. It's functionally a slice-of-life story, just set up in space. So I don't know if the anime does right by the manga (maybe someone can fill this in?), but I thought it might make an interesting suggestion for a future anime watchalong.

I have never read the manga, but the Planetes anime is incredibly entertaining. I love works that continue the “space work as blue collar jobs” lineage that started with Alien, and the characters are just so rich. It came out quite a while ago, but the North American DVD went OOP quickly and became very difficult to find. I got an imported Blu from the UK

[jazzo]

Makoto Yukimura’s Planetes and Vinland Saga are just excellent works, and I heartily recommend both.

Start with Planetes. It’s short and sweet.

Vinland is long but hugely ambitious, and I’m in for the long haul

[Mr Sausage]

An anime about viking history? I am so in. Hopefully we can do it for the anime film club thingy.

[jazzo]

I should have been more clear. My enthusiastic recommendations were for the manga. I haven’t seen either of the anime adaptations, though I hear they are excellent, as well.

And I’ve owned the Ping Pong anime for years, but haven’t watched it yet. I love the manga, though, and pretty much anything Taiyo Matsumoto does.