animated scf-fi recommendations

dfield2000 · 08-05-2003, 2:10 PM

I've recently watched and enjoyed Titan AE and Final Fantasy and was wondering it there are any other animated sci-fi films around. Anyone got any recommendations ?

Thanks.

Sinzer · 08-05-2003, 2:29 PM

Hehe, you need to start watching Manga and Anime!

Classic Sci-fi Manga

Akira - The granddaddy of the western explosion of interest in Japanese animation. Takes a few watches to get to grips with the storyline.

Ghost in the Shell - Superb animation and amazing storyline, the easiest to watch manga I have found.

Jin-Roh : Wolf Brigade - Not hugely sci-fi as in huge spaceships, but it is set in the future, a very lovely tale of an old nursery rhyme. Most likely not for all tastes, quite slow.

Fist of the North Star - Stable western type manga involving Mad Max-esque post apocalyptic world. Some amazing fights

Macross - Big robots, big fights.

Metropolis - Gorgeous animation, reasonable storyline, a good example of modern manga.

Vampire Hunter D - Bordering on fantasy as well, the animation is amazing, but the storyline is a little confusing.

Sci-Fi Anime - This usually relates to series, the animation is usually not up to film standards in some cases. Most of these you can pick up on Sci-fi channel or CNX.

Cowboy Be-Bop - Very amusing series.

Outlaw Star - Along the same lines of Cowboy Bebop, personally I prefer it, but a lot of people would argue with that

Gundam Wing - The best Sci-fi robot series you will ever see, however it is very confusing

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Supposedly very good, I haven't got around to seeing a lot of these so slightly bewildered.

Dragonball - If you can stick it out past a few episodes you will really begin to get into this, although it is not to all tastes, only if you have a big stupid child in you.

3x3 eyes - This is quite a fun series, can also be picked up in film format.

Special mention in terms of series goes to Samurai Jack, this really is worth watching the animation is simple yet absolutely superb.

My best bet would be to look at Ghost In The Shell, Akira or Metropolis in that order, they are perhaps the most accessible to a western audience, although be prepared to not understand Akira until about the 3rd viewing, but you will be astounded by its animation.

dfield2000 · 08-05-2003, 2:46 PM

Wow - thanks for all that.

I haven't really got into manga before. All of seen of it so far is some bits on the sci-fi channel and CNX, but I've never really stuck with it long enough to give it a proper chance.

I was going to buy Akira, but I noticed there's an 'ultimate edition' r2 release on the 2/6/03, so in the meantime I'll get Ghost in the Shell and Metropolis on your recommendations.

Thanks

NicolasB · 08-05-2003, 3:26 PM

There's a rather odd film called "Heavy Metal" which is possibly worth a look.

dfield2000 · 08-05-2003, 3:31 PM

Heavy Metal sounds bizzare, but very interesting. The writer of 'Alien', voice of John Candy, and music by Black Sabbath !

I'll have to get this !

08-05-2003, 3:36 PM

Heavy Metal 2000 is really awful. My fav top two are Akira, Princess Mononoke.. Ghost in the Shell is a little bit slow I think, Metropolis is good with excellent visuals- similar to atmosphere to Bladerunner- but seems to lack something compared to Akira.

Titan AE & Final Fantasy arn't even a patch compared to Akira. Pretty average (Titan AE is a good demo disc really)

dfield2000 · 08-05-2003, 3:50 PM

I agree that Titan and Final Fantasy aren't particulary good stories - I think I've just still got this childinsh love of seeing big spaceships flying around the screen !

I liked in Titan the way the characters appeared to be normal animation but the ships looked computer generated. The motion of the ships appeared to be very smooth. I've just read that Ghost in the Shell has a similar mix of animation techniques so I'l looking forward to that one.

Joe Pineapples · 08-05-2003, 4:08 PM

Fan of Akira and a few others i've seen. But a lot of other Manga i tried watching is just too full of over-sized mouthed kids, constantly screaming stuff as loud as they can.

Dont want to hijack this thread, but it might be useful to Dfield as well. Bearing in mind the above, what else besides Akira, would you recommend?.

btw - i remember 'Starchaser - Legend Of Orin' not being too bad.

Dean

Reiner · 08-05-2003, 4:17 PM

I second Ghost in the Shell though it's more drawing than CGI (compared to Titan AE). Great movie though.
Watched Akira only once, so I hold back my comments until then.

Titan AE is impressive in terms of the CGI though it was a bit too childish for my taste (animal-characters etc).
Did like Final Fantasy, very impressive animation (CGI) but the story is perhaps not to everyones liking. Didn't mind myself though.

I recently spotted some Japanese animation at some AV shops, something with futuristic fighter planes. There are at least two part but I can't remember the title, even though it had an English name beside the Japanese. Anyone?
The DVD here doesn't have English soundtrack however, only Japanese in at least 3 versions including DTS.

Reiner · 08-05-2003, 4:37 PM

Just stumbled across this page. Take a look:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...me-8-2001.html

Hm, perhaps that was Macross I saw!? Not sure though ...

Edit - found it: http://www.crosstoy.com/dvd-fairy-air-force.html

dfield2000 · 08-05-2003, 4:43 PM

Excellent link Reiner. Cheers.

graham.myers · 08-05-2003, 5:31 PM

Not a film, but the animated series of Starship troopers are very good, and now available on DVD - I'm I've got six to date

On $ky they were shown as 1/2 hour episodes in a story arc. On DVD if I remmber correctly each story arc is a single 90 minute showing.

I'll try and dig a disk out tonight and see. click on my obsession link to see the specs

PoochJD · 09-05-2003, 2:24 AM

Hi,

I'd recommend:

"Ghost In The Shell" (Get the R1 version though!)
"Perfect Blue" (Not sci-fi, but a superb horror/thriller!)
"Akira" (Possibly the finest anime of recent times.)
"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" (Ripped-off from lots of other films, but still worth a look.)
"The Animatrix" (Out on June 2nd, I think, and a good example of different styles of sci-fi animation.

You could also look for:

"The Lord Of The Rings" (Ralph Bakshi's 1978 attempt)
"Dominion Tank Police"
"Gunsmith Cats: Bulletproof" (Not sci-fi, but still very good.)

Pooch

P.S. "Starchasers: The Legend Of Orin" isn't on DVD, as far as I know. I don't think it even got a proper VHS release. Sadly, the cinema version was in 3D, but the rental VHS version, was standard 2D animation. Would be interesting to see the 3D version, despite the lack of story and corny animation.

Harj · 09-05-2003, 3:32 AM

Hi

Just saw Fist of The North Star for the first time in ages, animation is a bit dated, but the violance is still graphic and quite amazing.

Akira is must, Ghost in The Shell is fantastic, but Akira just gets better and better after repeated viewings.

I also enjoyed Titan AE and Final Fantasy will get the credit it deserves.

CodeThief · 09-05-2003, 9:48 AM

ARRGHH, sorry to post and get all anal ...

It's "Anime" not "Manga"

Manga = comic books
Anime = Animated

Manga also = A Distributor of Anime (just to confuse things

)

I'd DEFINATELY recommend

Akira
Ghost In The Shell
Cowboy Bebop
Gundam Wing
Gasaraki
Macross Plus

For starters

Dave

Sinzer · 09-05-2003, 1:08 PM

No problems, I always get confused cos Manga distributes. I usually think of Manga being Western style Japanese animation and Anime being the more Japanese style (ie over-sized heads and big mouths

).

I don't think it really matters any more, most people who watch the stuff use the phrases interchangeable.

shoalin kid · 10-05-2003, 12:46 AM

ninga scroll is 1 of the best manga films ive seen ,well worth a look not your usual manga subject

Hawklord · 10-05-2003, 12:59 AM

I recently enjoyed Spirited Away. The animation is the best I've ever seen. It's more fantasy than Sci-Fi but definately worth a look.
I also recommend Blood The Last Vampire although fairly short (46 mins) it's a must see.

Lithian · 10-05-2003, 2:24 AM

Armitage III is also good, mentioned on the hometheaterhifi page.
About an andriod police officer with a load of attitude.

I have also seen the Sequel, Armitage. (III is the first one confusingly) Which dosn't have Keifer Sutherland voicing though.

That makes III really weird, Jack Bauer dubbing anime.

Another in my collection is Macross Plus. Which is all futuristic jet fighters that convert into Mechs. Very good stuff, the Ultimate edition (all four episodes and the movie remake) is what i have and i have seen it in HMV in the bogof/2for£20 deal.

What else have i got back here

Appleseed - Futuristic police, okayish.

Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 - Chicks with kickass bodyarmour fighting rouge robots, good stuff.

Blood: The last vampire - Stunning visuals, short but most excelent.

Lain - A girl with her computers, headf*ck.

Martian Successor Nadesico - Space combat with ships and Mechs (called Aestavalis), noted for making fun of anime and the people who watch it, watch this after watching lots of other anime first

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Very Very Very good, 14yr old kids in huge robots designed for hand to hand combat. Stick with it to the end and then get the remake of the last two episodes (death & rebirth) and End of Evangelion which help you get over the headf*ck the original ending leaves... a little bit.

And i have the usual Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Metropolis etc.

The only other thing that i have is some Sailor Moon, an excelent example of why it is bad that play stores your credit card details and you can come in drunk and 6 clicks or something and its yours (still, it was there so i did watch it, certainly different)

damn, i need to stop making long posts.

edit: brain freeze first time round.

10-05-2003, 4:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sinzer
Cowboy Be-Bop - Very amusing series.

That's all you have to say about Cowboy Bebop?

I the whole series about six months ago.. it blew me away. It's perhaps one of the best anime series' ever.

Check a review here.

dfield2000 · 15-05-2003, 8:54 PM

Hi,

I've now bought and watched Metropolis. I did enjoy it to a certain degree, but it's not the type of thing I'll want to watch again. I did find the storyline a little weird and I can't say that I was bowled over by the animation, but I've decided that perhaps I need to watch more anime before I can start to appreciate it properly. So...

I've arranged to buy a second hand Akira 'tin' from the trade section for £20. (not quite sure what the 'tin' is, but it sounds like it'll take up a nice bit of space on my shelf). Is this tin version Ok and is £20 a reasonable price ? I also fancied the sound of 'Vampire Hunter D' from a review I read in a mag, but after a search it looks like it's 4:3, so I've been put off that. Can anyone recommend it ? I've also decided to get 'Ghost in the Shell' and 'Blood : The last Vampire' as soon as I've got the cash.

Thanks again for all the recommendations.
Later..

08-05-2003, 3:36 PM	#6
nathan_silly Guest Posts: n/a	Heavy Metal 2000 is really awful. My fav top two are Akira, Princess Mononoke.. Ghost in the Shell is a little bit slow I think, Metropolis is good with excellent visuals- similar to atmosphere to Bladerunner- but seems to lack something compared to Akira. Titan AE & Final Fantasy arn't even a patch compared to Akira. Pretty average (Titan AE is a good demo disc really)
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