(no subject)

[puddingcat]

I finished Weiss Kreuz (Kapitel) last night. Wah! Consequently, I've just been out scouring the shops of Stockport for anime. moony, I remember you recommending Cowboy Bebop as a Firefly equivalent, and Inu Yasha, but what else? What was the one where the wonderful bad guy dies?

Anyone else have any suggestions? What I liked about WK was the style of the characters - they were drawn as (admittedly gorgeous) adults, not excessively "cute" kids. Oh, and the uncertain moral standards certainly helped. There's nothing worse than good=beautiful and evil=grotesque to make me lose all interest. Give me good=tortured-angst and evil=just-a-different-point-of-view any day. With good cheekbones.
Largely because of this post, I'm tempted to try Yami No Matsuei. Anyone ever read / seen it?

ETA: Ok; I've now seen episode 1 of YNM. More preferences appear to be: Guns good, cars good, gore & general violence./;;;;lioklllllllllll good, humans (or dead humans) good. Cute animals bad, cute chicken librarians Very Bad, dragons baffling. Cats on keyboards irritating and fuzzy.


A meme from SB:

Fell in love: Probably 18. I think. Not counting animals & Bruce Dickinson.
Lost your virginity: 18 (different person).
Lost someone close to you: 15, Nanny.
Drank alcohol: No idea, though I was given a glass of champagne aged 2 (cousin's 21st), downed it & said "More!".
Smoked weed: 18. I was so good until Uni.
Got your heart broken: 18. See first question. Interestingly, the 2 people who've f*cked me up most are both called David.
Got arrested: Not yet.
Smoked a cigarette: 16.
Broken a bone: 11 - my wrist. I fell off my bike while practising for my Cycling Proficiency Test...
Got cheated on: 18. Not by either of the people in (1) or (2).
Rode the city bus: I suppose since I was tiny, when we went to see Gran in Edinburgh.
Went to a concert: 16. Bruce Dickinson's Tattooed Millionnaire tour, at the London Astoria.
Met someone famous: Heavens, I can't think back past Sunday ;)
Dyed your hair: 15
Got your first cell phone: 21
Got a Myspace: Never.
Snuck out of the house: Um. Never? Snuck *in* several times...
Got your own digital camera: 31
First time you got drunk: 15.
Read Harry Potter: 26
Travelled across the ocean: Never have done.
Wore a toga: I've worn a Greek thingy, when our (all girls) school put on Oedipus Rex. I was Creon.
Shopped at Abercrombie: I'm not a chav.
Went to Disney World: never.
Went on a date: 16. Ick.
Saw a Broadway/West End play: 15 - my birthday present was to see Cats.
How old are you now: 32

Comments

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

You should absolutely watch Yami no Matsuei. The anime is beautiful (the manga is far less so), the storyline is good, there's more (fully deserved) angst than even the Weiss boys could handle and everyone is gay. Gay as in gay dead detectives.

[strangefrontier.livejournal.com]

I second this! Most fervently!

I would normally have more recs, but half of my anime collection is in Kent and the other half is on loan to my cousin. Um, the first things that come to mind are Witch Hunter Robin, Serial Experiments Lain, Paranoia Agent and GetBackers.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Ah - I found Witch Hunter Robin (vol 5) in HMV and thought it looked good. I think YouTube is going to become my Very Good Friend :)

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

I've just found Episode 1 on YouTube. The chicken thing pisses me off, as does the change to kiddie-style when Tsuzuki gets embarrassed, and I don't know enough about Japanese mythology to appreciate the supernatural side of things - but otherwise, it does look promising :)

(p.s. It was Gluhen episodes 5,6,7,12 and 13 that wouldn't download from YSI for me, if you really don't mind trying again. Thanks!)

More on Gluhen...

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

I've just found episodes 12 & 13! *glares at PC*

But I'd still really appreciate eps 5-7, if it's no bother? Thanks :)

Re: More on Gluhen...

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Certainly! I can do that next week (but you should probably bug me).

[sogoth.livejournal.com]

Coboy Bebop is most definatly the anime equivalent of Firefly. Much goodness is had!

Others that I really like* are :

Trigun - It's about a slightly loopy gunman and his adventures in a kind of firefly-esque western world. Goes a bit strange in the last two episodes, but the rest of the series more than makes up for it.

Hellsing - A vampire hitman for the british government. Lots of blood and action... unfortunately never made it to the very end, but still worth watching.

Gungrave - It's about a guy who is brought back from the dead, but he's not entirely sure who he is and gets load sof flashbacks to all the nasties he's done in his past. Very dark, lots of action and the bad guys are just as pretty as the good guys (especially when you consider the fact that he's technically dead!)

* not including the ones with kids as the main characters

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Those sound good. I like lots of gore and a high "ew" factor :)

[sogoth.livejournal.com]

I *may* have copies of all those at home. I'll try and remember to have a look tonight. If I do I'll get Claire to post them to you if you want? (Computer watching will be needed)

[sogoth.livejournal.com]

Another series that I love to bits, but may not appeal quite so much, is Naruto. The main characters are kids, but they are training to be Ninjas so there's a lot of fighting and death going on as well as humour.

The Big O is pretty good, though I've only seen a couple of episodes. Big O is pretty much Batman with a big stompy robot rather than a car :)

Some clips/art from each series

[sogoth.livejournal.com]

Gungrave

Hellsing

Trigun

The Big O

Cowboy Bebop

Full Metal Alcheumst

FMA may have a kid as the main character, but it gets pretty sick at times. Children being murdered, kids being mutated into monsters etc. etc.

[sogoth.livejournal.com]

Can't currently find the CDs... but if you're interested we've got a voucher for a free month at Screenselect.co.uk that you're welcome to if you want? They have lots of anime with all the series I"ve mentioned available (in part as none are finished on DVD yet)?
Let me know and I can email you the code :)

[lark-ascending.livejournal.com]

Read Or Die; Noir; Full Metal Alchemist... ooh I don't watch enugh anime.

[sogoth.livejournal.com]

I love FMA :)

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Ah; FMA might be the one Moony was talking about. Does it have a gorgeous bad guy who dies?

[lark-ascending.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually watched FMA all the way through so I can't tell you, unfortunately...

[becky-spence.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Ranma 1/2 if you can find it! It is by the same person who did Inu Yasha (which I LOVE!) and is amazingly silly (boy becomes girl when doused in water. father becomes panda when doused in water.) There's both DVDs and a graphic novel series (though they're up to about volume 30 in the graphic novels so it could be pricey to start!)

Revolutionary Girl Utena is pretty cool, and my friend Helen was always fond of The Dirty Pair (odd 2 girl small clothing big guns thing - they're intergalactic cops who keep breaking things whenever they try to help).

Not seen all of it, but Neo Genesis Evangelion was shaping up to be pretty cool when I saw the first few episodes.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

I was rahter put off Inu Yasha & Ranma by the style of characters - they're on the kiddie cute side of things. Also, having watched the first YNM episode, I'm not so keen on the supernatural side of things (fuzzy demons etc). I might come back to those in a bit, but I'm after the more "normal" (if anime is ever normal...) stuff, with humans and guns and gore, at least to start with :)

[becky-spence.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. *ponders* Utena's a bit more fantasty-style, not big eyes or anything, just a little less guns and a little more sword fighting...

Dirty Pair is girls and guns, but is a bit silly at times.

Evangelion might well fit the bill though - big stompy mechs, slightly twisted plot, lots of fight scenes...

[lark-ascending.livejournal.com]

Ooooh Utena! Utena rules! I got a huge fangirl crush on her ;-)

Also NGE is legendary among my anime-watching friends, though like you I've only seen a couple of episodes.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Cowboy Bebop is indeed fantastic and probably not expensive these days.
It's one of those where they want to be really Western but never quite manage it, which adds another level of humour. ;o)

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

The manga was in Borders & they had the film as well, but it was £20. I think I'll try YouTube first :)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

It's not the newest anymore but still quite pricey (30 quid per box). Hm. :o(

You could also subscribe to one of those online DVD rental firms and rent them, which was I did.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I have Cowboy Bebop around somewhere - I'll look it out and upload it too!

Oh - and Kyou Kara Maou is one of the crackiest pieces of crack around (schoolboy gets flushed down the toilet to a demon realm where he finds he's the long lost prince and inadvertently gets himself engaged to another boy . . .)