Nothing exciting on the horizon..

Laguna

There's no future or impending releases in the world of anime to get excited about, where are the new Ghost In The Shell/Akira/Neon Genesis Evangelions... the titles that make you sit up and take notice, even when you're a not an anime fan..

All I hear about these days is remakes (Appleseed, Spriggan) and sequels to already established series (GITS:SAC 2nd gig, Hellsing), which in itself isn't always a bad thing but I'm longing to see something fresh and exciting, like when I saw Ghost InThe Shell for the first time on a VHS in 1995.

Steamboy doesn't interest me, neither does the latest 'work' of the incessant Miyazaki, he's making the same film OVER AND OVER again! (the themes covered are always the ****ing same!, coming of age, the 'spirit' world etc.)

The anime industry with it's relatively recent boom (the interest in anime by westerners) since the early nineties made the industry suffer from the same disease as the Hollywood engine... tiredness... playing it safe.... more and more anime houses pander to what they think we westerners want to see in anime, I disagree damn it, I was attracted to the genre because it was different and superior to the dross we refer to as animation in our half of the globe.

The only recent anime I enjoyed was GITS:SAC, but that came out in 2002 for christs sake, prior to that Evangelion really impressed me... In 1996.

irishshogun

You're just noty looking hard enough, for example:

Blood+
Basilisk
Bleach
Trinity blood
Monster (up to ep 65 in Japan)
Technolyze
Angelic Layer
Witchfinder Robin
Sousei no Aquarion

these are all currentl;y running and are sure to be released soon enough, esp Blood+ and prequel/sequel to blood the last Vampire, tho it uses a different more conventional Anime style. Of these Monster is my current Favourite.
Happy Hunting

Carbon Blob

irishshogun wrote:

You're just noty looking hard enough, for example:

Blood+
Basilisk
Bleach
Trinity blood
Monster (up to ep 65 in Japan)
Technolyze
Angelic Layer
Witchfinder Robin
Sousei no Aquarion

these are all currentl;y running and are sure to be released soon enough

To add to these, the following are currently running:
Shakugan no Shana, which is looking pretty good so far.
Ginban Kaleidoscope, whose first ep was good, but which could go either way.
Paradise Kiss, which kicks ass so far.
Noein, which looks interesting, at least from the first ep.

Also on the horizon, there's a Disgaea anime coming out some time next year, and a Fate/Stay Night anime in the pipeline too, both hotly anticipated. There's bound to be more good series around next year, and if you know someone who knows Japanese then feel free to have a look over the list for yourself.

Apart from all that though, there's been good stuff out in the last few years apart from GITS:SAC. The three Full Metal Panic! series were all enjoyable, Haibane Renmei was absolutely fantastic, the Crest/Banner of the Stars saga was a goddamn masterpiece, PlanetES was another excellent series, and Beyond the Clouds was a beautiful followup movie from the man who made a pretty damn good movie all on his own! These are just a sample too, there were plenty of other entertaining shows around covering the whole spectrum. Granted not all of those were out in the last few years, but the ones that weren't have been subbed very goddamn slowly, some are still ongoing, so they get an honourary inclusion. Also, they're just my picks, ask someone else and you'll get an entirely different list.

As for western influence ruining the anime industry, I'd have to disagree. Sure they're more reliant on western interests these days, but including things a western audience may enjoy does not automatically make a good show terrible. There has always been crap anime, and there always will be crap anime. It's not inherently great because it's anime, and while the anime industry has been churning out a lot of crap of late, I'd contend that it's always been churning out a lot of crap. How many movies and series were out in late 1995, and how many of them do you know about that aren't Evangelion? The crap is quickly forgotten, while the better stuff sticks around. It just seems like there's more crap around nowadays because you have access to more anime.

Oh yeah, and it also helps a lot when watching something to enjoy it on its own merits, and not to watch it expecting it to be THE NEXT EVANGELION, or whatever.

So to sum all that up, the anime world is doing just fine, and you ain't been looking hard enough :cool:

Edit - Links don't show up in this colour scheme, but there's plenty of them there

irishshogun

I agree with Carbon, (have to look up a few of those) Another few that have just fin are Speed Grapher overall good if a weak ending, Honey and Clover, seem really cute but the story and acting are excellent. Go to anime source for inspiration. Dont think I can give out full address Pm me if ya want it

CuLT

Blood+
Monster

Quoted for truth.

Fate/Stay Night

Very much looking forward to this myself, and the Crest of the Stars saga is absolutely fantastic. Been hearing good stuff about Paradise Kiss on ADTRW.

Ghost In The Shell/Akira/Neon Genesis Evangelions

These aren't really all that great to begin with.

Anime has been swarming with woeful titles since its inception, it's the nature of all entertainment mediums, which is all anime is. You simply have to look at a shelf of titles from "Manga Entertainment" to see some awful stuff and they're not even the worst.

The only thing that has changed is the volume being produced; the ratio of good to bad has changed little, in fact, I'd say it has shifted in favour of good.

and if you know someone who knows Japanese then feel free to have a look over the list for yourself.

and if you can't read Japanese check here: http://www.animenfo.com/animebyyear.html

cade

must say i agree with cult, manga have released much crap such as detonator orgun and street fighter alpha and adv released tekken, what were they thinking. however adv are making amends, with releases like Divergence eve, chrono crusade and mezzo. i'm eagerly awaiting Gunslinger Girl by mvm who also released samurai champloo and Lain.
i'm probably miles behind every1 else here but hey i can't download stuff so gotta wait till its realed over here.
if your waiting for something special like your mentioned titles you have to wait, these stand out because they have a trend to stant out from, typical of all genres, eg world cinema has tons of good cop/bad cop crap then the likes of Iichi the killer and Oldboy comes along.

Raziel

I'd like to see HMC and GITS:I at the cinema.

BTW, I like the new look of this forum, funny what a change of colour can do!! Hope it's not just for Halloween!

sharingan

To the original poster:

There has been loads of great anime released over the last 10 years. If you want to look for excellent anime, look around, stay away from the BT trackers and do some research. Great anime is only recognised after it has completely aired, and can be judged appropriately as a complete work.

I agree with most of the followup posts - especially Cult about the proportion of good:average:weak anime being pretty constant over the years.

To chip in on the pile of greats:
Escaflowne, Arjuna, Beck, Berserk, FLCL, Gunslinger Girl, Great Teacher Onizuka, Fruits Basket, Jin Roh, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, Kino's Journey, Last Exile, Otogizoushi, Noir, Now and then - here and there, Read or Die, Saber Marionette J, Scrapped Princess, Stellvia of the Universe, Twelve Kingdoms.

And don't get me started on the obscure stuff that gets ignored by speedsubbers and licensors alike, and the trippy original stuff that doesn't get recognised: Windy Tales, Zipang, stand up and take a bow.