The geek in me has been resurfacing lately. I played Star Wars: Force Unleashed at Jake's the other day and it got me really hyped on Star Wars and so I broke out the Thrawn trilogy again and read that. I'm almost done with the first book of the series (Heir to the Empire) and, goddamn, it is so good. I forgot how great it was.
I've also found myself obsessed with anime all of a sudden. Anyone who knows me really well knows this happens every couple of years. You see, I used to completely obsessed with anime and it was pretty much all I was interested in in middle school (along with music). Once I got into high school, though, I started to realize most anime sucked. After awhile each series sort of seemed like the last one I watched and I was bored out of my mind. Most anime fans have no concept of quality control: they like everything and anything. It soon became a chore to find really awesome series... so I just stopped looking. I kept on getting interested in it again every year or so, and lo and behold, it's hit me again. I'm trying to find new series to start this time rather than just watch the ones I've watched over and over again. Kino's Journey is first on that list.
For anyone who thinks anime is fucking lame, I hear you. It usually is. But, if you're interested in watching something that is worth real artistic merit and you can like if you enjoy anime or not, I recommend checking these three series out:
Boogiepop Phantom
If you ask me what the best anime, ever, in the world is, I'll say Boogiepop Phantom. I know, the name is dumb as hell and you're looking at that picture thinking, "God, this looks fucking stupid," but really, trust me on this: this series is amazing. And I say amazing not in that way where I can't think of anything else to say, but where I actually mean it. It's nothing short of amazing.
There's no use explaining the story because the story is one of the most complex things I've ever watched unfold. Unlike EVERY mystery movie/TV show/book ever, this show assumes you're a smart human being and doesn't out right give you the answers to it's questions. It plants obvious and subtle clues to help you along the way, and it is entirely up to you to decipher it's extremely non-linear plot. Nothing is being directly handed to you in this series. It's fantastic.
If you like anything that's dark, fucked up, violent, psychological, or, hey, how about this novelty, intelligent, you should really check out this series. It comes highly, highly recommended.
His and Her Circumstances
I am hopeless romantic. If you give me a tastefully done, thoughtful, and melancholy story of love, I will probably like it. Movies like the Notebook only serve to piss me off: it's sappy, trite, and full of everything I hate about romance in media. His and Her Circumstances, thankfully, is of the former variety.
It's a simple story: it's about a high school romance. Erase everything else and it's just about two kids falling in love. That's it. And it is done so well. It's intelligent, it's charming, it's thoughtful, and is simply fun to watch. The series is done so well and has such a realistic feel to it while still having slapstick moments and such.
I have lots of really nice memories tied to this series. The best one is staying home from school the day the last volume of the series came out and watching it in my quiet house. For whatever reason, that day felt very special. It's hard to explain my emotional attachment to this series. Again, highly recommended.
Haibane Renmei
The reason I first got interested in this series was because of the involvement of Yoshitoshi ABe, who created another really great series called Serial Experiments Lain. I picked up the first volume of this and was pleasantly surprised: It was a quiet, melancholy anime with really nice art and an interesting enough story. I wasn't enthralled, but I enjoyed it. The first four episodes are very episodic in nature and only give hints to whats to come, but not much could be gathered from them. Nonetheless, the series interested me enough to pick up the second volume once it was released.
With the second volume, the story kicked in. And from there on out, I was nothing but completely engaged in this series. While it is a tranquil, slow-paced series (which I enjoy in anime), it is filled with dark musings and philosophical ideas that proved to make this much more than just simply "entertainment."
The story is about a girl who finds herself in a strange land after having a dream about falling from the sky. In this land, young females who call themselves Haibane inhabit a castle in a quiet countryside. Also, they have wings. I know, right? The girl who had the dream, Rakka, finds herself perplexed by this new world and doesn't know what to make of it, but the viewer is given hints as to the mysterious nature of this place.
This is a seriously great anime. It's smart and thoughtful, and paced to perfection. 13 episodes never went down so easy.
There's no use explaining the story because the story is one of the most complex things I've ever watched unfold. Unlike EVERY mystery movie/TV show/book ever, this show assumes you're a smart human being and doesn't out right give you the answers to it's questions. It plants obvious and subtle clues to help you along the way, and it is entirely up to you to decipher it's extremely non-linear plot. Nothing is being directly handed to you in this series. It's fantastic.
If you like anything that's dark, fucked up, violent, psychological, or, hey, how about this novelty, intelligent, you should really check out this series. It comes highly, highly recommended.
His and Her Circumstances
I am hopeless romantic. If you give me a tastefully done, thoughtful, and melancholy story of love, I will probably like it. Movies like the Notebook only serve to piss me off: it's sappy, trite, and full of everything I hate about romance in media. His and Her Circumstances, thankfully, is of the former variety.It's a simple story: it's about a high school romance. Erase everything else and it's just about two kids falling in love. That's it. And it is done so well. It's intelligent, it's charming, it's thoughtful, and is simply fun to watch. The series is done so well and has such a realistic feel to it while still having slapstick moments and such.
I have lots of really nice memories tied to this series. The best one is staying home from school the day the last volume of the series came out and watching it in my quiet house. For whatever reason, that day felt very special. It's hard to explain my emotional attachment to this series. Again, highly recommended.
Haibane Renmei
The reason I first got interested in this series was because of the involvement of Yoshitoshi ABe, who created another really great series called Serial Experiments Lain. I picked up the first volume of this and was pleasantly surprised: It was a quiet, melancholy anime with really nice art and an interesting enough story. I wasn't enthralled, but I enjoyed it. The first four episodes are very episodic in nature and only give hints to whats to come, but not much could be gathered from them. Nonetheless, the series interested me enough to pick up the second volume once it was released.With the second volume, the story kicked in. And from there on out, I was nothing but completely engaged in this series. While it is a tranquil, slow-paced series (which I enjoy in anime), it is filled with dark musings and philosophical ideas that proved to make this much more than just simply "entertainment."
The story is about a girl who finds herself in a strange land after having a dream about falling from the sky. In this land, young females who call themselves Haibane inhabit a castle in a quiet countryside. Also, they have wings. I know, right? The girl who had the dream, Rakka, finds herself perplexed by this new world and doesn't know what to make of it, but the viewer is given hints as to the mysterious nature of this place.
This is a seriously great anime. It's smart and thoughtful, and paced to perfection. 13 episodes never went down so easy.
If you have never fashioned yourself as an anime person, I seriously beg of you to check out one of these three series. Borrow them from me, watch them online, whatever it takes for you to see these. I consider these just as artful as anything else I enjoy and I think you'd be doing yourself a big favor by checking these out. I know, the stigma of anime being lame, and to an extent I can agree it is... But it's also fucking awesome.
Seriously. I mean it.
Seriously. I mean it.
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