|
|
Post by Snake on Mar 12, 2019 13:25:36 GMT -5
..... And now I need to look into anime and video games. Well, not so much video games as I already have a few for Three Kingdoms. For Journey West, there was a PS1 strategy RPG which I rather like, but it suffers from the same "they go to a new town, a thing happens" structure the novel does (but from what I saw, it's not a 1:1 adaptation. Sanzo in the game is trying to deliver a magical staff to a temple in India, and there's this element where some people can transform into monsters, which plotwise leads to an X-Men element where they tend to get ostracized and thus, they join Sanzo on his journey). Only Journey West anime I've ever seen (though I liked both of them) were Monkey Magic (which used to air in dubbed form on US TV in the late 90s) and a 1960s movie called Alakazam the Great... which I think is on DVD now. Not sure about Monkey Magic. I haven't seen either in years, so I have no idea how they hold up. I've read about Konami's Suikoden, which from the sound of it is basically not an adaptation but just a "well here's a similar sort of story" thing. None of the characters are even named Song Jiang. Genso Suikoden series of RPG's are their own stories (with some element of "coming of age," or a teenager becoming an adult) set in a fictional multi-cultural world with Chinese and Western fashion and architecture, along with elves, dwarves, humanoid dogs, humanoid ducks, etc. The main element it borrows from The Water Margin is the gathering of 108 chosen stars of destiny to incite a change in the kingdom. I haven't played too many Journey to the West games, but Sayuki World 1 and 2 on the Famicom come to mind. Side Scrolling action games, that play more like Battle of Olympus or Wataru/Keith Courage in Alpha Zones. |
|
|
|
Post by toei on Mar 12, 2019 15:00:23 GMT -5
For Journey West, there was a PS1 strategy RPG which I rather like, but it suffers from the same "they go to a new town, a thing happens" structure the novel does (but from what I saw, it's not a 1:1 adaptation. Sanzo in the game is trying to deliver a magical staff to a temple in India, and there's this element where some people can transform into monsters... That's putting it lightly. It's maybe a little closer to its inspiration than, say, the first Dragon Ball story arc, but AFAIK all the adventures are pretty much original. I don't have a problem with episodic storytelling, myself, and I enjoyed that Journey SRPG; the problem with the book was that the adventures were really basic and dull, with little to distinguish them from each other, and I didn't like how it handled its protagonists. After monkey, the Buddhist monk recruits two other demons, the pig and Friar Sand. But while they're fierce demons as enemies, once they join, they never seem to win a battle or do anything of use. You kind of forget they're there. And the monk, for some reason, cries all the time. This isn't a flippant way to say he complains a lot; he literally breaks down and cry every time something goes wrong, which is every chapter. It's really weird. He's the weakest protagonist of any epic ever. Only Sun Wukong / the Monkey King really does anything. |
|
|
|
Post by kaoru on Mar 22, 2019 2:35:52 GMT -5
Watched through the Minna Atsumare! Falcom Gakuen minisodes. It's a 25 episode series of 2 minutes each, where crudely drawn/animated characters from all over game franchises by Falcom come together to fail spectaculary at being funny. You might have at one point in your life stumbled upon two or three kinda funny (not in the "laugh out loud" more in the "heh, smirk" kind of way) screencap on your Twitter or Tumblr timeline, probably one poking fun at Adol. Those three are most likely the only instances in the whole show that you'll find funny anyways. It's remarkable what absolute trite base line unimaginative shit they try to make work here. Like Joshua from Trails in the Sky randomly crossdresses, someone calls him a pervert, he might get arrestet by the Zero no Kiseki cast. Olivier randomly shows up naked, someone calls him a pervert, he might get arrested. There's a girl that's obsessed with "cowtitted" women. They might call Aisha flat-chested. It'd be absolutely sleep-inducing if the episodes weren't over so quick.
|
|
|
|
Post by ResidentTsundere on Mar 23, 2019 2:55:36 GMT -5
That sounds like hell in anime form.
|
|
|
|
Post by GamerL on Mar 23, 2019 4:46:42 GMT -5
In honor of it's 10th anniversary I re-watched the comedy anime Maria Holic, a parody of the yuri and shojo genres.
Like any good parody though you don't have to have intimate familiarity with the source material to find it funny, it has plenty of funny humor on it's own.
The series follows Miyamae Kanako, a lesbian who enrolls in a Catholic all girls private school hoping for romance and is as pervy as any male anime character, on her first day she meets Mariya, who she thinks is a beautiful blond girl, only to quickly discover that he's a boy in disguise (for reasons that are later explained) and in order to ensure she keeps his secret he, along with his deadpan sarcastic maid Matsurika, make Kanako's life a living hell in hilarious ways.
I also finally watched the 2011 second season for the first time and it's in some ways even funnier, only problem with Maria Holic as a whole is it hints at a wider story that is never fleshed out, yes it's a parody but it still manages to hint at some intriguing things.
Sadly the anime just kinda ends with a lot hanging, I don't know if that was in hopes of a third season that never came or if this is just a clear case of "read the manga for more"
|
|
|
|
Post by llj on Apr 1, 2019 15:31:19 GMT -5
That's its flaw: it's hard to appreciate it fully without having seen the anime before, and 39 episodes is quite a bit. llj, I guess you're in for a long wait. If it ever comes. I want to watch Do You Rembember Love, but always forget about it. Maybe today... I picked up Ideon on blu ray last week. So, it finally came out a little over 3 years after this post. |
|
|
|
Post by chronotigger65 on Apr 2, 2019 18:15:43 GMT -5
Started watching Fairy Tail on Hulu for three weeks now. Have to say I rather enjoy but might be too early to review it (currently in the middle of the cursed island story) but can say some things. It's funny. The main character (Natsu?) is crazy with his fire powers destroying everything and Erza is pretty scary with her attitude. Just rambling here but I'd hate to see them in our world. Just imagine the property damage and trouble with the police and such. Biggest problem is the series is over 200 episodes and counting (with OVAs and movies that aren't on Hulu) so it's going to take time to finish it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Snake on Apr 15, 2019 13:41:42 GMT -5
Still got a lot of Fairy Tail to go! The last arc of the original Fairy Tail series is still going. Then the manga got rebooted and... so the story continues, and they will likely make an anime of this new continuation. Maybe not Dragon Ball Z or New Prince of Tennis levels of power-up absurdity... at least not yet, but I'm enjoying the plot for what it is.
Enjoying the new Fruits Basket. The modernized character designs took some getting used to, but the execution is promising so far. Yuki surprisingly looks a touch more manly for the reboot, instead of effeminate yet infinitely powerful like in the original.
|
|
|
|
Post by edmonddantes on Apr 23, 2019 5:49:52 GMT -5
Been binging on old OVAs.
One was called Grey: Digital Target. I'm not sure what the "Digital" in the title is referring to. The thing is kind of post-apocalyptic. There are people in the military who are trying to earn enough credits to become "Citizens" who apparently live in luxury, tho Gray notes soon into the show that nobody has ever actually seen "Citizens." Him and a girl start noticing weird things about the situation, find a resistance movement, learn about THEIR situation, and finds weirdness about that... it winds up being really interesting for something I picked up because I thought it would be throwaway trash.
The other was something called Iczer One, which wasn't what I expected it to be. I thought the Iczer series was a sci-fi about girls with powered armor in outer space, but this one was actually more like a Metal Heroes or Super Sentai show in animated form (and with the story complete in just over an hour). That's not a criticism, as it turned out to be pretty fun. Gonna be moving on to its sequels soon. My only criticism of Iczer One was that the character Nagisa was such a stock character model that I swear I've even seen her exact facial expressions in other anime before (not that this is at all surprising).
|
|
|
|
Post by kaoru on May 2, 2019 1:55:21 GMT -5
Re-watched some old nostalgic anime. That being Bubblegum Crisis and Dragon Half.
BGC is just really cool with its mix of hard boiled action and J-Rock singing overlayed on top of it. And like a lot of 80s SciFi anime actually quite progressive. It is filled with strong female characters that are great friends and sometimes lesbian lovers throughout the whole show, never is there need to have a catfight break out for some forced drama. There's even a gay guy as a side character who's allowed to just be a normal dude who's into dudes, instead of being the butt of all jokes, or people comically getting creeped out, or him being that awful okama stereotype that anime just loves to parade around. Also almost prophetic that the danger to the world in here are Big Megacorps and Boomers. On the other hand it's also kind of funny to see the future tech as imagined in the late 80s. Like in 2032 we'll still read printed paper, but now it gets delivered instantly via Fax! Furthermore there's just a certain vibe about these shows that is lost to both the era and the OVA-format that's just nice to delve into compared to the look and feel of modern shows.
Dragon Half is not and never was very spectacular, of course, but it's still a funny little comedy and I was suprised how many of the jokes do still land. |
|
|
|
Post by Snake on May 13, 2019 19:42:16 GMT -5
Hi Score Girl
Just got through 12 episodes of this, and it's super cute. As it is, the story spans from 1991 - 1995, as an elementary school student develops a bond with a female classmate over playing arcade games like Street Fighter 2 and Final Fight. It really captures that golden age of gaming from PC-Engine to Playstation and Sega Saturn. The dynamic is pretty hilarious. And hilariously enough, the female lead never speak. Not a word. Her awkwardness and propensity for violence reminds me of my wife in a lot of ways. Even tense and emotional moments are met with slapstick hilarity. I can't imagine any hardcore gamer not liking this series.
|
|
|
|
Post by kaoru on May 14, 2019 3:18:59 GMT -5
Gun Smith Cats. It's a pretty cool and funny show about some tough chicks who are really into guns and fast cars, but in my memory I did remember it as being a bit more spectacular than it actually is. Also forgot that the story is original to the OVA (I think), somehow I in my mind the russian chick here and the italien chick in the manga that tries to make Ralley her obedient sex slave are one and the same, and I'm not sure why anymore.
|
|
|
|
Post by GamerL on May 14, 2019 5:13:40 GMT -5
Gun Smith Cats was the first "adult" anime I saw, going from Pokemon and DBZ I remember being totally shocked to see an anime with bloody gun violence and girls in their underwear, which is ironic given that the manga goes full on into sex and nudity and also ironic given.... anime in general.
I last watched it 2012/2013 or so and still really enjoy it.
|
|
|
|
Post by KGRAMR on May 14, 2019 8:18:44 GMT -5
Gun Smith Cats was the first "adult" anime I saw, going from Pokemon and DBZ I remember being totally shocked to see an anime with bloody gun violence and girls in their underwear, which is ironic given that the manga goes full on into sex and nudity and also ironic given.... anime in general. I last watched it 2012/2013 or so and still really enjoy it. Gunsmith Cats is good shit. BTW, any good anime recomentations? I'm looking to watch something to kill an afternoon... |
|
|
|
Post by toei on May 14, 2019 15:20:51 GMT -5
^
Cyber City Oedo 808.
A 3-part OVA series, 45 minutes per OVA. Directed by the same guy who directed Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, etc., so it's very stylish. Deals with three criminals in future Tokyo who are forced to work for the police in order to reduce their sentences. Very cool, darkly atmospheric cyberpunk setting with a Japanese motif, and each episode focuses on one of the three (though the other two also appear). The actual episode plots are decent - personally, I liked the first one the most, thought the second was okay (reminded me of one of those Golgo 13 stories where the military is involved), and thought the third story was kind of weak. Regardless, it's a worthwhile watch. Only thing is the music isn't up to par.
|
|
