Animation What about sci-fi anime ?
- Thread starter Dalamar
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- animation television
Tim
Creative Writer
I've watched quite a few films and tv series, but they just didn't have the storylines I was looking for. There was a halfway interesting film that came out a few years ago that was the prequel to a popular computer game. I forget the name now, the game was set onboard a ship where the crew had 'turned' into freakish monsters. It was a horror game in 3rd person perspective?
I think I am the resident anime fan around here. Or, at least, the only one who openly admits it.
I tend to be a bit selective in my watching though in that I generally like to watch the movies where the animation style is well done (eg: Akira) but skip the ones where the style is crudely drawn (eg: most of the TV shows like Lupin III).
Viktor Kuprin
Spaced Cadet
I'll admit my age and say that I watched the original Astro Boy on tv in 1963, in glorious black-and-white.
And in the 1980's, of course, there was ROBOTECH, the amazingly good science-fiction/space opera epic created from the combination of three different original anime tv series: Macross, Southern Cross, and MOSPEADA. By chance I tuned in the first episode just in time to see the huge SDF-1 starship's anti-gravity engines ripping through its decks because its human crew didn't know how to properly control the alien technology. I thought, "Wow, this is different. Things like this don't happen in the lame American/Canadian-produced animation (of that era)." I've been a fan ever since.
Take a look at these starships from Robotech. Size does matter! And the alien Zentraedi built some bad-assed ships!
ROBOTECH STARSHIP SIZE COMPARISON CHART
And in the 1980's, of course, there was ROBOTECH, the amazingly good science-fiction/space opera epic created from the combination of three different original anime tv series: Macross, Southern Cross, and MOSPEADA. By chance I tuned in the first episode just in time to see the huge SDF-1 starship's anti-gravity engines ripping through its decks because its human crew didn't know how to properly control the alien technology. I thought, "Wow, this is different. Things like this don't happen in the lame American/Canadian-produced animation (of that era)." I've been a fan ever since.
Take a look at these starships from Robotech. Size does matter! And the alien Zentraedi built some bad-assed ships!
ROBOTECH STARSHIP SIZE COMPARISON CHART
Captain Asteroid
Space Pirate
I liked Akira, it was cool. Haven't seen a lot of anime though.
Dalamar
Cadet
I fervently recommend Planetes. It's hard sci-fi , not that far away in time and technology has expanded only slightly. No FTL engines. Planetes tells the story of a young man who works at the worst department of an orbital station - the Debris section. Since there have been many incidents with ships hitting debris at high velocity , the Debris section is like the space cleaning service. They're very underapreciated but do a very important task.
Planetes presents very interesting characters, very realistic and lifelike, unlike other shows, and also makes you think of interesting problems like "Is space expansion going to eliminate or deepen world poverty?", "Results of prolonged space radiation", etc, etc.
Best of all it's the regular anime size (26 episodes x 25 min) and it has a decent ending.
Here's a link for a description in AniDB
Wolfrunner
Scout
The only one that I have dedicated some time to watch is the Fullmetal Alchemist, as for any others I haven't really watched any.
Looks interesting. I see Amazon has the set on DVD... may have to add it to my shopping cart.
While there I also added he Cowboy Bebop collection as well. The theme music from that series always gets me to watch it even though by now I've seen the complete thing a few times.I watched the first version but have not watched the more recent version of it. Fullmetal definitely has some dark themes in it meant for an older audience.
That's a masterpiece. Watch it!
