Anime Thread #2

[patrick457]

Oh yeah, I also wanna mention I’m re-watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix.

I know it’s not technically an anime, but hey it’s close enough.

Y’know, I still haven’t forgiven M. Night Shyamalan for his live-action ‘adaptation’ of Avatar.

 

[patrick457]

This may not exactly be anime, but does anyone here besides me like Touhou Project? I just bought my first game, Mountain of Faith, a month ago, and I really enjoy it!

Me! Haven’t gone around to actually playing the games though.

 

[Kamaduck]

Y’know, I still haven’t forgiven M. Night Shyamalan for his live-action ‘adaptation’ of Avatar.

It honestly boggles my mind how they could take such a stellar series and make it into… That.

Avatar was the greatest western animated show of its decade, though, so it’s no surprise that the move couldn’t stand up to it. It still should have put up a better fight, but I wasn’t expecting it to actually be good.

 

[Steph_L]

It honestly boggles my mind how they could take such a stellar series and make it into… That.

Avatar was the greatest western animated show of its decade, though, so it’s no surprise that the move couldn’t stand up to it. It still should have put up a better fight, but I wasn’t expecting it to actually be good.

Never saw it myself, but I heard it’s bad.

Actually, I hear M. Night Shyamalan has been going downhill after the Sixth Sense (which was good)

 

[patrick457]

Never saw it myself, but I heard it’s bad.

Actually, I hear M. Night Shyamalan has been going downhill after the Sixth Sense (which was good)

Trust me, it is. If you don’t know Avatar chances are you still won’t even after watching this film.

I think the biggest twist in the film is that (spoiler)

the Fire Nation is apparently populated by Indians (in the sense of South Asians).

 

[patrick457]

It honestly boggles my mind how they could take such a stellar series and make it into… That.

Avatar was the greatest western animated show of its decade, though, so it’s no surprise that the move couldn’t stand up to it. It still should have put up a better fight, but I wasn’t expecting it to actually be good.

I think its pretty much established that most live-action adaptations of two-dimensional media have a tendency to suck (cf. Dragonball, Street Fighter, Fist of the North Star, etc.)

 

[patrick457]

I will again take the opportunity to introduce Chargeman Ken, possibly one of the worst anime in history (‘worst’ in the same way Manos: The Hands of Fate is
one of the worst films ever - in other words, it’s so bad it’s good.)

The story basically revolves around a boy named Ken who is fighting an alien race called the Jurals (who want to invade the Earth…for some reason) by somehow (yeah - it’s never really explained why or how he does it) transforming into Chargeman - which is really just Ken with a helmet. … Plot? What plot?

 

[Steph_L]

Trust me, it is. If you don’t know Avatar chances are you still won’t even after watching this film.

I think the biggest twist in the film is that (spoiler)

the Fire Nation is apparently populated by Indians (in the sense of South Asians).

I never thought of the characters in the original show to have a specific real-world race.
The only thing I can think of is the people from the water tribe (like Katara’s village) resembling Native Americans.
Otherwise everyone else’s “race” is pretty ambiguous.

And nobody really cares, because it’s set in its own fictional universe anyway.

 

[Steph_L]

I think its pretty much established that most live-action adaptations of two-dimensional media have a tendency to suck (cf. Dragonball, Street Fighter, Fist of the North Star, etc.)

Funny how Marvel movies tend to be good. Well actually, live adaptations of *western *animated media tend to be quite good. It’s just anime and the like that always have bad adaptations.
For a good reason too… Western animation isn’t as exaggerated as anime, so it’s okay to put it into live action. But anime → live action just does not work. Unless it was a very realistic anime.

 

[Kamaduck]

I never thought of the characters in the original show to have a specific real-world race.
The only thing I can think of is the people from the water tribe (like Katara’s village) resembling Native Americans.
Otherwise everyone else’s “race” is pretty ambiguous.

And nobody really cares, because it’s set in its own fictional universe anyway.

Let’s see… I think the water tribe is Inuit, and airbenders are Tibetan. I generally think of the Earth kingdom as being more Chinese/Indian and the Fire nation as being Japanese, but that’s just me. I think I heard somewhere that nobody in AtLA is white or black, but don’t remember if it’s a creator quote. Regardless, almost everybody is Asian, and the Fire Nation definitely isn’t Indian.

And I do think it’s cool to see awesome characters that are POC. I know I like seeing characters that remind me of me, and I’m betting it’s the same for a lot of other people, especially those who don’t see themselves reflected as often.

Funny how Marvel movies tend to be good. Well actually, live adaptations of *western *animated media tend to be quite good. It’s just anime and the like that always have bad adaptations.
For a good reason too… Western animation isn’t as exaggerated as anime, so it’s okay to put it into live action. But anime → live action just does not work. Unless it was a very realistic anime.

It never works. I can’t think of a single anime-based live-action movie that isn’t awful. But Avatar wasn’t actually anime, so I was pretty shocked at what they came up with.

 

[patrick457]

I never thought of the characters in the original show to have a specific real-world race.
The only thing I can think of is the people from the water tribe (like Katara’s village) resembling Native Americans.
Otherwise everyone else’s “race” is pretty ambiguous.

And nobody really cares, because it’s set in its own fictional universe anyway.

Speaking of real-world inspirations, the Air Nomads are Tibetan-like, the Water Tribes resemble Inuits, and the Fire Nation heavily draws from the Chinese. (The Earth Kingdom is a little difficult to describe.) I think the only real Indian-esque character in the show is Guru Pathik.

That’s actually part of the criticism: despite the fact that A:TLA has an overall East Asian milieu (with some Indian and Inuit/Eskimo influence thrown in), the three main characters are played by white actors.

 

[patrick457]

I will again take the opportunity to introduce Chargeman Ken, possibly one of the worst anime in history (‘worst’ in the same way Manos: The Hands of Fate is
one of the worst films ever - in other words, it’s so bad it’s good.)

The story basically revolves around a boy named Ken who is fighting an alien race called the Jurals (who want to invade the Earth…for some reason) by somehow (yeah - it’s never really explained why or how he does it) transforming into Chargeman - which is really just Ken with a helmet. … Plot? What plot?

To give a concrete example of what I’m talking about, this is the very first episode. Yes, this is the first episode.

 

[jilly4ski]

Funny how Marvel movies tend to be good. Well actually, live adaptations of *western *animated media tend to be quite good. It’s just anime and the like that always have bad adaptations.
For a good reason too… Western animation isn’t as exaggerated as anime, so it’s okay to put it into live action. But anime → live action just does not work. Unless it was a very realistic anime.

I think it could have been better, they didn’t even say the names the way the creators did. It drives me crazy to hear them talk, and I start screaming at the TV, "that is not his/her name!!! "It just sounds dumb.

I was sad when Netflix took it off of streaming.

On another note, I got a blast from the past this past weekend and saw an early episode Digimon-Digital Monsters.

 

[Kamaduck]

On another note, I got a blast from the past this past weekend and saw an early episode Digimon-Digital Monsters.

Digimon is serious business.

I seriously wish I had seen it when I was younger. It’s so much better than the Pokémon anime.

 

[Steph_L]

Let’s see… I think the water tribe is Inuit, and airbenders are Tibetan. I generally think of the Earth kingdom as being more Chinese/Indian and the Fire nation as being Japanese, but that’s just me. I think I heard somewhere that nobody in AtLA is white or black, but don’t remember if it’s a creator quote. Regardless, almost everybody is Asian, and the Fire Nation definitely isn’t Indian.

Well, in my opinion I don’t think anyone has a specific race because it’s set in a fictional universe.

Also, despite the show being largely based on Asian and Inuit culture, some of the characters have blue eyes (and some green, I think), which are mostly if not entirely absent in real-world Asians (unless they have some other heritages, of course). That’s why I think their races are pretty ambiguous.

 

[Kamaduck]

Well, in my opinion I don’t think anyone has a specific race because it’s set in a fictional universe.

Also, despite the show being largely based on Asian and Inuit culture, some of the characters have blue eyes (and some green, I think), which are mostly if not entirely absent in real-world Asians (unless they have some other heritages, of course). That’s why I think their races are pretty ambiguous.

According to the creators, eye color in AtLA has to do with what your bending element is and not with your race. All characters are POC, and most people consider them fantasy equivalents of Asian and Inuit people.

It makes sense to me… Like, it’d be kind of silly to suggest that the characters in LOTR are nonwhite just because Middle Earth is not the same place as Europe. The characters are very clearly white, and the culture is European, despite the fact that Middle Earth does not exist.

 

[patrick457]

I think it could have been better, they didn’t even say the names the way the creators did. It drives me crazy to hear them talk, and I start screaming at the TV, "that is not his/her name!!! "It just sounds dumb.

I was sad when Netflix took it off of streaming.

On another note, I got a blast from the past this past weekend and saw an early episode Digimon-Digital Monsters.

On the contrary, I wasn’t too bothered with ‘Ah-ng’ (instead of ‘Ae-ng’) or ‘Ee-roh’ (instead of ‘Eye-roh’), although the reference to the ‘Agni Ki duel’ (instead of ‘Agni Kai’) did irk me off.

And Digimon…Frontier was the last series I properly watched, so I’m not really up to speed. Just how many are there now?

 

[Kamaduck]

And Digimon…Frontier was the last series I properly watched, so I’m not really up to speed. Just how many are there now?

There’s the weird fifth one (Xross wars or something), and the new sixth one that I don’t know anything about.

But Tamers will always be the best.

 

[patrick457]

According to the creators, eye color in AtLA has to do with what your bending element is and not with your race. All characters are POC, and most people consider them fantasy equivalents of Asian and Inuit people.

It makes sense to me… Like, it’d be kind of silly to suggest that the characters in LOTR are nonwhite just because Middle Earth is not the same place as Europe. The characters are very clearly white, and the culture is European, despite the fact that Middle Earth does not exist.

Tolkien’s Arda IS actually supposed to be our Earth as it was in the distant, mythical past. And Middle-Earth was supposed to be located roughly where Europe is now (although the lands did supposedly change with the passage of millenia).

 

[patrick457]

There’s the weird fifth one (Xross wars or something), and the new sixth one that I don’t know anything about.

But Tamers will always be the best.

I’m confused. Is Xross Wars before Savers, or after it?

And I’m with you on Tamers.