Final batch of responding to reader questions. If you want to ask me something more, then I’ll answer them in formspring itself.
Noitamina has only been around since 2005, so it’s not like it’s a massive stretch to include them all. The only Noitamina anime I haven’t seen are Antique Bakery, Tale of Genji, Hataraki Man, Ayakashi and Hakaba Kitaro. Anyway, to answer the actual question, my favourite Noitamina anime is Eden of the East. Yeah, the movies don’t live up to the series, but it’s still one of the most thrilling and entertaining anime I’ve ever seen. It was also the anime that made me pay attention to the Noitamina timeslot in the first place. Other than Eden, my favourites from Noitamina are Moyashimon, Nodame Cantabile, Jellyfish Princess and Bunny Drop.
Here is where I admit I’m such a humongous weeaboo that I don’t watch any TV drama. I watch comedians, whether in panels or stand up, or I watch sports. However I did catch a couple of episodes of an American TV show called Pushing Daisies a few years ago. Apparently the show was cancelled, but I loved the mad style it had. That’s something I think could be improved in animated form if the animators really went all out with the wacko style it already had in live action form.
Casshern Sins instead of Michiko to Hatchin. Twas the Autumn of 2008 and one young blogger, who had dubbed himself Scamp, had gotten himself all excited for the Next Cowboy Bebop/Samurai Champloo. But then came Michiko to Hatchin and it was a barrel of frustration and disappointment. I wish I’d covered Casshern Sins instead. Each episode had a story to tell that wore it’s intentions and meanings in a very clear fashion so there was always something new to talk about. Also, because of how seriously it took itself, there was a lot to make fun of. Well, mainly the CASSHERN KUROSE’s. I enjoyed that show a lot and I really would have enjoyed covering it.
Yup. My idea of a happy relationship is now one who can sing the Pokemon theme song along with me.
Tough, because my opinion changes over time depending on what series the person is covering or what their newfound subject of interest is. For now, I guess my top 5 would be Ogiue Maniax, Unmei Kaihen, Mecha Guignol, 2-D Teleidoscope and Star Crossed. Just look at the blogroll though if you want all the ones I’m currently enjoying reading.
Besides from the Studio Rikka 24 episode sci-fi series? I’d like to see Brains Base staff that do Baccano/Durarara/Natsume/Jellyfish Princess do an anime original production. Some kind of deathly serious psychological horror that quotes philosephers and can be interpreted in a bizillion different ways. Since most of his works so far have been fun, I’d like to see him spreading his wings and trying out something with a darker tone.
Read this, this and this. If you plan on starting a blog, wordpress.com is definitely the best way to go if you don’t know the first thing about building websites. It’s free and relatively easy to work out how to post stuff. There are other free blogging sites, like Blogger or Livejournal, but I’ve used all 3 and I think wordpress is far and away the best of the lot. The only problem is you’ll be stuck on the same handful of decent blog layouts that everyone has, but that’s just tough shit. You’re getting it for free. Hosting costs a lot of money.
Griffith from Berserk. Why he broke the way he did and what it was that caused him to act in such an irrational manner. That segment from the anime is one of the most fascinating pieces of character development I have ever seen, but what made it so fascinating is how none of it was ever mentioned by the characters themselves. We had to piece everything together ourselves. I really need to write a proper Berserk post one day. All I ever managed was this stupidly gushing fanboy post.
No, but that one episode did play over and over again in my nightmares. Does that count as watching a full season?
Including these two questions together because the first part can be essentially be put as “do you liked Redline”? Redline is all style. It does has the capability to tell stories, but these stories are only sent to further increase the style of the show rather than add anything resembling depth. Heck, Redline doesn’t even attempt to add depth, even poking fun at any audience member who might have tried to do otherwise. But the style is the substance. That’s sort of the point of Redline. It’s also the point of a few other anime, like Panty and Stocking. So the question is a bit of a misnomer.
Also, I’ve watched Redline 3 times. Twice in the cinema, once pirated. Still love it.
Part of the point of Madoka was that it showed what would truly happen if a girl gave up her life for a wish to become a magical girl. Same way Evangelion showed what would really happen if a wimpy teenage boy was put in charge of piloting a giant robot with the responsibility to defending humanity on his shoulders. In that sense, Madoka needs the magical girl part to work. Although I suppose you could twist the story to be about idol singers or something. Sell your soul to the studio, they hollow out your talent and market it. You live a year or two of dreams before being cast aside once your use is no longer needed.
There’s a big fucking difference between animation and manga/comics (if I’m understanding you right by sequential art). Animation has more in common with live action directing than manga, what with music and timing and direction and what not. The static form of a comic/manga cannot hope to achieve what an actual moving, talking picture can do. The diplomatic me would say that there are aspects each one does better than the other, but I’m no diplomat. Anime > Manga. It can move. It can make sounds. It can do stuff like timing. It gives the creators more control, rather than the consumption method being left to the whims of the consumer. People who prefer manga and books over moving pictures are stubborn who want to consume the material in their own preferred method rather than handing over the reigns to the creators.
Mass generalisation there, but whatever.
A bit too obsessed to the point that they put themselves in one of those car crushing machines so they too resemble a 2D person? Yeah, that’s a pretty worrying level of obsession there.
I have had dreams involving Holo, C.C. and Sheryl Nome but I’d prefer to keep those dreams to myself.
I don’t dislike manga. I just prefer anime. Same with books vs live action stuff. There’s just so much more you can do with the moving form than a static page. So recommending me manhwa is kinda redundant. Recommend me some movies though. I’ve been trying to plough my way through them recently.
One thing I’ve found interesting about shotacon is how much of it is aimed towards men. Take the infamous anime example of Boku no Pico. It’s drawn by a hentai artist who normally draws male aimed stuff. I guess a lolicon is more attracted to the nubile cuteness of young people than any feminine properties. It’s only once you hit puberty does any difference between the genders really become apparent. Before then, girls and boys are fairly indistinguishable, so I guess to a lolicon it doesn’t really matter. I’m not an expert on the porn side of otaku fandom though, so you’re better off asking someone else about this subject.
Sci-fi crossed with the Powah of Love!
No rape stories please. More the case in shojo and BL stuff rather than seinen, so it doesn’t effect what romance anime I watch. But seriously. No rapey stuff.
Woah woah calm down there. So far all White Fox have made are Steins;Gate, Tears to Tiara and Katanagatari. Tears to Tiara is a thoroughly generic fantasy series, but it was their first series so I’ll let that slide. I think Katanagatari is a pile of poop, but lots of people like it. Then there’s Steins;Gate, which is proving to be incredibly popular. Good start there, but the directorial and writing staff in White Fox are a bunch of journeymen. It’s not like Shaft or Gainax or Brains Base where it’s the same core group of people working on their projects. None of the main folk who worked on Katanagatari is now working on Steins;Gate, and again none of them worked on Tears to Tiara. It’s a studio of journeymen with no underlying similarity. Maybe with the money Steins;Gate is raking in, they’ll try to stick together to see if lightning strikes twice, but for now they barely count as an animation studio.
You do know I will probably die if I watched Aria? Or is that why you’re asking me to watch it? Well, you did say please, so I guess I have no choice. But if I mysteriously stop updating sometime next week, you know who to blame.
Well I’m currently writing this while on the toilet, so I hope I’ll have upgraded my position in a few years from now. But if I’m willing to keep writing while taking a dump, that shows my devotion to blogging, so clearly The Cart Driver will still exist many years from now.
I’m as much of a fan of video games as I am of movies. That is, I don’t make any particular effort to keep up with what’s coming out. I take an interest and I like to watch/play them quite a lot but not nearly as much as I’d like to. I’ve never owned a current generation console. I had a Sega Megadrive (Genesis for you Mericaw folk out there) while all the cool kids were getting Playstations. I only got an Xbox after the 360 was out for a few years. My laptop is incapable of playing games less than 6 years old, and even then it can still sometimes complain. So I take the ‘several years behind’ approach to gaming. As for genre, I don’t think I play enough to have decided what I like or don’t like. My favourite games range from Portal to Pokemon to Sims to Halo to Might and Magic to Command and Conquer and so on. Probably the game I’ve sunk the most time into and gotten the most emotionally invested in is Football Manager, but I’m not sure I’d call that my favourite. Just worryingly addictive.
Second part: I have a post prepared on that, so look out for it in the future.
The girls are hot.
1) Because I hold the door open for people.
2) Yes. They provided the funds for this blog when I started it up, although I’ve had to fund it myself from then on.
3) I was originally pretty dismissive of cosplay, but I’ve since warmed up to the idea. Never done it though, although I do have some ideas of what I’d dress up as. I’m tall and thin, with a physique like an Irish noodle. I have fairly close proportions to a typical Clamp character design. So if I was going to cosplay, I’d like to do something Geass. Maybe Suzaku in either is royal robes or his Lancelot skintight armour (kyaa~).
They write a blog about anime, it’s still being updated, and I know it exists. Not particularly difficult. If you’re on anime nano, then I know it exists. It’s not like I run some sort of screening so only blogs that pass my strict quality check can pass. Although if I had my way, any blog with centre aligned text would be automatically disqualified.
I have. I put in on my college application form. All 5 colleges I sent it to accepted me, so I guess it worked. Or at least, it didn’t put them off.
It’s characterisation is poorly done because the motivations of the characters are obscured to the point that I can’t follow their train of thought, leaving their actions to appear irrational. The plot isn’t great either when the reason why No.6 is an evil totalitarian city is because, as revealed in episode 8, they’re an evil totalirarian city. Great explanation there guys.
Also it’s gay.
Well not Chibitalia anyway.
There’s a difference between the soundtrack in-show and listening to it outside of the anime itself. Especially in the case of techno music. The BGM in both Eureka Seven and Redline are some of the best I’ve ever heard, but listening to them outside of the show itself is a bore. On the other hand, I think the soundtrack to Shigofumi is amazing, but it’s really not used well in the show itself. Best overall would probably be Cowboy Bebop, as boring an answer as that is.
Because Scamp is a common username and is normally taken when I try to register somewhere. 5camp, on the other hand, is almost never taken. But please, never pronounce my name as ‘Five Camp’.
The guy in my profile picture is the main character from Legend of Black Heaven. You know, that anime I’ve been banging on about for the past 6-8 months. Ring a bell?
The Cart Driver 
Finally! Someone else who doesn’t like Katanagatari!
I watched two episodes of it and got bored from all the story telling. Don’t get me wrong. I rather dislike anime without a (somewhat reasonable) plot, but god, don’t write a novel using panning screenshots. It seems like one title that should have been left in its graphic novel or light novel format, whichever it originated from.
Oh god, exactly. For a show about swordsmen and quests and what not it isn’t half fucking boring.
It got better I felt
I eventually stuck around for the art style.
It was meh.
I hope your ass is as luscious as Suzaku’s. 😉
0_0
Back off, he’s mine.
Fuck off bitch, I was here first
Yeah, well, too fucking bad, ’cause I’m dating him.
Well, apparently I should mad, whereas I’m amused, so here’s a tilde which I should’ve placed up there~
Gasp~!!! lightning
How scandalous ~!!
Day will not stop until every blogger is within her harem.
My harem will encompass the entire sphere except for My Sword is Unbelievably Dull~
Scamp’s so popular with the girls.
Everybody wants Scamp.
Scamp, you lucky, lucky man, I want a girlfriend too. And your girlfriend is even a funny blogger and an anime fan. Soooo jelly~
I think it’s his hat. That is one nice ass hat.
Maybe if I get Kotetsus hat, I will be popular too :I
these are clamp designs.
suzaku has no ass.
Movie recommendations? Don’t mind if I do! I’ll work from most recent to oldest …
Black Swan (2010): Can’t remember if you’ve seen it yet. The story is solid, but I think the real reason to watch is the directorial flourish — the psychological horror elements are especially great. This gave me a rush watching in the theater I haven’t felt in a good while.
Inglourious Basterds (2009): I’m trying to avoid anything super obvious, but you know, just in case. You’d probably be a big fan of Tarantino in general if you haven’t watched anything he’s directed. Just call this a general Taratino recommendation: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill.
The Wrestler (2008): Randy “The Ram” Robinson is one of those instantly memorable characters everyone needs to see.
Eastern Promises (2007): Mob stories are a bit overdone, but Eastern Promises is one of the better recent ones.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006): Has the kind of obsessive, charismatic lead character I think you’d really dig.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005): Very irreverent murder mystery with lots of wit and style.
City of God (2002): A tremendous portrait of a vibrant Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. Incredibly stylish, entertaining, and near-perfectly written. It took me forever to watch this; don’t make the same mistake as me.
Memento (2000): Basically a must-watch for every hipster movie fan.
Almost Famous (2000): One of the best movies of the last decade.
Being John Malkovich (1999): Awesome premise, fantastically executed, great style. Must be seen by everyone.
Ed Wood (1994): A biopic about the King of Terribad, Ed Wood. Always puts a smile on my face.
Heathers (1989): The high school comedy at its darkest, bitchiest extreme.
Evil Dead II (1987): Ash Williams is the best.
Cool Hand Luke (1967): Luke is one of the all-time greatest movie characters.
Dr. Strangelove (1964): I couldn’t go without recommending my all-time favorite movie. The greatest of black comedies.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962): This was the greatest political thriller ever made until Dr. Strangelove topped it a couple of years later. No. 2 is still great, though, and it holds up extremely well.
That’s probably enough for now!
I would also recommend Run Lola Run and anything by Terry Gilliam. But you have probably already seen the Lola movie, even if it’s a german movie, it’s kinda well known.
Ohhh, and I loved Black Swan. It reminded me of Perfect Blue and how I felt watching that a few years ago.
Regarding Black Swan and Perfect Blue:
The director, Darren Aronofsky, has repeatedly stated that he takes inspiration from anime – Satoshi Kon’s works especially. In fact, Aronofsky bought the entire rights to Perfect Blue so he could recreate the scene where Mima screams in her bathtub in another one of his classics, Requiem for a Dream. He repeated this same scene in Perfect Blue.
Aronofsky is probably tied for my favorite director with Christopher Nolan- they both make such masterpieces. It is also because of -them that I believe in a competent director’s hands, well-known actors are absolutely not essential to making a good story.
Dr. Strangelove really didn’t click for me. I saw the jokes, recognised what they were doing and yet totally failed to find any of them funny.
Then again, I really liked the Doom movie, so what do I know
I am sad. ;-;
Well, hopefully at least a few of my recommendations click for you. They can’t all be home runs.
Hey I agree with Shinmaru. City of Gods is a pretty good one.
Wow, you actually answered like 5 of the questions I sent you. That’s awesome.
Scamp you should cosplay Okarin!
This.
That’s a damn good idea. I even have the hair and the deep voice. Hmmmmm…
Still considering? Just say ‘yes’ and go for it.
You just need your own Kurisutiiiinaaa~
I volunteer myself for the job!
Videogames ftw.
You answered none of my questions… sob
I didn’t? Sorry, maybe I deleted them by accident? 😦
I’d like to preface this by saying I really have no idea how the business works, so take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt.
It seems to me like the parent production company Directions, Inc. is a freelance houser if you will (I don’t know the official term). They produce a variety of programs, mostly for NHK Educational. They hire out their creative staff (roughly 50 people) to do these projects. Sometimes, the companies themselves contact the staff member individually.
In some cases, the staff may choose to work on an original or in-house creation. That’s where Studio Rikka comes in, it was so Yasuhiro Yoshiura could do Time of Eve. He’s still apart of Direction Inc, the production studio, Rikka is just the front company, established for his personal projects. It might be a one man show over there.
I’m probably wrong. In fact I hope I’m wrong. I would also like to see Rikka + 24 ep sci fi, but that’ll probably come when the parent production company decides to do another original in house work, whenever that may be.
There IS an anime about how idols have short careers (OK its not entirely about it.) Perfect Blue. How could you forget it?
Also, I have Scamp’s Newest Favourite Anime right here. Theme is of course ‘sci-fi crossed with the Powah of Love!’ Title is Koi☆Sento. Yes, I’m kidding, that shit is TERRIBAD. Really, it was a traumatic experience. I watched it months ago and I just can’t forget it. Please watch it and write about it if you are disillusioned about your genre.
Brain’s base is mostly ‘hit’, rarely ‘miss’. Denpateki na Kanojo, Mawaru Penguindrum, Kamisama Dolls. My second favourite studio after Madhouse.
Finally I can put to words why Madoka and Panty and Stockings are THAT good. And the fact that Madoka is the little sister of Evangelion sends shivers down my spine. (It wasn’t obvious enough for me when I saw how it ended.) That ‘what would really happen’ parallelism worth a fanboying-filled post IMO. Oh and ‘style Is substance’ is my newest motto.
Thank you for answering my (anonymous) question.
I have written about Koisento before. Check the monthly roundups
Koi Sento wasn’t that bad too be honest, but I wouldn’t say it was good either. The story made no sense, but I still… enjoyed bits of it. Also, that deer was awesome. It felt like it could’ve been a movie, but for some reason turned out to be a 20 min OVA.
If I get the chance, on some other site, somewhere, I run into your existence, I shall take that chance, and spam some you somehow with a repeating FIVE CAMP FIVE CAMP FIVE CAMP FIVE CAMP FIVE CAMP on and on and on…
Also, there goes my theory that your blog wouldnt make it another anniversary… which makes me glad! Days are slightly empty without new posts..
Only slightly of course, I do other things, like go to the bathroom without a laptop.
Booooo! Don’t go taking down The Cart Driver on your own. Five Camp still has many exciting and raging yrs ahead.
Bah, twitters 140 character limit.
Please watch Avatar: The Last Airbender (the 61 episode animation). Since you said yes to whoever asked you on formspring to watch Aria, I’ll even ask you there too.
And please write about it. Also if you like it please blog(episodically) Avatar: Legend Of Korra when it is released.
I’m pretty sure manga-only lovers will tell you anime adaptations suck because they don’t stick to the original story.(I was the one who asked that)
Personally, I like to follow the best version available.
If there is an anime and it follows the original story (in case of adaptations) I will watch that. If it improves on the original version even better (FMA Brotherhood comes to mind, also I hear Bunny drop might not have the infamous ending of the manga.)
If it doesn’t I will try both the anime version and the manga version. For example Negima has a great manga(and one of the biggest pages on TvTropes) but the adaptation is a complete disaster. Also FMA before the release of second anime(now we have both versions in animated form).
If there is no adaptation I will read the manga and hope it gets an adaptation. Billy Bat comes to mind. Otaku no Musume-san also.
That is why I don’t understand why some people won’t try a story(in manga form) just because it wasn’t (and might not be, ever) adapted into an anime and why other people still favor the manga version even if the anime is true to the original.
Interesting…You’re probably the only person I know who’s said that he likes Eden of the East. Most everybody else pretty much hates that anime completely (though I can understand why).
To me, the show was an ambitious one ruined by its format. It would have been way better had they made sure it ran for 2 cours…but anyway, I respect Kamiyama’s talent and think he can do better, though a few more stints directing adaptations wouldn’t hurt him.
WASTED POTENTIAL: THE ANIMATION
I’ve noticed reception towards Eden plummeted after the movies. People were really receptive towards it when it was airing, myself included. But suddenly it became the cool thing to dislike the series after those movies. I still love it, but whatev’, I’ve always loved those kinds of anime
“Well, you did say please, so I guess I have no choice.”
A YES IS A YES
Fair enough, back in the olden days, if I found something that had both an anime and a manga, and the anime was well made (with the right ending), I’d watch the anime, but nowadays I often just go straight for the manga, partly to avoid animes with bad endings, but also just to save time.
The only minor quip I have with your argument is that there are many awesome stories that haven’t been made into animes (It’s a shame that the Tower of God is a Korean manhwa, so it likely won’t end up as an anime, which would be awesome ), but I get where you are coming from.
As for movies, well I haven’t seen many movies, and even less anime movies, but uhh…
Why don’t you try out Shin Angyō Onshi (Blade of the Phantom Master), I haven’t seen it, but I think it is the first time a collaboration on a film has been done between the Koreans and the Japanese, also the manhwa is absolutely incredible, it has one of the greatest anti heroes of all time.
As for non anime films, have you seen Pan’s Labyrinth? It’s in Spanish, but it’s an absolutely horrifying film, horrifying not as in monster scary, but rather “I can’t believe humans can be so cruel scary”.
Ohhhh, I loved Pan’s Labyrinth. I remember seeing it at 14 when someone recommended it to me 😀 I was pretty scared at the torture scene. That poor guy.
That torture scene seems to ring some scary bell in my head, but I can’t quite remember it. I would go look it up on Youtube, but my brain might have forgotten it for good reason….
Scamp, first of all, thanks for answering my 3-part question up there. breaks out into tears ~You do care about us~. Anyways, maybe you could put up a poll for how many of your readers want you to cosplay / what to cosplay as? I also vote for Geass cosplay (it’s my favorite anime series).
Other thoughts:
1) That is a great Engrish scene. OH MY GAW!
2) Pretty please check out Aria. There’s a chance you might like it. Easygoing slice-of-life usually isn’t my kind of thing. However, I thoroughly enjoyed Aria because (it seemed to me, at least) every episode contains: character development AND plot progression. Also, the music and settings are lovely.
3) Why is this your last batch of reader questions? No blog post idea is dropped forever?
Oh, and here are some movie recommendations:
1) Memento — An amazing psychological thriller. More people need to see this movie. The movie kind of plays out in reverse, which I really liked. By the end, you might be left with a stunned feeling of “Woah, what just happened?” I had to see the movie twice before I could fit all the pieces together.
2) Being John Malkovich — Another fantastic psychological film (I really like that kind of stuff). Also, this probably wasn’t intended, but I found this movie absolutely laugh-out-loud hilarious. Warning though, there’s some very blunt language and a couple NSFW scenes.
3) Fight Club — Psychological, action, serious fun. It’s a cult hit.
4) Inception — Dream within a dream… Great special effects.
Will you ever update http://movie.thecartdriver.com/? It’s been like 4 months…
King’s Speech was the better movie.
Also, watch Christopher and His Kind.
About the only movie I’ll recommend is the one that I continuously recommend to every human being that I see… mostly because several of my other favorites have been mentioned: Love and Death, which is one of the best dark/slapstick comedies I’ve seen. I know of nobody who dislikes it.
That Azumanga Daioh scene is favorite scene in anime.