Hoorah for Adult Swim!

[furtech]

I've really been enjoying two new shows: Samurai Champloo and Paranoia Agent. The former is a anachronistic period piece taking place around the Shogunate period of the mid-19th Century. Kind of a funky mix of rap-culture and samurai flicks. The major story arc is kind of uninvolving, but the individual stories are amusing.

The other show, Paranoia Agent is creepy. I haven't been this creeped out by a cartoon in a long time...I have no idea where the major story arc is heading, but this show has the most disturbing opening and ending credits I've ever seen. Love it.

As much acclaim that Cartoon Network has been getting for its designs for Teen Titans and Samurai Jack and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, nothing produced in the US (or many other countries) comes close to the wildly imaginative shows coming out of Japan these days. Mind you, the majority of animated stuff is banal, shallow crap-- but shows with incredibly unique worlds and powerful story arcs also get made. Full Metal Alchemist, Trigun, S-CRY-Ed, Milk Chan, Ghost in the Shell and Wolf's Rain* are just a few recent anime series that have made it over that have worlds and stories not found in American animated series. The closest I can think of in recent memory are Samurai Jack and Foster's Home (etc.).

It's a shame that in a country as large as this, boutique studios making their own shows don't survive.

[*I almost forgot Fooly Cooly: an indescribable mix of baseball, coming of age and sex]

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Now there's a good point - I'm wondering what the opening and closing themes are on the AS broadcasts of Paranoia Agent. It sounds as if they may have - wisely - chosen to use the original Japanese themes, rather than attempting to hack something together themselves, à la Cardcaptors. (Such a pity, given the original Card Captor Sakura theme's a particularly sweet melody. But, The Powers That Be decree there's only a market for animation for boys, unless it's a merchandising show for dolls. Which probably gives Princess Tutu approximately zero chance of appearing on US TV)

And then, around episode seven, with the friends who want to commit suicide.. not the sort of subject one might expect to be so funny.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Adult Swim tends to use more original elements than most networks, and anime is popular enough now that (unlike the carl macek days) they're using more of the original music. Yoko Kanno-- with her incredible music-- helped make using the original music a "cool" thing.

Actually, there's a ton of anime (and faux anime) for girls out now-- Sailor Moon and CCS were too popular to ignore that demographic. The Mew-mew something and Totally Spies and Winx Club are airing now.

The American anime market in general is in chaos right now...hopefully it will settle down in a few years.

Now I tell ya what ye fergot...

[berbalang.livejournal.com]

..ye fergot Haibane Renmei, Serial Experiments Lain, Blue Submarine No. 6 and Last Exile! Tale Spin and Batman come to mind when I think of series that get close to maintaining a high emotional content throughout, but they still get trumped by the Japanese. It seems that animation in Japan is considered a medium for storytelling, not just a tool to soften up kids for junk food. Does that have something to do with it?

Personally, I think it's telling that the more Suits get involved in the creative process, the less creative everything becomes. :P

Haven't seen Milk Chan, nor Wolf's Rain. I've only seen the first DVD of GotH and so far it's a snore. Does it get any better after episode five?

Re: Now I tell ya what ye fergot...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I wasn't trying to list all the great stuff, just the more recent and very off-beat stuff airing now. Certainly Cowboy Beebop would be on my list: it's probably my favorite anime show to date. There's so much anime out there that I tend to just watch Adult Swim or wait until a friend pushes some show onto me; when I look through the stacks of anime, my eyes just roll up in capitulation. And not to be contrary, but even Tale Spin and Batman are plodding, shallow shows (in general) compared to some of the anime we've talked about.

Speaking of Batman and Cowboy Beebop, did you notice on the new Batman that they stole (oops! "were inspired by") the poirot chacter from Cowboy Beebop? That's what they turned the Penguin into.

Re: Now I tell ya what ye fergot...

[berbalang.livejournal.com]

Three cheers for Cowboy Bebop! Man, I love that show too.

You're not being contrairy; we're on the same page. They occasionally come close to the mark. Sometimes they even hit it. On the whole, though, they still had to pass through the Suit Filter to be made. Remove gravitas, edit pathos, toss content, add marketing, boost tie-ins, presto: American animation.

Haven't seen the new Batman, but if they stole a character, well....that's in keeping with the national tendency, isn't it? Wasn't Atlantis pretty much lifted whole from the Secret of Blue Water? Why make something new when you can just rip it off from elsewhere.

Hey, if you can love GiTS, more power to ye. I love the opening theme (though the 3d animation is awfully clunky, in my opinion). I love the tank designs, and though I find the little spider bots' spotlight segments enormously annoying, I like them as a concept. There's just WAY too much telling and not enough showing.

Re: Now I tell ya what ye fergot...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Oh, and GitS: I haven't actually seen the series in continuity yet, just catching episodes off of Adult Swim. I like the show, talking heads and shaggy-dog-plots and all. I especially like the tachikoma (the spidery robots) a lot! It may just be an acquired taste...

[mognetcentral.livejournal.com]

Hey Lance, this is Lydia. Hope you don't mind me adding you to my friends list :)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Your Katamari Damacy costumes *ROCK*!

[farallon.livejournal.com]

I loved Paranoia Agent. My favorite episode was a non-continuity episode about the trials and tribulations of a Japanese internet suicide club. Funny and disturbing. Like salty/sweet, a tasty combination.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

There are only a few shows that hook me from titles to end credits, Cowboy Beebop and Paranoia Agent being two of them. "Funny and disturbing" is a good description of PA. Although if using food analogies, I'd say that show is more like salt/sweet/some-seasoning-you-can't-identify-but-is-probably-made-from-something-unpleasant.