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I want more anime feature films.


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Adam Kadmon



Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:48 am Reply with quote
I personally love Monopoly.

The fleeting sensation of power and influence that you feel whilst bankrupting a fellow player is nigh inimitable. I must say however that i'm not a big fan of the monopoly that our dear friends over at Studio Ghibli seem to have on the anime movie market. I, like any other indivudual with adequate taste adore the works of Ghibli, the sheer quality of their products is in most cases undeniable.

However, as i was perusing my humble yet undoubtably extensive anime rack i realised that in terms of modern anime, all my movies were indeed stamped 'Studio Ghibli' (in paprikas case, another S.Kon product) which, while in no means a bad thing in itself, left me looking enviously at my older anime movie collection, admiring its diversity and wide ranging un-ecofriendly subject matter. Classic and not so classic works like Ninja Scroll, Perfect blue (kon again), GitS, Blood, Street Fighter II, Akira, Macross plus, Patlabor etc etc.

What has happened to the Anime Feature Film? Is the Studio Ghibli Era so powerful that all are happy merely basking (or indeed suffocating) in its unsurmountable glory?

Or can modern day tales only be told via a 26 episode anime series?
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Ishmoo



Joined: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 413
Location: Fredericksburg, VA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:30 am Reply with quote
Couldn't agree with you more! I'd love to see more anime movies. Some friends and I sometimes have "Anime Night" at my house and, while a couple of us are willing to commit to a series, one keeps holding out for movies, saying the series are too long and involved. I'm running out of things to appease her with. My husband would also be willing to watch movies with me, while shunning longer running shows. So, I guess for me the appeal of movies lies in my ability to share anime with those who might not otherwise be willing to watch it with me.
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Adam Kadmon



Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:08 am Reply with quote
you understand my plight exactly!

Alot of the time my mates and i do wish to watch a one-off anime with actual closure but our choices are becoming increasingly sparse. so instead to satisfy our cravings we revert to good ol ninja scroll goodness. The problem, i guess, with a Ghibli dominated world is the absence of the much loved 'Guilty Pleasure'. Anime movies you can just slip into the dvd player and enjoy for sheer a-grade entertainment irrespective of whether the thrills are infact cheap.
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Ishmoo



Joined: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 413
Location: Fredericksburg, VA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:24 am Reply with quote
Yeah, I'm all for a good, cheap, guilty pleasure sometimes. I go for pretty much any genre of anime from sci-fi to cyberpunk, romance to horror. I love the "deeper" fare but sometimes you just need to feed your inner juvenile.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:17 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
What has happened to the Anime Feature Film? Is the Studio Ghibli Era so powerful that all are happy merely basking (or indeed suffocating) in its unsurmountable glory?


As someone who (going against the trend) isn't too impressed by Mr Miyazaki's family-friendly contributions to animated cinema, I really hope so too.
There are multiplexes around where I live that sometimes show world cinema. If there were some feature-length anime for them to put on every now and then, then perhaps people's understanding of the medium would extend beyond Pokemon and Spirited Away, possibly leading to better DVD sales and even television broadcasts.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:35 pm Reply with quote
Um, there are a fair number of recent anime movies in circulation that have nothing whatsoever to do with Studio Ghibli. Origins ~ Spirit of the Past ~ may not have been great story-wise but was one of the better-looking anime titles to come out last year, and a lot of people have been talking about Tekkonkinkreet (though I personally haven't seen it). Go back another year and you have Steamboy and the newer version of Appleseed, and go back a couple of years further and you can add Spriggan, Blood+, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, the Armitage III movies, and the stand-alone Escaflowne: The Movie. There's also, of course, Satoshi Kon's stuff and older movies that have only recently come available, like Barefoot Gen.

EDIT: Metropolis completely slipped my mind in the original post, but is also certainly a worthy option.

If you're willing to throw short OVA series (i.e. their episodes approximate the length of a movie) into the mix then you can include recent fare like and Le Portrait de Petite Cosette.


Last edited by Key on Thu Jan 17, 2008 1:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Samurai-with-glasses



Joined: 17 Aug 2005
Posts: 628
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:40 pm Reply with quote
Easy answer: movies are more expensive to make.

Higher production costs, less potential advertising revenue, etc., contribute to a riskier venture than a TV series. It's probably much easier for a director to get his ideas for a season of a TV series approved compared to a full feature-length movie.

The anime business in Japan is slowing down after all. The companies don't want to take risks. Full Metal Panic XXX is a much easier sell than Feature Length Movie ### From Unknown Director.

Also, from your list, quite frankly you aren't looking hard enough. There are a lot more anime movies out there, both old and new. Recent pieces like Paprika and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time are second to none in sheer quality.
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Cloe
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:15 pm Reply with quote
Adam Kadmon wrote:
Is the Studio Ghibli Era so powerful that all are happy merely basking (or indeed suffocating) in its unsurmountable glory?

Nah, that's not the case at all. In fact, of the half-dozen or so anime feature films I saw in 2007, the Ghibli film was by far the worst (Gedo Senki). There are plenty of animated feature films released in Japan every year; it's just a matter of Ghibli films dominating the global market more so than lesser-known gems like Arashi no Yoru Ni or Princess Arete. I have about two shelves' worth of movies in my anime collection (I keep them separated from TV/OVA series because I'm just strange like that) and only 1/4 are Ghibli (or anything linked to Ghibli, such as early Takahata films and the like) fare.
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Keonyn
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Joined: 25 May 2005
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Location: Coon Rapids, MN
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:05 pm Reply with quote
It doesn't bother me. Frankly I don't think feature films is something I would consider one of the strengths of anime. Typically I like less than half of the anime films I view, and in most cases I feel it's a result of a rushed story or poor pacing or some issue with writing. It's as though they're still trying to write a story that should be a series rather than a story that fits properly in a feature length block.

Anime does a great job with series' but not so well with films it seems; I'm perfectly happy with watching my anime as series and not films, there's plenty of other sources for film. Honestly, even Ghibli doesn't have a perfect record. I've found their recent films (Howl's and Gedo Senki) suffered from similar pacing and writing problems.

I see no need to believe anime has to fill every block of the global entertainment industry. They do a great job with series and OAV's and if they made fewer, not more, movies I'm not even sure I'd miss them.
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Vortextk



Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 892
Location: Orlando, Fl
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:53 pm Reply with quote
I pretty much agree with Keonyn. I've found more movies I dislike rather than like it seems. Ghibli does have a good track record with me though. I think some of the older movies are okay but have really enjoyed a couple of the newer offerings. Even Howl's which seems to get as much dislike as like.

I find a lot of anime wanting to do too much with movies and maybe it's I don't have a taste for them, but overall it seems more amateurish than hollywood. I find the greatest part is watching 13-26 episodes rather than what amounts to 4-5 for an average movie length. There are exceptions of course and as some people have mentioned, a lot of movies that might warrant a good+ rating are under the radar for international audiences.

I'd try some suggestions people are putting out because talk of movies is very limited anywhere that I've gone.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7994
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:44 pm Reply with quote
I'd love to see more non-Ghibli movies hitting DVD as well. A few to look forward to this year are The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Appleseed: Ex Machina, and Vexille. Mihizaki movies are hit or miss with me (though I do own 8 of them). The best offerings were Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in my opinion.

All in all when it's totaled I have been able to find at least 68 varried films I felt were worth purchasing, most of them being franchise films though based on series I'd previously enjoyed.

I'm currently quite interested in seeing Cencoroll and the Kara no Kyokai films as far as upcomming/current stuff goes.
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rti9



Joined: 08 Jul 2007
Posts: 1241
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:59 pm Reply with quote
Adam Kadmon wrote:
What has happened to the Anime Feature Film? Is the Studio Ghibli Era so powerful that all are happy merely basking (or indeed suffocating) in its unsurmountable glory?

You talk as if you have lived on a time where many animation studios made lots of financially successful films. Before Ghibli, only Disney was able to exclusively live from making animated films. We're talking about one particular creation style which most of the civilized world associates with younger audiences. It just can't be helped.

Keonyn wrote:
Typically I like less than half of the anime films I view, and in most cases I feel it's a result of a rushed story or poor pacing or some issue with writing. It's as though they're still trying to write a story that should be a series rather than a story that fits properly in a feature length block.

When examining Japanese comics in his book Understanding Comics, Scott McLoud discusses the fundamental differences on western and Japanese art. While the west is a more goal-oriented culture, Japanese put great value on setting the mood. The emphasis of being there over getting there can probably be pointed out as one of the reasons of why we have a tendency to enjoy tv series much more than movies that come from Japan.

Keonyn wrote:
I see no need to believe anime has to fill every block of the global entertainment industry. They do a great job with series and OAV's and if they made fewer, not more, movies I'm not even sure I'd miss them.

Exactly.
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Animastryfe



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 152
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:24 pm Reply with quote
What are the differences between a long OVA (about the length of a movie, such as Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal) and a movie, beyond the movie probably having higher production costs?
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Vortextk



Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 892
Location: Orlando, Fl
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:42 pm Reply with quote
The OVA can still work as a regular tv series in it's story telling. FLCL is the length of a longer anime movie, 6 25~ episodes, but each one is in itself, a full story.

However, it's as different as the makers want it to be. While FLCL does have an overall plot going on, each episode is it's own story without any real cliffhangers. Really, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_video_animation , is the best answer I could give.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:46 pm Reply with quote
I was going to point out the numerous non-Ghibli movies, but Key beat me to it.

I'm not huge on movies and prefer TV series (12-26 episodes, ideally, but whatever it takes to tell the story). But I'm very interested in seeing Paprika and The Girl Who Lept Through Time when they come out. For current and upcoming movies in Japan, I'm interested in Kara no Kyokai since its based on novels by the guy who created the Type Moon stories.


Kruszer wrote:

I'm currently quite interested in seeing Cencoroll and the Kara no Kyokai films as far as upcomming/current stuff goes.


And now I need to add Cencoroll to the list of movies I'm interested in.
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