Forum - View topicAnime that contributes to well... Anime in creative ways
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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After reading what Tony K. said about older members posting *I don't consider myself a veteran, but not a newbie either* and just recently watching episode 1 of KonoMini last night, I decided to give a shot at posting a new thread.
So the topic for this thread is what anime do you think has contributed to the originality/creativity in anime. Preferably in the last two years, list what title(s) you think have, and why. This pretty much means whatever title you think had a very good artistic vision or whatnot, that stood out, and wasn't just another cookie cutter anime that didn't really inspire anything. To start things off, I think Bones' Wolf's Rain was a great creative contribution to the anime world recently. It took control of it's own pace, the plot was original, the ideas in the anime were rather original *at least to me they were*, the animation was gorgeous, and of course with music by Yoko Kanno, the music was gorgeous as well. By pulling together different wolf myths from around the world, and mixing them with other myths, and their own original ideas, they put together a really intriguing tale about wolves who take the form of humans, and are searching for escape from the human world to a paradise, while at the same time questioning to the viewers what humanity is, and what supposedly makes them so great. Sadly though, due to something in production, recap ep after recap ep turned a lot of fans off. |
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kamiboy
 Posts: 570 Location: CA |
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FLCL was a experimental atypical anime that was at the same time very successful. Maybe other studios seeing that you don’t necessarily need to the path often trodden to be successful will be inspired to do something original themselves.
And although I’ve only seen the first episode I think Hibane Renmei falls into that category as well. |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11447 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Hmm. Your thoughts on Wolf's Rain kind of remind me of Jin-Roh.
Although, Jin-Roh is a really dark and depressing movie, I think the fact that they use the tale of Little Red Riding Hood for psychological drama is a great element. It's probably the first anime movie I saw that made me think about how humanity operates a little more. In the end, are we civilized men like innocent Red Riding Hood, or just a bunch of violent wolves and wild beasts that can't coexist with the rest of society? I rated it "masterpiece" in My Anime, and if you're into that kind of "things that make you think" element, I highly recommend this movie. I'm not really sure if this has led to any other new ideas in anime though, but nonetheless, it's a great movie. And I really want to see some Satoshi Kon productions. 
Last edited by Tony K. on Fri Apr 09, 2004 10:22 am; edited 1 time in total |
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phoelixian
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I am anxiously awaiting the release of Tokyo Godfathers (from Satoshi Kon) next week. Though I haven't seen TG yet, I have seen and own both "Perfect Blue" and "Millenium Actress". I think Kon's work in and of itself would, in my opinion, best represent what littlegreenwolf's thread is about. Kon took his work of drama(s) into the surreal and I found it to be a breath of fresh air and not at all cookie-cutter. Kon's work has a unique flavour to them like Tarantino, Burton and Shyamalan and his PB borderlines on artsy.
I also strongly agree with Tony K concerning Jin-Roh--it is one of the best (psychological) dramas I've seen in film and one I would strongly urge everyone to watch. |
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ShellBullet
 Posts: 1051 Location: I hit things, with my fist. |
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In "my anime" I rated Millenium Actress as a masterpiece and I stand by that designation. Perfect Blue was good, I do not think it appealed to me personally because I am not into slasher movies, yet artistically it pushed the boundary of the psychological anime genre. In the story there was an intersection of several differnent stories. There was the story of an actress who basically sold out to the media machine, but came through the experiance as a stronger person. There was also the somewhat typical "slasher" theme, and there was the story of the show she was acting on which was worked into the movie in an interesting way. It was this co-mingling of several different elements that provided the dramatic tension of the story.
MA was very similar. Again there was the intersection of three different stories - the primary story of her life, the story of Japanese history, and the film industry through the early twentieth century. I feel it's a movie that I need to watch several times to fully understand, which is just a sign of how great it is. It's like a better version of Perfect Blue, without the disturbing violence. It's too early to tell how big of an influence MA will have in the future, but I expect it to have an impact on future directors. EDIT: You beat me to it! Last edited by ShellBullet on Thu Apr 08, 2004 3:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Proman
 Posts: 947 Location: USA |
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I really liked Jin-Roh "too". I thought the animation was fantastic (especially in the sewers scene). I really liked how they used the "Little Red Riding Hood" story (the "gory" version) to make the film very disturbing.
I thought that Kon's Millenium Actress was an excellent and very original film. I actually liked even more than "Jin-Roh". Can't wait to see "Tokyo Godfathers". |
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eva05
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Well this is pretty subjective obviously but there are defintiely anime/manga that have pushed their respective genres and the art form as a whole.
One of the first is obviously Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Gatchaman took the radical production style of the 60's and 70's and tried to tell a more adult story filled with betrayl, complexity and action. You'll note that the 5 signature team members supported by a scientist or scientific team is still present in many action/anime even today. Then the series that arguably brought anime to the world, the Uchu Senchun Yamato series and subequent film, Arrividerci Yamato. Arguably the anime that put anime on the map around the world. Highly detailed, rich storylines, great characters, fantastic production design, international fanfare, etc... The next apex would probably be the original MS Gundam series/movies which once again set anime apart from the story telling and animation found ion the rest of the world by going for more dramatic and realistic characters with believable stories. The original SDF Macross series followed on it's heals producing some of the most detailed animation the world had ever seen. Some of the dog fights created by the Studio Nue folks simply astonish me even to this day, especially in the context of a tv series! Once again, dramtic storylines trace the lives of dozens of people through a complex situation without clear moral grounding... A majority of the anime created in the 80's was driven by the spark lit by these productions(not to say that there weren't other really well created master pieces like Nausica, Totoro, Dirty Pair or Area 88, etc), that is until 2 new manga creators came along and gained some notariety... Masume Shirow's "Appleseed" and Katsuhiro Otomo's magnum opus "Akira" took the first strides in making manga a staple around the world. Both would be adapted into movies, "Appleseed" faring nowhere as wellas "Akira" did... The level of detail and the concepts of secret government projects would color the works of many who followed. Such as Gainax's first production, the much under appreciated Wings of Honeamise, which explored religion, love and hate in ways many had never even imagined. Tenchi no Tamogo, another gem that 99% of western anime fans have never even heard of let alone seen, saw Mamoru Oshii produce a film that was so powerful visually it required less than 5 lines of dialogue to communicate the message of the film. Oshii would go on to direct the brooding Patlabor movies and eventually Ghsot in the Shell, which saw the advent of computers integrated into the entire production cycle of an animated film. GITS is probably responsible for the build up which led to Pokemon and the third impact of anime in the west. Make no mistake, Pokemon is truly an accomplishment in that it got the whole world interested in anime. The movies are produced by the best talents in Japan. Look at the credits of any of the Pokemon movies and it reads like a resume for the most ambitious anime film of all time. Pokemon took the style of kawii critter design made famous by the like of Sanrio and merged it with an adventure story reminiscent in many ways of Miyazaki's works. The result is a gazillion dollar a year cash cow that kept Nintendo going despite it's virtual annihilation in the home game console market. Perfect Blue, Satsohi Kon's debut film, explores a new style of story telling in the animation medium that makes it feel more like film than anime! Of course it is imposible to overlook what is considered the greatest anime of the 20th century(by me anyways  ). Shin Seki Evangelion aka Neon Genesis Evangelion. A series that took low production budget and turned it into a art form that has been imitated so often since, it barely requires mentioning. Not to mention a storyline so deep, complex and intelligent that many anime fans still fail to grasp it's many threads.
Gainax's FLCL would prove to be the anithesis of Eva in terms of style/execution. Armed with a larger budget than their tradional works, FLCL explodes with energy at every moment. The animation style of FLCL has more character than almost any series I've seen other than Eva and the original Yamato series. Once again a surprisingly deep and involving story is the axis on which the world turns. Last but not least, Cowboy Bebop. A unique presentation in the music, animation and story made Bebop an instant classic. I could go on and on here, and this brief list obviosuly excludes many incredible works....Blood, Kai Doh Maru, Votoms, Millenium Actress, My Youth in Arcadia, Kare Kano, etc. if I was to discuss this in detail, I'd probably have a book on my hands. j |
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Dilandau
 Posts: 525 Location: Tea House |
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Yes, definately Kare Kano.
Kare Kano 'perfected' the strange artistic expression of emotions without words(or even characters!) that Gainax had begun with Evangelion. There was so much artistic freedom and expression in this series, that even when nothing was going on, it was still interesting to watch. Pencil work, manga-ish tones, water colours, coloured pencils, the whole art box was thrown into the production of the series. I very much enjoyed this strange style and it gave the story tellers a unique additional tool to emphasize what needed to be emphasized (like Moulin Rouge, though less severe). Similarly, Soultaker was drastically artistic....but, I couldn't stand the Soultaker character *shudders* |
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king_micah
 Posts: 994 Location: OSU |
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Heh, all the important Gainax titles have been taken except for Gunbuster. That title haunts many newer series. Realism got put back into SciFi. Newer, hard scifi like Planteses have a huge debt to it.
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Yeah, Gainax was definitely a major factor in raising the bar for anime. We see their inspiration all over now, it's just a shame after FLCL that they seem to of decided they don't need to be very creative anymore.
Since people are heading off into past, I'll bring up one of my faves which hasn't been mentioned yet: Revolutionary Girl Utena - What more can we do then just say "woah" to this show after finishing it for the first time? The symbolism throughout it could rival Evangelion, though the movie was no where near as confusing, but even so, many people who watch it still don't get it. The character designs, considered ugly by most, as well as the whole artistic take they took on, well everything, made this series especially unique. The story alone was mind boggling, and full of relationships which as mostly considered taboo in regular society. Then the questions about what eternity is, nobility, and the many other issues, really made this anime stand out. There really hasn't been another show like Utena since it came out, though for some reason Princess Tutu reminds me slightly of it. Princess Tutu, which I just mentioned, is also another show I like to consider very creative. It was a kid show, but one that anyone of any age could enjoy, and focused on classical music, and the classic fairytale prince storyline. Each episode was named after an opera/ballet/classical song, which actually on most cases followed the main idea of what the name of the episode was. Some of the twists in the story were also quiet surprising for a children's story, and the story itself sometimes awed me with it's own symbolism, which led me to wonder just how much of the story the Japanese kids were getting. I sadly was never able to finish this series, but the first 13 episodes were definitely more then what I expected to get when I started watching Princess Tutu. EDIT: I'm going to add something here many will probably disagree with, but when looking at the creators of the two shows I just previously mentioned, I noticed that both creators were originally working on a certian shoujo anime by the name of Sailormoon. Sure the show has filler up to its neck, and it doesn't seem very unique by today's standards, but maybe it was back then? It definetly sprung up a new breed of shoujo anime. |
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the_soultaker
 Posts: 685 |
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I couldn't have said it any better  especially when refering about the aforementioned series that IMHO were the pioneers of anime ; Gatchaman,Macross,Yamato and Gundam.
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Nihoxdria
 Posts: 26 Location: It varries |
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i won't make my response to this overly convoluted, but serial experiments lain most certianly contributed somewhat to anime in my personal opinion. The series of psychological webs and knots makes it both unique and entertaining. To me, this particular anime seemed to stand out and questioned quite a few of the orginial beliefs about the world and its connection with technology and that sort.
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Yuki555
 Posts: 164 Location: Georgia |
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Yes, I definitely agree on Kare Kano. I think this anime shows that a story about modern dilemma is just as good as story about the past or the future. The visualization style of manga and anime together was really awesome. I think this anime was the only one like that plus FLCL (but they add it for comedy effect).
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ShellBullet
Posts: 1051 Location: I hit things, with my fist. |
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Hmmm? Most of the myriad Pokemon fans that made it a huge financial success had never even heard of GITS. If anything the many anime series that were aired in the U.S. during the eighties geared up for the success of the pocket monsters. |
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eva05
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After GITS is when anime started to gain a lot more attention and more stores began to carry anime related merch(not necessarily GITS related anime merch but anime merch nonetheless).
The same was true after Akira came out in the 80's. Anime suddenly became a lot more easy to find because the genre gained momentum as a whole 
j |
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