I just got back from a lecture on the family as presented in anime. The lecture itself suffered just a little from the not-spectacular public-speaking abilities of the lecturer. But beyond that, it was pretty cool.
The woman talked mostly about the evolving picture of family, mostly in terms of absent or difficult parents and substitute families. She mentioned a bunch of different anime, among them Ranma, Yamato, Eva, Spirited Away and Lain. Said a few things about the last two that had never occurred to me before, too, which is cool.
I'm a big fan of Lain, both for the concept - extraordinarily psychological cyber-punk - and for the pacing and structure of the thing. It's a thirteen episode series, and I think each episode would work perfectly as a long chapter in a novel. Actually, it probably has some of the tightest pacing I've seen in an anime.
I'm also a fan of Spirited Away, despite having only seen it once. Actually, the lecture kind of put me on a Miyazaki kick. I wish I still had my copy of Princess Mononoke, but at least I can watch Spirited Away sometime this week.
Comments (10)
What happened to it? Was it...oh this is bad, but...spirited away? Seriously, how could you let that go, the mother of all Solar/Lunar stories? Oh and it's just plain good.
Posted by Ogre | January 8, 2005 8:50 AM
Posted on January 8, 2005 08:50
Oh and while we are talking about anime, I finally saw Ghost in the Shell, and I gotta tell ya, it didn't do much for me. Nice animations and good concepts but wow was it slow and nothing much happened, even character wise.
Posted by Ogre | January 8, 2005 8:51 AM
Posted on January 8, 2005 08:51
I leant it to Ann, a long while back. I expected to have it returned, but then stuff happened. *shrugs*
I've been meaning to buy a new copy for a while, just haven't gotten around to it.
Sorry you didn't like Ghost in the Shell, though. I've always enjoyed it.
Posted by Jason | January 9, 2005 10:05 AM
Posted on January 9, 2005 10:05
I was sorry too. Damn it man, kick down that girl's door and get it back. Some things are bigger than pride, or scruples. Like a mountain, or a katamari, or...or...getting back Mononoke.
Posted by Ogre | January 9, 2005 10:15 AM
Posted on January 9, 2005 10:15
Or he could, ya know, shoot me an email and ask for it back.
Posted by Ann | January 12, 2005 5:32 PM
Posted on January 12, 2005 17:32
Or he could, ya know, shoot me an email and ask for it back.
Posted by Ann | January 12, 2005 5:33 PM
Posted on January 12, 2005 17:33
Ogre--
Everyone, but you especially, needs to check out Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The English dub on Cartoon Network is actually not horrible.
Stand Alone Complex bills itself as a series of stand alone episodes, but they are actually all connected by a mystery which is VERY William Gibson. Brain hacking, hacker cults, the works.
Also -- Jason, have you snagged the torrents for Oh My Goddess the Series?
Posted by Ben of the Azure Cyberspace | January 12, 2005 8:59 PM
Posted on January 12, 2005 20:59
When you say "Oh My Goddess the Series," do you mean the Adventures of Mini-Goddess (which is tremendously disturbing to me) or do you mean that someone actually made an entire full-on series out of actual Oh! My Goddess and that the Jungian Oh! My Goddess Unconsciousness has somehow fled from the backwaters of my brain?
Because this is the first I've heard of it.
Oh, and William Gibson's cool, which just makes me want to see Stand Alone Complex more. Unfortunately, I can't stay up late enough to watch it on Adult Swim.
Posted by Jason | January 12, 2005 9:11 PM
Posted on January 12, 2005 21:11
This is a brand new anime series. Brand new. It promises to closely follow the stories of the original manga. AnimeSuki has the torrent for episode 1.
Check this site at AniDB.
Posted by Ben of the Azure Cyberspace | January 14, 2005 1:22 PM
Posted on January 14, 2005 13:22
Awesome, Ben. Thanks. We'll see how it works - I was always troubled by the manga (at least the early bits) in that Keiichi came off as a bit of an ass.
Posted by Jason | January 14, 2005 3:43 PM
Posted on January 14, 2005 15:43