General Questions / Identifying Anime.

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Updated Recommendations?

Not to dispute the value of this thread, but the recommendations for genres seem slightly outdated...I mean, there's nothing there from after 2002 or so, and some of the recommended titles are 15+ years old. Of course, they're still valid recommendations because they're classics, but I think things could be changed/added to include the mass of titles that has come out in the last few years.

Another suggestion: On a certain infamous torrent site, their general anime forum has sticky posts for various genres of anime, like comedy/etchi, romance, sci-fi, action, mecha, fantasy, etc, where people can make new posts offering basic descriptions of series in each genre as they come out. Having so many stickies in the ANN forum could be problematical, so I propose a solution like this:

1) Mod or admin creates a sticky thread "Anime recommendations" with a breakdown between the genres like Shoujo, Romance, Comedy, Action, Mecha, and so forth.

2) Users post replies recommending certain series, perhaps under the format--

Genre:
Series Title:
# of Episodes
Year:
R1 Licensee (if available) :

Description: **overview of the series's content, not a personal review**
Similar Series:
Link: to ANN Encyclopedia or other good external link (meaning not to fansubdb.info* or similar sites)

*not a real site

3) Mods or others with "the power" edit the thread to add each new recommendation to the original post as a quote (to give credit to the submitter), and delete the new reply afterwards. (New posts could be added to hold more recommendations as submissions increase, if posts beceome too long.)

I know that this would be yet another task for our hard-working mods, but it would only be a matter of Cut, Copy, Delete Post. The result could be one unified recommendation thread, with very few replies to sift through, and a list of recommendations by genre that can be referred to whenever anyone asks "I'm looking for a good comedy with fanservice" or similar question, and might cut down on repetitive posts in the forum. Probably not, but at least there'd be a quick answer--if posters list similar shows, searchers can hit Ctrl+f in this thread to find similar series.

Again, these are all suggestions--no need to follow them at all, of course.
 
General Anime Questions

Manga and anime are completely different industries. Not every single manga is guaranteed to be created in anime and not all anime are based on manga. The anime is never meant to be a kind of substitute for the manga so you can't expect anime that is based on a manga to be always completed according to the manga. Angel Sanctuary was actually just the first volume of the manga and it's meant to be more of a promotional/teaser anime than a "cliffhanger" that they never finished.

I don't know what you mean by "anime based on different manga" or "when are some different anime going to be played". For the latter, if you mean on TV or something, you'll just have to wait.
 
[ATTN] General Anime Questions

Again, as stated above:
If you have new contributions, post'em here. We'll keep this thread nice and orderly so it's easy to find answers. Yes, this means we will delete your posts as neccessary to keep this thread tidy.

Off-topic or specific anime/manga questions will be moved to a separate thread in one of the other forums. Check your private messages for an exact location.

This thread is for general questions which are asked repeatedly, yet have the same basic answer. This is to help alleviate some of the repetitious questions in the forum.
 
General Anime Questions

I got a strange question about hair color in anime.

I know that there are defintely anime that are radical and lots of the characters have extremely bizarre and weird hair colors. And so I don't mind when there crazy blue and red hair colors because normally it fits with the art style of the show.

But for the anime that are more serious and most of the characters have your more standard colors, what with that off color purple that always show up? I assume it's suppose to be like a black color, but it's always weird to me when everyone else in the show has either blonde, brown, red, or normal black and then there is someone with a dark color purple. Is there anything behind this or am I thinking way to much about it.
Till next time,

Delta Kiral
 
General Anime Questions

@WesW: They're just different styles. I suppose Clamp's style is more "shoujo" like, which does seem to have a certain look. Other then that, no specific names I know of.

@wiz: Because the world hates you.
 
General Anime Questions

Question.

Why do the Japanese display English names in all caps, just to make it look cool or important? A lot of times I see names like MONSTER, NARUTO, BONNIE PINK, or HYDE just begging to stick out from every other piece of English, hiragana, or kanji text when I surf around the 'net or watch anime with Japanese credits.

Is there an explanation for this?
 
General Anime Questions

PantsGoblin said:
@WesW: They're just different styles. I suppose Clamp's style is more "shoujo" like, which does seem to have a certain look. Other then that, no specific names I know of.
Click to expand...
Ok, thanks. Btw, thanks for the link to outpost nine that you posted in a thread on Japanese racism a couple of months ago. I spent most of that weekend reading the author's diary of his student teaching experiences. As my interest in anime has grown, so has my desire to learn about Japanese culture, and real-life experiences like his are one of the best ways to do so.
I know it's kind of odd to make a thank you this long after the fact, but that link is typical of your generosity here, and people like you are what make forums worth visiting. Just wanted you to know.
 
General Anime Questions

WesW said:
PantsGoblin said:
@WesW: They're just different styles. I suppose Clamp's style is more "shoujo" like, which does seem to have a certain look. Other then that, no specific names I know of.
Click to expand...
Ok, thanks. Btw, thanks for the link to outpost nine that you posted in a thread on Japanese racism a couple of months ago. I spent most of that weekend reading the author's diary of his student teaching experiences. As my interest in anime has grown, so has my desire to learn about Japanese culture, and real-life experiences like his are one of the best ways to do so.
I know it's kind of odd to make a thank you this long after the fact, but that link is typical of your generosity here, and people like you are what make forums worth visiting. Just wanted you to know.
Click to expand...

Well, I appretiate the compliment, but uh, I don't think that was me. I mean, I know about that site, but I don't remember ever linking to it. Maybe you're thinking of shirokiryuu?
 
Identifying Anime

Daemonblue said:
also, the link names have tenshi (mispelled as tensi)
Click to expand...
That's not a misspelling, that's an alternate system of transliteration. Most of us in the West are used to older systems like Hepburn (ヘボン式) and Revised Hepburn (修正ヘボン式), where the transliteration into romaji actually matches the sound of the syllables. However, for some reason I've never been able to understand, two closely-related systems of transliteration, nihon-shiki (日本式) and its modern derivative kunrei-shiki (訓令式), are considered more "genuine" -- and, in fact, kunrei-shiki is the "official" system of transliteration taught in ISO-certified schools in Japan.

In these systems, a number of the syllables that Hepburn correctly transliterates by sound are modified into something that just doesn't match the sound of the syllable. One of these is shi which is now si. Therefore, tensi is "correct".

All of which is complete stuff and nonsense to anyone with half an ear.

- abunai
 
General Anime Questions

I think it's one of those things with the Japanese where they enjoy dealing with those "kooky foreigners" when out on the streets, or maybe when they're out for a night on the town. In the daily routine though, most of the adults especially seem to prefer to avoid the boisterous type. Then again, if it's loud fart jokes and/or burping you're talking about, I'd hope you'd be just as ashamed to be part of that group anywhere you go :wink:
 
Anime that references Okinawa

I didn't want to start another 'list' thread (I know that some are averse to them here) so I'll place my question here.

I lived in Okinawa, Japan for several years and miss the place greatly. It has a mix of Japanese culture and what I would consider a unique folk culture as well.

I have researched this quite a bit, here and on google, as well as other anime sites. I am including a list here of what I have so far, but I am hoping that ANN users will know of others that may not have been released in the US and I haven't heard about. Do you know any? Here's my research:

Azumanga Daioh - Ep 21 school trip.
Blood + - Set in Okinawa.
Samurai Champloo - Champloo is an Okinawan (Hogan) word for a food dish. Also, mugen is from the Ryu Kyu Islands which make up Okinawa-ken.
Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) - Onizuka sends a student away to catch a flight to Okinawa.
Gravion - Luna was born on Okinawa and visits there on the anniversary of her father's death.
Gunbuster - Noriko attended Okinawa High School for Girls.
Full Metal Panic! - The school trip to Okinawa is diverted to Siberia.
Green Green - Tenjin put Okinawan sugar cane in the rice cakes (botamochi) he made for Sanae-chan.
Patlabor - Yamazaki is from Okinawa and visits his family home there.
Neon Genesis Evangelion - A school trip to Okinawa is mentioned and some students depart.

Does anyone know of any more, perhaps not licesnsed in the US. i'm limited by my non-use of Japanese, I'm afraid. ^.^'
 
Updated Recommendations?

Not to dispute the value of this thread, but the recommendations for genres seem slightly outdated...I mean, there's nothing there from after 2002 or so, and some of the recommended titles are 15+ years old. Of course, they're still valid recommendations because they're classics, but I think things could be changed/added to include the mass of titles that has come out in the last few years.

Another suggestion: On a certain infamous torrent site, their general anime forum has sticky posts for various genres of anime, like comedy/etchi, romance, sci-fi, action, mecha, fantasy, etc, where people can make new posts offering basic descriptions of series in each genre as they come out. Having so many stickies in the ANN forum could be problematical, so I propose a solution like this:

1) Mod or admin creates a sticky thread "Anime recommendations" with a breakdown between the genres like Shoujo, Romance, Comedy, Action, Mecha, and so forth.

2) Users post replies recommending certain series, perhaps under the format--

Genre:
Series Title:
# of Episodes
Year:
R1 Licensee (if available) :

Description: **overview of the series's content, not a personal review**
Similar Series:
Link: to ANN Encyclopedia or other good external link (meaning not to fansubdb.info* or similar sites)

*not a real site

3) Mods or others with "the power" edit the thread to add each new recommendation to the original post as a quote (to give credit to the submitter), and delete the new reply afterwards. (New posts could be added to hold more recommendations as submissions increase, if posts beceome too long.)

I know that this would be yet another task for our hard-working mods, but it would only be a matter of Cut, Copy, Delete Post. The result could be one unified recommendation thread, with very few replies to sift through, and a list of recommendations by genre that can be referred to whenever anyone asks "I'm looking for a good comedy with fanservice" or similar question, and might cut down on repetitive posts in the forum. Probably not, but at least there'd be a quick answer--if posters list similar shows, searchers can hit Ctrl+f in this thread to find similar series.

Again, these are all suggestions--no need to follow them at all, of course.
 
Anime that references Okinawa

I didn't want to start another 'list' thread (I know that some are averse to them here) so I'll place my question here.

I lived in Okinawa, Japan for several years and miss the place greatly. It has a mix of Japanese culture and what I would consider a unique folk culture as well.

I have researched this quite a bit, here and on google, as well as other anime sites. I am including a list here of what I have so far, but I am hoping that ANN users will know of others that may not have been released in the US and I haven't heard about. Do you know any? Here's my research:

Azumanga Daioh - Ep 21 school trip.
Blood + - Set in Okinawa.
Samurai Champloo - Champloo is an Okinawan (Hogan) word for a food dish. Also, mugen is from the Ryu Kyu Islands which make up Okinawa-ken.
Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) - Onizuka sends a student away to catch a flight to Okinawa.
Gravion - Luna was born on Okinawa and visits there on the anniversary of her father's death.
Gunbuster - Noriko attended Okinawa High School for Girls.
Full Metal Panic! - The school trip to Okinawa is diverted to Siberia.
Green Green - Tenjin put Okinawan sugar cane in the rice cakes (botamochi) he made for Sanae-chan.
Patlabor - Yamazaki is from Okinawa and visits his family home there.
Neon Genesis Evangelion - A school trip to Okinawa is mentioned and some students depart.

Does anyone know of any more, perhaps not licesnsed in the US. i'm limited by my non-use of Japanese, I'm afraid. ^.^'
 
General Anime Questions

Vortextk said:
Just making sure...when you mention school girls ending sentences with gozaimasu, you mean because that's older than what they should say? Just making sure I understand the...phrase...particle...not quite sure =/,
Click to expand...
Verb.

Vortextk said:
to be a way of adding a "very" meaning or formalizing other things such as Thank you or Good morning.
Click to expand...
No. It's a verb, just like imasu, only in highly formal mode. It does lend emphasis, but not in the sense of "very". In normal language, it isn't used excessively, except in expressions of humility or gratitude, such as arigatou gozaimasu ("thank you very much") where it is the rule.

You have to remember that anime is theatrical. It is fictional and exaggerated. Just as you wouldn't expect people to really stand on a battlefield and declaim poetic speeches like "Once more unto the breach, etc.", so you wouldn't expect people to use the many other forms of exaggerated language that theater uses.

All the terminal phrases and odd speech quirks that you come across in anime are in no way a reflection of real Japanese. It is an exaggerated, artificial style, intended to make each character unique and to underscore their differences -- the verbal equivalent of the many anime hair colours.

Nobody speaks like that in real life, not any more than you'd expect people to talk to a grocery store clerk in iambic hexametrical verse:

"Good clerk, the carrots and tomatoes I do seek
So I can fill my veggie quota for the week
Pray give me swift directions to their place
That I may buy them at a hasty pace."

Yeah, yeah... I know, it's crap and it doesn't even scan properly.

But you get the idea. It's unnatural. Nobody talks like that.

- abunai
 
General Anime Questions

I'd imagine that at least part of it is because Japanese doesn't have 'capital' letters. They probably try to keep it all in one case so it's easier to read. Most of the time when they use an english word, they translate it to katakana of course, but they also know the rules to the English language as well. They know you're supposed to capitalize the first letter in a sentence, they know you capitalize names; thus you capitalize important things, so if you capitalize the whole word it's gotta be REALLY important.

Then again, I could just be overthinking things, and they just do it because it's more consistent size-wise on the banners and billboards they want to post around town.
 
Identifying Anime

Thanks for clearing that up abunai. I do agree that it really doesn't make sense to transliterate a word into something that doesn't sound like it. One example of this being the difference in the Japanese Nadesico and the English Nadesico, the former being pronounced Nadeshiko giving it a kind of play on words feel (reminded me of Yamato Nadeshiko when I heard it) and latter pronounced as it's spelled.
 
General Anime Questions

Another possibility is that, to distinguish the two syllabaries (katakana and hiragana) when romanizing, katakana (which is commonly used for foreign words, loan words or for emphasis) is often transcribed in capital letters.
 
Sorry!

Anime Boy said:
I don't mean to post again... but I have a question.

What does the "Regions" mean when I read anime reviews?

Thanks!

- Anime Boy
Click to expand...

A "region" is the location that a DVD is ment to be played in. They're specially coded and you your DVD player must be made to specificly read that region's code. All commercial DVDs in the US are Region 1 meaning they can only be played on Region 1 DVD players. If you live in the US then there's probably a 99% chance that you own a Region 1 player.

Here's a breakdown of the 6 world regions and 2 special regions (from DVDadept.com):

Region 1 - U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
Region 2 - Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (including Egypt)
Region 3 - Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong)
Region 4 - Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean
Region 5 - 5: Eastern Europe (Former Soviet Union), Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia
Region 6 - Peoples Republic of China
Region 7 - Reserved
Region 8 - Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)

You'll also see some DVDs that are "region 0" this means that they don't have a region and can be played on any and all DVD players. Be warned though, more often than not these are bootlegs. There are also multi region DVD players that can play DVDs from any region, they aren't illegal, but they aren't easy to find either.

DVD regions are really a product of world trade. By placing a region code on a DVD you prevent it from being purchased in other companies before they're scheduled to recieve it. For example a Japanese DVD that is region 2 can't be played on a US DVD player that is region 1. By doing this the japanese can release, say, an anime DVD and make it so it can't be played in the US leaving room for an official US release later on. In theory anyway, there are several work-arounds for region codes, but on a large scale they serve their purpose.

I suggest DVD Adept for more technical information.

Emerje
 
Identifying Anime

Daemonblue said:
Thanks for clearing that up abunai. I do agree that it really doesn't make sense to transliterate a word into something that doesn't sound like it. One example of this being the difference in the Japanese Nadesico and the English Nadesico, the former being pronounced Nadeshiko giving it a kind of play on words feel (reminded me of Yamato Nadeshiko when I heard it) and latter pronounced as it's spelled.
Click to expand...
Hmm. Well, that is, in fact, precisely the inference you're supposed to to draw from it.

Nadesico is a slightly modified kunrei-shiki way of writing 撫子, the same word which Hepburn transliterates as nadeshiko.

撫子 is a flower, Dianthus superbus, in English called a pink. In Japanese allegorical language, 大和撫子 (yamato nadeshiko, where yamato means "ancient Japan") is a phrase used to describe the perfect flower of Japanese femininity, a woman who embodies all the traits that are seen as refined and desirable in traditional Japanese womanhood.

- abunai
 
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