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News Dragonball Z Starts Today, Plus Anime Bits 113

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-see dept.
Of course DBZ is shunned by the hardcore anime fans, but I enjoy it (20 minutes of soap opera every evening on my tivo *grin*) and have been bored all summer with the reruns. But all that changes today at 5pm when Cartoon Network begins airing the 77 episode Android Saga. Planet Namek has also confirmed that the remaining 174 DBZ episodes have also been purchased by CN. Also, the very cool site AnimeOnDvd.com has a list of Anime on DVD which includes DBZ, Tenchi, and Battle Athletes (I've recently started rewatching battle athletes while I wait for the next Bebop and Trigun, and I'm enjoying even more the second time through. Super happy fluffy, but highly entertaining). Oh, and Cowboy Bebop #5 is out tomorrow. Yum.
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News Dragonball Z Starts Today, Plus Anime Bits More

News Dragonball Z Starts Today, Plus Anime Bits

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  • Old children's animations (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So do you reckon we'll ever get to see Jamie and The Magic Torch [sausagenet.co.uk] on DVD?

    I bet there is some real sublime hidden messages in there you could see with the freeze frame.

  • Most companies, especially Pioneer and ADV Films, are infamous for pushing back release dates because the DVD release needed more work or was behind schedule. The best way to find out exactly when a DVD comes out, is to see it physically on the store shelves.

    Not ragging on anime or DVDs, as I enjoy both, just wish that companies would take a bit more precaution in their release dates with items that constantly show to have problems. Would make the fans happier to wait a month with a release date that doesn't change, than hearing more than one release date for their favourite products.

    Here's to many more great series to make it to DVD! (Hey, um, where's that Escaflowne DVD box yet??? (: )

    Dragon Magic [dragonmagic.net]

  • Shunned by hardcore anime fans? (Score:3)

    by TheDullBlade ( 28998 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @07:28AM (#806559)
    I wouldn't say that. The dub is embarassingly bad (especially that damned opening song), but that hasn't stopped me from watching it. They didn't hack the storyline to pieces like the Fox Escaflowne dub.

    I mean, where else can you watch a 3-month fight scene? Remember, it was originally a weekly series.

    Hell, just last week (where I'm watching, anyway) there was a 3-episode fireball attack. Where else can you get strung along on one attack like that for so long?

    --------

  • Re:Shunned by hardcore anime fans? (Score:3)

    by Kuroyi ( 211 ) <(ten.iyoruk) (ta) (kcir)> on Monday September 04, 2000 @07:38AM (#806560) Homepage
    And how many episodes of Fox's Escaflowne did you watch? After the first/second episode combination it is surprisingly well done. I am very impressed. Check out this interview [fantasticon.com] with the director of the Fox version.
  • Hey, where else can we find a show whose episodes consist of:

    85% antagonists facing off with occasional yelling
    13% jumping towards each other
    2% action

    All done with about 43 total frames of animation per episode. You gotta admit, they must make this show with pocket change... now that's efficient!

  • Come on CmdrTaco, is there anybody here who is older than 12 and enjoys Dragonball Z ?
    I thought it was 'News for Nerd' not 'News for Kids' ...

    Anyway, don't take my little rant too seriously.

    --
  • For a second there, I thought it said "Dragonballz"
  • . [asciiartmyarse.com]When one looks at the stories that never made it onto the front page when this one did, it is hard not to criticise the editorial judgement being used here. By the way, according to the "lameness filter", this post appears to be ASCII art; is Taco a surrealist?
  • Let me know when they have hentai animae on dvd.
  • Basically nowadays it is.

    There is a lot of action, but there is also a lot of pointless talking between the good guys and the bad guys that makes the series drag on for a very long time.

    Yes, this is basically a Soap Opera for guys. They even have characters get killed off, only to return!

    By no means is this even close to the upper echelon of anime.

  • Would you people just please give it up? If you don't like anime, then don't read these topics! Just because you don't like something doesn't mean no one else should. You're a nerd (or so I would suppose by you frequenting a site whose motto is "News for nerds. Stuff that matters," so I would expect you to know what it's like being interested in things that a lot of other people aren't. And yes, there are a lot of nerds who like anime. I know many. So remember this before you complain about people excersising their right to communicate.
  • Anime DVDs are NOT made by members of the MPAA. Most Anime DVDs aren't CSS'd either.
    The people commenting against the MPAA aren't always the people buying up all the DVDs. You presently have no way of tracking the people that buy them and those that are against the MPAA.

    Dual layer DVDs already have a capacity of just under 10 gigabytes now. Dual sided dual layer DVDs hold 18 Gigabytes.

    Right now, there's not a whole lot hard drives that hold more than 18GB, the new, larger hard drives have only come around in the last year, the DVD format was designed in 1996.
  • This is actually a good point --

    The only rationalization I can come to is that since these aren't made by the studios in the MPAA they are actually spending a good amount of the money that the DVD costs to actually MAKE it ( gasp!), eg, licensing fees, cost to create the dvd, etc ...

    The only other thing that can be said is this actually helps your case against the MPAA. Without any DVDs, they can say "These people are just talking theoricial talk!" .. when you have a dvd , you can say "No, I have a dvd that I want to watch in linux!". This, of course, is a very gray area to tread in. If I knew the right answer I'd do that, but I don't think there is one.

    --Dante

  • I was excited ... (Score:3)

    by OmegaDan ( 101255 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @08:01AM (#806570) Homepage
    I was really excited and expected to see motorola had improved its dragonball processors ... Then I realized this post has nothing to do with anything

  • OT Re:Anime? (Score:4)

    by Luminous ( 192747 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @08:03AM (#806571) Journal
    It is possible to configure your slashdot preferences to ignore anime stories. Pesonally, I only find less than 10% worthwhile, but I enjoy reading about it, much like I enjoy reading about technology I won't even begin to understand.

    Is it News for Nerds? Yes. Is it News for You? No. Nerds come in all shapes and varieties, which means you can go to your preferences and select the type of nerd you want to be. It is when the entire Slashdot community says a story shouldn't be here that there is a problem. But when a significant number respond and like the story, I guess that is a good determinate it belongs.

    If this is a response to the fact this story got put up while others did not, well, all I can say is there are many other sites like this and worse comes to worse you can grab the slashcode and put up your own site with editorial control over the stories.

  • I like how when the planet namek is about to blow up and has 5 min till it blows up and then lasts at least 3 episodes if not more...
  • That was the real killer. It really, really sucked.

    But even after that, they casually give away all sorts of things that are supposed to be shocking revelations. They don't seem to have any regard for the mystery and suspense that was a big part of the original.

    (I hate the new music, too. It's disrespectful to play technocrap in the Escaflowne temple.)

    --------
  • Cartoon Network is a Time-Warner company. Your movement of piracy is cutting into our profits. If you do not stop now, we will stop airing the remaining of the DBZ episodes; we will stop those episodes from releasing on DVD and VHS, (except maybe Betamax and divx pay-per-view); we will censor your cartoon network and your tivo too; and we will play the reruns of the worst DBZ episode everyday!
  • Okay, you can moderate me for off-topic, though if you read this completely you may not.

    Anyway.

    I recently rented Ghost In The Shell DVD and just finished watching it. Being a big fan of anime, or at least a moderately big one, I was unimpressed. The sound was amazing, the action sequences (what, all three?) were good, but it seemed strung-out, over-long and the music after ten minutes kinda got annoying. I know this is one of those 'top-notch' anime movies, and while I thought Akira was a masterpiece, this seems like some pretty CG and interesting story wrapped around too-long shots of the city and that annoying soundtrack.

    What I would like to do is hear what other people's definition of 'good anime'. What makes good anime? What makes DBZ so great? Or so bad? I would love to hear from the thousands of /.'s who regularly watch this sort of thing.

    Thanks

    Obi

    Watch the karma plummet faster than Christina Aguilera on Carson Daly...

  • It's great and all that CN is showing new episodes of (butchered) Dbz, but for those of us with DirecTV and have the Action Channel, there's plenty of better anime showing all day today. Probably all dub, but still...

    As for DVD, I'm slowly waiting on Eva, and now Cowboy Bebop (addict in one day, since I bought Session 1). Apparently there's something tough about putting Eva to dvd, since ADV is really getting delayed. I only hope it means it'll be better. Tenchi on dvd... already got the Tenchi Muyo! DVD boxed set, not gonna bother with the others...

  • They watch it anyway. (Score:3)

    by TheDullBlade ( 28998 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @08:17AM (#806577)
    By no means is this even close to the upper echelon of anime.

    Of course not. I'm not arguing that many anime fans consider it one of the best, just that they watch it anyway.

    Despite everybody bitching about how bad it is, most of the guys I talk to who have joined anime watching clubs, get fansubs, and have large personal collections of anime still watch Dragonball Z. After all, it is anime piped conveniently into their homes, even if it is butchered.

    People are lazy. 9 times out of 10, they'd rather have hot dogs served to them than go get steak themselves.

    I think this is a case of the silent majority acting differently than the highly vocal minority.

    --------
  • What a completely myoptic, ignorant point of view. The Japanese have very little to do with Anime arriving on our shores. Fuji TV and Colombia have had little interest in exporting DBZ or any other anime. I for one am pleased that I can watch it here, thought the dubbing is admittedly poor. I am also glad I was able to watch it in Japan, where people don't misinterpret animation with the vigor that you seem to. It's fun. Enjoy it. Don't try so hard to find fault and proclaim yourself better than the average bear.
  • I don't know if DragonBallZ has something to do with Slashdot or not - the fact is that DBZ is a damn good cartoon... Japs are the best in cartoons showing the real personality of human beings (or some creatures too...). The only good american cartoon is X-Men... DBZ, like all japanese cartoons, show that the fight between good and evil is far beyond some sucker trying to rule the world just because he was born bad, or because he is ugly, and heroes are athleic guys... There's more in life than that... Think about that, fans of american cartoons... DBZ is one of the best cartoons of all times - maybe not in US, but it is for sure in the rest of the world. And the new Android Saga is too damn cool !
  • Let me know when they have hentai animae on dvd.

    Ok

    Urotsukidoji Perfect Collection [express.com]

    There's quite a bit more, I'm just too lazy to look.


    --

  • Here here!
    Having lived in Japan for some time, I can confirm it is an almost absurdly non-violent society.
    DBZ does have all the basic hero-myth themes - in spades.

    If one were to honestly say that DBZ or animation like it promotes violence in their society, they had better take a long hard look at what is so wrong with where and when they live.

    Once again people are going to look overseas for the cause of their problems.
  • Obviously you've only watched a couple/few episodes of the dubs. Either that or you've closed your mind to violence so much that you don't give anything with a hint of violence a chance.

    No. It turned out my child was watching this series at a friend's house, and explained it to me. I know how children perceive this first hand.

    They actually have much less violence over there [Japan] than we do here - and a lot more respect for life in general to boot. Personally, I think some of this comes from the fact that they don't feel the need to tell their children that violence doesn't exist - they don't shield their kids from it - so their kids learn about it - as well as the consequences involved.

    Japan, where they invented tentacle hentai? The world capital of child porn? Now I'm supposed to let the Japanese dictate what is right for my child and what isn't?

    And how do our western societies "shield" children from violence? It's all over the fucking media, for Christ's sake.

    I think what really hurts our youth today is the lack of truly noble role-models - not the portrayal of violence on TV.

    This statement of yours is put in very bad light by your comments below. I'll get back to it.

    Many parents would rather blame their kids violent actions on a violent cartoon rather than the fact that they never *discussed* violence with their kids. If parents would stand up and *be* the role-models for their kids - they wouldn't have to look elsewhere for commercial role-models

    It's not like children have to look elsewhere for role models-- the huge media corporations, which have such an inordinate power in shaping our culture, bombbard them with it everywhere. If they want to have friends in school, if they want to play with them, they have to participate in the same sort of games and watch the same TV shows-- participate in the representation of violence-- otherwise they are ridiculed and rejected.

    There are redeeming qualities of DBZ, if you'd bother to look for them. DBZ has the time-honoured good vs. evil theme - the hero is noble and kind-hearted to a fault, fighting only when given no choice in the situation, or challenged (martial artist honor).

    Please. This is a simplistic, ideological portrayal. There are no "good" people, or "bad" people. We are all just internally conflicted sinners, with the calling of God to establish His Kingdom.

    This kind of simplistic, "good vs. evil" mentality is a tool of the ruling class to brainwash us into thinking it is O.K. to hurt the "evil" people. Whenever a war comes about, this is the argument that is pulled out-- "The Germans/Japanese are evil, they want to spread evil all over the world, we would rather not fight, but we have to fight and kill them. Show no mercy-- they are evil."

    The real world is, of course, more complex than that. As the expression says, "War is a bunch of young men who don't know each other killing each other, for the benefit of a few old mean who know each other, but don't kill each other" (sounds kinda awkward translated to English, but in French it sounds all right).

    And that "martial artist honor" thing is just an euphemism for chauvinistic my-dick-is-bigger than-yours penis waving. As Christ said, turn the other cheek.

  • Man. You guys complain too much. One of the best things about /. is that people who are like us (i.e. CmdrTaco, Hemos, et al), can post whatever it is that they like. We come back becuase their intrests mostly coincide with ours.

    But the truth of the matter is:
    THEY CAN POST WHATEVER THE HELL THEY WANT
    I think that's rather refreshing, compared to the editoral mess that most 'news' is.
  • Well, there's La Blue Girl, Midnight Panther, Urotsukudoji, Venus 5, Best of Kitty...

    There's enough Hentai Anime on DVD to whet your whistle, and wet... well... (:

    Dragon Magic [dragonmagic.net]
  • What the hell does anime have to news for nerds?

    Please refer to the second portion of the Slashdot catchphrase, entitled "Stuff That Matters."

    No, this doesn't mean "Stuff That Matters To YOU' - it's Stuff That Matters to the Slashdot crew (which the occasional Bay Area party announcements would fall under) as well as what News and Stuff that the Slashdot crew think would be of interest to a significant number of members of this 'community'.

    Personally, I don't care for all the articles on the latest insignificant upgrades to some operating system or server software that I'm never going to use, but I certainly wouldn't proclaim that such stories have no place here. Heck, I even browse them on occasion so I might actually learn something interesting! Perhaps approaching Slashdot without the mindset that it all has to be about your definition of 'nerds' or what you think is important would help in your tolerance.

    Then again, there's always the preference customization that is available to every logged in user, which allows people not to see those story categories that they don't care for. Basically, if you don't like a certain category of articles, don't read them.
  • IMO, DBZ is great because at times (when you have enough episodes), it can be mindless fun. Although the manga is better, the show (japanese subbed!) is just something to watch.

    I agree with you on Ghost in the Shell, it seemed to me that they wanted to create another Akira, with the expansive matte paintings, and eerie music, but it just didn't work as well.

    I have no real definition of a good anime, but some of the best I have is Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Tenchi Muyo! OVA Boxed set, and Patlabor 1 The movie.
  • This rather silly troll actually gives me a chance to ask about something relevant.

    I rented the first couple of episodes of Neon Genesis: Evangelion not too long ago, and found it the silliest, most pretentions Power Rangers crap I'd seen in a long time. (I know Evangelion is sacred to many fans, but this is honestly not a troll.) I was not impressed by the extremely overdone, half-baked religious references, either. (Angels? Flaming crosses? Can we be any more subtle?) My question for anime fans here, is, should I bother? Does it get any better after the first tape?

    I could just be spoiled, being currently in the middle of Cowboy Bebop and Lain, myself (and being a huge fan of Escaflowne - the series and to a smaller degree the movie). But the first episodes of NG:E didn't really leave me with much desire to see the rest.
  • The only redeemable thing about Ghost in the Shell was the action. The mechanical design of the weapons and vehicles was excellent (same guy that worked on Patalabor, I think), but it wasn't enough to cover for the rest of the movie.

    I think the major flaw with most anime is pacing. In Ghost in the Shell, the movie moves too slow to maintain the viewer's interest. Dragonball Z also suffers from this quite often. Some anime also moves too quickly for me to follow, usually because I'm not familiar enough with Japanese culture to fully understand all of what's happening. Some of the best anime I've seen moves at a reasonable pace.

    Trying to define 'good anime' though is like trying to deinfe 'good movies'. There's too many genres within anime to appeal to a large, general audience. With most any form of entertainment, the 'good' stuff is always what you find that you like best. Here's some suggestions.

    Some of my favorite movies:

    Vampire Hunter D (old-school anime gore)
    any of the Project A-Ko movies (silly but I like 'em)

    Some of my favorite series:

    Rurouni Kenshin (really great stuff)
    Battle Athletes OAV/Victory
    Excel Saga (anime making fun of anime - hilarious!)
    Love Hina Naru (tenchi-like one guy/many girls thing ... funny)
  • Once again people are going to look overseas for the cause of their problems.

    I have done no such thing, my brother.

    There is one root cause for social problems-- the departure from the ways of God. Its personal manifestation is sin, and its social manifestation is the class war.

    In the scheme of things, Japanese anime is just a symptom.

  • I have seen both Ghost in the Shell and Akira. I was not terribly impressed with either. By no means am I saying that they are bad and I think that they both demonstrate many of the things that make anime great, i.e. amazing visual style and -- heaven forbid this happens in a cartoon -- plot.

    In terms of series, I have seen very little of DBZ or any of the other series on American telivision. What I have seen is what our club can get its hands on in a subbed state of being (no dubs for us). I have seen Ecaflowne and Gundam Wing, both fansubbed, via the anime club. I regard these both as being superior to the common American fare (i.e. DBZ and Pokemon.

    My favorite bits of anime are (for anyone who cares) generally movies. I am very fond of Hayao MIYAZAKI, the man that brought forth such things as Mononoke Hime and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (my favorite movie after 2001 and the Russian film Solaris). I also enjoyed Evangelion quite a bit. It doesn't make a great deal of sense and is rather confusing the first time through, but the style of animation is fantastic.

    I hope that goes some distance in answering your question ^_^

  • It seems like the heroes and their enemies reach the ULTIMATE POWER LEVEL in every single episode of DBZ. It's as if the writers want to make every episode have the hugest climax possible.
  • First of all, being a current CS student (at a seriously good CS school), I can tell you that half the nerds I know are into anime. It's one of those things, like Star Wars and Legos, that just has that "geek cool" to it.

    Second, go to your damn preferences and exclude the anime topic if you don't want to hear about it.

    Third, read the FAQ, where this exact question is addressed. Slashdot is under no obligation to confine itself to what you find interesting.

    Fourth, someone says this for every anime topic that gets posted, so SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY.
  • You know how the vast majority of the anime characters are anglos, with exageratedly big eyes... If we made cartoons with little yellow people with squinty eyes, just imagine the uproar! I can't imagine ANYONE choosing to watch this when there's fine American (USA) fare like Scooby Doo, Fat Albert, and of course, Simpsons. Futurama is pretty good too.
  • I rented the first couple of episodes of Neon Genesis: Evangelion not too long ago, and found it the silliest, most pretentions Power Rangers crap I'd seen in a long time.

    I caught it halfway when I first saw it, around episode 16-17. I've heard similar opinions to yours from people who have only watched the first couple episodes.

    I was not impressed by the extremely overdone, half-baked religious references, either. (Angels? Flaming crosses? Can we be any more subtle?)

    Neither was I. Some people seem to get a kick out of that, for some reason-- you stick something weird in anything, and they go "ooh, aah, this is profound". Oh, well.

    My question for anime fans here, is, should I bother? Does it get any better after the first tape?

    Character development, intricate plot, and the very tense atmosphere maintained are the good points behind Evangelion.

  • What they do is really, really, stretch out something that happens really quickly in the manga.

    /po/ [saiyanpride.net] here has the manga, scanned and translated, from the fight with the Ginyu to the end, on the website. Makes for a quick download, not a quick read, but MUCH better than the show (and you don't have to wait).
  • Scooby Doo is the biggest pile of shit in animation history. I can't figure out why the hell anyone watches it, except that some moron decided it was "retro" and therefore cool.

    Hint: if something's only cool because it's retro, it blows. This has been the case for Scooby Doo, the Brady Bunch, bell bottoms, those stupid calf-length tight pants girls wear, Grease, disco... the list goes on.
  • Whoa. Slow down there. "The only good American cartoon is X-Men?"

    What about Batman? I mean before they changed the art style to bring it in line with Superman. But I've never thought it was disputable that that was one of, if not the best, American cartoons out there.

    I'm also a big fan of ReBoot. But it's not American. And I'll admit that its quality, as well as its status as a cartoon, are questionable.

    In case I'm not on-topic enough for some people, I will say that I disagree with the point that "DBZ... show[s] that the fight between good and evil is far beyond some sucker trying to rule the world just because he was born bad..."

    Last time I checked, that's almost exactly ever villain in DBZ. One freaking insane, generally ugly guy after another. And the one's that aren't plum loco end up becoming good guys (cf: Picolo, Vegeta). I enjoy Dragonball a lot. (both the one on Cartoon Network and the one in my Handspring Visor) But I'm not fooled for a second into thinking its and writing are good at all, because they're not. And I'm pretty convinced that it's not a dubbing/editing for American TV problem.

  • Isn't Eva 0:1 already out? I could swear I've read some reviews complaining about how horrible the transfer was, despite the ten-language sound tracks or something.
  • Try recording episodes of DBZ and watch them in the slowest fast forward. This causes the action to occur at a reasonable pace (that is, energy moves and dialog, hand-to-hand just gets more absurdly fast)

    In theory, one could do narration, perhaps using the plot synopsis at Planet Namek [planetnamek.com] or any other reputable DBZ site. By combining this with digitally fast forwarded episodes, one could condense multiple sagas into only a few hours, without losing any content whatsoever!

    Really though, it would take all the fun out of watching 3 hour long combat scenes.

  • I don't get CN on the cable system at my college, so I'm rather bummed that I'll be missing all this. Anyone know any sites with good episode-by-episode synopsies?

  • I do.. but only once (I'm 19).

    I watched all dbz dubbed to spanish (pretty good dub.. at least they don't change most of the dialogues), and now they started repeating the Bo series. I just can't watch it all over again. The first episodes are funny, but then it becomes a long and boring fight.

    BTW: Toriyama, the guy who wrote DBZ, was a comedy writer. Everithing he wrote before and after dbz are comedies (very funny guy). Even dragonball (abour 150 episodes before DBZ, with goku as a kid) was mostly a comedy. The usual fights were 1 or 2 episodes long..

    GT should start in a couple of months tho..

    --

  • What I would like to do is hear what other people's definition of 'good anime'. What makes good anime? What makes DBZ so great? Or so bad? I would love to hear from the thousands of /.'s who regularly watch this sort of thing.

    Good question, but for me the answer is pretty simple. There are only two requirements for "good anime":
    1. Good animation
    2. Good plot

    Of course, what defines those as good is up for grabs. I would define good animation as animation that doesn't interfere with the viewing of the show, kind of along the lines of a book being written well enough that you forget that you are reading it, or a good game interface not interfereing with gameplay. I'm not going to even touch good plot. However, here are a few examples of what I consider good to get my point across.

    Serial Experiment Lain - This is a must see for any geek.

    Iria: Zeirem the Animation - excellent, a must for those who love the female hero.

    Tenchi Muyo/Tenchi Universe - comedy, sci-fi, and romance.

    Anyway, that is my $.02. Hopefully the lain reference was enough to keep this on topic for this community.

  • Anime on DVD Rocks (Score:4)

    by Aaron M. Renn ( 539 ) <arenn@urbanophile.com> on Monday September 04, 2000 @09:07AM (#806605) Homepage
    Well, I've just started collecting anime on DVD, and my guess is that it will completely destroy the laser disc and VHS markets within a year. Animeigo has already announced that they're going 100% DVD and I'm guessing others will follow suit. Anime fans tend to be a bit geeky and so have the latest toys like DVD players. Also, there is a huge advantage in including dubbed and subtitled versions on the same DVD. No more mulitple versions. You can even watch the Japanese unsubtitled if you want! (on most discs). Adding other subtitle tracks like French is very easy as well, increasing the market. Plus there's the fact that anime DVD's look awesome on my new XBR400. I doubt I will ever buy another VHS tape of anything. I don't even have my VCR hooked up to the TV anymore.
  • Not all Anime is the greatest example of animation, but for the most part, what makes it so popular is the PLOT.

    How many American cartoons have plot? How many actually show important "cast" members dying (unlike the Star Trek red shirts)? At least most anime doesn't suffer from what I call the "G.I. Joe Syndrom" where noone ever dies or is hurt; they just jump out of danger at the last possible second.

    Although it's old and the animation isn't spectacular by today's standards, I think Starblazers/Space Cruiser Yamato is one of the finest examples of Anime to ever grace our Yankee boob tubes. The sub was excellently done and there was a real plot. Imagine that; a plot! A plot in *ANY* U.S. TV show is as rare as 5 legged albino dog.

    Name one American cartoon that portrays the pain and concequences of violence like Starblazers did and I'll send you a free computer (a broken Sinclair).

    Don't drink and derive.
  • If you want your kids to not be under any of these "bad influences", then unplug the TV and throw it out the window. TV execs don't give a rat's rump roast about values. Nor should they. The only reason TV is around is to MAKE MONEY. Sure, there are shows out there like Sesame Street that cater to children and good influences, and there is PBS that is not-for-profit TV, but the rest of it isn't. TV is supposed to be entertaining. There's a lot of ways to be entertained, and if you don't want your children to see these methods of entertainment, then, by all means, DON'T LET THEM. I see too many parents just plopping their kids in front of the TV when they need to be pacified. And then the parents complain when their active parenting tool is a "bad influence". Yes, I'm ranting. The point is: Parents should be the final arbiter of what their children see on TV. *huff, puff* I need to catch my breath.

    PS: I wonder why I can't use <u> tags....
  • Judging by the number of replies to Slashdot topics on anime (even after filtering out the "anime is stupid, get rid of this crap" ones), it would appear a fair number of the readers of Slashdot are anime fans. I count myself in that number.

    Apparently there are many of us anime fans in the geek world. Some anime fan engineer at Motorola managed to get them to name a uP "DragonBall" fercrissakes! Team Anime Expo (convention in LA) is ranked 73rd on SETI@Home (6 spots higher than Team Slashdot). Hell, the first User Friendly animated short had an anime reference in it.

    WE ARE EVERYWHERE. And it's just a matter of time until we come for your children.

    Dave
    - who just helped run OTAKON [otakon.com], where about 7500 anime geeks descended on Baltimore for a 3-day party.

  • Exo Squad. Continuous plot, plenty of good character development, people died and it sucked when they did.... very good show. I really wish they'd put it out on DVD.
  • Yeah, I have the 0:1 dvd. It definitely looks like it was taken from an analog source to the dvd, with a glitch here in there. Even though, it does not detract from the disc. I can only guess that the reason 0:2 is taking longer is because they saw response to 0:1, and want to avoid it.
  • If you want your kids to not be under any of these "bad influences", then unplug the TV and throw it out the window.

    Won't work for us. We don't have a TV at our place.

    The problem is simple: you can't isolate your kids from their peers. And their peers have a huge influence on them. At my place, we let our kid go to other homes to play with other kids in the neighborhood or schoolmates. There he is exposed to violent entertainment and play. Are you suggesting that I isolate my kid from his social surroundings and peers? Hardly possible, and the attempt will likely only hurt us.

  • Yeah it really is puzzling how an extremely interesting and relatively important article on progress in the the field of nuclear fusion research doesn't make it to the main page, but an article about a kids cartoon with relatively simplistic animation techniques does.

    I'm glad their priorities are straight and that this site is living up to its "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." slogan.
  • your king. Well this is the first place I have admitted it my brother is the voice actor for Cell. His name is Dameon Clarke [planetnamek.com]. Does the fact I have a animation cell from Akira on my wall count(Kaneda if you care)?
  • I have somewhat of a sideways reply. There used to be a great web site called the daily dragonball. Basicly they had archives of all the DragonBall comics; that fans had translated into english using a script on another page. Anyway with the comics you could not only see DBZ but the original Dragon Ball.

    And man the fights are a hell of a lot cooler in the comics

    Too bad its shut down

  • The dub is embarassingly bad

    This is not news. Dubs are always bad. I've never seen a dub that I'd rather watch over the subtitled version, and I've seen some pretty bad subs too. The problem is, those bastards at Funimation don't give you a choice--there is no subtitled version available. Which is too bad, since it means I'm not going to be able to watch it--and I was at one point mildly interested in it. Maybe I can find the manga somewhere.

  • By no means is this even close to the upper echelon of anime.

    No, it definately is not. I've heard that the original Japanese version is halfway decent, but I certainly can't tell that from the dubbed version.

    I see you have a quote from Rurouni Kenshin in your sig--now that's a quality anime series if there ever was one!

  • It's amazing what a little 16MHz processor in a Palm can do these days; 20 minutes of animated video is no mean feat for a palmtop.

    Oh wait, you mean the anime is called "Dragonball Z"?
  • Where do you think that processor got its name?
  • For crying out loud, can anybody just consider this another reminder that the new DBZ episodes are on, that the show has great kick ass fight sequences, and to go watch it when it shows (depending on your time zone).

    End of story, no need for debates about ethics or morals, no need for "My anime show is better then your anime show" and no need for "DBZ sucks".

    Just watch the thing if you like it, and if you don't like it, don't watch it! Simple as that.

    People spend more time writting complaints about the news stories on Slashdot then it takes to read the stories! Sheesh, talk about a waste of their time. . . .
  • Actually they have started including the subtitled versions of the episodes on the DVDs starting with 'Assult' and 'Double Cross'.
  • Has anyone out there watched (or read) the original Dragon Ball series? An infinitely better one IMHO. Perhaps we should have a poll to see how many of us here have indeed seen both...

    For those who are proclaiming that voilence is bad (to put it bluntly) the original series was much more about adventure, with and Goku's innocence above all else (at least, that's what I remember from over a decade ago). Rescuing Gigi from the vampires with his most powerful attack being only a flash of light comes to mind...
  • 1) Good/Stylish Illustration
    2) Good/Smooth Animation
    3) Good/Coherent Plot
    4) Good Music
    5) Good/Listenable Dub (in whatever language you prefer, with or without subtitles)
  • Is there any way to watch all these shows slashdot is mentioning outside of the USA? A nice unknown satelite perhaps? or an internet broadcaster? Anything? It is realy annoying to hear about just another show I can never see!
  • Hint: You are not their target audience. Take another look at it from that perspective. The little lights on the 'invisible enemies', the preference for explanation over inference, etc. They shouldn't have retargeted it but they did. The surprising thing is that they managed to keep the show almost as enjoyable if not quite as mysterious/deep. They kept the scene where Allen kisses Hitomi to make Dilandau think she's just his lover. They didn't explain it so I doubt the kids really understood but they kept it. I really want to see what they do with the later episodes.

    Keep in mind that I'm talking about after the first/second episode. I hate the new music they put in there too. But after that episode I haven't noticed it. The new sound effects pop out at me but they're aren't too bad.
  • Actually, I'm sure there's lots of people out there that are over 12 and like DBZ. I for one, as well as about 30 people that I actively watch the show with around school... Just wanted to throw a little support out there for a show that so many people on /. seem to knock.

    -C

  • Good points on all above posts. The first time I saw GITS I have to admit I was totally lost. DBZ has its share of pitfalls, but I would rather watch Vegeta fight the Ginyu Force (funniest villians ever created?) than friggin' Scooby Doo any day! KAIO-KEN.......TIMES 20!! That shit is really funny!
  • shunned by the hardcore anime fans perhaps it's got something to do with it being on around the same time as sailor moon and pokémon? (UK anyway)
    Those cheesy repetitive plotlines might infect adjacant anime and spread!
  • Yeah, that one where Homer and the guy who tries to adopt Bart fight it out all over Springfield is a classic.....i just dont know why Homer didnt use his Big Bang Attack.....that woulda flattened that guys ass for sure! Heheheh..... what a kickass short something like Gohan vs Bart would make!

  • One of my cousins does voices for shows, commercials, etc. She's doing the voice for a little girl character (I'm not going to say the name here because I honestly don't know what the slimeba^Wlawyers would do) for at least one episode scheduled to air in October.

    According to her, doing that first DBZ episode was fun, but it's a seriously weird show. I've seen two episodes, and I have to agree with her. Euch.

  • Well, this whole discussion can be summarized pretty well by the moderation as of this post

    -1 130
    0 124
    1 73
    2 14
    3 4
    4 0
    5 0

    The signal-to-noise ratio is pathetic! Either this should not have been posted or /. readers need a tutorial on how to filter topics that they do not want to read.

    Why would somebody attach a negative comment to a story that they claim they didn't want to read in the first place?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • What makes good anime? The same things that make good entertainment in any other format - good plot, good character development, good acting. The greatest animation in the world can't make up for a crappy plot or worthless characters. For a great example, watch the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series. 20 year old animation, but a great story with lots of depth, extemely well developed characters you really get to care about, and good voice acting. This is a series which really deserves to be called classic. A shame it isn't readily available overseas (ie outside Japan) in its entirety. It would need very accurate translation. I speak Japanese so I'm pretty biased to the original though..
  • If anyone has a DSS system or access to the Action Channel, they're running an anime marathon all Labor Day. Caught some good ones I've never heard of, like 'Darkside Blues'.
  • No, it's not out of elitism that I say this--I have just never seen a dub that was half as good as the original. And many I have seen border on the unbearable. But I also hate dubs because it simply irks me to watch a show that has been modified from the original format. I hate hacked up network premiers of movies for the same reason. This is simply a personal preference of mine, but I don't think it's very unreasonable.

    Is the Tenchi Muyo OVA you mention dubbed by the same people who did the series?

  • Just so happens we are in the middle of the Tenchi OVA DVD set. According to the packaging the English dub was done by "Pioneer Entertainment (USA) LP. in association with Network. Not the original, but it is still a pretty good dub. Also the OVA is MUCH better then what they are showing on TV here in the US. Note the OVA is PG-13 due to nudity. The animated nudity is more funny then sexy though.
  • Miyazaki's work is very good. If you have children Kiki's Special Delivery and My Neighbor Totoro are a MUST. They are also fairly entertaining for adults.

  • DragonBall fans will totally dig this site:

    DragonBall Quake [planetquake.com]- mod for Quake 3: Arena.

    I plan to help them out with some maps and music, after I'm done with work on PainKeep Arena [painkeep.com].

    /d

  • Re:Anime=racist tripe (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The majority of anime characters are not anglos. They have small chins and moon faces, just like the Japanese. The fact that their eyes and hair come in many colors is because a great deal of artwork from Japan (pre-anime) featured figures with oddly-colored hair and eyes. Examples of these can be found in ukyo-e woodblock prints. And kabuki theatre also featured japanese actors in pale make-up and colorful, huge wigs that mimic the effect of huge, brightly-colored anime hair today. Even the acting in anime mirrors the older theatrical style (strike a pose and make your speech). So it seems to me that anime is not racist. You just haven't done very good research, that's all.
  • It seems like the heroes and their enemies reach the ULTIMATE POWER LEVEL in every single episode of DBZ. It's as if the writers want to make every episode have the hugest climax possible.

    Yeah, that's why it's fun to watch. What fun would it be to watch the good guys beat the living pulp out of an slighty-above-average-yet-realistically-matched bad guy in five minutes? Stretching out the battle scenes for as long as DBZ does increases the emotional involvement with the characters and the storyline (and the commercials in between). Yeah it's a soap opera for boys but what's wrong with some heavy drama? For a really great time, get all the subbed episodes and watch them back to back.

    --
  • ummmmm, i do, you coward.....leave /. already....
  • I still think that this sounds like the name of an old AC/DC song.
  • Thats good to hear. It's the same way with Rurouni Kenshin--the tv series is dubbed by different people than the OVAs. (Tip: avoid Anime Works like the plague! I'm not sure if the subtitler even speaks Japanese!) The series dub (and sub) is horrible, but ADV did a good job with the OVAs.
  • Well, as the topic happens to be Anime, you can also check it out in Japan.
    And subs should be everywhere, I asume..
  • There's a hidden scene in AIKa. If you freeze frame through the scene where she's whirling through the air, you can see her panties! Buy it now before they edit out the panty scene!
  • Maybe you should switch to decaf?
  • Maybe you didn't see the sign on the way in, but this is a discussion forum. We discuss things here. That's kinda the point.
  • Oh come now. While I too was initially worried at the even more simplified character designs in Batman they actually work _really_ well. Except for the Riddler, but he's a pain to write. Plot-wise they're as good as ever. Need I remind you of "Over the Edge?"

    Reboot OTOH didn't appeal to me at all, until I saw the last few episodes of the 2nd season. That, and the third season are really quite good. No, it's not American (lord knows that ABC kept screwing it up) but I don't think that the quality is in doubt.

    However, while I'm a huge anime fan, I really can't stand DBZ. It's awful. Too bad that Fox screwed up Escaflowne (at least from what I've heard)
  • They great hting about the way the CN does these shows is that they play the end narration "Will Gku defeat Freeza?!!!!" and then, two seconds later, they display the title of tommorow's episode, which is entitled "Freeza Defeated!" My absolute favorite was the chilled narration about "Did Goku survive the destruction of Planet Namek?" and then: tommorow's ep title: "Goku's ALIVE!"
  • I have the majority of the episodes. Get at me! obabalol@bayou.uh.edu
  • Dude, throw out your TV, your computer, and all your other corporate media portals and leave us the hell alone. By the way, in the real world pacifists die, and often. The only way to secure freedom is to kill those who would take it away from you. The problem with bullies isn't that they can get sticks, but they haven't had a good spanking. Trying to shield potential bullies from the truth that being a bully among pacifists is a gold mine won't help.
    ---
    >80 column hard wrapped e-mail is not a sign of intelligent
  • Was her character #18? Videl maybe? Maybe a minor part? I'm interested. The lawyers aren't going to sue you for mentioning what your sister did.

    --
  • I've watched the subbed episodes on tape, and they do the same thing. I've always had this feeling that if you could combine the intro sequence and the next episode promo for each episode it'd be just as good as the full thing..

    --
  • How many people remember where THAT snafu came from? (If you do remember, you certainly are old skool LOL)
    ========================
    63,000 bugs in the code, 63,000 bugs,
    ya get 1 whacked with a service pack,
  • http://www.planetnamek.com/manga.html [planetnamek.com], PlanetNamek.com merely absorbed the site. They've pulled the chapters that have already been released by Viz [viz.com].

    As for episodes, just about every POS DB/DBZ site will give you episode synopses, or you can just go to IRC and download the episodes yourself (dalnet/#DBZIRC is a start).

    You're welcome.

  • Hey y'all, did ya see this? It was linked to by the Anime on DVD website.

    http://dvdcity.com/codefree/codefree index.php3 [dvdcity.com]

    Code-free dvd players. Some Macrovision free as well. Fully legal, apparently, as several makers (including MPAA member Sony!) are shipping them.

    It's nice how the (mostly) free market works. Looks like Pioneer has found that customers know no borders...

    sulli

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