Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hey All-

I've been wanting to branch out the past few months in something manga or anime. Something I've not seen before. So far i have pretty much hit the Mainstream Titles; Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, Vampire hunter D, to name a few.

i was wondering if anyone could point out a few other titles they have enjoyed. Or, some titles that I should pass on.

Mostly, I am into the martial art/samurai genres (go figure) as well as the horror/supernatural stuff. Any help would be appreciated.

Oh, also, the martial artsy action stuff would be useful since I am also on the look out for some inspiration for camera angle/shots for a film I plan to shoot this summer.

Thanks in advance
Monkey

There's a whole world of stuff out there, but here's a brief list of my anime recommendations:

If you like "martial-artsy" stuff, you'll want to see the series Samurai Champloo. The fact that it has a great soundtrack doesn't hurt (I used to hear tracks from it on XM Radio Channel 84 pretty regularly). The same director's Cowboy Bebop is another good series (it also has a very good soundtrack).

It's not as well-known as most of the other stuff on this list, but the OAV series Giant Robo is one of my favorite anime works. It has a wonderful score composed by Masamichi Amano (Battle Royale) and performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic. You can pick up a box set of the whole series for about $15-20. I'm tempted to say that if you watch only one thing on this list, this should be it.

Have you seen anything by Hayao Miyazaki? Pretty much anything by him is good. Nausicaa would be a good place to start since that's probably his first major movie (I like Castle of Cagliostro a lot, but I think of it more as a Lupin movie than a Miyazaki movie). My Neighbor Totoro is another must-see. I remember reading that Akira Kurosawa loved Nausicaa and Totoro.

If you don't mind seeing something a little bit "heavy," (It's not a spoiler to say that the two children who are the protagonists of this movie die) Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Miyazaki's colleage/mentor Isao Takahata, is very good. I wish I could send a copies of this movie to the leaders of every country on earth; we would probably have fewer wars if they all watched it.

It's somewhat hard to see, but I have a lot of fondness for the anthology flm Robot Carnival since it's one of the first anime films I ever saw. (You can probably watch segments from it on YouTube).

I haven't seen much in the way of recent stuff aside from Tekkon Kinkreet and Paprika, but both are worth seeing if you're anime-curious. (I love the opening credits from Paprika: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xqg3Sw3s9Wg )

Thanks JJ.
I was holding out hoping some other would chime in. A well, thanks for your input.

Monkey

Hello Monkey,

Disclaimer: I haven't watched very much anime.

My first exposure to anime was Robotech in the 80's. I remember thinking the characters, including the good guys, actually die in this show." That made is seem so much better than G.I. Joe. You can get the whole collection for $40 (in japanese with English subtitles) here: http://www.robotech.com/store/viewproduct.php?id=93

I saw an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist once. It was engaging. Here's a review from DVDTalk: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=31783

I heard good things about Akira Kurosawa's Samurai 7 (vol 1-7), but I haven't watched it yet.

I agree with Jet_Jaguar:
Samuri Champloo is fun. I've seen a couple of episodes on adult swim. Lots of slow-mo and still frame shoots if I remember correctly. I checked out a Cowboy Bebop dvd from the library and it was entertaining as well.

Miyazaki is my favorite. Totoro is my favorite as well but you won't get a lot of samurai action in that film. If you haven't seen Princess Monono yet, you may like it. The english script / translation was written by Neil Gaiman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke

Nausicaa was a manga first and is wonderful. Viz put out four set "perfect collection" GN set. I highly recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/Nausicaa-Valley-W ... 1569313482

Looks like googlevideo has the whole movie (poor quality though) here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3215648057

My daughters love Atom Boy (second series in color) but I don't think it is what you are looking for.

DVDTALK/ANIME TALK seems to like BLEACH and The Twelve Kingdoms. http://www.dvdtalk.com/anime/anime_talks_top.html

Good luck.

Peace, maka