awesome friday

[2eclipse]

yesterday was officially fantastic.
work went relatively quickly and i got a lot done. what i didn't get done is mostly other people's fault and not mine. that feels pretty good.

i came home not knowing whether or not ross was going to a bachelor party. A. he's not feeling so hot still and B. organization seemed lacking. he was playing even when i got home. but we decided that it is time for us to invest in netflix. turns out they are offering a free trial too. so we signed up and i have been going nuts queuing up movies for us to watch.among other things i am working on my anime education. folks, i am in serious need of anime suggestions. i HAVE SEEN the following:
akira
ghost in the shell
macross plus
nausica
spirited away
porco rosso
vampire hunter d
vampire hunter d bloodlust
princess mononoke
kiki's delivery service
my neighbor totoro
ninja scrolls
slayers
grave of fireflies
his and her circumstances
ranma 1/2
and maybe a few other things that i'm not remembering, but suggestions are very welcome.

anywho, i had been feeling an immense urge to go knit with a group. it has been really hard on me that corrin and heather can't get together on wednesdays anymore. corrin suggest weekends, but i'm simply not willing to schedule anything regularly on weekends. i do too many other things. so i looked at the TC knits group on yahoo and figured out what was going on that evening. then i trekked over to knitter's palette, a wonderful yarn store that i'd never been to on the southern side of the cities. i met a lot of really nice people there and didn't get nearly the amount of yarn oogling opportunities i wished for given that i was so busy making new friends. it was really very pleasant. i stopped and got chipotle and movies on the way home and came home to eat and watch nausica and the valley of the wind with ross. really nice.

today i got up early and got coffee and fruit at como park at the pavillion and watched the waterfall and looked out over the lake. very lovely. the sun was shining and bright. ross and i went for a bike ride a little while ago and i am beginning to think of plans for the evening.

Comments

[physis3141.livejournal.com]

Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and (if you like vampires) Hellsing.

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

thanks!
tell me about trigun? i have heard of the others and have an idea bout them.

also what are you doing tonight? weren't you one of the people on ravelry interested in meeting sometime?

[silvertongue1.livejournal.com]

I second the suggestion of Cowboy Bebop. You'll never find better jazz and blues in an anime.
My Uncle Lenny looooves jazz, so I got him the soundtrack for Hanukkah last year. He raved about how great is was, and couldn't believe it when I told him it was from an anime!

(I can bring you my tapes in November if you want to spend some time watching it.)
~Amanda

[physis3141.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...how to describe trigun?

On the surface, it's like a western, set in a post apocalyptic future focusing on Vash (the stampede) who is wanted as a desctructive criminal but is merely just misunderstood. He's being tracked by a pair of insurance agents, and meets up with a preacher with a big gun along the way.

Everyone in the show has secrets, and kind of like Vampire Hunter D, you see a character struggling to be good against all of his instincts.

Heh - yesterday was a complete write-off for me, and today doesn't look much better. I'm probably free Monday, but Tuesday is even better.

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

that sounds awesome.

i've got game tomorrow night and my class starts on tuesday. :(
but i'm not booked every monday, just every other monday. we'll have to make it happen another time.
hja

[johnkeats.livejournal.com]

I don't have many but I like these:
spirited away (I'm glad you picked this one)
Animatrix
Howl's Moving Castle
Hellsing

Waking Life = (This is not so much anime as it is an
annimated movie but I think you would like it. Lots
of philosophy and thinking. I love it.)
http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Life-Louis-Black/dp/B00005YU1O

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

waking life sounds awesome.
i have trouble thinking of animatrix as anime, but i guess it really is. we own that.
what did you think of howl's moving castle?

[johnkeats.livejournal.com]

I thought howl's moving castle was a fun movie
with wonderful artwork. The plot is a little
simplistic but that does not really hurt it.
I got to see an advance preview of it when it
first came out on the big screen which was fun.

I grant you animatrix was not a first pick but
I only have a few that fit the anime mold so
I put it in.

I really think you will like Waking Life.

[wanderingbastet.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely second Spirited Away. Excellent movie, very odd but awesome. My ex and I were really into Rurouni Kenshin several years back, and I remember liking it, but it's stupid long (like 12 dvds or something like that). It's actually on my Netflix cue right now, so I can see whether it's as good as I remember it. :-)

[spiralshell.livejournal.com]

You're going to love the Miyazaki ones.
Totoro is an escape movie for me... when life closes in, I watch Totoro. It is instant imagination and childhood and calm for me.
Nausica is one of my heroes. She is the most amazing caretaker of the world. Fearless. Beautiful.
Princess Mononoke is the fierce woman we would all want to be. She rocks.
Spirited Away is just magical and fanciful and lovely.
These are my favorites.

Porco Rosso is cool, and Kiki is cute, and Howl is fun, but the ones above are just the best.

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

ack.
maybe i wasn't so clear.
i have already seen all the miyazaki ones. i do like them minus castle in the sky and kiki's delivery service. i am looking for anime that i have not already seen.

[silvertongue1.livejournal.com]

In addition to seconding the Cowboy Bebop, I'm going to suggest "Death Note". While I haven't seen it myself, EVERYONE has been telling me to watch it lately, including some of the Chinese grad students in Beijing. I'm told it's "very clever".
~Amanda

[galtshrugged.livejournal.com]

Berserk, Trigun, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Rurouni Kenshin. I don't feel like describing them now. Perhaps later. :p

[dhampir.livejournal.com]

Berserk, but youll want to snag the manga as well as the eps that were made are only a part. otherwise, ginormous sword for hire and the crew he works with and lotsa demons at the end.

Neon Genesis Evangelion, more mechs and some confusing theological bits at the end.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. GitS bits with a long running story line.

Anime

[zankoku-zen.livejournal.com]

Cowboy Bebop: Bounty hunters, jazz, mysterious pasts all in a post-apocalyptic world. Soundtrack kicks ass and the main character, Spike is a classic

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Mechas and the Japanese interpretation of Christianity and the Apocalypse. I kid you not.

Samurai Champloo: By the same guy that did Cowboy Bebop. Combine samurais, hip hop and a strange quest. Perhaps not as engaging as Cowboy Bebop, but still good.

Ouran High School Host Club: OMG. This is deliciously crackish. Six rich kids run a 'host club' in an elite private school. The poor transfer student on a scholarship stumbles into their domain. Hijinks ensue. I can't recommend this enough. In sort of the Ranma 1/2 vein, but different.

You should watch Hellsing. But if you can get the OVAs, that would be better. The OVA follow the manga much more closely. The anime feels incomplete, but that mainly because the anime caught to the manga and they just stopped animating it after the 12th episode. Sad, but true.

Also, Fullmetal Alchemist. Alchemy, equivalent trade, and two boys who are out to right a wrong. Very good. Again, the anime diverges from the manga. The manga is still on going.

Bleach. I much rather you READ this as opposed to saw it, but the first 110 episodes are good (mainly before they start with filler crap). 15 year old student Ichigo becomes a temporary 'death god' fighting souls gone bad after striking a bargain with an injured death god to save his family. I can't tell you what a huge phenomenon this was in Japan. It even overtook Naruto as the seinen anime to watch.

Oh, Chrno Crusade. Nuns with guns, demons and the Fatima prophecy. It's pretty neat. At the beginning it's more comedic, but it gets pretty heavy toward the end.

Mai Hime. This one is pretty cute. High school girls who unlock magickal powers. It sounds like Sailor Moon but it's not. Much darker than that.

Anime

[corwyn.livejournal.com]

Bleach: The Substitute
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance
Steamboy
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig
Samurai 7
Tsukihime Lunar Legend
Shura no Toki: Age of Chaos
Hellsing
Peacemaker
Last Exile
El-Hazard: The Alternative World
Cowboy Bebop
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Samurai Deeper Kyo07/05/05
Orphen
Final Fantasy Unlimited
Noir
Berserk