Doomroar 2014-12-22 01:59:21

Akira is indeed one of the best animes ever created; I would recommend Tekkonkinkret; Metropolis 2001 (an adaptation of a manga by Osamu Tezuka, and the movie was directed by Katsuhiro Otomo), and Memories (which is also by Katsuhiro Otomo and Satoshi Kon, both of them are beast, they are monsters in the world of anime, most things they do are masterpieces http://myanimelist.net/people/1872/Otomo_Katsuhiro http://myanimelist.net/people/4580/Satoshi_Kon).

About Ghost in the Shell, i don't know which one they were showing, if it was the one from 1995, then watch it, it is good, if is the ones from 2013, then it is still good... but it lacks all the nice things that were proposed in the original one, the Arise series is actually a series of prequels to the actual GitS, and while the whole story of Major Motoko Kusanagi is a clear example of a ghost in a shell (since she is just a brain on a droid), these modern movies don't question that at all, they take it as a given and move on, the original one however does circle around this concept, and the main-character even becomes just software at the end, one with the net, it is one of those omnipresent arguments view from a transhumanist point of view, in the following sequels we see how Major Motoko interacts with the world while she is fully digitized, she gains a series of abilities, but you don't know if she is alive or not, or if she was ever alive, a similar anime that explores these things in a serious manner (digital transhumanism) is "Serial Experiment Lain", all of these are cyberpunk animes, The Animatrix is another good one (and i guess i mention Psycho-pass in this blog), however the best cyberpunk anime that i have seen so far at least for me has to be "Texhnolyze" (because for the public the battle goes between GitS and Lain, and i don't think they have seen Texhnolyze), man Texhnolyze is such a satisfying experience, filled with dystopia, with philosophical questions and a clear message, is beautiful in a horrible way, and that ending, that ending was everything i could have asked and i can see why some people don't like it, because it is so tragic, but not all stories need a happy ending to be good.

Anyway for now just watch those 3 Tekkonkinkret; Metropolis; Memories.

There's also Studio Ghibli, that can be seen as the child of Hayao Miyazaki (another monster), however i find it funny that Hayao's best story ever made "Nausicaa of the valley of the wind" was actually made before the creation of Studio Ghibli, and thus it has nothing to do with them, and yet the story is great, of course the manga is better (also written by Hayao).

While i am making comparisons i actually like the manga of Akira more than the film, but that is just me, Akira is just incredible in all of its mediums, which is something that i can't say of Parasyte for example, Parasyte is a story that if adapted to anime deserves to be put alongside all the other things i mentioned here, but it is such a bad adaptation, it is such a betrayal, it is sad, the 3 movies i am recommending you (plus Nausica, and Akira,) all of them are adaptations of manga, and yet why is that Parasyte's adaptation has to suck so much? is fucking unfair.

Doomroar 2014-12-22 04:15:18

Just torrent them and after finding out what you were missing out buy the DVD and show it to the world, those 3 are movies that you have to own physically anyway, paying 9 or 3 $ for watching them is already unfair, may as well watch them free and them make a proper investment.

Texhnolyze is a series; the first episode introduces us to the situation of the main character and a minimal part of that of the place where he lives; i guess melancholy is a word that could be used but it is more than that, i would use lethargic, there are even more accurate words to describe the feel of the series but to use them this soon may reveal what happens next, but if by melancholy you were talking about the feeling evoked on the viewer then i am sorry, but this series is an emotional free fall, take some antidepressant medicine before hand if not you are in for some nasty stuff; the narrative of this anime is a really special thing, because it requires you to pay attention to the things that are being shown, everything is more connected than what it appears at first glance, the series is better watched slowly and with pauses (to see the details), and twice, because once you finish it everything that appears at the beginning makes more sense, "Serial Experiment Lain" is similar in this regard (and even with that they could have explored the concepts more deeply, because really that's the main thing of the series, Lain unlike other cyberpunk series lacks the action and world development of Texhnolyze, GitS, or PS, however it shows its examples better than any of these (well maybe PS is easier to understand, plus it is constantly quoting literature so you could just go and read the mentioned books or philosophers and then you are fine, this method gets things done, but it is also cheap because it requires the audience to have a pool of knowledge that the series is not planing to illustrate beyond some basic premises), of course since it can concentrate on doing just this, however being this the case it could do more than it did), GitS not, for GitS you only have to pay attention to a couple of key scenes and the rest is just action.
But back to Texhnolyze, a thing that i like about it is that the first episode hardly has any dialogue, however a lot of information is being given by the scenes that are shown, however the new viewer doesn't knows what is what yet, what they do know is the main-character and his situation as a fugitive, but for example they don't know who the read haired girl with the fox mask is, or the other guys and why they are killing each other, i can't tell you more than this because spoilers, but i just re-watched the 1st episode and i can say that it doesn't has even one scene that is wasted, and since they never derail themselves with side stories i can tell you that yes, it all will make sense later on, because to be fair just from the 1st episode most people wont know what role technology plays in that world, i do agree that the first episode looks really ambiguous if you don't know what the scenes that they are showing you are, is like trying to figure the shape of a 3D structure on a 2D plane but you have never before seen that 3D structure, it is hard, it may look impossible, but it is not, and in the present now that we know about perspective 2D representations of 3D things are common stuff.

I however, can't remember one thing, and is how the explain the concepts that the series boards, i remember that back in the day i was not as well read as i am today, i was studying civil engineering, and yet i was able to grasp most of what it was presented, so i can tell that unlike PS you don't need an specified kind of knowledge to understand what is going on, however i can't remember if they use Lain's method of illustration or PS method, i like both, maybe i like PS method more because you get a bibliography and you can know more about the topics, but on the other hand a series that explains what it wants by itself is also something nice, but whatever method it uses, they were able to expose their message, so don't worry on that part.

Doomroar 2014-12-22 19:45:34 (Updated 2014-12-22 20:37:00)

There are BitTorrent and even better qBittorrent, with q you can download from Bakabt (Texhnolyze is not in Bakabt btw, you can find it here however http://www.nyaa.se/?page=torrentinfo&tid=165043&showfiles=1).

I am glad, episode 2 is probably equally cryptic because it centers more around Yoshii and the girl, as well as the government (yeah those are not mafia, is the government which behaves like mafia, it looks weird but it actually makes sense given the situation of the place, you will find out later on) and the opposition, but this is a world that can not be shown just from the perspective of the main-character.

Doomroar 2014-12-24 08:21:00

The manga is waaaay better, watching the anime is just not fair at all with the manga, is insulting even.

Haha yeah LEGO usually makes good products.

It is one of the best things to ever mix images and text!!

Doomroar 2014-12-24 08:21:47

Same! have a wonderful day!

Doomroar 2014-12-26 04:06:39

That always works.

The series doesn't explores much, is just the adventures of Major Makoto before the events of GitS (which is not a stand alone film, but a series of films so technically you have seen only episode 1, and to be fair that's the best one XD, so yeah lower those expectations), other than that, i warned you man, GitS has like 2 key scenes and the rest is just action (or dialogue), i said that it is good; i never compared it to Akira, that would be crazy, i compared the 3 movies that i recommended to Akira (Tekkonkinkret; Metropolis; Memories), i can tackle the blame for those any time i even told you that they are worth owning physically, as for GitS i am of the kind that prefers Lain over GitS (even if Lain lacks action, but is better thought out), and even after saying that i prefer Texhnolyze over Gits and Lain, specially the second half of Texhnolyze when we know more of what is going on.

Yeah Batou is a badass, his concept is based on a less caring Briareos from Appleseed, a story from the same author, i actually can't remember Appleseed too well, i think that it is about as good as GitS but it has more action and is less popular; While i am on it, people probably have recommended Evangelion to you, that series has awesome action, a gutless pussy main-character, and a cryptic foundation that when analysed is not really worth the hype, Evangelion is a series that has recently got a re-release in the form of a series of films, at the moment it has 3 animated different endings, with the 1st one being the best ending and the most boring, the second one has lost of action but is bullshit, and the 3rd one is in the making, then there are the endings from the manga and novels, anyway Evangelion as you can see is a product of hype, and you should lower your expectations with that too, except for the action it delivers there with satisfaction.

Again the only films i have compared to Akira are the 3 i recommended, and still Akira is one of its kind.

Doomroar 2014-12-27 03:18:26

It could be yeah.

The series is better, the films area actually good but they rush things because they try to absorb various chapters at once, and then they introduce some new things that didn't happen before changing the story, however since they assume that the viewer already saw the first series they don't explain nothing other than the new things, and they do that superficially, so chances are that you wont know what is going on, especially if they start from the 2nd movie onward.

I checked them both, they are tower defense, not really my cup of gaming, also my NG gaming creed is bigger than yours... http://doomroar.newgrounds.com/stats/medals i can't believe i have fallen so low that now i am comparing medal dicks size...

Doomroar 2014-12-27 05:53:57 (Updated 2014-12-27 08:19:07)

I am not even close to what Cyber D has tho.

I have to confess i didn't read what they were saying and jumped straight to place my turrets.

The best story, now Dr S3C i am sure there are better ways to recommend a game without using such hyperbolic measures, but i have to admit it sure generates curiosity. This is just Gradius with stat leveling... man you know how to sell game!

Doomroar 2014-12-27 17:42:30 (Updated 2014-12-28 06:15:54)

But VicariousE has more medals than him, man my 30k looks so shamelessly small compared to them.

Yeah i am more of a gameplay kind of guy, if the story is good it has to come with a complementary game-play otherwise i most likely won't be able to finish it, that's why i don't really like classic JRPG i find the gameplay monotonous and tiring, the only one i fully finished and enjoyed was Golden Sun, i even cheated and watched lets plays of Earthbound, because man the story is great, the character design are pleasant, but the fight gameplay is so damn boring and repetitive! i just couldn't.

It is a space opera when you play as the pirate and a long the ride you end helping the other guys, i find it hard to believe there aren't better stories on the site, well not like that's the main point of games (yeah i don't consider that visual novels qualify as games, with that said some JRPG are less interactive than VN, makes you wonder how Japan allowed such things to happen), so it probably is the best story of any game on NG, but then... what is this competing against?

Doomroar 2015-01-01 13:29:30

Blue hair if you are between 20-30 red hair 30-40 blonde 40-50 green if you are below 20... the times we live in XD.

Happy new year Mr. V!