If the title isn't subtle enough for you, I've watched a bunch of anime movies and shows lately and i'd like to talk about my thoughts on all the ones i've completed! Here we go: Wolf Children This movie falls has something that I very rarely see in Anime and endlessly appreciate: subtlety and a grounded, really world story. Granted the actual premise is very much of the high concept fantasy type that anime tends to be, Wolf Children ends up being emotional and powerful enough on its own and a lot of that has to do with the fact that its other elements are grounded in a world and scenario that feels more or less like the real world. The story follows the life of a young woman studying college in Japan when she comes across a reclusive young man. He has a secret that he conceals but the two of them fall in love and he entrusts her with his secret. He is the last surviving descendent of a tribe of people with the ability to transform themselves into Wolfs. Not Werewolves, just wolves. They maintain their personality and the ability to talk in wolf form and otherwise live lives as normal people. The couple fall in love, conceive children and start building a family. Unfortunately, things transpire that force the couple apart and now the young woman is forced to raise her two half-wolf children alone, with little money and understanding of how to raise children that have the ability to become wolves at any time. Wolf Children isn't really a normal anime, its somber, emotional and centers it's drama around the central characters ability to function as a single mother in a difficult situation. It might sound silly but its one of the best anime movies i've seen once The Wind Rises. Check it out! Summer Wars This movie comes from the same director as Wolf Children. I checked it out on Netflix shortly after seeing Wolf Children for the first time and I was very impressed by it. Its not nearly as good as his other major piece but its fun, emotional and engaging enough that it didn't bother me at all. Summer Wars is far more rooted in it's anime origins in style and substance than Wolf Children. In the near future, an ultra advanced Social Network has become the center of global technology in almost all aspects of life. A young tech support member who is working on coding for the social network is pulled away from his job by a girl who needs him to pose as a boyfriend for her extended family. Events are conspiring away from the public eye as a super powered virus has entered the network and is threatening to pose damage to the entire network which potentially included access to transportation, hospitals and global weapons systems. Now only a young group of tech support operators stand in the way of the virus destroying the lives of millions of people. As I said, this movie is FAR more in touch with mainstream anime than Wolf Children. That being said its also a very emotional, exciting and visually fascinating movie to watch! If you have a Netflix DVD account I'd definitely suggest renting this one! Akira My oh my… In the realm of anime movies, few stand more hollowed than Akira, a movie so powerful, emotionally effecting and deep that even great the great Siskel and Ebert loved it. Following the destruction of Tokyo in the third World War, a new city called Neo Tokyo was build up from the ruins. Now the city runs rampant with crime, civil unrest and talk of revelation against its corrupt ruling class. One night, a group of street thugs come across a mysterious individual whom the government immediately arrests. Shortly after that one of the members of the street gang begins to have strange outbursts and fever dreams. I won't reveal too much of the plot beyond that but be warned, you are in for a dark, dank, and terribly strange movie with psychics, super powers, chase scenes and some of the best animation that has ever been put into an anime. Akira is so powerful and influential that it is regularly cited as a notable inspiration for The Matrix. The only problems I really have with this movie are the pacing and the tone. They aren't bad! For me though, the movie felt very slow. That, and the tone was so dark and downright disturbing that I was in a pretty foul mood for the next two days after I saw it. That being said though, Akira is a must see anime movie! Ranma 1/2 Season 1 The works of Rumiko Takahashi are beloved amongst anime fanatics the world over! Her most famous work is the beloved, though notably flawed Inuyasha, which I do very much enjoy! Much earlier in her career though she created a martial arts-comedy Manga titled Ranma 1/2. The story follows the life and romantic exploits of a teenage boy named Ranma. He and his father are training in China at a cursed spring, unaware that it is so, when both of them fall into the water and are transformed. Now whenever Ranma is splashed with water he is transformed into a teenage girl, while his father becomes a panda. Inspite of their curses, Ranma and his father move back to Tokyo, Japan where he reveals that Ranma is to be wed to Akane Tendo, the daughter of a training partner of Ranma's father. From there the story begins as Ranma becomes the center of attention for all the young ladies in Tokyo and similarly for Akane to all the boys. I just finished reading the 36 volume manga for Ranma 1/2 last month and in retrospective I thought it was a really fun story! Its a manga that came out of that wonderful moment in the 1980s when Martial Arts was the coolest thing ever. This was about the time when stuff like Karate Kid and DragonBall were getting popular. For a couple months this year, Walmart had the first season of the anime adaption of Ranma 1/2 for sale and I was lucky enough to pick it up. While not totally perfect, and to my knowledge the first season is infamously slow, I thought it was a lot of fun! It really picks up towards the end of the season when the side characters start showing up and it starts getting into a regular beat that would come to define the series. Check out the Manga adaption sometime! In my opinion its a little better than the anime but this is still dang fun! Ghost Hunt Thanks a lot to FYE for keeping the Funimation SAVE boxes on discount for a couple weeks! I was able to pick up the Shojo Anime Ghost Hunt for less than $20! In this anime, a young teenage girl named Mai meets a strange, distant and very narcissistic Ghost Investigator named Naru. After an accident in which Mai breaks a piece of Naru's equipment, Mai agrees to work for Naru to pay off her dept. The two work together with a team of Exorcists and Medians to solve strange cases and hauntings. Taken as a whole, Ghost Hunt is a surprisingly compelling and interesting anime to watch. It does however suffer from a number of issues, namely the characters. Aside from Mai and Naru, most of the cast lack any compelling character traits to make them fully formed. A few of them get last minute traits thrown on them towards the end of the anime but they are pretty much uninteresting up until then. On the other hand, Mai is a genuine and sweet character that I found enjoyable. Naru works pretty well too, carrying the same sense of "I know everything better than you" confidence that characters like Sherlock Holmes and The Doctor carry, granted with their more humanistic optimism replaced with a duller more world wear affectation. Overall, fun and compelling anime to watch! Attack on Titan Now we get to THE BIG ONE. Attack on Titan is the holy grail of anime to come out of the last couple years. The world as we knew it no longer exists. Sometime in the past, a race of beings known as the Titans have devastated humanity, eating them and driving them to extinction. All that remains of mankind lives behind the a fortress. One day however, a strange, enormous Titan appears and destroys the outer wall of humanities last fortress. Hundreds of Titans are let loose into the city and hundreds of thousands of people are killed. In the aftermath, a group of children swear revenge on the Titans for the destruction of their homes and families. I don't know what to say for this anime that hasn't been said elsewhere. Yah! Its great! Its really really awesome! The characters are well conceived and fully dimensional. The story is powerful and compelling. The music and anime are some of the best in years! Beyond the fact that this anime is at the center of attention for Anime fandom at the moment, there are dozens of reasons to check out Attack on Titan! Definitely do! Thank you for reading! Live long and prosper!
