Gotta catch 'em all

After Maity's post, I felt inclined to blog about my own experiences with anime. The first anime I obsessed over was Sailormoon. I think every girl who knows anime loves it or has at least seen it. Of course, as Maity pointed out, the manga is much more mature and much better than the anime but hey, if the anime gives it a bigger audience, what's the harm? In short, Sailormoon is about a bunch of girls (some in junior high school, some in senior high) who discover that they are reincarnations of past "sailor soldiers," each based on a different planet (Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn, etc), whose main duties involved protecting the Moon Princess, Sailor Moon. Sounds dumb but is much more complicated than you think. I guess it's a more compelling soap opera. I mean, just look at how beautiful the manga is:


Some other girly animes I've seen: Fushigi Yuugi (had a HUGE obsession with this one too), Ayashi no Ceres, Card Captor Sakura, and Magic Knight Rayearth. The former two from Yu Watase and the latter two from CLAMP (all female animation team).

I've seen "non-girly" anime as well but I just felt like listing a few anime titles geared towards females to contrast the ones mentioned earlier by Maity, which have a more masculine appeal if not general appeal to both males and females.

In any case, no matter what type of anime you watch, I would say it's better to watch subtitled anime rather than the dubbed. Dubs are often butchered for an American audience and most that I've seen compromise the original story somewhat. Not to mention some of the dubs have the most annoying English voice actors. Such a shame.

Aside: That reminds me of a friend of mine who absolutely refuses to watch movies with subtitles. Don't get me started.

Back to anime: Pokemon wasn't that bad when it first came out. I have to admit, I took part in that craze. I watched the show, have three versions of the Gameboy game, saw two of the movies, have a deck of the cards for the game, and have some random Pokemon paraphernalia I shall not specify. It was a cute, entertaining show at the time and it was good while it lasted (as in the time span that I watched the show, which was about 2 seasons?). Every now and then, I still go back and play the games just for kicks. Digimon was also cute the first two seasons. After that, I think my obsession with anime waned (this was around freshman year of hs). Since then, I still watch some notable anime movies now and then but that is about it nowadays.

Anyway, here are a few of my top anime picks:

Sailormoon (mentioned earlier)

Fushigi Yuugi
It's about two high school girlfriends (friends who are girls) who discover a magic book, The Universe of the Four Gods (based on Chinese lore), that transports them into the book. The story in the book takes place during feudal China and each girl becomes a Priestess of a different region (North, South, etc). Each preistess has seven "seishi" or celestial warriors with their own powers. Of course, there is conflict where a huge misunderstanding leads one of the friends (and her seishi) to battle the other (and her seishi). The anime is what I call a dramedy...it's a good mix of drama/comedy. Oh and don't forget the romance! I'm a sucker for that stuff.

Ghost in the Shell
Amazing movie. Haven't seen the series nor the movie sequel but from Maity's praise, it sounds like I'm definitely missing out.

Pretty much all Miyazaki's movies I've seen thus far: My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. The latter two movies have the most amazing musical soundtracks of any anime I've seen. Ever. Really. Amazing.

Two honorable mentions:

X/1999
A movie based on the half-finished CLAMP manga (at the time the movie came out). The plot revolved around the acpocalypse (based on the Book of Revelation). The main character, Kamui, has the power to influence the destiny of the world because he has the choice of becoming either a Dragon of Heaven, thereby protecting humanity from the end of the world, or becoming a Dragon of Earth, thereby destroying all of humanity in order for Earth to be reborn. Regardless of what he chose, his friend was destined to become the protector of the opposing side. The story of this movie wasn't as good as it could have been but the artistic fight scenes more than made up for it.

Vampire Princess Miyu
This anime is the only one in the horror genre that I've seen. It's not really scary but it incorporates elements of horror (ex: vampires, demons, death, etc). It's about Miyu, a vampire whose duty is to send "shinma," or demon gods, from Earth back to their dark world. Interesting concept and I love the gothic/almost verging on horror feel of it. Definitely a worthy watch although it may be a bit too slow-paced for some.