ride the baloney pony

[drspin]

jon and i have been doing what he calls "asian culture appreciation night" lately - we go get ramen and then watch the latest disc of neon genesis evangelion i've gotten from netflix. then we usually talk about computer vision afterwards. good stuff

Comments

[asmodean451]

Bebop is fun, it depends on whether you like long form story stuff or the more episodic bits. There is one extended series of episodes which eventually closes out the series that is really quite awesome and for me was worth watching the series for.

Lots of people like Lain but I found it to be more weird for weird's sake than anything else. My recs:

- Dead Leaves (watch the interview with the producers and creators on the dvd -- they're at a restaurant drunk when they give the interview)
- Wings of Honneamise
- Haibane Renmei (cute, but also subtle and cool)

Kurosawa is good stuff, but good in chunks... although a back to back showing of Yojimbo / A Fistful of Dollars is clearly in order (or Seven Samurai / Magnificent Seven)

[mentalflossboy]

Both Lain and Haibane Renmei were interesting but not really my cup of tea. They create an interesting world but then don't really tell a story. I prefer anime with a distict ending (even if the ending is like Evangelion).

I don't know what kind of experience you're looking for, but here's my recommendations, in order:
- Wolf's Rain: follows a pack of wolves who appear as humans to everyone else. Takes some getting used to but the story is fantastic. I cried at the end.
- Samurai Champloo: it's like they crossed samurai anime with hip hop. And it works. I loved the ending of this one, too. Not nearly as sad as Wolf's Rain.
- Get Backers: Lots of fun, bunch of interesting guys with unique talents that fight each other.
- Samurai 7: A group of 7 samurai warriors defend a village against giant evil robots.

If you want something really odd check out Death Note. Dude gets a notebook that kills anyone whose name he writes in it. Very psychological and weird.

There's a lot of anime, man. I'm pretty sure your options are