Miaka-chan said:
@Laughing Manji: Thanks ^__^
Have you seen Beet the Vandel Buster? as it's being released on region 1 DVD in January (or December or something!) and I quite liked the sound of it, but it's a big investment; 10 DVDs @ £15 each and wanted to know if it would be worth while.
The word on Beet the Vandel Buster is that it is fairly standard Shonen fare but fun. Given a choice between say Kenshin, Bleach, Inu Yasha, Hunter X Hunter or Beet, Beet would probably be your
last choice but its fun all the same. Its probably truer to its manga roots than say Naruto. Its fans are a bit apologetic about it in the company of Hunter X Hunter or One Piece fans, but they enjoy it all the same. You don't see Beet
recommended a lot, but it is enjoyed, and you dont see many negative comments. A good source of info might be the forums of the fansubber who did it - its probably the biggest community of Beet fans.
I haven't seen it myself, but
Beet the Vandel Buster is a title that exists only to offer more choices for fans of Shounen action anime. It seems to succeed and execute well on the formula.
One caveat: Illumitoon are a new company, formed from some ex-FUNimation staff. Generally new companies can have significant teething problems early on. Wait for disc reviews on AnimeOnDVD first - they tend to smoke out early disc issues very well.
Miaka-chan said:
I've seen Flame of Recca and Get Backers (the former fits the bill the latter doesn't, but loved them both) and Initial D is something I'm 50/50 about, as sometimes I feel like buying it and sometimes I think Nah!
MAR and Flame of Recca are related.
The fanbase for Initial D is massive, but I get the impression that while other shounen anime recycle each other, Initial D recycles itself. There is at its heart, some kind of fundamental addictive quality that resonates with the too-young-to-drive, old-enough-to-dream-about-it PS3 generation
Miaka-chan said:
Black Cat is also being released in the next couple of months or so, so it's another one I'd have to be sure about before investing and I've heard a few bad things about it?!
I have heard that it is kind of stunningly generic shounen action anime. At its heart, the Shounen Action anime has an elegant commercial beauty to it: every 2 years you can repackage the same format to a totally new audience of 8 year olds. The japanese aren't dumb, they have been doing this a long time so they at least try to make these shows entertaining, so that they can retain the manga fans or whatever or maximise the audience outside the core demographic. In Black Cat, I think they forgot to give the show its own identity. Or at least thats the report of the few people who have seen it or the manga. I have never seen a good report about it.
Miaka-chan said:
The rest I'll look into, but I've never fancied the bread making one :?
Some people find it a riot. Its at least unique.
Miaka-chan said:
Hikaru no Go is, as I mentioned, something I'm buying on region 1 (volume 4 is on it's way as I type!)
Hikaru no Go, just owns so much. You find yourself getting drawn into the Go aspect very easily, the characters themselves are really interesting and the whole Hikaru/Sai thing is an excellent innovation.
Miaka-chan said:
and Naruto is something you've almost put me right off!
Are the fillers in Naruto obvious to people who haven't read the manga? or is it so off track (story wise) that it's blatantly obvious to everyone?
To your questions: Yes and Yes. The fillers are very obvious. Naruto has a continuous story that is more obvious than many other shows of its type (even One Piece has distinct open&closed arcs). Then suddenly they went straight into lots of (65 so far?) episodic 'missions' that don't advance the story, and they may have even put in some embellishments that mess with the story just to try and retain some ratings (secondary characters have been 'powered up' far in advance of where they will be when the manga resumes).
The thing with Naruto was that while it was following the manga it was doing it very very closely - they probably used the manga directly for storyboards - camera angles between the anime & manga are the same, and many fans were able to work out a 'chapter consumption rate'. The fillers also started off precisely after the main confrontation that the show had been building up to. The fillers are often just bad. You can tell you are watching filler because the quality is crap. In the absence of manga they have almost no good storywriters, or people good at improvising original episodes. Probably because all of those people are doing the movies (where they absolutely need the creativity).
Basically they are committing all the 'filler' sins: mediocre original writing, breaking the manga canon (which will screw continuity when they resume) and making a massive narrative discontinuity with the whole plot
directly after the moment that the fans had been waiting for or expecting for nearly 3 years.
Naruto is a fine show, when it bothers to be Naruto. But I wouldn't buy that filler, I plan to not even watch it.
Don't let it put you off Naruto being proper Naruto. Be happy to watch it up to the point it goes south. Then stop. Even average naruto when its on form is better than the good episodes of many other shows. Oh yeah, the Naruto box set is indeed good value, but wait until you have a second one - episode 13 is right in the middle of a fight.
Oh yeah, I scratched my head and thought of a few other shounen shows, I think these qualify. Both are fansub only though:
Onmyou Taisenki - this is a toy commercial. An anime series designed to sell action figures or something. The fact that many fans know this but still watch it is a good hallmark of shounen action anime.
Lord of Lords Ryu Knight - the TV series. There were a few OVAs but they were acknowledged to be pretty weak. This is a fantasy mecha show with odd fantasy-like mecha designs. The guys have nearly finished it, and I am tempted to get into it fairl soon.
I am not sure if this technically counts as Shounen anime in the same sense as the others, but
Eureka 7 is excellent. It doesn't recycle the formula, but its an excellent show (in fact its starring point is how fresh it feels). Better than everything else mentioned so far.
