h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just watched this yesterday, rental DVD. I thoroughly enjoyed it - it was visually stunning, and, despite the mish-mash of styles, it worked well. I certainly preferred it to the recent Final Fantasy .

Is this representative of anime? I've only ever seen this and Akira (and read Domu at Blues Shark's suggestion )

I've not seen Metropolis yet, so I couldn't really say about it being representative. Anime is a huge industry and the term typical is difficult to apply or justify, imho. Certainly technically it appears to be fairly state of the art.
For a man like yourself, I'd recommend the thinking man's anime director-Mamoru Oshii-both Patlabor Movies, Ghost in the Shell. Check out Wings of Honneamise, from Studio Gainax as well. Top stuff.

Did you get that tape, btw?

I did, and thank you. I notice it has Hana-Bi on it - a film you list as one of your favourites. Are you sure you don't want it back?

Yeah, that's no worries mate. Hana-Bi was in the last HMV sale for £12 on dvd so should come down again in six months time.
I shall buy it then, or before, if I see it secondhand.
Now get on and write the damn article!

Rumour has it that Metropolis is a bit of a s****y transfer, and has a *nasty* red tint throughout that it is apparently not meant to have.

What was your experience of this?

I didn't notice it. However, I watched it on a fairly old portable television, using a PS2. The portable is so shabby, that a second hand shop refused to take it for free. Which is why I now have it

Asking Tracey, she said she noticed it at the darker bits. But I need spectacles anyway

Hmm. Still suspect enough for me not to fork out to buy it then.

Also, I'm not the best person to ask about these things. I didn't notice the desaurated colour at the end of Taxi Driver, and I couldn't figure out why it was so easy to tell what part of the story was what in Traffic...

Hmm.
And you do film criticism right?

Bah

Just because I don't know much about something, doesn't mean I can't hold forth about it . In fact, that has a special name - 'Journalism'....

I can't find the thread with comic recommendations for me, and I fancied taking a trip to FP today. Quick recap - I have Watchmen and V for Vendetta (although Zagreb borrowed them yesterday), Usagi Yojimbo Book 1, Domu, and The Dark Knight Returns. What would you suggest?

(I often feel like the Gareth Gates fan who's wandered in to Avalanche Records when in Forbidden Planet.)

Hmm.
Depends.

How about Blade of the Immortal? Hiroaki Samura's a fantastic penciller and writer, as well as being a recognized authority on Japanese poetry of the 18th century.

I love it.

is that just manga you want recomended or anything? i would wholeheartedly recomend anything by Rumiko Takahashi, Nausika pf the valley of the wind, Appleseed and others in that catagory. but my favourite works of graphic art are on DC comics, any part of the Sandman series, Moonshadow or Black Orchid.

I saw Metropolis the other night, and enjoyed it greatly, i soppose you might say there was something of a red tint, but i don't know why this has to be a negative attribute. the music is also very effective with a 1940s/50s sound and the pollish and style draws you in effectively. the ambiguous ending and the relationship of the children was also reminiscent of AKira, although i don't know what was lost in the translation.

The red tint is a negative attribute because it isn't in the Japanese original, only in the y transfer to DVD for the western market.

My region 2 copy didn't have a red tint.

The cheesy carnival music in the film that appears on the menus and such is superb.

I'm wondering more and more if the 'red tint' talk isn't merely another example of UK fandom trying to do down Manga Video and all their works.

I haven't seen the red tint on any of mine.

The only time I got a red tint on any of my films was when the scary cable was loose.

Gah!!

Scart cable, that is.

That'll do it everytime. It would, frankly, be typical of UK anime fandom to have based it's entire opinion of a movie and tyhe quality of the dvd on the opinion of one person who had a loose scary cable.

Yeah, like some sort of electric snake.

What is wrong the UK anime fandom then? Never realised there was some sort of cult of film-hating.

Not a cult of film hating, but a cult of hating Manga, the manufacturer.

My beef with Uk fandom is that they have almost single-handedly been resoponsible (in my opinion) for the death of anime in this country.

I am aware of several titles that haven't been released in this country because market research showed that fandom as a whole already had the damned things with pirated sub-titles. Therefore somebody makes the decision that they won't bother rel;easing titles because the potential market is too small.