Friday, December 29, 2017

Great Anime And Cartoons To Watch

It's no secret that I recently had to deal with some major medical problems, and during my convalescence I took it easy, only lightly doing work and spending way more time than I should have watching and binging various cartoons and anime (I am a HUGE animation buff, btw).  I thought I'd share the best of what I saw.  So if you're looking for things to watch, I can't recommend highly enough the following shows and movies.

COCO
Everything on this list ranges from darn good to excellent, and is definitely worth watching, But by far and away the very pinnacle of the things I've seen recently is Pixar's Coco.  There are plenty of critics who have been gushing about this film, and all of it is rightfully deserved.  Great characters, a compelling story, gorgeously lush animation and designs and colors, and emotional scenes that could wring tears from lifeless statues.

OBAN STAR RACERS

I didn't even know this 26-episode series ever existed.  It's a French/Japanese co-production that aired in the US back in 2006 on Toon Disney.  I was honestly surprised at how good this series turned out to be, having been alerted to it by youtube reviewer Rob The Wonderful.  In 2082 AD, an interstellar war threatening to destroy Earth is halted as a cosmic being called the Avatar (no, not THAT Avatar ...and not that one either) who imposes a temporary truce and invites all civilizations in the galaxy to participate in the Great Race of Oban, with the winner being rewarded any one wish they could imagine.  There are agendas and secrets aplenty among the many competitors, including the Avatar himself, as the fate of Earth and the galaxy itself rests with a single young woman called Molly who stowed away to Oban just to confront her deadbeat dad.

This has surprisingly good characters and a deep and somewhat dark story, and there's some genuinely good action and drama among all the spectacle.  France has really been putting out some great animation in the past decade or so, and this feels like another hidden French animated treasure (hidden in the US, anyway) similarly to Wakfu, Dofus, and Les Kassos, to name a few.

LEGEND QUEST

Currently available on Netflix, this is a 13-episode Mexican production originally called Las Leyendas and another show I got turned on to through Rob The Wonderful's reviews.  In the late 19th a boy named Leo in a small mexican town can see and talk to ghosts.  When his town is literally stolen away by the mad god Quetzalcoatl, he sets off on a quest around the world to find the means to defeat Quetzelcoatl and get his friends and family back, aided by two ghosts (one of a cowardly conquistador and another of a teen-age girl) and an Alebrije (one of those colorful animal spirit-guides you might have seen in Coco.)

This one is not that deep, but it is very imaginative (even if it does play very fast and loose with the various mythical world 'legends' they encounter) with interesting characters and a story that kept me tuning in (especially the big reveal about Teadora, the teen-age girl ghost) and it does get a little dark in places.  It's not perfect though--I think the first two episode kind of drag a bit, there is a little too much goofiness in some places, and it takes a while to really understand what's going on--but there's enough good stuff to keep it interesting and compelling.

GIRLS' LAST TOUR

A 12-episode anime that just wrapped up, this actually turned out to be an amazing little experience completely unlike any show I've ever watched.  Two teen-age girls, who may or may not be the last humans alive, wander a post-apocalypse snowy wasteland, trying to survive.  That's pretty much the entire plot.  But the way it's done is surprisingly deep and meditative and emotional and funny all at the same time.  Their cute character designs 
and playful interactions contrast immensely with the harsh and very depressing landscape they are constantly surrounded by, and they often deal with existential questions in a very innocent yet compelling way.  It's actually really hard to describe accurately, but it's definitely one of the best anime series of the past few years.

THE ANCIENT MAGUS' BRIDE

Another 24-episode anime that's still ongoing (at least for the english dub which I watch.) This is a visually gorgeous production steeped in a rich fantasy world.  An abandoned young woman named Chise is talked out of committing suicide so she could be sold into slavery--and is bought for an insane price by an ancient wizard cloaked in an animal-skull mask.  It turns out she's a sleigh beggy (I have no idea if that's spelled right), a rare person who can naturally draw upon immense magical energy.  The mage informs her that as she's now his property, he intends to make her his apprentice... and eventually, his bride.

This series is an animation fan's wet dream, given how just about every scene is a sumptuous feast for the eyes in terms of design and color and top-notch animation.  The magical world Chise finds herself in is steeped in western european folklore, all rendered beautifully and with great imagination, with secrets and wonder aplenty.  And oh yeah, there's some good story and characters as well.  Definitely a must-see if you like anime, fantasy, or both.

SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO 2199
This is the most recent series I picked up.  It originally aired back 2013 I think, but the english dub is only coming out now so that's what I've been catching.  There's been a bunch of different incarnations of this show going back decades.  I remember watching the original english dub (which renamed it Starblazers) as a kid back in 1980, and it's kind of awesome seeing this remake.  Not only for nostalgia's sake, but it's amazingly well done as well, superior to the original series, which was already quite good i its ow right.  The battle around Pluto in episodes 5-6 is the first time I got excited watching a  space battle in years.  I think it runs 26 episodes and is only on episode 9 as of this writing, so I'll be watching this one for months yet.

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And that's it.  I did watch some crappy things, some just okay things, but this was the stuff that made me keep coming back.  If you watch them I hope you enjoy them too!