Ani-what?

I have always been interested in animation, I suspect that my love of long cartoon series is born of out of sheer sloth: A nice long indepth Japanese anime series is the closest thing to a novel without the effort of reading, or the strain on the fingers.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, "Anime" is the colloquial term for Japanese animation. It is often used to describe anything of this certain Japanese style; big eyes and spikey hair being an example of a common Anime style.

Better than Hollywood

I prefer Anime to most films, especially the mainstream Hollywood films.

Perhaps I have seen too many Hollywood films, and not enough Anime, I am quite selective is what I watch from both scenes. How often can you predict the ending or a twist in a hollywood film? If you cannot you must know people who can - surely predicting a twist takes away from the experience? I believe the main reason you can see twists coming is because the directing of the film is set up to make it fairly obvious to avoid confusing the audience.

Animation films don't really have the issue of getting an actor who looks right for the role, as they can just draw them, also animated films tends to have more atmosphere, or perhaps a more pronounced atmosphere. However this comparison is beside the point I am trying to make - a series is far better than a film, but TV series are usual based on realistic things, or horrific relationship dramas ( soap operas, a pet hate of mine ), but animated series don't have such a large problem producing special effects, as all the effects are drawn it is not hard to make the effect fit the rest of the scene. Hence there are many Animated series based on fantasy stories, be it intergalactic wars, witchcraft and wizardry, fighting and martial arts or simply a love story. If you need proof of this go and watch the following:

• Intergalactic Wars: Gundam / Macross / Irresponsible Captain Tylor series
• Witchcraft and Wizardry (perhaps "Magic" is a better label): Witch Hunter Robin / Hunter X Hunter
• Fighting and Martial Arts: Dragonball / Hunter X Hunter / Roruri Kenchi (aka Samuri X) series
• Love Story: Mahoromatic / Love Hina / SaiKano (aka She - The Ultimate Weapon)

Purpose

Now I don't really intend to make a fan site for a particular series or anything, nor do I really think writing reviews would be worthwhile (though you can view the ones I have written on AniDB.net here), but I would like to make recommendations; and more to the point - I needed somewhere to put the wallpapers and other things I have made which are related to Anime, and little else.

Firstly, there are those images I used on the "RobMeerman.co.uk is down for the forseeable future" banners, which are taken from Japanese cartoons, the shots having being carefully chosen to avoid subtitles!

Recommendations

I know this is a half arsed effort, but you have to understand how lazy I am! (I will include screen shots a little later)

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion - All about massive robot's fighting 'angels'. It's gripping, dramatic, and quite disturbing.
2. Witch Hunter Robin - About Robin - a 15 year old girl ( who looks 17 ) kills witches using 'the craft' hence she is a witch. I prefer to think of it as the X-files of anime, although it is not as cheesy, and the plot developments are far more interesting.
3. Hunter X Hunter - about a young boy, Gon, who lived on whale island going off in search for his father, which naturally requires learning some incredilbe martial arts and powerful magic. Its kinda like Dragonball because he keeps getting more powerful at a ridiculous rate, but it is repetetive or predicatable as Dragonball was. It's also kinda like watching a decent RPG.. complete with pan-pipe for music :)
4. Angel Sanctuary - It's about the reincarnation of Alexial, the most powerful angel in heaven who was punished for starting a revolution in heaven - split into body and soul, Alexiel is reincarnated as a boy. The story follows the incestious love story of the boy, and his awakening as Organic Angel Alexiel. That description won't make you want to watch it, but the music video I have of it certainly will. I'll link to it sometime (maybe even upload it.. I love it so much.. )
5. Puni Puni Poemi - its only 2 episodes long, and it is absolutely insane - you will need to watch it again and again to pick out all the satires of famous animes ( such as Salior moon ) and also because the main character speaks WAY too quickly to get it all in first time! (If you like this, check out Excel Saga, which is kind of more of the same)

MyList (Exported from AniDB)

A list of all my episodes, which includes breif descriptions of the series, score (at time of export) as voted by AniDB.net users, and even file size and quality information on each episode!

View MyList (online at AniDB.net)
View MyList (local "offline" mirror)

Wallpapers

Wallpapers I have made (currently pretty simple stuff):

	She: The Ultimate Weapon Themed on fustration, and pain due to futility. 1024 x 768 (87kb)
	She: The Ultimate Weapon Themed on hope and care. 1024 x 768 (81.3kb)
	She: The Ultimate Weapon Themed on the tragedy of Chise becoming inhuman. 1024 x 768 (59.7kb) NB: I am not happy with this one, as it is too blurred

Useful Stuff