Akira was, obviously, the launch off point for Anime in the west, and the movie was great. But later on I read the Manga, and they were so much richer than the movie. It seems like a 12-episode Anime would be perfect for Akira. And it would probably be successful, because everybody knows/loves it.

20th Century Boys is a bit... odder. I've read the Manga twice, and I know that there's a live action film, but the work seems so much better suited to Anime. I don't know how it's held up -- certainly no one on KIA2 mentions it. It's also not great -- the build up is fantastic, but the denouement is... odd.

Just wondering if there's a reason for this, or if it's just an historical quirk.

LOTGH seems cool, but I'd prefer to read the books. Has anybody read them? Do they hold up?

It seems to be a retelling of certain aspects of European history from a Japanese point of view which might be, say, interesting.

I'm watching Dante's Peak (1997), a volcano flick starring Pierce Brosnan.

The colours are just so wonderful -- it's like being outside in real nature.

Whereas with modern movies things seem really washed out. The filming is crisp, and the composition is usually good, but it feels like you're living in a claustrophobic world. Modern movies feel a lot like living in 1984.

Is this the difference between film/digital? Or are people choosing different colour palates?

A few people had mentioned that 'Twisters' didn't invoke climate change, so I thought cool -- a few special effects and a fun few hours.

Then it starts -- two white chicks and three pajeets! And... there are, actually, some astonishingly good-looking pajeets, but they chose the weak-chinned losers, of course.

I lasted about five minutes.

I wish we could put pajeets, chicks and (the rule-16 people) on an island, and see what they'd create.

We all know that they'd do nothing but argue.

But hey, Madame Curie was, like, super good at putting samples into a machine that she didn't build.

Sorry, just ranting.

In the last 18 months or so I've gone through 100 volumes of Detective Conan, and it's uniformly wonderful with nothing woke. It's unabashedly Japanese, with wonderful forays into the country's culture and history. There are female characters, but they're all largely normal. A few 'strong ones' appear, but only via a sort of mythical organization, so it doesn't really hurt the story.

Most people my age entered Japanime via 'Akira'... and then nothing else appeared until the internet, so then I went through Parasyte, HunterX, FMA etc and loved a lot of it. But Conan is really something special.

It's a bit hokey. It's not going to change your life.

But for our resident reader -- Smith1980 -- it's just a wonderful way to relax and forget the world.

Anyway, for anybody 25+ that just wants to forget the world for a bit; to recapture that sense of what it meant for boys to love girls; to reimagine spy games with weird gadgets; and to completely forget faggotry...

Conan's the thing.

(it's all available... nyaa....)

I would really love to watch the new Shogun. My first filter -- not too many chicks -- worked! But then... a chick was the 3rd actress listed, so do we have to suffer through a 'strong female character'?

Is she just as good as the men?

Please -- I have a string of hope -- someone tell me that she's just a concubine.

I watched DS9 when it first came out and I was... underwhelmed.

But then I caught a few episodes in syndication, and it seemed pretty good -- the captain shaved his head; there was this guy (Gul Dukat?) who had really interesting conversations; there seemed to be action everywhere.

Is there a season where I can start without all of the boring stuff?

I avoided watching this for 20 (!) years, because the reviews were ambivalent. But it's really fun. It's not awesome, like the Kirk/Spock series, but it's also (thus far) not excessively moralizing like TNG.

This is the only Star Trek (for me) that captures the wonder of the original series. The writing isn't great, but that was never a thing with Star Trek. They're also a bit kinetic, say, with discovering new Warp-Civilizations.

I also really appreciate that the crew is basically white, except for one black guy that's not blackity-black.

Even the chicks are fine. The writing for the Asian chick is a bit insipid, but it accurately reflects the chick version of the 'hero's journey'.

Unfortunately, they've introduced Time Travel, so I guess a few of the episodes are going to be tedious.