Anime Innovative/Original Anime

[Dagger]

I'd like to talk about series which venture off the beaten path, in terms of everything from plot to music to animation. It's kind of rewarding to see a show that does something differently than other anime--granted, of course, that its gambit actually succeeds.

The following is only a small example, but one that made a highly favorable impression on me.

Lately I've been watching a show called [b]Yugo[/b]; the main character is a negotiator, and each of his cases is given its own self-contained episode arc. His first case takes place in Pakistan. During those six episodes, the character designs are very drab, dark and realistic, with rounded edges and a limited color palette. Many scenes seem washed out, as though overwhelmed by heat or sunlight.

All of this changes in the second arc, during which the negotiator goes to Siberia. Suddenly the animation and shading become much more colorful, sharp and detailed; the characters are still recognizable, but it's clear that the show's artwork was altered to enhance the mood of its new storyline.

Even if such a thing has been done before, it struck me as being rather cool. Yugo's creators did a great job of making the stylistic changes look deliberate, yet not in such a way that it distracts the viewer from the plot.

~Dagger~

[Guest gendou ikari]

I would like to discuss some of the greatest animes of all time, the ones that started the genres. These would be concidered original anime's(Hnce the name, points at topic name) What I mean by this is fairly simple,plese tell me (in your opinion) what some anime's are that started the current genres. These anime's don't have to be old anime's, they simply have to be very original anime's.

I, personaly think that Evangelion is one of the most original anime's of all time, after seeing that I bet that many people relized the need for a compellin, thought provoking plot, one recent series, that I think followed in Evangelions path is Rahxephon . I'm not saying that it is a ripoff, im mearly poking at the compelling plot of Rahxephon.Gundam 0079 seemed to start the giant robot genre, with, well...it's....Giant robots, really.

I also think that Rorouni Kenshin [B]revoloutionized[/B] samurai anime's, it's not the greatest but it is still good.I would appreciate it if we discussed original or genre creating anime's. Thank you, and goodbye.

[COLOR=Navy]Frankly I can't see how the purpose of your thread differs from that of mine. Therefore, I merged the two; please PM me if you have any problems with this.

~Dagger~[/COLOR]

[r2vq]

I've only seen up to the first or second of Negotiator, so I can't comment as such, but I did find it an amazingly unique anime. One that I really liked. It seemed to take a lot of effort to stay away from common Japanese and Japanimation concepts and ideas.

As for innovative? I found the series' done by Bee-Train were pretty unique. In the male-dominated society of Japan, there are few anime that enforce the strength of women, especially if the strength overpowers men. Usually this is only untrue when the situation is supposed to bring in laughs, or are female assassins (I'm not saying BeeTrain hasn't done its run of female assassin anime).

A series I found very, very unique and innovative was "Macbeth" of Anime. That being nobody likes to talk about it. Serial Experiment Lain was a series that didn't make sense. I don't think it was supposed to. Normally in a series, if you watch the last episode everything makes sense. In this series the ending just throws you another foul ball. I thought this was innovative because of that was the first time I saw any series that would just spin you around and around and around with its story without trying the usual gimmicks found in other anime.

If you want to go back to newer anime, watch Monster. I've seen the first episode, and I don't really want to continue the series, but from the whole of the first episode seems to deal with a doctor in Germany who's job politics conflicts with his morals. Rather different from the giant robots or chibi and/or long legged females that you'll find in most anime.

Unique. Inovative. Risky. Dangerous.

[spoiler]If you really want to watch something unique and different from most anime... And you're willing to shock and terrify yourself almost to the point of truama, watch Pugyuru.[/spoiler]

-ArV

[r2vq]

[COLOR=Navy]This is a mod-approved double post.

~Dagger~[/COLOR]

Well Gendou,

I think I agree with you on most parts.

[b]Gundam 0079[/b] was an original anime of epic proportions. Now with over 17 (I think?) reincarnations, the series is what I consider to be the father of all anime with giant human shaped robots. If it weren't for the original Gundam, anime would be very, very different today. But Gundam can not only be considered innovative for its use of machine. Gundam's primary antagonist (primary meaning first in this case) is a step to consider. In all other series before this, disincluding comedies of course, the antagonists were "bad" or "evil" or stupid. This is one of the first series to fledge a character who broods in turmoil and fights for his morals. If you don't know who I'm talking about, pretend I'm talking about his tribute with shampoo, Zechs Marquise(sp?). Char Aznable, the man with an impossible to pronounce last name, was neither good, nor was he on the side of the bad guys. He didn't fight or cause mischief because he was "evil" and this was a first in anime. A revolution if you will.

[b]Rurouni Kenshin[/b] (with a u as the first vowel) had an epic fanbase and following, but I would not say it was a revolution for Samurai anime. If I am wrong, I will humbly apologize, but you didn't speak much on how it revolutionized the genre. If you could expand, that would be great. :)

[b]Evangellion[/b] is another series with a large fanbase, but not necessarily an original. Using mecha, like in Gundam, young children, like in Gundam, fight to save the world. Sound familiar? There may be more, but like the last one, you didn't really expand, and I don't know much on the series. How was it original?

If you want original, I suggest studio Ghibli and Miyazaki. I especially like the series Sen To Chihiro, or Spirited Away. It had great "realistic" drawings compared to other mainstream television shows and movies, and the story was charming and fun as a young child was basically in a theme park full of ghouls and creatures.
Another suggestion I could make is Spriggan, which created a secret agent or protection agency to protect biblical artifacts. An original concept I'm sure. ^^

Although... I guess you could say the most original anime was Astro Boy... ^-^

-ArV

edit:
I agree with densuke (next post). I had the same impression when reading the title.

[Shiguru]

Evangelion was simply put: Weird, orginal and totally F*cked up. I loved it. It really put me back into hope that Anime won't be generic stuff anymore.

Gundam was a big original series that redifined Giant Robot anime. Without it Evangelion wouldn't exist how it was now.

Wings of Hommenase was amazing and unusual as it showed how a fool can conquer every one else's expectations of himself and become the first man in space. It was beautifully protrayed and simply amazing.

that's all I can really think of right now.

[Guest gendou ikari]

[QUOTE=r2vq]


[b]Evangellion[/b] is another series with a large fanbase, but not necessarily an original. Using mecha, like in Gundam, young children, like in Gundam, fight to save the world. Sound familiar? There may be more, but like the last one, you didn't really expand, and I don't know much on the series. How was it original?

[/QUOTE]

It was extremely original. But you can't go far into its originality without giving off spoilers soo... [spoiler]My friend, you have misinterpreted eva. compare the evnts in the bible to the events in the show, you get something oddly farmiliar, this is because Gendou wants man to be god, he wants to recreate the dead sea scrolls prophecy[/spoiler]

[SoapyShoes]

I'd say FLCL is one of the most original anime that I have ever seen. With a crazy animation style and unique plot development, it's one of the best I've seen in awhile.

[r2vq]

Ooo.. Merge caused a double post on my part.

Yes, I thought FLCL was original and funny. ^^ I especially enjoyed the Manga scenes.

As for Evangelion, I didn't actually misinterperate, I was just provoking you to expand a bit more. ^^
I think Evangelion is pretty original (if you don't count the copying of the bible ^^) and if I'm not mistaken, the concept of mecha in that series is quite different from other mecha series. In EVA the mecha are pretty much alive, and even have a more organic look. Very different from other mecha anime no?

Back to other innovative anime...
I was talking with a few friends when they brought up an interesting point...
Weis Kruz (no, I don't care about speeling for that) seemed to be one of the first bishounen anime. At least in the sense of category bishounen. In today's series bishounen can usually be classified as different kinds... (aka. Brooding - Heero, Kaiba; Overly Feminine - Pegasus, Quatre; Humourous - Duo, Chichiri; etc etc) My friends believe that Weiz Kruz may have been the first series to use/create these stereotypical roles.
If that were true that'd be pretty innovative no? Does anybody have anybody have any facts to support or discount this claim? I'm sure this would make an interesting conversation topic. :)

-ArV

[COLOR=Navy]I put a little note in your second post so that people wouldn't get the wrong impression. ^_^

~Dagger~[/COLOR]

Edit: Thx Dagger-dono ^^;

[densuke]

As far as "innovative" - I tend to value storytelling over anything in the content. [b]Omishi Magical Theater - Risky & Safety[/b] impressed me with separate episodes based on silent movies (nice way to introduce a one-shot character without having to get a voice actor), [i]kamishibai[/i] and musicals.

In [b]Martian Successor Nadesico[/b], a parody of mecha anime called Gekiganger ran riot through the whole series - a recap episode is presented in the form of the characters from the Gekiganger show reminiscing about previous scenes from Nadesico. The Gekiganger motif, or the show itself, or the idea of being a Gekiganger fan are used numerous times, often to hilarious effect. I have never seen parody used so deeply in any other series.