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Let's talk here about everything about anime and manga and what's related to them (toys, games etc.). What series and movies do we follow, what do we like about them etc. I'll kick this off with war related stuff.

GIRLS und PANZER
Apparently sometime in the future it is popular hobby for schoolgirls to have simulated tank battles, sponsored by the schools. High school girls slug it out with Second World War tanks, assault guns, tank destroyers, and tankettes. Some take it almost as seriously as war, for some others it is just fun game. Spectators can follow fights live on hex maps! Cuteness, tank porn, MAUS IN ACTION, and anime streams for free!
Trailer (fan made, unofficial, AWESOME!)

Berserk
Oh-kay... At first this looks like bloody Hyborian Age, where one tough SOB kick demon ass. Then comes lengthy flashback to man's childhood and youth as mercenary. What else can I tell without spoiling too much... Bloody battles, political plotting & infighting, assassinations... All human characters are believable (for the most part at least) without going too much over-the-top. Inhuman characters are few and far between, and most of those are terrifying to the human characters. Manga was first, artwork is very detailed, and R-18 for bloody good reasons. Two anime versions, and both overlap eachother. I'm less than halfway through manga and haven't watched second anime yet.

Jormungand
Pretty arms dealer travels around the world with her own private mercenary squad which shoot & blow away any and all problems that come across. All characters and fights are realistic across the board. Ok, firing 122 mm cannon from open cargo bay of flying plane stretches my suspension of disbelief... End goes slightly to scifi side with... I'm not gonna spoil it. If you are jonesing for manga or anime with realistic gun fights, this is it.

Gate - Jietai Kare no Chi nite, Kaku Tatakeri
Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There
My favourite of this bunch. In middle of the day, stargate of sorts appear in middle of Tokyo, and medieval army pours in to Tokyo's streets. JSDF comes on to the scene, overruns the invaders, and goes through the gate to do some recon-in-excessive-force. I've seen some discussion about what-ifs modern armies in Middle-Earth (some have RPGd it too), and this manga comes pretty damn close. It's not purpose made parody, but just try hold your laughter when JSDF helicopter force flies and fights while playing Ride of the Valkyries through battery of loudspeakers: DADADA DAH-DA! I bought & downloaded Die Walküre from iTunes so I could play it while reading that part again. No official translation in print yet. And yes, this manga is as awesome as it sounds.

Anybody else familiar with these? What are your opinions about them? What else are you reading & watching?

Some pretty clever ideas -- obviously they've moved beyond giant robots. The JSDF vs medieval army sounds a bit too lopsided though.

I was also following the Infinite Stratos anime, where the protagonist discovers he is the only known male in the world with the ability to operate powered armor; all the other pilots are female. ("Harem" plots have become surprisingly popular with both sexes, because it gives the artists an opportunity to create a number of exotic female characters.)

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

The JSDF vs medieval army sounds a bit too lopsided though.

Battles are pretty much that, and two largest are covered in only handful of pages each. But what are fun are crashes of the cultures, good use of cliches & tropes, and some good dialogue:

Second lieutenant, what's the normal blood pressure and heart rate of an elf?

Characters have plenty of depth too. It's just fun!

[edit]
Certainly it wouldn't make balanced wargame. Unless it is tactical scale with JSDF (motorized) infantry (half) platoon against cavalry regiment in difficult terrain...

All quiet on this thread... Not many anime fans around this forum? Hey, guess who is fan of Squid Girl?



Someone we know?

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

Let's talk here about everything about anime and manga and what's related to them (toys, games etc.). What series and movies do we follow, what do we like about them etc. I'll kick this off with war related stuff.

GIRLS und PANZER
Apparently sometime in the future it is popular hobby for schoolgirls to have simulated tank battles, sponsored by the schools. High school girls slug it out with Second World War tanks, assault guns, tank destroyers, and tankettes. Some take it almost as seriously as war, for some others it is just fun game. Spectators can follow fights live on hex maps! Cuteness, tank porn, MAUS IN ACTION, and anime streams for free!
Trailer (fan made, unofficial, AWESOME!)

Do the girls get killed horribly in tanks?

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

Let's talk here about everything about anime and manga and what's related to them (toys, games etc.). What series and movies do we follow, what do we like about them etc. I'll kick this off with war related stuff.

GIRLS und PANZER
Apparently sometime in the future it is popular hobby for schoolgirls to have simulated tank battles, sponsored by the schools. High school girls slug it out with Second World War tanks, assault guns, tank destroyers, and tankettes. Some take it almost as seriously as war, for some others it is just fun game. Spectators can follow fights live on hex maps! Cuteness, tank porn, MAUS IN ACTION, and anime streams for free!
Trailer (fan made, unofficial, AWESOME!)

Do the girls get killed horribly in tanks?

No. It is simulated combat with training rounds. Some damage can happen (tracks break), but generally rounds don't really penetrate.

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

Let's talk here about everything about anime and manga and what's related to them (toys, games etc.). What series and movies do we follow, what do we like about them etc. I'll kick this off with war related stuff.

GIRLS und PANZER
Apparently sometime in the future it is popular hobby for schoolgirls to have simulated tank battles, sponsored by the schools. High school girls slug it out with Second World War tanks, assault guns, tank destroyers, and tankettes. Some take it almost as seriously as war, for some others it is just fun game. Spectators can follow fights live on hex maps! Cuteness, tank porn, MAUS IN ACTION, and anime streams for free!
Trailer (fan made, unofficial, AWESOME!)

Do the girls get killed horribly in tanks?

No. It is simulated combat with training rounds. Some damage can happen (tracks break), but generally rounds don't really penetrate.

Decline of Japanese cartoons.

Hi, Matti. very interested thread.

Gunka no Baltzar (Baltzar Militarismus, 軍靴のバルツァー) is just for you. If you interested in Victorian era, this is highly recommended comic.
Background is in hypothetical 19th century Europa, country called Weissen probably based on Prussia. A young officer from Weissen struggles to teach lessons of post-Napoleonic land battle tactics with allied country called Baselland that has pre-modernized army.
All country in this comics are fictional but weapons, military strategy and tactics, economics and politics are real historical-based that author(female) has studied very well.

No girls, superfictional-weapons, psychics and sci-fis. But you can see well-drawn simulated battle of breech-loading rifles vs. muzzle-loaded muskets in Japanese Manga style.

nevermind

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

ORIGINAL: Perturabo


Do the girls get killed horribly in tanks?

No. It is simulated combat with training rounds. Some damage can happen (tracks break), but generally rounds don't really penetrate.

Decline of Japanese cartoons.

And I call it improvement. If you want see blood & guts, try some of these:
Black Lagoon
Mnemosyne (full english title: Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne)
Hellsing Ultimate
Pumpkin Scissors
Gunslinger Girl

.

Zipang, anime and manga... is like "The Final Countdown" but with a japanese Aegis cruiser, poor Dauntless [:D]

"Japan War 1945", a manga with 2 histories, one for a Gekko nightfigther, other for a 97 Chi-Ha covering the Soviet invasion.

And there is an OVA called "The cockpit" 3 histories.

.

My favorite current manga is Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ("Be Mine, Hero!" "I refuse!") which begins at what should be the climax. The hero (whose name is "Hero") has at last cornered the Queen of the Demons in her fortress. She pulls out her final defense -- an economics research paper. This shows that killing her and immediately ending the human/demon conflict would actually cost more lives from a breakdown of the human economy and resulting famine and civil wars. The two join forces to introduce things like potatoes and rotation farming so that eventual peace can last.

The anime, unfortunately, has greatly inferior character design.

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

The anime, unfortunately, has greatly inferior character design.

Anime isn't bad at all, and it's free to watch

Fan translated Gate - Jietai Kare no Chi nite, Kaku Tatakeri chapter 22 went online just some hours ago, and Rori Mercury owns that one (too)! [spoiler] tags don't seem to work on this forum... Image below is from earlier chapter. And yes, she is as tough as it makes her out to be. Worthy match against berserk Guts. Now that's a fight I'd LOVE to see [:D]

My favourite anime movies are:
Ghost in the Shell
Patlabor the Movie 1 and 2
Jin Roh
M.D. Geist
M.D. Geist 2
Fist of the North Star

My favourite anime series are:
Welcome to the N.H.K.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Blue Drop
Death Note

My favourite manga is:
Octave
Rozen Maiden
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Gunsmith Cats
Welcome to the N.H.K.
Hellsing

Does anyone here know that stuff?

My favourite anime movies are:
Ghost in the Shell
Patlabor the Movie 1 and 2
Jin Roh
M.D. Geist
M.D. Geist 2
Fist of the North Star

My favourite anime series are:
Welcome to the N.H.K.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Blue Drop
Death Note

[ . . . ]

Does anyone here know that stuff?

Indeed I do. Do you know that Ghost In The Shell became a two-season anime series? (I prefer the second season.)

I have some strongly negative feelings about the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime. The animation is marvelous, and the underlying concept is very good. But the resolution of the plot stinks. The original series had to end in a huge anti-climax, because they basically ran out of budget. But all their attempts to make a better ending since have ended up even worse, to this humble critic's view.

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

Indeed I do. Do you know that Ghost In The Shell became a two-season anime series? (I prefer the second season.)

I have watched the first series. I liked it, though its quality of animation and graphics in general was a pretty big decline in comparison to the movie.

I have re-watched the movie a few years ago and I have found its musings about humans and technology and cyborgisation very relevant. Now that I rely on the internet on most of interpersonal contact and talk with people from far away much more than with people around me, I can sympathize with the cyborg angst much more than when I have watched it for the first time.

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

I have some strongly negative feelings about the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime. The animation is marvelous, and the underlying concept is very good. But the resolution of the plot stinks. The original series had to end in a huge anti-climax, because they basically ran out of budget. But all their attempts to make a better ending since have ended up even worse, to this humble critic's view.

I liked the End of Evangelion a lot. Too bad they have cut out some of the sick stuff from the manga.

GitS anime has two different storylines. Two movies, the original and GitS 2 Innocence, make up one. Another, different, storyline consist of GitS: Stand Alone Complex (2 seasons) and related OVA GitS:SAC: Solid State Society. Manga is its own storyline separate from animes. Right now three manga volumes are available in english:
Ghost in the Shell
GitS 2 Man-Machine Interface
GitS 1.5 Human-Error Processor

All of those are very good and are highly recommended. There are bunch of (light) novels too. No comment about their quality.