The Gaming Den

My sister's birthday was a few days ago. She said she wanted one thing: An awesome t-shirt.

After going through the mall, I found this.

It was awesome enough to suit her needs.

I don't usually watch award shows, but I caught a snippet from the MTV Movie Awards and laughed so hard that I ended up recording the encore showing and watching it.

Tom Cruise was hilarious.

I have never seen this show before, but I am really digging America's Got Talent lately.

Pokemon...the legendaries are a pain to catch, but it's a moment of elation when you do.

I just caught Lugia for my sister. I came up with the strategy for it, and we both took time over the past few days before I just got it to work.

Edit: And she just caught Raikou.

Maj wrote:Tom Cruise was hilarious.

Yeah, damn him, he's still got talent.

-Crissa

I think the line
"Hey, no cell phones during a super hero team up." is probably one of spiderman's best witty quips.

Crissa wrote:

Maj wrote:Tom Cruise was hilarious.

Yeah, damn him, he's still got talent.

Word.

Every time I want to relegate him to the loony bin and ignore him, he goes off and does something awesome and I keep watching. Bastard.

I know. His new movie looks terribly watchable, too.

-Crissa

I just watched through Avatar (the animated series). Wow. Great show.

Fullmetal Alchemist's final chapter. I am very pleased with the tidy ending.

The Lunatic Fringe wrote:I just watched through Avatar (the animated series). Wow. Great show.

Absolutely.

Edit: Also Book 4: Air

-Username17

People should know better than to wind up Zutara shippers. They're crazy. Much like all shippers, but Zutara shippers have also had their cages rattled by the actual creators of the show, so they're crazier than most.

Alt:Also, if you read his speech at Rice, all his arguments for going to the moon work equally well as arguments for blowing up the moon, sending cloned dinosaurs into space, or constructing a towering penis-shaped obelisk on Mars.

that was just kind of awesome... having gone to a public school, I never actually encountered any of Kennedy's speeches, so I missed all of that completely...

So, does anyone know of something else that is similar to and as good as Avatar? I tried to watch fullmetal alchemist, but it was sort of disappointing in comparison.

No.

-Crissa

The Lunatic Fringe wrote:So, does anyone know of something else that is similar to and as good as Avatar? I tried to watch fullmetal alchemist, but it was sort of disappointing in comparison.

Frank wasn't kidding, Avatar is fucking boss (I hate the ending, though). There are very few shows that can compete with it at all let alone while being similar to it.

I could probably recommend something, but I'd like to know what you mean by similar. Epic quest? Family-friendly? Good action? World-building? Pick some qualities and I'll drop a few names for you.

edit: FMA does get much better as the show goes on. The first few episodes are basically jokes. On the viewer.

The LF: I assume that you're talking about some kind of animation?

If you want a really good action-adventure series that focuses mostly on deconstructing a limited array of superpowers in a variety of wild and wacky environments where the protagonists slowly realize their place in the world and steadily grow in importance, I recommend One Piece. However, a lot of people find the animation style really, really difficult to stomach. And honestly the series kind of sucks until the Baratie arc (which is like episode 20) and doesn't get good until episode 30 about, which is the Arlong Park arc. Personally, I recommend reading the manga up until Arlong Park and then switching over to the anime.

If you want a series with superpowered teens that have an interesting working dynamic and the series gets a lot of its fun from their character interactions, watch Teen Titans. The first season is actually kind of poo and the fifth isn't all that great either (though both have their moments) but there's not the slogfest that you have to get through to enjoy the series unlike One Piece.

Transformers: Beast Wars is generally considered the best of the lot. I'm not a transformers fan, but a lot of my friends swear by that series. It's not really traditional animation, though, so that might not float your boat. By the same token, a lot of people swear by Reboot.

Justice League is extremely good, especially seasons 2 and 3 (where it becomes Unlimited). The metaplot, such that it is, tends to come and go and doesn't really have an affect on what the characters are experience or doing right now except for some select episodes. Thus if you have some background knowledge of the superheroes you can pick up pretty much any episode and enjoy it.

Batman Beyond is in my opinion the best of the various DCAU shows, though, even better than Justice League. It's well-written and has the feel of a dark and edgy place without being juvenile or nihilistic. Actually, ALL of the Batman animated series are worth watching ('The Batman' season one really sucks though) to be honest, especially the 3rd and 4th series of Batman: The Animated series. I haven't seen Batman: The Brave and the Bold, though, but I haven't heard anything bad about it either.

JoJo's Bizarre adventure (Part 3, Stardust Crusaders) is really good for a sub 20-episode series. The manga honestly is much better on three counts: the mangaka's penchant and love for travel (de-emphasized in the anime but shown in the actual series), the fact that the animation leaves out some of the fights that wouldn't lend themselves well to action, which is a shame because the cerebral fights are some of the better ones in the series), and the humor. Seriously, JJBA Part 3 is one of the funniest things I've read in my life. Now while the series still works and works well when it's treated in a mostly serious fashion you are missing out on a lot if you just watch the anime. But if you really don't feel like reading the manga it's still a solid choice.

Legend of Galactic Heroes is a very good 'war' anime if you can handle the mild demonization of democracy the series does early and in its middle. There isn't much of an emphasis on personal heroics however other than 'wow, this guy came up with a really good plan'. But it's still really gripping all of the same and is an awesome example of what 80's anime could do.

If you're looking for a good dose of 80's anime ultraviolence without any real implications watch the Fist of the North Star movie. The actual series honestly pretty much sucks (read the manga instead) because of padding, lack of credible opponents, and filler. The distilled series from the late 00's (I forget the year) is more watchable and the series Fist of the Blue Sky is probably the best of the lot if you liked how the fights were done in FotNS. However, Fist of the Blue Sky is pretty much a totally different series other than the character designs and fighting style.

I haven't seen the Hunter x Hunter anime yet, but the manga is really good. Or rather, it was good until the mangaka got plagued by a RL health affliction that slowed his output to a crawl and frequently puts him out of business. It's pretty damn tragic; same thing happened to Buronson (guy who drew FotNS and draws FotBS).

Looking to watch some action-adventure Disney cartoons, though? You're in luck, my friend. You actually have a really good selection to pick from. In roughly descending order of quality (until you can get to the point where you're better off watching something else) you have Kim Possible, Aladdin, Darkwing Duck, Tale Spin, DuckTales, and Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers.

The 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is also really good if you go into it realizing that the tone is not going to be at all like the 1987 version and that it's a 2003 show that has a really '90's' mentality. The show gets fairly weird as time goes on, like the 1987 version, but it's still pretty good.


If you don't like Full-Metal Alchemist, though, I really can't help you; you may not like the above two, either. That... is really one of the better series. The second animation series and the manga is a notch better than the first animation series, though. See, the first animation series jumped the gun and caught up to the manga when the latter was only halfway over, so instead of inserting a lot of filler (a move which caused Naruto to lose half of its viewership and nearly killed Kenshin completely) or just waiting to catch up (unwise, since it took nearly 6 years after that point for the manga to get finished), they diverged from the initial storyline after a certain point.

The second series, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood sticks much closer to the manga but was produced on the assumption that you watched the first series so speeds up the pace of the anime until the point where the first one diverged.

Do not watch the Berserk anime. It is a travesty. Read the manga.

Sonic the Hedgehog (the one with the darker animation made in 1994) was a really good series for its time, but it really hasn't aged well. A show that was subtle about its environmentalist themes (like the Nostalgia Critic pointed out) and didn't treat its viewers as morons was pure gold at the time. But since we've had a bevy of better cartoons since then it makes more of its bad aspects really stand out. They're not 'how the fuck could they be so stupid' choices (except for Antoine, worst comic relief until Snails and Jarjar) but they're choices that really date the series. You'll see what I mean if you pick it up.

I wish I could recommend Naruto or Bleach to you, but those shows actually have a pretty limited band of episodes that are good. I mean, when they're good they're good, but those series are subject to the worst excesses of shounen anime such as filler hell, excessive flashbacks, grinding the pace of combat down, etc.



But yeah, pretty much nothing stacks up to Avatar in terms of all-around quality for an action-adventure series. FEEL PRIVILEGED TO HAVE WATCHED SUCH A SHOW, MY FRIEND.

My ultimate recommendation though if you want to see an animated action-adventure series that's good and is good right away is to see Batman Beyond or Justice League. If you want something that will entertain you for the next several months at the cost of making the first couple of days painful then read the first nine volumes of One Piece (up until around chapter 30) and then switch over to the anime. If you want something that's about in-between then watch Teen Titans or Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

And then M night shyamalan comes up and ruins one of the fundamental principles of Avatar by Whitefacing it.

Are we doing anime recommendations again? With an action sub genre?

And you didn't mention
Venture Brothers

Or Air Master? (and talking about slow starts, this is NOT a fighting anime that fannies about like one piece or dragon ball, its short, fast and action packed, even Fight 1 Episode 1 against boring thugs is immediately interrupted by... Lucha Master Attack!

And you are all into the anime and the one piece and such and don't mention Ranma. The west generally neglects it but when you are talking the top three most popular/famous etc... anime of all time it is up there along side one piece and dragon ball (which hardly recommends it mind you, but you know...) and is only eclipsed in more modern times because it finished many years ago. Oh but only ever watch the English Dubbed version. It's one of the best and most hilarious dubs out there.

Now if you want to watch actual Shonen crap, which is a risky "I demand my time back" endeavor. I suggest Law of Ueki because a crazy talentless guy who defeats his enemies with "the ability to turn garbage into trees" is far more fun than the adventures of rubber boy pirate in ugly nose land (and has slightly less dragon-ball-esque wanky slow pacing).

Or History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi because dull as it is it has a slight sense of humor about what it is doing, and a whole lot of boobs. And again slightly less wangsty slow pacing.

edit: Oh yeah and while I mildly agree with Lago's recommendations I disagree with Full Metal Alchemist. It seemed fun first time round but trying to watch it again, even the limited "again" of watching the remake/new series? You quickly realize it is rather dismal and uninteresting. And don't even TRY and make sense of the stupid ass movie.

Oh and I disagree with him about the Berserk anime, It's somewhere in one of these threads somewhere. It is so incredibly bad it can be hilarious. I mean the whole thing where it layers on flash backs so thick that at one point you are seeing flash backs during a multi episode arch that is itself a flashback, within an entire series that is also a flash back? Comedy gold. Watch the english dub "out takes" too.

Such is what happens to franchises who find themselves under Nickelodeon.

-Crissa

I didn't mention Venture Bros. because I think that show is a parody of the Western action-adventure genre rather than a show that's about action-adventure genre in of itself.


Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention about One Piece.

While normally I don't care either way about how dubbing vs. subbing goes, I will make an exception for the 4Kidz dub of that show.

Not because the dub-job is bad (though there are some terrible voices like Sanji's) but because the cut-and-pasting on that show is ridiculously bad. Before we even get into the massive censorship issues (like real guns being replaced with squirt guns), their dubjob cuts out around a 1/3rd of the show's content. Seriously. They also replaced a lot of the show's music; by watching the 4Kidz dub you will never have learned that One Piece replaces their opening tune about every 30 episodes.

One Piece currently sells barely fewer manga copies than its next four competitors combined in Japan. Their latest volume sold close to 7 million copies after about a month. To put it into perspective, 4Kidz fucked that show up so badly that they completely managed to bury the franchise in the U.S., probably for good. Naruto, which barely sells a fourth as well as One Piece and Bleach which doesn't sell a seventh, is pretty much a license to print money in the U.S.

Kubo Tite was probably involved somehow.

Other than that, all of the anime I recommended you can pretty much enjoy either the dub or the sub.



Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention. Outlaw Star. If you're in the mood for some fantasy-ish Space Opera (most of the supernatural jazz is done by the antagonists) that show has your back. I recommend watching it subtitled because, you know, some of the censorship is pretty bad. Nowhere near as bad as the censorship in One Piece, but One Piece has noticably worse cut-and-pasting than Super Dimension Macross Fortress, a show in which Macek casually pasted footage from another series into it.

If you must see a fighting shonen series, though, watch Yu Yu Hakusho. It gets stupid near the last batch of episodes, but overall it's pretty good for most of the series. They were able to end that one before some of the worst excesses of fighting shonen started to creep into the series, but it's still noticeable. That's one series where I recommend watching the dub instead of the sub, because Yusuke has a lot of funny dialogue.

If you're looking for a good parody of action-adventure shounen I recommend Yakitake!! Japan. It's extremely sly about making fun of the worst aspects of it like the hero who is never really challenged by their opponents and training arcs.

If you can put up with Saturday Morning Cartoon syndrome, Bucky O' Hare is a watchable series. By SMCS, I mean the tendency of Western cartoons produced during the 80's and 90's to suddenly kill off potential drama by moralizing, being too pretentious, or by the insertion of inappropriate comedy. You ever watch Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue? Well, that.

I know that Yu-Gi-Oh! has been mercilessly pilloried on the Internet thanks to the Abridged series, but if you can put up with the silly Card Game YGO! 5D's is really good. It's actually a really good story with great characters that's unfortunately dragged down because of the blatant product placement aspects. Fortunately I like the YGO video game so I don't mind it too much, but it might be too much for you to handle--especially the tournament arc near the end of the first season. Again, watch the sub instead of the dub, our old friend 4Kidz got their hands on this one, too.

PL: While I am a fan of 'So Bad It's Good', I have a much lower tolerance of So Bad It's Good adaptations of existing works. It's disrespectful to the fans and creator of the original series. That's why I think that Voyager is amusing and Berserk is a piece of shit, despite both being equally comical.

I watched Outlaw Star on cartoon network like 8 years ago. What was the censorship?

What's even worse, is that they had two dubs going for awhile (one with the 4kids intro, one without that aired on Cartoon Network) then they replaced all the voices after about thirty episodes and ugh.

Dude, I can take the squirt guns and smoking-mouth guy, great, but at least make a dub that doesn't skip episodes. Damn it.

They did the same to Cardcaptor, too. And Tokyo Mew Mew. I don't get it. They spend all this money ruining a property, then they go an do it again!

Has there ever been a cartoon that was mashed up and made it past the first season in the US?

-Crissa

Cynic wrote:I watched Outlaw Star on cartoon network like 8 years ago. What was the censorship?

Language choices, prostitution, some of the partial nudity (which ended up killing one of the episodes), terrorism references, drug use, and a good deal of violence like when Harry MacDougal tears off his own arm.