Michael:
> Well, from time to time good, memerable series will
> appear.  Azumanga Daioh is one of them.  Its insanely
> funny as both a manga and an anime series.  Also, a
> lot of themes have been recycled over and over again.
> One refreshed twist on the "teenaged boy living with a
> gaggle of babes" theme is Happy Lesson.  Instead of
> trying to be his lover, the lovely ladies, who are
> also teachers, are trying to be his MOM.  Their is
> also Comic Party, a anime based on a manga about
> people creating fan comics (forgot the proper Japanese
> name for them, gomen).  Now that's unique!  Oh, and
> there is the "Emmy worthy" Kolaedo Star about a young
> girl who dreams of becoming a performer in the
> world-famous Kolaedo Circus and gets her shot to do
> just that.  Oh, and lets not forget those anime/manga
> that defy description altogether.  Lets all say it
> together folks...FLCL.

	Fan comics, you mean dojinshi?

	I'm not sure innovation is what the manga/anime world needs.
Certainly it is quite easy to be innovative but not accomplish anything
meaningful.  It's not hard being weird.  It's hard being weird and still
interesting.

> Well, when a TV series or movie based on a book or
> manga/comic book is written a lot can be lost in the
> translation.  Even when that production involves the
> original creator of the work.  Eva was a good series
> on its own.  It had a well balanced mix of lite
> hearted humor, fan service, and dark drama.  Eva is
> not for everyone, its an either you love it or you
> hate it kind of show.  Considering the amount of
> attention its been getting lately and the live action
> film production I'd say a lot of people like it.

	Eva was mostly concerned with not making sense as opposed to
anything else.  There is a story behind it, yes, but the series revolve
around what I called a 'psychotrip'.  Just lots of senseless, seemingly
thought-provoking concepts that in the end do not make any sense.  But at
least it's got pretty good animation, and the underlying story isn't
horrible either.
	 
> That might because a lot of the new anime/manga coming
> out is just rehashing a lot of those recycled themes
> and very few are pioneering into new genre.  There are

	Recycling is fine.  Innovation is not the same as quality anyway.  

> exceptions to this like Kino's Journey and Kaleido
> Star.  But then a lot of new movies coming out this
> year are really rehashed themes from movies made
> before.  A few will stand out as unique, but not that
> many.  Its not all that surprising really.  The point
> is, even stuff that is rehashed, recycled stuff, the
> way its put together and presented is what is
> important.  A romantic comedy with a theme similar to
> Ranma 1/2, Ah! My Goddess and Tenchi Muyo can still
> become a big hit even if its themes are recycled...ie,
> Please Teacher.

	Certain genres will always have sales.  But not only are the
rehashes nothing amazing, not even the original is all that great.  AMG,
Tenchi Muyo, or any romantic themed 'classic' really aren't all that better
than the cheap knockoffs you can get now.

> Recently I've seen a growing tend toward being back
> some of the old classic anime series and movies like
> Macross, Megazone 23, Captain Harlock, Saint Seiya
> (aka Knights of the Zodiac on American TV), and
> Gunsmith Cats.  Even Takahashi-san's classic Urusei
> Yatsura is starting to make a comeback of sorts.  Now
> a whole new generation of anime fans can fall in love
> with Lum.  :-)

	Saint Seiya... if there was ever an example of classic not equal to
quality, this would be it.  Saint Seiya itself is just a rehash over and
over.  Fight some enemies, hero gets knocked down, some inspiration comes
and cosmo power goes up, defeat enemy, and repeat about 10 times.  

> Other older series are being updated.  Macross Zero is
> a prequel to the original Macross series.  The
> IMMENSELY ANTICIPATED 3rd OAV of Tenchi Muyo Ryu-Ohki
> is FINALLY being released!  The Tenchi OAV spin-off
> Tenchi Muyo GXP was released in the US just this year,
> and it asks the question "how much fan service is too
> much".  Rumor abound about an Evangelion sequel, and a
> DVD is being released featuring rarely seen animation
> from a Sega Saturn Eva game about Shinji and a
> girlfriend he had in school while fighting the Angels.

	I think that's Steel Girlfriend 2, which is a what if world where
Shinji is just a normal kid going to school, which the last 2 episodes of
Eva briefly covered..

>  And finally, a brand new Ah! My Goddess TV series is
> in the works.  The details were minor, but we do know
> it will center on Belldandy and Keiichi and will
> mostly more closely follow the manga than did the OAV
> series.

	That isn't saying very much.  To quote from AMG, Belldandy and
Keiichi's relationship is about the same level as grade school, and it
really hasn't changed any.

	The only thing I'm looking forward to is the inevitable spinoff
Anime based on Fate/Stay Night (after all, Tsukihime did, and F/SN is quite
a bit more popular than Tsukihime).  I hope they won't butcher Ilya's
character, though.  She's so adorably evil... but knowing the way Anime
works, she'll probably be just merely adorable, as opposed to being a girl
that just drives you absolutely crazy, that despite being the paragon of
cuteness, she's the first person you want to kill in this game because she's
so incredibly cruel (i.e. she chops off main character's limbs so he'd stay
still and she can help him commit seppuku, because she read that's how a
Japanese is supposed to die honorably) and innocent at the same time.

Don
"If I didn't like you, touching my hair alone warrants death."
Ilya, Fate Stay Night

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