By the animated man on
January 27th, 2009
What’s the cut-off date for 2008 Top Ten Lists? It’s nearly February so it’s about time I posted my list. I actually have three lists: top picks; biggest disappointments; and top shows/movies I still need to see.
| Top Picks of 2008 |
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| It was a pretty good year for animated media. A nice mix of classic superhero stuff, familiar sci-fi fare, and atypical anime films. DC Comics released Justice League New Frontier based on the classic comic book storyline. Having never read the original material, I could watch the direct-to-DVD release with no reservations. DC’s second release of the year was Batman: Gotham Knight, a prequel to The Dark Knight movie and anthology piece crafted by American script writers and Japanese animation studios. It’s Batman anime style which didn’t seem to work for some die-hard purists. Oh well, their lost. I mentioned in the Star War: The Clone Wars movie review that the television series is far superior. It continues to be an entertaining watch. And as a child of the 80s growing up with shows like Voltron, Media Blasters released the uncut original version (Beast King GoLion) on DVD. Wow, talk about the Director’s Cut! |
| Biggest Disappointments |
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| My personal list of the biggest disappointments begins with the continuing decline of the anime market in U.S. Frankly, it has been happening for the last few years with distribution companies like Geneon and Bandai Visual going away; layoffs at other U.S. distributors; Cartoon Network no longer backing the medium; and internet bootlegging. The anime market in Japan is strong so there is no shortage content. So perhaps the future of anime in the U.S. won’t be niche to mainstream acceptance. It will probably be joint U.S. / Japanese collaborations; a few live-action adaptions; and the occasional kid-friendly hit. Moving onto anime series I should be enjoying, I watched a few episodes of Gurren Lagann, studio Gainax’s giant robot show. Something about the show just didn’t click for me. Transformers Animated similarly didn’t work for me but of course I’m not the target audience. Terrible character designs, ugh. And I’m definitely not the target demo for the new Spectacular Spider-Man series. It’s probably a good show but it seems like a lot of recent superhero television shows have had their stars revert back to their childhood years. I guess it makes sense but would someone please explain a “young” Tony Stark strapping on the armor in the upcoming Iron Man Adventures. Odd. |
| Top Picks I Haven’t Seen Yet |
- 01 Avator: The Last Airbender
- 02 Moribito
- 03 Wall-E
- 04 Mobile Suit Gundam 00
- 05 Moonlight Mile
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- 06 Freedom
- 07 Code Geass
- 08 Batman The Brave and the Bold
- 09 Darker Than Black
- 10 Claymore
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| These are the series and movies that slipped through the cracks during the year. I don’t know if I’ll enjoy all of them but word of mouth; a positive magazine review; or a really great trailer has at least peaked my interest. The “I’ve heard about this for years” award goes to Nickelodeon’s The Last Airbender. With the shows Eastern influences, positive word of mouth and a live action movie on the way, it’s time for me to jump on the bandwagon especially with the final episodes dropping on DVD. The love-hate feedback over the year for Wall-E has been interesting to follow. Moribito, the tale of a wandering female warrior who is atoning for past sins, looked promising. Another female warrior is featured in the dark fantasy manga epic turned anime, Claymore. Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira and Steamboy) served as character designer on Sunrise’s seven part anime series Freedom. The Bandai Visual distributed DVDs for the series are very expensive so I’m hoping Netflix will get the remaining volumes. I’ve been critical of the character designs of the last few Mobile Suit Gundam series. I prefer the classic, more realistic designs of the Universal series, but if Gundam 00’s story is compelling, I’ll watch it. And speaking of unique character designs, the new Batman series has embraced a retro comic book appearance. |
Categories: editorial
Tags: 2008, lists, top ten list
Jan 28th, 2009 at 1:53 am
“The love-hate feedback over the year for Wall-E has been interesting to follow.”
Ignore the hate and see it. When LA, Boston, the Online Film Critics, Rotten Tomatoes, and many others have declared it the best of the year (and it is not only the best reviewed but the highest on Top 10 lists) one can definitely say that those showing any hate to this wonderful film are morons.
Jan 28th, 2009 at 5:03 am
[...] Here is the original: 2008 Top Ten Lists [...]