Issues with your account? Bug us in the Discord!

FAO: Fans of Anime

Ok, this is quite a long story, but I'll try to cut it short.

When I was a kid, around 7 or 8, I saw an animated movie on TV. A number of things about it caught my attention, the animation was "different", and the storyline was absolutely mind-blowing.

It centred around the discovery of a floating island in the sky and involved a couple of kids on the run, with the army involved. A number of scenes from it, have stuck with me for years in my memory, especiallly, the island breaking up and the soldiers trying to escape by boarding thier sky-ship which itself was just leaving. (The scene of some of them falling into the abyss along with the boarding ramps as the ship pulled away was quite horrifying at that age.)

Anyway, since getting Broadband, I've been downloading movies like no-one's business, especially Mystery Science Theatre 3000 features! Anyway, two days ago, I thought; " I wonder if I can find that film I saw when I was a kid?" I went of Yahoo, searched for "Island in the Sky", a guess, and came up with a film called; "Laputa: Castle in the Sky. I found it on Kazaa, and downloaded it overnight. It was exactly the film I remember seeing all those years ago.

It'd never struck me that the film was Anime, but it all came together when I watched it yesterday, and being able to apreciate it more fully now, parts of the film's conceptualization blew me away.

Anyway, I noticed several thing's about the film's title sequence, which has a fantastic and very emotive score. What struck me is that a few scenes, and indeed the whole layout of the intro was VERY simillar to the animated title sequence of Tony Richardson's 1968 film "The Charge of the Light Brigade", the first ever war film to have animated sequences.

I feel strong enough about this, to take it to an Anime message board, and I was wondering if anyone here could point me in the direction of a good one.

Here are some comparative screen-grabs to show you what I'm on about.

Regards,
Morden

Comments

  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Heh. I figured out what movie you were talking about after the first 11 words. :)
    Laputa is one of Miyazaki's best films, in my opinion. I have it on DVD, twice. His best one is definitely Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
  • I've ordered Laputa on DVD myself from Amazon, apparently it's about to be released over here on R2. :)

    Biggles, can you recommend a good forum to take my observations to?

    Regards,
    Morden
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    I don't visit any myself. The only ones that comes to mind would be the forums at [url=www.megatokyo.com]MegaTokyo[/url] or the ones at [url=www.animeondvd.com]AnimeOnDVD[/url].
  • Cheers mate, I'll give them a look-in. :)

    Here's a screenie from the film itself for anyone else who's interested.

    Regards,
    Morden
  • MessiahMessiah Failed Experiment
    Wouldnt Fans of Anime be FOA instead of FAO?
  • [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Messiah [/i]
    [B]Wouldnt Fans of Anime be FOA instead of FAO? [/B][/QUOTE]

    Heh heh, I did mean is as FAO: Fans of Anime (For Attention Of: Fans of Anime) ;)

    Regards,
    Morden
  • MessiahMessiah Failed Experiment
    Ah, it all makes sence now. :)
  • Anyone else have any suggestions for Anime Forums? :)

    Regards,
    Morden
  • MessiahMessiah Failed Experiment
    Yes, they should be like this forum, friendly.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Unfortunately, most forums on the net are too big to be like here.
  • True, Anime is far more mainstream than B5.

    I'll have a look around.

    Regards,
    Morden
Sign In or Register to comment.