In the Once and Future King, Merlin lives backwards, and actually mentions things that happen in the future, so it's not so outlandish....
Ruroni Kenshin. It not really magic, it much more or as I imagine it much more a person telling old stories and conidering the truth at how a fight happened, optional. It pretty well fits your description. Trick isn't the no demon or magic thing but the action and no demon or magic thing. 90% of action based animes are going to use one of your deal breakers.
Well it worked in logically, but destroyed the mood. Even at the time, while I was laughing at the joke, I felt cheated and taken out of the story.
@jannert and others on disney, ever watched watership down? Now THAT'S a cartoon! Also, ever watched secret of NIMH? Easily the best cartoon I ever watched (not talking anime here, talking cartoon specifically), 1. Story was brilliant, 2. No singing, 3. ACTUALLY endearing characters (as opposed to most of Disney's cartoons and animations that have me thinking of them as merely generic MC and generic side characters), 4. No singing, 5. Villains and some side characters were boldly presented as horrific, 6. No singing
Not sure if you're pulling my leg or not but yes, they sure did. A few that spring to mind that became popular were When You Wish Upon A Star and Hi Diddle Dee Dee (An Actor's Life for Me) from Pinocchio. And the excruciatingly soprano screeching of Some Day My Prince Will Come, from Snow White. (Which we used to parody, waiting for our photographs to arrive from the developing studios via the post ...god I'm really showing my age now!)
I honestly couldn't remember, but that just makes me think Disney movies have always been a shade of silly. As each generation gets a little dumber, so do disneys films.
I don't think they were so much 'silly' as they were made for entertaining kids—although Pinocchio scared the crap out of me, and that witch in Snow White was also terrifying. And Bambi made everybody cry, and some people STILL claim to be traumatised by (spoiler) the death of Bambi's mother! I think it went wrong when Disney started deliberately angling to entertain adults, with jokes that older people would get and little kids wouldn't (like the Hawaiian shirt.) And then Disney began to treat the stories with less respect. (The Jungle Book.) As a lover of fairy tales as a child (and I still do!) I was more than satisfied with the earlier films and not so much with the later ones. And I still love to watch the earlier ones (with the possible exception of the screeching soprano!) and don't like the later ones so much. It's not because I grew up. It's because the films actually changed.
But the pity is, kids these days can't sit through the fairy tales we loved so much because they're used to those wise-cracking jokes. I remember trying to show Peter Pan to some 7-year-olds and they got SO BORED. I felt so sad when I saw that The Japanese, on the other hand - they know how to slow right down. You're right, they respect the stories they're trying to tell. So often they just draw the whole story to a standstill with scenary and music and just a character staring into the sun, and you're supposed to use that moment to really ponder. Soak up the atmosphere and feel what the film has to offer, feel with the characters, and think. And this happens right there in anime - sometimes even in films for little children. It certain happens all over the place in Studio Ghibli's films. And that's why I hate the English dubs. They turn all their voices to these squeaky high-pitched things that grate on your ears, and they bloody add dialogue into the silences. The silences that gives the film that majesty and reverence and gives it that depth - they add dialogue and explain self-explanatory things as though children are too stupid to get it, and completely ruin it. I never watch dubs for that reason. There are good dubs out there, but I just don't trust them lol. Even in the manga All You Need is Kill - that's originally a Japanese light novel that was adapted to the latest Tom Cruise film, Edge of Tomorrow. I watched the film and read the manga and my word, the Japanese's had depth. The film sucked. For a start, the manga focused on the effects of dying and going back in time, just to die again and watch everyone die. It focused on the loneliness, the hauntedness, how it changes you. The MC saw it as a curse. The film? It was a good thing they wish they could keep forever in order to win the war. BAM right there, the humanity of the characters was completely lost. And in the manga, there was this moment when the characters were just staring out into the sea, and the girl Rita sighs and says, "I love the blue of the sky." So the MC asks why she painted her armour red. And she never answers. Then at the end, at a crucial moment, Rita looks at the sunset sky and says, "I hate red." It doesn't sound so profound written out like this - but along with the build up and graphics, it was excellent. When you read her responses, you stopped. You stopped and you realise there's something behind this, but it's up to you the reader to work it out. Anyway btw, I heard somewhere that Studio Ghibli might be closing down not sure if it's true?
Well I hope not, but if they do they can go out with heads held high. Some of their films are better than others, but they've not made any bad ones, or done anything to be ashamed of. What a great studio.
Since my hubs watches anime every now and then, I can't help but wonder how he can deal with the squeaks and shrills of the Japanese voice actresses in so many of those series. I think he's sometimes watched English dubs just because it sounds like the actresses' voices have actually been modified to sound extra high-pitched. Maybe in kids' shows the Eng dubs have squeakers, and in adult shows the original Japanese actresses are squeakers...
Best Cartoon Series is Avatar the Last Airbender, that shit was gold. In regards to actresses, I think some are used compared to the personalities, take SnK: Annie and Mikasa's actresses had really deep-ish voices meanwhile those used as comic relief etc; tend to have high voices and are generally not the ones you take seriously. Like Shin Sekai Yori, it's about a group of teenagers but even then this is seen through the MC having a more mature voice than the others, not just when she narrarates, but also when she speaks in the show as well. Same goes for C.C and Shirley in Code Geass. There are some characters who I think the writers always want people to listen to more, and as such they make their voice something which attracts the viewer. This is even with guys Lelouch vs Tamaki for example or Rivalz Light and N vs the Detectives. Tonality tends to highlight the importance of the character to the over-arching plot/themes of the story.
Lol yeah that can often be true. What I dislike is the soft-spoken breathlessness in a lot of the girls' voices. Esp ones who are supposed to be seen as very attractive and feminine, and who very often become the key love interest.
