Change Your Image
KingKaid
Reviews
GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (1998)
Randy, not raunchy, and smart and funny.
GTO seems like another semi-hentai ecchi series for 14 year olds at first glance but it definitely is not. While this is definitely a man's show (women tend to not get it) it isn't dumb or overly crude. Onizuka is a great teacher. Beginning as just a pervert he evolves quite quickly into a radical who believes that the students shouldn't undergo the boredom and humiliation he did. While full of weird, sex driven scenarios, GTO doesn't turn into a porno and uses them for laughs rather than sick titilation. I can't express enough how much fun this series is. It's currently my favorite anime and I recommend it to all anime fans and especially the non-fans who think anime is just giant robots and fighting. (Did I mention there's a bit of fighting here too? But I digress.) 10/10
Rollercoaster (1977)
Just as thrilling as the real thing
Granted, people are nervous about terrorist movies now but 'Rollercoaster' is still a lot of fun. It takes itself seriously and isn't overly clever or macho. Instead its smart, tense, and gets even tenser if you stop to think that someone really could do this if they tried. Hopefully they won't.
You'll recognize Helen Hunt playing the heroes daughter. She doesn't do much but look cute but she doesn't steal any scenes like she does now because she's, well, Helen Hunt! Also noticeable is George W. Bush impersonator Timothy Bottoms as the money mad bomber referred to as "Young Man". You can read into that how you like but it's a shame that such a good actor doesn't have a much larger profile.
Also, you should get ready for the first scene. Without being gory it will definitely make you jump with both the accident and Mr. Bottoms super creepy performance.
Ôritsu uchûgun Oneamisu no tsubasa (1987)
Gets better with each watching
If you think anime films are all super babes, giant robots, super violence, and monsters in pocket then you need to see this film.
And If you don't, or don't even watch anime, you should still see this.
I was shocked by how enjoyable this movie was. The story isn't terribly original but the execution is fantastic. It's very unusual, taking the ordinary world and making it fantastic, but the eccentric design of the Honneamise world adds to the story and makes it lovely to watch. Shiro, the main character, is a great everyman who starts out as only that but grows into a true hero at the end. The music, my favorite part, is incredible and quite hum-able. I have the opening and closing themes on MP3 and I hope I'll be able to buy the whole soundtrack someday. The songs really stick in your head, but only because they're that enjoyable.
And the animation is superb. Not only does everyone move but they move well. Often, anime is criticized harshly for lacking in motion but this, in my opinion, actually makes it easier to watch. The animation in "Honneamise" is fluent and rich, but not exaggerated and distracting like the overdone "Disney's Tarzan".
This is a great film for fans of anime, animation, and science fiction and fantasy. I also think that mainstream viewers can also enjoy this, even if they don't like other anime films. It's beyond the usual cliches and stereotypes, becoming one of my favorite films of all time.
And by the way, it's great both in subtitles and dubbed in English.