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Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"
This is a general thread for sci-fi anime. It is a place to share your favorites in the genre, ask for recommendations, share silly clips, make dumb jokes, dredge up fanart/cosplay, and shitpost. There are but 2 rules:

1) Be Excellent to Each Other
2) Party On, Dudes!!!

There is a poo poo ton of sci-fi anime, but my favorites will always be Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star. Most people know Cowboy Bebop. It's the big dawg in the yard. Most people don't know or remember Outlaw Star. Outlaw Star loving rules.



Outlaw Star's one sentence summary: A couple of idiots stumble upon a hyper-advanced "grappler ship" and gather a motley crew on a quest to uncover the mystery of the Galactic Leyline all while having to escape angry catpeople, sorcerer pirates, unhinged scientists, mind-controlling aliens, and deadly assassins.

Reasons why I love outlaw star:

A gun that shoots magical bullets!!!





Ships that punch each other!!!







Ctarl-Ctarl: AKA Klingons if Klingons were catpeople who were slightly stupider and also could shapeshift into werebeasts for some reason





There's just so much ridiculous poo poo jam-packed into the universe, and I wish there were more than two seasons. There is a "sequel" series in the same universe called Angel Links, but it wasn't for me.

So...what sci-fi anime has stood out to you?

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Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


Bogus Adventure posted:

So...what sci-fi anime has stood out to you?

Planetes above all others.

Some anime are about heroes, towering characters who punch evil in the balls. Some are about outlaws, righting wrongs while down on their luck and fighting for a chance.

Planetes is about astronaut-janitors. They came to space with a dream to explore and push boundaries and be the first and greatest, and it turns out that somebody needs to clean up the poo poo made by the first and greatest. Sure, somebody's out there doing crazy poo poo, but what about the schmucks at the bottom of the corporate ladder trading their dream in for a lovely paycheck?

There's an entire episode about life insurance.

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"
Planetes is one of those series that has been on my radar for a while, but I've never sat down and watched it because I like crazy, over-the-top concepts for sci-fi. I need to change that, though.

I'm going to write down once series that I love the concepts for, but hate the execution. That show is Knights of Sidonia:



This is a show with massive superships, bizarre gigantic tentacle aliens, space mecha armed with special lances, dogfights versus mecha and aliens, and humans that are genetically engineered for space travel (including photosynthesis, cloning, and other bizarre stuff).







Unfortunately, all of those out-there concepts are used as a backdrop for a run-of-the-mill harem anime story. It's about 10% high concept, 90% harem anime tropes. I can't stand harem anime, so I stopped watching it.

Action Jacktion
Jun 3, 2003

Bogus Adventure posted:

Unfortunately, all of those out-there concepts are used as a backdrop for a run-of-the-mill harem anime story. It's about 10% high concept, 90% harem anime tropes. I can't stand harem anime, so I stopped watching it.

Oh yeah, the protagonist is seen as a backward freak but still he's popular with the ladies. The genderless character turns female for him and even the tentacle monster wants him.

The anime doesn't adapt the whole manga so it just ends without a resolution, though supposedly a movie is coming out.

Vakal
May 11, 2008
I'm not sure if it is technically anime, but did anyone else watch the Red Planet mini-series that used to air on Fox Kids back in the 90's?



Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


KOS gets some credit for Genuinely Unsettling Monsters. It's a very saturated marketplace and they did a credible job in it. Still, got bored.

w/r/t Planetes, if you need "big" stuff to engage with, it's probably not a great watch. There are "big" things going on - neocolonialism, grand projects that require huge institutions, the general vastness of space - but they're all part of very personal stories.

Vakal posted:

I'm not sure if it is technically anime, but did anyone else watch the Red Planet mini-series that used to air on Fox Kids back in the 90's?





Yep, but I can't remember it for poo poo. How'd they do at making kid-friendly Heinlein?

Sanguinia
Jan 1, 2012

~Everybody wants to be a cat~
~Because a cat's the only cat~
~Who knows where its at~

A World of Endless Blue...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPbFGW1qO7E



Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"
Another ridiculous sci-fi anime that I've enjoyed is Terra Formars.



I like it because it has the child-like imagination of looking at different bugs and extrapolating their powers to human-level equivalents. Oh, this species of ant can make itself explode? Let's graft that ability to a person and make it so that their fists cause enemies to explode instead! It's a hyper-weird, ultra-gory, over-the-top show that thumbs its nose on a lot of anime tropes IMHO. Basically, Earth tried to terraform Mars using cockroaches, but the cockroaches mutated into a human-like cockroach version called Terraformars. The Terraformars have decided to treat humans the same way as we treat cockroaches: *squish.* To fight the Terraformars, scientists have given people the powers of different arthropods, so every episode will break into a tiny science lesson telling you about how the bombardier beetle can spray hot acid, and then show a human spitting fire at a bunch of mooks. These special humans have been shipped off to Mars with the hopes that they will be bad enough dudes to save the planet from the bugfolk.

The artistic design of the Terraformars is not without criticism, since uh...they look like this:



I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I don't know if I can. I also understand if you can't.

I like this anime because it's one of the few that has a Mexican character (albeit a very pale and very blond Mexican with a German middle name), and he doesn't die! Marcos E. Garcia is my boy!

Here are some :nws: gifs of him owning bad dudes!

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O8sPPQjjViQ/VJs32pRhmMI/AAAAAAAAWm4/R9y1Ji5DU0s/s1600/Terra%2BFormars%2B6.gif

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PassionateUnfinishedAlpineroadguidetigerbeetle-size_restricted.gif

It also has a manga, as well as a live-action movie that I had the pleasure of watching. The movie is hilariously awful, and I loving loved every second of it.

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"

Vakal posted:

I'm not sure if it is technically anime, but did anyone else watch the Red Planet mini-series that used to air on Fox Kids back in the 90's?





I remember seeing this, but I don't think I ever got a chance to watch it. Was it any good?

Lemniscate Blue
Apr 21, 2006

Here we go again.

Bogus Adventure posted:

I remember seeing this, but I don't think I ever got a chance to watch it. Was it any good?

I remember enjoying it. I had read this and a bunch of other Heinlein juveniles by this point so I was stoked to see an adaptation I could watch even if I was a little old for its target audience. Heinlein for all his numerous faults could spin a good adventure yarn, so the bones of the story are good and I don't recall anything they did worse than okay on in the miniseries.

I haven't watched it since it originally aired so all of this may be nonsense and kids' media tends not to hold up.

I found it on Youtube though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMeZjmQbj-0

EDIT: It's got Mark Hamill!

EDIT 2: It's 90s as all hell, but I'm enjoying it.

Lemniscate Blue fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Jul 5, 2020

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"

Lemniscate Blue posted:

I remember enjoying it. I had read this and a bunch of other Heinlein juveniles by this point so I was stoked to see an adaptation I could watch even if I was a little old for its target audience. Heinlein for all his numerous faults could spin a good adventure yarn, so the bones of the story are good and I don't recall anything they did worse than okay on in the miniseries.

I haven't watched it since it originally aired so all of this may be nonsense and kids' media tends not to hold up.

I found it on Youtube though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMeZjmQbj-0

EDIT: It's got Mark Hamill!

EDIT 2: It's 90s as all hell, but I'm enjoying it.

:hellyeah:

Thanks for the link! I will have to check this out!

Punished Chuck
Dec 27, 2010

Cowboy Bebop is the best animated show, the best sci-fi show, and potentially the best show period

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

Chuck Buried Treasure posted:

Cowboy Bebop is the best animated show, the best sci-fi show, and potentially the best show period

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"
100% agreed, but everybody knows or should know Cowboy Bebop. Not everyone knows about...

Blue Gender



Blue Gender is another weird-rear end sci-fi show. I haven't watched the whole thing because I originally started watching it back on Adult Swim/Toonami a billion years ago, forgot about it, and have it on the backburner of my to-watch list. It feels a lot like Starship Troopers if the bugs fought on Earth and humans used Mecha.







Why do I mention Adult Swim/Toonami? Because it had the best line to describe anime aliens: "Why do all alien mouths look like an angry woman's crotch?"



Lmao

Edgar Allen Ho
Apr 3, 2017

by sebmojo
DBZ doesn't really count as sci fi but the wacky tech and aliens are my favourite thing about it.

Like lmfao the saiyans invented pocket moons

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

Blue Submarine no. 6 was weird and cool.

Way back in the day, I think before toonami was a thing, Sci fi channel used to just play all kinds of anime movies on saturday afternoons.

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"

Error 404 posted:

Blue Submarine no. 6 was weird and cool.

Way back in the day, I think before toonami was a thing, Sci fi channel used to just play all kinds of anime movies on saturday afternoons.

My man

:cool::respek::cool:

The Sci-Fi channel is how I found out about Vampire Hunter D, Project A-ko, Dominion Tank Police, and Gall Force.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

Bogus Adventure posted:

My man

:cool::respek::cool:

The Sci-Fi channel is how I found out about Vampire Hunter D, Project A-ko, Dominion Tank Police, and Gall Force.

...and galaxy express 99, some weird post apocalyptic thing where some girl fights a monster named Zeiram that I keep forgetting to look up...

That was good times.

Action Jacktion
Jun 3, 2003


Back when Sci-Fi was good.

Error 404 posted:

some weird post apocalyptic thing where some girl fights a monster named Zeiram that I keep forgetting to look up...

Probably Iria, which is actually a prequel to a live-action movie.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

Action Jacktion posted:



Back when Sci-Fi was good.


Probably Iria, which is actually a prequel to a live-action movie.

I kinda want to rewatch it because 12 year old me had no loving idea what the gently caress was happening but loved every second of it. But then again it probably wont be as awesome as an adult.

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"

Action Jacktion posted:



Back when Sci-Fi was good.

I remember getting up at 6AM on Saturdays to watch the different movies that Sci-Fi would play. It loving ruled, along with showing MST3K and a bunch of cheesy '80s sci-fi shows like Galactica 1985 and V. Man Syfy sucks so hard right now.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT
Yeah and after the anime they would rerun blocks of original series star trek. Saturdays used to be cool.

The Moon Monster
Dec 30, 2005

I just watched Outlaw Star as part of my "watch Toonami shows that I only caught 2 episodes of but thought looked neat" lockdown steaming binge. I think my favorite thing was the art, there's a lot of cool mysterious space-y stuff, the Outlaw Star itself looks awesome, and it just has that great "pre-computer animated space anime" aesthetic all around. On the other hand, apart from a few standouts like the space race episode the plot pretty much just spun its wheels between the starting and ending arcs, and the ending arc felt pretty rushed. The samurai assassin lady also barely exists despite ostensibly being one of the 5 main characters.

Have there been any decent western scifi animation lately? I know there's stuff like Stephen Universe, Adventure Time, Marvel/DC shows that have scifi elements but I wouldn't really call them scifi shows.

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"
I agree that Outlaw Star rushed the gently caress out of the ending, but I enjoyed the entire ride. I can see where you and others might feel that it treads water with the pace, though. Still, I liked the mediocre ice cream episode even if it doesn't advance the plot.

If you don't mind an older show, Invasion America was pretty good IIRC. It's about an alien invasion of (you guessed it) the US of A. It's also on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L--XVQmNF0

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
Space Dandy

Is a dandy guy, in space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mgRjttLMLc

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"

Okay, this looks loving awesome

ConfusedUs
Feb 24, 2004

Bees?
You want fucking bees?
Here you go!
ROLL INITIATIVE!!





The Moon Monster posted:

I just watched Outlaw Star as part of my "watch Toonami shows that I only caught 2 episodes of but thought looked neat" lockdown steaming binge. I think my favorite thing was the art, there's a lot of cool mysterious space-y stuff, the Outlaw Star itself looks awesome, and it just has that great "pre-computer animated space anime" aesthetic all around. On the other hand, apart from a few standouts like the space race episode the plot pretty much just spun its wheels between the starting and ending arcs, and the ending arc felt pretty rushed. The samurai assassin lady also barely exists despite ostensibly being one of the 5 main characters.

Have there been any decent western scifi animation lately? I know there's stuff like Stephen Universe, Adventure Time, Marvel/DC shows that have scifi elements but I wouldn't really call them scifi shows.

The Voltron reboot is good. The quality is a bit uneven, but I’d put its average at “good, not great”

Sir DonkeyPunch
Mar 23, 2007

I didn't hear no bell

Bogus Adventure posted:

If you don't mind an older show, Invasion America was pretty good IIRC. It's about an alien invasion of (you guessed it) the US of A. It's also on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L--XVQmNF0

When I was a kid I felt like this was laser focused at me/my demographic, and I was pissed it wrapped up so suddenly/not at all (it's been a while)

As for content, Redline! It's a Space Race (maybe a little flimsy on the tech, but Outlaw Star has those kei pirates chanting and poo poo, so w/e)



Sweet JP, he's a sikk racer with sikk hair and sick TransAm



Sonoshee Mclaren, her nickname is Cherry Boy Hunter, which I just learned could also be read as "Virgin Killer"


Here's Machinehead, he's a real weird dude

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"

Sir DonkeyPunch posted:

When I was a kid I felt like this was laser focused at me/my demographic, and I was pissed it wrapped up so suddenly/not at all (it's been a while)

As for content, Redline! It's a Space Race (maybe a little flimsy on the tech, but Outlaw Star has those kei pirates chanting and poo poo, so w/e)



Sweet JP, he's a sikk racer with sikk hair and sick TransAm



Sonoshee Mclaren, her nickname is Cherry Boy Hunter, which I just learned could also be read as "Virgin Killer"


Here's Machinehead, he's a real weird dude


This looks loving rad!

Sir DonkeyPunch
Mar 23, 2007

I didn't hear no bell

Bogus Adventure posted:

This looks loving rad!

IT'S VERY RAD

https://i.imgur.com/schJ6ga.gifv

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

JoJo's Bizarre Space Race.

Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


Sir DonkeyPunch posted:


Here's Machinehead, he's a real weird dude


This is a background character in k6bd that enchants about a dozen people with 0 lines.

Linux Pirate
Apr 21, 2012


Sir DonkeyPunch posted:

When I was a kid I felt like this was laser focused at me/my demographic, and I was pissed it wrapped up so suddenly/not at all (it's been a while)

As for content, Redline! It's a Space Race (maybe a little flimsy on the tech, but Outlaw Star has those kei pirates chanting and poo poo, so w/e)



Sweet JP, he's a sikk racer with sikk hair and sick TransAm



Sonoshee Mclaren, her nickname is Cherry Boy Hunter, which I just learned could also be read as "Virgin Killer"


Here's Machinehead, he's a real weird dude


Red Line loving owns.

The Moon Monster
Dec 30, 2005

ConfusedUs posted:

The Voltron reboot is good. The quality is a bit uneven, but I’d put its average at “good, not great”

Oh yeah, totally forgot about that. It's basically Avatar:TLA but Voltron so yeah it's pretty good.

ConfusedUs
Feb 24, 2004

Bees?
You want fucking bees?
Here you go!
ROLL INITIATIVE!!





The Moon Monster posted:

Oh yeah, totally forgot about that. It's basically Avatar:TLA but Voltron so yeah it's pretty good.

I stopped after season 5 or so, not sure why. But until then I enjoyed the ride!

Musluk
May 23, 2011



e:

Red line is very loving rad.

Also I'm surprised no one mentioned Gurren Lagann.

Musluk fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Jul 7, 2020

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"
Another sci-fi anime that I enjoyed is Trinity Blood:



A post-apocalyptic world dominated by vampires...

The Catholic Church ruled by a boy Pope and his hat loving sister are humanity's main defense against subjugation...

Gun-toting Robo-Priests...

Secret missions to Mars...

Nanomachines that transform the bearers into the vampire hunter: Krusnik...

Father Abel Nightroad is your protagonist.



He looks a bit like Vash the Stampede, and he acts a bit like Vash. However, he is all business when it comes to owning vampires.



The only downside is that the anime only has 24 episodes, so the story gets pretty rushed in the end. One day I want to buy the manga and read the whole thing because vampires, space exploration, and post-apocalyptic worlds are extremely my jam.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
The Japanese ideas of what the Catholic Church is never get old

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"

Ghost Leviathan posted:

The Japanese ideas of what the Catholic Church is never get old

I agree, and I give you Pope Alessandro XVIII



This is his sister, Cardinal Caterina Sforza



She puts the Double Ds back in Domine Deus

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Sanguinia
Jan 1, 2012

~Everybody wants to be a cat~
~Because a cat's the only cat~
~Who knows where its at~

Ghost Leviathan posted:

The Japanese ideas of what the Catholic Church is never get old

Anime Catholic Church is always the loving dopest poo poo. If real Catholicism was even half as cool I'd be a convert.



She's a nun of the Magdalene Order. She hunts devils with explosive silver bullets loaded with holy water. She joined to try and save her brother who was kidnapped and brainwashed by a demon who's rebelling against hell's hierarchy. She has a demonic contract with one of hell's most powerful warriors also, he kicks rear end by taking taking years off her life, and spends the rest of the time lugging her bags around. Her sidekick can open a portal to heaven by singing. She's a gambling addict and is obsessed with driving cars fast. Her adventures are set in the Roaring 20s.



The guy here works for the Eighth Sacrement Assembly. He's an Executor, which means he hunts Vampires and Wizards. The girl works for the Burial Agency, which means she hunts the Super Mega Vampires that guy is too big of a wimp to beat. Those swords they carry around are bible pages. If you throw them at somebody's shadow it pins them in place. The guy studies Bajiquan kung fu, he can break a tree in half with only about a millimeter of wind-up space. The girl carries around a pile bunker rifle made from a unicorn horn and a dead girl's soul, it negates regeneration and reincarnation at a conceptual level and disperses the soul of anything it kills. The guy is a sadist who once brought a guy back from the dead just because he liked watching how lovely that dude's life was going and how much he was suffering. The girl is the president of the tea ceremony club and is obsessed with curry.

I could go on. At length.

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