Haven't seen Fantasia 2000. It was one of those I meant to watch and then forgot about. Thanks for the reminder.

Nobody has yet mentioned...

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Now there's a series to spend time with!

Evangelion comes highly recommended. I had a conversation with Yuki in the Anime team thread when I was starting this one. See Anime team thread - May 29th or so

We covered a bunch of stuff so you might want to take a look.

I've just finished burning Evangelion onto disc - took 1.5 dvd5's in avi files. Will play on LiteON dvd recorder. Hate to watch stuff on the computer.

I've dl'ed

Serial Experiments Lain
Boogiepop Phantom
Last Exile
Gundam Wing
Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X
Appleseed

Can't be sure I got everything though. Should Boogiepop Phantom fit on one DVD5 compressed or one DVD9 uncompressed?

I am checking into Akira and Samurai Deeper Kyo. The date I got for Akira was 1988 - is that right?

Just finished Trinity Blood. I have to say that as much as I liked the graphics and the concept, it fell apart a little at the end. They did tie up most of the loose ends but left a lot unanswered. I don't mind if I have to work to understand a story line, I really prefer it that way, but I don't think my inattention was the problem in this case. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would have to give it a 7.5 - worth watching but a little weak on the follow through.

I understand your point about the lack of a full dénouement. That doesn't bother me so much if it follows the plot and I know that there will be a sequel where these things will be addressed. But my problem with Trinity was the fact that they made the attempt and did not completely succeed. It's one thing to INTENTIONALLY leave people in suspense. That's cool. It's another to provide answers that that don't really hit the mark.

If you're an anime fan, there's a good chance you're also a scifi fan. If so, you know all about the new Battlestar Gallactica. There are lots of unanswered questions in that series, but each season a few get answered and few new ones get raised. That, IMHO, is good story telling.

I haven't gotten to Evangelion yet, but I'm assuming that it falls into the good story telling category.

What do y'all think of RahXephon? I've seen enough episodes (out of sequence unfortunately) to have a rough idea of the story line. It seems imaginative and seems to have a lot of potential. Any opinions?

The first few episodes of Evangelion are a good story. The characters are introduced, we discover their flaws and their inner struggles, and they are supplied with external battles that they must fight. The protagonist undergoes some character development.

But then it gets strange. Major conflicts develop, but the reasons behind the conflicts aren't clear. Eventually the series dissolves into psychological introspection and analysis, and the external world becomes irrelevant.

This was intentional. The director had recently gone through psychological therapy, and he used the series to illustrate what he'd felt and what realizations he'd come to.

Sequels weren't planned, but they were demanded by a confused audience. So the market was there, and the sequels were created, but the director still left quite a bit of ambiguity so that the viewer wouldn't have all the answers and would be forced to think about the series and their own psychological state.

It shows the strength and excellence of the series that even with these challenges, the series is loved by many and continues to be popular. All of the major characters and a number of the minor characters hold your interest throughout the series. And the basic premise, that only 14-year-old emotionally immature adolescents in giant robots can save the world and achieve the goals of their adult supervisors... well, that's got to keep you in suspense.