(Part 3) Best products from r/anime

(30+ years experience as a commercial artist, animator, broadcast designer and special effects designer speaking here. Plus I got into digital graphics back in the late '70s before anyone even knew what it was.)

The best place to start is to learn to draw. Anything else is a distraction and an attractive nuisance. Software is the least of your worries for quite some time. And even then, a cheap scanner or digital camera and some simple software are all you need to do a whole lot of learning.

And by drawing, I mean drawing from life. Find a life drawing class in your community if at all possible. I can not stress this enough. This may or may not be what your daughter has in mind, but it is like learning your scales to a musician. It's certainly possible to become a cartoonist without this type of training, but if you succeed you succeed in spite of the lack not because of it. I would say it is not possible to succeed as an animator without formal training. To become good enough to do this for a living, or even for fun, is a lot of work. But very satisfying.

Some books I recommend are:

• _Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain_ by Betty Edwards
  
  
• _The Natural Way To Draw_ by Nicolaides
  
  
• _Figure Drawing For All It's Worth_ by Andrew Loomis (and back in print after 30 years for a very reasonable price! $25 at Amazon!)
  
  
• Animation by Preston Blair. This is a Walter Foster How-To-Draw book and it is the best introduction to cartooning for animation. It is a very fun book, and very worth while, but don't neglect the other areas of study.
  
  When she gets a little farther along, get a copy of _The Animator's Survival Kit_ by Richard Williams.
  
  Edit: Your biggest expense isn't going to be software or computers, but time and paper and pencils. I recommend cheap printer paper, 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17. Regular pencils work just fine. Get them at the office supply store. Better art supplies can make a difference when you are much farther along, but the main thing when starting out is to do lots of drawings, and make lots of mistakes. Ward Kimball, one of Disney's master animators used to joke that, "the first hundred thousand drawings are the hardest." And it's not really a joke.

>their pricetags can have drastic differences anyway.

Thats the thing. The prices can be wildly different. I don't have any actual examples of the top of my head, but lets say sometimes you might see two series with similar prices for the regular edition, and similar bonuses for the special edition, but one special edition will eb $20 more than the other. I'd say things like stickers and similar things are not worth it, but bonuses like behind the scenes, OST, and similar can be pretty cool, as can some other merchandise. Do you ahve any specific ones you were looking at and wanted to know if they were worth it? Do you have any specific examples?

For CowBoy Bebop, the difference between the regular and the Amazon exclusive is the Amazon exclusive has both the Bluray and DVD and also: Limited Edition clamshell art box, 140 page black and white art book and 48 page full-color art book. It doesn't seem like a bad deal.

Please don't do it. Serious.

Anime characters have a very distinct speech pattern, and you do not want to speak a language like their cartoon character. Trying to learn Japanese from anime is flawed from first principle; you will get endless shit from native speakers if this is the route you choose to learn the language.

It's kinda like how some Japanese learn English by listening to Elvis Presly songs. Just don't.

It sounds like you're new to the process, so I suggest you pay /r/LearnJapanese a visit. They are a great community, and you'll learn about what you have to learn in order to master the language.

Other resources:

Heisig's Remembering the Kana. A fantastic way to learn the basic alphabet. You want to start reading Kana and stop reading romanization as soon as possible, and this can help you do it literally over a weekend.

Remembering the Kanji by the same author is the next obvious step. Much more tedious, but that's the thing with Kanji. You sit down, shut up, and learn it. This book makes it as painless as possible.

With that said, trying to memorize a lot of information is a solved problem in human psychology; this means there are softwares implementing proven techniques that will help you do it. I highly recommend Anki.

Finally, if you want a glimpse at the grammar, there's a fantastic guide over at Amaterasu translation.

Good luck, have fun!

(Full disclosure: I'm essentially a n00bie at the process myself. I tried to learn the language too, but it's on shelf right now due to other stuffs in my life. I do not know Japanese.)

Super Hero comics look daunting and it can be intimidating getting into them, but often it's easiest to just jump in and you'll find your way. Most stories aren't as heavily continuity based to the point you can't appreciate them.

I just say this because starting with a character you already like is a big advantage. If you already like them and already know a bit about them the continuity isn't that big of a barrier.

but otherwise I'd say a great starting off point for any anime fan would be Marvel's the Runaways, which happens to be written by Brian K. Vaughan who also wrote Saga that /u/yumcake recommended.

It's simple teenager story that is only tangentially connected to the larger Marvel storyline makes it a good middle ground for anime fans to jump onto.

That's just how it is. Believe it or not, Funimation's prices are actually pretty decent. Sentai is similarly priced.

If you really want to shit your pants, go look at Aniplex USA or Ponycan USA releases. Kill La Kill BD Volume 1. Release date: July 15, 2014. Episodes 1-4. ONE THROUGH FUCKING FOUR. $40.00 USD. "Oh that's just the MSRP direct from the walletfuckers, it'll be cheaper from other retailers." Nope and [Amazon link unavailable because Amazon doesn't even carry it].

You paid $30 for Steins;Gate because you bought it when they released the whole thing branded as an anime classic. I know this, because that's when I bought it. That was a rerelease. The original was offered as two split cours that came out a few months apart and each had prices higher than the classic bundle.

This is what Funimation and Sentai do, with few exceptions:

1. Series will release in 12-13 episode "chunks" (what typically constitutes a season, or what we refer to as a "cour") at about a $60.00 MSRP but then after discounts, promotions, and retailer price adjustments, it drops down to the $40-46 range. Fun fact: Even most publishers rarely charge their full MSRP directly from their own store, because it's a customer-baiting mechanic to list a higher price and then make it look like you're offering a discount, even if that discount is permanent.
   
2. Then, once the initial sell-through dies off, if the series was popular enough (or not) it will get heavily discounted in a variety of ways depending on the publisher. Funimation has two different tactics, one of them is the "Anime Classics" label, like that above-linked Steins;Gate or the Spice & Wolf pack. The other option is the "Super Amazing Value Edition" which is a rerelease covered in god-awful "SAVE" branding and, typically, a $20.00 or less price point. Robotics;Notes initially had two separate cour releases, then a SAVE version came out literally years later. Thankfully, all of the SAVE editions have reversible case covers, so you can at least hide that ugly green-striped packaging.
   
   Sentai doesn't really do rereleases, instead they just regularly (but only temporarily) slash the prices of a lot of their old stock. They have a decent sale going on now, but a few months back they had drastically cut down the prices on a lot of their content, with some subtitle-only releases going for $15 per season (on BD!) and dubbed releases for $18.

Here are a few books that will help, but are far from "definitive," there hasn't been a single book like that released for Eva as far as I'm aware (at least not in English).

• The Essential Evangelion Chronicle: Side A - covers episodes 1-13 of the original show.
  
  
• The Essential Evangelion Chronicle: Side B - covers the rest of the show and End of Eva.
  
  
• Der Mond - An art book of Eva that covers Sadamoto in particular. It features outside pieces of his work, but does focus (~75 pages worth) on Eva. The remainder is actually his other works for Gainax.
  
  
• Evangelion Chronicle: Illustrations - a Second art book that focuses on the production work, illustrations, and other art elements of the show and the Rebuild movies.
  
  And that's about it. There are interviews with Anno and such, and EvaGeeks has several of them archived. The mangas done by Sadamoto do feature production notes about changes he made from the show, and what his thoughts are on what Eva represents and such. So there's another 14 volumes, or you can get the omnibuses, of which there are 5.
  
  Other than that, the only other production material I have is all from source material in Japanese - the Laserdiscs came with some really great stuff that I'm translating atm.
  
  Hope this helps!

Take a look at some Japanese stores or something, it's super expensive from there...

For example No Game No Life costs $35 for the season from Amazon US, and $32 for 2 episodes from Amazon JP. It's so expensive that Amazon JP has the option to import the UK release.

The complete season of ef: A Tale of Memories from Amazon JP is $66.00, while it costs $39 from Amazon US and here in Australia / New Zealand we can get it for A$35 ($27 US) including melodies too (although it's sold out, that's still the price).

Pretty much every show I've looked at follows this pattern. Even Aniplex releases tend to be even more expensive in Japan, for example Bakemonogatari is $210 from Amazon JP, $150 from RightStuf, and $45 from Hanabee in AU / NZ. Again, the JP release is the best presented and highest quality, but that doesn't change the fact that it costs over $200, and there isn't a cheaper option there.

EDIT: The JP ef I linked is actually a US import too, I didn't notice at the time. The Japanese release appears to be out of stock from amazon.com and is being sold for ￥69,000, but it's safe to say that's like a scalpers price so I'm not sure what it would have costed new.

Good question. Maybe something like Amazon.jp?

There seems to be a button for AmazonPrime Music? God I would love to have the JP songs in my prime account lol :D

Your next stop IMHO: Steins;Gate LE Volume 1 BD/DVD combo is up for pre-order on Amazon and Right Stuf. Contains the first half of the series.

I have no idea what "Limited Edition" means for the S;G set, but the price is reasonable for a first-run. If there's any series from the past few years that I'd like to make a clear statement "MAKE MORE LIKE THIS AND LESS GENERIC FIGHTING/FANSERVICE/HAREM/ECCHI/MOE BULLSHIT" for, it's S;G.

Seriously, everyone needs to pre-order this. Send a message we want more quality anime, not ANIME QUALITY.

-----

Amazon.com: $49

Amazon.ca: $49 (wtf, same price in CAD and USD? I must be in a parallel universe)

Right Stuf: $42, comes with Future Gadget Lab pin bonus

I dont know if this will help but here are some resources I use

Tae kim grammar guide is good for learning grammar http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/writing
anki is really good for making flash cards or you can find pre made decks to study https://apps.ankiweb.net/
If you like reading you could try these https://bilingualmanga.com/
http://syosetu.com/
If you like anime use this, you can watch anime with japanese subs
https://animelon.com/
Also kanji is important to learn because you cant read japanese without them
I recommend remembering the kanji 1 https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Characters/dp/0824835921/ref=mp_s_a_1_1/135-4585020-0846068?ie=UTF8&qid=1542029781&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=remembering+the+kanji+1&dpPl=1&dpID=51QhUaQJRmL&ref=plSrch

I got a friend of mine a Kyuubey wrist band a while back, it was pretty good. Really any Kyuubey accessory is nice


But then again, that was for a high schooler's secret santa gift, not a bridesmaid!

English/Chinese Subtitles are included.

 

Audio Tracks:

5.1 JP

2.0 JP

*5.1 JP with English songs

 

Amazon Links:

Collectors Edition (4k UHD BD)

Special Edition

Collectors Edition

Special Edition Amazon JP bonus items (postcards + picture frame (newly drawn Taki & Mitsuha)

Start with Keijo!!!!!!!!. Any show with eight exclamation points in the title has to be good right? Also it has a truly inspiring training scene where a girl pulls turnips in the rain ...with her butt.

Maybe something like Land of the Lustrous if you have Amazon Prime or get a HiDive trial

Here's the links to all of those, along with a few more anime that Amazon apparently have:

• Chi's Sweet Adventure: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAQB5DC
  
• Magical Girl Lyrical NANOHA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS6IDTI
  
• Magical Girl Lyrical NANOHA A's: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZ8VH8F
  
• Magical Girl Lyrical NANOHA StrikerS: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NASB8SJ
  
• ONIHEI : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NH51D4R
  
• Scum's Wish: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5O6P65
  
• Shin chan Spin-off: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS68BZF
  
• The Great Passage: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MY70YFT
  
• ViVid Strike!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N213IUQ

Expanding on /u/Park216's answer, and assuming you're in the States: FUNimation picked up the license when Bandai Entertainment ceased distribution, and they've promised a Blu-ray release sometime this year. Perhaps they'll consider online streaming rights at that time. Hopefully we'll hear more about it at Otakon.

In the meantime, the easiest legal way to see the full series is to buy one of the remaining Bandai DVD sets. Currently Amazon has one for $35 including shipping.

[This is set 2](http://www.amazon.com/Death-Note-Set-2-Various/dp/B00DNQM7M2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1381004442&sr=8-6&keywords=death+note] and this is the second box set. The set 2 package is just a regular dvd case with crappy disc storage. The box set 2 has a sleeve and folds open with each disc secured well and some artwork from the notebook (at least for box set 1). The photos on the amazon product page show what I am describing. It isn't the end of the world, but I was hoping someone could shed some light on why the second box set is not being made currently (either out of stock everywhere or really expensive) and if there are plans to make more. I like to collect media and having a box set 1 and regular set 2 kind of bugs me. It would be an added bonus if there was a blu ray disc release en route, but I cannot find anything on either question.

I will probably check out both of them eventually. Based on reviews the live action gets worse as you go on.

Honestly, learning the software isn't going to teach you how to animate, you'll just know where the buttons are. I still have a raggedy copy of Preston Blair's book in my book case, which has been around for 40 years.

Another really great book is Tony White's Animator's Workbook. It has practical lessons and some good simple demonstrations of key frames, and exaggerated actions and setting up cycles.

And since you want to learn, you should also get a peg bar, some paper, some pencils, and buy or make a light box.

Now, all of this is if you wish to do animation traditionally on paper, scan the drawings, and finish them in the computer. If you want to draw directly into the software, you'll need to ask someone more knowledgeable than me on which tablet to buy. I understand the Cintique tablets are good, but they are basically a Windows tablet designed for drawing on.

Edit: Cintiq -ue. Told you. Don't know nothing about them.

Whoah, wait, $20? That's definitely not American dollars; Amazon.com has Volume 1's paperback at $11.90 USD (Kindle version is $7.99 USD).

I'm thinking... Australian dollars, maybe? Checked Amazon.au and they have the Vol 1 paperback at $18.67...I see. Kindle version is $10.63 by comparison, so you could look into getting that. (Edit: or Canadian dollars, since Drrr!! Vol 1 is $18.22 CND in paperback and $9.99 electronic).

I guess you're probably counting your lucky stars that YP isn't releasing Drrr!! the same way they are Baccano!; Durarara!! print releases are in paperback, while Baccano!'s are hardback. I do like and value hardback, of course; they're pretty, and they're more durable, but they're also more expensive....

It looks like the page is up on Amazon US, so hopefully soon?

They've also finally added the page for The Great Passage to the US Amazon.

I HIGHLY disagree with this. Torrenting licensed anime only damages the industry as a whole. Anime sells are getting lower every day as a result of people just pirating anime. If this trend continues the industry will be further damaged, and as a result, poor quality anime will be produced (you can already see this starting to slowly happen, as companies try to push out series that are almost 100% fan service just to turn a quick profit).

Cowboy Bebop is an AMAZING series. It's not officially streamed anywhere that I know of, but you can BUY the complete box set for only $33 on Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00102FF7U

Streaming / simulcasting is still fairly new in the anime industry. The more it's used, the better the quality of the streams will get. How? Well.... BANDWIDTH IS EXPENSIVE!! The advertisements you see on anime streams help pays for that bandwidth. The more people watching = the more money the company gets = the more bandwidth they can pay for = the higher the quality of your anime streaming.

In my opinion, if you want above 480p for anime streaming, then just pay the $6.95 a month on CrunchyRoll. It's really not all that expensive, and you get access to their massive list of content. The money you pay goes to their licensing fees, hosting costs, and bandwidth costs.

The following sites are official streaming websites which support the anime industry as a direct result of you watching the stream :

• http://CrunchyRoll.com
  
• http://Hulu.com
  
• http://Funimation.com
  
• http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/video/anime
  
• http://www.niconico.com/
  
  Licensed anime should NEVER be torrented / downloaded illegallly. If it's available to you in your language on a legit form a media, then PURCHASE IT. If digital really means that much to you, then buy / rent the series on platforms such as iTunes, Netflix, Crunchyroll, Hulu, Funimation, Xbox Live, PSN.

Excellent! If you want, you can save money by picking up the novels where the anime leaves off which is at Volume 6.

Amazon Link

They do have them up for pre-order, but the collector's edition is currently sold out. Note that the release date is August 4th instead of July 26th.

Your Name Collector's Edition

They do have the regular special edition up for pre-order, however.

Your Name Special Edition

Alternate purchase links (including digital vendors):

• iTunes JP
  
• OTOTOY - vendor accepts international credit cards (i.e. not just Japanese!) and PayPal
  
• Amazon MP3 JP
  
• recochoku
  
• mora.jp AAC-LC format
  
• mora.jp FLAC format
  
• HMV.co.jp - HMV ships internationally as well so compare it to CDJapan/Neowing and see which is cheaper
  
• Amazon JP (Physical) - ships internationally too now
  
  Most of the digital vendors have work-arounds if you don't own a Japanese credit card and don't want to try out OTOTOY.

I see a distinct lack of Angel Beats, Claymore, FLCL, The Trigun movie, ANY Miyazaki film (For shame), Akira , The Cowboy Bebop movie, Akira, the fantastic Summer Wars and the director of that movies previous work, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

These are just a couple small suggestions, happy collecting man!

I'll copy some of my comment from a similar post.

There's Der Mond and Die Sterne, both artbooks of Evangelion.

As far as figures, the Soul of Chogokin line is absolutely marvelous. Unfortunately, most of them are hard or impossible to find. Rebuild EVA-00 is still available at original price. Original EVA-00 is available at a vastly increased price, and EVA-02 is even more expensive. If you find them anywhere else, the Spec XS line is preferable (original Evas 00-04 were released on the older GX line; less posable, coloring's a little too shiny). If you find EVA-01, look for the Renewal version (it fixes a manufacturing error; it's XS-01R instead of XS-01).

Edit: Looks like EVA-00 is back at its usual price on Amazon.

It does have a PG rating by the Canadian Home Video Rating System and by the UK film board. It is visible on the back of the official Amazon exclusive Miyazaki BluRay set for the first and on the cover of the second.

>but the theater has a policy of not letting minors into unrated films.

Minors or unaccompanied minors?

I honestly would just prepay online and show up. If someone gives you shit say that the film is rated PG ^^by ^^Canada ^^and ^^UK and that you will be happy to bring up the Amazon listing or website to show them.

Actually I'd just bring up the UK Bluray page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Castle-Of-Cagliostro-Blu-ray-DVD

b/c it's clearly printed on the front cover and I doubt they'll see the .uk in the url.

I'd say get the bluray if you have something to play it. They're pretty much the same price.

DVD

BD

Yeah that's the 10th anniversary set I believe and the original one was bluray but it has some DVDs and cd's for some of the other special features (it had everything in it, drama cd's, parallel works, osts, etc)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00ATYCF1Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

Being a Gurren Lagann fan is truly suffering.

Still pretty small, but slowly starting to build a [collection of anime merch] (http://imgur.com/hoRDaB0)

Akemi Homura plush from Great Eastern

Spice and Wolf Complete Series Blu-Ray/DVD Combo

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie DVD/Blu-Ray Limited Edition

Akemi Homura School Uniform figma

Kyoko Sakura Casual figma

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica: The Battle Pentagram

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Vol. 1

Akemi Homura Soul Gem necklace

Going to be adding Spice and Wolf Volume 4 soon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MMOZ1SS

Soon... I've watched a lot of anime and this show is what captured me. I love the style, story and soundtrack.

Season 3 isn't happening but you can always buy the light novels in English!

English version Amazon links(keep in mind that the anime covers books 1,2,3 and 5):

• Book 1
  
• Book 2
  
• Book 3
  
• Book 4
  
• Book 5
  
• Book 6
  
• Book 7
  
• Book 8
  
• Book 9(Rightstuf)
  
• Book 10
  
• Book 11
  
• Book 12
  
• Book 13
  
• Book 14
  
• Book 15
  
• Book 16- December 2015
  
• Book 17- April 2016
  

how much did u pay? please don't tell me $500. still worth it if u did.

Sweet! I know you guys mainly do recent theatrical releases, but maybe you could watch some of the Ghibli movies? Amazon sells a collection of Ghibli films directed by Miyazaki, and Fathom Events will be having a Ghibli series in theaters this year. The Wind Rises is a more recent film that is intended for an adult audience, so I would recommend that one the most for you guys.

Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series - Amazon Exclusive Edition for $47.49 today only.

Amazon too, with English subtitles included.

Standard edition

Special edition

Collectors' edition

Amazon says July 26th

Link

No, most anime are pretty cheap (like S&W complete :D). Also not sure if this is what you are looking for exactly, but it doesn't seem that expensive on Amazon.

I only ask because there's this version also:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HXEWFWM/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

There are two versions coming out: Amazon - $89.98 and Rightstuf - $35.99. If price is a deterrent, the Rightstuf/Funimation release is far cheaper and more affordable.

Ask and you shall receive

https://www.amazon.com/Phosphophyllite/dp/B0767P3MV6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1523723853&sr=8-2&keywords=land+of+the+lustrous

http://www.amazon.com/Cowboy-Bebop-Complete-Collection-Legends/dp/B00102FF7U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299878089&sr=8-1

is this what i should buy if i was looking for the entire show?

Spice and Wolf: (season 1 + 2) (blu ray + DVD) is on sale for $24.49.

http://www.amazon.com/Spice-Wolf-Complete-Blu-ray-Combo/dp/B00HXEWFWM/