DVDpedia : Anime : Title : P

Theatrical: 2005

Studio:

Genre: Anime / Drama

Summary:

Theatrical: 2006

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Genre: Anime

Duration: 87

Summary:

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: Manga Video

Genre: Anime / Mystery

Duration: 81

Summary: A retired pop singer turned actress's sense of reality is shaken when she is stalked by an obsessed fan and seemingly a ghost of her past.

Theatrical: 2003

Studio: Bandai

Genre: Anime / Sci-Fi

Duration: 650

Summary: I was browsing at Borders, and this series caught my eye. The box art was nice, and the plot of the series seemed interesting, so I picked it up. Planetes turned out to be everything I could have hoped for, and more.

The Show:

This is an excellent series, both technically and objectively--beautiful animation (with a surprisingly high cel count, especially in zero-g sequences) is coupled with surprising technical realism and well-developed characters to create one of the best animes in years, and possibly the best science fiction anime ever. Planetes is the most realistic and inspiring vision of near-future space exploration and habitation I have ever seen. Zero-gravity environments, spacecraft, and character movement are portrayed with a level of detail and realism which far surpasses that of most series touting themselves as science fiction; because of this realism, even the tiniest details of the characters' lives take on a sense of grandeur and beauty. Even my father, a man who isn't particularly fond of anime, was greatly impressed, and found the show enjoyable. I would reccomend this series to anyone from anime newbie to veteran otaku. For a newcomer, Planetes contains most of the best possible elements of anime; good story, well-developed characters, visual beauty, a gentle dose of philosophy, and a setting which is impossible to recreate in live action. For the weary veteran, it has both plenty of what you already love, and enough new ideas to remind you of why you started watching anime in the first place.

The Product:

This box set is a cheap and easy way to collect the entire series at once. It contains every episode with both english dubbed and subbed versions (though the dub is a bit miscast), and has a few of the basic extras expected of any anime, mainly clean opening and closing credit sequences. The only real drawback of this set is the lack of some of the more interesting special features which were included in the special edition DVDs of volumes one through three (e.g. interviews with NASA professionals, orbital debris CGI models). Though these aren't critical, their absence may prompt die-hard fans to purchase the individual volumes instead, although in my oppinion, the incredibly low price of this box set is enough to warrant forgiving Bandai the omissions. If you already own some of the individual volumes then it's a toss-up, but if you don't, this set is by far the better way to go.

Theatrical: 1994

Studio: Walt Disney Video

Genre: Anime / Drama

Duration: 119

Summary: Isao Takahata's outré ecological fable "Pom Poko" was the no. 1 domestic film in Japan in 1994, and the first animated feature to be submitted for the Oscar for Foreign Language Film. In 1967, the raccoons in the Tama Hills find their homes are threatened with destruction when developers turn the rural area into suburbs. Under the leadership of their tribal elders the animals fight back with every resource at their disposal. Raccoons are shape-shifters in Japanese folk tales, and the members of this tribe can transform into objects, other creatures and even humans.
Unlike Takahata's deeply moving "The Grave of the Fireflies", "Pom Poko" (the sound made by thumping the tummy of a comfortably full raccoon) is a broad comedy. The raccoons' efforts to understand humans, their evocations of traditional ghost stories to frighten construction crews, and their internecine quarrels offers plenty of laughs. But the story rambles, and the characters lack the depth needed to sustain the audience's interest until the film's belated, downbeat conclusion. The extras include Takahata's storyboards, which are interesting, but lack the magic of Hayao Miyazaki's drawings on other Studio Ghibli discs. Note: male raccoons have prominent testicles, which are shown in Japanese art, including the designs for "Pom Poko". When the characters grow desperate, they swell their scrotums to enormous size and use them as weapons. (Rated PG, Parental Guidance Suggested: violence, scary images and thematic elements) "--Charles Solomon"

Theatrical: 1992

Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Genre: Anime / Adventure

Duration: 94

Summary: The adventures of a 1930's bush pilot who just happens to look like a humanoid pig.

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: Miramax

Genre: Anime / Adventure

Duration: 134

Summary: On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest and Tataraba, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke Hime.