What anime should I watch?

[meganbmoore]

Title says it all.

[Poll #1121964]

Oh, and I tried watching the kdrama Lovers In Paris today, but the heroine's "my stupidity and irresponsibility make me cute and charming and it wrong of my boss to fire me for always being late and breaking things" personality completely alienated me and I have learned that if a modern kdrama alieantes me at the start, I should run because it'll only get worse for me.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Has it been licensed?

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Short version: in English, not really.

There were English translations of the first two volumes of the manga briefly available in the early 1980s; but those were actually intended for the Japanese market as fun material for English language students, and their availability in the North American market was an afterthought; they're long out of print and very hard to find.

There was a live-action 1979 English film adaptation, Lady Oscar, which also appears to be long out of print in the US (although legit Region 2 PAL DVDs are available.)

The anime, to the best of my knowledge, has never been licensed in English. (If you're fluent in French, however, legit translations of both the manga and anime are available in France and Canada.) There are at least plenty of fansubs floating about -- the whole series even used to be on YouTube, although it looks like most of those (except for some of the Spanish and Italian dubs) are gone, and all that's left are fanvids and clips from the Takarazuka musical. Checking out some of the better AMVs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTMWdcKfbNU) might at least be a quick way to tell if the shoujo-riffic sparkley 70s animation is unbearable or not...

With all of the other 70s and early 80s series that are finally getting picked up here, I'm really rather stunned that nobody's licensed BeruBara yet; it's longrunning popularity and influence on other series would seem to make it a shoo-in.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Minor correction: Lady Oscar was conceived by the French who are the most advanced manga nation bar the Japanese, they have all the Versailles no Bara manga and many more that haven't arrived on US or German shores yet. That's what I get for lapsing my French in the second year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Oscar_%28film%29

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I meant English-language there, sorry, not that it was a UK production; the live-action LO was a French-Japanese co-production, filmed in France but with a largely British cast (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077827/) for the major roles (including a very young Patsy Kensit playing Oscar as a child).

(Funnily enough, I was just recently talking about the availability of BeruBara and other old classics in French with a new BookMooch friend from Tahiti; you're so spot-on as to what a plethora of fabulous stuff is out in French but not English. *weeps, etc.*)

[estara.livejournal.com]

Heh, so it was a misunderstanding.

Yes, being from Germany I continually get teased with what our neighbours have available (my favourite anime online shop is situated in Belgium so they have it all) and the fact that I can't read it, because I was too lazy in school.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Oh, forgot to add, Glory (http://www.acesquad.com/glory/index.php) is probably one of the best English-language BeruBara fansites out there (plus it's careful about giving warnings around spoiler-y content), and a great place to scan over to get an idea of what this is all about. If you can get past the rather visibly dated 1970s art (and the almost painful overuse of shoujo-sparklies in the first half of the series, before they changed directors), I think it really hits a lot of your preferred Nifty Bits like crazy. Stealing a checklist from their Why You Should Watch... (http://www.acesquad.com/glory/overview.php) overview page:

Will YOU like BeruBara?

Answer true or false to the following:

Gender roles and gender confusion, if not overplayed, are fascinating issues to explore.

I enjoy historical dramas with varying levels of accuracy.

I like stories that deal with power struggles or struggles to overcome issues related to social status

I like characters that have a very profound sense of integrity and duty and stories that center around their struggles

If the show takes itself seriously, I will try to take it seriously as well (with varying levels of success)

I like stories that have to do with issues of duty versus emotion.

I can deal with serious drama that will definitely NOT leave me with a warm squishy feeling at the conclusion.

In context, some melodrama is okay (especially if it's shoujo)

If you said "true" to at least three of those, you will definitely like BeruBara. If you said "true" to all of them you might become as obsessed as I am about BeruBara...

...Berusaiyu no Bara, the anime, is not so much a series about 'love' as it is about 'devotion' in its many forms. There are forms of devotion in terms of duty, honor, and pride; devotion in terms of love and affection; devotion in terms of being moved by a higher cause.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty damn neatly. I may have a strangely high tolerance for 70's shoujo, what with being a little older than the average anime fangirl and having some of my earliest childhood TV memories being 70s series like Candy Candy or Ikyuu-San, but there's just something extra-special about BeruBara.