Anime for everyone in the family?

[suquamish]

I tend to drag the entire family into my interests -- anime included. Problem is, since I'm a breeder, I need "family safe" anime for movie night. By "family safe" I mean safe for kids in the single digits (7-9) who aren't really going to enjoy a lot of fan service and/or blood letting, and safe for adults that don't want to be bored out of their skull watching a "kiddie show."

I've done the Studio Ghibli stuff, and it gets re-watched often, with "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" being the favorites. Loved "Kamichu!" to bits. The entire family became card carrying members of the Cult of Miu after watching "Strawberry Marshmallow."

From that small sample, you can kinda get the gist; a little violence, and/or characters with with everyday vices do not make for unsafe content.

I know it's a tall order for any feature to appeal to the 7-97 age bracket, but anything you can recommend?

[Orion1]

Ok so I'm guessing the Shin Chan is out of the picture? LoL I get the gist of what you are saying, you'd like to know if there is any good anime that is PG or G. *Orion's finger is on his chin as he is deep thought* Got One, It's called "Crest of the Stars". Hmmm ok ok more are coming how about Fullmetal Alchemist, and here comes another one, Trigun and there isGrave of the Fireflies which is very sad and you might have some crying kids on your hands with lots of question about death but it is an amazing movie that everyone should see. I'd show it to my kids, it would be a great lesson to teach them about how terrible war is. I found this link with some helpful reading for you about rating anime. This article mentions some series like Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokeman, Digiman, Dragon Ball - The Saga of Goku, Transformers Cybertron - Robots in Disguise, A New Beginning, and of course there is Astro Boy.

My personal favorite when I was a kid was the Robotech . I've tested it out on my niece and she was glued to it. I think it is like crack for kids. I linked it Amazon because in NF has decided to let this series languish and not purchase new copies. If you really don't want to buy then you could watch the Macross version but it really doesn't translate as well for little English speaking kids. If I you need some more feel free to ask.

I guess trying to be so broad an pick stuff that you and your kids would equally like is impossible. Unfortunately the reason studio Ghibli is so incredibly popular is because of it's appeal to all ages. I'd like to say that there are more, hmmm well check out here for more. But wait a few more titles just jumped into my head as ok for kids. Eureka Seven seems like it should be alright, so would Inuyashi in my opinion. Ok so they keep coming... Have you seen The girl who leapt through time it is a lot like studio Ghibli. Oh mmmm a few more The Last Exile andSteamboy. Ok those are my thoughts. You can also look at NF's Anime for kids.

[suquamish]

Thanks for the suggestions and links Orion. The Amazon guide on anime age ratings is about the most comprehensive I've come across.

I've watched "Grave of the Fireflies," and I can't watch that movie again. It's brilliant in every way, but it's just...so...dispiriting.

It's been awhile since I've watched "Crest of the Stars" -- good call. IIRC it's 14+, and since the Oceans Group did the English voicing it should be decent (I can't remember).

The NewTypeZone thread you pointed me to mentioned "Card Captor Sakura," and I've been avoiding that series because I thought it was the English "Cardcaptors" version. Now that my ignorance has been lifted I might have to check that out. ANN mentions that no dub version exists of the original show, but that review was written six years ago *and* I noticed that The Oceans Group is listed as one of the English companies associated with it. Any notion if an English dub exists?

[Orion1]

Sorry Card Captor has never really been my cup of tea. But after looking for about thirty minutes it has become quite evident to me that finding the uncut cardcaptor sakura dubbed will be a challenge. All I could really find out was that is was released by Animax. However I haven't been able to find an animax dvd released version by Geneon who is, yes out of business now. Your choices are either the Cardcaptor version or the subtitled Cardcaptor sakura version. If you can find the Animax version It would be great if you could post it. I highly doubt it though. Check out this post from more than a year ago and I still don't see a brighter future that series. This has peeked my attention. My only other suggestion is some dark alley in china town might have it.

[suquamish]

Thanks a bunch Orion.

I continued doing some poking around after my previous post. The Animax dub was sponsored by Animax-Asia for their broadcasts, and (IIRC) for the Canadian broadcast. No R1 DVD exists for that version of the dub, and I'm sure Nelvana wouldn't appreciate their license getting stepped on (they still hold it).

I appears the only way to get hold of it would be to find a torrent of the S.E. Asia TV broadcast.

[BuBBa]

Hey why don't you come the New Type Zone I;m pretty sure we have a group that has just what you looking for

[BuBBa]

Also Bleach is good a little volient but should be family safe otherwise

[Orion1]

Ya I looked for that too and haven't been able to find it. It might be floating around somewhere but I can't seem to find it. I've already sent an e-mail to FUNimation to ask them whether or not they were planning on picking up the Geneon subtitled version, which is uncut. I also asked them if they Nelvana's license was why they were holding off on picking it up. It could be Nelvana is asking too much money for the rights. I can't believe they got a hold of Cardcaptor Sakura, someone was really asleep at Geneon to let them get a hold of the dubbing rights. I'm still a little confused as to how Geneon and Nelvana can both hold the rights. One to the subbed version and the other to the dubbed version. This doesn't make a lot of sense I've never really seen that before. Anyways I'm waiting on a response if it ever comes. You actually triggered me into quite fervor trying to figure this all out. I'm actually out now scouring the net looking for cardcaptor sakura volumes. The Geneon subbed version of course which is turning out to be quite expensive. Depending on what comes back we might be starting a campaign to gather enough of a fan base to get Cardcaptor sakura picked up by another studio, preferably FUNimation. I will keep you informed. You can also follow the link Bubba left above for more info.

Oh and I take back the comment about it not being my cup of tea I watched the first four episodes and it is hella Kawaii.

[suquamish]

> I'm still a little confused as to how Geneon and Nelvana
> can both hold the rights.

Nelvana holds the rights for North American distribution of CCS, but I believe that's as far as they go. That's why you have two english dub versions -- The Animax-Asia and the Nelvana versions.

> someone was really asleep at Geneon.

FTFY.

> Oh and I take back the comment about it not being my cup of tea

That seems to be the reaction of everyone I talk to about this.

>Hey why don't you come the New Type Zone

Thank you kindly for the invite. I submitted my application this evening.

> Also Bleach is good a little volient but should be family safe otherwise

Thanks BuBBa, unfortunately Bleach is just a little over done in a few areas. Like blood letting. And language. And violence. And fan service. And scary monsters likely to give 7-8 y.o.'s nightmares.

Not to mention it's never been a favorite of mine in Anime or Manga form (which I know will be considered heresy by some).

[Orion1]

Actually the confusion was to who actually owns the rights. I believe Geneon's license expired in 2006, and I've read that Nelvana never reniewed it's rights either so.... ANN has Nelvana and Geneon as License holders. Geneon stopped it's North American distribution and has relinquished most of it's licenses. From a few other forums I've been reading CCS apparently lost Geneon and Nelvana a lot of money when it didn't perform as well as they had hoped. This might be the reason that FUNimation is scared to touch this title.

[suquamish]

Curiouser and curiouser.

I suspect you're right on why FUNimation (or probably anyone else) won't touch this title. If FUNimation/whomever couldn't get the rights to re-distributed the Animax-Asia's dub, then they'd not only have to re-dub the entire thing, but also make it clear that their version of isn't Nelvana's "Cardcaptors" version.

There's probably no ROI given the poison pill of "Cardcaptors." Le sigh.

[Orion1]

Well, I guess it means that for collectors like myself it's a great find and investment. I did find out that importing cites still carry the Malaysian version of Cardcaptor sakura. I have no idea however if the Malaysian version has the animax-india english dub or not, they usually only have subtitles, but are still generally fairly good. Just in.... I found it, I don't know how but I found it here http://store.animemax.net/carsaktv170.html. I don't know if this is the right version but the address looks legit and worth checking up on.

[Orion1]

Ok so I did get a response back from funimation and it looks like for now cardcaptor is a no go. Plus I purchased some of the subbed cardcaptor dvd's and I'm thinking that pioneer sub-licensed CCS from Nelvana since on the back Nelvana is mention right under Clamp and Kodansha Ltd.