Not that it's immediately new, but this anime is simply amazing. I would reccommend it to fans of Cowboy Bebop (another amazing anime), but I'm sure they're already into it. Just wanted to know if anyone has seen it on Cartoon network? They've been playing the first 12 episodes (but I couldnt wait so I downloaded them all). The story, the characters, and the amazing artwork and music all overshadow any animated movie in American theaters recently, and it got me thinking that a lot of anime destroys today's movies in terms of characters and storytelling. Wow.

it's by the same people that made cowboy bebop.

a lot of japanese directors will do anime instead of feature films because of the longer stoyrlines they get to play with. they can do anywhere between 6-32 episodes for a single storyline, instead of making one long movie people will get bored with.

it's starting to happen in the united states with television drama. a lot of people are doing television shows instead of movies, for example:

Prison Break, 24, Lost, Six Feet Under. these shows would have been considered movie only material 10 years ago.

Yeah, it has the same director, Shinichiro Watanabe, though he didn't do any writing for this one (it does have one of the same writers though and i believe design team).

Usually an anime will run 26 episodes long and only 26. Some animes go on for ages (some exceed 1000 episodes) and some have variations (like 52- twice as long, or some even only have 6). What I love about the 26 episode thing is like you stated- it's like an extended movie. I hate long running series like the Sopranos or Six Feet Under because those storylines go on for YEARS- they get stale. With 26 episodes you really get to know the characters and love them- and at the same time it doesnt drone on. It ends and doesn't try to cash in because a lot of the anime directors have DIGNITY.
I used to be jaded and hate anime before I saw any of it, and truthfully i still think a lot of it is boring and really stupid. But some of them- like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Samurai Champloo really suck me in. It's apparently very prestigious to work in anime in Japan- it holds the honors that Scorsese and Spielberg receive here, and with good reason. It would be nice to see the techniques of anime applied to something here in American Film, (besides the Animatrix- which Watanabe did two pieces for, and besides that ******* Tarantino). Sadly, america is still hung up on their terrible Vin Diesel movies with no style and their stale reality celebrity fitness shows. God I hate people. What a long rant.