CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Aight, so a friend of mine is trying to find good "war anime"...i.e. anime with more large scale battles between armies rather than stylized one-on-one combat.

As examples of what he was talking about, he said he liked Berserk and the Gundam shows, but didn't really like Full Metal Alchemist just because of the first few episodes.

So I was wondering...does anyone know of some other good "war" series along those lines? Thanks.

If you mean the Japanese version of Saving Private Ryan, it doesn't exist. The Japanese outlook on war anime is to focus on the suffering of civilians, and the war is some big thing that "happened."

About the only anime I'm aware of dealing with WWII from the combatant perspective is The Cockpit, which I haven't seen... it's described as three short stories based on Leiji Masumoto manga. The description indicates it focusses on individuals has an anti-war message.

You can find The Cockpit on ebay sometimes. It's only on VHS, so unless it's rare, I don't think it'll cost that much. ^_^

Yeah I suppose I should have been more explicit.

My friend isn't talking about animes about WWII. He just means action anime where there's more large scale fighting rather than action shows where the fights are mostly one-on-one (like Kenshin). Time and setting don't matter.

Hope that clarifies it.

Last Exile would be a good choice.

"War" anime, huh? You want Castle in the Sky.

You mean like large armies that could even have like sowrds and ride on horses?

I'm not sure I can think of anything that's like that. The most 'zoomed-out' I can think of is stuff like Gundam Wing, but even there - although there's a lot of grand-scale war planning - the actual fights are portrayed on a very local level. My best suggestion would be Gundam Wing, although I'm not sure that fits your criteria very well.

I think 08th MS Team would work as a "war" series, though like AH mentioned, anime tends to zoom in on the individual experience instead of the big battles and lots of nameless individuals duking it out.

Well there's the Saikano TV series/OVA (coming in a couple months)... course there's some objective seens in, well both. But it's armyish war.

Ummm Inuyasha has many scenes of large-scale battles, but more one-on-one battles are more frequent....

Princess Mononoke does... if you don't mind human vs. giant pigs :/

Then well, getting into the mecha genre I'm sure you can find DOZENS of titles there alone!

AnimeHeretic wrote:If you mean the Japanese version of Saving Private Ryan, it doesn't exist. The Japanese outlook on war anime is to focus on the suffering of civilians, and the war is some big thing that "happened."

Would saying 'Bombing of Hiroshima' (can't recall other city at moment, will feel stupid about it later) mean anything to you? I'd say if that's the case with all war animes comming from Japan that could be a big factor in it. I mean, when America bombed them, lots and lots of civilians suffered aka died. Just a thought...

But, I can't really think of any animes like that. Accept for the gundam ones. Those are big on war battles and stuff, most of them anyway (that I know of). Let's see... uh, sorry, can't help unless you're friend hasn't seen some of the gundam animes.

The other was Nagasaki, which is actually the city my family's from. >_> At any rate, I think that's pretty much the reason for the "war anime" we see from Japan...

Kokoro Daisuke wrote:The other was Nagasaki, which is actually the city my family's from. >_> At any rate, I think that's pretty much the reason for the "war anime" we see from Japan...

...or maybe just Grave of the Fireflies?

The Cockpit is pretty mediocre in my opinion. It really bounces back between good and bad alot. And it's deffinetly not a "war" anime.

As stated before, most anime that take place during wars focus on the individuals fighting in the war rather than the war itself. The best recommendation I can come up with is Macross(aka Robotech the Macross saga). Yes, it does focus on the individuals in the war, but their are some pretty cool decisive battles and the captain of the space fortress is always coming up with interesting tactics to stay one step ahead of an armada which hopelessly outnumbers him. all in all it's a pretty good show.

Just as a note, the issue over the atom bomb and WW2 is going to get contentious, so let's steer well clear of it (as people have been doing -- thank you).

Fantasy Dreamer wrote:Would saying 'Bombing of Hiroshima' (can't recall other city at moment, will feel stupid about it later) mean anything to you? I'd say if that's the case with all war animes comming from Japan that could be a big factor in it. I mean, when America bombed them, lots and lots of civilians suffered aka died. Just a thought...

Following Shooraijin's advice, I'm not going to debate the morality of the bomb. I was referring to the Japanese approach to addressing the war. There is no real addressing of the cause of the war or the policies of the government during the war in most anime. Nothing of the "why" the war was going on. In most WWII stories, the war is something that is impersonal... people suffer from the hardships of war: Grave of the Fireflies and Rail of the Star and Barefoot Gen are some of these type. Rarely do we get many anime dealing with the war in any other way in America. Kishin Corps did indirectly. the manga Adolf did some. Millenium Actress was a rare anime dealing in part with the cruelty of the secret police in Japan during the war.

Of course some stuff does exist... but it usually doesn't come over here.

One that doesn't focus much on war, but military and terrorists and people would be "Jin-Roh: The Wolfsbrigade"

Like others have said, the focus is less about titantic clashes than about the people suffering as a result of them.

My own picks:
Here and There, Now and Then
Grave of the Fireflies
Banner/Crest of the Stars (which is perhaps closer to what you seem to be after).
Last Exile

I'd also recommend a few Japanese live action films:
When the Last Sword is Drawn
Throne of Blood

Hmm no one has mentioned the lodoss war series, its old but has some big fights in it. I do remeber full metal panic having some pretty big fights, but gundam is really your best bet.

. SEED and it's sequel, SEED Destiny are crap so don't even bother. It's a total rip off of the first two series and has HORRIBLE directing.

Maybe you shouldn't be so harsh on Seed, but still, I couldn't agree more. Seed is basically just a bad rehash of the original series, with an unhealthy dose of corny teen angst. If you're looking for Gundam, skip Seed and go straight to the original, unless you'd like two see 8 or so episodes of someone teenager guy crying because his girlfriend dumped him.