Discussion Underrated Media That Are Not Video Games

[SilicaKong20XX]

Hello to those who are reading this here. This is my first time making a thread on The Roost and I wanted to kick start my involvement with a topic that I am sure everyone will like to discuss about. The topic in question is about underrated media that are not video games. This thread can be used by everyone to discuss their favorite shows, movies, books, etc that are considered to be overlooked by many people. Then, maybe those who read your response may be interested in checking out the media in question. I'm going to start this discussion by telling y'all about my favorite one.

In order for me to say what piece of media that I think is underrated, we have to look into YouTube. Specifically the animation side of the platform. The animated series that I am talking about in question is Meta Runner; a cyberpunk, drama-action series created by Luke and Kevin Lerdwichagul that is on the Glitch Productions YouTube channel and lasted from 2019 to 2022. Taking place in the futuristic local of Silica City (which is where part of my Famiboard username came from) where video game esports have become the dominant form of entertainment. On the top of those who play games competitively are the titular Meta Runners, who are gamers that would replace one of their limbs with cybernetic arms to improve their gaming skills. The series stars a blue haired, female Meta Runner named Tari who wakes up in this city not knowing who she is and her backstory. Unlike the other Meta Runners though, Tari is able to mentally "warp" or transport into the games that she plays. With those powers, Tari has to figure out who she really is alongside exposing the dark secrets of the multi-billion dollar esports company, TASCorp.

If you are a fan of movies like The Matrix, Tron, and Wreck-It Ralph, this is absolutely a show that I would recommend for you to at least watch. Meta Runner lasted for about three seasons, with over twenty-five episodes that are about ten to twenty minutes long each. Video game fans like Nintendo fans may get a kick out of some of the fictional games that are in this show as well. Some of the video game genres featured in this series include Nintendo-styled platformers, gritty first-person shooters, and yes, Anime dating simulators. In addition the games have a lot of variety in terms of visual-style and genres represented. Also, the series itself has some characters that chances are, at least in my opinion, memorable in terms of designs and personalities as well. If you are interested in checking out this series, I highly recommend watching the Season One trailer for the series:

 

[Star Wolf 128]

Well there were Animorphs video games but they were forever ago & all sucked. I would love a AAA open world game someday but that ain't happening.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

This is in my opinion one of the best movie ever made, and my personal favorite. Like I get teared up just thinking about it. But outside of Japan its super unknown. Please watch it.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

I'm going to intermingle things that are underrated and things that are overlooked, since most people seem to mix those things when this topic gets brought up.

One that comes to mind is King Crimson's 3rd album Lizard. Even for the 70's its production was so bad that it became extremely divisive within the fanbase and was probably their first infamous record. Then Steve Wilson, a famous producer known for Porcupine Tree and being the solo artist Steve Wilson, was given the chance to produce a remaster with Robert Fripp and now it's ... uhh ... probably their best album of all time. It's an amazing blend of psychedelic prog rock and jazz and it has some of their most elegant writing as they started to get into their longer and more abstract stuff, which is pretty impressive especially since Lizard is one of their longest songs and still one of their best. Simply amazing, top 20 album for me. Unfortunately the easiest version of it to find is still the original version because Robert Fripp is an ass and doesn't like sharing music, so you'll either have to go out of your way to buy the specific version or [REDACTED]

Another one that is from a famous artist but still underrated is Mamoru Oshii's The Sky Crawlers, which was his last major project before going on a hiatus from anime but was met with pretty lukewarm reception. What I love about the Sky Crawlers is that there is a certain meta aspect that enhances the film: knowing who Mamoru Oshii is. This guy, at least from the interviews I've seen, sounds like the biggest dick, someone really up his own ass. This is the dude that said Hideaki Anno works "lack a theme", which no matter what you think of the rebuilds, is one of the most baffling statements I've ever read especially from a creator who usually focuses a lot on details over themeing in his own works. His comments on the Royal Space Force also seemed a bit unnecessary, like a backhanded compliment, but that's probably me overthinking things. And for this movie, he literally renamed character to be Ghost in the Shell references, despite the fact that this is based off a novel. Point is, Oshii has earned the right to be up his own ass, but he is certainly up his own ass.

But what I like about that is what it adds to the movie. The film is about children trying to act like adults, with a war story being the main form of themeing. It's very interesting as it tackles things from a lot of different perspectives. But mainly, I can't help but think it's weirdly representative of Oshii, a director who makes a film by beating you over the head with the same theme over and over again with the most unsubtle metaphors of all time. This isn't even really a back handed compliment towards the film, it's genuinely interesting to see a movie where the main focal point feels like it's unintentionally about the director as well, and the movie just in general is genuinely interesting. The writing is overwrought and the symbolism blatant and obvious, but I really like the film. It's like a Stanley Kubrick movie, where most things are meant to reinforce the same central theme over and over again, only unlike The Shining this one is actually interesting.

Last but not least, I'll just say that while it's pretty popular in film circles, I still recommend Paris, Texas as I can't imagine most people have heard of it outside those circles. It stares the Alien cat guy, you know, the guy who dies looking for the cat in Alien. And it's great. One of the best movies of all time. The scene with the booth confession is iconic, feels very David Lynch despite not being that weird and coming before David Lynch defined his style. I was playing No More Heroes 2 a few months after watching this and thought the booth scenes were very similar and fun fact: No More Heroes 2's booth scenes are actually inspired by this movie, because it's one of Suda's favorite movies of all time.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

I'm going to intermingle things that are underrated and things that are overlooked, since most people seem to mix those things when this topic gets brought up.

One that comes to mind is King Crimson's 3rd album Lizard. Even for the 70's its production was so bad that it became extremely divisive within the fanbase and was probably their first infamous record. Then Steve Wilson, a famous producer known for Porcupine Tree and being the solo artist Steve Wilson, was given the chance to produce a remaster with Robert Fripp and now it's ... uhh ... probably their best album of all time. It's an amazing blend of psychedelic prog rock and jazz and it has some of their most elegant writing as they started to get into their longer and more abstract stuff, which is pretty impressive especially since Lizard is one of their longest songs and still one of their best. Simply amazing, top 20 album for me. Unfortunately the easiest version of it to find is still the original version because Robert Fripp is an ass and doesn't like sharing music, so you'll either have to go out of your way to buy the specific version or [REDACTED]

Hmmmm, I was pretty lukewarm on Lizard. Has moments, but didn't click for me. Gonna definitely check out the Steve Wilson mix though. Does it somehow make Happy Family not annoying?

 

[ezr__]

My pick would be Hilda on Netflix, season 3 came out last month and the show deserves to be watched by more people. The show is character and narrative driven so you want to start from the beginning, I do not want to mention more but Hilda is a young adventurous girl that learns how to live in her small town. Hilda is on my top 5 favorite shows of all time(all of the them are western animated) because of an amazing journey that Hilda goes through with her friends and her mum. The joy and emotions I get watching the show are still there every time because it is my pick me up show that I need when I feel bad.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

You might know Carl Barks' Donald Duck comics. Barks made that silly duck a (reluctant) adventure hero, sent him around the world and created memorable characters such as Uncle Scrooge, the lucky cousin Gladstone, or the Beagle Boys. DuckTales is based on Barks' works.

In Europe, Barks' comics were (and are) incredibly popular, and lots of fine artists followed him. The Italian comic industry, in particular, expanded Barks' Duckburg with new characters, such as Brigitte, Scrooge's wanna-be girlfriend and a great small-business entrepreneur, or Dickie Duck, a teenage girl. But the most popular Italian character is the Duck Avenger (Paperinik in Italian).

In a 1969 story, Donald became the heir of a mysterious mansion. The mansion belonged to Fantomallard, a gentleman thief from the 20s. Donald takes Fantomallard's costume and becomes the Duck Avenger, avenging himself against Scrooge and Gladstone. In early stories, the Duck Avenger was basically above the law, a super-thief. But in time, the character softened, and he became Duckburg's superhero.

Fast forward to the 90s. The Duck Avenger lost most of his steam -- he was used as a superhero parody rather than as a cool character in his own right. A group of young writers and artists decided to re-launch him, taking inspiration from Marvel comics, and he got his own magazine: PKNA (Paperinik New Adventures).

PKNA stories still take place in the universe that Barks created -- some of his classic stories are referenced, and Uncle Scrooge and Donald's nephews make occasional cameos. But Donald gets a new supporting cast, including One, a super-advanced AI who cannot leave the Ducklair Tower (the Avenger's new secret base), Lyla Lay, a sexy android who's secretly a time cop, and Xadhoom, a mutant who want to revenge her people against the Evronians. The Evronians are a race of evil aliens who feed from the emotions of people from other planets, and they are the main villain of the series. The Raider, a time pirate from the future, is another recurrent villain, though he becomes more of an ally over time.

PKNA lasted 50 issues, featuring various inter-connected story arcs. The battles against the Evronians, occasional trips to future Duckburg (where the Duck Avenger sides with androids fighting for their rights and meets his One in a new form), some issues against Two (One's evil twin) or the US military (who don't really side against the Evronians)... The average quality is very high, and I suggest everyone try PKNA, even if you are unfamiliar with Disney comics. IDW translated early issues in English some years ago, but the whole series has been fan-translated.

The following series, "PK2", was not as good and lacked a proper direction (though the early issues were fantastic). Disney Italy tried to reboot everything with "PK - Pikappa", aimed at the American market (PKNA was only popular in Italy and Nordic countries), but that was a colossal failure. We like to pretend it never existed. In the last decade, some of the original members of the "PK Team" tried to re-launch the series with "PKNE" (Paperinik New Era). Overall, the stories were great, but in my opinion, they didn't recapture the magic of PKNA.

 

[Irene]

IIRC it didn’t do well in the box office and that sucks, because Alita: Battle Angel freaking rules.

 

[Tall Valley Nerd]

Marimashita iruma kun is the best currently running Shonen Manga and more people should read it no really it is a crime how underrated this series is

 

[ezr__]

I have to recommend the Youtube mini series Yuki 7 inspired by 90s anime with a PS1 artstyle. The first season is only three 7 seven episodes and the second season continues the story titled Hotel Kolkata and was released a few months ago.

 

[Síriocaz]

Definitely my favorite film by Mamoru Oshii, Angel's Egg, which also has artwork brought you by master Amano. Like any production with twisted blue imagery, little dialogue and ominous music, it's quite the delightfully strange trip.

 

[GameFAQs_Refugee]

Fantasy books like what Brandon Sanderson writes

 

[merp]

Zines.

/thread

 

[merp]

Fantasy books like what Brandon Sanderson writes

Fantasy is underrated or BrandoSando books are?

Or maybe the kind of fantasy that Brando writes?

Fantasy has made an uptick in popularity since The Lord of the Rings movies and the Game of Thrones TV show.

I'm re-reading A Song of Ice and Fire right now!

 

[Dizzle]

Some comics:

Carla Speed McNeil's Finder.
Michel Fiffe's Copra
Eldo Yoshimizu's Ryuko

Huh, all one-word titles. Well, here's a longer title, and it only counts as underrated if you aren't Italian:
Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese (genius)

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

Some comics:

Carla Speed McNeil's Finder.
Michel Fiffe's Copra
Eldo Yoshimizu's Ryuko

Huh, all one-word titles. Well, here's a longer title, and it only counts as underrated if you aren't Italian:
Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese (genius)

Copra! Corto! That's comics!

 

[BlackthornOrion]

So one of my favorite movies is The Man from Earth, and I don't think I've ever met anyone else who's so much as heard of it. It rules. A bunch of college professors surprise one of their colleagues with a going-away party while he's packing up to move away. When they press him on why he's just up and leaving, he decides to take the opportunity to reveal to them his deepest secret: he's actually a 14,000-year-old caveman who disappears and starts a new life every 10 years before people can start to notice he doesn't age

What follows is basically an hour and a half of him explaining how his immortality functions and giving some of the highlights of his long life while his friends try picking his story apart from every possible angle (since most of the characters are professors, they all have different areas of expertise like anthropology, history, and biology that come into play). It's part "let's discuss in-depth every possible trope related to immortality" and part "is this for real, has he gone crazy, or is he just telling a story/playing a prank and seeing how far something so absurd can stand up to scrutiny", and it's done in a very "one room, little action, this could easily be a stage play" style that I really enjoy. And it was written by Jerome Bixby, who wrote a couple of classic Star Trek episodes, one of which was also about an immortal, and you can just feel that this was a concept he'd been rotating in his head for literal decades before making this movie

If I have one major complaint with it, it's that (major spoilers, seriously do not read if you ever plan to watch The Man from Earth) they pretty solidly confirm right at the end that he is in fact telling the truth (though only to a couple characters, one of whom dies soon after); personally I think I'd have preferred if they left it wholly ambiguous whether the main character's story was genuine or just his idea of a game But setting that quible aside, it's a very cool and uncommonly "conversational" movie that really stuck with me. It's just so unlike anything else I've seen

 

[Slam Tilt]

Late to the party, but I'll put down the entire Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It's the humor of Douglas Adams crossed with the writing proficiency of Neil Gaiman and infused with a very touching and humanist worldview. The early novels are a little rough since they're more straight parodies of medieval fantasy, but those are just the early appetizers to whet your appetite for the fourteen-course banquet that follows. This is a series where the Grim Reaper is one of the most sympathetic characters around, unspeakable horrors from the dark dimensions are no match for eight feet of solid oak, and we wouldn't need ACAB if we had Sam Vimes around to keep them straight.

Pratchett is well known in Europe, but most Americans have never even heard of him, which is a damn shame.