Media in General

That's practically word for word an apt description of Kaiji.

edited 18th Dec '11 4:00:58 AM by Justice4243

@Commander Obvious

Seen Yuru Yuri?

I'm desperately looking for any Xenofiction which has ALL of the following:

• An escapist world not related to our own in any way,
• Ancient or Medieval level of technology with some Bamboo Technology or Magitek,
• Characters who are Partially Civilized Animals. No Funny Animals or Petting-Zoo People. This is VERY important.
• No humans or humanoid creatures AT ALL. No implication about them ever existing or coming to exist (also important),
• At least some sort of Functional Magic,
• Lots of action and battles,
• No ranged weapons,
• SERIOUS story, not a childish fairy tale or comedy (but not Crapsack World either),
• Black-and-White Morality AND Obviously Evil bad guys, but no Antiheroes, Card Carrying Villains and Harmless Villains,
• No Author Tracts about present-day issues such as terrorism, global warming, drugs and all that stuff,
• No sexual or romantic element at all,
• Heroes who are Always Lawful Good but NOT boring,
• No Mind Screw or Purple Prose,
• No Carnivore Confusion.

Only this one film seems to meet (most of) these requirements. Any more suggestions?

edited 18th Dec '11 10:32:02 AM by Kitegen

I've read Death Note and Mirai Nikki and watched part of Kaiji but lost interest after the Rock, Paper, Scissors game. Does it get better again?

Honestly, my wife and I dropped it.

If you lost interest at the point, I doubt there's much I could say that would sway you...partially because I also lost interest at some point.

._.

Any similar works outside of anime and manga, then? To any of those four, I suppose.

How about Doubt (The Manga)? Haven't read it but it's supposedly good: http://myanimelist.net/manga/5293/Doubt.

edited 18th Dec '11 5:09:19 PM by NoirGrimoir

Hunter X Hunter has elements in common with LG, but it's still very much a shonen fighting series.

Doubt looks kind of interesting.

Anything in other media? Literature or TV, ideally?

I'm looking for stories where the hero or the Big Good is besieged on all sides by a hostile media. This is because I was just witness to a very recent example, and citing said example will only spoil other people. I've also read Harry Potter, natch. I also swear I've seen something else along those lines that ended very badly, and hopefully, this enquiry will help uncover it. But it doesn't have to end badly for you to recommend it.

edited 18th Jan '12 7:01:50 PM by DomaDoma

I wonder if the motive of cowboy-mages has been ever used in fiction? We had space-cowboys, samurai-cowboys, zombie-cowboys but what about cowboy-mages? I don't mean magic, indian motives used in westerns but cowboys who literally use magic bolts instead of revolvers and so on.

@ Kitegen

Have you tried the Redwall series at all? It fulfills most of your requirements. There are hints of humans in the first book, but it's so minor it's almost not worth even mentioning, and in future books they've been retconned out. Also, there are some romances in the books, but they're almost never the focus and are secondary to the main plot. Everything else on your list it fits very well.

Closer to psychic powers, but Hol Horse from Jojos Bizarre Adventure had a supernatural gun that fired controllable bullets. As in, controllable in mid-flight, even reversing course if he wanted them to. (Conveniently, he didn't even need to draw the gun from a holster; since it was an astrally projected weapon, he just summoned it into his hand.)

edited 29th Jan '12 4:19:35 PM by Fluid

...I think I was thinking of nightmares I had about Rita Skeeter before Order of the Phoenix came out. Never mind.

I want a show or game or anime that's like the High Fantasy equivalent of Cowboy Bebop. Something that ignores the Speculative Fiction mythology so that it can tell more of a human drama.

Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd And The Gray Mouser series might work, if you're looking for something swords-and-sorceryish.

I'd like some recommendations of both fiction and non-fiction works (including books, films, documentaries, TV shows, anime, games etc.) that have to deal with survival (and perhaps to a lesser extent, farming/community building), a la Robinson Crusoe, Castaway, and Enid Blyton's The Secret Island or Hollow Tree House.

edited 7th Mar '12 12:32:30 PM by Anarchy

Some good such novels, specifically Zombie Apocalypse ones, are Day By Day Armageddon and World War Z. Both feature plenty of detail and lists on the things needed for survival in such a setting.

I'd prefer realistic survival settings, but thanks.

Hatchet?

Yeah, Hatchet's good. Concrete Island is another good Crusoe-adaptation. Also check out Into The Wild, Arctic Labyrinth, and The Man Who Ate His Boots, the latter two of which are about the lost Franklin expedition.

Edit: The Coral Island's a classic. And Life Of Pi fits and should be required reading anyways.

edited 8th Mar '12 10:24:27 PM by Firebert

Le Clézio's The Prospector is another good one, and it's pretty much a modern Crusoe. Coetzee's Foe is another riff on Crusoe.

The Old Man And The Sea is pretty good, though not exactly as realistic.

edited 9th Mar '12 10:43:35 AM by Firebert

I'm looking for (re)tellings of Arthurian legend, particularly focused on Mordred, Guinevere and Lancelot, and the fall of Camelot, which are appropriate for the 14-22 age range. Any media is fine.

Thanks!

The Squires Tales. Full stop.

The Once And Future King. Especially the parts after 'The Sword in the Stone'.