General anime discussion thread
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Okay, Kamisama Dolls is now officially the surprise of the season. Many things happened this episode, which I expected only much later (ep8 at the earliest, maybe). The best thing about it is definitely the way the handle story; quick pacing, a lot happens, but not too much. Since they're plowing ahead full speed, you have to pay attention to keep up, and you won't get bored. It's not a masterpiece, but it's definitely better than I expected, and it's proven that last episode was not a fluke. These guys know what they're doing.
I'll be picking this up, I guess. So much for studying for quals...
I hope the other Brains Base series don't suffer too much.
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I now have the image of you surrounded by a group of said fowl and reading them course material... Quails?
Dunno. How big a company are they?
Oops. Quals. PhD qualifying exams.
Most anime studios are all pretty small, and they're doing three shows this season. Whoa, wait, four. It's rare to do more than one or two.
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Thanks, makes sense. I thought it was some sort of program with an odd name (wouldn't be the first one). Good luck with them. (Oh, and do study on occasion.
)They do seem busy.
Thanks, makes sense. I thought it was some sort of program with an odd name (wouldn't be the first one). Good luck with them. (Oh, and do study on occasion.
They're next week. I'm fucked.
It occurs to me that everything I know about video codecs and movie containers (which is a helluvalot more than I knew a couple years ago) I learned from anime. Well, more specifically, from figuring out the most efficient way to watch anime and watch anime on my iPod. It seems fansub groups' encoders are always on the cutting edge of video codec technology, which can be problematic when you want to be able to pop your animu onto an embedded device without hassle. And with 10-bit dropping soon, I may have to re-think my strategy...
This week's episode of Steins;Gate was amazing and sweet and adorable and terribly, terribly sad. Rukaku desperately needs more screen-time. Poor girl. I'm so glad Okabe went back before sending the D-mail.
I'm so glad Okabe went back before sending the D-mail.
Please study for your exams. You can study anime later.They're next week. I'm fucked.
This week's episode of Steins;Gate was amazing and sweet and adorable and terribly, terribly sad. Rukaku desperately needs more screen-time. Poor girl.
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Ok, I'm following Mawaru Penguindrum. Episode 5 was great! At first I didn't know the series is directed by Ikuhara Kunihiko. I can see there are some parallells with Utena. It's great to follow such a series while it is still airing, and be able to speculate about what will happen.
Yup. This week's episode was awesome.
But grr, you can see Brains Base split-attention getting to them. I noticed a lot of QUALITY animation in this episode.
ETA: After this and Star Driver, I really need to see Utena, but I want to wait until all of the remastered versions are out before ordering it. The second saga was just released... gah, I wonder how long until the third is out.
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Mr. Ikuhara didn't explain Utena, so I guess we'll never know.
I'm rewatching Utena now. It's strange how something so great can be so bad, and vice versa. Even certain episodes that are so horrible that they are barely watchable are at the same time brilliant. I wonder how the remastered version looks.
Today I also saw the end of Clannad After Story. That series is cruel. I cried all the time during the last 8 episodes or so. It was interesting to see a series about family life and it felt quite realistic.
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Brilliance is often like that. Evangelion is the same way. A series like Cowboy Bebop may be perfect and flawless in many ways, but in doing so, it gives up certain things as well, and so it's not a series I would call brilliant, whereas series like Eva and, it seems, Utena, reach for something far more bold and ambitious, and, in doing so, they certainly falter more often, but are in the end greater works of art despite their flaws.
After getting interrupted partway through the last time I watched it and never getting around to continuing it, I finally re-started watching Kare Kano from the beginning. Ahhh, Hideaki Anno's directing makes me feel utterly hopeless as a writer.
Hm, I heared Kare Kano recommended quite a lot, but haven't watched it yet. Maybe it's time to pick it up?
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Watched two episodes of Utena (which is a bit hard to find), and I can definitely see parallels to Penguin Drum (sort of like a signature). It's quite a unique mesh-up; the music they play when they enter the duel grounds made me think of the older Godzilla movies, of all things. Heh.
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Yeah, Clannad Afterstory is cruel. Relentlessly, so. (I sort of think the very ending works better in the game than in the anime... although it's clearly been set up for a long time, it comes a bit out of nowhere; I found it somehow hard to take - although the wishful thinker in me was sort of grateful for the reprieve. )
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And finally, yep, master pieces are often somewhat "flawed", but apart from "real flaws", there are also elements that not everyone "gets". (By which I mean: Some of the things that puts of the majority is what actually draws a minority in.)
Madoka is an interesting example.
***Spoilers ahead***
It's a very popular show, but it seems interest didn't pick up until the sudden mentor death. People then loved the story telling, but most hated the entropy twist. Me? I loved the show from the get-go (the juxtaposition of the weird witch space, with the stylistically overemphasised idyll - "the epic drawing of the curtains", when Madoka wakes her mom...). And where most people online seemed to have a that-came-out-of-nowhere experience after the entropy plot, I thought "Oh, of course. Now it all makes sense."
Many people were put off by the witch fights, especially early on. They couldn't take them seriously. I love those witch fights. Now I'm not, generally, a fan of this sort of Shinbou madness (they're my least favourite parts in Zetsubou Sensei, for example). But here they just fit. (Shinbou animation + Kajiura soundtrack perfectly complement the story, here, I feel.)
Many of the critique points don't apply to me; or - worse - if they would listen to these critics, they'd lessen the appeal of the show for me.
One major critique point I do agree with: Pacing problems: underdevelopment of characters like Hitomi or Kamijou (and too little time spent on Sayaka's funeral); Kyouko's character development would have made more sense, if they'd dished out her backstory in bits and pieces (but they didn't have the time); and so on.
Finally, if anything about the show has set a standard it's Kyubey, the non-evil villain. Most everything else is either pretty standard (plot progression), or too unique to copy well (such as the witch fights).
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Watched two episodes of Utena (which is a bit hard to find), and I can definitely see parallels to Penguin Drum (sort of like a signature). It's quite a unique mesh-up; the music they play when they enter the duel grounds made me think of the older Godzilla movies, of all things. Heh.
***
Yeah, Clannad Afterstory is cruel. Relentlessly, so. (I sort of think the very ending works better in the game than in the anime... although it's clearly been set up for a long time, it comes a bit out of nowhere; I found it somehow hard to take - although the wishful thinker in me was sort of grateful for the reprieve.
)***
And finally, yep, master pieces are often somewhat "flawed", but apart from "real flaws", there are also elements that not everyone "gets". (By which I mean: Some of the things that puts of the majority is what actually draws a minority in.)
Madoka is an interesting example.
***Spoilers ahead***
It's a very popular show, but it seems interest didn't pick up until the sudden mentor death. People then loved the story telling, but most hated the entropy twist. Me? I loved the show from the get-go (the juxtaposition of the weird witch space, with the stylistically overemphasised idyll - "the epic drawing of the curtains", when Madoka wakes her mom...). And where most people online seemed to have a that-came-out-of-nowhere experience after the entropy plot, I thought "Oh, of course. Now it all makes sense."
Many people were put off by the witch fights, especially early on. They couldn't take them seriously. I love those witch fights. Now I'm not, generally, a fan of this sort of Shinbou madness (they're my least favourite parts in Zetsubou Sensei, for example). But here they just fit. (Shinbou animation + Kajiura soundtrack perfectly complement the story, here, I feel.)
Many of the critique points don't apply to me; or - worse - if they would listen to these critics, they'd lessen the appeal of the show for me.
One major critique point I do agree with: Pacing problems: underdevelopment of characters like Hitomi or Kamijou (and too little time spent on Sayaka's funeral); Kyouko's character development would have made more sense, if they'd dished out her backstory in bits and pieces (but they didn't have the time); and so on.
Finally, if anything about the show has set a standard it's Kyubey, the non-evil villain. Most everything else is either pretty standard (plot progression), or too unique to copy well (such as the witch fights).
*starts downloading*
I ordered the two Eden of the East movies. I already saw them, but I enjoyed the dub of the series well enough to check out the movie dubs. As I think I've mentioned before, the movies suffered some troubles with pacing and being kind of anticlimactic, but I still really like the series overall.
Gah, I wonder how long it'll be until the last volume of the remastered Utena comes out. I don't want to order the first two volumes just to finish them and have to wait several months for the last volume.
Speaking of which, the last volume of FMA: Brotherhood finally arrived, and I marathoned the last couple of nights. The only real criticism I have with the dub is I much preferred Father's voice in the original Japanese. He sounded too mundane in English, though I eventually got used to it. All-in-all, I kind of preferred the art style of the first anime, even though the second is closer to the manga. I like that I can enjoy the tone and story of both independently, though. Brotherhood is definitely more epic, of course. I wonder if the mangaka has started on anything new.
And while I was at it, I also ordered the first season of Darker than Black. I'm curious to see how the dub of it is. I really enjoyed the first season a lot, and while I also loved the second season, it really didn't give the sense of closure I was hoping for. Like with Haruhi and Spice & Wolf, I'm still hoping a third season one day...
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