Of all the shorts I found Cloud to be the most engaging and interesting of them all (the constant aspect ratio changes would give Hix an aneurysm). For the most part all the shorts were great except for Star Light Angel which really didn't do anything for me but at least it was very well animated.
It's been a while since I watched it, but the only short I remember not liking much was the dual-racist giant robot battle one. Oh, I also thought the cloud one was boring. I guess the Frankenstein robot short, the Fantasia short, and the British guy's robot waifu short are the standouts for me.
Am I wrong to still feel really fucking badly for Sekai even though she kind of brought everything on herself? Even if she seduced Makoto and not the other way around, it was still Makoto's place to break the relationship with Kotonoha off cleanly and Sekai at least tried to be a loving girlfriend in spite of Makoto's philandering. Makoto had his coming several times over, but Sekai got a terrible deal all things considered. Her yandere power level just wasn't as high as Kotonoha's.
Nope, you're not wrong. But I have to say, the show really falls apart due to Makoto
not breaking up with Kotonoha with the reasoning being some implied sense of not wanting to hurt her feelings and/or just wanting to keep a fall back girl available.
I had mixed feelings about this movie the first time I watched it, mostly due to the English dub, which made it seem like an after-school special with how they handled the translation - adding in corny extra dialogue and generally writing down in the manner of modern Disney. I enjoyed the movie much more when I watched it this time in Japanese. The dialogue was straightforward and didn't get in the way of the strong sense of wonder that runs throughout the film, from the glowing rocks underground to the revelation of Laputa itself. I don't need to tell you how beautiful the art and animation is - one segment that particularly struck me this time was the passage through the storm into Laputa, with its stark black, white, and yellow, the threatening, writhing, living lightening blots, and the most tender moment of the film
with Pazu's father posthumous protection from afar
. Nor do I need to tell you how strongly Miyazaki's love of flight is conveyed - the background animation when the pirates are flying close to the ground perfectly captures the exhilarating sensation of speed.
Overall, while I still wouldn't place it in the upper echelon of Ghibli films, I can appreciate it for the rollicking good adventure yarn that it is.
It's the only anime whose completion I could describe as a Pyrrhic victory. I can now say that I completed Blood-C, but I don't think that I'll ever be able to love or empathize with anyone ever again.
These were some strong episodes which, coming at the midpoint of the show, appropriately focused on the big plot. We got a good sense of the different factions amongst the Shinma, and it nicely fleshed out Larva and consequently Miyu.
At this point I feel like I have enough information to attempt to predict the ending.
Chisato somehow gets involved with or possessed by a Shinma, perhaps instigated by Reiha. This causes Miyu to be placed in a position where she is forced to kill Chisato. Miyu, having cut perhaps the most genuine ties she ever had to another being, becomes weary of her duties as Guardian, and asks Larva to kill her as he had promised. Reiha takes over as the next Guardian.
We'll see if that bares any resemblance to what actually happens!
The reworked score is tremendously superior. There's a place for synthesizer music and restrained soundtracks, but that place is not an epic adventure movie.
Love me some of that 80s anime. Was going in expecting an action movie but instead got a mystery and enjoyed every second of it. Not sure when this was licensed or when the English dub was done but it was fantastic as well. Hell, this was one of the best dubs Ive heard, admittedly I havent heard a lot but still. Cant wait to watch the 2nd movie.
It's the only anime whose completion I could describe as a Pyrrhic victory. I can now say that I completed Blood-C, but I don't think that I'll ever be able to love or empathize with anyone ever again.
Glad you enjoyed your self inflicted torment. Blood-C is one of the worst shows I've ever watched and wouldn't force it upon my worst enemy...You're right it is absolutely perfect for juniors to watch.
Glad you enjoyed your self inflicted torment. Blood-C is one fo the worst shows I've ever watched and wouldn't force it upon my worst enemy...You're right it is absolutely perfect for juniors to watch.
It's the only anime whose completion I could describe as a Pyrrhic victory. I can now say that I completed Blood-C, but I don't think that I'll ever be able to love or empathize with anyone ever again.
Glad you enjoyed your self inflicted torment. Blood-C is one of the worst shows I've ever watched and wouldn't force it upon my worst enemy...You're right it is absolutely perfect for juniors to watch.
I will say Blood-C may be the only anime enhanced by watching with the NicoNico user comments turned on. Both for the comfort of having other people WTF alongside you, and the running total for
Saya's Protection Count
. Which gets really funny in the last few episodes.
It's a pity the opening episodes are so slow; people are more likely to bail before it gets... Good.
Never has a user name been so apt to describe my feelings toward said user.
But yes this place should be steering people towards watching modern anime that actually rocked, like Brazil just had the fortune of watching the truly great Steins;Gate.
It isn't an episode of Zetsubou Sensei without Chiri murdering everyone.
I liked the first part that was loosely based off Schrodinger's cat and not opening boxes to find dead cats inside them. Part two made me noticed that there is like one other named guy that regularly appears in the whole class.
I really did like part three, but it was mostly the idea of knocking down walls with a hammer and just buying your way through houses to get to your destination. I don't know why but that part just amuses me.
And, suddenly ED at like 16 minutes in? And, we get the most random people to draw Zetsubou Sensei. And, then I guess fanservice maximized with Kaede doing something.
I just think you are trying a bit too hard here, Shaft.
Crimson Wolf - This is a 1990s OVA film. I watched the dubbed VHS release. Set your expectations appropriately! Also, a note -- while the back of the box doesn't mention it, there is gore and sex in this film. It also doesn't mention that this is a dub and not a sub; there may not be a subbed VHS release. There is also a DVD version though, hopefully it has subs and the Japanese language track.)
Also, I may have some events slightly out of order. Sorry, but I watched this two days ago, and didn't want to watch the whole thing again just for this review. Should have written a review sooner... I remember most of the details for sure though. However, I'm not sure about what most of the names are.
DVD cover. Oh so '90s!
So, I went into this with low expectations. I have a bunch of VHS anime I haven't watched yet, but most of it doesn't look like stuff I'd love -- horror, action/horror, depressing action, stuff like that, not stuff I often enjoy. I finally decided to try this one, though, and it was well worth it. While it isn't as good as them, there are enough elements of other '90s OVA "classics" like Black Tiger, Garzey's Wing, etc. to make this a QUITE entertaining watch. Assuming that most people here haven't seen it, I think this is something more people who like stuff like those shows, or '90s action OVAs in general, and haven't seen this, should look into. The dub may not be quite as bad as those, but the pretty crazy plot of this film at least partially makes up for it.
Essentially, this movie is pretty ridiculous. The film starts with a team of archaeologists uncovering Ghengis Khan's tomb. Once they get in, the Great Khan's spirit speaks to them, telling them that uncovering the tomb has set off a horrible curse which will create a great war between the East and the West in 1000 days, unless three people with arrow wound shaped marks are killed first. Then, naturally, the place collapses as they run away.
Through the next few scenes, we meet two of the main characters. The lead character is a Chinese martial artist guy living in Beijing. He's in a small-time gang or something, and also has an elderly martial arts master who he trains with. He looks very, very '90s, as you can see above on the DVD cover. The second major character is a Japanese girl. She apparently starts out as a window washer, but quickly gets pulled into greater events when a man dies in front of her.
He is one of the members of the expedition, and says that the other two are already dead. She also saw something about the events on a monitor earlier, and took that vital information with her on a crucial floppy disk.
The show clearly suggests that these are not mere cooincidences, but that they are meant to happen in order for the characters to learn about the threat. Both are, of course, arrow-marked characters, him on his forehead, her on her lower back.
Meanwhile, the lead guy's master gets killed. I know, I was surprised too... because of how quickly it happened, and the means.
He gets repeatedly shot by a sniper, moments after warning the MC about the enemy. But he can't get a clear shot on the MC, so he lives.
The girl gets attacked too, in the requisite 90s anime movie shower scene.
She kills the guy.
The villains are called the "Hong Lang", pronounced Hong Ran by the voice actors.
After this, the girl gets a plane flight to Beijing, while the guy starts investigating the enemies and trying to figure out who they are and what they want. The conspiracy is deep-reaching and seems to have control of the Chinese government. The MC almost gets killed by an enemy assassin, before escaping with the help of a gangster.
The guy gouges out the eye of one of the MC's friends in his gang, which angers the MC [the gangster guy didn't know who the guy was, but it's going to mean a lot of difficulties for his life...], but the gangster guy gives him a bunch of money to help the guy out, and it's not mentioned again after that.
Then, the MC leaves the gangster guy to go off with a friend. Given the nature of this show, you can probably guess what happens next,,, explosions, etc. Meanwhile, the girl's in trouble too --
her plane was blown up in midair by a fighter jet that shot a missile at it. Fortunately she lived,a s the only survivor, and "just happened" to get picked up by one of the gangster guy's smuggling ships. As usual for this film though, it's got to be more than just a cooincidence. Oh, and yes, that floppy disk manages to survive the impact and the ocean, too.
By the time gangster guy comes to the MC's rescue
(poor friend driving the car...
, she's already in his building, unconscious. He'd stripped her naked her too, just because.
And on that note, after all the action and violence, when the MC enters, the gangster guy is randomly having an orgy with a bunch of women. The scene is short, but it's such an obvious random fanservice scene... which then continues when they go into the back and the MC finds the main girl is naked. The guy likes her better without clothes apparently.
Now, in this film, the girl has nipples, which are seen in all three of her nude scenes. However, none of the guys in the film have nipples at any point. Seriously, this is just odd... why does she, but not them?
The lead characters then go off, but the main guy and girl get captured by the enemies and imprisoned. The villains strip her naked and him to his underpants before putting them in their rock-cave cell. It's not explained why, except perhaps to make the
sex scene that happens next a bit more plausible. See ,she wakes up first, and is cols, so she decides to keep warm through sex... and the first moment's sort of rape, because he doesn't wake up until after she starts. Then they admit their love and finish the sex scene.
They break out, but gangster guy's there just afterwards to help them out, I believe.
Anyway, after some talk, it is revealed that
the gangster guy is in fact the third arrow-mark guy.
How not at all shocking. He tells them how the information the girl found told him how the villains' conspiracy aims to start the Khan's spirits' prophecied war by
having China fire off all of its nukes at its own cities, which would then get the PLA to declare war on the West, setting off the massive conflict his insane spirit desires.
I can't quite remember whether this happens before or after the previous paragraph. They also learn that it's not just Ghengis Khan facing them -- two other famous Chinese conquerors' spirits are there too. One is Mao Tse-Tung, the other some ancient Chinese warlord I couldn't understand the name of. (Similarly, I could never quite figure out what the term for the three of them combined was... made me wish there were subtitles.) Yeah, they're all working together to kill a lot of people and start a horrible war. Why? I don't know... because they want to, I guess? Just for fun? These aren't people who ever had much of a problem with killing a lot of people, after all, a point the film does refer to.
Oh, and I think this was first revealed at some point earlier in the film, though it's fairly obvious, yes, the Khan was
lying in his speech to those archaeologists -- the arrow-mark people don't need to be killed to avoid the great East-West war; instead, the arrow-marked people are the only ones who can stop him and the other two spirits' plot.
There might be a bit more suspense on this point if the film hadn't had the Hong Lang guys,
obviously working for the spirits, constantly trying to kill the heroes from the beginning, or if it'd tried to introduce any questions about whether the cursewords were real, but it doesn't do that. Instead, it was simply a lie meant to deceive. But then, why do that and then send your me to kill the arrow-mark people?
It just doesn't make much sense, in retrospect. There are certainly plenty of plot holes here.
Anyway, after a bit more action, the main three go to the final confrontation, the
evil computer that actually runs China
that the three spirits have possessed. Yes, seriously. This is a pretty ridiculous film, for sure. The fact that it actually tries, and half-succeeds, at having a message just amplifies that. But that's a little later. They meet a challenge
from a traitor in the gangster guy's organization, but after a fight he is killed
, and they beat the final boss's first form (heh... it kind of feels like that... ), the second form, a
battle against three armies of spirit-warriors, one from each of the three spirits,
begins in some alternate dimension or something. This action scene is completely ridiculous and quite entertaining, full of the three heroes making things blow up. Ever wanted to destroy lines of tanks with the wave of a hand? Well, these guys can, now! Those arrow marks sure give them great powers...
Also, at some point late in the film there's a flashback explaining the past lives of these three people.
They were people who defied the Great Khan (and just like in this life, the MC and the lead girl liked eachother), and he had them hunted down and killed. The arrow marks are in the places where they were struck down by the Khan's men's arrows.
Alright, sure, why not.
Once they win, the final battle begins, a battle against
three giants serpent-dragons above Beijing.
It's an entertaining fight, with plenty of the generic scenes you expect -- The gangster guy gets badly wounded and saves them, the girl gets captured by the enemies and has to be rescued (
though the MC isn't the one who does it -- he gets stopped too, and it's the gangster guy who saves her.
), etc. One of the more noteworthy parts of this fight was when
Mao confronted the gangster guy, saying how he couldn't possibly fight the founder of the modern Chinese state, the one who he (or his relatives or something) had followed during the Cultural Revolution, etc.
The other two characters reject it (apparently the MC, though Chinese, doesn't care about his state like the gangster guy does, or maybe age is part of it? The other guy is a bit older.
, and eventually convince the third guy to continue to fight, but this was bordering on actually being an interesting part, as a person was confronted with an important, and imposing, figure in their life and had to be convinced to not give up there. Of course "bordering on" is an important disclaimer, and maybe it's because I love politics so much that I took note of it, but I did like that bit. Anyway, after that they take down the villains and win the battle, saving the world from the evil threat. Mission completed, the end.
Overall, Crimson Wolf is an okay movie. Looking at reviews of the film, it's mostly got mediocre to bad reviews. I can understand why they'd say that, but I do think the entertainment value of stuff like this is a bit more than the sum of the parts. The movie could be a lot better, for sure, but I was definitely entertained enough overall to make it worth the watch. It's classic '90s in so many ways, from the character designs to the fanservice to the animation, and it's good fun because of it. They don't really make anime quite like this anymore. It's kind of too bad I guess... sure, it's pretty bad objectively, but that's also what makes it good. And plus, where else do you get a film with superpowered martial artists fighting Chinese rulers's spirits in a great battle above Beijing, with world war as a consequence for failure? So yeah, maybe look it up. Don't expect the greatest of things, but hopefully it'll be entertaining enough to finish.
For the best looking show of the season i'd have to give it to Ano Natsu for the beautifully drawn backgrounds and the very expressive characters. Rinne comes in at a close second.
Yeah, Ano Natsu is constantly doing stuff with lighting and facial expression that impresses me. Would have to say it edges out everything else this season visually.
FUCK THIS SHOW, FUCK ME, FUCK YOU, FUCK SAYA, FUCK GUIMAUVES, FUCK CLAMP, FUCK BUNNIES, MY BRAIN, BODY, AND SOUL HAVE ALL BEEN PROTECTED BY SAYA YEARHGGGGGGGGGGGDJHFDFFFFFFFFFFFFFF WHY DOES BLOOD-C EXIST BRING ME THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE I WILL PROTECT THE FUCK OUT OF THEM THE TEARS WON'T STOP WHY WON'T THEY STOP SOMEONE MAKE THEM STOP SKHGDIHGDKALGHDSGJKDSH
These were some strong episodes which, coming at the midpoint of the show, appropriately focused on the big plot. We got a good sense of the different factions amongst the Shinma, and it nicely fleshed out Larva and consequently Miyu.
At this point I feel like I have enough information to attempt to predict the ending.
Chisato somehow gets involved with or possessed by a Shinma, perhaps instigated by Reiha. This causes Miyu to be placed in a position where she is forced to kill Chisato. Miyu, having cut perhaps the most genuine ties she ever had to another being, becomes weary of her duties as Guardian, and asks Larva to kill her as he had promised. Reiha takes over as the next Guardian.
We'll see if that bares any resemblance to what actually happens!
Not to mention that a man of Joe Hisashi's talents needs a full orchestra to put them to good use.
Episodes 13-14.... that's about as far as I got into the series back in the early '00s when I first watched the show... fantastic series though, it is still my favorite horror anime.
I had mixed feelings about this movie the first time I watched it, mostly due to the English dub, which made it seem like an after-school special with how they handled the translation - adding in corny extra dialogue and generally writing down in the manner of modern Disney. I enjoyed the movie much more when I watched it this time in Japanese. The dialogue was straightforward and didn't get in the way of the strong sense of wonder that runs throughout the film, from the glowing rocks underground to the revelation of Laputa itself. I don't need to tell you how beautiful the art and animation is - one segment that particularly struck me this time was the passage through the storm into Laputa, with its stark black, white, and yellow, the threatening, writhing, living lightening blots, and the most tender moment of the film
with Pazu's father posthumous protection from afar
. Nor do I need to tell you how strongly Miyazaki's love of flight is conveyed - the background animation when the pirates are flying close to the ground perfectly captures the exhilarating sensation of speed.
One aspect of the print I saw that was corny was the original synthesizer soundtrack. I've heard complaints that Hisashi's later symphonic reworking was over-scored, but I'd rather have that than the cheap-sounding and at times overly simplistic score I got here. It dampens the impact that the dramatic action scenes in which it plays should have. 1980s synth hasn't aged well.
Overall, while I still wouldn't place it in the upper echelon of Ghibli films, I can appreciate it for the rollicking good adventure yarn that it is.
Castle in the Sky is such a great movie, certainly one of Miyazaki's better ones in my opinion. It's not his best, no, but it is very good. It's a great adventure, and yeah, definitely gives you a strong feeling of his love for flight.
I'll read your review after I watch it. I don't know who Oshiii is, I'm guessing the director? (Wiki says I'm correct) I don't keep up with that shit, I just watch what I think looks good or what's recommend to me.
Can't guarantee my response to your review will be very articulate. As you can tell I'm not good with words.
I actually liked it seeing that yazuka-like teacher beat up whatever they were.
So, this episode is somehow like a good reflection of how the series went throughout the seasons. Part one was pretty good, and I liked the reveal at the end of it. Part two was pretty good, looking for the blanket and the factory chain at the end. Part three fell off a cliff and the less that can be said about it, the better.
Not to mention, killing time with a second, yet a little shorter ED, and having the cast sing Christmas songs for a bit. And, we get randoms to draw Zetsubou Sensei again.
At least, all I have left is the two OAVs to watch, before I can watch something else that probably didn't lose its budget halfway through the series.
It means that there was a forum crash in 2005 that wiped out basically the entire year's worth of posts, which is why the original Aquarion thread is so short now. I think there's only really final reviews of the series and a bit of discussion about the OVAs and film in there now.
It means that there was a forum crash in 2005 that wiped out basically the entire year's worth of posts, which is why the original Aquarion thread is so short now. I think there's only really final reviews of the series and a bit of discussion about the OVAs and film in there now.
I think if anything, the visual quality has stayed pretty consistent. I'm curious to see of being 2-cour will help maintain the level though, as it's kinda a really nice treat to look at.
Rinne is the most visually creative show of the show between its environmental design and its mecha animation. I'd say its weak point is its character designs - most of them are OK but a few of them, particularly Muginami, are not.
Ano Natsu is a nice looking show with detailed background art and solid character designs. Its overall style is kind of generic though, and sometimes the coloration looks off.
Even though I can't say its production values are objectively as good as Rinne's, I personally prefer the look of Natsume - it's atmospheric and evocative in a way that strongly connects to and enhances its narrative.
), the second form, a
