This show continues to amaze me at how much better it is than the first season. A really fun episode essentially devoted to the sisters.
What makes this season work for me is how little time Poplar is getting. The show continues to tease Inami's relationship, giving her screen time but not completely making the show about her. Poplar on the other hand is insufferable as her entire existence is essentially being a small cute thing with almost no relevance to any of the other characters within the series.
This show has really been all over the place lately. Episode 13 was a decently satisfying ending to a fairly laborious Miki arc, and given that she's the only one who seems to have fostered a relationship with the producer she kind of feels like the central idol in the show lately.
I've never seen Legend of the Galactic Heroes (though I know a picture of part of its cast is on the Loads and Loads of Characters trope page), but I guess this means it did a better job of introducing and differentiating its characters than Horizon has.
Most of the time Ryuuguu Komachi is kind of neglected in terms of screen time, so I don't ever really feel like there's been any changes to how the Producer and Iori interact. She gets all tsun tsun and once in awhile he might say something and she'll act sweetly put off for a little. It happened early on in the series and it still happens now.
Carnival Phantasm 1-2 :lol, this is pretty funny stuff. This is a comedy crossover series with the characters from Type Moon's works, most notably Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime, and it is indeed pretty funny. It's nice seeing a comedy with these characters, their normal series get pretty violent and unhappy... none of that here. I have much less knowledge of Tsukihime than I do FSN, but this was quite entertaining even so. I'll definitely watch the other two.
In ep. 1, the FSN characters hold a contest for the Holy Grail... gameshow style. Very funny stuff, this episode was great. Poor them... and it's amusing that Gilgamesh is a cheating jerk here too. In ep. 2, the Tsukihime characters go to the beach, and end up having a beach volleyball contest. This wasn't quite as good as ep. 1, in part because of less familiarity with many of the characters, but still, it was pretty funny too.
EmmanuelMunoz said:
Twin Angels Ova Ep.1-2
Not as fun as the series, but things like character animation were better.
Oh, the original two episode OVA series... this post reminded me, I hadn't actually seen that before either. Well, I watched them today.
Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel OVA 1-2 (complete) - This series, from several years ago, is the first animated entry in this franchise, which now has a recent full TV anime (go watch it) and may continue in the future too. It's pretty good, and I was surprised by how dark this is -- while in the end of course they recover and win, for almost a full half of these two episodes combined, the main characters Haruka and Aoi are in pretty bad shape. The main villain utterly defeats them in the first episode, and Aoi is even
in the hospital, unconscious, on an IV drip, for about half of episode two
. Haruka gets kind of depressed, naturally. It rains a lot too.
Back at the beginning of this series, Haruka had been saying about how she'd never run, even against a strong enemy, and so on, but then when she actually faced one...
she ran, while Aoi, who had said she thought she would run, stayed behind and got hurt more.
It's a more challenging story than most people watching this probably would have expected, and I like that because it means it wasn't just another vapid magical girl ripoff series. I mean, it is one, but at least it's got something to it. The TV series eventually gets serious as well, to its credit, later in the series, and those are probably the best episodes of the series. Because the TV series is longer there is more time for humorous antics before things, but the serious side does show up eventually. I was expecting more comedy in this OVA than it had, though... it is good that they put more of that in the TV series, this is kind of depressing for quite a while before the recovery in the second half of the second episode.
However, it very much IS a magical girl ripoff show, and conventions of the genre like transformation sequences (showing a bit more than the TV ones), a Tuxedo Mask ripoff who has a mask on and throws white roses, etc. arte here every bit as much as they are anywhere else in the genre. It is kind of annoying sometimes, how Twin Angel get saved by the Tuxedo Mask clone several times, each time that things look tough, but oh well...
at least in this one
they actually fight the villain and beat him,
unlike the incredibly lame non-fight with the final baddie in the TV show
.
So yeah, overall, it was good. The art definitely isn't up to the level of the TV show -- it's just not as good -- but these OVAs were well worth watching even so.
BluWacky said:
I think the poster makes perfect sense for the American market. It makes it look like a Disney film, whereas the UK marketing made it look like an arthouse film (which is how it was treated, essentially).
Yeah, it's not as pretty as the Karigurashi poster, but it's not THAT bad.
Photography and cooking? I can learn everything from this show! It was a cute episode overall though, and now I want to try making some pancakes for breakfast later this week. I even coincidentally bought a square griddle about a month ago.
I swear Yuko Gibu has the easiest job in the world for this series; all she has to do is show up, whistle a few times, and call it a day.
Something approximating 2D? A mix? Not totally, eye-searingly ugly? Whatever term I need to use to distinguish it from assy Japanese full-cg movies? Take yer pick. idk.
Serious, non-snarky question here - have there actually been that many Japanese full-cg movies? I mean, there was Oblivion Island, and the upcoming Cyborg 009. I suppose there was last years One Piece 3D thing, and King of Thorn didn't seem to be able to decide what it wanted to be, but overall there still seems to be way more approximating-2D movies than fully CG ones.
I can confirm that Children who Chase Long Titles features a number of elaborate skyscapes, though honestly, I kind of felt a lot of them fell short of what I'd normally consider Shinkais standard.
Serious, non-snarky question here - have there actually been that many Japanese full-cg movies? I mean, there was Oblivion Island, and the upcoming Cyborg 009. I suppose there was last years One Piece 3D thing, and King of Thorn didn't seem to be able to decide what it wanted to be, but overall there still seems to be way more approximating-2D movies than fully CG ones.
Wow this show is an improvement over the 1st season, and I really liked the 1st season. The sisters are great.
Chihaya - 03
Aaaaaand now we should be done with the flashback for reals, pretty much the same comment as last episode where I hope they don't focus too hard on the card game, only now my disapointment has been heightened becase someone suggested the Kaiji narrator for reading out the poems, thanks for that.
Mirai Nikki - 02
Forgot how much of a bitch Yukki was, but at least it's ofset by crazy yandere's.
*Facepalm* Yeah, I've only seen it twice in as many weeks. Probably because I've only seen it dubbed, it just didn't register as Japanese. I suppose Resident Evil: Degeneration counts by the same metric. Or Vexille, forgot about that one too.
It's still just a fraction of what gets produced in compared to largely 2D-stuff.
Anime doesn't have a good rep in the U.S. anymore -- not as good as it used to be. Do you feel the same way?
HM: Yeah. That's because it's not as mainstream as it used to be. They're making it for a particular audience. I think that's why. I watch a lot of anime but it's for the techniques, not as entertainment. As a product, I think it's going downhill. The general audience won't find those interesting. It's impossible to figure out what the target audience is for Mawaru-Penguindrum. Same goes for Madoka Magica. It's for a very core audience like us, who enjoy them. The video game industry has to make sure they don't make the same mistake.
The irony of CyberConnect 2 saying that anime only appeals to the hardcore and you should diversify your audiences when one of their best games, Solatorobo, appeals to a very tiny demographic, is amusing.
(Solatorobo SHOULD appeal to kids - but I don't think it's a game that any child or their parent would buy, for some reason.)
Anything else I can say involves a sense of humour failure again, so... I disagree with the conclusion, but not the reasoning.
There's more than enough very specifically targeted anime-as-product going around right now.
That said, more anime that appeals to a wide, general audience would be a good thing.
It's impossible to figure out what the target audience is for Mawaru-Penguindrum. Same goes for Madoka Magica. It's for a very core audience like us, who enjoy them.
Says it all, really.
Penguindrum and Madoka are weird things, made for anyone who will enjoy them. We are lucky that they're out there.
Believing that everything should be targeted to a very specific, easily identifiable demographic is the kind of thinking that's choking Hollywood.
I didn't want to write too much about it but I agree that the darker tone, one that the series also took near the end, was pretty interesting. But I went into it hoping for a little more crazy since it was the OVA and left feeling disappointed.
I agree, it's a good poster, and definitely reminiscent of Disney stuff.
I think that for marketing to a broader American audinece it will work better than the original. They did a similar thing to the Ponyo poster, where it looked less classically hand drawn.
But from an artistic point of view I think the original, while not perfect, was better.
The majority of voters agree with Branduil's opinion of Angel Beats.
B Final 1st 377 Erica Hartmann @ Strike Witches
2nd 323 Kanade Tachibana @ Angel Beats!
All kinds of crazy shit going on in the group finals. At this rate I'd say there's even a good chance of one or two of the Puella Magi getting taken out.
Also I just realized that the very existence of this contest probably just adds fuel to the fire of that CyberConnect 2 guy's argument, but whatever.
The majority of voters agree with Branduil's opinion of Angel Beats.
B Final 1st 377 Erica Hartmann @ Strike Witches
2nd 323 Kanade Tachibana @ Angel Beats!
http://i.imgur.com/VZ5go.png[IMG]
All kinds of crazy shit going on in the group finals. At this rate I'd say there's even a good chance of one or two of the Puella Magi getting taken out.[/QUOTE]
I have faith in Elsie [spoiler]getting murdered by Madoka[/spoiler]. :(
Just for you, I did some fact checking on Evangelion characters in Saimoe, since they were eligible due to Rebuild 1.0 and 2.0 (and will be again for 3.0 in 2013 lolol).
In 2008, only Rei made the first round and she was promptly beaten by someone from some show called Nanatsuiro Drops.
In 2009, Rei, Asuka, Misato, and Mari all made the cut, but were K.O'd in the first round by two girls from To Love-Ru, the main girl from Utawarerumono, and, amusingly enough, Erica Hartmann.
So yeah, nobody in Evangelion is moe. Which means the only winner here is Hideaki Anno, since that's what he wanted from the show in the first place.
Just for you, I did some fact checking on Evangelion characters in Saimoe, since they were eligible due to Rebuild 1.0 and 2.0 (and will be again for 3.0 in 2013 lolol).
In 2008, only Rei made the first round and she was promptly beaten by someone from some show called Nanatsuiro Drops.
In 2009, Rei, Asuka, Misato, and Mari all made the cut, but were K.O'd in the first round by two girls from To Love-Ru, the main girl from Utawarerumono, and, amusingly enough, Erica Hartmann.
So yeah, nobody in Evangelion is moe. Which means the only winner here is Hideaki Anno, since that's what he wanted from the show in the first place.
Wait, I was wrong. Apparently the first Saimoe, way back in 2002, didn't have recency restrictions.
Misato and Yui both lost instantly, Maya barely made it one round, Ristuko won twice, Asuka made it three victories before losing to Tomoyo of CCS, and Hikari lasted the same length but was defeated by someone from Pita-Ten. Rei went the farthest, winning four times, but was knocked out by the same Pita-Ten character, by one vote.
For completion's sake, that Pita-Ten character would lose to Doremi, who would herself lose to Sakura Kinomoto, the eventual first champion.
Says it all, really.
Penguindrum and Madoka are weird things, made for anyone who will enjoy them. We are lucky that they're out there.
Believing that everything should be targeted to a very specific, easily identifiable demographic is the kind of thinking that's choking Hollywood.
And then Hollywood pulled out the Long Con card using animu tropes to make there shows seem fresh on the TV Brodcast side. Luckily there still some good writers in both industries that dont fall for those tropes but there 20 or so and they dont get top billing - and most of there stuff is on Cable (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Waking Dead - Majority of HBO series etc) with Fringe and House being the two "American" like series on the broadcast side that are actually good to great.
There's more than enough very specifically targeted anime-as-product going around right now.
That said, more anime that appeals to a wide, general audience would be a good thing.
By the way, if you want to learn some brief history factoids, you can read about the model for Erica Hartmann, German fighter pilot Erich Hartmann, a.k.a. "The Black Devil", the highest-scoring ace in the entire history of aerial warfare. He was never shot down, never had a wingman killed, never had to bail out of his plane due to damage, and was never even wounded once. He was forced to crash-land his plane fourteen times, but that was always either due to mechanical failure or damage from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down. Upon surrender at the end of the war, he was falsely accused of war crimes by the Soviets and spent ten years in POW camps and gulags before being released and reunited with his wife.
That's what they're going for, misguided or not. You can practically feel the whimsy bursting off of the screen in the Secret World of Arrietty poster. I mean, we nerds may not like it, but the idea, of bringing Ghibli movies to a wider audience of young'uns in the US, is sound.
Like I said, I think it will work to better attract the US movie goers. Especially after reading peoples impressions that aren't all that into anime, they seem pretty excited by it.
From Firstshowing:
This deserves a "whoa!" Disney has unveiled their first official poster for The Secret World of Arrietty....I think it's a very creative and eye-catching poster that makes me want to see this.
Square Enix's Gangan Online website announced on Thursday at midnight that a television anime adaptation of Yasunobu Yamauchi's Daily Lives of High School Boys (Danshi Kōkōsei no Nichijō web manga has been green-lit for a January premiere. As the title indicates, the gag comedy manga follows the humourous yet "realistic" everyday life of high school boys.
This was actually pretty good. It was fairly restrained in it's storytelling. It focused on new characters, gave them some time to breathe, fleshed out some lore and didn't overload the viewer with fight-scenes. Of course, when the action happened, it was pretty great.
Man, Suzaku really was one of the worst characters ever in anime. I can't recall any redeeming factor to that idiot at all (from a story/sympathy perspective and a conception/design perspective). Like, did anyone actually cheer him? I can't think of many other anime that failed on such a spectacular level to make a likable character out of a "tough situation".
Man, Suzaku really was one of the worst characters ever in anime. I can't recall any redeeming factor to that idiot at all (from a story/sympathy perspective and a conception/design perspective). Like, did anyone actually cheer him?
It's seriously one of the least interesting games, from a strategy or luck standpoint, that I have seen. I still think they pull it off, by weaving it into the character stuff. But yeah.
There's a hilarious irony in GEASS. By all means, Lelouch should have been seen as the "lunatic" but I think the most batshit insane person in that entire cast was Suzaku (and that's really saying something).
