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Autumn Anime 2015 |OT| Like leaves on a tree… we’re falling one by one.

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JulianImp

Member
Mamoru Hatakeyama is one of the top directors working in anime today, so dismissing his work as "lol DEEN" is rather unfairly prejudiced.

Yeah. Just saying stuff such as Log Horizon and Umineko looked particularily weird at times, mostly when the characters would suddenly go off-model for reasons (often with comedic intent, I think), but Higurashi fared better because the graphical inconsistencies made sense with how the cast would start whimsical and endearing, but then would begin acting weird and eventually would break down psychologically (often with grisly repercussions for the rest of the cast).
 
Yeah. Just saying stuff such as Log Horizon and Umineko looked particularily weird at times, mostly when the characters would suddenly go off-model for reasons (often with comedic intent, I think), but Higurashi fared better because the graphical inconsistencies made sense with how the cast would start whimsical and endearing, but then would begin acting weird and eventually would break down psychologically (often with grisly repercussions for the rest of the cast).

I mean, I understand why Studio Deen got the reputation they did, since for most of the 2000s they were working with very mediocre directors and animators. But in recent years fresh talent have been handling productions there, people such as Hatakeyama (Sankarea, Rozen Maiden), Mitsue Yamazaki (Hakkenden), and Soubi Yamamoto (Meganebu), and they've brought an increased amount of directorial and visual excellence and skill to their work. As always, people need to look to the actual people involved in a production and not base their judgement solely on the studio name.
 

Noirulus

Member
Rokka no Yuusha - 01 & 02

The art is nice but there's just something about this show that doesn't feel right. The main characters personalities kinda feel artificial/forced.

Overlord - Eps. 1 - 9

I'm actually enjoying this quite a bit. It's a cool spin on the SAO-type shows out there. Animation can be pretty bad at times and CG in anime is as always unbearable but I'm definitely hooked.
 

Line_HTX

Member
I forget there were many shows I watched back then were animated by DEEN.

I didn't care who was doing what at the time.

Only noticeable studios I loved were J.C. Staff, Madhouse, and Production IG.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The Pink Cat is pretty hilarious.

Note: the pink cat is actually a pomeranian, but it looks like a fluffy fucking cat.
 

Noirulus

Member
Well, more like mid tier compared to shit like Chuu2 and KnK.

Wait, it's actually a KyoAni show? I just googled it to confirm lolol. The animation wasn't particularly great but the main character looking like your standard handsome 16 year old with messy hair and a carefree personality was what spurred that thought.
 

Jarmel

Banned
I mean, I understand why Studio Deen got the reputation they did, since for most of the 2000s they were working with very mediocre directors and animators. But in recent years fresh talent have been handling productions there, people such as Hatakeyama (Sankarea, Rozen Maiden), Mitsue Yamazaki (Hakkenden), and Soubi Yamamoto (Meganebu), and they've brought an increased amount of directorial and visual excellence and skill to their work. As always, people need to look to the actual people involved in a production and not base their judgement solely on the studio name.

That said, not all studios are equal. I'm just waiting for that guillotine drop when either Xebec or Satelight is doing the new FMP.
 

JulianImp

Member
Rokka no Yuusha - 01 & 02

The art is nice but there's just something about this show that doesn't feel right. The main characters personalities kinda feel artificial/forced.

I actually dropped the show after ep3, but then I learned it decided to become a mystery show immediately afterwards and wasn't disappointed with what I saw.

Somebody mentioned that the meso-american setting was something they came up with for the anime adaptation, since the original LNs had a generic midde-Earth setting. Too bad it happened to be that way, since I'd have loved to see a more exotic setting with actual plot relevance rather than just as a way to make things look different but still behave the same as in every single other fantasy series under the sun.

I mean, I understand why Studio Deen got the reputation they did, since for most of the 2000s they were working with very mediocre directors and animators. But in recent years fresh talent have been handling productions there, people such as Hatakeyama (Sankarea, Rozen Maiden), Mitsue Yamazaki (Hakkenden), and Soubi Yamamoto (Meganebu), and they've brought an increased amount of directorial and visual excellence and skill to their work. As always, people need to look to the actual people involved in a production and not base their judgement solely on the studio name.

The biggest issue is that very few "normal" people (as in not in-the-know) actually take the time to learn the names of staff, so we're often stuck seeing the studio name and associating our perceived quality to what we've seen that studio deliver in the past. For example, I learned a while ago that Shaft was one of the studios behind Dotto Koni-chan, but their staff has probably changed enough since back then to make any comparisons between that show and their more recent works absolutely moot.

Still, I bet that if didn't know about any recent Shaft shows and somebody told me "look up Bakemonogatari, it's from the studio that made Koni-chan and it's awesome!" I'd probably imagine something completely different from what Monogatari looks like in reality.
 
Naruto Shippuden: Season 17 Episode 438 – The Rules or a Comrade
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Good Sasuke episode and one of our favorite flashbacks for him as well (When Itachi does his little think poking him in the head).

I like the changing of Naruto learned Rasengan to be from Minato instead of Jiraiya.
 
That said, not all studios are equal. I'm just waiting for that guillotine drop when either Xebec or Satelight is doing the new FMP.

Xebec did (and is still doing) Yamato 2199, so they're fine in my book. (Of course the lion's share of the credit for that series goes to Izubuchi.)

The biggest issue is that very few "normal" people (as in not in-the-know) actually take the time to learn the names of staff, so we're often stuck seeing the studio name and associating our perceived quality to what we've seen that studio deliver in the past. For example, I learned a while ago that Shaft was one of the studios behind Dotto Koni-chan, but their staff has probably changed enough since back then to make any comparisons between that show and their more recent works absolutely moot.

Still, I bet that if didn't know about any recent Shaft shows and somebody told me "look up Bakemonogatari, it's from the studio that made Koni-chan and it's awesome!" I'd probably imagine something completely different from what Monogatari looks like in reality.

Learning about staff doesn't take any more effort than learning studio names; the information is readily available in databases such as ANN's Encyclopedia. It's more names to remember, of course, but if you actually care about why an anime work is good, it's well worth doing so. Studios have different cultures, and due to the importance of connections certain people will tend to work with certain studios, but since everybody except KyoAni relies on freelancers there's only so much a studio name can tell you.
 

JulianImp

Member
eh KnK didn't have Death girl

I don't even know what anime you're talking about, but you just reminded me about the character type that tends to finish all sentences with katanaka (often デス), and how that trope often segues into "desu = death" puns. I've only seen it in Umineko (with Dlanor) and Shymphogear (with Kirika) so far, but it was weird enough I kind of got hung up on it. Witch Hunt localizing it as Dlanor randomly putting emphasis to the last word of a sentence was a bit weird THOUGH, but I don't know if there'd be any way to better get their point ACROSS.

And now my train of thought got me back to Dlanor's broken record scene during Umineko Episode 5 and how awesome it was (both Dlanor's attitude and the way Battler managed to get out of the tight spot he was put into by Erika and her cohorts). Too bad we'll probably never get an anime adaptation of the later arcs, since that's the part where the show finally begins to pay off after building the characters and setting for so long.
 
I don't even know what anime you're talking about, but you just reminded me about the character type that tends to finish all sentences with katanaka (often デス), and how that trope often segues into "desu = death" puns. I've only seen it in Umineko (with Dlanor) and Shymphogear (with Kirika) so far, but it was weird enough I kind of got hung up on it. Witch Hunt localizing it as Dlanor randomly putting emphasis to the last word of a sentence was a bit weird THOUGH, but I don't know if there'd be any way to better get their point ACROSS.

And now my train of thought got me back to Dlanor's broken record scene during Umineko Episode 5 and how awesome it was (both Dlanor's attitude and the way Battler managed to get out of the tight spot he was put into by Erika and her cohorts). Too bad we'll probably never get an anime adaptation of the later arcs, since that's the part where the show finally begins to pay off after building the characters and setting for so long.

Umineko relies so heavily on the written medium (red text, etc.) that it is really not conductive for adaptation into a visual format.
 

JulianImp

Member
Umineko relies so heavily on the written medium (red text, etc.) that it is really not conductive for adaptation into a visual format.

While I kind of liked the floating colored text, the one place I think wouldn't work is that the mysteries often rely on the premise that the MC always sees the truth but the audience is often misdirected by seeing and hearing things from other characters' points of view, which is what muddles the whole thing and allows the impossible (magic) to happen. Showing the actual scenes in motion creates a gray area where showing too much or focusing on the wrong character or action could end up invalidating the logic that's meant to be used to explain all the seemingly unsolvable crimes the cast comes across, which is something I think Deen's adaptation fell prey to more than once.
 

Jaxec

Member
The Perfect Insider 7

Lots of English this episode. It was okay, I guess. Still wondering exactly why I'm still watching this.
 
The Perfect Engrish 7

God that was a long Engrish scene, and so badly pronounced.
I also wonder why I'm watching it. I suppose because I past the middle point of the series and want to know the end, but it isn't really something to remember. The series said itself when one of the characters exclaimed:

"We have to solve the case before the police arrives!".

Uhhhh WHY?? Just because they are the main characters in murder mystery, that's why. Oh yeah, and some otaku fanservice put in there in this ep.

At least there is a cool twist with the girl.
 

Noirulus

Member
Yep. Without a doubt.

Oh come on. Chuu2 was bad but it's not even close to SAO levels of awful. Chu2's problem was that it fell into the trappings of cliche romance drama because the creator couldn't come up with a better conflict. SAO has like a million different things wrong with it.

I actually dropped the show after ep3, but then I learned it decided to become a mystery show immediately afterwards and wasn't disappointed with what I saw.

Somebody mentioned that the meso-american setting was something they came up with for the anime adaptation, since the original LNs had a generic midde-Earth setting. Too bad it happened to be that way, since I'd have loved to see a more exotic setting with actual plot relevance rather than just as a way to make things look different but still behave the same as in every single other fantasy series under the sun.

It would have definitely been worse if they went with a middle earth setting, so I guess that's cool. Still, the characters are just way too uninspiring for me to continue on.
 
The Perfect Engrish 7

God that was a long Engrish scene, and so badly pronounced.
I also wonder why I'm watching it. I suppose because I past the middle point of the series and want to know the end, but it isn't really something to remember. The series said itself when one of the characters exclaimed:

"We have to solve the case before the police arrives!".

Uhhhh WHY?? Just because they are the main characters in murder mystery, that's why. Oh yeah, and some otaku fanservice put in there in this ep.

At least there is a cool twist with the girl.

I wish they had done the english scene better, it reminded me of in class when non native english speakers are presenting their powerpoint presentations but are reading directly off the slide, the anime, they even clearly had noticeable pauses when they got to "multi syllable" words like "imperative" and it was mostly so monotone and dull until the big emotional moment.
 
The Perfect Insider - 07

That long Engrish scene is probably what I will remember, whenever I see this show mentioned in the future. Good stuff.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
The Perfect Insider Episode 7:

Engrish, Engrish everywhere. Seriously, this may be the longest instance of Engrish I can think of in any anime ever and no Japanese subtitles either.
 
The Perfect Insider 07

That was a really good, cerebral episode the conversation between sensei and the sister were really good. The English conversation, when compared to other shows I've watched was actually pretty good since there was no real need for subtitles lol. Usually the accent is so strong that I can't make up what the characters are saying. Here it was just fine. Still in the Engrish territory, but understandable. I'll allow it. The stuff revealed to us through Nishinosono's VR trip provided some insight as to who she is. The episode finishes off with the conclusion of the events from the past, after the murders between Magata and her uncle.

Man I REALLY liked this episode. The direction of it was just on point. Or maybe I just liked it this much because of how much of an improvement there was compared to the previous 2 episodes that were so lackluster.

Welp, now I'm off to the movies to watch the new Mockingjay.
 

JulianImp

Member
It would have definitely been worse if they went with a middle earth setting, so I guess that's cool. Still, the characters are just way too uninspiring for me to continue on.

I'd suggest that you give it time until eps 4 or 5 at the very least, since the show is at its best when it's a pure mystery. It faked me out with the most generic initial premise of "Big bad has revived after X time, and it's up to X people selected by an ancient goddess to stop him!" and the awful as hell CGI fiends, but it got really interesting when it switched gears into focusing on the mystery of who the seventh (fake) brave was.

Too bad
the finale episode introduced another brave again, meaning they're likely to be back to doubting each other once again next season (if it ever gets adapted).
 
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