• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Autumn Anime 2017 |OT| Makes us all rotten

H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
One day someone will make an anime in the Tsuki Ga Kirei genre featuring middle aged people and then I can recommend it to Stump.
 
N

nintendoman58

Member
Does this Just Because anime have a guy with a gravity-defying hookshot and the ability to shoot an infinite amount of parachutes out of his bum?
 
C

Clov

Member
Jexhius said:
[The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl]



Did you enjoy the The Tatami Galaxy? Would you care for a film set in that same world, but even zanier and more frenetic? Then you'll probably enjoy The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. I certainly did. (I'll just refer to it as "The Night is Short" if you don't mind). It's probably worth noting up front that while this movie shares some characters from The Tataxmi Galaxy, it is in no way part of the same story as that show.

The Night is Short follows the story of a man and a women (each unnamed, in classic Tatami Galaxy fashion) who are involved in a series of ridiculous, occasionally romantic, adventures over the course of a single night in Kyoto. In a similar way to the Tatami Galaxy, The Night is Short takes what seems like a fairly standard idea and then layers in absurdity, literary references, trickster gods, musical numbers and, of course, the triumphant return of Johnny. It took me awhile to get into the rhythm of this movie because it doens't really adhere to the beats of traditional narrative stories, but once I was over that hump I started to really enjoy the story. While the 'plot' feels slight, there's a thematic richness to the text that touches on fate, love, isolation, anxiety and ultimately on the way in which humans are connected to each other.

What's really remarkable about the movie is how much of a piece it feels with Tatami Galaxy. It feels like this movie could have come out the year after Tatami Galaxy was released. To some extent that shouldn't be surprising because the film is based on a novel by the same writer as the Tatami Galaxy, it features characters from The Tatami Galaxy, it has the same director, script writer, same musical band and character designer. But it's more than that. The movie retains many of the stylistic elements of the series such as the rapid-fire line delivery, the same colour design, the use of internal monologue and all of Yuasa's trademark, highly subjective visual metaphor where the world itself reflects the emotional turmoil of the characters. Considering how difficult it is in to keep teams of people together in the anime industry it's remarkable that they managed to so effortless recapture the same style as the The Tatami Galaxy.

Where the movie parts most dramatically from the direction of Tatami Galaxy is in the movie's pacing and kineticism. There is almost no downtime throughout the entirety of The Night is Short, for better or worse. It is full blown Yuasa wackiness right from the first minute and it only gets wilder and more unhinged as it develops. I went back to re-watch The Tatami Galaxy and the direction in that series is sedate and reflective by comparison. Yuasa's cinematography is so unchained in this movie that I forgot that he'd just made a relatively restrained series such as Ping Pong. The energy level that this movie builds to and maintains is more reminiscent of Mind Game. I don't think this will be to everyone's taste, especially those who are fans of Yuasa's more sedate works. I liked it, but I still thought the movie could have done with some time to breathe and it took me a little while to get on board with the visuals that Yuasa was hurling at me.

While I enjoyed the movie I still feel it could have used a bit more polish. The movie needed some breathing room to allow you to acclimatize to the characters and the world. Certain scenes showed the tell tale signs of being shot in a manner to make them cheap, whereas I would have preferred to see them animated in full. The presence of 'flash style' animation in places may distract some, I didn't have an issue with it because most of the movie looked great and featured tons of interesting movement. Even with these minor quibbles, I am really grateful that Yuasa (somehow?) gets to make movies like these, which appears to have zero commercial value, in the year 2017.
Click to expand...

I'm really glad to hear that this film turned out well! I can't wait to be able to watch it!
 
E

Erheller

Member
The negative reviews of Just Because on ANN's preview guide
(yes I know ANN is shit I literally go there for one writer's opinion)
make me want to watch it

Rating: 2

I feel like someone overheard me accusing last spring's Tsuki ga Kirei of being absolute kryptonite for anyone who wants their puppy love schoolyard romances to have distinguishing characteristics of some kind and decided to punk me extra hard by making Just Because!
Click to expand...


Rating: 2.5

Maybe I'm just too jaded by my own awful memories of high school, but I have a hard time getting behind gentle high school slice-of-life shows. If I'm going to relive the horror, I need it to be as melodramatic and unrealistic as possible.
Click to expand...

^ This is why we can't have nice things
 
B

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
'My Girlfriend is a Gal' is a really confusing title. What else is your girlfriend going to be other than a gal. it's part of her title. What next? My boyfriend is a chap?
 
D

DNAbro

Member
King's Game 1

This was bad. I'm very okay with all these characters dying cause I dislike all of them. Already dropped.
 
D

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
Erheller said:
^ This is why we can't have nice things
Click to expand...
Not everyone has to like it......there is definitely a negative way to interpret saccharine takes on years gone by that romanticize the high school experience.
 
K

Kansoku

Member
Just Because! - 1

Oh wow, this was great. Similar vibes to Tsuki ga Kirei, nice OST, nice visuals, and the characters seem interesting and down to earth. Here's hoping there's no melodrama to ruin things.
 
V

Valdfellgar

Banned
Just Because! Ep 1. - Line the Anime - Part 2. Why?
Just Because!
This was fun though, nice to have another Tsukigakirei type show.

King's Game The Animation Ep 1.
This confused the hell out of my wife, who's read the manga, as apparently they've adapting the sequel series rather than the first manga/cell phone novel. Pretty over the top but I had fun.
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
Valdfellgar said:
Just Because! Ep 1. - Line the Anime - Part 2. Why?
Just Because!
This was fun though, nice to have another Tsukigakirei type show.

King's Game The Animation Ep 1.
This confused the hell out of my wife, who's read the manga, as apparently they've adapting the sequel series rather than the first manga/cell phone novel. Pretty over the top but I had fun.
Click to expand...

i didn't have fun. I don't need to watch an antisocial crying sasuke.
 
E

Erheller

Member
dimb said:
Not everyone has to like it......there is definitely a negative way to interpret saccharine takes on years gone by that romanticize the high school experience.
Click to expand...

I probably should have left out that last snarky comment. Different people can like different things, and that's fine. But when someone says a show *needs* to have something (in this case tons of melodrama and unrealistic scenarios) in order to appeal to them, it just shows that they're not interested in engaging with the show to begin with. Which isn't automatically a bad thing, but it's unhelpful when you're trying to figure out if you're going to like a show or not.

To the author's credit, they did go over what they thought was good and bad (better than the other reviewer who basically said 'this is boring' and didn't even try to explain why).

Cornbread78 said:
*eyeroll.gif*
Click to expand...

I don't even get a real gif from Cornbread?

1oG2r3t.gif
Click to expand...
 
F

Firemind

Member
This is my favourite first impressions of Just Because:

My favorite part of the entire episode by a massive margin is how the tuba player is reading completely insane sheet music. It's an octave off from where a tuba can even reasonably play, two octaves from the normal range, and the second page is just a copy of the first page with the notes moved down one line. Keys do not work that way.
Click to expand...
lmao
 
D

DNAbro

Member
Just Because 1

this was pretty cute, some good music. I have a feeling though this is going to be one of those shows that I keep up with for a couple of weeks, forget to watch 1 week and then never go back to it even though I have time for it.
 
E

EndlessSky

Member
Valdfellgar said:
King's Game The Animation Ep 1.
This confused the hell out of my wife, who's read the manga, as apparently they've adapting the sequel series rather than the first manga/cell phone novel. Pretty over the top but I had fun.
Click to expand...

Is this what happened? I was very confused and and surprised there was another work so similar to this lol. The first one is where the school form like 5 person teams and one team member gets to be the king for the day, right? Or is that something completely different? It's been quite a few years since I've read it.

As for this anime, the writing is really bad and it's really hard to get into it.
 
V

Valdfellgar

Banned
EndlessSky said:
Is this what happened? I was very confused and and surprised there was another work so similar to this lol. The first one is where the school form like 5 person teams and one team member gets to be the king for the day, right? Or is that something completely different? It's been quite a few years since I've read it.

As for this anime, the writing is really bad and it's really hard to get into it.
Click to expand...

Well, I asked my wife, who read them to review, and she thinks you might be thinking of something completely different. There's, like, two other King's Game manga/stories. The prequel to the current anime, and a second prequel/side story. One takes place in a classroom and another in a village.

As for the quality: I kinda see King's Game as one of those B-Movie Horror films. Like, it's not written very well, the characters aren't that interesting, but what you're really in it for is just to see people die in exceedingly bizarre and ridiculous ways.
 
H

Hellwarden

Member
King's Game 1

So we get a fair amount of death game/battle royale anime. So with that in mind,I feel like shows have to do something to stand out. Juni Taisen gave us boar lady and bunny guy. (And maybe teen Genji by the look of things.) Now I'll admit I'm not familiar with the King's Game franchise, but I struggle to think of a more boring way a mastermind could give out orders in this type of story....

DLaj76_PXUAAGWw_W.jpg


...than by text message.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim |OT| It feels chilly inside the cockpit!
|OT| 6 7 8 9 10
451
51K
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
Persona 4 Golden - PC Edition |OT| The New Gold Standard
|OT| 2
53
11K
SLoWMoTIoN replied
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore |OT| Performa Encore
|OT| 2
52
6K
Abriael_GN replied
HBO Max going all Out - Green Lantern & Adam Strange Shows, new Dune Show, Animated Gremlins, Boondocks revival, Anime, SouthPark, Lovecraft Show etc
News
19
3K
DeafTourette replied
The Legend of Heroes Trails series discussion |OT| : All aboard the head-patting express!
|OT| 2 3
116
15K
Rean no Kiseki replied
Top Bottom