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Fall 2013 Anime |OT2| The Rise and Fall of Kyoto

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Tenumi

Banned
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012): 02

All of a sudden, large torsos and manly manliness.
So the mask... makes people vampires or something? OK. Interesting.

Dio, still a dick.
 

duckroll

Member
Hmm now I know what to watch :p
I've always heard RahXephon was a rip off of Eva. I'm assuming that they meant it in a good way.

RahXephon is a "ripoff" of a lot of things, but I think that the core fundamental inspiration most people miss out on is Raideen. It's basically a modern (well at that time anyway) reimagination of Raideen filtered through the tone of what mecha fans expected post-Eva.
 
Magi - S2 Episode 6

Best... Episode... Ever!!

Hakuryu just became my favorite character in the show in this one episode. Also I think this is the first show I've ever seen where a character wants
revenge on their mother. It's usually 100% all the time the father that's evil, but never the mother
. Talk about game changer's.

This whole episode literally shocked me, they did so many things you wouldn't expect. I did not think that Hakuryu
was going to kill that mother impersonator, he was going to confess to Morgiana (usually I hate lovey dovey scenes in my shounen anime, but this one was appropriate), or even that he hated his mother.

Next week seems like an entrance to a new arc, but this one was the best one so far to me. The feels were good and lots of surprises. Now I need to look up some more reactions to this episode, I'm expecting a lot of salt from
Morgiana
fans :D
 
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012): 02

All of a sudden, large torsos and manly manliness.
So the mask... makes people vampires or something? OK. Interesting.

Dio, still a dick.

I think I liked the bizarre offhand mention of Jack the Ripper at the beginning. Unless he becomes an actual thing in the show. Which might very well happen (I'm on ep 3).
 

Articalys

Member
If we're revealing the Bones shows we've watched, I think my list to date is just FMA 2003, E7, Ouran, Star Driver, Un-Go, and E7 AO, along with both FMA movies (and the Cowboy Bebop movie, if you count their co-production on it).
 
Sword of the Stranger was animated by BONES right? Top tier studio. They should have all my money.

RahXephon is a "ripoff" of a lot of things, but I think that the core fundamental inspiration most people miss out on is Raideen. It's basically a modern (well at that time anyway) reimagination of Raideen filtered through the tone of what mecha fans expected post-Eva.

Needlessly placed philosophical metaphors?
 

Articalys

Member
Also, this gif on the Bones home page is making me laugh:

VgXZOc5.gif


Which links to their recruiting page where they're currently hiring for 3DCG staffers.
 

CorvoSol

Member
I'm kinda split on BONES nowadays. On the one hand, they brought me Eureka Seven and I'll always love them for that. On the other hand Pocket Full of Rainbows and Astral Ocean are possibly the worst anime I have ever watched. Worse than even the Gundam shows I've hated on. On the OTHER hand, Liberassion Maiden so good I'd like a full season of DAT. On the OTHER OTHER hand, I'm not sure how I feel about the Phoenix Wright scenes.

KYOANI would probably be dead to me if not for the fact that a part of me will forever hope they revive FMP.
 
Oh, that part isn't joyous. But
Haruhi riding to the rescue on that horse-drawn cart
is wonderful.

It's a classic romantic moment of the sort I normally like, but I unfortunately was not able to it enjoy it properly in Ouran because of what led up to it. Surely there was a better way to get to a similar scene.
 

Jex

Member
So Studio Xebec can make some pretty good looking anime huh?

Speaking of the design work in Yamato 2199, a show which I aim to talk about until it receives the attention which I think it rightly deserves, I'd like to draw people's attention to the design work in general.

Design in science fiction shows, outside of the mecha genre, isn't particularly exciting. Perhaps all the excitement and passion goes into designing mecha and the rest of the world can really go hang. This is a shame because, in theory at least, the science fiction genre should allow artists to stretch their wings by creating captivating, unusual and exciting landscapes, buildings, objects and peoples. You know, cool stuff. Ideally this shouldn't involve ripping off Star Trek / Star Wars in a really obvious manner.

One absolute giant in this realm is The Wings of Honneamise which was truly the pinnacle of the then newly formed Studio GAINAX's passion and energy. The art team on that movie seemed to have set them themselves the slightly absurd challenge of designing an entire world similar to our own but without actually taking too many of the elements that already exist here. This meant they ended up designing completely unique variants on everything from buildings to transport to clothing to utensils. Building a whole world through up through art certainly requires an intense amount of patience and dedication. You won't be surprised to hear that Yamato 2199 doesn't quite hit Honneamise level of artistic design but it's a notable accomplishment in it's own right.

Yamato 2199 succeeds in areas where other shows have fallen noticeably short. I don't know for certain why that it is. Perhaps because the staff at Xebec really like their science fiction, or perhaps because they're really proud to be creating a high quality piece of work, or perhaps because of the freedoms allowed to them by their release schedule. I imagine it's some combination of all of the above. Whatever the cause, the end result is one of the most attractive television shows of recent years. There's a huge number of staff listed on the ANN page for this title but I'd imagine that the likes of Kazutaka Miyatake. Makoto Kobayashi,Takashi Watabe and
Takeshi Takakura did some solid work based on their credits on other works. One of the chief directors, who has lots of design work, Yutaka Izubuchi, was also the chief director for a little show called RahXephon.

I don't really know why I'm talking so much about something that's so inherently visual, so let's get around to rectifying that right now. As I've mentioned above, one thing a good sci-fi show can do is show unusual and fantastical places and it's a credit to the shows art direction that all the settings in the show have their own unique and distinct flavour. From the tightly packed undergrounds of fortress earth to floating continents and alien citizens this show delivers on variety while clearly drawing influences from different decades of sci-fi design:











Shifting down from the macro scale to a more personal level lets examine some character designs. I imagine most people are familiar with the somewhat infamous bodysuits that numerous females wear but outside of those particular garments most of the character designs are great. I really like how they update the original retro style of the designs without completely eradicating what makes them distinctive. There's nothing accidental about the designs either as the characters designs and outfits tend to match their location in terms of shape, colour etc. I know this sounds like an obvious point to harp on, but there are plenty of shows where there's no harmony between the character designs and the world they live in. Here it's all one living thing which further cements the world of Yamato as a believable, coherent setting. Plus they tend to look pretty darn cool.








Still, it's the little things that really shine through in the art direction. Stuff that's only screen momentarily, or that you don't see that often, which was nevertheless created with loving care. Take, for example, this shot of the interior of a shell showing the fuse ticking down:


This watch:


The painting that exists on two worlds:


This god damn throne:

There's also some sci-fi flourishes which are very minor but which I nevertheless enjoy. For example, when the Yamato makes a faster than light jump it comes out the other side with a layer of ice which instantly cracks. Yet when a Gamilan ship does the same they do this sweet corkscrew thing. It's neat:


When Kodai fires the Yamato's main gun he actually pulls the trigger on a tiny little gun that's part of his console and everyone actually puts on goggles to deal with the bright light:


Also, when people use holograms to talk to each other (because sci fi) the hologram doesn't just appear fully formed, it arrives as a series of horizontal chunks:


Even completely incidental art looks great:


While the setting is of course fantastical the creators of 2199 pay homage to the original Yamato in certain ways. One of the more subtle examples is this shot from an attack on the spaceship:


bears certain similarities to an image of an attack on the real Yamato, both being shot from the same aerial view which is common in WWII ship photography:


No discussion about Yamato 2199 is complete without talking about THE WOLF:


Need I say more? This is a man whose strikes the Gunbuster pose on top of his own god damn spaceship in a god damn battle. He's also voiced by Jouji Nakata. SOLD.

So yeah, pretty good anime. Do watch.
 

cajunator

Banned
i was more on the "explaining too much " part than the rest .

The two example you provided are more like regular fantasy anime.

On the people stuck in MMORPGS, you have hack,Sao & log horizon ?
And each take a different approch to the subject .
Log horizon needs to explain so much because the approch the anime takes is closely tied to the game mecanics that's the point i was making...

I think I just prefer the ones that are like regular fantasy anime.
The characters are wholly a part of the world being represented without convoluting things with reality.

Pft. Even when you have evidence and support your opinions, if you go against the popular grain, you'll take shit. Let's not pretend it is ever about supporting your ideas in a well-thought-out way.

Thats pretty true. Unpopular opinions get harshy bashed to death at Gaf. It is what it is.

Infinitely disappearing panties S2 06:

Poor Charl. Must be rough being the victim of Random Bullshit plot device 543.

Life as a harem girl is tough. Charles certainly tries though! Shes a sweetheart.
 

BluWacky

Member
So yeah, pretty good anime. Do watch.

Ugh, fine, if it stops you posting more beautiful screenshots :p

Thing is, I don't really like hardcore sci-fi; I'm a fantasy nerd. Am I still going to like this? For instance I find the Seikai series to be rather boring, let alone the older 80s Matsumoto stuff with its leaden melodrama.
 

cajunator

Banned
huh just thought of something... that log horizon battle against the monk... cat man exploded 9 things so that did 9k damage, but that guy has like 14k hp... the explanation made it sound like the calculations made perfect sense or something... but i feel like they are missing something.

Like i'm sure they just assume the extra damage comes from nyanta's sword damage... but isn't that move targeting the chains and not the enemy? I can't imagine a swashbuckler class having many moves with splash/pierce damage... and even then, to do 5k damage in 1 chain attack is a bit iffy with how much damage he's been doing in the fight so far (which you can argue he was holding back).

All these technical things really blow my mind. This is the sort of stuff that intimidates me when trying to play those games.

White Album 2 Episodes 5 & 6

For an anime that doesn't really have a strong visual direction compared to many shows airing this season, it does have its moments especially when combined with a solid music direction. This is a show where music is key to the relationships between all three main characters and it uses this to its benefit very often.

As we're pretty much half-way through its airing schedule, the show continues to be quite good with the most recent episode being one of the best so far. Haruki is making strides to being the best protagonist in a romance anime in quite some time. It's rare to see a protagonist in anime these days where you can see exactly why another character would want to fall for them instead of just dumb luck or some fated encounter due to plot. Even rarer is when I find myself unable to choose between either heroine in these types of shows. While it's very easy to side with Touma, Setsuna has a very charming side to her personality too. The school event has been approaching much faster than I anticipated and with the romantic development of each character building up so much, I have a feeling that will all eventually spill over very soon.

Unfortunately from what I hear from people who are familiar with the visual novel,
the melodrama (whatever it may be) only seems to get bigger after the event
so I'm hoping the show can go out of its way to make it as painless as possible because its done such a remarkable job of doing so thus far. This show has had a very strong first half so now I'm hoping the second half can be just as good.

This seems like its turning out to be a pretty good romance show. Ill have to check it out after Golden Time.

Space Dandy'll be my first BONES series, although I've seen a few episodes of FMA and Scrapped Princess.

Scrapped Princess is pretty good! Things get kind of weird towards the end but its one of Bones' best shows.
 

Gazoinks

Member
This seems like its turning out to be a pretty good romance show. Ill have to check it out after Golden Time.

Check it out first, it's better. :p

I have really mixed feelings about Golden Time.

Scrapped Princess is pretty good! Things get kind of weird towards the end but its one of Bones' best shows.

I'm pretty sure I read the first book for... some reason. I don't remember it at all though.
 
Tamayura: More Aggressive - 11

Bu, but this is what happens when they graduate, hosanna. ;____;
Tears and :firehawk. ;_____;
Since Sayomimountais are dangerous let's go shout at the sea. Tamayuras!
 
Magical Girl Pretty Sammy 25

The battle to save the universe is go!

With Ryo's TRUE FORM.
And Sasami becomes a little more violent out of shyness.

Anywho, Sexy Boomerangs is a thing, and this show ends up being a promotional anime for Windows NT. That's the big plot twist. .....And Sasami being Romio's sister (obviously not), AAAAAAAAAA

I like how Washu and Ginji don't even bother to correct each other when it comes to saying their name wrong anymore. It's like they're movie stars or something.

Poor Rumiya, Misa's more rough than Misao, did he forget about that? She abuses ya as much as Ramia... okay not really. Tsunami was being Tsunami.
 

Jex

Member
Ugh, fine, if it stops you posting more beautiful screenshots :p

Thing is, I don't really like hardcore sci-fi; I'm a fantasy nerd. Am I still going to like this? For instance I find the Seikai series to be rather boring, let alone the older 80s Matsumoto stuff with its leaden melodrama.

Well it's certainly not a leaden melodrama and it doesn't have the feel of a 70's or 80's show. It's not really the kind of show you have to a be a sci-fi nerd to like, even though that's the setting of the universe and the heart of the property. I can't predict exactly how you'll find it but you should at least give it say, three episodes because it takes the series a little bit of time to find it's feet.
 

Walkure Romanze 6

So we've now come to the episode were all the girls get equal amount of screen time hanging around with the MC.

He still probably not going choose Celia, so that just makes me entirely depressed.

I did enjoy seeing everyone attacked by those disgusting rats with tails.
 
Are there any new, promising, animation studios or is the scene pretty much stagnant? I know of studio Khara but isn't that more like a studio splitting into two?
 

Shergal

Member
Are there any new, promising, animation studios or is the scene pretty much stagnant? I know of studio Khara but isn't that more like a studio splitting into two?

How new exactly? I'd say ufotable but they've been around for a while. They're still 'new' compared with studios like MADHOUSE or Sunrise who have been around since the 70s.
Speaking of MADHOUSE, there's Maruyama's new studio MAPPA for which Watanabe was supposedly directing a show in 2014. Dunno where that went.
 

Jex

Member
How new exactly? I'd say ufotable but they've been around for a while. They're still 'new' compared with studios like MADHOUSE or Sunrise who have been around since the 70s.
Speaking of MADHOUSE, there's Maruyama's new studio MAPPA for which Watanabe was supposedly directing a show in 2014. Dunno where that went.

Too busy with Teekyu.
 

cajunator

Banned

I dont understand why they never showed her face. Its so stupid.

It's why I said the new striker probably leveled her magic out, because magic butt powers.


Perrine is PERFECTLY CUTE.

Perrine is pretty adorable. Who voices Sanya?

You should! Ouran's ending is joyous.

I've seen at least one episode of every one of Bones's TV shows - even Hiwou Senki! I've finished:

Angelic Layer (harmless fun)
RahXephon (a masterpiece - suck it, Corvo :p)
Wolf's Rain (mostly very good, shame about SARS)
Scrapped Princess (I probably wouldn't tolerate Pacifica nowawadays but at the time it was pretty good, terrible plot twist notwithstanding
when Pacifica got amnesia
)
FMA 1 (I loved the Aikawa original plot!)
Ouran (fluff, but very well executed fluff)
Jyu-Oh-Sei (the ending leaves a bad taste in the mouth due to rushed pacing but otherwise pretty enjoyable - amazing art design in particular)
Darker Than Black 1 (excellent)
Skullman (takes a while to get going before it really takes off)
Xam'd (I adored this show, wanky dialogue and unresolved plotlines and all.)

I intend to finish Kurau, 20 Faces and Star Driver some day; the rest were either naff or held little interest for me.

I highly recommend Angelic Layer and Scrapped Princess from that list. Angelic Layer in particular. so good.
 

Articalys

Member
Seems that Discotek randomly announced another bunch of old-school licenses/rescues for 2014:

- the 1989 Lupin TV movie Lupin III: Bye Bye Liberty Crisis
- the 1993 two-episode OVA Dragon Half
- 1995 TV series DNA²
- the "Fatal Fury OVAs", which I assume are the two TV specials Legend of the Hungry Wolf and The New Battle (previously released together as Fatal Fury Double Impact)
 
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