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Fall Anime 2014 lOTl Unlimited Tomino Works

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DiGiKerot

Member
Ordered the Australian release of Date A Live (BR) because I've given up hope of it getting released in the UK. It's the same region (B) so I'm assuming it'll run fine, but someone kindly let me know if I'm wrong.

It'll run fine - in reality, a lot of UK BD releases are repurposed from Australian ones, semi-frequently without any changes.
 

Jarmel

Banned
No it isn't. It's a completely valid form of representation, and great melodramatic stories exist since Greek tragedies.

If anything, the problem with the hammy bits in Kimiuso is that they're at odds with other parts of the show. It's not exclusive to the drama moments, the physical deformed comedy carries the same issue. It's a problem with tonal consistency.

I would say it's three problems. The first being the heavy exaggeration of any emotion in the show, this not being limited to just the dramatic elements. The second is the lack of any proper build up to justify the exaggeration of these emotions. These dramatic moments just happen quickly and in a very heavy handed manner. Like in episode 4, the lead is playing fine then he completely fucks up. The third being the lack of breathing room in scenes, to let certain events breathe.
 

CDiggity

Member
Fate Side/Mouth 1-4

At this point, I think I'll just wait for webms of the fight scenes to come out and watch those instead. I already know the story and unless the adaptation takes serious liberties with the plot, there is no reason for me to watch this outside of the battle scenes which are really well done.

Rin is still best girl, but good god she got the short end of the character design stick
 

Turin

Banned
Good name ;)

Excellent character. ;)

Tokyo Ghoul I think. And no, I wouldn't classify it as good. And that illustration doesn't really show the series tone so...

Well, damn.
I liked the femdom-ish vibe of the picture. :p

The anime Tokyo Ghoul is good if you count it as a standalone, because the manga is infinitely better than the anime. But in the anime's case episode 1, 8, and 12 makes the anime worth a watch. And it has a great Opening and really well done OST. So if you do end up reading the manga in any case watch the anime first.

Also one of my top favorite manga series.

I'm not a manga reader tbh. I might check it out just for the hell of it.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Ordered the Australian release of Date A Live (BR) because I've given up hope of it getting released in the UK. It's the same region (B) so I'm assuming it'll run fine, but someone kindly let me know if I'm wrong.

First you take our 3DS's, now you take our Date a Live blu-rays.
 

javac

Member
Will the bonus disc contain On Your Mark?
I think that's the plan, it came with the Japanese Miyazaki set too. The Japanese Bonus disc contained the following:

Also comes two bonus discs containing "Yuki no Taiyo" pilot film (5mn), "Akado Susu no Suke" (episodes 26,27, 41 for a total of 30mn), "On Your Mark" video clip, and Hayao Miyazaki press conference on his retirement (90mn). Discs come in digipak with illustrated jacket. Also includes booklet. As bonus of individual release are not included, transfer rate is slightly better.
 
Sailor Moon R 05

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So, it's out with the old and in with the new.

New transformation sequence and a new weapon. Usagi is still Usagi though (and Rei is Rei).
 

Jarmel

Banned
New anime kickstarter for a 10 minute pilot (120k goal) by LeSean Thomas:
Cannon Busters

Bahi JD and Thomas Romain are working on it. It's being produced by Satelight so not sure if I'm going to donate.

There's a thread in OT (where I'm getting into a pissing match over whether it qualifies to be termed an anime or not).
 

Midonin

Member
Shigofumi 04-13 + Final Thoughts

This is one of the heavier anime I've seen. Especially episode six. That one didn't even air on a certain station, and I can see why. After seeing it in full, I'm going to have to revise. It doesn't remind me of Ballad as much, especially since the reaper figure in question becomes the central part of the plot, as opposed to remaining on the edges as time goes on. The strongest thing this reminds me of is Sankarea. The family situations are very similar, as is the theme of a girl dealing with a loss of identity and being "reborn". From the looks of it, the anime and the novels are almost completely different in... everything except for Fumika being the central character and the premise.

Which I'm okay with. The story of the anime was clearly paced to be in an animated format, while the novel appears to be closer to Ballad than Sankarea. Leaving
Fumi and Mika
to be their own people, especially now that they have their own bodies, is a finale I'm, again, okay with. Episode 10 was also pretty touching. Seeing how Fumika explained the concept of a Shigofumi to a young girl, as "a last chance for a miracle", as opposed to how blunt she was with everybody else, really cast a different light on her.

This is one of those anime that requires being in a certain mood to watch. Not a slight against it, because I thought it was a well-connected story with a lot to say. The connection between parents and children in particular was a pretty key element of things. I was thinking it was going to be an anthology, but there's already Ballad for that. Good stuff.


After a slight delay, in the month that roughly corresponds to its title, I'm going to tackle Destiny of the Shrine Maiden.
 

javac

Member
Anime Limited posted some pics of their Ultimate Set for Giovanni’s Island. No idea is the movie is good, but I'd hazard a guess and say that it is.
What’s inside the box?
  • Collector’s Packaging, 18.1 x 21cm
  • 96 paged softback book delving deeper into the world of Giovanni’s Island – including the historical background, production and art.
  • 55 minutes of extra features including a comprehensive Making Of (38 mins), Digital Art Gallery, Interview with the Russian voice of Tanya & a Troika music clip which was unused in the film!
  • Limited to 1000 copies only in the world – so it’s a rare chance to own the best possible edition of Giovanni’s Island on the market. Art card inside certifying the number the release is in the series.
  • Dubbed and subtitled versions of the film on both Blu-Ray and DVD.


It was £50 before, but now available for £39. Looks nice, but too much for just a film imo. Standard Blu-ray also available for £14. Anyone seen the film? It's nice that they put effort into these releases however, kinda take it for granted. Look forward to their release of Escaflowne and Baccano on Blu-ray, both of which I haven't seen yet so tha will be nice first viewing of those shows.
 
Tokyo Ghoul. This is not an popular opinion round these parts but it is quite alright. Especially now that the uncensored version is releasing.



lol You haven't seen anything yet. Good luck with episode 4.

Yeah I finished Nisemonogatari. It was ok but no where near as good as Bakemonogatari. Wish it could've kept the same tone and direction as the first series. Episode 12 of Bakemonogatari is my favorite so far. Onto Nekomonogatari now.
 

Jarmel

Banned
So I found this interview in August 2014 with Otsuka from Trigger, hosted by Alexander Grant(Pixar). Anyway some minor interesting details:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnaAfXcaDJs

-The copyrights from an Anime Mirai production revert back to the studio after three months of the theatrical run.
-Two early versions of LWA. One being the one we saw. The other was more action heavy. Yoshinari chose the current one as he felt the animators might relate to the girls more as the girls are learning just like the animators.
-Claims that they left Gainax not due to creative restrictions but rather as they wanted a challenge.
-An average anime episode has bare minimum of 3000 drawings, a good one has 6000. Otsuka stated that Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill had 8000 drawings per episode. KLK's number is probably heavily padded. LWA had 17,000 drawings.
-Otsuka stated that anime is more for a younger audience compared to manga.
-"Imaishi is basically an adult [child]"
 
Bahamut - 05

The supernatural elements with all the angels and demons sort of gets in the way of what I want this show to be. Eldoradoesque adventure with the supernatural constricted to the bounty hunting.
While this episode was in no way bad, it left me wanting to go back to the earlier episodes.
 

TUSR

Banned
So I found this interview in August 2014 with Otsuka from Trigger, hosted by Alexander Grant(Pixar). Anyway some minor interesting details:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnaAfXcaDJs

-The copyrights from an Anime Mirai production revert back to the studio after three months of the theatrical run.
-Two early versions of LWA. One being the one we saw. The other was more action heavy. Yoshinari chose the current one as he felt the animators might relate to the girls more as the girls are learning just like the animators.
-Claims that they left Gainax not due to creative restrictions but rather as they wanted a challenge.
-An average anime episode has bare minimum of 3000 drawings, a good one has 6000. Otsuka stated that Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill had 8000 drawings per episode. KLK's number is probably heavily padded. LWA had 17,000 drawings.
-Otsuka stated that anime is more for a younger audience compared to manga.
-"Imaishi is basically an adult [child]"

Can't wait to watch LWA today, hopefully they deliver it. Been waiting to watch the making of until I got the BD.

8000 per Kill la Kill episode seems like a stretch, there are only a couple I could see hitting that number without significant padding.
 

Branduil

Member
Rage of Bahamut 5

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Some unintended Arjuna and Glass Fleet references in this episode.

I love how much happens in every episode of this show without it feeling rushed. Curious what the guy with the necklace's role in the story is.
 

Jex

Member
A thought about Cross Ange.

At first, I expected Adolf Hitler in anime form, given the initial outrage and scorn. But you know, more than super awful ohgod, this is just the typical Sunrise mech show, so in other words a mix of being bad, stupid and a bit too crazy and schizophrenic and trying too much, in their usual ways. It's just more trashy than their usual works thanks to the ever present fanservice (from the suits to some riskier scenes included because it seems they chose to aim directly the adult otaku fan instead of the teenager otaku fan, so more edginess/ecchi is allowed); but at the core behind all the tits and butts it's just another Sunrise show, with a mc going from the bottom to slowly turning into a hero and learning to make friends, a conspiracy to revolt against society, a kludgey romance interest that hides more than seen at first sight, I bet some stupid twist at the mid of the season with the dragons, a moustache-twirling bad guy, etc.
This is the weird thing about Sunrise's "nutty" mecha shows like Valvrave and Cross Ange. I can't tell if they're just making weird, deliberately trash mecha shows to somehow 'capture' the Code Geass effect or if it's just a case of them making bad shows. This thought only occurs to me because I'm not sure what the 'audience' is for shows like Valvrave and Cross Ange. They certainly aren't conventionally appealing shows.

Cross Ange, for example, has the look and feel of a fanservice show, except it's far too unpleasant in many scenes to be simply that. As I've mentioned before, it borrows heavily from exploitation films but it also borrows from old shoujo manga and from mecha shows. At the same time, it also makes fun of itself and shuns it's serious tone. I just don't know who it's for.
 

jman2050

Member
Can't wait to watch LWA today, hopefully they deliver it. Been waiting to watch the making of until I got the BD.

8000 per Kill la Kill episode seems like a stretch, there are only a couple I could see hitting that number without significant padding.

Each keyframe was drawn by six different animators and they picked each used keyframe via lottery.
 

jgminto

Member
This is the weird thing about Sunrise's "nutty" mecha shows like Valvrave and Cross Ange. I can't tell if they're just making weird, deliberately trash mecha shows to somehow 'capture' the Code Geass effect or if it's just a case of them making bad shows. This thought only occurs to me because I'm not sure what the 'audience' is for shows like Valvrave and Cross Ange. They certainly aren't conventionally appealing shows.

Cross Ange, for example, has the look and feel of a fanservice show, except it's far too unpleasant in many scenes to be simply that. As I've mentioned before, it borrows heavily from exploitation films but it also borrows from old shoujo manga and from mecha shows. At the same time, it also makes fun of itself and shuns it's serious tone. I just don't know who it's for.

It was pretty clear what they were going for with Valvrave.
 
i think spiderman would be the perfect fit to handle those harmless titans :)

Sure, if he's getting some of them blades that is.

Honestly, what the hell. I like both properties and I can see how Spider-Man fits this whole "3D Maneuver" idea, but I still don't want that...I think. Probably because I really like the world building in AoT so far (yehyeh, fuck me *shrug*) and I dislike spin-offs and worse these kind of crossovers for messing that up. Yes, even if it's just a cool "what if" spin-off that I should be able to ignore, my brain doesn't want to cooperate in that regard.

Well, let's see what they've got in store I suppose.

Shingeki no Bahamut - 05

Really liked this episode. The overall pacing is really good and if we're lucky Favaro and Kaisar can finally clear up the misunderstanding and we get a party of four to boot!
 

Narag

Member
Cross Ange, for example, has the look and feel of a fanservice show, except it's far too unpleasant in many scenes to be simply that. As I've mentioned before, it borrows heavily from exploitation films but it also borrows from old shoujo manga and from mecha shows. At the same time, it also makes fun of itself and shuns it's serious tone. I just don't know who it's for.

Wow, maybe it's for me.
 
Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis 05

Yeah, the angel/demon stuff does kind of obstruct the best part of the show. But this was by no means a bad episode. Good action sequences and pretty stuff going on the whole time.
Maybe our group is all assembled now? If Kaisar can go a minute without trying to kill Favaro?
 
This is the weird thing about Sunrise's "nutty" mecha shows like Valvrave and Cross Ange. I can't tell if they're just making weird, deliberately trash mecha shows to somehow 'capture' the Code Geass effect or if it's just a case of them making bad shows. This thought only occurs to me because I'm not sure what the 'audience' is for shows like Valvrave and Cross Ange. They certainly aren't conventionally appealing shows.

Cross Ange, for example, has the look and feel of a fanservice show, except it's far too unpleasant in many scenes to be simply that. As I've mentioned before, it borrows heavily from exploitation films but it also borrows from old shoujo manga and from mecha shows. At the same time, it also makes fun of itself and shuns it's serious tone. I just don't know who it's for.

After the montage scene in episode 5, with the vocals and song trying to make a calmer "the sweet moments and memories, romance sprouts" thing also includes a moment where the frontal side of her thong falls and her crotch is again on his face (with him sporting a nosebleed) I'm convinced. It isn't humanly possible to make something that bad and against the tone of their own scene in an accidental form, there is no way. So they are doing it knowingly, almost trolling us, knowing the thing they are directing is a mess tonally speaking so it has to be taken with a wink in the eye.
 

JCG

Member
This is the weird thing about Sunrise's "nutty" mecha shows like Valvrave and Cross Ange. I can't tell if they're just making weird, deliberately trash mecha shows to somehow 'capture' the Code Geass effect or if it's just a case of them making bad shows. This thought only occurs to me because I'm not sure what the 'audience' is for shows like Valvrave and Cross Ange. They certainly aren't conventionally appealing shows.

Cross Ange, for example, has the look and feel of a fanservice show, except it's far too unpleasant in many scenes to be simply that. As I've mentioned before, it borrows heavily from exploitation films but it also borrows from old shoujo manga and from mecha shows. At the same time, it also makes fun of itself and shuns it's serious tone. I just don't know who it's for.

Rather than Sunrise in general, I think it all comes down to staff rotation and especially the various directors or writers involved. Their common objective is always to be entertaining and make money, of course, but I think there are significant variations beyond that point when it comes to the issue of execution. Each production has its own unique circumstances as well as its respective flaws and virtues that are reflected in their distinct outcomes. Code Geass had more conventional appeal among the viewership than what Valvrave or Cross Ange could hope to achieve and I credit Taniguchi for this. He let the writers run wild with deliberately crazy contents but also oversaw some legitimately engaging parts that a significant percentage of the audience did truly care for, whether in whole or in part, so it served a dual purpose. Those who think it's only about insanity are merely getting half the experience (or less).

Then Valvrave just took all the craziness and ran with it, since Okouchi already knew how to make something enjoyable in that sense, but outside of some purely technical competence and nice storyboarding by Kou Matsuo, the series ultimately felt hollow and underwhelming at its core (even leaving aside the whole "rape" controversy). While popularity does not always equal quality, I think its commercially mediocre results do correlate to this. I don't have a clue about what's going to happen with Cross Ange and won't stick around to find out, but it seems to be the result of Mitsuo Fukuda giving ideas to a relatively untested writer with a more experienced yet still low profile director. It's only unique in how far it's willing to go with exploitation and fanservice at the expense of everything else. In my opinion, the self-awareness angle is not new and I also feel it doesn't do enough to compensate for the rest.

In short, I don't think craziness is bad, but I believe Cross Ange is the bad kind of crazy.
 

Firemind

Member
Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis 05

Yeah, the angel/demon stuff does kind of obstruct the best part of the show. But this was by no means a bad episode. Good action sequences and pretty stuff going on the whole time.
Maybe our group is all assembled now? If Kaisar can go a minute without trying to kill Favaro?
Needs Jeanne to pave the way for yuri.
 

Crocodile

Member
Bahamut - Genesis 5

I wish the production values were as good as they were back in episode 1 and the sound was a bit off in places but otherwise this was a great episode. Every episode so far has felt like it could be its own (or half of a) Hollywood movie and this episode was no different.

I don't know if its because the writing is so strong or just that writing in most other anime is so SHIT, but I REALLY appreciate that every time I'm left to wonder "why did that happen?", "how does X know Y", etc. the show always has a logical, sensical answer waiting in the wings. I also think they are doing a great job of weaving the going-ons of the world at large into the lives and narrative of Favaro et al. It doesn't feel ham-fisted but rather smooth and logical. Favaro and Kaiser do need to have a pow-wow soon to clear the air between them - its about time for the team up to begin in earnest.

I do wonder if Cerebrus is ever going to do anything but lounge around in her underwear though :p
 

Jex

Member
Rather than Sunrise in general, I think it all comes down to staff rotation and especially the various directors or writers involved. Their common objective is always to be entertaining and make money, of course, but I think there are significant variations beyond that point when it comes to the issue of execution. Each production has its own unique circumstances as well as its respective flaws and virtues that are reflected in their distinct outcomes. Code Geass had more conventional appeal among the viewership than what Valvrave or Cross Ange could hope to achieve and I credit Taniguchi for this. He let the writers run wild with deliberately crazy contents but also oversaw some legitimately engaging parts that a significant percentage of the audience did truly care for, whether in whole or in part, so it served a dual purpose. Those who think it's only about insanity are merely getting half the experience (or less).

Then Valvrave just took all the craziness and ran with it, since Okouchi already knew how to make something enjoyable in that sense, but outside of some purely technical competence and nice storyboarding by Kou Matsuo, the series ultimately felt hollow and underwhelming at its core (even leaving aside the whole "rape" controversy). While popularity does not always equal quality, I think its commercially mediocre results do correlate to this. I don't have a clue about what's going to happen with Cross Ange and won't stick around to find out, but it seems to be the result of Mitsuo Fukuda giving ideas to a relatively untested writer with a more experienced yet still low profile director. It's only unique in how far it's willing to go with exploitation and fanservice at the expense of everything else. In my opinion, the self-awareness angle is not particularly new and I also feel it doesn't do enough to compensate for the rest.

Oh, sure, as always staff are always the most important factor when discussing any show I just find it peculiar that Sunrise would continue to create this kind of original content as an overall strategy.
 
Fate/Stay Night UBW 4

Question for those who've played the VN, at what point are you able to choose which of the 3 paths you go down? The show has given a lot of attention to Rin (as it should since UBW is her romance path in the VN from what I understand) but it still feels like we're in the pre split.

As someone who generally doesn't like harem stuff I think it's decently explained enough in F/SN UBW so far. Saber is living with Shiro with no real romantic interest in him (at this point in the story) more so because she can't dematerialize. This of course this leads to misunderstandings from his sister/cousin/teacher who decides to move in with him (she basically was already living there) to make sure no shacking happens. Obviously Sakura moving in seems the most forced, but it's obvious that Fuji-nee knows Sakura is mad crushing on Shiro and Sakura has been spending a lot of time over there anyways before the Holy Grail War started (not that Fuji-nee knows this) so it works itself out in Fuji's eyes.

Overall the episode was okay, did some character building and world building for first time viewers who missed F/Z. Yeah the "you don't smile" into fire scene was goofy/bad, but overall this is still fairly enjoyable nothing in this episode was so offensive to make me go from really enjoying to "fuck this dropped" especially after how great episode 3 was.
 

jman2050

Member
Fate/Stay Night UBW 4

Question for those who've played the VN, at what point are you able to choose which of the 3 paths you go down? The show has given a lot of attention to Rin (as it should since UBW is her romance path in the VN from what I understand) but it still feels like we're in the pre split.

The end of episode 1 is where the route split would be in the VN.
 
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