I'm not disagreeing with you on that. At all. And as of episode 13 Simone no longer consumes all the screentime anyway, so my complaint was a brief and moot one. Although the opening intro's definitely misled, what with the guy shown during the "This is the story of a man" bit having Kamina's cape and all. But I still don't disagree. It's definitely Simone's story and he's not hogging all the screentime anymore, so I'm over it.
Patlabor The Movie:
Having somehow never seen anything Patlabor related up until now, I nonetheless jumped on buying those limited editions when they were linked to, and have no rectified my past sins by watching the first movie.
Sweet lord, that was incredible. Right from the opening, it was a gorgeous film. That opening sequence was just amazing, with wonderful animation, great art, awesome direction and great music, and it really set the stage for the whole film. Visually, it was a joy to watch, with some really beautiful scenes, awesome architecture and great character work. The facial expressions were great throughout the film, right from that very first shot with a sinister smile. I wish everything could look this good at all times. The soundtrack throughout the movie was very well used, too. There were so many scenes that were really enhanced because of how perfectly the music created a particular feeling, and they were able to tell a great story even when there were extended periods without much dialogue.
But even leaving the visuals aside, this was just an amazing movie. The plot moved along with some great turns, and the characters were great. The story about the way workers are treated by the corporations is one that transcends setting, but it worked so well here, tying in with how the technology has advanced, and how
everyone "important" is ready to brush everything away as user error and just assume that it's the labor class that is screwing things up, because they're unimportant
. Combined with that, you have the relentless march of technology, and the loss of our roots as everything is paved over for the new hotness. It fits the time period to a tee, and evokes that feeling of loneliness even in a major city.
I also loved that the final end is
after the 'save the world' plot is resolved, and is instead a personal conflict. It puts the focus squarely where it should be: on the real people who are living and fighting and dying in this story, rather than on the epic scale
.
There's still so much I have to process from this movie, but I think it's safe to say that it's going to find a place high among my favorite anime films. I'm only sorry that it took me so many years to see this.
Yeah Spring was certainly swell, even with the disappointments of Lupin, and to a lesser degree, SSO. From the New World seems like the only show left that has a shot to challenge those 3, although it's certainly hurt it's chances in previous weeks.
Fate/Zero dropped a bit in my eyes after the issues with the final episodes and the lack of extended content that we were hoping to see added to expand on certain elements. As of now my choice will be between Hyouka and Tsuritama for the top 2 spots.
Considering how few people are watching it, yeah I don't think it has much of a chance. Tsuritama might not make the top10 either, despite being worthy of a top3 position.
Don't be vague and ominous. I'm already upset that
I didn't even see so much as a grave.
Now I won't sleep tonight.
Gundam SEED Destiny 13 This is the first episode I definitely remembered from the show, with the enemy breaking into Kira and Lacus' pad and their nifty escape. It was also my introduction to the Freedom. There's a lot of talk about how broken the Freedom is, and its ability to cause pinky explosions across the entire battlefield IS pretty awesome, but I think Wing Zero still outdoes it in terms of broken Gundams. Mostly because Wing Zero's Zero System, providing it doesn't drive you insane, operates as a better-than-SEED-mode, letting you see the future and stuff, but also there's the whole ridiculously OP Buster Cannon, which can destroy entire space colonies in one hit.
Anyway, Kira is full on God-Mode, able to go SEED at will now, but what's interesting is that, peppy as his speech to Lacus was, it's pretty obvious from the Thousand Yard Stare on his face that the boy is a shell-shocked veteran. Which makes Athrun's appeal to him for answers all the weirder, since technically speaking Athrun has done a much better job than Kira at coping with post-war life. The former just sits on his porch and PTSDs all day, whereas Athrun's managed to maintain a functional life.
I'm sorry to say that as dumb as I know things get from here, I really do like this show.
Considering how few people are watching it, yeah I don't think it has much of a chance. Tsuritama might not make the top10 either, despite being worthy of a top3 position.
I don't know if anyone else does this, but I keep a mental checklist of all of the powerline shots in anime. You know the shot I'm talking about, it's almost part of the visual language of the medium. It's always unnecessarily detailed and baroque for reasons I cannot fathom. Even SAO 21 had one of these shots:
I guess I started noticing these shots while watching Serial Experiments Lain because they're almost used like punctuation marks in that show.
I don't know if anyone else does this, but I keep a mental checklist of all of the powerline shots in anime. You know the shot I'm talking about, it's almost part of the visual language of the medium. It's always unnecessarily detailed and baroque for reasons I cannot fathom. Even SAO 21 had one of these shots:
I guess I started noticing these shots while watching Serial Experiments Lain because they're almost used like punctuation marks in that show.
I don't know if anyone else does this, but I keep a mental checklist of all of the powerline shots in anime. You know the shot I'm talking about, it's almost part of the visual language of the medium. It's always unnecessarily detailed and baroque for reasons I cannot fathom. Even SAO 21 had one of these shots:
I guess I started noticing these shots while watching Serial Experiments Lain because they're almost used like punctuation marks in that show.
I don't know if anyone else does this, but I keep a mental checklist of all of the powerline shots in anime. You know the shot I'm talking about, it's almost part of the visual language of the medium. It's always unnecessarily detailed and baroque for reasons I cannot fathom. Even SAO 21 had one of these shots:
I guess I started noticing these shots while watching Serial Experiments Lain because they're almost used like punctuation marks in that show.
Looking for screencaps to post on whatthemovie (anyone else on this site?), I had to watch the Digimon movie by Hosoda again. What a beautiful film (short?).
I feel like I'm supposed to feel something for the shy, bullied, glasses-wearing, hime-cut Kana Hanazawa character. Unfortunately my heart belongs to Natsume.
I feel like I'm supposed to feel something for the shy, bullied, glasses-wearing, hime-cut Kana Hanazawa character. Unfortunately my heart belongs to Natsume.
