it really feels like a project made by some folks who were really into the subject matter. This isn't a bad thing, but it's interesting to see an anime made in this day and age that says - 'I really like jazz, so I am going to make a show with a lot of jazz in it.' It's like a throwback to an earlier time.
This reminded me of one of the interview questions with the author of the Miniskirt Space Pirates/Bodacious Space Pirates novels prior to the TV version airing.
http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/mo-retsu/special/comment.html
●『ミニスカ宇宙海賊』のテーマやコンセプトは何でしょうか？ What's the theme/concept behind Miniskirt Space Pirates? It's designed to sell, based on the concept, "A high school girl in a miniskirt who's a space pirate sounds like fun, right?" (laugh)
So, what it was was, I wanted to do a "proper" sci-fi story with a solid depiction of outer space. But I figured if "proper sci-fi" was all it was, it would be too hardcore for anyone to want to read it, so I dressed it up with "high school girls" and "space pirates" to soften things in hopes that would get me some readership. (laugh) In this animated adaptation, they're going to be picking up those "proper sci-fi" elements and presenting it as such, so you can definitely look forward to that.
There's one thing that really bothers me about Kids on the Slope, like, really bothers me.
It's those god damn line that are drawn over peoples faces when they're supposed to be 'embarrassed' or 'angry' or what have you. It looks weirdly artificial and it doesn't jive the shows naturalistic, low-key art style at all.
This episode should have been so much cooler than it was. The set pieces were often confusing in their execution, and some of the pacing just didn't feel very well thought out. Why explain the scale stuff with a scene where Jigen is on the boat, do nothing there, then cut to a city street and have the scale stuff come into play once more? Stuff like this could have been condensed into one scene, and the end result is an episode that feels more like it was designed to keep the staff busy than to entertain viewers.
It's those god damn line that are drawn over peoples faces when they're supposed to be 'embarrassed' or 'angry' or what have you. It looks weirdly artificial and it doesn't jive the shows naturalistic, low-key art style at all.
Sorry, ignorant peasant here... what is "art" (not 'the Arts' or 'Bellas Artes' but the descriptive "art") anyway? How is contemporaneously used that word? Interestingly, I think that instead of accusations everyone should have stated first what considers "art" (we have to make a database of each member perception out of this) for the discussion to have an starting point so we all could have tackled it and participated on a better position.
I appreciate such a matter to discuss because, frankly, I don't quite understand that kind of abstract label used to lump together everything considered a self-conscious act of expression or communication... isn't everything called "art" just exploitable culture? What isn't economically exploitable nowadays? So... can't anything be monetized? And with this notion... what is left of yourself on something you are doing out of interest? How can anyone testify the authors intentions of pleasing the others interests or pleasing his own interests? Although inherently this are questions about the medium we discuss on here, should I have made a new thread about this or directly shut up? I would be grateful in seeing any of your opinions or responses to this questions, or any other related.
"______ is art" "_____ is not art" are arguments that occur pretty often in the video game medium and there are plenty of threads regarding it (See any Ebert "video games are not art" thread). You already made the point as to the ridiculousness of the argument, people have their own interpretations. So if you want to know why games aren't "art" you can ask pizzaroll for his opinion. Or if you want to know why games are "art" you can ask someone else who agrees with that statement. But, as you mentioned this might not be the best place to discuss it
Nice to finally see some interaction between the cast at last. Story wise it was a bit predictable but none the less it kept me entertained throughout.
I was surprised to find Funimation on this weeks Rooster Teeth podcast talking about the Mass Effect Anime. These might already be known, but some these were the most notable tidbits:
Bioware were very tight lipped about the story and wouldn't reveal much about what happened in Mass Effect 3 to the production team beyond what related to James Vega.
Mix of 2D art with 3D assests, the latter of which sound like they are reappopriated game assets.
Pretty weird interview otherwise. Not much Funimation could say and not much Rooster Teeth had to ask.
Well... They're really trying hard to differentiate one episode from the next. First, a magical girlfriend episode. Then an idol episode, followed by a cooking & drama episode. The fourth was some kind of prison/mafia soap opera, and now... A Michael Moore film about
the dangers brought to society by the Sengoku jidai samurai who mysteriously appeared in present day Tokyo.
That was bizarre. Maybe even a little fun, haha. If we're going to do this for another twenty weeks or so... Hopefully the next episodes will have little twists like this one.
This episode, and I am not kidding, was a straight-up parody of Bowling for Columbine and Michael Moore's aggressive, truth-bending, manipulative documentary style. It is the single most bizarre episode of anime that I've watched in a long, long time, and I'm still trying to understand what just happened and how the hell a.) the Japanese even know who Michael Moore is and b.) someone at Brains Base saw a purple-haired loli with pointy hair and demon horns and thought "hmm, this subject is ripe for parody of a foreign documentary on gun control!" Even if you've sworn that you wouldn't touch this series with a ten-foot pole, you need to see this episode.
Let's begin as I usually do with my Sengoku Collection impression posts:
The historical Tsukahara Bokuden once won a battle without drawing his sword by tricking his opponent into stranding himself on an island.
Sengoku Collection Tsukahara Bokuden likes to embarrass her enemies on live national television.
Now that that's over with, I present to you anime Michael Moore:
Or as the anime calls him, Morse. Bokuden is just minding her business teaching students in her dojo one day when this guy bursts through the door and confronts her about teaching swordsmanship to people, claiming that the presence of Sengoku girls in modern times is causing sword-related violence in Japan to skyrocket. Yes, that's right, Japanese sword culture is being used in place of American gun culture for the parody. After the initial confrontation, the show switches to documentary-style with other Sengoku girls being asked about the subject of swordsmanship and whether or not Bokuden is a dangerous person:
At first, it seems like this is where the parody ends and the show is admitting that Bokuden is so boring a character that the rest of the episode is just going to consist of other people talking about her. But no, it's at this point that the episode truly goes off the deep end...
...and becomes a full-on Michael Moore documentary parody. In a several-minute tirade against swords, several accounts of sword violence are recounted, graphs comparing Japan's level of sword violence to that in other countries are shown, and finally, we arrive at what is probably the most amazing thing in the episode, a parody of Moore's explanatory cartoons that break down complex issues in simple ways:
The insane logic that the cartoon uses to prove that swords turn the Japanese into bloodthirsty monsters is pretty amazing to behold. The documentary ends, and we find out that Bokuden has been watching the documentary on her television the entire time:
And she's not happy that her interview in the documentary was edited in such a way that she's made to appear to be a psychotic killer when, in reality, she had spoken out against using swords to kill for the entire interview. After discussing the problem with a couple of her other Sengoku friends who were also misrepresented, she hatches a plan to trick Morse into doing an interview on live television so that he won't have a chance to edit her words.
I won't go into too much detail, but the live segment is pretty amazing. True to his real-life counterpart's tactics, Morse trots out a wheelchair-bound victim of sword violence and demands that a Sengoku girl appear to apologize to the boy and promise never to use swords again. I won't go into too much detail, but the live interview backfires spectacularly and
Bokuden tricks one of her rivals into trying to kill Morse, which scares him so much that he gives up doing documentaries entirely
.
And as if the Bowling for Columbine references weren't obvious enough, Brains Base hammers it home one more time at the end of the episode with some really interesting architecture:
Random Samurais. What the fuck are they doing here?
What influences are they bringing upon modern society?
Why is
killing with a sword placed in more positive connotation than other methods of murder
?
What are the secrets of the shifty media editing process?
These are hard questions that must be answered to the public!
Yes, seeing this tubby man interviewing these peeps for a documentary has been much better than anything else the show has brought forth thus far. Also bringing up the aspect of
media presence and reputation being able to crush people of many strengths. Finally, summing up to the preference that both the camera and the sword are weapons and should be used with care and regulation.
Not competing with many of the other shows I'm watching, but this episode didn't make me want to rip my hair out. It actually wasn't too bad. Progress!
Betting on it getting to its signature bad next week.
GAF hype for episode 4 brought me back on board, and I'm glad it did.
Episode 2: Not much to say. It was fun, though.
Episode 3: Kaoru may have his whiny moments, but he was in maximum bro-mode trying to hook Sentaro up with Yurika. Sentaro going full retard in the invitation scene actually made me laugh, which anime rarely manages to do intentionally.
The confession scene at the end was half charming and half cringe-inducing. I realize that Kaoru is a nerdy, inexperienced teenager so how he did it makes sense...but goddamn.
Episode 4: Jesus christ, Kaoru.
That spontaneous kiss would have been quite smooth if he hadn't already been rejected by Ritsuko AND if they didn't just finish buying a heartfelt gift for the guy who Ritsuko is actually crushing on.
Sentaro
having a shitty childhood
was expected, but I liked how they did it nonetheless.
Brother Yun looks kind of old for Yurika. Regardless, I hope they complete the NTR circle by making him have the hots for Kaoru instead.
Surprisingly, three out of the five episodes haven't outright sucked so far. Episode 02 was watchable, episode 04 was actually kind of good, and episode 05 is in a league of its own. If it can keep doing absolutely batshit crazy stuff like this, it might permanently leave joke series status for me.
I dunno, with them already running into the lesser known Sengoku generals and people this early in the show, this might have been their best episode ever and everything else will be crap.
I dunno, with them already running into the lesser known Sengoku generals and people this early in the show, this might have been their best episode ever and everything else will be crap.
This was the first episode I haven't thought bad/terrible.
The other ranking within slightly different levels of those ratings.
I have little reason to believe it will get much better, (I have too many other shows to really care), but time will tell. That said, this past episode certainly wasn't a bad start to improvement.
The more interesting angle to adaptation and elements of the modern world not dealing with the attempted robbery of a 7-11 is quite the plus.
Just to reinforce this, Oda Nobunaga, the most famous person of the entire Sengoku era, had the worst episode so far. The Sengoku Collection characters share only the most basic similarities with their historical counterparts, so there's absolutely no way to tell beforehand whether or not an episode will be terrible.
Tsuritama 4 - Didn't really like this episode, it seemed to lack the energetic feel of the previous episodes, the direction wasn't as interesting, and nothing much happened plot-wise other then some development in the relationships between the characters. There were two scenes that was pretty satisfying and fun to watch though, but overall didn't think much of the episode, and it's probably my least favorite one in the series thus far.
Kids on the Slope 4 - This episode was incredible from start-to-finish, I am having some reservations about how they are handling some of the supporting characters relationships, but the kaoru and sentaro stuff is just pitch-perfect as far as I'm concerned.
Just to reinforce this, Oda Nobunaga, the most famous person of the entire Sengoku era, had the worst episode so far. The Sengoku Collection characters share only the most basic similarities with their historical counterparts, so there's absolutely no way to tell beforehand whether or not an episode will be terrible.
Actually, Tokugawa Ieyasu had the worst episode. But yeah, there's no correlation between the quality of an episode and the fame of the featured general.
That was way too convenient a plot point for them all to be selected for the audition. I wonder if Mamoru will still Tuxedo Mask Usagi with his lost memories? I guess I'll find out soon!
"______ is art" "_____ is not art" are arguments that occur pretty often in the video game medium and there are plenty of threads regarding it (See any Ebert "video games are not art" thread). You already made the point as to the ridiculousness of the argument, people have their own interpretations. So if you want to know why games aren't "art" you can ask pizzaroll for his opinion. Or if you want to know why games are "art" you can ask someone else who agrees with that statement. But, as you mentioned this might not be the best place to discuss it
Oh well, I have maybe shown my opinion too much and come as aggressive or biased, I didn't want to turn this into a more broad or higher level argument and it is true this isn't the place. As the public discussion here already took place I was interested in knowing their opinion on those things as a base to understand better their respective positions and consequently the past discussion itself, because precisely it is subjective matter I wanted to know what each of them think is "art" as a definition, not to demonstrate anything just genuine curiosity. That is why I formulated questions as is.
