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Spring Anime 2012 II | Welcome Home Eureka

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Jex

Member
Wait, AnimeGAF is being realistic/cynical

nevermind

Well, what did you expect?
I'm fine with it. Hardcore anime fans were never the target audience anyway, so I don't understand the upset over the likelihood of the block showing more mainstream series that AnimeGAF has seen already. I'm for whatever gets a new generation interested, a result which still isn't precluded if it ends up being a nostalgia block.

That's totally fine, in theory, but if they do it 'late night' that's never really going yo work.
GARZEY'S WING


Presentation

Honestly, the actual animation itself was much better than I had imagined it would be. Some of the touches to things like the fairy's wings were kind of nice, and some of the action sequences had some nice moments conservatively sprinkled throughout. Some of the settings and objects in the world hinted towards something much grander that could have been fascinating to have seen more of or explored further. I got the sense that some of the staff were really into what they were doing, and you could see it surface as the quality would rise and fall like ocean waves.

The animation really starts to drop-off in quality after episode one, possibly because the first episode didn't do very well when i t was released, who knows.
 
I guess I'll get to find out how crazy Tomino is with full creative control when I finally read my copy of Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation.

That's just not fair, Anno has way more talent than Lucas. Can Lucas draw and animate damn cool explosions? I think not.
Referring to Rebuild, actually. He's a really-great animator in own right, sure, but his directed work is divisive, and the way he's built Evangelion into a big media franchise is Lucas-like.
 

Makoto

Member
So I've been rewatching Baccano, and I had forgotten how lame the ED was. Seriously, ugly CG tracks, floating heads, and a standard pop ballad out of tune with the rest of the show - ick.
I disagree, the slow and straightforward ED was a nice follow-up to conclude the frantic and chaotic nature of a typical Baccano episode.
 

Jex

Member
Hopefully a full series of the original format that the GPX pilot had.

Or maybe season three of Big-O.
: (
I can't imagine many companies wanting to do that kind of thing again, especially after stuff like the Big O season two was a failure.
 
Referring to Rebuild, actually. He's a really-great animator in own right, sure, but his directed work is divisive, and the way he's built Evangelion into a big media franchise is Lucas-like.
Depending on how bad the next two Rebuild movies are, I'm just going to pretend that they don't exist. The original series and the manga are all that exists, as far as I'm concerned. Anno can't be compared to Lucas until he finds a way to put CG into the original series.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
Decided to watch some Dragon Ball Kai today while diablo was down.

I always thought this shit was awesome but wouldn't age well... but damn was I wrong.

eps 89 sure has that sense of speed... damn...

http://i.minus.com/ibfXeCoHkwFp18.gif


After so many years this still cracks me up. So great!

http://i.minus.com/ifBolXGdm86Z4.gif

And the feet down and punching shit still doesn't get old.

http://i.minus.com/ibj2rL9Pm8Ca2U.gif

This show just makes you wanna work out for some reason lol.
This is very sakuga.
Saint Seiya Heaven Chapter: Overture
[...]
Oh, and also don't end it
in the middle of a climactic fight against what was probably the most powerful antagonist in the series.
Seriously, what the fuck?
Oh I remember being pissed off when I originally watched. However, it worked very well at piquing my interest up for the Hades OVA releases, which I guess was the original goal.
 

tiff

Banned
Fortunately, the OP is brilliant enough to make up for that. This is the best "loads of characters" OP out there, because instead of just showing stills of all the characters lounging around somewhere, it comes up with a way to show them all off in action that succinctly expresses their personality, and creative visual transitions between them. It's also smart enough to recognize who the two best characters are, and make sure they get proper attention both at the beginning and the end.
Yeah, probably one of the best OPs I've seen. It's a fantastic introduction to the characters and overall style, as you said, and the frantic pace perfectly sets you up for the show proper.

Anything is going to look bad compared to that, but even still, watching that ED again, ugh. Completely lifeless.
 
Eden of the East TV was a pretty fun if inconsistent scifi modern love story which tackled various social themes which exist in our world today. It's a good thing the director didn't have some stupid idea after that to make movies which continued the story after that point. It would probably have turned out really badly if he did! :)
I'll take that as confirmation to not watch the hypothetical movies if I ever finish the series.
 

Branduil

Member
Well, at least in the original Gundam, that was the point. It was supposed to be the pride and joy of the Federation, and a morale booster of sorts for all units. Kinda like Captain America. It wasn't meant to be a stealth unit.

Indeed, you must watch Brain Powerd if you want Tactical Mechespionage Action.

inQ7WphFIpIHe.gif


iOFMbkMK0hblX.gif


iyqcMHxbgaup0.gif
 

Jex

Member
I feel very conflicted about how anime historians will view Yoshiyuki Tomino, and the same goes for my personal opinions about him.[...]

Common complaints I hear about Tomino revolve around his tendency to create annoying, bratty characters that steal the spotlight and waste precious time with arcs and overall development of the plot and character relationships; issues with pacing, usually because he skips over details, goes too fast, etc.; and, finally, he makes odd choices like killing off characters in droves and a lack of meaningful discrimination (Zeta).[...]

The real problem with me talking about Tomino is that I haven't watched as much of his catalog to track his development as a director, let alone a storyboarder. What does Anime-GAF think of the dood?

Tomino is an important historical figure and a creative ideas man but I really don't think he even understands the basics of scrip writing, directing, storyboarding etc. He appears to be incompetent in every area, as masterpieces such as Garzey's Wing demonstrate. Garzey's Wing was directed, scripted and storyboarded by Tomino and it's absolutely terrible in all of those areas.

Yet, his works are really dull or boring because there's usually too much going on in them, largely because Tomino doesn't have a grasp of concepts like tone or pacing.

As duckroll mentioned above, he needs to work through some kind of filter, ideally a team who know how to use his ideas well.
 

cajunator

Banned
Oh, they certainly exist, it's just that they're much rarer than good OP's, in my experience. Presumably because most studio's front-load the OP's with animation and other exciting stuff because everyone will be seeing it at the start of the show.

While thats true, the Ed is oftentimes a good cool-down session or else a hyper-cute hnng-producer. Both of which I am interested in by the end of an anime.
 

Jex

Member
Oh, and I am reminded that Un-Go's ED and OP feature stuff that isn't even in the main series at all and only appear in the movie released afterwards. What an amazing show.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
For better or worse, both the manga and anime become completely incoherent by the end, and not in the "lol, I don't understand this plot point" sense. It's pretty glorious.
The moment it stops being pseudo-educational and starts focusing on the bread puns is when it all goes to shit.

So about when the tournament arc starts.
 

duckroll

Member
Oh, they certainly exist, it's just that they're much rarer than good OP's, in my experience. Presumably because most studio's front-load the OP's with animation and other exciting stuff because everyone will be seeing it at the start of the show.

I'm not sure if this is entirely true though. There are lots of great EDs, and I don't necessarily think that having more animation or more "exciting stuff" qualifies for a better OP or ED. OPs are meant to get you pumped for an episode, and EDs are meant to help you wind down after. Being slower paced and having less active animation doesn't mean it is automatically less likely to be well directed or interesting.

Norimitsu Suzuki is an animator who specializes in directing, storyboarding, and animating EDs. He has worked on tons of really creative sequences on a huge variety of different shows. Considering how one person can basically make a living off just creating good EDs, I think this negates the theory that EDs are generally bad. I personally find that most of the time, a show with a really solid OP tends to also have a really solid ED.

The same faulty argument can be made that OPs are actually worse because they generally all feel the same because of expected templates, while EDs are more interesting because there's less expectation to restrict the creativity in the sequence.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
I'm not sure if this is entirely true though. There are lots of great EDs, and I don't necessarily think that having more animation or more "exciting stuff" qualifies for a better OP or ED. OPs are meant to get you pumped for an episode, and EDs are meant to help you wind down after. Being slower paced and having less active animation doesn't mean it is automatically less likely to be well directed or interesting.
I get the impression they switched the OP and the ED around in Eureka Seven AO somehow.
 
The moment it stops being pseudo-educational and starts focusing on the bread puns is when it all goes to shit.

So about when the tournament arc starts.

So... the whole series?

I personally loved it until the end of the Monaco Cup arc. At that point, it still at least partially cared about plot consistency and the ending was heartwarming as fuck. The craziest thing that happened up to that point was
time travel.
After that, it was shit like people turning into bears and Dhalsim.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
So... the whole series?

I personally loved it until the end of the Monaco Cup arc. At that point, it still at least partially cared about plot consistency and the ending was heartwarming as fuck. The craziest thing that happened up to that point was
time travel.
After that, it was shit like people turning into bears and Dhalsim.
It was like before that they still tried to keep the focus on the bread-making. There's a little piece where the main dude teaches a kid how to bake bread in a rice steamer and I totally loved that.

Then the clowns started being able to clone themselves. :(
But AO's ED sucks. It doesn't compare to the OP in terms of direction, scope, or animation.
But the song pumps me up for the episode when the OP sounds like the most boring shit ever!
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
Saint Seiya Heaven Chapter: Overture



This movie pretty much exemplifies why the Saint Seiya canon is such a mess. For someone like me who has no knowledge of the manga, I can only assume this was a very loose and definitely incomplete adaptation of the events following the war with Hades. Many seemingly important plot points were left vague or not touched on at all. I imagine they were rushing through the source material because the breakneck pacing gave me no incentive to really care about Artemis or Pit Icarus (outside the fact he's
Marin's brother
which seems REALLY friggin important).

As a production itself, I guess it at least looks better than most of the animated franchise. I mean the animation was fine even if the few fights weren't that visually impressive. Art was pretty good too, though I think I prefer the more vibrant style of Lost Canvas. There were a few scenes where it was just too damn dark. Had no idea what was happening.



I also fell asleep during this halfway through (probably from being tired, but I imagine boredom played a part). If you're gonna put a lot of talking in your movie, give us some damn context! I doubt even the manga readers wanted to see the dialogue recreated over the actual battles, which there just weren't enough of.

Oh, and also don't end it
in the middle of a climactic fight against what was probably the most powerful antagonist in the series.
Seriously, what the fuck?

As a huge Saint Seiya fan, I can assure you: this film doesn't make any sense. Even to me. It's freaking bizarre.

It was supposed to be the start of some new arc, though, so that's why it ends so abruptly.
 
It was like before that they still tried to keep the focus on the bread-making. There's a little piece where the main dude teaches a kid how to bake bread in a rice steamer and I totally loved that.

Then the clowns started being able to clone themselves. :(

But the song pumps me up for the episode when the OP sounds like the most boring shit ever!

It was still educational all through the Monaco Cup arc though. The microwave used when only having eggs comes to mind.
 
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