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Spring Anime 2012 | Welcome Home, Space Cowboy

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Risette

A Good Citizen
What are you referring to by "digital lighting"?
Lighting that is digital and "automatic", not drawn in by the animators or colored in by the colorists. Example:
PCnpu.jpg
 

Jex

Member
So, as there's quite a split forming on this issue I thought I'd compile these posts up. Let it be known that there is no 'hivemind' here, we have a pretty diverse set of tastes in this thread.

If I've categorised your comments incorrectly please let me know and I'll move you. For some of these comments it wasn't entirely clear what you thought about the episode.

Positive
Medaka Box 01
Shiranui is the best.
I liked it. I liked the over the top explanation of things, the wholesome dream that will never occur, the wackiness of the characters, just about everything. I get that it pretty much shifts gears into a battle anime in a few episodes so I am looking forward to how it changes.
I watched the first ep of Medaka Box and I liked it. Then I became sad because I know it turns into battleshit and cosmicblizzard's wet dreams later.
Medaka Box 1

Alright, so this was much better than I expected. I actually really hated Medaka Box pre-genre shift, but seeing it animated really made most scenes tolerable and others actually good. I think this particular habit of Medaka's translates well to the medium.
Medaka Box 1

Apart from some visual inconsistencies here and there, this was a really nice first episode, fun and with some action. I love Medaka, both as what's been presented of her in this episode as well as her look.
Medaka Box 1

In the face of overwhelming negativity, I enjoyed this episode. Pretty straight adaptation of the first chapter.


Average/Unclear
Medaka Box - 01

Dear lord those melons... and they have that stupid boob physic sound effect to boot, random fanservice in a way that makes it feel like they're trying too hard, and they keep pushing the childhood friends bit, well if it were typical shoujo it would have been doomed from the start. I guess a plus side is that we have a strong female who is unrivalled at the top, the cynic in me wonders how long that would last.

I'm such a sucker for antenna hair. :<
Medaka Tits 01

Y'know it might be because you guys here have lowered my expectations of the show but... I actually kind of enjoyed this.
For now it just seems like one of those anime where I'll watch every now and then to see how the characters fare
and a part of me is curious to see how/if they handle the romance between the two main characters. It's pretty obvious she's got the hots for the guy judging by the first episode
And it also feels like one of those shows where I can find myself dropping it pretty easily.

With that said, I'll keep watching it until I get bored of it.

Medaka Box 1

eh
Medaka Box 01:

What is this I don't even

Okay, fine. I might watch this for a few more episodes.
Medaka box

Haven't read manga. Don't like her character design much... so this is pretty much skeet dan staring a Queen's Blade character?
Medaka Box 1

Given some of what I saw in here I expected the worst going in. I found the show wonderfully average though and it seems like a good time waster.
Medaka Box 1
Boob physics and patsu shots.


That was ok.
The punch in the face was badass.
Medaka Box
That boob physics....oh gainax and they actually got Katsuyuki Konishi to voice a Kamina lookalike delinquent, a poor homage.

I pity those anime watchers only if they haven't read the manga.

Negative
Medaka Box 01 - WTF is this shit? I made it to 6 minutes and turned it off. A load of absolute wank.
Medaka Box 1

No.
First taste of the new season:

Medaka Box 1

Dunno. Bad, but still somewhat intriguing. I guess I should rewatch the first episode, maybe I wasn't in the right mindset. Might need alcohol. Anyway, the first few episodes are supposedly not really reflective of the actual show, so I guess I'll continue either way.
Medaka Box - 1

Maybe I should finish Sket Dance first.
Medaka Box 01:

I thought I was a Nisioisin true believer, but this was animu as fuck. Actively painful to watch.
Medaka Box 1

Utterly insipid and boring. The only thing done well was the background art.
Medaka Box 1

This was incredibly boring. Perfect girl that everyone loves forces people to do things. I'll guess I'll stick around for the supposed genre shift but changing to a boring high school comedy to a boring battle shounen doesn't seem like much of an upgrade. Also why must you desecrate the memory of Kamina!
Medaka Box 1:

Gainax is a soulless husk and it shows.
Medaka Box 01

Whatever happened to you, GAINAX? :( Stop breaking my heart. Just stop.

Stop desecrating Kamina's memory.

Stop forgetting about the real GAINAX bounce.
Medaka Box

Personally speaking I thought this was beyond boring, but I was prejudiced against it before I started watching it so I don't think that should put off anyone who's actually interested in watching it. The direction and animation are shounen by numbers; if this wasn't animated by what's-left-of-Gainax I wouldn't have given it a second glance, as I dislike Nisioisin's writing anyway[...]
Medaka Box 1
It's an introduction episode, but this did not impress. It's not visually appealing, the premise is not particularly interesting, and Medaka is annoying in a Haruhi sort of way.
 

Dresden

Member
edit: above post will make clear who my comrades are

HOLD THE LINE

medaka box - 01

The material is stale; as a manga the beginning was the worst part and it shows through here. The pacing is off, with scenes often seguing into each other without a sense of connection in between. And the show looks like a gussied up Silver Link product, sort of like a Baka-Test with better art, which is not a compliment.

Medaka as a character is more likable animated, although that reception is probably influenced by my fandom re: the manga, and Aki Toyosaki sounds pretty nice in her role when she's not doing her chipmunk K-ON voice.

Won't be watching the first few eps, but I'll certainly check in once the crew is assembled and the Flask Arc begins.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
What is the big deal here, did I miss something?

Koikelupin 1:
Good stuff.
 

iavi

Member
Well, one dismisses the skill required to actually put a television series together.

Not at all. I said that saying Ano Natsu's structure/layering of dialogues to be good would be perfectly apt, but still feel that, as good as that is, layering lazy dialogues in briskly structured, but wholly unimaginative scenarios don't make for a complete package I can consider 'good.' Why I consider those aspects the way I do, I broke down in a post a while back--EP 6, iirc, but I separate the whole so I can acknowledge the merit I think should be.

---

Lol, I wasn't even going to say anything, but with that list compiled;

Medaka Box

I'd like my 10 minutes back.
 
So, as there's quite a split forming on this issue I thought I'd compile these posts up. Let it be known that there is no 'hivemind' here, we have a pretty diverse set of tastes in this thread.

If I've categorised your comments incorrectly please let me know and I'll move you. For some of these comments it wasn't entirely clear what you thought about the episode.

Nice compilation. It seems like a pretty even split with it more leaning toward the negative side, but that's to be expected.

I would still say people should give it a chance even if they weren't too hot on this episode, but it's hard to ask someone to watch 7 or 8 more if they absolutely hated everything so far. That's nearly 3 hours right there.
 
1PyfG.gif
, the Cartoon
01

Maybe Korra would still have a chance for anime of the season if it had more T&A.

Nickelodeon clearly missed an opportunity there.

Of course, if Korra was made for a Japanese audience, it could no longer be shown on Nickelodeon. They wouldn't be able to show it on American television, period. Well, maybe HBO.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
Is it really fanservice when all the nudity and sexy times are there to establish the character's personality while setting a tone for the action/adventure sequences? Great stuff. It reminded me of all those 007 movies I've never been bothered to watch.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Not at all. I said that saying Ano Natsu's structure/layering of dialogues to be good would be perfectly apt, but still feel that, as good as that is, layering lazy dialogues in briskly structured, but wholly unimaginative scenarios don't make for a complete package I can consider 'good.' Why I consider those aspects the way I do, I broke down in a post a while back--EP 6, iirc, but I separate the whole so I can acknowledge the merit I think should be.
You're saying it's good, but still not as important as what you would privilege. I mean, you could levy the same comment toward Gintama if you're willing to look at it that way.
 

cajunator

Banned
Medaka Box 01:

What is this I don't even

Okay, fine. I might watch this for a few more episodes.



Hansode is great.

Since you're a fan of ahoges, you'll probably enjoy this. They spend more time animating the antennae than they do animating the rest of the frame!

Thats the kind of attention to important details that I appreciate.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
Mai Ritoru Poni: Yuujou wa Mahou S1 01-02

http://i.imgur.com/8jBkwl.jpg

So I wasn&#8217;t entirely sure what I was getting myself into here. I didn&#8217;t really know a whole about the actual show itself, other than the rabid devoted fanbase it&#8217;s got which creeps me out at times. But I decided to give one a whirl and I&#8217;m glad I did. It was thoroughly entertaining, a blast to watch and so adorably charming.

The first two episodes totally feels like Pilot, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. I hope that is the case here and not actually reflective of the show itself. The entire focus is on Twilight Sparkle who is absolutely fantastic but everypony else feels completely rudimentary in nature, static sketches of characters with no real personality. Which is fine for an introduction but I&#8217;m hoping that characters especially like Pinkie Pie do get a fair bit more development other than being well, a one trick pony, as was the case in the first two episodes of the show.

Things I liked, the prologue and introduction to the world itself was well done. There is certainly a lot of room for exploration and depth at least into the world of Equestria itself, if not so much the characters. The name itself is absolutely awesome, the
reveal at the end of how Friendship is actually the sixth element Magic
was totally sweet.

The show is so vibrant, both in the sheer amount of color itself and the tone the show takes, I can&#8217;t remember the last time I had so much fun watching a show quite the way I enjoyed the start to MLP.

Anyway most importantly, after two episodes:

Twilight Sparkle > Rainbow Dash > Fluttershy > Rarity > Applejack > Pinkie Pie

God help me, I&#8217;m a goner ;_;
Get your own schtick.
More pony love is always welcome!
Darkside, if you're going to post about shit that isn't anime you should at least have the common courtesy to translate the title poorly into japanese and use a lot of annoying weeaboo words in your summary of the episode.
Nopony can blame me for not trying!
 

Vrakanox

Member
I don't know if people were calling it lewd, which implies some kind of judgement, so much as saying "tits!!!!!". Fujiko is naked, or semi naked, for a huge chunk of the episode and when her breasts are exposed they are uncensored, so people are just reacting to that, because it's fairly unusual.

I just finished the first episode of the new Lupin, I thought it was really good. They took a mature approach to it and it reminded me of old school anime like Beebop and of course... Lupin III
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
I just finished the first episode of the new Lupin, I thought it was really good. They took a mature approach to it and it reminded me of old school anime like Beebop and of course... Lupin III
Bebop being considered old-school now makes me worry about new anime fans.
 

Instro

Member
So, as there's quite a split forming on this issue I thought I'd compile these posts up. Let it be known that there is no 'hivemind' here, we have a pretty diverse set of tastes in this thread.

If I've categorised your comments incorrectly please let me know and I'll move you. For some of these comments it wasn't entirely clear what you thought about the episode.

I see how it is.
 
Sankarea 1

This... wasn't bad. In fact, it was pretty good. BluWacky wasn't lying.

I don't want to overstate how good this is - it is a slightly ecchi zombie romantic comedy, after all. But it's entertaining and quite funny at times. It successfully sells the main character's situation and personality, and establishes chemistry between the two leads. It's pleasant to look at, down to the OP and ED. After watching the whole episode, I can see the comparisons to Shaft, as it uses several tricks from their bag to keep things looking interesting. It even throws in a minor head tilt:


At the same time, because it doesn't overly rely on gimmicks it comes off as competent direction spiced up, instead of watered-down Shaft like Nisemonogatari. It helps that the art is much more detailed than most Shaft productions.

I don't except the show to keep up this quality. The overall director storyboarded and directed this episode, and I doubt he'll find any other staff who are as capable to work on the others. But I'll turn in next week in the hopes of being pleasantly surprised.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Ookami-kun what have you done with hosanna?
 

iavi

Member
You're saying it's good, but still not as important as what you would privilege. I mean, you could levy the same comment toward Gintama if you're willing to look at it that way.

I can, in ways, and have in this very thread. I love Gintama, but have a myriad of issues with Sorachi's writing--if were to speak of the 'serious' narrative underneath the gag veil--but the fact that it is a comedy, first and foremost, with that heavy 'gag veil' changes things, or at least; that's the conclusion I've come to so far; the obvious intents having to be taken into account. Would you really judge Gintama with the same laws that you judge Ano Natsu?
 

Azure J

Member
Oh man, people are seriously down on Medaka Box aren't they? I'm pretty much with Dresden on all of this, the beginning of the manga was kinda blah with NisiO trying to establish Medaka as the Mary Sue-est Mary Sue and the slowish pacing before collecting the band of bros/broettes.

It really isn't until the Flask Plan stuff starts and all the metacommentary kicks in that Medaka elevates itself into really entertaining tier. Of course, that's if you don't think Shiranui is the best troll character in the series and are entertained by her shenanigans. :p
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
Oh man, people are seriously down on Medaka Box aren't they? I'm pretty much with Dresden on all of this, the beginning of the manga was kinda blah with NisiO trying to establish Medaka as the Mary Sue-est Mary Sue and the slowish pacing before collecting the band of bros/broettes.

It really isn't until the Flask Plan stuff starts and all the metacommentary kicks in that Medaka elevates itself into really entertaining tier. Of course, that's if you don't think Shiranui is the best troll character in the series and are entertained by her shenanigans. :p
I didn't really hate Medaka Box for its writing flaws as much as I hated it for being a showcase that GAINAX is truly dead. I could have kept on ignoring reality were it not for it.
 

Branduil

Member
Sankarea 1

ibiGozp8DLqhae.jpg


We're through the looking glass here, people.

Wow. I think I'm in shock.

This was a brilliantly directed and animated episode of anime. I'm not even joking around here, now maybe it could just be my incredibly low expectations for a DEEN anime about a zombie girlfriend, but this was legitimately well-done on its own merits.

Someone clearly put a lot of love and care into this. Interesting compositions and framing abound throughout the episode:


But it's not just the framing and backgrounds of the shots that are great. The animation is vibrant and has a real energy to it. It's a sakuga anime from DEEN. Yes, I just said that.

Now, I won't get too excited just yet. While the story presented in the first episode was intriguing and potentially disturbing, I know how things can go in anime. And DEEN is still DEEN. I'm just going to continue to have low expectations and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

April 5th, 2012- The day that DEEN surpassed Gainax lolololol
 

Jex

Member
Oh man, people are seriously down on Medaka Box aren't they? I'm pretty much with Dresden on all of this, the beginning of the manga was kinda blah with NisiO trying to establish Medaka as the Mary Sue-est Mary Sue and the slowish pacing before collecting the band of bros/broettes.

It really isn't until the Flask Plan stuff starts and all the metacommentary kicks in that Medaka elevates itself into really entertaining tier. Of course, that's if you don't think Shiranui is the best troll character in the series and are entertained by her shenanigans. :p

As a side note, when I was running through all the Medeka Box posts some people were stating that the beginning is kind of weak, or that it gets better, or that they know that eventually down the line etc...

None of that is relevant to a first time viewer with no knowledge of the source material. If it has a bad start, it has a bad start and asking people to sit around until it becomes something they would like is a bit unrealistic. I am not saying that everyone mentioning the manga is trying to make that argument, either.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with saying 'it changes later on and gets better' but it's not some kind of counter-argument that cane be used against people who dislike that first episode.
 

Branduil

Member
And I just saw Hosanna's post after I posted my impressions. Either we've all gone mad or it really was good.

Surprise of the season easily so far.
 

Jex

Member
Sankarea 1

This... wasn't bad. In fact, it was pretty good. BluWacky wasn't lying.

I don't want to overstate how good this is - it is a slightly ecchi zombie romantic comedy, after all.

I like the way you write as if the 'echhi-zombie-romantic comedy' is a worn out premise that's already been done fifty times.

"After all, it's just another one of those shows!"
 

Lain

Member
Zetman 1

Nice animation, but not what i really wanted for an adaption, given the liberties taken while following more or less the same path of the original work.
 

Dresden

Member
Sankarea has a nice beginning arc it can follow--all the harem hijinks won't begin until the conclusion of that arc. Considering how the anime will likely end there, it should be a nice enough show.

Hope Tasogare (undoubtely the superior series) can have a similar fate with . . . fucking Shin Oonuma and fauxShaft. >.>
 

iavi

Member
I can't believe this--at all. How...did...DEEN actually put together what seems like a damn good ep? I'm watching Sankarea now after those impressions. Hell, I just suffered through Ueki not too long ago (Which wasn't bad by the end, but was DEEEEEEEN) I am dreaming. This is actually kind of amazing, if only for what it signifies for that studio.

Sankarea's source material was not this strong, at all. They've swapped the tone.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
I can, in ways, and have in this very thread. I love Gintama, but have a myriad of issues with Sorachi's writing--if were to speak of the 'serious' narrative underneath the gag veil--but the fact that it is a comedy, first and foremost, with that heavy 'gag veil' changes things, or at least; that's the conclusion I've come to so far; the obvious intents having to be taken into account. Would you really judge Gintama with the same laws that you judge Ano Natsu?
Well, I would consider them equally successful in what they try to do, so... yes?
 

Branduil

Member
I like the way you write as if the 'echhi-zombie-romantic comedy' is a worn out premise that's already been done fifty times.

"After all, it's just another one of those shows!"

Well, it's certainly a unique-enough premise. It also has the potential for disaster if handled badly.
 
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