darkside31337
Tomodachi wa Mahou
Yes that's true. Fate/Zero started in 2011 after all.
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Spring Anime 2012 | Welcome Home, Space Cowboy
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Yes that's true. Fate/Zero started in 2011 after all.
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
I kinda thought...
that he changed his focus to Saber once he realized the power up she got from getting her left arm back.
It was at that point he recognized the new threat.
It was at that point he recognized the new threat.
Summer Wars
AnimeGAF was right, Our War Game did it better.
THAT SAID, there was a lot to like about Summer Wars. The best part by far is the focus on the family aspects of the narrative; even with only like two hours or so to develop everybody, every single member of the family is likeable and cool. I didn't think a movie could follow such a large and diverse cast of characters quite so effectively (and Summer Wars cheats a bit by sort of focusing on the family as a whole in certain parts, while Our War Games cheats by being targeted specifically at the DigiFandom), but it does it really, really well. The pacing is great, and the visuals are spectacular.
This might just be me as a nerd talking, though, but almost everything on the internet side of things is nonsense. I mean, it was nonsense in Our War Game too, but that had the entire pseudo-mythical history of Digimon to draw upon to contextualise it as being a battle for the internet. That doesn't really happen here, and it begins to bounce against the bonds of suspension of disbelief. What the hell kind of maths problems is Kenji actually doing when he decrypts random number strings? Why is the AI virus concentrated in one 'location' instead of self-replicating like crazy? Why did OZ's casino system have an inbuilt account-betting system? It feels a lot as if the story makes up its own barriers in Oz and only then overcomes them, instead of having them be formed logically out of a setting and story elements. It's like playing a level you designed specifically so that you can beat it; there's no victory to be found.
Also, I thought Kazuma was a girl for half the movie and was disappointed to find out he was not.
Still, a fantastic watch.
AnimeGAF was right, Our War Game did it better.
THAT SAID, there was a lot to like about Summer Wars. The best part by far is the focus on the family aspects of the narrative; even with only like two hours or so to develop everybody, every single member of the family is likeable and cool. I didn't think a movie could follow such a large and diverse cast of characters quite so effectively (and Summer Wars cheats a bit by sort of focusing on the family as a whole in certain parts, while Our War Games cheats by being targeted specifically at the DigiFandom), but it does it really, really well. The pacing is great, and the visuals are spectacular.
This might just be me as a nerd talking, though, but almost everything on the internet side of things is nonsense. I mean, it was nonsense in Our War Game too, but that had the entire pseudo-mythical history of Digimon to draw upon to contextualise it as being a battle for the internet. That doesn't really happen here, and it begins to bounce against the bonds of suspension of disbelief. What the hell kind of maths problems is Kenji actually doing when he decrypts random number strings? Why is the AI virus concentrated in one 'location' instead of self-replicating like crazy? Why did OZ's casino system have an inbuilt account-betting system? It feels a lot as if the story makes up its own barriers in Oz and only then overcomes them, instead of having them be formed logically out of a setting and story elements. It's like playing a level you designed specifically so that you can beat it; there's no victory to be found.
Also, I thought Kazuma was a girl for half the movie and was disappointed to find out he was not.
Still, a fantastic watch.
Basileus777
Member
I don't understand what he did to destroy Archer's airship. He used magic dust that exploded it? When has he ever used an ability like that before? If you are going to have a dogfight across two episodes, don't end it like with some random unexplained attack.
They were normal decoy flares from the fighter jet, but due to being power boosted by Berserker's NP, they basically turned into a barrage of demonic fireballs that Archer had no way of dodging in time.
Damn, I'm really starting to get into sakuga. Seeing how animation is one of the main reasons I love anime, it's weird I'm getting into this concept so late, it's not that I haven't noticed these scenes before, but I just never thought of them being referred to under this term until I saw numerous posts by duckroll in this thread, so thanks for that 
Anyway, yeah, I love Yutaka Nakamura, Yoshimichi Kameda, Hironori Tanaka, just to name a few, but it's really easy to get lost among the names and anime titles.
I saw this panel on sakuga animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pm8AYpOJMw
and it was great.
But naturally, I want more. I've spent the majority of today looking through names and videos, and it's all become a little confusing, so is there like a list of shows or something, newer shows, with really good sakuga animation? You know something like a guide, with the animator names and the names of the titles they've worked on. ANN is decent, but I still have to look for the animators myself, and they list everything they've worked on, not just the titles where they did the key animation, so it's a little too much to go through.
While I like tha MAD videos, and have seen a lot of them, I tend to avoid them, because I like to see the sakuga scenes in the context of the show. It's not rare for me to watch a whole show despite it's mediocrity if there's some nicely animated scenes in it (mostly battle scenes) - case in point - Sacred Seven (if I'm not mistaken, Hironori Tanaka worked on it).
Anyway, I would love it if there was some sort of list, or a definitive guide, because I'm really interested in these types of animation work, for instance, I saw a part of a sakuga scene from Dragon Crisis as a part of a MAD, and although the show probably sucks, I'm really thinking of watching it for the animation alone.
Anyway, yeah, I love Yutaka Nakamura, Yoshimichi Kameda, Hironori Tanaka, just to name a few, but it's really easy to get lost among the names and anime titles.
I saw this panel on sakuga animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pm8AYpOJMw
and it was great.
But naturally, I want more. I've spent the majority of today looking through names and videos, and it's all become a little confusing, so is there like a list of shows or something, newer shows, with really good sakuga animation? You know something like a guide, with the animator names and the names of the titles they've worked on. ANN is decent, but I still have to look for the animators myself, and they list everything they've worked on, not just the titles where they did the key animation, so it's a little too much to go through.
While I like tha MAD videos, and have seen a lot of them, I tend to avoid them, because I like to see the sakuga scenes in the context of the show. It's not rare for me to watch a whole show despite it's mediocrity if there's some nicely animated scenes in it (mostly battle scenes) - case in point - Sacred Seven (if I'm not mistaken, Hironori Tanaka worked on it).
Anyway, I would love it if there was some sort of list, or a definitive guide, because I'm really interested in these types of animation work, for instance, I saw a part of a sakuga scene from Dragon Crisis as a part of a MAD, and although the show probably sucks, I'm really thinking of watching it for the animation alone.
Basileus777
Member
Ok, that makes sense. The light novel obviously does a better job there than the anime.
I dunno, that's how I saw it. Made sense to me. Maybe it helps to have knowledge of what a fighter jet can do.
It makes anime sense I guess.
Basileus777
Member
It probably does. I didn't make the connection
to decoy flares, I just saw purple sparkles and then an explosion and had no idea what happened.
Well, that's a given. Nasuverse logic doesn't go by real world standards.
It's possible. I mean they might be pretty far in they're going for a fall release date, it also depends on what type of project it is too.
Than again Nakamura did work on the original series for E7 apparently(I have no clue which scenes he did) so he does have a tie with AO.
Yea I figured they were flares too. Seemed apparent to me I guess.
Damn, I'm really starting to get into sakuga. Seeing how animation is one of the main reasons I love anime, it's weird I'm getting into this concept so late, it's not that I haven't noticed these scenes before, but I just never thought of them being referred to under this term until I saw numerous posts by duckroll in this thread, so thanks for that
Anyway, yeah, I love Yutaka Nakamura, Yoshimichi Kameda, Hironori Tanaka, just to name a few, but it's really easy to get lost among the names and anime titles.
I saw this panel on sakuga animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pm8AYpOJMw
and it was great.
But naturally, I want more. I've spent the majority of today looking through names and videos, and it's all become a little confusing, so is there like a list of shows or something, newer shows, with really good sakuga animation? You know something like a guide, with the animator names and the names of the titles they've worked on. ANN is decent, but I still have to look for the animators myself, and they list everything they've worked on, not just the titles where they did the key animation, so it's a little too much to go through.
While I like tha MAD videos, and have seen a lot of them, I tend to avoid them, because I like to see the sakuga scenes in the context of the show. It's not rare for me to watch a whole show despite it's mediocrity if there's some nicely animated scenes in it (mostly battle scenes) - case in point - Sacred Seven (if I'm not mistaken, Hironori Tanaka worked on it).
Anyway, I would love it if there was some sort of list, or a definitive guide, because I'm really interested in these types of animation work, for instance, I saw a part of a sakuga scene from Dragon Crisis as a part of a MAD, and although the show probably sucks, I'm really thinking of watching it for the animation alone.
I know some of the posters here are really well versed in this kind of thing (Duckroll, Pizaaroll, /XX/) so they might be able to point you in a better direction. If you are looking for a list of shows/movies/ovas that is focused on the animation side of things check out Sakuga@wiki’s List of Recommended Sakuga Anime.
And if you are interested in just reading more about shows from that point of view I would recomend checking out Anipages (http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php). It's hard to find better written articles on animation and animators than these.
Also, it's a good idea just to do some blog surfing. I've found some great posts about particular animators before, even if the blog as a whole isn't that great.
Some other blogs worth at lest checking out:
http://guriguriblog.wordpress.com/
http://aninomiyako.wordpress.com/
Ultimadrago
Member
Upotte!! 2
Well, at least it was better than the first episode (Not saying much).
Despite the lackluster "action", at least I learned something besides a useless new definition for "getting hammered".
Well, at least it was better than the first episode (Not saying much).
Despite the lackluster "action", at least I learned something besides a useless new definition for "getting hammered".
I don't know if it's coincidental or an intentional part of the direction/writing, but the way they show the parallels during the entire battle from ep14 to ep15 is pretty cool.
When Berserker first approaches Gilgamesh, Gil uses his Gate of Babylon to fire weapons at the F-15 as if they were missiles. Then when they miss, he redirects them back and Berserker has to evade again. After this, Berserker seems to learn from this, and he fires missiles from the F-15 at Gil, and when evaded, he controls the missiles to redirect back as well. As he continues his missile barrage, Gil starts to use the GoB as a missile defense system instead, opening the portals just to block/destroy the missiles following him. I saw the decoy burst as a natural evolution of that, since Berserker observed what Gil did, he simply analyzed what other options he had on the plane, and used that against him when he was in the right position.
Ultimadrago
Member
Berserker
One anime that somewhat surprised me on that list is Noein but at the same time, I'm not. One of these days I'm going to rewatch it and see if I enjoy it more on my second viewing and looking for any sakuga moments.
Basileus777
Member
I need to rewatch these two episodes to look for this, but that's a logical progression. I wouldn't be surprised if it was intentional and perhaps even taken directly from the LN. But everything makes a lot more sense now that I know that those
were flares
Hmmm. How recent is recent? One of the best lists of this kind of thing is the Sakuga Wiki, which lists films, OVAs and shows with good animation. It is in Japanese, unsurprisingly, but you can still search through it with little Japanese knowledge. Unfortunately it only goes up to 2010 for TV shows at present.
Click the TVシリーズ button and it'll take you to an alphabetical listing of all TV shows in the database. The dates are listed in Western format so if you're looking for something recent you can find it that way - copy and paste the show title and Google it and you should find some English language entries.
You might also find Ben Ettinger's list of notable animators useful - he identifies when they were active and their major work as well as some of their pseudonyms.
If you want some specific recommendations for the current season, I'd suggest the following:
Lupin III - The Woman Called Fujiko Mine
Tsuritama
Kids On The Slope
Saint Seiya Omega
If your interest extends to interesting artistic direction as well as pure "animation", you might also be interested in Sankarea and maybe Mysterious Girlfriend X.
All of the above are average-to-excellent shows outside of their artistic qualities.
Jarmel said:
Noein is an absolute feast for sakuga fans. Episode 12 has one of my absolute favourite action sequences in all of anime, and an entire pivotal episode is devoted to the work of Satoru Utsunomiya, one of the most idiosyncratic character animators in anime.
I would recommend watching this video on how one of the fight scenes was composed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYn_nDQQOTc
Thanks, it's interesting to see the breakdown.
Noein is a show that I wanted to like more than I actually did. I mean the way they handled the themes, the sci-fi aspect, the characters, even the animation style were all great. It's just the pacing absolutely killed it for me.
Ultimadrago
Member
Natsuiro Kiseki ep 2
http://i.imgur.com/udBwc.gif[IMG]
Now I kinda know what this show is all about but still rather bad considering they spent half the episode running.[/QUOTE]
Dammit, Your Jack.gifs always erupt the most curiosity out of me!
Thanks for the links, I'll definitely check out those blogs.
This is great, probably the closest to what I was looking for, so thanks for this.
Yeah, I'm following this season to the max, watching most of the shows. I should have been more specific, I was thinking more in the line of the last couple of years, let's say, everything prior to fall 2011. I've seen some shows, but I was getting a bit tired of anime around 2009, so I missed out on a lot of stuff in that period. Now I'm really back into it.
I was looking for some GAF recommendations of sakuga stuff too, shows like Dragon Crisis, or Letter Bee (I saw some really nice animation there), that may look average but showcase some impressive animation work, here's my MAL account if it'll help anyone with their recommendations: http://myanimelist.net/profile/Grzi
Everything I know about animation and how anime gets made I learned right here. I refuse to believe anything has changed.
I also found this list with animator names and MAD videos: http://animators-japan.wikispaces.com/MAD+videos
It looks fairly comprehensive, but I'd rather not watch too much of these videos, Id much rather experience the scenes as a part of the show.
It looks fairly comprehensive, but I'd rather not watch too much of these videos, Id much rather experience the scenes as a part of the show.
-Minsc-
Member
If it makes you feel better I enjoyed S2, more than S1 actually.
As for your hope and reaction to S2, I say this gif sums it up perfectly.
How did the pacing kill it for you?
I haven't watched Noein but my interest has been piqued by that fight scene and all the visual direction in that. Your line just reminded of the (almost) exact same line in my review of Noir today, which was excellent too but dragged down by its horrendous pacing.
It's a brutally slow show at times. At times episodes will seem to drag on forever and nothing is really happening. The slice-of-life component is crucial to the show but it's not really that interesting on its own, it's really interesting in how it plays into the sci-fi component. So while both are important in regards to the whole story, watching the daily part really tests your patience.
It's a show that I really can't recommend because I suspect most people would drop it stating that it's boring.
Still the same. Even down to the clacking typewriter music!
Huh. It sounds really intriguing. That's a shame that they couldn't make it work as a whole.
I'll put in on my backlog to watch soon.
I'm sure someone is going to viciously disagree with me because it really is an interesting show and the later half is better in how it ties things. However just for me I was bored out of my mind at times.
I mean the show targets two separate genres and audiences for each don't really overlap, the casual slice-of-life and dark/heavy sci-fi overtones.
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Oh, you just started watching this? You're right, Poyopoyo's the man! XD
*Bookmarked*
I should mention that there are a lot of shows that might have one or two well animated scenes but the rest of the show might be utterly terrible. Naruto has some gorgeously animated scenes, but I don't think it's worth trekking through. Just something to consider.
Ultimadrago
Member
Something Something cosmic (and some of us, I think) do not approve of this part of your message.
Sounds like me and Noir. I think I fell asleep in at least 5 episodes.
Wouldn't the clashing of two genres have large, distracting shifts in tone?
Man, I want to watch this already. *Bumps it up the backlog list*
2007's still 5 years apart from now right?
Apart from the good places pointed out by other fellows, check also these:
4chan BBS - Sakuga Thread #1
http://dis.4chan.org/read/anime/1291816034
4chan BBS - Sakuga Thread #2
http://dis.4chan.org/read/anime/1314681601
And the current one:
4chan BBS - Animation Appreciation Thread #3
http://dis.4chan.org/read/anime/1325612276
There are times on 4Chan's /a/ that, thanks to habitual people like busterbeam, we see discussions sometimes really pleasant, even counting their attempts at bait-and-switch threads for the 'trolls' (like certain recent The Sacred Star of Milos ones).
Fixed. I don't know as much as these guys (and many others).
-Minsc-
Member
That clip is blocked out for me. I never did watch that movie, should check it out.
As for Space Bros. - 3, a very enjoyable watch.
I haven't seen the show in years but yes at times there are pretty heavy shifts in tone which are obvious but it's also somewhat intentional. There is also a lot of foreshadowing and certain themes are probably going to be a lot more apparent if I ever decided to rewatch it. Like I said I have really mixed feelings on the show as the failings are apparent but it's still a relatively interesting and unique show on its own.
Ultimadrago
Member
Space Brothers 3
Kenji is
Call it dat feeling.
Magnificent.
You are too charming, firehawk!
Kenji is
totally going to screw over Muta in the future in someway.
Call it dat feeling.
Magnificent.
You are too charming, firehawk!
Yeah, I should have included 7th and Nonoriri.
Good I was worried that they might have started to let women do creative work or something!
Ultimadrago
Member
But there's way more than a few shows from the past few years worth watching. Like, a lot!
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