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Spring Anime 2015 |OT| The Disappearance of YEAARRT!

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javac

Member
I like reaction gifs and one liners because they allow me to act sassy and condescending and just plain like an ass, which I love since I'm a vindictive prick (even to myself!), but yeah I generally try to add as much as I can when I write something. I'm a person driven very much by emotions, so it's hard for me to quantify why I feel such a way, but I try to articulate myself as much as possible. I obviously fail at times.
 

Jex

Member
By that token, is Transformers for everyone? I know the only Marvel movie that I like is the one that seemingly everyone seems to hate (Iron Man 3), so I dunno. Heck, even the Nolan Batman movies aren't for everyone, and that was the pinnacle of summer blockbusters for a while.

Something is for everyone if it does very internationally so I guess that's Avatar and Furious 7. Apparently.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Something is for everyone if it does very internationally so I guess that's Avatar and Furious 7. Apparently.
I treat those like sporting events though. Apparently billions of people watch the Superbowl each year, but I can't tell you who won the last one. Let alone who was even in it. There are passing moments where people seem to get together to experience a collective event, but most of those are fleeting because the next big event is around the corner. No one gives a shit about Furious 7 now because Ultron is coming out. And no one will give a shit about Ultron when the next big summer garbage movie comes along, and so on.

I've heard this word three times today, once during the Bombcast, once during the Mega64 podcast and now here, do I get a wish?
The vocabulary wishmaster will put any word you want into the OED now!
 

Cornbread78

Member
Clannad ep.9-11
New arc, new drama. The tone of this show is very different than what I thought from the online write-ups I saw, lol. There is no relationship stuff in here, other than some hints about "rivals in love" and everything feels dire. The redeeming factor is Sunohara's stupidity and his antics with Tomoya. Also, Fuuko reappeared! Amazing... Well, off to save the super nerd now..
 

Robotguy

Member
I also didn't enjoy Gurren Lagann as much as most people seem too, and I think that unlimited power scaling removing tension from battles was the main reason for that. I did enjoy it overall, though I liked the first part more than the second.
 

Jex

Member
You guys should watch The SoulTaker, it's a pretty serious fighting anime show for grown men:

CDyGtkTWoAEN3w_.jpg
 

javac

Member
The vocabulary wishmaster will put any word you want into the OED now!

<_< >_>....I'm not good under pressure!

Speaking of both OP & ED, the ending credits for Macross are absolutely beautiful, the fucking last episode reduced me to nothing but tears. The opening to Boogiepop Phantom is one of my favorites, man I can listen to it for hours. No point in linking the OP to Lain, as its God-tier and everyone knows it. Man, the intro for Macross is great too! Also, dat Patlabor So fucking good...
 
I also didn't enjoy Gurren Lagann as much as most people seem too, and I think that unlimited power scaling removing tension from battles was the main reason for that. I did enjoy it overall, though I liked the first part more than the second.

Fair enough, although personally I liked that the scale was something that escalated every episode and not to the point that we've hit the peak 3 episodes in.
 

javac

Member
You guys should watch The SoulTaker, it's a pretty serious fighting anime show for grown men:

What constitutes as an anime fight fit for grown men? Why would I even want to watch such a thing! Why can't we all just get along ;( ...also don't marry your brother, that's uncouth.
 

Jex

Member
In all seriousness, The SoulTaker is a pretty unique and interesting series. It's basically what you'd get if you crossed Devilman with Akiyuki Shinbo and that's kind of the main reason to check the work. The characters are fairly cliche, the story is needlessly convoluted and the action can be very hard to follow.

What makes the show stand out is the visuals. Unlike more modern works bearing Akiyuki Shinbo's name this is actually a show that he personally directed and that's very obvious from the moment you start the show. Shinbo personally directs the first and last episode but the other directors all do a great job in working within his style. You might recognise some of the staff who worked on the show because they went onto do things like direct Tiger and Bunny, Full Metal Panic and other assorted works.

It's visually arresting, some might say, to a fault. However if you, like me, watch anime to see unique and daring art then this is probably a show that you should check out.
 

Jex

Member
The best way to explain why someone should watch The SoulTaker probably isn't to write about it but instead to demonstrate it's best qualities.

The SoulTaker is a show with a tendency towards abstract backgrounds as opposed to anything realistic. Therefore when the 7th episode of the series is set inside an abstract world, you know that the visuals are going to get pretty potent and they do.

This episode contains impossible geometry, impossible and extreme perspectives, allusions to other artists, extremely exaggerated framing devices and imagery reminiscent of infinite/repeating objects.

 

phaze

Member
I wonder, is there somewhere a decent, enlightening write up on the division of responsibilites between show's overall director and people who direct individual episodes ? To my mind, especially with the addition of people responsible for storyboards, it makes trying to pin virtues and vices of singular episodes to one person mightily hard and confusing. Shirobako kind of skipped the issue by having only one director for all episodes. ( I think he did all storyboards too ?) There was that one outsourced episode but they never went in depth about what was going there.

I assume the overall directors have rather strong grip on things given that, outside of SSY 5(6?) and 10 or some long running shounens, most shows, I can think of, tend to stick to one continous style more or less. But I'm kinda curious how the division of labour works in practice
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Punchline Episode 4:

Yes, the random is being retracted down and the deeper bits are starting to show. Yes, I am rather liking the progress this show is making.
 
Gurren Lagann is a celebration of all that is great in anime.

It it a joy from beginning to end.

I fucking hate this word but it's applicable here - TTGL is easily the most overrated anime of all time, beating out even Bebop easily.

I rewatched G Gundam a few months ago, and that was far better. I like TTGL but the reverence and worship it gets is baffling.
 

Cornbread78

Member
I fucking hate this word but it's applicable here - TTGL is easily the most overrated anime of all time, beating out even Bebop easily.

I rewatched G Gundam a few months ago, and that was far better. I like TTGL but the reverence and worship it gets is baffling.


I think GL was like the 2nd or 3rd series ya'll made me watch. It was enjoyable, but I've watched better since. Also, someone mentioned earlier that the first half was better and I agree.. The end was crazy out there.
He should have gotten the girl, screw being a loner.
 
I remember pretty much nothing of most of TTGL's second half. The ending and final battle I do remember of course.

But the first half I remember way more. And Lord Genome was awesome.
 

Squishy3

Member
I fucking hate this word but it's applicable here - TTGL is easily the most overrated anime of all time, beating out even Bebop easily.

I rewatched G Gundam a few months ago, and that was far better. I like TTGL but the reverence and worship it gets is baffling.
Probably because TTGL is just one of those shows that meets and exceeds expectations for the final stretch, when so many series bungle it at the end. (Hi, Kill la Kill.)

A lot of the series is in the end ultimately forgettable but there are a handful of really good episodes sprinkled throughout, even during the bad parts. Episodes 7 and 8, 11, 14 and 15, I really like the prison episode because of Simon and Viral's dynamic there, the Yomako episode is an enjoyable break from Rossiu's bullshit, and then almost everything there on is amazing.

I'd say there's a lot more "overrated" shows by the general public to complain about like Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, etc. that have a lot less redeeming qualities than Gurren Lagann does.

I mean, there's probably still a lot of people who like anime and either don't know of it or haven't watched it. The most places you're going to get recommendations for Gurren Lagann will be on enthusiast boards, much like how gaming side has a Platinum Games boner but most people don't even know who Platinum is let alone why Platinum exists.
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
I fucking hate this word but it's applicable here - TTGL is easily the most overrated anime of all time, beating out even Bebop easily.

I rewatched G Gundam a few months ago, and that was far better. I like TTGL but the reverence and worship it gets is baffling.

G-gundam is not better than TTGL.

In fact the first episode of TTGL is of a completely different standard from G-gundam in terms of pacing, direction, animation, quality etc. It's like comparing a movie by Edgar Wright to.. whoever directing Ant-man right now.
 
Punch Line - 04

See, when a wacky show attempts to play up the drama that can end up rather jarring unless you have great direction. KareKano excelled at this by shifting the portrayal of everything; art style (or more directly character design), music, framing...pretty much everything adapted whenever the show switched from lighthearted fun to serious moments and vise versa (though without losing identity and potentially feeling like 2 actual different shows). Of course, KareKano's premise also isn't nearly as out there.

Here there's little change. The visuals don't change at all, the music...ceases instead of adjusting the tone with fitting tracks and the framing doesn't seem to differ any either. Now it would still work if the characters and story would actually support natural feeling occurrences of this kind of drama but that's not entirely the case here. Characters and story are batshit crazy at times which makes it hard to take this seriously.

It's not actually terrible here in Punch Line, but it isn't working for me either.

edit:
I wonder, is there somewhere a decent, enlightening write up on the division of responsibilites between show's overall director and people who direct individual episodes ? To my mind, especially with the addition of people responsible for storyboards, it makes trying to pin virtues and vices of singular episodes to one person mightily hard and confusing. Shirobako kind of skipped the issue by having only one director for all episodes. ( I think he did all storyboards too ?) There was that one outsourced episode but they never went in depth about what was going there.

I assume the overall directors have rather strong grip on things given that, outside of SSY 5(6?) and 10 or some long running shounens, most shows, I can think of, tend to stick to one continous style more or less. But I'm kinda curious how the division of labour works in practice

You know, I'm struggling with this, too, now that I'm looking up directors more and more.
 
I remember pretty much nothing of most of TTGL's second half. The ending and final battle I do remember of course.

But the first half I remember way more. And Lord Genome was awesome.

I love G Gundam, but TTGL gave me pretty much almost everything I wanted in an anime.

The soundtrack was awesome, the final battle was awesome, the mecha design was great, and everything about it was just so dang positive.

I'm just a huge fan of the trope of a really negative situation in an anime turning into a really positive one all because of characters being awesome. That's usually a trope that can be used pretty poorly, but for me, TTGL did it just right.

The only thing I honestly don't like that much about TTGL is the ending, like most people. But I honestly forgave it in the long run considering how much I loved everything else about the show.
 
G-gundam is not better than TTGL.

In fact the first episode of TTGL is of a completely different standard from G-gundam in terms of pacing, direction, animation, quality etc. It's like comparing a movie by Edgar Wright to.. whoever directing Ant-man right now.

I don't remember TTGL's first episode being anything extremely amazing. A good set up sure but nothing earth shattering.

Promotional art for Monster Musume

Miia NSFW

looks gud
 

sonicmj1

Member
I wonder, is there somewhere a decent, enlightening write up on the division of responsibilites between show's overall director and people who direct individual episodes ? To my mind, especially with the addition of people responsible for storyboards, it makes trying to pin virtues and vices of singular episodes to one person mightily hard and confusing. Shirobako kind of skipped the issue by having only one director for all episodes. ( I think he did all storyboards too ?) There was that one outsourced episode but they never went in depth about what was going there.

Clearly, Shirobako didn't handle this aspect well, because in the show every episode has its own episode director. There's even a full production chart and schedule for Exodus! on the show's official site with (sometimes provisional) credits for episode director, storyboarder, animation director, and so forth. In Exodus, series director Kinoshita storyboarded the first and last episodes, and was the episode director for only the final episode.

My understanding is that while the series director has full veto power over just about anything in a series, the episode director is the person responsible for delegating all the tasks that need to get done in an episode and managing it to completion. A production assistant like Miyamori has to then go about making sure the episode director's orders get executed on schedule. Exactly how much control an episode director has compared to the series director swings one way or another probably depends on the director or the studio.
 
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