Okay, so, I have no problem with the whole "current team loses to awaken new members power" thing, things do that, it's a thing. However, doing it 4 times in a row seems a little much. I guess they just wanted to get all the introduction crap over with and have a full team as early as possible.
Okay, so, I have no problem with the whole "current team loses to awaken new members power" thing, things do that, it's a thing. However, doing it 4 times in a row seems a little much. I guess they just wanted to get all the introduction crap over with and have a full team as early as possible.
Okay, so, I have no problem with the whole "current team loses to awaken new members power" thing, things do that, it's a thing. However, doing it 4 times in a row seems a little much. I guess they just wanted to get all the introduction crap over with and have a full team as early as possible.
i totally agree .. there is no consitency in term of power from this precure series..
they use their power the wrong way week after week .. the are effective in a stituation and the next everything learned is totally forgotten.
Precure5 and precure 5 gogo never hada this problem ( they had to find moment to nerf the teammates) or just not letting them fight ..and it seems worse in smile ..and that's a shame because this seire has very nice vilains ( joker ) and alright animation when it counts ( something suite precure lacked way too much )
Spoiler for later
I'm so disapointed they don't fight in their princess forms like the power-up splash star had ..that was trully intresting to see.. i'm tired of the reused animation
Oh I forgot to mention Space bros 19 was really good.
Not that any episode of this show has been bad. It has been remarkably enjoyable and consistent.
The music is really beautiful.
Houtarou you suave son of a bitch. He's definitely a candidate for MC of the year next to Mutta and Kiritsugu.
Fantastic and very satisfying conclusion to the School Festival arc. As excellent as it all was I'm a little happy to see it finally end. I believe it wrapped up all the loose ends of each main characters' individual storylines very nicely. This was all very well written and directed. The theme of
expectations
was handled very well and I loved the parallels between:
- Satoshi being jealous of Houtarou's talent at solving mysteries though he has no interest in them.
- Tanabe being jealous of the President's talent in drawing though he only did it as a one-off thing.
- Ayako being jealous of the writer though she has no interest in manga.
So good.
It's weird that the ending had a feeling of a big climax, as in it felt like the entire show was building up solely for this arc. The character development that was being built up over the course of the show drove a lot of this arc forward. I don't know how the last four episodes will live up to this but I'm excited to see how this will all come to an end. This show is undoubtedly placing somewhere high on my AOTY list if it ends up finishing on a strong note.
I'm so disapointed they don't fight in their princess forms like the power-up splash star had ..that was trully intresting to see.. i'm tired of the reused animation
Houtarou you suave son of a bitch. He's definitely a candidate for MC of the year next to Mutta and Kiritsugu.
Fantastic and very satisfying conclusion to the School Festival arc. As excellent as it all was I'm a little happy to see it finally end. I believe it wrapped up all the loose ends of each main characters' individual storylines very nicely. This was all very well written and directed. The theme of
expectations
was handled very well and I loved the parallels between:
- Satoshi being jealous of Houtarou's talent at solving mysteries though he has no interest in them.
- Tanabe being jealous of the President's talent in drawing though he only did it as a one-off thing.
- Ayako being jealous of the writer though she has no interest in manga.
So good.
It's weird that the ending had a feeling of a big climax, as in it felt like the entire show was building up solely for this arc. The character development that was being built up over the course of the show drove a lot of this arc forward. I don't know how the last four episodes will live up to this but I'm excited to see how this will all come to an end. This show is undoubtedly placing somewhere high on my AOTY list if it ends up finishing on a strong note.
That is very true. The anime did a hell of a better job portraying Seras' struggle of coming to terms of what she had become. I haven't completed Ultimate yet (as you can see my latest posts) but if what you say is true, I'm going to be very, very, disappointed.
Yeah, I was kind of hoping to bring up the Seras issue without spoiling any specific event, but I suppose that now that I've mentioned it, you should just go in expecting characterization to take a back seat to action in Ultimate from this point forward. Seras is still involved in the plot, but she just stops growing as a character. Fortunately,
Alucard, Integra, and Pip Bernadotte kind of get some retroactive characterization in the form of backstory
Okay, so, I have no problem with the whole "current team loses to awaken new members power" thing, things do that, it's a thing. However, doing it 4 times in a row seems a little much. I guess they just wanted to get all the introduction crap over with and have a full team as early as possible.
Yeah, this was just a necessary but unfortunate side effect of introducing all of the main characters in immediate sequence rather than spreading them out over the course of the series. This particular hangup is toned down from here on out, but there are quite a number of episodes that focus on a specific character and whatever growth that character experiences that week culminates in their saving the day in battle by way of whatever moral revelation they had in the episode. I guess in a way, the battles in Precure are more about their beliefs being challenged than the actual action itself, if that helps you make it through some of the "bad" fights.
Yeah, Akanbe are a huge blemish on the fights in Smile just by virtue of their ugliness. The show was apparently so intent on creating a MotW design that fit with the storybook theme of the show that they neglected to consider that what they were making was just really freaking stupid-looking.
If you think the Bad End trio are better, you're going to love Episode 23.
I guess I have mixed reactions over the episode. I liked all the random developments and sharing of true feelings in and out of the cave, but I think the Japanese Doll is really still quite annoying
the whole ending swimsuit photoshoot stuff and then just her personality during the whole episode, acting like a big baby and barely giving into anything with Yuuya
. Ah hopefully we get back to training in our TSFs and more time with Top Gun.
I watched this episode and only this episode to see what this show is like. The talk of vacuums and violence was intriguing. Not going to continue it though but it was an interesting watch. I had no idea wtf was going on.
But, I guess what I want to talk about is this scene:
I guess the question is... is an anime grown-up enough to go "there" and
show a girl purge because she is suffering from anorexia or was it just a coincidence that she is wiping her mouth coming out of the bathroom? There was that Reiko Yoshida anime that dealt with a woman suffering from bulimia, but this would be the first time I've seen anorexia in anime form at least.
I applaud them if that's what they're doing and it certainly helps make the show be a bit more important, although
it looks like it'll be completely dropped next episode anyway.
. Of course, I'm only saying this because it's anime. If this was an episode of Glee, I'd probably laugh at it.
that fact sadden me ..at least there wasn't a real need of powering up in heartcatch and they did get a good asset for fighting ( the capes ) it allowed them for aerial fighting and it was awesome ... i wish they could have have went full course on the animation with the princess mode in smile instead of keeping the very same regular attack for the next part on the smile show ..
i'm very disapointed ... Toei doesn't seems to know the difference between :
- getting a new move ( power )
- getting a power-up ( with various uses/moves )
While i enjoyed the vilains and the mid season episode , smile will be a average precure show at this rate ..
Man i have to delete half a post to be able to quote anything on neogaf mobile. Its awful.
Anyway I really think the only thing Precure Smile really has going for it is that it has a REALLY cute art style.
The transformations pale from previos ones, the monsters suck and the whole show is just not as much fun as I hoped.
Yayoi is really the only reason I watch any of it (maybe Cure March too).
Tari Tari 7
But, I guess what I want to talk about is this scene:
I guess the question is... is an anime grown-up enough to go "there" and
show a girl purge because she is suffering from anorexia or was it just a coincidence that she is wiping her mouth coming out of the bathroom? There was that Reiko Yoshida anime that dealt with a woman suffering from bulimia, but this would be the first time I've seen anorexia in anime form at least.
I applaud them if that's what they're doing and it certainly helps make the show be a bit more important, although
it looks like it'll be completely dropped next episode anyway.
. Of course, I'm only saying this because it's anime. If this was an episode of Glee, I'd probably laugh at it.
This was basically a 40 minute screensaver scored to what sounded like leftover Kawai from a Ghost in the Shell movie that was less interesting than its own rather intensive and detailed Wikipedia page. I'm pretty sure it isn't anime, but I'm going to post about it here anyway, because outside of Urusei Yatsura TV, The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters, and some random Kerberos radio dramas, it's pretty much the last bit of Mamoru Oshii's career I have left to plumb. And boy is it some weird & terrible shit in line with his regrettable string of live-action movies that I'm still trying to forget even exist.
I'm ok with the conclusion for the main mystery. The reason why, I wasn't too invested or really cared, just liked how it was done and how it was solved. Houtarou is being quite awesome this whole episode.
Really didn't care about the whole Manga club business from start to end.
I'm ok with the conclusion for the main mystery. The reason why, I wasn't too invested or really cared, just liked how it was done and how it was solved. Houtarou is being quite awesome this whole episode.
Really didn't care about the whole Manga club business from start to end.
When writing this I was just sort of noting down my thoughts as they came to me so I'm sorry if the format comes across as really awkward or strange.
I've been kind of putting watching the K-ON! film off as I kind of had a "mono no aware"
relationship with the movie, and the series as a whole, as I didn't really want it to end
but knew I had to accept that it would at some point. Now that I've watched the movie I
can say that I loved it. I know some like Jman and InfiniteNine find K-ON!
boring but personally I never felt bored with the movie and wouldn't have minded if it it
went a bit longer. Earlier when talking about the best anime of 2012 7Th
brought up the K-ON! movie and some seemed to scoff at the idea but I personally agree 100%.
While I was watching the movie I was noting different things and I probably should have written them down as I'm probably going
to forget a lot of things.
The way the movie opened was a nice homage to how the show starts in episode one while at the same time showing
what has changed. I was caught off guard by that music at first but I figured
that they
were really just playing around. It was nice how KyoAni can surprise the audience but at the
same time the girls are up to their usual antics.
Many people will talk about the beautiful and insanely detailed backgrounds in the movie
as being a real highlight and naturally I'd agree. Not just for the London cityscape but for
when the girls are at the airport, the hotel they stay at, their quick visit to the guitar shop
and a variety of other locations. It's like the current cultural festival arc in Hyouka
but dialed up to 11. You could fill out a photo album of shots from the movie there are so
many nice screens.
There are some really great shots and one scene I loved in particular was when the girls were in the elevator at the hotel. You
see what looks like the girls but the camera pans and it turns out to be their reflections. Even before the camera pans you
can see their reflections in the reflection from the mirror on the opposite wall. Even after the camera pan there is a reflection
behind them. Just after this the camera is positioned on one of the walls on the side and you see Yui and Azusa and there is an
infinite reflection loop type effect when you have two mirrors facing each other. It may have been because the hotel looks this
way in reality but the fact that KyoAni could mimic everything looked really impressive and pleasing. It reminds me of the
conversation from last season where people were talking about the anime Another and how the elevator looked so plain and
boring. Normally I would say elevators aren't known for being aesthetically pleasing but in this case it sure was.
Not just the visual detail but the attention to sound is amazing as well. An example is when the
girls are in the clubroom in the earlier stage of the movie and you not only hear them talking
and the clatter from when they move their teacups but you can hear the constant bubbling of the
air pump from Ton-chans water tank, there are birds chirping outside and I usually wear headphones
when watching an anime movie lately and it's very subtle that I'm not even sure most people will
even notice but you can also hear the muffled sound of someone talking, such as a teacher giving a class downstairs.
None of the sounds are distracting, many probably won't even notice or be consciously thinking
about them. They are appropriate to the situation giving a sense of the environment and are at
the perfect volume to do so. Ton-chan's tank is in the room so naturally it will still be somewhat loud
with the birds slightly softer and then the voices softer still. It gives you a sense that they
are still at school with activity around but based on the club room's location they are somewhat
removed and isolated from that hustle and bustle. It's impressive the amount
of sound detail going on and none of them interfere with each other but work with each other.
Speaking of sound, the accents on the locals from London were kind of hit and miss. The first fellow
that drives the taxi,for example, seemed fine but the girl at the reception to the hotel would make odd
pauses in her speech. It sounded more like when a Japanese person whose not used to speaking English
or maybe a native speaker but reading directly off of a script while recording their lines.
Speaking of English, I loved hearing the girls speak a little bit more again.
I also noticed the film showing how short the girls were in comparison to those from London. Even Mio, whose the tallest, seemed small at times.
Not being from London I don't know exactly how accurately it was portrayed but it came across like it was pretty accurate.
I remember BGBW talking about how the look of the bus sign was actually how they appear. Someone mentioned riding the
London Eye costs about $100,000 dollars. Naturally I figured this was more of an idiomatic way of saying "It's expensive".
Looking at the London Eye website though and apparently a basic ticket for adults,which the girls
would fall under being 16+, would cost you about $25 American or about 2100 yen for 30 minutes. There are more expensive options with more luxuries but
for a once in a lifetime moment I think it's probably worth it. I made the joke that the Singapore Flyer was thousands of dollars
as well but that was based on the fact I heard first opening tickets to go on sale were selling for 6-7 thousand dollars or something.
I imagine the normal price and ride time to be similar to that of the London Eye.
DiGiKerot already mentioned that the Jubilee Gardens where the girls have their second performance now looks different.
In the film they look something like this to
now looking more like this apparently.
Many people say that K-ON! isn't a comedy but regardless it had quite a few humourus moments such as Yui and Azusa's door routine
at the hotel and I loved the, what I'll call the KyoAni Head Tilt scene.
There were a bunch of more subtle things that I thought were funny such as this picture moment here.
I'd be just like Mio and seeing if there was any reaction. When finding out about having to perform the first time, my reaction would have been the same as Mio's there as well. There were many other humourus moments but I'll let others see those for themselves.
Actually, the time travel joke regarding time zones was kind of funny personally as I had just been talking to someone about that before seeing the movie. I had mentioned that humans had technically already invented a time machine and it's called Time Zones. To then see the dialogue around that was somewhat more funny on a personal level.
One more minor detail I'm sure no one but me cares about is when you see the same environment over and over you get to know it's layout. I noticed that in the classrooms on the wall beside or parallel to the hallway there are windows as well. I don't recall this ever being mentioned or really used in the main show, so to see the one scene where Ritsu or someone knocks on the window to get Azusa's attention and Azusa opens it so she can talk to the girls I thought was pretty cool. Anyway probably just me.
Just as Azusa didn't want the other girls to graduate I personally wouldn't have minded more from the series. It was really nice to see it fleshed out a bit more how the girls experienced writing their song for Azusa. I not only like the song but the lyrics and the meaning behind them.
Just after the song there is a shot of the clubroom from the outside where you see Azusa in the window on the left and the other girls in the window on the right. A nice way of showing that despite them being so close there is still that gap that exists and Azusa will be on her own for the next year.
It really does feels like a story about friends and your memories of them. All the memories I have of K-On! and and the movie itself feels like a send off song of love to fans and the fact that the show itself is going through its own "graduation".
Lastly the ending itself contains some references to other bands such as the "Helter Skelter" ride being another reference to The Beatles. The song "Singing!" I think is a great song and have always loved Youko Hikasa's voice. firehawk also already mentioned it but just before the ending where
the camera was focused on the girls feet and paint from the crosswalk most likely being an Abbey Road reference was neat, even though they quickly show it earlier during the montage scene around London.
In the end I loved the series and the movie and would like to give it all a re-watch soon.
Again to those that read all of this, thank you for your time.
that fact sadden me ..at least there wasn't a real need of powering up in heartcatch and they did get a good asset for fighting ( the capes ) it allowed them for aerial fighting and it was awesome ... i wish they could have have went full course on the animation with the princess mode in smile instead of keeping the very same regular attack for the next part on the smile show ..
i'm very disapointed ... Toei doesn't seems to know the difference between :
- getting a new move ( power )
- getting a power-up ( with various uses/moves )
While i enjoyed the vilains and the mid season episode , smile will be a average precure show at this rate ..
For me personally, the actual content of the fights isn't a big deal. I mostly care about the quality of character interaction and how well the series' overarching themes are incorporated into the show each week, and if I get thrown the occasional sakuga bone in a fight, all the better, but the quality of the fights are generally never going to be as good as they theoretically could be because it's the designated time for showcasing the plastic shit each episode and so I imagine that the writers/animators/etc. are hamstrung to some degree by the marketing department. Using powerup forms/attacks outside of stock footage would enhance fights in some respect, but it doesn't weigh heavily in my evaluation of overall series quality.
