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Summer Anime 2016 |OT| Makes Me Happy When Skies Are Grey
- Thread starter BGBW
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So despite Delta having a really good episode, I still don't think that highly of the show as so many aspects feel weaker than their Frontier counterpart. The art direction, music, CGI, performances, and dogfights are worse. Good lord half the time the characters are off-model, thanks Satelight. The characters are generally worse as well besides a couple of exceptions, mainly Freyja is a better heroine than Ranka as Freyja is more likeable and a bit more proactive. I also think some of Freyja's issues are more interesting conceptually such as her short life span compared to Ranka's difficulty rising to the top of the idol world. However then you have Mirage who is as interesting as a piece of paper left in the recycling bin.
I don't think a lot of aspects in the show work nearly as well as intended such as the team concept, the primary focus according to Kawamori. The best moment in the series so far has been a 1 vs 1 duel and the teammates on both sides feel like extras. Even with the idol performances despite the larger number of idols, it still feels mediocre compared to the Frontier performances. The best moment musically in the show was Freyja having a solo. It feels like there's a lot of extraneous parts to the show where Kawamori was trying to expand the concept but instead it comes off as halfbaked.
What I think is keeping the show afloat is primarily Freyja and the character animation. I just don't find the characters to be compelling in general. Despite Alto's flaws I think he was a more interesting protagonist compared to Hayate. Can anyone seriously argue that Mikumo is better than Sheryl?
Dedication Through Light
Member
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Episode 3 The Worst of the Worst?! Riki Nendou
Nendou is so dumb and everyone actually believing him, icant.
Tomorrow my favorite character appears. Im so excited!!!
Nendou is so dumb and everyone actually believing him, icant.
Tomorrow my favorite character appears. Im so excited!!!
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Thanks! really want to see Genocidal Organ. Does it have a release date set? Out of those, Harmony sounds right up my alley.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Genocidal Organ is scheduled to come out winter 2017.
Cornbread78
Member
The enyire first season slows things down to fully flesh out each character, which is what Sionji meant by the show "showing it's VN roots" throughout the first season. There is a reason for that.... The same for the little girl. Just watch and listen to ehat she has to say. As we said earlier, it will all make sense much later...
firehawk12
Subete no aware
OJ Simpson is basically the man of the year because of TV this summer. lol
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
Yeah, I think Shirobako threads the needle quite well. There's a good mix of both showcasing the passion and love the people working on anime have, as well as some of the shit that can really drag things down. I think the second cour especially manages to showcase some of the really crappy things that can happen in the industry, but it can do so while still maintaining a sense of optimism about things and portraying the cast as people who really love what they do.
I think it's more effective than a bitter take would be, because you can really understand why these people would subject themselves to working on anime despite the shitty working conditions and low pay.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Having only watched the first half of the show, it definitely didn't touch on any of the difficulties of working in anime during those episodes.
For me, it was a bit depressing when Gintama showed brief shots of Sunrise studios and it looked like 30 guys in tiny cubicles trying to churn out anime as fast as possible. And if Sunrise is supposed to be one of the bigger studios making anime that airs in prime time, I can only imagine what it's like working at one of the smaller places churning out 3AM anime about lesbian witches fighting tentacle cthulu monsters from another dimension.
ReLIFE 11-13 (END)
Oh well, 10/10, AOTS, S2 when?
Those guys constantly visiting Kaizaki's dead co-worker is probably the strangest thing in this series. They didn't know Kaizaki, didn't know her, and they not only visit her grave once, but multiple times? What?
Other than that, fantastic ending sequence of episodes. I didn't see the Hishiro being #001 twist. I actually thought it was Kaizaki who already lived that and forgotten it. I do like the twist, but oh welp, we are running out of actual high school students. And I'd also like if he'd romance an actual high school girl. Seems like making Hishiro Kaizaki's love interest and also being the same age is the easy way out of the drama...
Other than that, fantastic ending sequence of episodes. I didn't see the Hishiro being #001 twist. I actually thought it was Kaizaki who already lived that and forgotten it. I do like the twist, but oh welp, we are running out of actual high school students. And I'd also like if he'd romance an actual high school girl. Seems like making Hishiro Kaizaki's love interest and also being the same age is the easy way out of the drama...
Oh well, 10/10, AOTS, S2 when?
hosannainexcelsis
Member
relife 5-9
aside from what has to be one of the most boring "this is what has been happening behind the scenes" type episodes ever... the series continues to be quite enjoyable.
the behind the scenes stuff would have been much better if it wasn't basically a collection of stuff we already knew with like 3 minutes of extra stuff put in, most of which didn't feel very important at all.
I was a little sad that
anyone know if the manga is worth reading as well or if I want to continue should I just find where the anime leaves off and pick up from there?
aside from what has to be one of the most boring "this is what has been happening behind the scenes" type episodes ever... the series continues to be quite enjoyable.
the behind the scenes stuff would have been much better if it wasn't basically a collection of stuff we already knew with like 3 minutes of extra stuff put in, most of which didn't feel very important at all.
I was a little sad that
An was another relife employee instead of a rival company that also had the tech as they dropped plenty of hints that she was also older that the reveal was expected.
anyone know if the manga is worth reading as well or if I want to continue should I just find where the anime leaves off and pick up from there?
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
"Any"? The first episode of the show has key animations not being completed, a mad rush to complete an episode in time to get it to the broadcaster, and a character literally collapsing from overworking in order to get the episode completed.
Various other points in the first half of the show feature things like designs being changed at the last minute, storyboards not being completed until the eleventh hour, understaffing, and more.
There's certainly plenty of more optimistic stuff, too, and the show doesn't really go too much into people sleeping underneath their desks or what have you, but to say that the first half of the show doesn't touch on any of the difficulties of the production process is patently false. Almost every episode deals with some level of difficulty in one aspect or another of the production process.
And the second half, I think, goes even heavier into that stuff than the first half did, touching on stuff like various production committee members trying to shift the casting in order to sell more CDs or event tickets, dealing with a manga publisher and original author making unreasonable demands, the amount of work that goes into changing character designs because they don't work/don't please a partner in making the show, and the horrors of outsourcing.
I think the show ultimately does a great job of showing a lot of the shit that can go wrong in the production of an anime, without wallowing in a pit of negativity about the whole thing being complete shit. That might be sort of interesting to watch in its own way, but I appreciate the approach that Mizushima and his team made. A lot of bad shit can happen during the making of anime, and it's not really a glamorous business, but the people largely love what they're doing. And this is backed up by the strength of the cast. Almost every character in the show's fairly large cast is an interesting person to watch, with their own life story and they're all pretty memorable and well handled.
Cornbread78
Member
?
Don't mind me, lol.
I turned off the predictive text on my new phone, so nothing is saved and I can't remember shit. Tgat and my sausage fingers have me spelling everything wrong..
only reason I can is because my wife's work has an awesome 5 year bonus which is a sabbatical that they will pay for a decent chunk of the trip (as they will pay a good amount of the airfare and give you a daily allowance that will cover most hotel costs as long as you haven't been to the country you are in before).
I am doing that trip in oct lol.
My parents are getting remarried and paying for all of their kids to go >.>
it's so weird to have two vacations on the books in the next year when I haven't gone on a real vacation for oh.... 9 years now... as the last thing I could really call a vacation (everything else is visiting family) in the last decade was going to ACEN with a friend and my wife back in 2007.
I get the joke...
(shiro = white, kuro = black thus you are making some sort of joke in regards to shirobako)
but at the same time...
I don't get the joke >.>;
phoenix296
Member
Sounds like I should check out New Game.
Worst post I've ever read in this thread.
GoldCrusader
Member
Servamp 1
Been a big fan of the manga ever since it started! I can't wait to see some moments animated. Lazy Kuro is best Kuro.
I wonder how much material they will adapt...it's 13 episode right?
Cheer boys
That was fun! I'll continue checking this every week.
Been a big fan of the manga ever since it started! I can't wait to see some moments animated. Lazy Kuro is best Kuro.
I wonder how much material they will adapt...it's 13 episode right?
Cheer boys
That was fun! I'll continue checking this every week.
names2hard4you
Member
Zero Time Dilemma
We are not worthy of a game like Zero Time Dilemma. Good fucking Lord. Good luck to anyone even attempting to create something as compelling and incredibly complex as the Zero Escape series.
We are not worthy of a game like Zero Time Dilemma. Good fucking Lord. Good luck to anyone even attempting to create something as compelling and incredibly complex as the Zero Escape series.
Hellwarden
Member
Man I just realized, this season is gonna be rough for you if you're a fan of Berserk and Danganronpa.
Metroidprimerib has a name.
Hell yeah.
I binge played the rest of it yesterday. Took 16 hours. Felt amazing afterwards.
Taboo Tattoo-1
So this episode was sorta weird and disjointed in a similar way that the Tales of Zestiria anime was. There's not a lot of transitions between scenes and so as a result it comes off as a bit scattered. It doesn't skip around physically like Zestiria does but it comes as choppier than it needed to be. Zestiria had multiple issues besides the editing while here I think it's primarily just an editing issue. I went back and read the first chapter to see if the manga was like this and no the manga isn't, it flows a bit better. Now I don't know how the director is going to pace the show so it might be that the first episode was a bit rushed or they could be going a really fast pace for the entire run. I'm going to assume the show will be two cour as there are multiple scenes in the OP that don't take place till way later in the manga. That said, a faster pace might be beneficial so we get to the Fate/Zero stuff sooner.
I'm not a big fan of the art direction as it unfortunately reminds me of Index. A number of JC Staff's shows, especially Takashi Watanabe's, have this sort of coloring and processing to them that I don't like. It's not unlike Ufotable's post processing, as it gives off this 'fake' element to the background work in a shortcut way to add atmosphere. The bigger problem though is the seeming lack of inbetweens. This is a true sakuga show in the original meaning of the term. By that I mean the rest of the show will be animated badly but then you'll get some insane cut to counterbalance the rest of the show being poorly animated. It's weird because this is the first episode and a lot of the techniques would be stuff I would expect from much later in the run, such as zooms or static motions. Maybe they're just allocating all the effort for the fight scenes? Something I appreciate is that even when the animation isn't going to hyper levels, the effort put into Seigi's stances and motions help give it a sense of realism and weight.
One big thing of the manga and also of the anime is the quick transitions between comedy and seriousness so if that makes you grit your teeth then it's better to drop this now. It jumps around a lot in tone but I like that as it helps downplay how serious some of the later events become and prevents it from being too grimdark. My favorite scenes in the episode were the comedic ones so hopefully they keep delivering on that front, even if they're ripping all the jokes straight from the manga. Anyway despite my issues with the episode I still generally liked it but I'm worried about the action scenes and whether the staff can deliver.
names2hard4you
Member
I'm legit shaken up to my core. I need to go to bed but my mind is so blown that I just don't know whether to get up and turn right, or just stay in the same place. I am still in the decision game
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I know we've had this discussion before so I don't know if it's worth going into detail. Admittedly, not watching the second half basically means I'm completely unqualified to talk about the show in any serious manner, but what generally bugged me about the show is just the propensity to focus on the occupation and not the people in the occupation. It's my fundamental problem with sports anime as well, because there are no stakes when it comes to the actual outcome of the crisis/problem at hand. Of course they're going to finish the anime or win the big game because that's just how you arc a show like this, which at least for me, means I need to find something interesting about the characters who find themselves in these situations.
It's why I enjoyed the Seiyuu show that aired shortly after Shirobako, because even though it wasn't trying to present the challenge of being a voice actress in any way that goes beyond simply showing how voice acting works in Japan, the fact that the main character goes through her fairly simple "I might fail as an actress" phase of her development was enough to make it interesting to me.
What I remember of Shirobako are the debates about the minutiae of the ending of that magical girl show they were working on, and how they wanted to get a specific reaction in order to convey some specific meaning. I don't really have a problem with that, and as I recall, it caused some problems because of last minute production changes, but that simply didn't feel any different from watching the promotional behind the scenes bonus videos that come with most movies these days (or that Kotaku article about how Bioshock Infinite had to be saved at the last minute because Ken Levine is a nightmare).
Again, the second half may be a lot different. And perhaps part of my lukewarm reaction comes from the fact that my interest in anime production basically ends at the scriptwriter level (which probably makes me a "bad" anime fan, but I guess that's a whole other discussion).
Especially when they betray you and write good shounen movies.
Hackadolls can save but one soul at a time.
Watching the first half of Shirobako and coming to the conclusion that the focus was on the production as opposed to the characters is a strange reading to come to I think. It seemed pretty apparent that the question was about how the characters were coping with the conditions they were under as opposed to a sole focus on whether or not the show was going to get made. There's a lot of stuff on home life, on her juggling all the duties, how the stress is affecting the various characters etc. I mean, I don't want to say your reading is invalid, but I can't imagine it'd be the common way to see that half.
As Kuwabara says the second half I think goes even further
As Kuwabara says the second half I think goes even further
You may think that is a error, if you have seen the episode, you will know why it is not.
Cornbread78
Member
Well, welcome back. Let us know if you need help prioritizing that gigantic list of yours, lol
Time for Yamato 2199
names2hard4you
Member
Oof quite a bit of work there. Good luck.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
rip Saint Seiya?
I think the only one of the "main girls" that I was interested in was the actress (Zuka?), and that was because she had a complicated relationship with the industry.
But what kind of filth?
Hellwarden
Member
Don't worry, I'm not intentionally bullying him by saying that.
Besides, he's too busy bullying himself by playing Drakengard.
phoenix296
Member
New Game 1
So this is how the art department operates.
So this is how the art department operates.
Big Order 6-10(END)
I could write a huge essay on how fucking dumb this show is, but I'll refrain and just go through the main thing I want to address: What exactly did Gennai do wrong? His entire research and plan was to grant people's wishes and create a multiverse where people are happy in there respective multiverse. Everyone who has been rebelling him was doing so just to be a dick. Seriously, its all about "oh they wouldn't be real" or "why didn't you pick me" etc etc, but... none of what he was trying to do was really "wrong". None of the reasons for them to try and stop him makes any sense, honestly. Everyone in this show is just a dick trying to get their ego stroked.
That ending was a huge deus ex machina, anyway... Also, Jesus Christ, Sena was 13? Super creepy. This show just ended up being a huge waste of time for everyone involved. I wouldn't be hard pressed to say this is the worst anime of 2016 so far.
Don't bother with this one.
on to watching Hundred... yep....
I could write a huge essay on how fucking dumb this show is, but I'll refrain and just go through the main thing I want to address: What exactly did Gennai do wrong? His entire research and plan was to grant people's wishes and create a multiverse where people are happy in there respective multiverse. Everyone who has been rebelling him was doing so just to be a dick. Seriously, its all about "oh they wouldn't be real" or "why didn't you pick me" etc etc, but... none of what he was trying to do was really "wrong". None of the reasons for them to try and stop him makes any sense, honestly. Everyone in this show is just a dick trying to get their ego stroked.
That ending was a huge deus ex machina, anyway... Also, Jesus Christ, Sena was 13? Super creepy. This show just ended up being a huge waste of time for everyone involved. I wouldn't be hard pressed to say this is the worst anime of 2016 so far.
Don't bother with this one.
on to watching Hundred... yep....
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
i guess it just comes down to who piques your interest
Hmmmm. You know, I sort of get what firehawk is trying to say, but for such a smart guy, I don't understand why he's saying it the way he is, because it makes him seem wrong. Shirobako touches on a lot of difficulties in getting anime made, but it definitely shies away from being a show about the difficulties in working in the anime industry.
The characters are basically narrative angles to showcase the process of production, rather than representations of what a person might experience being in a production, if that makes sense. There are some anecdotes in the characterizations which feel somewhat personal, but they're far and few in between. Most of the show is filled with anecdotes of production problems or challenges faced while making a show, but not the human perspective of what it is like being in the industry as a person, and what makes people want to stay in it.
I mean sure, we have the key animator who wants to show she can support herself because her family disapproves of her career choice. But I do feel we get very little sense of why she really wants to do it in the first place, or where her passion lies in art. We have the production runner lead who is clearly the unifying force among all her friends, but that just makes her a good narrator covering all the bases of production. Why does she get out of what she does? We see very little of that. There's CG girl who works hard on a different aspect of animation, but why did her interest gravitate towards that, and how is her experience unique from the others? Barely touched on. She only exists in that field because they need a character in each discipline to balance the production coverage angle.
I love Shirobako, but these are points worth looking at to see why some people enjoy the show more than others. If you see it as a dramatized Making Of Anime series with over the top humor and in-jokes/insight into the production process, it's great. If you're looking for a good drama that shows what people who work in the industry are like and how their relationships, hopes, dreams, ambitions, and failures impact their lives, there's very little of that.
The characters are basically narrative angles to showcase the process of production, rather than representations of what a person might experience being in a production, if that makes sense. There are some anecdotes in the characterizations which feel somewhat personal, but they're far and few in between. Most of the show is filled with anecdotes of production problems or challenges faced while making a show, but not the human perspective of what it is like being in the industry as a person, and what makes people want to stay in it.
I mean sure, we have the key animator who wants to show she can support herself because her family disapproves of her career choice. But I do feel we get very little sense of why she really wants to do it in the first place, or where her passion lies in art. We have the production runner lead who is clearly the unifying force among all her friends, but that just makes her a good narrator covering all the bases of production. Why does she get out of what she does? We see very little of that. There's CG girl who works hard on a different aspect of animation, but why did her interest gravitate towards that, and how is her experience unique from the others? Barely touched on. She only exists in that field because they need a character in each discipline to balance the production coverage angle.
I love Shirobako, but these are points worth looking at to see why some people enjoy the show more than others. If you see it as a dramatized Making Of Anime series with over the top humor and in-jokes/insight into the production process, it's great. If you're looking for a good drama that shows what people who work in the industry are like and how their relationships, hopes, dreams, ambitions, and failures impact their lives, there's very little of that.
Hellwarden
Member
Episode 6 of Kuromukuro is devoid of any subtitles on Netflix.
Which, you know, is great. It's how I like to enjoy my anime, and really life in general.
Just confused as to what is happening, and trying desperately to grasp the meaning of language.
Which, you know, is great. It's how I like to enjoy my anime, and really life in general.
Just confused as to what is happening, and trying desperately to grasp the meaning of language.
Cornbread78
Member
Ya know, I might have been able to appreciate the show much more if it was focused on that, because I lost interest about 1/2 through as it was presented..
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