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Toonami |Sep14| This is our Final Dandy, baby

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M

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
ckohler said:
A heads-up about tonight's Gurren Lagann Episode

Tonight's episode is poorly animated. It was done by guest director Osamu Kobayashi which is why all of the characters appear cheap looking and really off-model. For example:


When this episode originally aired in Japan, the negative feedback was so bad that it eventually led to Gainax co-founder Takami Akai resigning after he made some disparaging replies on a Japanese fan forum saying that the complaints he was reading was "like putting [his] face next to an anus and breathing deeply."

In my opinion, that's what this episode looks like. The style is really off putting and it's probably my least favorite episode of the series narrative wise as well. Thankfully, it's the only episode like this. New viewers will understand when you see it.
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Osamu Kobayashi is pretty great. He directed BECK and Paradise Kiss, both of which are really solid series (I always wished Adult Swim could branch out a little more from action to be able to air shows like BECK, actually), but his style, both in terms of art and direction, just doesn't really make any sense for Gurren Lagann. The episode really really does look like an Osamu Kobayashi show, too. The stupid decision was hiring him for the job in the first place.

It seems like the Gurren experience pretty much ruined his career in anime, as after being very active and up-and-coming in the early to mid-2000s, Kobayashi's opportunities in anime come to a pretty screeching halt after this. He did guest direct a segment of an episode of Panty and Stocking and an episode of Dantalian, but that's about it.
 
J

JCG

Member
UltraGunner said:
Hey, Code Geass S2 was a masterpiece in trainwrecks, SAO has just been a trainwreck in trainwrecks.
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I'm amused by how the overuse of a term makes it increasingly meaningless (not that it ever meant too much though).

I wish SAO II was less boring or plain incompetent and more like that, because then I'd enjoy it enough to care and also to half-expect a good resolution.
 
G

Gucci Messiah

Banned
MetatronM said:
Osamu Kobayashi is pretty great. He directed BECK and Paradise Kiss, both of which are really solid series (I always wished Adult Swim could branch out a little more from action to be able to air shows like BECK, actually), but his style, both in terms of art and direction, just doesn't really make any sense for Gurren Lagann. The episode really really does look like an Osamu Kobayashi show, too. The stupid decision was hiring him for the job in the first place.

It seems like the Gurren experience pretty much ruined his career in anime, as after being very active and up-and-coming in the early to mid-2000s, Kobayashi's opportunities in anime come to a pretty screeching halt after this. He did guest direct a segment of an episode of Panty and Stocking and an episode of Dantalian, but that's about it.
Click to expand...

One terrible episode ruined his career in the industry? Wow, I'm looking forward to tonight's GL...
 
M

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Gucci Messiah said:
One terrible episode ruined his career in the industry? Wow, I'm looking forward to tonight's GL...
Click to expand...

It's not really the episode itself, and really it's not "that bad" in and of itself (but again, that's partially because I like some of Kobayashi's other stuff and sort of knew what I was getting), but it is pretty clearly out of place in Gurren Lagann. It's just simply a case of hiring the wrong hand to do a job. You don't hire someone with a unique style whose major works rely heavily on limited animation and stylized stills to do your high gloss, animation-heavy, super robot action show.

But really, Akai was forced to resign because he said stupid things on the internet in response to the otaku hate, not because of the quality of the episode. Or, at the very least, that's the story.

Even still, if your episode leads directly to your producer being shitcanned, it's not likely that other producers are going to hire you to work on their projects any time soon.
 
G

Gucci Messiah

Banned
MetatronM said:
It's not really the episode itself, and really it's not "that bad" in and of itself (but again, that's partially because I like some of Kobayashi's other stuff), but it is pretty clearly out of place in Gurren Lagann. It's just simply a case of hiring the wrong hand to do a job. You don't hire someone with a unique style whose major works rely heavily on limited animation and stylized stills to do your high gloss, animation-heavy, super robot action show.
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That makes sense, it's just weird that he couldn't find work afterwards. Was it a case of him 'quitting' the industry or did people outright refuse to hire him?

EDIT: Saw your edit, thanks for answering my question
 
M

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
To be honest, I don't completely know. My guess is it was a little bit of both. Also, I forgot that he also directed a project for Murakami (you know, the superflat guy?) for an art exhibition a few years ago. Kobayashi is also an illustrator, so I'm guessing he went more into the arts and away from the mainstream anime industry, though I'm not completely sure. His own website hasn't been updated in a couple of years, so maybe he just quit entirely.
 
R

Raxus

Member
Hellsing hype! All over our faces

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R

Rutger

Banned
Tonight, there will be blood...
Shed, the man in the mirror nods his head

Too bad Hellsing starts so late. I read the manga years ago so I'll just record it. On the bright side I no longer have any reason to sit through Batman.

MetatronM said:
Osamu Kobayashi is pretty great. He directed BECK and Paradise Kiss, both of which are really solid series (I always wished Adult Swim could branch out a little more from action to be able to air shows like BECK, actually), but his style, both in terms of art and direction, just doesn't really make any sense for Gurren Lagann. The episode really really does look like an Osamu Kobayashi show, too. The stupid decision was hiring him for the job in the first place.

It seems like the Gurren experience pretty much ruined his career in anime, as after being very active and up-and-coming in the early to mid-2000s, Kobayashi's opportunities in anime come to a pretty screeching halt after this. He did guest direct a segment of an episode of Panty and Stocking and an episode of Dantalian, but that's about it.
Click to expand...

Wow, episode four of Gurren Lagann is bad, but it's sad to hear that it ruined his career.
 
R

Raxus

Member
I have only seen the OG Hellsing series so needless to say this is going to be almost entirely new for me. Should be easier for me to push through Batman to watch this.
 
G

Gucci Messiah

Banned
Took a nap this afternoon but I'm pounding coffee at some point tonight, probably during Shippuden to make sure I'm up through Hellsing. Otherwise Batman will knock me out..
 
R

Raxus

Member
I am really going to have to PM some of you my number to wake me up after Shippuden airs since it always, always puts me to sleep.
 
M

Moaradin

Member
Dandy is always great to look forward to because you never know what to expect. Preview for tonight's episode looks really interesting.

Gonna feel off when Dandy is over :(
 
B

BatDan

Bane? Get them on board, I'll call it in.
UltraGunner said:
I'm wondering how censored Hellsing will be.
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If there's any f-bombs, those will be bleeped.
If there's nudity, that will be pixellated or cut.

Otherwise, it should be fairly intact.
"But violence" This is Adult Swim, home of Superjail and the upcoming "Mr. Pickles", both insanely violent shows.
 
B

BatDan

Bane? Get them on board, I'll call it in.
Zonic said:
Oh great, so I gotta have a blood counter for Hellsing Ultimate?
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Do not even try. It was possible to quantify the swear words and bleeps in Black Lagoon. It is not quantifiable to count the amount of blood in Hellsing.
 
B

BBboy20

Member
Raxus said:
I dunno why I am failing to hype up Hellsing Ultimate any more :(
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Please tell me that music is in the show? Because that was one of the best trailers I've ever seen.

I absolutely hate the Borderlands series. It's so bland, and the writing is awful.
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Some are saying the same about Destiny.

Raxus said:
I am still waiting for the GotY to come out (Bayonetta 2) everything else just keeps me occupied until then.

Also, Mario Kart 8 was better than Destiny IMO. It is certainly going to be the most popular game this year but far from the best.
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Despite paying 161 dollars for Destiny, it hasn't even been on my top 10 most hyped games as the year gone by. But and going by playing Destiny, it is becoming quite evident that Bayo2 really is going to be Best Value in Gaming this year and I'm no longer just referring to the inclusion of Bayo 1.

Soulflarz said:
Cmonn, get Destiny. I need people to play it with!
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You have the PS3 version?

UltraGunner said:
I would have much preferred Destiny as a single player game with multiplayer component. I know they don't like the word MMO but that's how playing it feels like, and I don't think that's a good idea if they wanted to tell a story.
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Which is funny because it looks like D really is a single-player game with half-backed multiplayer wrapped around it. Because it sure would be a lot more dense game then what it actually has.

Schadenfreude said:
Decision Overturned!: Tenumi's Wild Comeback!
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I see what you did there.

AdventureMike said:
That's correct.

Pre-merger, TechTV had a terrific set of original (and in many cases informative!) programming as well as several acquired shows, such as some anime, Robot Wars, Thunderbirds, etc. G4 similarly had a bunch of great original programming as well. The merger was more or less a way for Comcast to cannibalize its only competition into itself. Upon merging the networks, Comcast immediately fired the vast majority of TechTV employees and staff, only retaining a few personalities. These few (mainly Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb due to X-play but also a couple other younger people. I think Kevin Rose was brought over as well originally.) were immediately ordered to relocate to L.A. where the G4 offices were located.

This started the spiral as X-play was one of the only retained shows from the TechTV original programming, despite the network still trying to call itself G4TechTV. Eventually they nuked that all together and just left it as G4 again, which was the idea all along I'm sure. Eventually, over the next few years, the G4 original programming and the personalities associated with them were slowly booted off the network as well to air cheaper acquisitions like Cheaters, COPS and cult films that probably did not cost them much to show. Towards the end of its life, G4 attempted to air some of its back catalog of original programming when enough of a fanbase for it came forward and demanded that those shows were better than the tripe that was currently airing. This was G4Rewind. After a short summer stint, the ratings for it were poor (as far as I know), though it was given the "Fox" sort of chance (Things were aired at 5-6 a.m.).

One thing to bring up about the last part there is that we have to keep in mind the kinds of original programming that G4 offered. What we had here when you watched things like Blister or Cheat! or hell even Arena...these shows' content were all being supplanted by the internet and what the net could do. Just like gaming magazines, no one needed to watch a Blister or an X-play or whatever to get their gaming news like they did in the late 90s/early 2000s. In 2007-2008 or so, you could easily go to youtube or IGN or any other multitude of gaming journalism websites and find out news immediately. Like gaming magazines, G4 shows that didn't have story-based content (like Portal) were a day late and a dollar short by the time they aired. They worked in the years they were aired, but not so much now. Some might could get away with it, but not enough to support a whole network.

So while I blame Comcast's decision making skills for destroying G4, that one had a sell by date. Their absolute murder of TechTV on the other hand was unforgivable. They outright took down competition mercilessly.
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As someone who watched TechTV has a kid and started his internet life on the Anime Unleashed forum in 2003, this is interesting and, sadly, not surprised.

Imperial Bishop said:
Okay.....

I just saw the Cabin in the Woods for the first time completely blind.

3263521.gif


There really shouldn't be any more horror movies after this one.
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If Ultimate is good, I suppose that is all we need.

Little Kuma said:
Hitman Reborn might have a place on Toonami
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Agent 47 reboot? =P *yes, I read the rest...still, in today's gaming, I wouldn't be surprised).

Raxus said:
I have only seen the OG Hellsing series so needless to say this is going to be almost entirely new for me. Should be easier for me to push through Batman to watch this.
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Yeah, been over a decade since I've been exposed to anything Hellsing related.
 
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