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Winter Anime 2016 |OT2| Bellariology, Puellology and Simulacrumology
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nintendoman58
Member
Why would you do that. Pressing that button might as well be the anime equivalent of Russian Roulette.
Good sir, do yourself a favor and watch any of the following to cleanse your soul:
Gurren Lagann
Gundam Build Fighters
Shin Mazinger Z
GaoGaiGar
G Gundam
Giant Robo
Eureka Seven
ShinRPGamer
Member
Why the hell does Higurashi not come out here in Canada until next month? It's already released in the US so why do we have to wait?
Hear, hear. My cousin and I used to try CR's random show thing during dinnertime, and most of the time we ended up getting downright stupid crap such as Little Princesses, a very old space opera that was sexist as hell (even though I guess it was par for the course at the time it aired) and lots of short shows that made absolutely no sense (one had two sumo fighters and Newgrounds-tier animation). The only decent-ish show we got that we kept watching was Mushi Uta, and even then it was kind of meh (we liked how little the show cared about explaining what was going on to its viewers, but things got... complicated).
We even got Mahouka once, FFS.
Cornbread78
Member
He even just finished posting a list of recommendations to somebody else.
Fafner- Exodus 13-26
. The sound direction at times in the show was outstanding such as the heavy rock when
. The only misfire I can think of is
. Sono Toki, Soukyuu he is a great insert song and I loved its usage in episode 21. Speaking of Angela, my favorite OP ended up being the final one. The snowball fight was cute and seeing all the pilots when they were younger was a good reminder of everybody that is dead. Tsuneyoshi Saito did a great job with the music and it was a notable step up from Dead Aggressor's stuff. The sound direction as a whole is more dynamic than Dead Aggressor and Heaven and Earth.
A lot of named people end up getting put on ice, a lot, and so they almost all get their moments. There were a few characters I wish had more screen-time devoted to showing how they tick such as General Narain and Secretary General Hester Gallop. The Secretary General gets a quick flashback but it feels a bit clumsily inserted and it's not long enough to have much value. However she looks to still be a player going forward so it's not like this is the last we're going to see of her. The only character I felt was poorly written was Keith of Argos Company in that she's too over the top in crazy. On the island side, I found Sui's family issues to be fairly engrossing. His family is in complete disarray due to the death of his sister in the L-Plan with his mother refusing to let go. This is the first time that we see a dysfunctional family on the island with Sui undergoing emotional abuse. As for Canon,
. All of this also tied into the generational aspect in that we're seeing multiple generations of pilots which forces the older characters into new roles such as Kenji stepping it up. Of all the people, I would not have expected Kenji to be the successor to the Siegfried System. With the ending of Exodus,
On that note, it's unusual to see an actual Japanese wedding. I think that might be the first time I've seen that done in an anime before.
There are also some open plot threads like
. I'm assuming that's setup for a sequel. Unlike Dead Aggressor which wrapped almost everything up, this is much more open for continuations.
So this is the second half of the second season of Fafner. I ended up burning through it much quicker than I expected. I was planning on watching the rest of the episodes over the next couple of weeks and instead burned through it in a couple of nights. The show lives up to the title in a number of ways. The words Exodus bring up the Book of Exodus in the Bible, surely an inspiration for Ubukata. That's because most of the second season and part of the first season details the journey from India, in which the characters are constantly under attack. Unfortunately I couldn't find a good map of the land route the characters took but it extends for thousands of miles and covered a duration of months. You know a trip is rough when someone gets warm rice, they start crying.
During this journey the characters are beset by enemies from all sides and situational issues such as starvation and weather. It's a grueling trip and the pacing of the show somewhat slows down to accommodate that, although I wish they had dragged it on a bit more but they got the point across. I again imagine this was a somewhat rough watch on a weekly basis as the pacing of the cour especially in the first half is fairly slow however I enjoyed that. In fact, I preferred that to the quicker pacing at the end which felt a bit rushed. Then back on Tatsumiyajima Island, the Walker steps its game up and almost checkmates the island. In fact, he would have won if not due to some 'cheating' and time travel shenanigans. This is largely a dour and depressing cour until near the end. Everybody is being stretched to their limits and a few people break.
The art direction for the first cour was very good but the second cour elevates that. The trip provided some gorgeous scenery in a myriad of environments from the desert to near the arctic caps. In fact I would say the show's greatest strength was the art direction. There were tons of stunning pans that showed off the strength of the background team. I wish the show had spent more time in a few locations, just so I could ogle at the art. For a TV series it's somewhat impressive how much work went into a number of these places.
The priority at times for the animation staff seems to have been on the backgrounds and settings over character animation. That's not to say that the character animation was bad, there were certainly scenes that were well animated, however a number of cuts are largely comprised of people talking. It again won't be a showcase of 2D animation but the more emotional moments are fluid as they should be. Just don't go in expecting big knife fights or things of that nature. That said, the CGI fights were great due in large part to Orange. The cockpit viewpoints during a couple of episodes reminded me of the first person viewpoint in Gundam Thunderbolt. Orange should do that more often, it's an unusual viewpoint and it looks cool.
I really wanted more shots of the underwater city.
As you can see, there's a lot of camera movement with the aerial maneuvers. CGI works best when tracking a high speed object and in the case of the Fafners, is a natural fit. The CGI animators don't have to worry so much about elements such as weight and being in air, the movements generally don't look near as weird when on land. It's also worth noting that the show utilizes 2D animation even for the Orange showpieces such as on closeups of a gun melting or for lightning special effects. As you can see from some of the images above, the Fafners aren't always in CGI especially if they're not in motion. The user interfaces/monitor designs continue their run of being topnotch. I have nothing but the highest of praise for the monitor design team led by Takashi Aoko. Putting everybody else to shame. I think I took more shots of holograms and monitors than any other subject manner in the show. I'm left wondering why other Xebec shows don't look near as good. I don't remember Broken Blade looking this nice, in which Toshihiro Kohama was also the art director, but then again there are only so many ways you can show off a desert. By the way I take back what I said about the storyboarding, there are times when it's really phenomenal. It doesn't draw attention to itself but the way some of the shots are framed or how events are presented is notably emotional because of the storyboarding. For example,
Canon's goodbye and seeing the fireworks in the distance or Akira being on the bus and everybody congratulating him for trying so hard
Kurusu steps on stage
when Tatsumiyajima Island beats off the final assault by Walker in episode 20 in that the final attack by Reo is a bit subdued on the score side
One of the major improvements over previous entries in the franchise is the Festum. They're actually sadistic now and represent the worst elements of the human persona. You see them smile at tricking people or causing them pain. They're more human now and as a result, they're much more engaging as an enemy. Some of the most memorable moments in the show are when they express emotion such as rage or have this condescending smile. They're also much more strategic in their thinking, you had started to see this at the end of Dead Aggressor but this cour really elevated that with the Festum taking advantage of the weather, placement, response times, and multi-pronged attacks. I'm somewhat curious whether the staff had an adviser with military experience because some of the things with the convoy and the arrangement of the convoy made it feel like someone with actual experience was involved.
On the character development side, the person who ended up showing the most progression was Maya. Unlike any of the other Fafner pilots, she has to kill people and it ends up damaging her psychologically to the point where she's pretty much broken at the end of the season. It's an interesting direction for her character in that she wanted to carry Kazuki's burden near the end of the first cour but instead develops her own unique one to the point that Kazuki wants to try and relieve her of it. They don't shy away from this either with the second to last scene involving Maya has
someone getting their head blown off and Maya wishing she was dead instead.
yes I'm salty as fuck she died. Yes I'm goddamn salty about this. At least she had a really good send-off but the dog howling messed me up.
One thing that surprised me was how important all the previous entries ended up being. Right of Left was necessary to understand Sui's family situation as well as being a precursor to Operation Exodus. Heaven and Earth ended up being pivotal for
the ending of episode 21
I hope they don't drag Kenji and Sakura out to fight more. The show has been dark enough already before Ubukata starts killing off every married couple.
After contemplating, I do think the ending feels a bit rushed in that they could have stretched things like
Maya's kidnapping out longer and given a more in-depth look into the Neo-UN. I was curious how their cities look and how the average citizen behaves. That arc is used primarily for revelations and putting everything in place for the end-game instead of being a compelling arc by itself.
that woman being 'constructed' in the Atlantis Mir
In summary, Exodus was a great show that serves to surpass the original series on all fronts. It does have a few missteps near the end but they're nowhere near big enough to detract from the series as a whole. It's not often in anime where a good chunk of the show is travelling. In this case, the journey for the characters being a sour and miserable experience. The show didn't feel like a retread nor did it shy away from changing the status quo. At the end, I felt a great disturbance as if millions of fujoshi suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. It does feel though that the franchise is almost out of gas so I expect a movie to wrap things up and that's that. Still though, it's amazing how stark the difference is between Dead Aggressor and Exodus. Xebec needs to stop doing so much shovelware and focus on making shows of this caliber.
Diebuster >> Gurren Lagann> >>> Shin Mazinger Z >=Gundam Build Fighters >>Gunbuster >>>Giant Robo>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Aldnoah.Zero>Typhus >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Eureka 7
Watch Big O, the rest of Full Metal Panic since you liked the first season which is the worst season, and Patlabor.
I have no clue why you stopped at the first season of FMP.
Ononoki?
I MUST WATCH THIS.
I saw FMP a long time ago, for Fumoffu which I didn't watch. Instead I just ended up watching a lot of other shows.
I have a terrible habit of leaving shows at season 1 under the impression that "I got a taste of it and that's good enough for now"
Hellwarden
Member
Good series review Jarmel.
Enjoyed reading it.
Regarding that death, I am also salty as fuck.
Enjoyed reading it.
Regarding that death, I am also salty as fuck.
OniBarubary
Banned
I'm getting the sudden urge to watch Princess Tutu again.
Because Princess Tutu was fucking brilliant.
Because Princess Tutu was fucking brilliant.
Cornbread78
Member
It could be worse, he could have stopped at ep.18 of S1 like I did, lol.
BTW, It is confirmed, I can do $hit banner work fron my work PC in MS Paint. Good thing ClayStatue's hooking me up with a legit banner, lol.
Dedication Through Light
Member
I dont understand how a movie would wrap things up, there is still the issue of humans facing each other on this Earth, then there is still the getting the island back together, and lastly, the Festum issue is still a large thing that I cant see being resolved in any pleasing/comprehensive manner in a movie.
Best scene was Soushi and Kazuki many scenes where they were away from the others, such a good couple. They had so many good moments in Exodus.
and then ending is kind of lovely, Kazuki gets to raise a shota Soushi, like so many fics have already done. I imagine he will get a fast paced growth like I few of the characters like tsubaki I think?
Dedication Through Light
Member
M3 is a must scene anime for mecha fans that want some good action, sound, and drama. The visuals are unbelievable.
Buddycom (on your list) needs to be moved to the top immediately.
Also Gyrozetter needs to be on your list.
And apparently the last two episodes are plot relevant, so no need to worry about the show's redemption.
nintendoman58
Member
All of these I listed above are definitely must-watches that you haven't seen.
Gundam Build Fighters
Shin Mazinger Z
GaoGaiGar
G Gundam
Giant Robo
You should also definitely check out FMP Fumoffu and the Second Raid.
You know, I'd really appreciate it if you stopped making these pointless shitposts on Eureka Seven in here every time it's brought up. I get that you didn't like the show, but many others in here have and have written why they thought it was legitimately good.
All these posts accomplish is make yourself look like a troll and make this community worse and worse.
OniBarubary
Banned
Don't listen to him, it's a trick.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Patlabor is my favorite mecha franchise. Oshii's two Patlabor films are essential viewing.
Thank you.
Most of which can be settled in a movie. I don't see how they can drag the humans vs humans angle for another 26 episodes. I don't know what else can be said about that conflict that Exodus didn't largely tackle already. As for going back to the island, that again can be tackled together with the Festum remaining.
Of course. I can't believe I forgot about
shota
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Most anime bomb. That doesn't prevent them from getting released outside Japan.
Dedication Through Light
Member
Prince of Stride Episode 11
You gotta show me! You make me feel okay, you can believe me, you made me shout it out. I love this song even when they kept using it as they successfully connected. Really intense and I think this has been the best location for stride. Its like imagining people running through various exhibits at Disneyworld, except actually on them. (Big thunder mountain railroad, inside space mountain, etc). Fun all around. Backstory was entertaining too.
I do wish they had animated the galstan dancing instead of just moving laser lights
You gotta show me! You make me feel okay, you can believe me, you made me shout it out. I love this song even when they kept using it as they successfully connected. Really intense and I think this has been the best location for stride. Its like imagining people running through various exhibits at Disneyworld, except actually on them. (Big thunder mountain railroad, inside space mountain, etc). Fun all around. Backstory was entertaining too.
I do wish they had animated the galstan dancing instead of just moving laser lights
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Since the last two are Kagenui (Koyomi Dead) and Gaen (Koyomi Nothing) I wonder if they will make a new OP for them.
naahhhh they'll just make the episode 1:30 longer.
Considering they are close to antagonists I wonder what the plot relevant stuff could be
Oh, it's the first time I realize these two don't have an OP. Now I'll be disappointed if there's not a new one. :|
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Considering the effort Shaft has been putting into Koyomimono do you really think they will
NaDannMaGoGo
Member
Talking about posts that make users look bad, how about you let him voice his opinion? Do we have to adhere to some majority here for our personal preferences to be valid? It's his personal mecha ranking you are getting upset about.
All praise Kagenui.
I fail too see why I would need to stop expressing my opinion on the series just because it doesn't jive with the majority consensus. Especially when I'm pretty sure I only post about it when it's brought up. There's certainly an ironic jibe aimed at it in my post but it reflects my unpleasant experience I had with it. You need to stop getting so triggered when someone dislikes what you like.
----
Speaking of Patlabor, the Oshii "continuity" is OVAs + 2 movies right ?
Watched the first forty minutes or so of the Arise Ghost in the Shell film...eh. Does the second half pick up because there's very little atmosphere or anything in the plot that grabs my attention. The action scene was nice but not particularly memorable plus I still don't like the overall soundtrack and look of the Arise universe.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
The slick direction and action staging is the biggest strength of Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie. If you don't like that, you won't like the movie.
Cornbread78
Member
Shirayuki ep. 22
Good episode and full of sticky sweetness. Can they just ship Kiki and Mitsu already? Damn kids need to have their love out in the open as well, lol. It's great that big bro is on board, so we can finally get back to the ball scene from the S1 OP that we all saw at the beginning come to fruition. Hopefully, we can get a nice conclusion wrapping everything up in these last two episodes.
Good episode and full of sticky sweetness. Can they just ship Kiki and Mitsu already? Damn kids need to have their love out in the open as well, lol. It's great that big bro is on board, so we can finally get back to the ball scene from the S1 OP that we all saw at the beginning come to fruition. Hopefully, we can get a nice conclusion wrapping everything up in these last two episodes.
Cornbread78
Member
I don't think the below culture is going to disappear from the community anytime soon.
names2hard4you
Member
It could be worse, he could have stopped at ep.18 of S1 like I did, lol.
BTW, It is confirmed, I can do $hit banner work fron my work PC in MS Paint. Good thing ClayStatue's hooking me up with a legit banner, lol.
I actually like it. Honestly I cannot recommend paint.net enough to anyone who wants to take their image editing skills up a notch, not as much as Photoshop. It has everything one needs really, and it's free!
OniBarubary
Banned
It does give us some great gifs though.
ThatChairMan
Member
Rewatching the older entries really brought it together how much they influenced Exodus, whether it be intentional plot threads like the ones you mentioned, or just legacy references. Stuff like
Maya crying while clutching the same straw hat by another Hazama daughter years later
every single pilot of the Mark Funf dying (even Olga, who was its NUN pilot for half an episode)
Sakura's parents dying in both the very first and very last episode
Shoko voiced before Matsuki's passing
And at least Sui's parents got better. Koyo's were terrible until the very end.
The woman was just the Atlantis core creating a look-a-like Ai to motivate Jonathan, wasn't it? Since the real Ai died.
I tend to believe that these 'bait' and 'troll' posts are as serious as you take it. I don't mind them as long as they're not being a hindrance to an actual good discussion/debate. Sometimes I like to joke around in a similar manner, I don't like to take myself too seriously but I know when to draw the line. Remember, at the end of the day, these are just cartoons from a far east island country.
Cornbread78
Member
It could be worse, he could have stopped at ep.18 of S1 like I did, lol.
BTW, It is confirmed, I can do $hit banner work fron my work PC in MS Paint. Good thing ClayStatue's hooking me up with a legit banner, lol.
Can I give some feedback?
The Twin Star Exorcists one is pretty stretched. Do you want to subtly imply that thinking it might be good would be a quite a stretch?
You'd probably be right though :/
Most of the pics also have compression artifacts, but that probably doesn't matter much depending on the size you want to use it at.
I think the overall composition is pretty dine though.
Can we just get back to discussing how awesome S.A.O is?
Most popular anime I have not seen
nintendoman58
Member
My problem is, I'm getting the impression that he's not doing it to voice his opinion, but rather to serve as a bait post.
It's kind of weird how you tell me not to get triggered when I feel that that's what you're going for with everything you say about Eureka Seven. These constant bait posts I see is one of the reasons why I feel this community, and GAF as a whole for that matter, have really declined as of late.
I'm trying to make it better. I try to be as rational as I can when it comes to my impressions and I think about everything I say before I post it.
Most popular anime I have not seen
keep it that way
I thought they showed faux Ai before they showed the girl in the crystals. I have to check but wasn't faux Ai running around before crystal girl opened her eyes?
Cornbread78
Member
Most popular anime I have not seen
DO IT!
(at least the first 15 episodes)
One of the most popular shows in the world and It's not SAO's fault the haters have bad taste. It's got action, adventure, sci-fi, love, courting, marriage, children, the power of love, the power of friendship, emotion and intensity. Oh and the music is really, REALLY good. It's got it ALL!
I threw this together in MS Paint from my work PC, so it is crap, LOL. Clay Statue is putting together a legit one for me tonight, but I got sidetracked from my work earlier and put this together...Thanks for the feedback though.
Yea, opinions of the show have been very polarizing, enough that it got my attention. I've just been stalling it over more essential shows or shows with cute girls T__T
striferser
Huge Nickleback Fan
Grimgar 10
Haruhiko and Ranta try to communicate, but both failed spectacularly. Both of them are awkward as hell. Anyway, the team venture into the same place that got Merry team killed, and i can see it's going to end well.
Osomatsu san 23
1st part was hilarious and has a really good reaction faces.
2nd part Dayon/10
Haruhiko and Ranta try to communicate, but both failed spectacularly. Both of them are awkward as hell. Anyway, the team venture into the same place that got Merry team killed, and i can see it's going to end well.
Osomatsu san 23
1st part was hilarious and has a really good reaction faces.
2nd part Dayon/10
ONLY the first 15 episodes though.
everything else is.... well...
not good
Also, Kiritobread, you cant deny that even within those first 15 episodes, there are some serious pacing problems (granted its because of the source material and the disjunct within it, but i digress).
Also the word "courting" is kinda creepy, and not really applicable for SAO
Edit: i wanna make some art for the spring OT... have that itch to draw something. haven't done so for a while
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