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Summer Anime 2017 |OT| More streaming services than shows to watch

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D

Dedication Through Light

Member
HeyBot Episode 41

Great jailbreak plot, and Nejiru always teasing Chigeru into salty mode is the best.

Moeru gave the most memorable moments, glad he is the best pure hearted wanna be protag, give him his own show someday :(
 
H

hosannainexcelsis

Member
NaDannMaGoGo said:
I think he meant "Because you (as the director) don't think it's ugly."
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Correct. If the question is "Why would 'you' imitate something ugly?", the answer is "Because 'you' don't think it's ugly." Nagahama has spoken in great detail about how much he admires the art and construction of classic American superhero comic books, and with The Reflection he's trying to express the ideal of comics that he has constructed from his personal experience. He's trying to convey his love of comics to his audience, but even more than that he's simply having fun "thinking of what would make a good T-shirt," as he said. Obviously he hasn't been successful so far in making other people see what he sees in comics, but I think it's not hard to see what his motivations for by reading interviews and talks from him.
 
D

Dedication Through Light

Member
Monster Hunter Stories Ride On episode 42

The numbers intro twice in the episode, I love it and with Lute.

Silly but surprising plot with the eggs.

I was hoping Lute would get the egg to hatch leaving mean Cheval with nothing.
 
-Minsc-

-Minsc-

Member
hosannainexcelsis said:
Correct. If the question is "Why would 'you' imitate something ugly?", the answer is "Because 'you' don't think it's ugly." Nagahama has spoken in great detail about how much he admires the art and construction of classic American superhero comic books, and with The Reflection he's trying to express the ideal of comics that he has constructed from his personal experience. He's trying to convey his love of comics to his audience, but even more than that he's simply having fun "thinking of what would make a good T-shirt," as he said. Obviously he hasn't been successful so far in making other people see what he sees in comics, but I think it's not hard to see what his motivations for by reading interviews and talks from him.
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I do give the fellow props for getting to a point where he can present a show to the masses without actually appealing to the masses.
 
X

/XX/

Member
hosannainexcelsis said:
You might not have noticed this, but applying this kind of depth-of-field effect on facial closeups has actually become a common photography technique in current anime productions with some photographic ambition, such as Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu S2 and Konosuba S2 at Deen or Sound Euphonium S2 and A Silent Voice at KyoAni. While I don't know the specific reason for using it in all circumstances, the interviews with KyoAni staff I've read say that they often use depth-of-field to create a hazy atmosphere, to make an image feel less solid and more touched with nostalgia or a heightened emotional state. That would fit with this image, in which Eric is getting emotional upon hearing Ange narrate her past tragedy.
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Jexhius said:
I am aware of the growing rise of digital photography in anime and in many cases I think it works really well. I certainly understand that they're attempting to emulate the ‘blurry' camera look that signifies a character has been emotionally moved. I've trying to work out what bothered me about the use of the effect in this one scene and I believe it largely come down to a question of consistency, as it felt like that was the only shot in the scene that was shot with a blur filter. However, it makes sense as that's clearly a POV shot from Eric's perspective. So I don't really know why I dislike it.
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Just one piece of interesting information to point about digital photography regarding cuts featuring virtual camera tracking over multilayered compositions, and differing degrees of 'DOF effect' applied to them; they are apparently painfully difficult for a supervisor to convey without a continuous overseeing of the individual processes frame-by-frame, and that is because legacy tools used to guide people during the animation production, as are time-sheets and storyboards, are kind of tedious to use for incorporating in them comprehensive positional data of the Z-axis state by cut, as Hisashi Ezura mentions on one of his rants about this manifest inconvenience. This situation could explain in some cases certain visual inconsistencies on the end result between scenes in a work if some instances weren't explicitly or clearly delimited among units/depts., step-by-step without being glossed over in the rush for reaching milestones... that is leaving aside possible main solutions like the generous use of composite mock-ups like animatics are for 3DCGI pre-visualisation, which would consume precious time and money unavailable for the already hectic production line of many Japanese animation industry projects.
 
D

Dedication Through Light

Member
Knight's & Magic Episode 4

Finally were striking at the core and addressing the major limitation of the silhouette knights. Ernesti makes this so awesome.

I loved Kid in his at the beginning firing off the projectiles, hopefully we see him and others in action again soon.
 
A

Ascheroth

Member
Princess Principal 03

Yeah, that was another fantastic episode.
And god damn that backstory. But that certainly clears up one scene from episode 1.
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Man that was hard to watch.
 
H

hosannainexcelsis

Member
Jexhius said:
Sorry about the delay in responding to this post. I’m not going to through everything blow-for-blow as it’s pretty clear there are somethings we just have a fundamental disagreement over (such as the colour design in certain scenes, the lighting in the park, etc etc).
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I didn't expect you to actually respond in-depth at this point. I'm impressed! I don't think I have as in-depth thoughts to reciprocate at this point, but I'll just make two quick responses.

I don’t really agree with you here. The sequence may be in part inspired by Gravity Rush (I am not familiar with the game) but the visual callback to Ghost in the Shell is incredibly overt, to the point where I feel it is deliberately winking at the audience. Not only does this sequence borrow the visuals from Ghost in the Shell, but there’s certain plot and thematic elements present in this episode that feel like similar to Ghost in the Shell (the TV series more so than the movie). Finally, I don’t think the sequence in Princess Principal cleanly conveys the message that you ascribe to it.

Starting with the Ghost in the Shell comparison, I feel like all I need to do is present these two images next to each other for the visual mirroring to be obvious:

Here are the things which stand out to me as similar, just in these images
- Woman standing on ledge
- A cityscape at night
- The camera is positioned behind and above the woman, with the angle titled down
- This ledge overlooks a ring of four large buildings arranged in a circle
- This ledge also overlooks a ring of roads that are being driven on by cars

Once we take in the other images in this sequence, the visual comparison is even clearer:

- Woman overlooking the city with a technological device, shot from the side.
- Cut to a closeup of what she’s observing with her technological device.
- We see her remove the device from her face.
- She takes a moment to observe the city.
- Then she jumps off the edge of the ledge.

It’s just steampunk version of the Ghost in the Shell scene, and I think the reason the show draws the comparison is because of the kind of story they’re looking to tell. Both Princess Principal and Ghost in the Shell (especially the TV series SAC) tell the story of clandestine government agency, formed from a small team of specialists, which engages in espionage, kidnapping, assassination, and other ‘dirty’ spy activities. Both works takes place in morally grey worlds, with morally grey characters. There’s also cool action sequences with people flipping around doing ninja shit and inappropriately dressed women.

The problem is that I don’t feel that visually borrowing from Ghost in the Shell is good idea if the scene you create ultimately feels like a pale imitation. Hosannainexcelsis, you are right to point out that the visuals in Ghost in the Shell and the visuals in Princess Principal are trying to convey very different ideas. But my problem is that the visuals in the Ghost in the Shell scene exist for a very clear reason that has a very clear payoff within the scene. The same cannot be said for Princess Principal.

In both sequences, we’re being introduced to a character who we know nothing about. In Ghost in the Shell, there’s a lot of build-up to the Major jumping from the building. We see her disrobe, something which should traditionally make you feel that a character is vulnerable. We see and hear the wind blowing in her hair, which combined with the camera demonstrating how far she has to fall and how solid the concrete below her is, induces a sense of vertigo. As the audience, we can’t make sense of what’s going on, even as the major dives of the building with a smile in her face, we can’t fathom her plans until the very last moment when the camera cuts to a previously invisible thread that’s attaching her to the building. Oshii builds up an expectation visually which he then pays off visually. The crucial piece of information concerning the thread is withheld from the audience until the very last moment of the scene. What does this tell the audience? We know that the Major is a character who is control, who is fearless, who is potentially a thrill-seeker and that even if we (in the audience) don’t realise it, she is always acting on a plan of her own devising.

The sequence in Princess Principal, by contrast, tells you very little. We observe Ange observing other people, and then she jumps off a building. There isn’t build up or payoff within the scene to, because at the end of the scene we don’t suddenly see Ange flying around with the orb. This reveal doesn’t occur until a few minutes later. All we get instead is a tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flash of green at the nadir of her fall. Therefore I can't agree that this scene tells us that Ange is a character who can control gravity because we don't get that as part of the scene itself.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that – as it leaves the exact nature of Ange’s powers as a mystery, and it also serves to tell the audience that Ange is a character who is fearless. But by visually calling back so strongly to Ghost in Shell I can’t help but think about all the more interesting elements present in the original sequence.
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You have convinced me that this sequence is a deliberate imitation of that sequence from Ghost in the Shell. Your memory of the details of that film is a lot clearer than mine; I suppose I need to rewatch it in the near future. You've also managed to convince me that what Princess Principal wants to establish with the scene is roughly the same as what Ghost in the Shell wants to establish, in terms of how they characterize their female leads. Your description of the Major does appear to be what the show wants to establish Ange as.

Right, I actually think the composition is very uneven. In some scenes the characters and world look completely interwoven, in others the characters feel like they’re standing on backgrounds that they don’t blend in with. I personally felt that this immersion-breaking visual problem occurred in too many scenes.

For example, I feel like characters don't really blend with the background here, and contrast in focus between the foreground and background is a little extreme:

While in other shots, it feels like the focus naturally gets blurrier the further objects are from the camera:

But, even within this very scene, consistency is a huge problem. Look at this next shot:

Rather than taking place in an organic world, where there's actual depth to the image, this feels very "2D" with the characters placed in front of a flat background, rather than a room with real depth. Notice as well how the girl with her hair in buns has teleported from being in front of the large dresser to being in front of some kind of cage.

Hang on a second, we clearly saw earlier that this sofa was against the wall, underneath the tusk. Who moved it to a different side of the room?

Other shots have a great sense of depth to them:

It's just very uneven.
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We differ slightly in the particulars of which shots work perfectly and which are flawed, but I basically agree with you that the production is not consistently polished. Episode 2 features more things along the same line - a lot of dynamic camerawork, unusual for TV anime, especially in non-action scenes, with animation that isn't consistently convincing through all the camera rotations and the like. As /XX/ reminds us, ambitious digital photography can be a hard thing to get right when communicating among so many different people and departments without a level of supervision that is a lot to ask of TV anime productions with their typically messy schedules. I suppose one perspective to take towards this is that the director and studios involved shouldn't have tried to be so ambitious if they couldn't make sure they could completely pull it off, which is an understandable perspective, but I appreciate the visual ambition on display, which I think mostly has the right mindset even if not realized perfectly.
 
S

Sterok

Member
Princess Principal 3

So Ange just wanted to bail out with Princess, but Princess is serious about gunning for the throne. I like it. That's a dark backstory for Beatrice. Gives her a cool skill at least. Why did Princess befriend her anyway? I'm sure I missed some details, but this seems more straightforward without any big twists. High tension infiltration of an airship. Beatrice is clumsy at all this, but she makes herself useful. Treason is okay as long as it's for glorious Princess. Ange is being a bit more honest with Beatrice, though that makes sense since they have similar priorities.
 
S

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Princess Principal Episode 3:

So at the core of the matter this is a love story, or perhaps it isn't given the nature of the sp game, though I think that would in-universe be a true betrayal. Also, yea, we went to some fucking dark places in a hurry. Still, this has remained excellent after 3 episodes.
 
D

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
blurr said:
Big question is, will it look better, if yes, how much better.
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When you sit on the ocean floor the only direction you can go is up. My S2 dream is fewer boring mammal designs. Give me bugs or something.
 
petran79

petran79

Banned
Daisougen no Chiisana Tenshi Bush Baby 1-2

Early 90s were the last good years for adaptations of western novels. Adaptations that would find their way outside Japan and become popular. Their swan song before the fiscal crisis. TMS and Nippon Animation were the leading studios. Those years are long gone but it is interesting to see the amount of care and quality that went to these adaptations.

I had seen the German dub few years ago and also read the novel. Havent seen the black and white live action movie of the 60s. Novel was far more conservative from a British perspective. Poachers were native Kenyans. Here poachers are British.

First two episodes have a surprising amount of attention to detail when it comes to the natural habitats and countryside.. From the first minutes you see the viewpoint of a chameleon as he tries to snatch a fly. There is also a rhino hunting scene and a flock of bush babies jumping around. This is just the beginning. Few series invest that much in the settings and backgrounds.



Series takes place in 60s Kenya. As it usually happens with most TV adaptations, there is a lot of padding involved. Unlike the novel, viewer here gets to explore the world of the protagonist in detail. A middle class English family with all the comforts in the world and also native Kenyans at their service. Her father and brother work with Kenyan authorities to protect the animals from poachers. Jackie Rhodes has even her own pony. All these comforts will make the following events more shocking to the protagonist.

The effects of Kenya's independence start to affect the lifes of the British citizens as they have to return home. Just like previously with the Trapp Family Story, WMT series start to add major political events to the story. I like those additions but unfortunately only these two series and the mediocre Les Miserables go this far.



Jacky for the time being remains unaffected, though she's sad to see her close friend depart for Manchester.

The interesting part is the moment the bush baby appears.In the novel he was already in her possession. But the series adds a new perspective. Unlike most series with mascot animals, here we get to know more about this tiny creature. Jackie's agony whether he'll live and her desperate efforts to nurture this delicate animal make the relation even closer and affectionate than the novel. This relation is perhaps one of the best I've seen in animated features, though it doesnt reach the more realistic narration of the novel. A little too sugary but fortunately it doesnt deviate too much.



I wish fansubbers complete that series or at least someone releases the Canadian dub. It is one of the best realistic adventure games. The fact it takes place in Kenya and Tanzania makes it even more memorable.

A later episode where an encounter with a leopard occurs, is one of the most tense packed I've seen in kids adaptations.




While not reaching 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother or Future Boy Conan quality, at least Bush Babies holds Nippon Animation adventure standards very high. Most classic WMT staff participated in the production of the series. Character and animal animation is very well taken care off. Because later the Free Willy ripoff Tico would be a dissapointment in narrative, despite featuring good underwater animation too.
 
B

blurr

Member
Narag said:
I saw some poll saying that fans didn't want the visuals to increase in quality, presumably because they helped give the show its charm in the first place.
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Sakugablog's Kevin weighed in on this when it was airing, while there is some truth to the charm, it could still be just as good, if not more if it looked better so I'm assuming they'd go that way.

At least get rid of any apparent issues so I more or less agree with dimb on this.
 
S

Sterok

Member
KiraKira Precure À La Mode 24

Updated op is bad. So Pikario is alive after all. Kind of a cop out, but I like him, so I'll let it slide. Why is Ciel so enamored with Japanese stuff when she was originally from Japan? Maybe she didn't go down from the mountain much, but still. Ciel is officially a person, so I can see her easily transferring in unlike certain other new students. Did no one ask why she just disappeared? Good improv on the trio at least. Himari and Aoi need more bonding with Ciel though. She's really only been with Ichika. Grave has a cool car, which makes him cool. Next episode is even more blatant Yukari/Akira. Like there wasn't enough already.
 
A

AquaWateria

Member
Eccentric Family Episode 6

Now this was a really damn good episode. While the earlier episodes I liked this episode managed to make me love it a lot. The way Yabasuro questions himself on not hating the person who ate his father was something I wanted to see. Or his father's speech about being eaten and how he has fulfilled his life with no regrets were great. The music used in during some of the dialogue really elevated some of the scenes. It was a really great episode.

Also why was Benten crying near the well?
 
T

Turin Turambar

Member
Princess Principal 3

lKuld8k.png

8XZGzKu.png
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Lol. This is the yuri anime version of Casablanca or what? Hint: it doesn't end well.

And why her tactical spy suit have such a frilly mini skirt??
qxfE1pH.png
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And let's discuss the socio-economical impact of printing money from an geostrategic opponent in a colony environment, wait...
SuCz1JY.jpg
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A cute girl with a cute hat!! >_<

But seriously, the show walks a fine line between stupidity and worthwhile action/spy stuff.
In any case, this episode was done just to integrate Beato into the crew. To he honest, her tragic past feels like a flimsy excuse to have a spy-relevant skill for the group, being able to change her voice.
Also, I felt as if they exposed too much or too directly Ange feeling in the first scene, where it's clear she will lie to the princess and to herself into believing they can get to be queen, fix the country, and solve everything peacefully.
 
X

/XX/

Member
You know, Jexhius, I was thinking how the comparison made on your previous post could have used screenshots of the Ghost in the Shell 2.0 version instead, as with it would have been seen as more clearly apparent a visual parallelism between both shows on (more superficial in the context you bring, though) aspects like colour setting/grading or those hazy layers made of diffuse lighting FX more common nowadays... but I'm kind of glad that you didn't! :-D

Narag said:
They'd probably do a decent job if they actually had the time.
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Shin Itagaki only has time for Te-ky&#363;... a very limited and precious time, so don't try to bother him with anything else! >:-(
 
J

JulianImp

Member
I had never bothered to check that TWGOK actually had gotten an anime adaptation quite a while ago. That's cool, and I guess I might end up watching it sometime later.

Meanwhile, I've got to add It's My Life to the list of manga series I'd like to see adapted into anime, because it's a pretty fun and heartwarming fantasy SoL from what I've read so far.
 
D

DNAbro

Member
Aoyama Episode 4

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I was worried after last week's episode that they would just repeat the same jokes again and again but this week completely alleviated it. It was nice to see a different side of Ayoma and also the cook-off that occurred. Definitely keeping with it.
 
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