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[mAcOdIn]

Klan Klan!

I liked her the least, fucking loli Zentradi, character wise she actually wasn't terrible but I hate her out of principle as I hate loli characters.

Zentraedi were born to fight rock

Rocking is fighting with your passion!

 

[Infinite Justice]

I felt the same way pretty much.

Spoiler

Roy's death was so out of nowhere... shit just caught me off guard. "Hey everyone, I'm Kakizaki and this is my second line in the mo-UGHHHH" *boom*. Epic tramp slap was epic.

And damn, did Max just get more awesome? I love how during all of his fights he's never actually afraid or threatened. He just makes "oh shit! that was kinda close lol" faces throughout the movie :lol

Spoiler

Roys death didn't have much impact (though the way he died was crazier) ,especially with Claudia's one liner imo.

And yes

Spoiler

Pimp Smack

was like damn.


As for Max: it was actually fucking surprising to be honest see him actually that worked up :lol and i love the different view for his involvement with Millia

Spoiler

(in the series she shrunk to his size, while here he grew to her size)

Minmei throws a hell of a concert too...

indeed.

which is why i want to checkout Flashback 2012.

 

[A Black Falcon]

We're probably going around in circles, but the happy ending is that the characters accept change and move on with their lives in a fruitful manner. It's cheap, but that's why K-On!! and SnW ended with the characters running.

Everything else is just semantics, I guess. :lol

(SnW) Non-ending endings like that annoy me though... I want to actually know what happens, but no, it's like 'we'll never tell you'. Bah.

Oh yeah, it's that shounen game tie-in anime thing, except with 20+ girls instead of a spiky-haired dude. I just like it because it's my way of engaging with mahjong since I have no real way to play it.
(Online MJ is like online poker, unless there are real stakes, it's not worth playing because no one plays seriously).

The anime moved at a relatively brisk pace and even outpaced the manga, considering they essentially devoted episodes to the "enemy schools"... which I appreciated because at the time I found it interesting that sports animes would devote as much time to developing the losers as much as they would to the main characters.

(Saki) So I watched episodes 18 to 20, and ... :lol :lol :lol

Seriously, the way Saki won that match was so ridiculously absurd... the one, miniscule, purely luck-based insane play... and of course it falls together perfectly, she draws perfectly, she picks up the like five pieces she needs all in a row one after the other, always knowing which tile to grab... it's so ridiculous that it was awesome. Both ridiculous and awesome, for sure. Saki really has some first-class luck skills, even characters like Yugi would be jealous I think.

I was guessing that she'd win with a 80,000+ point move of some kind on the last turn, but instead it took her two turns, one of 24,000 and the other of 64,000 or so. Other than that though I was pretty much right, that last turn was exactly the kind of thing I was expecting.

Other than that, yeah, it is interesting how the other schools get a real focus too. I was sort of complaining about that, but it does have a good side too... it's interesting to see the other characters' perspectives, and it makes it mean more when Saki beats them.

Also, Touka is pretty amusing. She's so obsessed with Nodoka, but Nodoka barely even knows she exists... she is funny though. Also, I'm wondering what Hisa's backstory is... the girl who keeps her eye closed seemed to be wondering about what'd happened, but then didn't ask anything about it (yet at least).

Yeah, I'm going to finish this soon. Too bad...

 

[firehawk12]

Suffice to say, I mainly learnt that eventually I will run out of names for all the film techniques that Shinbo uses. In episode one I noticed :

Extreme Long Shot, Long Shot, Medium Long Shot, Medium Shot, Close Up, Extreme Close Up. Establishing Shot, POV, Pulling Focus, Slow Motion (these last three were all combined!)
Tracking Shot/Dolly Shot, Discontinuity Editing, Continuity Editing, On screen timer
Chiaroscuro lighting, Low Key Lighting, High Key lighting.
Steady cam, Rapid Editing, Slow editing, Low Angle shot, High Angle shot, Birds Eye View
Match on action, matte shot , soft lighting, tilt, pan, time lapse, Kuleshov effect
Strange framing devices, Deep focus, Distored Mise-En-Scene, Repeated geometric shapes, Reaction shot, Hard lighting, tight framing, masking, extreme low angle
Dolly Zoom (traditional), Dolly Zoom (reverse), "smash cut". Canted/Inverse camera, Canted/Sideways camera, Canted+Extreme contrast, tracking shot mounted on bicycle, heavy masking, eyeline match, stage lighting, off-screen space.

And various other things that have no names because cameras cant usually move that way without breaking in half. Such as the Dolly Zoom to Extreme Low-Angle Reverse Dolly Zoom.

The trick is to make sure it means something, otherwise it's just masturbation.

 

[luka]

I liked her the least, fucking loli Zentradi, character wise she actually wasn't terrible but I hate her out of principle as I hate loli characters.

 

[duckroll]

I started watching Baccano. I wonder if I should post about it...

 

[Salazar]

I started watching Baccano. I wonder if I should post about it...

The brilliance of Isaac and Miria goes without saying.

 

[Dresden]

I started watching Baccano. I wonder if I should post about it...

Of course you should. We all need more Baccano in our lives.

And Kuragehime is just a few days away~

 

[Infinite Justice]

I started watching Baccano. I wonder if I should post about it...

How are Isaac and Miria treating you?

 

[mAcOdIn]

Oh come on! Does everyone here just like the smallest, youngest looking character in every show?

Wait, don't answer that.

 

[Jex]

I started watching Baccano. I wonder if I should post about it...

Of course!

The trick is to make sure it means something, otherwise it's just masturbation.

Obviously, although there's no reason not to have fun as well. Is is strictly necessary to do a dolly to reverse-dolly shot? You could leave the same impression on the audience in a number of ways, but it wouldn't be as visually exciting.

All those techniques have their uses, and they all fulfil them here.

It's just that the world is filled with anime where the directors forget that the camera can be quite dynamic. Still, it's a budget thing as well.

It's not strange that they're being used, it's strange how many of them are being used, so frequently, in such a short space of time. Five POV shots in one episode? POV is a well known technique, but it's rarely used with such frequency.

 

[firehawk12]

Of course!

Obviously, although there's no reason not to have fun as well. All those techniques have their uses, and they all fulfil them here.

It's not strange that they're being used, it's strange how many of them are being used, so frequently, in such a short space of time. Five POV shots in one episode? POV is a well known technique, but it's rarely used with such frequency.

I dunno, having fun is best left for student projects or art films. :lol
That said, I think Shinbo's directing is mostly purposeful... although I'm sure a lot of haters think he's just going on a wankfest.

(SnW) Non-ending endings like that annoy me though... I want to actually know what happens, but no, it's like 'we'll never tell you'. Bah.

You just have to let go man... :lol

(Saki) So I watched episodes 18 to 20, and ... :lol :lol :lol

Yeah, I'm going to finish this soon. Too bad...

The payoff with the other schools is that everyone becomes friends at the end... and, of course, there's the individual tournaments to get to.

 

[Branduil]

Suffice to say, I mainly learnt that eventually I will run out of names for all the film techniques that Shinbo uses. In episode one I noticed :

Extreme Long Shot, Long Shot, Medium Long Shot, Medium Shot, Close Up, Extreme Close Up. Establishing Shot, POV, Pulling Focus, Slow Motion (these last three were all combined!)
Tracking Shot/Dolly Shot, Discontinuity Editing, Continuity Editing, On screen timer
Chiaroscuro lighting, Low Key Lighting, High Key lighting.
Steady cam, Rapid Editing, Slow editing, Low Angle shot, High Angle shot, Birds Eye View
Match on action, matte shot , soft lighting, tilt, pan, time lapse, Kuleshov effect
Strange framing devices, Deep focus, Distored Mise-En-Scene, Repeated geometric shapes, Reaction shot, Hard lighting, tight framing, masking, extreme low angle
Dolly Zoom (traditional), Dolly Zoom (reverse), "smash cut". Canted/Inverse camera, Canted/Sideways camera, Canted+Extreme contrast, tracking shot mounted on bicycle, heavy masking, eyeline match, stage lighting, off-screen space.

And various other things that have no names because cameras cant usually move that way without breaking in half. Such as the Dolly Zoom to Extreme Low-Angle Reverse Dolly Zoom.

Episode 1 of what?

 

[Jex]

Episode 1 of what?

After reading a certain article on Nausicaa, I decided to re-visit the opening of Bakemonogatari to see if their was any meaning in the madness, or whether it was just

a wankfest.

Plus, blogs are very happy to talk about character/story dialogue/themes. A few others deal with animation. But there aren't that many that attempt a close reading of the text, to study the film grammar for any clues.

You just have to let go man... :lol

Anime endings. What can you do?

 

[A Black Falcon]

You just have to let go man... :lol

Just because anime endings are so often lame or inconclusive doesn't mean it isn't annoying.

The payoff with the other schools is that everyone becomes friends at the end... and, of course, there's the individual tournaments to get to.

True, but the individual tournament isn't actually animated, right? The series ends before that... I wonder if there's not going to be another one, if they're waiting until the manga gets farther, or what. Hopefully it continues at some point, I do like it.

Anime endings. What can you do?

Yeah, anime endings are often terrible, that's very true. At least often though they have the excuse that it's because they're based on a manga which isn't over yet. Unfortunately though, animes which are their own stand-alone story don't seem much more likely to actually have a decent ending... they just aren't good at endings at all. SnW has that problem as much as anything, but it's so common that it's the one WITH the good endings that stand out, I think... (like Angel Beats perhaps, in recent series?)

 

[mAcOdIn]

Woah, Angel Beats doesn't stand out because it had a strong ending, it had an ending which is more than most anime can say, but that's not why it stands out. It stands out because it shows what happens when someone with ADD writes a show and no one edits the script. I hadn't seen something so directionless(that wasn't slice of life) in a long time. Plus, I think the ending was kind of stupid.


And for DY_nasty, Sheryl's VA and Basara's VA doing a Macross 7 song together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWh4su35ps

 

[Branduil]

Hey SnW, Imma let you finish, but Darker Than Black 2 had the worst anime ending of all time.

 

[arstal]

I always thought SnW ending was just the end of a part of it, and that they'd do more eventually. I enjoyed it.

 

[firehawk12]

Plus, blogs are very happy to talk about character/story dialogue/themes. A few others deal with animation. But there aren't that many that attempt a close reading of the text, to study the film grammar for any clues.

That's strange, because the whole point is that it is a visual/filmic medium...

Anime endings. What can you do?

Just because anime endings are so often lame or inconclusive doesn't mean it isn't annoying.

I think it had a pretty good ending, narratively and thematically, and certainly it was one of the better anime endings I've seen in a while (13 much more so than 12, actually), so... oh well. :lol

True, but the individual tournament isn't actually animated, right? The series ends before that... I wonder if there's not going to be another one, if they're waiting until the manga gets farther, or what. Hopefully it continues at some point, I do like it.

Yeah, they do the individual tournament. It ends at the start of the national tournament.

SnW has that problem as much as anything, but it's so common that it's the one WITH the good endings that stand out, I think... (like Angel Beats perhaps, in recent series?)

I thought the Angel Beats ending was kind of cheesy because it was so emotionally manipulative.
I guess I don't see how SnW had a bad ending though, especially since the character arcs end very satisfactorily.

 

[Branduil]

Plus, blogs are very happy to talk about character/story dialogue/themes. A few others deal with animation. But there aren't that many that attempt a close reading of the text, to study the film grammar for any clues.

Probably because for the vast majority of anime there's nothing to find.

 

[mAcOdIn]

SnW's ending was in a way actually just fine because it was an "ending" to a show that didn't have a central story, in all reality one of those finale, loose end wrapping up, show the ramifications of everything, big endings that people want would have been totally out of place in a show that wasn't really about anything. I don't know if that makes any sense but that's kind of how I felt.

 

[Jex]

Probably because for the vast majority of anime there's nothing to find.

Well there are a number of anime shows that are rather plain. But considering how many anime movies exist, it seems like there's a lot of content that could be discussed.

Especially with relation to film grammar that only exists within anime - for example, the shot of a persons face with their eyes not drawn, that I mentioned way earlier. What is the film form of a tsundere? (I haven't checked, but I imagine it involves a lot of sullen close-ups.)

 

[duckroll]

Just finished ep4 of Baccano. I'll do a post on it later.

 

[firehawk12]

SnW's ending was in a way actually just fine because it was an "ending" to a show that didn't have a central story, in all reality one of those finale, loose end wrapping up, show the ramifications of everything, big endings that people want would have been totally out of place in a show that wasn't really about anything. I don't know if that makes any sense but that's kind of how I felt.

The show was always about Kanata's journey though, in the same way that Aria is about Akari's journey. The setting and plot served the character development, not the other way around.

Well there are a number of anime shows that are rather plain. But considering how many anime movies exist, it seems like there's a lot of content that could be discussed.

Especially with relation to film grammar that only exists within anime - for example, the shot of a persons face with their eyes not drawn, that I mentioned way earlier. What is the film form of a tsundere?

It's easy to confuse plain with boring though. Of course, since I watch slice of life comedies and whatnot, I'm okay with slow dissolves and pans. Even just going through the last episode of K-On!!, I can see that anime directors can be as deliberate as any other type of director.

 

[DY_nasty]

MacF 5... epic paper planes to end all wars

 

[mAcOdIn]

The show was always about Kanata's journey though, in the same way that Aria is about Akari's journey. The setting and plot served the character development, not the other way around.

Right. One can disagree with the focus being on her and not the world but it was what it was.

Anyways, I feel that there was no real way for them to give SnW one of those conclusive endings because all throughout the show there's literally no contact to the outside world save a phone call or two, the characters don't know what's going on in their capital let alone the world, so to give the show that kind of ending it would have had to be forced on the viewer, would introduce, for the first time and only time, a host of factions, countries and situations and would have just been a fucking mess.

It chose the story it wanted to tell and considering it's focus it did a decent job, we can bitch about the focus but for what it was I think it ended well.

 

[duckroll]

Bacanno - Episode 1:

What a Wakamoto-fest. It always makes me feel better when hearing his voice drone on, regardless of the subject. It puts me at peace somehow.

The premise of the series seems pretty interesting, and clearly it spans a long period of time. What is more interesting is how the introduction to the story does not actually give any hints as to the actual meat of the story, and how long a period the viewer is expecting the actual story to cover. It introduces many elements of the tale - the mafia, immortality, a train robbery, characters separated after the fact, etc without actually making any theme out of it all. Yet it makes the setting appealing enough that the viewer will probably want to keep watching to learn more.


Baccano - Episode 2:

Isaac and Miria are an interesting pair. Clearly comedy relief characters, but they certainly set a positive and happy tone in an otherwise bleak and violent world. The cast is pretty sizable thus far, and yet they are mostly unique. The idiosyncratic natures of the characters feel a lot less like tropes here, and much more like people who are simply molded by growing up in a dark and twisted world. Pretty solid writing I have to say.

The way transitions are handled, along with the pace and direction of the narrative in general, really holds the entire show together. While the chronology is confusing at times, it is always clear what is happening in a given season, and who the major players in that scene are. Every scene acts as both a window into that particular part of the story, and as character development for the major players involved.

Good stuff, and killer ending. Can't wait to see what happens next. Oh noes the Rail Tracer! :lol

 

[Salazar]

:lol

Making me want to watch it all over again.

"CAROL !!"

 

[Branduil]

You should check out the English dub when you're done, it's great.

 

[Salazar]

You should check out the English dub when you're done, it's great.

Isaac and Miria just weren't the same in English, I found. That alone was enough to turn me off it. I appreciate, though, that I am a fussy bitch in this respect.

 

[InfiniteNine]

Isaac and Miria just weren't the same in English, I found. That alone was enough to turn me off it. I appreciate, though, that I am a fussy bitch in this respect.

Yeah, once I have someone I likes voice set I can't really go along with another version. Happened with Gurren Lagann when I checked out the dub since I didn't feel that Kamina and some of the other characters didn't come across correctly since I had their original VA's tone and exaggeration ingrained in my head. I really can't imagine Isaac and Miria in English either.

 

[DY_nasty]

MacF 6-7 I like Sheryl a lot... but when she tells me to listen to her song, I don't feel like I have to.

Oh, and Baccano is awesome.

 

[duckroll]

Baccano - Episode 3:

The theme of this episode seems to be "chance encounters" and "unfortunate accidents". Minor incidents for some characters turn into something much more tragic for others. It's interesting how the train event seems to be "main" incident the show revolves around, but the bulk of the episodes so far are actually either events which happened before or after the incident, and set in various different locations. Also, this Ladd guy seems... a tad unstable. :lol


Baccano - Episode 4:

Ladd is not just unstable, he's downright psychotic. Not really the nicest person you could meet. Although it seems that as unstable as he is, the cult group on the train seems much more... dangerous to say the least. Not sure why I feel that way, but maybe it's because they seem to have a cause they're willing to kill and die for, while Ladd is just crazy and insane. The transitions at the end of the episode are pretty solid in terms of establishing the two major factions on the train, while using flashbacks to give context to certain characters and motivations.

Oooh, and what's this? A real monster? Dum dum dumm!

 

[Cloudy]

Just finished "Rainbow". I dunno, it seemed to drag on towards the end and some characters were absent for like 2/3 eps at a time. Started out really strong and there were a lot of brutal moments but the ending was kind of "meh" (happy but "meh"). 6/10 overall..

edit: I can't believe duckroll is just now watching Baccano. It was easily the best anime of 2007. I need to rewatch it

 

[remz]

edit: I can't believe duckroll is just now watching Baccano. It was easily the best anime of 2007. I need to rewatch it

Hells yes. Baccano is too good.

Oooh, and what's this? A real monster? Dum dum dumm!

Dum dum dum indeeed!


man i love the rail tracer thing

 

[DY_nasty]

MacF 8

That does it. I've been broken by Macross and the anime thread in general. I hereby declare Sheryl my waifu.

Taking a break now. Finally went ahead and ordered Yu Yu Hakusho so that'll be on the way soon enough. Gotta keep on marathoning.... Gotta keep on marathoning...

 

[InfiniteNine]

A listing for Cowboy Bebop bluray is up on Amazon. I came across this a while back but I'm not sure if I posted it here.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003R0MET0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[Lafiel]

Damn i go away for the whole day and there's at least 7 pages of posts to catch up on.>_>

MacF 8

That does it. I've been broken by Macross and the anime thread in general. I hereby declare Sheryl my waifu.

Taking a break now. Finally went ahead and ordered Yu Yu Hakusho so that'll be on the way soon enough. Gotta keep on marathoning.... Gotta keep on marathoning...

It's hilarious that i was actually in the ranka > sheryl camp at the point you are in. I saw the light eventually though.

 

[Jex]

I tried to write a little bit about some of the scenes present in episode 1 of Bakemonogatori. Please excuse my rusty analysis and first-draft writing.

http://scenesofdespair.tumblr.com/

It really isn't just an image dump, I need them to explain my thoughts!

This ended up taking way longer than I had imagined. There's a clearly a lot more to say.

I guess my real conclusion is : quite a bit of what Shibo does is there for good reason.

 

[Lafiel]

itsuwari no utahime: It's...Macross Frontier. Only prettier. Somewhat. Neat concert at the beginning. I liked the part where Sheryl made out with

Spoiler

Sheryl

. I did appreciate that they cut out all the introductions and assumed everyone already knew each other. Some weird changes, Leon isn't even evil anymore, and

Spoiler

Mikhail lives!

Just like DYRL, side characters are basically nonexistent. Ranka's natto commercial is...it's definitely a thing. I'll get back to that sometime. iSLug is now orange. Very classy yet completely pointless. :lol

Overall it wasn't offensive. The new songs were okay but I'm still waiting for a new Macross theme that can approach the perfection of ai oboete imasu ka.

Sounds good, i should definitely get around to watching it soon.

I tried to write a little bit about some of the scenes present in episode 1 of Bakemonogatori. Please excuse my rusty analysis and first-draft writing

http://scenesofdespair.tumblr.com/

This ended up taking way longer than I had imagined.

Posting here isn't enough? you haft to spread your craziness to blogs!

 

[Jex]

Posting here isn't enough? you haft to spread your craziness to blogs!

If I posted here it would fill up several screen! I'd rather not ruin peoples day in such a manner.

Plus, thinking about film form requires big ol' pictures. When I post on GAF I scale everything down to 400.

 

[InfiniteNine]

Posting here isn't enough? you haft to spread your craziness to blogs!

Maybe I should start a blog and share my love with the world! Although I would have to take the time to write coherently... I'll think about it.

 

[Lafiel]

Maybe I should start a blog and share my love with the world! Although I would have to take the time to write coherently... I'll think about it.

I would totally follow a blog about your art-work!

 

[Jex]

Maybe I should start a blog and share my love with the world! Although I would have to take the time to write coherently... I'll think about it.

It would only work if you cross-linked to Pandaman, Luka and Icecream's blogs.

 

[Hitokage]

Yay, blogs. Let's get even more self-indulgent.

 

[InfiniteNine]

Yay, blogs. Let's get even more self-indulgent.

Yes, the world clearly doesn't have enough of me!

 

[Jex]

Yay, blogs. Let's get even more self-indulgent.

I actually find writing blogs a fairly dull exercise. Discussing your ideas/thoughts/reactions/opinions with a larger group of people is far more interesting, as is hearing the same from them.

That, and someone else will always keep up to date with the news, so I don't have too.

 

[JKTrix]

edit: I can't believe duckroll is just now watching Baccano. It was easily the best anime of 2007. I need to rewatch it

None of 2007's fantastic crop of shows can be called 'easily' the best.

I hope they announce someone streaming Star Driver during/after its NYAF premiere, it's become a hassle for me to download stuff now.

 

[7Th]

For you Michiko to Hatchin fans: director Sayo Yamamoto is directing and storyboarding the first half of next week's Panty & Stocking. She sure has been all over the place, as in she has worked in a crazy variety of widely different shows, lately.

 

[Nonoriri]

If your looking to get books/light novels Kinokuniya is pretty awesome.
https://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/indexohb.cgi?AREA=02&LANG=E

Or I could just go to Kinokuniya.