I actually enjoyed the episode. I thought the part where Death Guns eyes suddenly pop out with red crosses to be extremely dumb.
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Summer 2014 Anime |OT| this thread has been outsourced to Toei Phils
- Thread starter madp
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I actually enjoyed the episode. I thought the part where Death Guns eyes suddenly pop out with red crosses to be extremely dumb.
cosmicblizzard
Banned
Honestly, I didn't think the SAO ep was bad either. I'm still never going to get over how Kayaba is portrayed, though.
Jex
Member
Well, don't we all? It's just natural to judge anime against anime and, by that metric, Aldnoah.Zero is legitimately amazing. In addition, if we just judged shows against the best of Western TV all the time it would be pretty hard to find anything enjoyable, so I generally go easy on most shows.
Admiral Woofington
Member
Death Gun or w/e his name is was the best part of the whole episode. It's like the author channeled his inner 9 year old and came up with the edgiest fucking character he could've come up with back then. All he's missing is a robot arm and a flamethrower.
chickdigger802
Banned
now that i think about it. duckroll's nolewd communist policies, would they apply in specific anime OT's?
miyuki's ass is all over SAO2 OT
miyuki's ass is all over SAO2 OT
SliceSabre
Banned
This is my biggest problem. How does everyone on a planet become super-racist against their own people in the span of 40 years to decide that everyone on their home planet must die?
He needed more pouches imo.
Jex
Member
I knew it. This is really clear in the script for episode 5 versus the script later on in the show, it makes no sense that it's even the same organisation.
And yet Tsumugi can clearly hear it in episode 5. Whoops, I guess they were in a rush when making this show.
Give people a reason to be racist or elitist and we will do it without fail.
Wow, that helped me finally make the connection I couldn't make until now. SAO feels like Rob Liefeld's early Image comic stuff. I don't even mean that disparagingly, it's just an author doing whatever the fuck he thinks is cool to him and giving it to the world, like it or not.
Jex
Member
You mean, the misunderstood genius and hero of SAO? I'm shocked firehawk12 didn't talk about this.
Jex
Member
The author really fucked up by pairing Kirito up with Asuna in like, arc one. Think of all the possibilities that he could have by leaving Kirito's harem wide open!
BassForever
Member
God damn firehawk lol
then we would degrade ourselves down to talking about best girl
i read his analysis twice, and i cant figure out if hes serious or not
Jex
Member
Please stop with this spoiler culture.
I saw the anime and that was my first thought as well. Yes it's somewhat similar.
Kirito couldn't be as cool as he was in the rest of the show if he didn't have a
wife and child to protect.
Anime101, bro. You know better.
Go home and be a family man?
Kirito is Japan's Guile.
A step up I guess from 'out for revenge as wife/child/sister was killed'.
I was wondering about that too
No, go online and sex up your family, man.
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
I did an art. *goes back to hiding*
Wait... what does this even mean...? Do I want to know?
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I just read that that Terror in Resonance show has been picked up by Funimation. Does that mean it's not going to appear on Crunchyroll? I thought Funimation only did dubs to appear on NA television.
The new OP and ED were pretty nice too. Now to chip away at some more Log Horizon.
The new OP and ED were pretty nice too. Now to chip away at some more Log Horizon.
Sailor Moon Crystal 1
It's really just kind of rigid and unattractive, and Takanashi's compositions are wildly inappropriate for the material. Admittedly, it is impossible for me to judge this adaptation on its own merits, but I don't necessarily feel like it's entirely supposed to be. I mean, this isn't being marketed to a new generation of fans--it's the culmination of a 2+ year marketing campaign producing 20th anniversary-themed goods targeted at adult female fans of the original, so in some sense it's supposed to complement the main series. Because of that, it's hard to see anything of merit here for a fan of the original who is not entertained by the mere fact that this is a faithful adaptation of Takeuchi Naoko's original manga--leaving aside the half-baked production values, the original series was never great merely owing to any specific property it shared with its source material but because it was the product of a specific group of incredibly talented individuals at a specific point in time who used the source material as a canvas to endlessly elaborate upon until it was transformed into something altogether unique. I want Crystal to be good on its own merits, but I have little expectation that Crystal can excise most of the original anime's most endearing qualities while also hamstringing its own staff's ability to do justice to a faithful adaptation with inadequate production resources and result in something remotely as satisfying.
I can appreciate what it's trying to do stylistically, but the "look" of Crystal is mostly undermined by the fact that "good enough" is not actually good enough. Stylistic cohesion can serve as an adequate balm where the actual production values fall short, and it pains me that the art nouveau elements are limited to eyecatches and a smattering of classic shoujo rose frames because this is a visual concept that could have been really cool if consistently applied. That's a minor complaint, though, and I'm much more concerned with the application of the controversial super-duper-shoujo character design. Unlike some people, I was never against the more faithfully Takeuchi-like character designs on principle, but I was cognizant of the fact that care would have to go into making them "work" in motion because that level of stylization is a double-edged sword and the more complicated the face, the worse it looks when drawn poorly. QUALITY was always less apparent in the original Sailor Moon because Ikuko Itoh's simple, rounded faces lent themselves well to cartoony deformation. We all had a laugh at that one goofy piece of official art with Usagi's U WOT M8 face, but the sad truth is that it wasn't just an anomaly and there were a lot of this in the actual episode. Usagi often looks distractingly vacuous, like a dead fish or a deer or something. The eyes are big and striking and draw the viewer's attention but a lot of the time it doesn't feel like they're actually looking at anything. Some of this is a byproduct of the fact that Crystal is simply less expressive than Sailor Moon by design, but the faces either feel distinctly "on" or "off" model to me, like there are no set proportions. It's hard to convey exactly what I mean. The cold, digital look is also not complementary to the throwback character designs.
Can it improve? Sure; to my knowledge, the dramatic beats are much closer together in the manga, and the upside to this is that it plays to Sakai's strengths as a director since he thrives on teasing the intimate human moments out of fantasy scenarios. Tatsuya Nagamine's struggle to satisfactorily execute his vision in Happiness Charge Precure is an ominous reminder that even talented directors are not infallible if they are completely starved of ED/AD talent to assist in the execution of their vision, though. The already notoriously-stingy Toei has managed to outdo themselves this year by not only taking on an obscene number of concurrent projects but also completely denying all of them the flow of talent they need to achieve any kind of production consistency whatsoever. Short AD cycles, outsourcing, and staff shortages are sucking the life from Hacha, Matsutarou, Kindaichi R, Majin Bone, and virtually everything else they have a hand in that isn't One Piece. Given its legacy, relaxed air schedule, and financial importance, Crystal's middling values and use of CG in situations where savings over traditional animation are likely negligible all seem to imply that it is not above receiving the same treatment. We'll know soon enough.
It's really just kind of rigid and unattractive, and Takanashi's compositions are wildly inappropriate for the material. Admittedly, it is impossible for me to judge this adaptation on its own merits, but I don't necessarily feel like it's entirely supposed to be. I mean, this isn't being marketed to a new generation of fans--it's the culmination of a 2+ year marketing campaign producing 20th anniversary-themed goods targeted at adult female fans of the original, so in some sense it's supposed to complement the main series. Because of that, it's hard to see anything of merit here for a fan of the original who is not entertained by the mere fact that this is a faithful adaptation of Takeuchi Naoko's original manga--leaving aside the half-baked production values, the original series was never great merely owing to any specific property it shared with its source material but because it was the product of a specific group of incredibly talented individuals at a specific point in time who used the source material as a canvas to endlessly elaborate upon until it was transformed into something altogether unique. I want Crystal to be good on its own merits, but I have little expectation that Crystal can excise most of the original anime's most endearing qualities while also hamstringing its own staff's ability to do justice to a faithful adaptation with inadequate production resources and result in something remotely as satisfying.
I can appreciate what it's trying to do stylistically, but the "look" of Crystal is mostly undermined by the fact that "good enough" is not actually good enough. Stylistic cohesion can serve as an adequate balm where the actual production values fall short, and it pains me that the art nouveau elements are limited to eyecatches and a smattering of classic shoujo rose frames because this is a visual concept that could have been really cool if consistently applied. That's a minor complaint, though, and I'm much more concerned with the application of the controversial super-duper-shoujo character design. Unlike some people, I was never against the more faithfully Takeuchi-like character designs on principle, but I was cognizant of the fact that care would have to go into making them "work" in motion because that level of stylization is a double-edged sword and the more complicated the face, the worse it looks when drawn poorly. QUALITY was always less apparent in the original Sailor Moon because Ikuko Itoh's simple, rounded faces lent themselves well to cartoony deformation. We all had a laugh at that one goofy piece of official art with Usagi's U WOT M8 face, but the sad truth is that it wasn't just an anomaly and there were a lot of this in the actual episode. Usagi often looks distractingly vacuous, like a dead fish or a deer or something. The eyes are big and striking and draw the viewer's attention but a lot of the time it doesn't feel like they're actually looking at anything. Some of this is a byproduct of the fact that Crystal is simply less expressive than Sailor Moon by design, but the faces either feel distinctly "on" or "off" model to me, like there are no set proportions. It's hard to convey exactly what I mean. The cold, digital look is also not complementary to the throwback character designs.
Can it improve? Sure; to my knowledge, the dramatic beats are much closer together in the manga, and the upside to this is that it plays to Sakai's strengths as a director since he thrives on teasing the intimate human moments out of fantasy scenarios. Tatsuya Nagamine's struggle to satisfactorily execute his vision in Happiness Charge Precure is an ominous reminder that even talented directors are not infallible if they are completely starved of ED/AD talent to assist in the execution of their vision, though. The already notoriously-stingy Toei has managed to outdo themselves this year by not only taking on an obscene number of concurrent projects but also completely denying all of them the flow of talent they need to achieve any kind of production consistency whatsoever. Short AD cycles, outsourcing, and staff shortages are sucking the life from Hacha, Matsutarou, Kindaichi R, Majin Bone, and virtually everything else they have a hand in that isn't One Piece. Given its legacy, relaxed air schedule, and financial importance, Crystal's middling values and use of CG in situations where savings over traditional animation are likely negligible all seem to imply that it is not above receiving the same treatment. We'll know soon enough.
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Jex
Member
It's more like Turn A Gundam.
Hmmmm I don't completely buy that. Certainly with Western TV (I'll presume you're talking about your typical serial drama/comedies for the sake of argument) there's a lot more money to throw around, a lot more viewership, and a greater incentive to gather talent and produce something worthwhile given the amount of competition and the potential reward for a hit, as opposed to anime where most productions are content to cater to a known audience and approach their material with an eye to advertising other mediums.
Nonetheless we're talking about two types of television that have wildly different aims and differ wildly in their cultural context, and that can't be ignored. You might as well compare Western serial dramas with telenovelas for all the good that does.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Dang, some are being pretty harsh on Sailor Moon Crystal
Since I have little connection to the original series I'm blissfully ignorant about the supposed problems.
Don't know if that's a good thing or not.
Since I have little connection to the original series I'm blissfully ignorant about the supposed problems.
Don't know if that's a good thing or not.
The animation for the new openings and endings are.... alright.... Definitely not better than OP1 and OP2.
KirbYuuYuu
Member
Space Danderu 12-13
And I finished this off, and we had giant fucking robots! What a way to end season 1.
Baracka Obamon 1
Well, I think this is one show were I don't feel like the little girl is there for the sake of an audience, which is a good feeling, because I've been feeling conflicted about inclusions of certain types of characters baaed on Jexhius's comments on NGNL. Oddly enough, it's the females, because of the "audience" wants and "needs". Little girls being obvious. Sisters... pretty obvious. It's like at this point, I'm looking to see if it hits one of those two that'll cause me to groan.
And frankly, Barakamon didn't hit those traits, which means it'll probably be spectacular, and it'll probably bomb
And I finished this off, and we had giant fucking robots! What a way to end season 1.
Baracka Obamon 1
Well, I think this is one show were I don't feel like the little girl is there for the sake of an audience, which is a good feeling, because I've been feeling conflicted about inclusions of certain types of characters baaed on Jexhius's comments on NGNL. Oddly enough, it's the females, because of the "audience" wants and "needs". Little girls being obvious. Sisters... pretty obvious. It's like at this point, I'm looking to see if it hits one of those two that'll cause me to groan.
And frankly, Barakamon didn't hit those traits, which means it'll probably be spectacular, and it'll probably bomb
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
Yeah I'd still put OP/ED 1 in first place. I think the new ones though are something I can see myself not skipping for each episode.
Some shows I'll skip the OP/ED and others I won't depending on how much I like them (I'm assuming that's the same for everyone).
lol https://twitter.com/creamyvelvet/status/485630205524856834
Guess I'll start on SAO2 and Glasslip right now.
Guess I'll start on SAO2 and Glasslip right now.
praise onii-sama for doing it first
hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
Valverave - 07
I just started watching this episode... What the fuck?!! Please, someone, ANYONE, tell me they explain the ferst 30 seconds of this episode sometime during this series. PLEASE!!
I just started watching this episode... What the fuck?!! Please, someone, ANYONE, tell me they explain the ferst 30 seconds of this episode sometime during this series. PLEASE!!
hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
I wanted to make this joke a and other variants of it yesterday but held back. I envy your lack of self-control
KirbYuuYuu
Member
I wanted to make this joke a and other variants of it yesterday but held back. I envy your lack of self-control
Helps that I've been doing this since yesterday at the very least!
@creamyvelvet That's great. Actually I prefer Mahouka over SAO immensely because the former doesn't take itself so seriously.
There's no enough laughing .gif in the world.
Jex
Member
ahahahahahaha
I don't know. Keeping myself within the medium, I don't find Aldnoah Zero to be "amazing" at all. I feel it is competent given the restrictions that the budget and schedule would likely put on them, but nothing more than that.
That said, I have no problems comparing anime to western television and movies as well, and contrary to the popular belief that I assume is held in here, I don't feel that either one comes up short against the other, if I were to hold the pinnacles of each up to closer scrutiny. They surely strive to do completely different things, but I don't find the ambitions of anime to be the lesser one. In fact, given my own personal interests, I actually prefer it (being a very visually minded person helps I think) in many ways.
Yes I don't get that either. They talk like there has been this legacy for centuries or something, but it's really only been 30 years or so. In fact, even that is puzzling because from the timeline it appears that it only took 5 years after the first expedition to Mars for a colony to be settled. And this was from 1975 to 1980. Even with magic beans or whatever they found on the moon, that seems -really- impractical.
As an aside, the backstory Aldnoah is building is really reminding me of some of my feelings regarding the backstory of Columbia in Bioshock Infinite. Everything feels so accelerated for the sake of fitting the alternate historical timeline into a tiny slice of actual history so the audience can relate. Some of it is kinda cool at a glance, but upon analysis it's just completely ridiculous that an entire city can be built from scratch within a matter of years, nevermind the part about making it fly.
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