Doctor Decimate
Member
haha wow, and here i was thinking it was some kind of stylistic choice.
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Toonami |OT6| Where there's no such thing as filler
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haha wow, and here i was thinking it was some kind of stylistic choice.
BassForever
Member
Bated. The phrase is bated breath[/idiom nazi].
I'm with GNM on Fate/Zero. Why we couldn't have been given all the information in a combination of flashbacks over the course of the series and a short narration at the opening of the show is beyond me. It's like if One Piece, Naruto or Bleach spent the first two episodes just explaining how the world worked and character motivation in excruciating detail in the driest way imaginable.
BassForever
Member
If fate/zero ever comes to Toonami there gonna have to do something about that first episode, maybe simply cutting it in half and making it a two part would help ease things up?
Doctor Decimate
Member
it's not even like it was that complicated, either. they just kind of went on and on about these concepts for no apparent reason. you had those guys LITERALLY TALKING CIRCLES around this poor bastard for ten minutes, and you can sum up what they say like this: "we're working together, you're with the church, we fight for the Holy Grail by summoning spirits to fight for us"
The first episode is intended to do two things. 1.) Expand and explain on how the Holy Grail Works. 2.) Introduce the cast of characters and why they are participating in the Holy Grail War. While the former can be eased into the narrative, I think it's better that they get that shit out of the way fast. Additionally, the latter is absolutely important in trying to get the audience acquainted with why these characters are part of this event and considering that chronological order is the best way to explain it in this case, I think it's fine. It's just... long.
If there is anything IGPX taught us it's that first impressions count. It started off middling and kind of dull, but it eventually grew into something actually fairly good. Yet people still view it as middling and dull, many don't even bother tuning in. I can only imagine Fate/Zero's numbers would be even worse, especially after 2 episodes of dull exposition.
It's just that as GNM points out, a lot of these explanations are needlessly long. Each one of them could have been cut in half, even rewritten so as to make them more exciting. Your right that there's nothing wrong with getting this stuff out of the way early, my point is that it was horribly done and could easily have been done in a more interesting and engaging way.
Probably the problem with the pacing of the episode would be really offputting for some since there really is now halfway point I believe. Good news is after the first two episodes the exposition dump is over and the story opens up. I honestly think if you skipped the first hour and just said 7 mages summon 7 super powered servants to battle for the holy grail and just started episode 2 then people would pick up on most of what is going on.
On second thought episode 2 opens with that scene if I recall. Ugh. It is hard to sell this series but it does get much better.
I'll post my impressions for the other series later but overall I enjoyed most of what I saw. I will do quick statements on shows I have already seen but I will not be covering them apart from JoJo. That is too good not to do an episode by episode analysis.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Nope. Just compare the original source material and the White Fox adapatation.
I don't the character designs look that bad. Certainly no worse than the designs for the Steins;Gate anime, which weren't exactly good.
Just so that people can understand what I'm talking about, here's an example of a typical outside shot in Steins;Gate:
Everything is extremely washed out and desaturated, making everything look bland and artificial. The whiteness even extends to the edges of the frame, making it looks like there's some kind of fog enveloping the city -
Of course, there's some even more extreme shots of this particular "technique":
Internal shots look ugly too, but for different reasons. They're dark and colourless, rather than washed-out and colourless:
Finally, here's an example of 'quality' character design:
To be fair they take a cue from the game for the washed out effect, except in the anime its 10x worse.
Doctor Decimate
Member
urgh. this show was successful, somebody needs to release a special edition with some actual colors.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
I think might suggest hataraku maou-sama, Im curious about everyone's reaction to it, its sorta slice of life, comedy, romance, and action all into one, and it somehow works. Its my anime of the year infact.
It was really good, I died laughing a few times. I hope they do another season.
Considering how it did sales wise White Fox might be up for it.
I think I enjoyed Darker Than Black most out of those five shows, but as I said before (and GMN as well) the MC (Li?) is pretty uninteresting so far.
Valvrave was terrible. I really didn't enjoy anything about it.
Fate/Zero still has my interest. Information dump for sure that could have been handled better, but at this point I can't say I'm not curious to see how this narrative is going to proceed.
Valvrave was terrible. I really didn't enjoy anything about it.
Fate/Zero still has my interest. Information dump for sure that could have been handled better, but at this point I can't say I'm not curious to see how this narrative is going to proceed.
cosmicblizzard
Banned
Valvrave is essentially the spiritual successor to Code Geass, a show that has been on Adult Swim's anime block.
And JoJo is 100% Toonami material. Only thing that would hold it back is licensing issues because Araki loves his American/British bands.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
indeed
Didn't Code Geass bomb ratings wise when it was on Adult Swim? Granted things are different now but I can imagine AS might be hesitant if they research the show.
Can someone explain to me how the PS3 game is coming over but the anime is still up in the air?
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Did it? I freaking loved code geass when it came out, and as it went on it gained a reputation as "death note with gundams"
lazybones18
Banned
Watching new episodes of Code Geass at 5am.....fun times >.>
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
wouldnt that era include death note? also is there a reason why nothing did well? that might explain why they put anime on saturdays only.
I don't think anything ever did these numbers in these timeslots on AS.
Bleach did around a million its entire run. Hell right before Toonami was a thing I think they cut the block down to just Bleach.
You're far better off not watching it. Fate/Zero is good because of the writer, director, and production value, the universe itself is dumb harem pandercrap.
Wait, what? Stay night mayyybe I can see it, but Fate/Zero? Its more morbid than it is pandercrap.
Yeah, because Fate/Zero was written by Urobuchi instead of Nasu.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
The whole series is based off a eroge visual novel anyways, apparently fate/night must have had some depth to it for this series to come this far.
It seems like a reverse Star Wars situation. Crap series inexplicably gets amazing prequel.
Schadenfreude
Member
The only thing I know about the Fate/ series is from that one PSP game Aksys brought over. Is the anime like the games at all?
To be fair, as hyped that I am that the game is coming to the US, we've got no idea how they're handling all the band/music references at the moment. Not to mention the ED for the anime is "Roundabout" by Yes, an English band, so that might bring up some licensing issues. I recall the Capcom fighter had to have some names changed, but that wasn't as bad since there wasn't as much voice acting & such compared to the PS3 Namco one.
I haven't played it, but I know it takes place in a parallel universe to F/SN, so I'm gonna have to assume not really aside from certain characters re-appearing & the whole Grail War thing being a similar plot.
Edit: Damn it, meant to edit, not double post...my bad.
BassForever
Member
I feel like every show we picked for this block is a slow burn, in 2-3 weeks most people will probably be enjoying them a lot more.
I get what ya mean. Sometimes it's hard to get people to stick with a show if the first episode isn't all that interesting, especially when you know the show is good & you tell people "NO, trust me, it gets way better!". I think that example is no more clear than with Fate/Zero and reading impressions.
I can say that I feel like Darker than Black is that "slow burn" show for me, otherwise I'm interested in Valvrave and excited to see what kind of other robot action will happen.
Schadenfreude
Member
I thought the pace of the first episode was pretty dang fast. Can't wait to see when it kicks it into high gear.
BassForever
Member
I meant slow burn as it it'll take a few episodes for people to get the hook if you will. We have verbal confirmation of all 5 of these shows becoming great, but I could see someone dropping all of them after episode 1 except maybe valvrave.
Schadenfreude
Member
Oh. I see what you mean. I'm already interested in seeing more of Steins;Gate. Murder mystery and time travel are right up my alley.
Funny, out of the five shows the one I was considering dropping was Valvrave.
Or at least I can see myself not bothering to jump into irc in a timely manner because I'm not missing much if I'm late.
BassForever
Member
Well valvrave has the only action sequence of the five shows we watched lol. Honestly though valvrave gets really cray you shouldn't miss it.
BassForever
Member
You must really hate vvv it didn't even chart lol
On the one hand, I'm excited for more JoJo. On the other, the entirety of season 2 will likely be an adaptation of Part 3 which is just really not that interesting. Oh well, at least it'll be out of the way so we can move onto the amazing that is Part 4.
May your B day be filled with so much plot you start writing a fanfiction about MMORPG's.
Wait, maybe that is a bad thing...
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