Amusingly I'd usually say "writing doesn't matter for anime" but E7 was actually one of the few anime where the writer actually had a clear influence on the production and quality of the series.:lol
Im still hoping it will be a decent mecha anime, but I dont see it being anything like the first series. Just some of the designs are enough to tell me that.
Look at the first series and it how it dealt with and presented multi-cultural ideas and characters, and contrast it to the so called internationally born characters revealed in AO so far. Its a complete 180. Everything about E7:AO so far is just so...anime
Ill still make an OT for the show before it starts, and hope for the best though.
Im still hoping it will be a decent mecha anime, but I dont see it being anything like the first series. Just some of the designs are enough to tell me that.
Look at the first series and it how it dealt with and presented multi-cultural ideas and characters, and contrast it to the so called internationally born characters revealed in AO so far. Its a complete 180. Everything about E7:AO so far is just so...anime
Ill still make an OT for the show before it starts, and hope for the best though.
Sorry, Novumundus commander guy. This pose is reserved for only the most insufferable assholes in the mecha-commanding biz. You're far too nice.
Finally,
KISS
means business.
But still, fuck them and their fur-lined coats for almost wiping out Kamogawa
. As much as I like the laid-back side of the show, I still have to admit that an infusion of real tension was exactly what the show needed going into the split cour. It remains to be seen whether the threat remains permanent and we see an escalation in the scale of conflict or we continue in the current serious-lighthearted-serious cycle, but I kind of want the former more at this point. The competent mecha animation this episode reminded me that the show can have okay action when it actually tries.
I really hope Yoko isn't dead.
I know that Rinne is sometimes referred to here as "the female Gurren-Lagann", but
pulling a Kamina with Yoko will totally not work here. It's too late in the series for Madoka to recover and develop sufficiently from the death of her idol, and Yoko has played too passive a role in the events of the show for the audience to really feel anything from her death anyway
. Also, I selfishly want
Madoka to remain genki throughout the show. She may be one-dimensional but it's one really great dimension
Perhaps, by stretching the picture Hix was trying to teach us something about the nature of visuals themselves and how we, as viewers, all perceive the same set of identical visuals through are own subjective lens'.
Perhaps, by stretching the picture Hix was trying to teach us something about the nature of visuals themselves and how we, as viewers, all perceive the same set of identical visuals through are own subjective lens'.
Sorry, Novumundus commander guy. This pose is reserved for only the most insufferable assholes in the mecha-commanding biz. You're far too nice.
Finally,
KISS
means business.
But still, fuck them and their fur-lined coats for almost wiping out Kamogawa
. As much as I like the laid-back side of the show, I still have to admit that an infusion of real tension was exactly what the show needed going into the split cour. It remains to be seen whether the threat remains permanent and we see an escalation in the scale of conflict or we continue in the current serious-lighthearted-serious cycle, but I kind of want the former more at this point. The competent mecha animation this episode reminded me that the show can have okay action when it actually tries.
I really hope Yoko isn't dead.
I know that Rinne is sometimes referred to here as "the female Gurren-Lagann", but
pulling a Kamina with Yoko will totally not work here. It's too late in the series for Madoka to recover and develop sufficiently from the death of her idol, and Yoko has played too passive a role in the events of the show for the audience to really feel anything from her death anyway
. Also, I selfishly want
Madoka to remain genki throughout the show. She may be one-dimensional but it's one really great dimension
I hope she isn't dead too. I don't know if i'd call it pulling a Kamina because she didn't do much fighting, but yeah, she was definitely a likable character in personality. If she had more screentime I think I probably would've reacted a little differently. I wasn't really distraught and didn't feel any super weight tied to her death for me, but it definitely did catch me off-guard.
Either way though, I didn't really see the second half of the episode
coming at all. The shots on the city (like fucking nukes), Yoko's maybe-death, and just the size of the fleet KISS commanded were all things I didn't expect (expecially because they made them to sound like they're a small rebellious faction, which scares me to think of the power DeMetrio and La Garrite have; Lan's onii-sama doesn't seem to fuck around as the king either and has some major shit planned in the background with Moid). I knew the bros would pair up with them eventually, mostly because of the promo art.
Also, a lot of people
, myself included, have felt that Madoka really feels like the anti-Shinji. With the turn at the end with shit going out of control and the previews for the next episode, i'm almost wondering if Madoka is going to destroy Earth. It was that alone shot on the beach with the falling debris from the blood-red sky that made me think this.
I really hope having it two-cour is gonna keep the production values up. The show is so clean and pretty.
Its like, you have this illustrator who imbues all his designs and artwork with so much character, personality, history, and truly conveys a sense of who these people are, and what kind of world they live in.
And then you have moeshit dude who draws generic crap with 0 personality
Its like having a movie that was originally directed by David Fincher, and then the sequel comes out and its directed by Brett Rattner
People, lets rejoice with the good part of B★RS; the big amount of work done to make cool things with such CGI:
[...]Be advised; evidently, each title represents first the number of the episode and secondly the cut number, so the videos contain minor spoilers of their respective episodes... careful!
Even I can't deny that the CG in this show works, because they keep it all CG the world that's been portrayed is consistent. It doesn't have that painful 'forcing you out of the world of the film thing' that happens when shitty CG is layered poorly on top of traditional animation.
Perhaps, by stretching the picture Hix was trying to teach us something about the nature of visuals themselves and how we, as viewers, all perceive the same set of identical visuals through are own subjective lens'.
Akidzuki really is the odd outlier in all of this. It's almost like The Last Airbender and Aangs title as the Avatar in the sense that his title as the Eternal Assassin is known by everyone of all sides, but ties him to no one. Though, it's not as cut & dry here, for the better. There's no overt evil like The Fire Nation, but a complicated web of grey, that has Akidzuki seemingly jumping allegiances frequently. Kind of cool; kind of funny, the way he frequently turns on people he was cool with only moments previous.
This ep was better than last, and seems to have begun the curtain-close. Akidzuki's
I like that we're all so used to Black Rock Shooter's abuse so far that we didn't even comment on how the otherworld never made any sense and all of the rules were arbitrary or unexplained all the way up until the end.
Eh, its about aligning expectations. The Jdramas that become popular in the West are mostly the idol vehicles and/or manga adaptations and those are poorly acted tripe. On the flip side there are also some godawful American dramas which are analogous to them.
I can say for a fact that he is absolutely right. Asian drama production in general has dire production values, and is filled with an industry supporting overacting to pander to older (read: retirement age) demographics.
I was wondering when the show would get around to examining its extremely literal men-are-from-Mars-women-are-from-Venus premise. It is a bit odd that aliens happen to look 100% identical to humans, I wonder if there will be an explanation for that. And I'm not sure how Kaito fails to realize Rinon is obviously not an animal from Earth.
The main things elevating this series above mediocrity are the visuals and direction. This episode in particular had some really great combinations of background art, lighting, and composition.
Overall this was a total mess, both narratively and visually. Nothing was ever totally cohesive or logical, and whenever it attempted to make the audience care, it failed. The characters are a mess, the setting is a mess, the story is a mess. There is very little to like about this, other than the morbid curiosity in seeing a disaster in motion.
At least it wasn't just average and boring, which would have been a worse fate, I feel. There's something vaguely memorable in the cluster-fuck that is the writing for BRS.
That's true for a large number of settings, many of which are actually comprehensible and internally consistent, so that's obviously not the sole reason for it.
I think this is a cautionary tale for what happens when a franchise is based on something incredibly flimsy, in this case literally just a cool-looking picture someone drew. Eventually there was a song and then an OVA, and those turned out okay, but then they turned it over to a writer who is clearly not to be trusted with something that is not already a complete story in some other format. The metaphor worked for the OVA because it was so short and thus it wasn't forced to overexert itself in maintaining consistency. It should never have been used again in the TV series and now we've seen what happens when someone who doesn't know what they're doing tries reuse an idea that was never meant to be what it had to be in something that didn't need it.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Overture to a New War
It's ironic that the last piece of LoGH media I watch is the one that kicks off the whole narrative, and arguably the pinnacle of the franchise. The direction is strong throughout, and while the budget is not lavish, the animation is good where it counts and the use of lightning and composition elevates it to a level of visual interest above the OVAs.
Careful attention is paid to the subtlety of human interaction, going against the general impression of LoGH as a series of talking heads. The scene between Yang, Lapp, and Jessica after Yang's return is a tour-de-force, painting the complexity of their various emotions without any dialogue whatsoever. Something as simple as Yang's clumsy dancing becomes the trigger for deep, yet understated emotions. Later scenes aren't quite as impressive, but also exhibit non-verbal expressions of a character's personality, such as when Yang's commander turns towards him, opens his mouth, shuts it again, turns away and wrestles with indecision before reluctantly asking Yang for tactical advice. A lot is said by brief movements such as those[...]
It's certainly extremely ironic (for a LOGH property) that Overture puts such a strong emphasis on visual storytelling, to the extent that it's even able to forgo spoken dialogue entirely.
Perhaps you can now see why people recommend watching Overture in lieu of the first two episodes. It is basically the same story, just told far more effectively.
High School DxD 11 - With this show I keep going back and forth between "like" and "dislike". Right now I'm back to "dislike", I think; it was an alright episode, in part, but only in part. It was also pretty darn cliche.
Also, even though I'm sure he'll lose in the end, I hated seeing Riser Phoenix win, after all that buildup showing what an awful person he is...
Yeah, I thought the ending to the episode was pretty awful.
It makes sense that the MC would lose, sure, I just don't like seeing that other jerk win, given how horrible he's acted...
For some more of that that's in the spoilers above, this episode introduces Riser's younger sister, another Phoenix. For some reason she's one of his chess pieces, even though given her status I'd think she'd have her own team... I assume she's been made into one of his pieces instead because of a mixture of sexism (of course it's the girl who's put in that position and forced to sacrifice for her brother's sake...), incest-baiting stuff, and generically bad writing (and I mean a mixture of all three of these, not one or another). Ugh! I was confused on one point, though -- it said something about
her being made into a demon in order for her to become his chess piece. Um... isn't she a demon noble? Like, she's certainly a demon already! What in the world is the proper translation of this?
At least this episode does confirm that nobody actually dies in these chess battles, which is nice to know, and makes sense. On a note vaguely related to that last spoilered part though, I still find the invented mythology here pretty bizarre.
Demons and Fallen Angels as separate factions who are fighting eachother? Okay, but why then do you set it on Earth? That has nothing to do with Christian theology, to say the least! It's completely made up stuff, but then it's set on Earth. I know Japanese stuff does this all the time -- and I mean ALL THE TIME -- but still... eh, oh well. It works within the franchise, mostly, I guess. But Lucifer being a demon leader who is the fallen angels' enemy... :lol to say the least.
So yeah, for many reasons (most of them being harem-junk related, some because of the above) this show is dumb. Entertaining sometimes, yeah, but dumb.
Hah, I wasn't legitimately scared off/disgusted by it, just teasing it. lol So far the series is not bad, I want to watch more. It could be due to my lack of very light-hearted material in my anime diet lately. (Haven't had one since
Mitsudomoe
, which I quite enjoyed, everyone...please don't burn me at the stake) Anyways, I've been wondering, who's your favorite of the gang?
No, I meant that as praise -- given the ages of the girls, the show would be much creepier if they were sexualized more. It's great that it doesn't do that.
And yes, I believe I've heard "Beautiful Me" at this point! Twenty is a DOG. Haha
It's not absurd, and apart from their ages neither of them acts particularly stereotypically anyway.
this just isn't the kind of thing that I want to see out of the show. The whole problem with this arc is that the Bentenmaru crew aren't really involved in anything. They're just the facilitators of the current plot, continuing to exist in the background as one-dimensional technobabbling talking heads as an ill-fitting character that was suddenly plopped into the show monopolizes all of the development and plot advancement. Sure, we're seeing Marika continue to develop as a pirate captain, but only in the most basic sense.
That's not true at all. Sure, the princess told them the quest, but they have figured out where to go, overcame most of the obstacles, etc. She's mostly only acted when the pirates tell her to do something, like contact her sister; it's absolutely not the other way around. So no, this complaint doesn't make any sense.
There's still a distinct lack of bodaciousness and space piracy, with the
political drama, mystery, and dramatic technological strategizing
that dominate the show in their stead failing to fulfill the show's potential. I'm not going to drop the show, but it's fallen from "kinda enjoyable" to "meh" over the past couple of episodes for me.
It's got some of all of those things. Ep. 11 had probably the most space flight and danger yet, between the storms and the chase, and them getting through the space storms, despite the threat, was definitely bodacious...
And anyway, for me, those things you put in the spoilers are things I like a lot too, particularly the first and third of them.
They can't really kill off anyone I care about anymore. I mean, everyone from the Alliance could die and I wouldn't give a shit. On the Empire's side, Reinhardt is most likely making it to the end and everyone else seems pretty expendable.
You know, now that I think about it, I have no idea. Do we have any well-known real pimps to compare to? I mean, maybe if we're all living like Hugh Hefner it'd be decent, but without all that money it'd probably suck.
However, in harem shows like this, I like it when the MCs just go for it like that. It always seems to be one extreme or the other, but I prefer the go-getters from the beat around the bush girl-flavor-of-the-week show where nothing gets resolved because of having to tiptoe between too many relationships, or where the main character is a real beta-male character-type and gets walked on every episode (except for Love Hina, but in my defense, it was my first experience with the genre).
No, I meant that as praise -- given the ages of the girls, the show would be much creepier if they were sexualized more. It's great that it doesn't do that.
Yeah, I got that. Was just saying that I was more teasing the Twister part than actually scowling at it in disgust. It is good news to hear that it doesn't over indulge though.
Umm...Yes? Now you're making me question whether I've seen it. Yikes, only the 4th episode and Twenty's perviness is starting to blend in my mind! lawl
I like that we're all so used to Black Rock Shooter's abuse so far that we didn't even comment on how the otherworld never made any sense and all of the rules were arbitrary or unexplained all the way up until the end.
I''m tempted to make a dash for the finish; things are heating up, and the lines in the sand are becoming blatant. Soutetsu
really is a chess-master--as always said, but with his extents adeptly obfuscated, and Kakunojo is indeed an idiot--To which I am incredibly disappointed.
Hijikata's
in the know of The Lord's Head now, and already questioning himself, so I'm definitely maintaining my bet that he turns-coat.
The interspersion of flashbacks at the end there was done with little tact, as was the sudden introduction of what felt like a million generals, but I'll just roll with it.
Kaito's camera is apparently a Fujica Single-8 P300, a camera which was only produced from 1967 through 1972. Him having a vintage camera like that is kind of odd, so I can only assume someone involved in the production likes antique cameras. Single-8 is the Japanese version of Super 8, developed by Fujifilm in 1965.
The camera used by Lemon in episode 3 is a Fujica ZC1000, which can sell used for nearly $3000 on Japanese auction sites.
That's true for a large number of settings, many of which are actually comprehensible and internally consistent, so that's obviously not the sole reason for it.
The otherworld, is, er, perhaps the least consistent, most sporadic and random 'space' in anime since then end of Evangelion. Lets take a look at the 'facts' -
There is a general disregard for things such as 'gravity'.
- It apparently consists of multiple layers that you can fall through.
- Every layer looks completely different, and it's largely just a mess of objects, colours and designs.
- The people in the other world can apparently engage in entirely ridiculous action sequences and take huge amounts of damage without dying.
- Literally everything is there to just "look cool", it never even pretends to a be a plausible space. It's like the falling clocktower from the start of Bayonetta - except it's actually more absurd then that because at least the clocktower is a real object. Some parts of the otherworld are just shapes.
- Sometimes you get giant floating eye things.
I don't really think it's like other "spaces" in anime.
