Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3187 |
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Started my journey through the world of Aria the Animation today. OMG this may be the best show ever...atmospheric to the max.
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6604 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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When you get to it please post what you think of episode 11 - it's the one where the three older undines reminisce about their training. As per usual, not much happens, but it's somehow very moving. I'm interested to hear what you think. |
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SgtMustang
Posts: 158 |
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[EDIT: That's great. Put a reason. -TK]
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24467 |
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So I'm watching Hayate the Wombat Butler (hee hee) season 2 right now (much love to CR) and as much as I enjoyed the first series (rated it excellent), I'm digging this one more. It still has a lot of great humour, but the show is concentrating much more on the romantic side of things too, which I'm digging, and going more into character stuff. What a fantastic franchise.
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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Heh. Just wait until Aria: The Origination. It'll blow this one out of the water. 
On topic: Now that my replacement disk of The Third, volume 3, has been delivered, I'm back on track in viewing it. Not sure if this is good or not, but I had to go back to the first episode on the volume because I've already forgotten what the hell was going on. This doesn't bode well for the remainder of the series. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15593 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I decided to check out a supposed OVA of Kaichou wa Maid-sama, it was pretty much a dvd extra with the charaters having fun. The humoures bit had the characters each redubbing a scene, my favourite being with Usui doing part of both himself and Misaki. A bit was not too interesting sum up, but others were funny enough. At the moment though it is not anime related I am watching Aliens, just the movie to watch before going to bed. And I am hoping to check out the Baka to test OVA once it gets subbed whcih I am really looking forward to. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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Summer Wars.
Not quite a masterpiece, but a very fun movie. Now, here's where it sucks: I'm not stating a thing about this. You must watch this movie and come up with your own opinion. Perhaps you'll be one of the 900+ who voted it Excellent or higher? We'll see. As for me, I'd definitely rate it Excellent, just a few ticks away from Masterpiece (a few issues with the story makes it impossible to rate it higher). This post is dedicated to Zac for his generosity at handing out DVDs while paying for shipping to subscribers. Without this, I would not have purchased this DVD. *tips hat Perhaps you use this as an excuse to chuck over $20? If you get a DVD, it pays for itself, silly. 
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luffypirate
Posts: 3187 |
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Beautiful episode. I literally had the biggest grin on my face when the insert song started to play as Akari waved off her friends. Such subtle everyday nuances turned into something very, very special. This anime is INCREDIBLY well done, and I am literally punching myself for not having discovered this sooner. Those "Venice. I'm Sorry!" segments were great as well. Junichi Sato seems like a silly guy. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6604 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Silly guy for sure, but I think he's also very astute in his story telling, especially in their emotional flow. I think the response that we both had at that moment was very carefully set up in the preceding scenes, especially through Athena's amazing a capella song. The general mood of nostalgia and the close friendships no doubt did their part as well. *** Last night I finished Canaan. Although I rate it as very good I found myself disappointed by it. This could have been a magnificent series. The basics are there: great artwork and animation, visceral action sequences, the makings of an epic plot, and characters with considerable potential. The first problem is the stupid humour. What is it with anime these days? You get a serious story with interesting characters and at some point every episode at least one of them acts like a complete clown. Why? To amuse 12 year olds? I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. (I have to admit, though, that I really appreciated the normal bodily proportions of Canaan and Maria.) The complete joke of the series is Liang, the psychotic "sister" of Alphard. Her presence spoiled just about every scene she was in. Villains need a better motivation than pychosis. It's lazy and it has been done to death elsewhere. The other major gripe is the plot. The series climaxes never manage to come across as powerfully as they should have because there is never enough time spent on the build up. I blame it on the current penchant for thirteen episode series. This rushing through the episodes also meant that the plot had gaps and the characters couldn't be properly developed, leading to the simplistic characterisations such as Liang. Finally, unlike the best examples, (Noir, Gunslinger Girl), this series explores only superficially the implications and possibilities of the "girls with guns" genre. Gunslinger Girl put a whole new wrinkle on the concept and did it in only thirteen episodes. Canaan's emphasis on action over character driven drama probably has much to do with its shortcomings here. The dramatic possibilities with Canaan, Alphard and Maria could have been taken much further. If I sound peeved it's because I really like the show (and love the genre) but it could have been so much more. By the way, it isn't shy about revealing its links to other members of the genre - going so far as using lines directly from its forebears. *** I've come across some interesting stuff while exploring (more or less) minor works by well known directors. Mahiro Maeda: Gala from the Genius Party Beyond anthology. A giant object from the sky lands in a world of alien "earth" creatures. Their initial fears are steadily transformed into celebration as it sprouts into our human world. It's twenty minutes of growing bliss, you might say. Katsuhiro Otomo: Gundam: Mission To The Rise and The Order to Stop Construction. I've never much liked Otomo. He's a great artist and animator but a very mediocre story teller. Above all, I've always been repulsed by his jaundiced outlook on things. The first of these is less than three minutes long and I'm sure it would have looked awesome for its time if seen in a cinema but it's way to short to leave much of an impression at home. The second film is quite entertaining - a loyal company man travels into the heart of the Amazon jungle to stop some very determined robots from building a factory that is no longer needed. The depiction of the enormous factory surrounded by the encroaching jungle is Otomo animation at its most inspired. But, as usual, the tone is sarcastic. The facial design of the main character is typical of the sort of negativity Otomo generates. Gainax: Daicon III and IV. As with Otomo, Gainax stuff just about always leaves me cold. These films, especially the second, are a revelation. Made for sci-fi conventions in the early 1980s they actually pre-date the creation of the Gainax name and apparently were responsible for creating much of the buzz around that group of animators. I can see why. Daicon IV is six minutes of pure joy and exhilaration. Koichi Mashimo: The Weathering Continent. If you know Noir you'll instantly recognise Mashimo's touches - the straightforward but striking watercolour backgrounds, the slow pans, the lingering eyeball close-ups, the repeated images, the emphasis on mood over action, an arcane mystery and the prominent role for the music. I'm a total sucker - I love it. And, as a bonus, there's a musclebound hero who always (yes, always!) thinks before he fights. As is so often the case with anime, the villains are ridiculous but that's not a major problem here. If you find Mashimo slow going don't bother with this. *** Finished Rec today. It's a sweet and sentimental romance. Boy and girl meet; sexual tension develops; they eventually admit it; rival appears; misunderstandings develop; apologies are given and accepted; love is acknowledged. Just like a squillion other romances. Nice for the soul but there aren't any twists or moments of originality to elevate this above a decent rating. Which is disappointing because Ryutaro Nakamura has directed some very individual titles: Serial Experiments Lain, Colourful and Kino's Journey. Last edited by Errinundra on Fri Feb 25, 2011 7:10 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Nosferatu21
 Posts: 520 Location: Ohio |
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Actually I picked up the Perfect Score collection from Shawne of TRSI off Amazon. It was only slightly more expensive than the Classic Line since he was trying to get rid of some of his Perfect Score stock. I've decided to go with my initial thought and just put it back on the shelf for now. I'll finish off the last 5 episodes in a couple months once I've forgotten how much I liked the previous arc and how much I don't like what I know will happen in the last arc. But your suggestion of the manga might put a dent in that. That's definitely become a feasible option. Thanks for the heads up on that. |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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While waiting for Basilisk DVD 3 to come, I started wtaching Solty Rei.
Very average, very predictable, but I wanted to get this done. I hope it will manage to take off after the not so good beginning and that the series has got something up its sleeve... I wish the characters were not so stereotypical and generic. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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Despite the fact I loved Solty Rei, your hope will never come. Sorry, but those are the breaks with this one. In fact, once Rose comes on board, you can write the script yourself. |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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You crushed my only hope. I already felt like a clairvoyant watching the first episodes. i dont know, but I feel like Solty Rei could run together with Eureka 7 for an award for the most irritating kid characters in anime. But Im wondering, since you said you liked it, what is it worth watching for? |
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EmbraceMe
 Posts: 2017 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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After 3 days of staying up till about 4 A.M. on each day, I managed to finish Xam'd: Lost Memories and I'm halfway done with Nodame Cantabile season 1. Xam'd was great, though I expected more action, but overall it was highly enjoyable. I did miss a lot of information by staying up late to watch it, so the story did not make as much sense as it should had. I read comments about it on Hulu, and I agree with most of them. Nodame Cantabile is great so far, though I was expecting a more serious story rather than comedic. It's very enjoyable and I'm liking it. The comedy actually had me laugh a lot. Now, I have to stop procrastinating, and start on my schoolwork
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I happened to watch this anthology today. Gala probably manages to impress the most through the incremental spectacle it displays, leading towards a crescendo of vibrancy. It is an unfortunate trait of the Genius Party anthologies that, in spite of production values of the finest calibre in the industry, the viewer must sometimes weave a satisfying story together from mere threads. Instead of a series of events against which to react, we are frequently presented with little more than a succession of images. (Dimension Bomb exemplifies this.) Resultantly, one's engagement with the screenplay is at occasional risk of waning, which may result in an under-appreciation of the sublime effort placed towards the films' visual composure. |
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