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Last edited by dtm42 on Thu Jul 11, 2013 2:14 am; edited 1 time in total

Watched .hack//The Movie (2012), rated it as Good.

Easily the best CG Anime I've ever seen, the visuals of .hack//Beyond the World are a treat. Definitely a movie to see in HD. The action sequences were pretty good - not great, but perfectly okay - and I salivated over the architecture and the ship designs. Even the small touches were fantastic, such as vegetation in some shots being properly three-dimensional which must have been a pain to render. But what I particularly loved were the character designs. They have these pleasing soft faces; if you've seen Hourou Musuko you'll know what I mean. Except here with a movie-strength budget the faces are wonderfully expressive, and the body language is superb. Pretty much the only thing wrong with it visually are that the lip flaps don't always match up with voice work. But that is a very common problem in CG works and I must say it isn't an issue most of the time in this movie.

If the top-tier visuals are the movie's strong point, the writing does let it down somewhat. The pacing is too slow in the first two-thirds and too fast in the last third. Now, that does mean there was time for some good world-building before the action, but unfortunately we got too many scenes of Sora getting used to the game and hanging out with friends rather than introducing us to concepts, people and places that would become important in the final battle. Plot holes were also prevalent, and the way the game affected both the real world and the players was ridiculous. On the positive side it was refreshing to see a spook from America actually being a Good Guy, and the grandpa was pretty cool for an old fella. Sora also had some realistic teenage spunk. It isn't the best writing but it's serviceable enough. It definitely isn't horrible.

I haven't played any of the [i].hack games and my only previous familiarity with the franchise was .hack//SIGN. So I approached this movie with quite a bit of trepidation. Luckily the barrier of entry was fairly low, the story taking time to introduce The World and its basic gameplay mechanics. This means that if you are a newcomer to the franchise you need not fear not being able to understand anything. Just remember, watch it in 1080p if you can, your eyes will adore you for it.[/i]

Last week, while I was still in Japan, I went to see the new Gintama movie on opening night. We received free notebooks with character designs and illustrations from the movie printed inside when we went into the theatre. There was also a small three-part film strip related to one of the funnier gags in the movie. Each person got one part, and if you find all three and put them together they make a coherent image. The resulting image is pretty....special, to say the least xD

The movie itself was a lot of fun, even though I hate time-travel plots. One of my friends who went had never seen or read anything Gintama-related so he walked out really confused. It's definitely not a movie aimed at newcomers to the franchise. Most of the jokes were inside jokes and there was no explanation as to who the characters were. In fact, they were introduced in a manner similar to FMA:B's first episode, where the characters just kind of show up and the audience is expected to go crazy (they did- "GIN-CHAAAAAN!!"). That said, I like that it knew what it wanted to be and who it's audience was and didn't try to half-ass some infodump in there like other franchise movies do. I definitely recommend it for fans of the franchise because if you're in on the jokes it's really funny, but it is definitely not a good entry point. I'll probably rate it "good."

I spent a couple of days at my siblings' house and took the chance to watch some stuff on Blu-ray

I watched Hakaba Kitaro. I rated it Good, though I'm not sure about my own feelings for it. The idea of a completely unsympathetic protagonist intrigued me and the eyeball-man dad was awesome. The series immediately made me think of a thread in this forum about "mean-spirited anime", I think it fits extremely well in that category. The episodes with the cat-girl that dreams of singing are cruel yet fantastic. Still, the show kind of lacks a general purpose, it introduces you to this world of demons and stuff but doesn't really go in depth about it. It's an okay watch.

I also watched Mardock Scramble: The first Compression. Rating: Excellent. It was [expletive] awesome. I loved every second of it. It's intense, exciting, dark and interesting. The characters are fantastic and the visuals are stunning. And I love the freaking mouse with the french name. I was on the edge of my seat during the whole movie, and it ended in just the right cliffhanger for me to rush to watch Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion right away. I rated it Very good. The pacing falls a little on this one and I was a little confused as to why we had to spend half of the movie in the casino. The 20 minutes spent on the roulette were particularly puzzling since I'm not sure of what the character was trying to achieve through the whole scene, but the story stays solid and moving, and I can't wait for the third movie. I also enjoy watching Balot slowly grow into her role and her developping relationship with Oeufsomething.

Another movie I watched is The Princess and the Pilot. Rated it Decent. It was an unpretentious movie that brought nothing to the table but the story was sweet and the pilot was very likeable. The ending seemed like a total hack, though, like spoiler["The world is still shit, I'm still off to marry this dude I don't care about and the pilot is still getting discriminated and erased from history, but everything's just peachy because he pulled out some acrobatics and slung some gold out the window yay!"]. Could've been better, but I grant that the setting didn't give much room for a more proper ending.

I marathoned the first 18 episodes of Jojo's Bizarre adventure. It took me a while to get the hang of things, but by the timespoiler[ the first Jojo's dad was getting killed] I was enjoying it a lot. Well, I'm not sure if we're supposed to take this thing really seriously, but I didn't, and I haven't laughed like that watching anime in years. The narrator is awesome. It's just a ton of masculine, over-the-top, action fun, with quote-unquote masculine poses all over the place. And fake aztec mythology. I love it and can't wait to watch the rest.

I watched a few more episodes of KuroBas, nothing to add. Just that Midorima's eyelashes are fabulous. The following games agains the "Kings" of Tokyo are really exciting and will help to wash out the horrible caricaturesque portrayal of the black/African character from episode 6.

I've also started watching Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas. Now that I'm used to the silliness of Omega, TLC comes as a surprisingly mature and melancholic story in the Saint Seiya 'verse. I really like it. The constant reminder of how Athena's Saints walk a path towards death is very sad but very powerful. The story is moving really fast right now, I'm barely at episode 8 and spoiler[Gold Saints are already dropping like flies]. Even if my emotional connection with spoiler[Albafica or Asmita] was never the kind I have for the likes of Shaka or Mu, their battles and their feelings really reached me. Maybe I didn't bawl for spoiler[Asmita's sacrifice like I did for Shaka's] back in the days of yore, but it was still very bittersweet and beautiful. I'm really into this show, its take on this universe and how it's handling the characters.

Not that it is exactly anime related, but I just watched Pacific Rim at the movies. The reason I will mention it here as I felt some similarities to some anime, and I don't mean that in a bad way, it was a very enjoyable movie. I think that I might just watch an Evangelion movie tonight.

I'm watching Full Metal Panic! right now, because - after The Devil is a Part-Timer ended - I was missing some comedy in my schedule. It's entertaining me 100% so far, and even though the jokes get a bit clownish at times, overall I think it's a nicely balanced mixed.

I'm also currently re-watching Princess Tutu, showing it to my partner, and enjoy watching his reactions almost as much as the show itself. What a great show this is. Seeing Ahiru suffer causes me physical pain, though, as she is just too adorable to stand seeing her cry or tremble in fear. I think she must be favorite female character of all time by now.

Watched recently The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and rated it as Good. Didn't get all the masterpiece vibe from it, considering that I heard it was massively popular at the time it aired, it is an enjoyable series about high-school with some fantasy for seasoning.

Now watch the 2009 renewal and tear your hair out. Laughing

So right now, I'm doing something I should've done ages ago: watching Fist of the North Star. For whatever reason, I just never got around to it during the heyday of my anime fandom (back in the day of fansubs and VCR daisy chains), and just flat-out missed out on the whole phenomenon. Sure, I saw the Streamline dub of the movie... but that's hardly a substitute, splattery gore goodness or no. So here we go. Hours and hours of white blood, manly tears, and wah-tah-tah-tah-tahs.

I'm on episode 18 right now, which means that I'm almost done with the notorious filler arc. So far, so good.

I just finished watching The Rose of Versailles and while I don't have it in me to write Norse saga-like 'reviews' anymore (if this couldn't do it and The Twelve Kingdoms couldn't do it, it's dead Jim; at least Princess Tutu was a good note to go out on)

But whatever, I'm going to type whatever comes to mind and see how it turns out. This is me giving up.

The Rose of Versailles is really great.

*Drops microphone, walks off*

Well, there's a little more to it than that...

For one thing... parts of the OP seemed like they could've been used in Revolutionary Girl Utena. I almost want a tattoo of the outline of Oscar that appears when the first shot pulls out to show the title. And that uniform...

I loved the first episode when I saw its premiere on Viki. It was a strong story that set the series up beautifully and its finale made me stand up and shout, "YES!"

The curious thing is that the first arc, mostly slightly arcane dances of manners and court politics, isn't especially compelling, although I understood it and did enjoy watching it. What comes thence on, really had a firm grip on me. The next court arc has more accessible, consequential emotional effect and I really dug the Oscar having a sort of protégée. (Pity that I'm evidently an oddball for that, because she was so unpopular that she was written out of the story!)

The second half becomes wildly different because of, y'know, the French Revolution. (I'm pretty sure that the French Revolution doesn't count as a spoiler... if you complain about this, you probably should've been held back a few grades in school) Tension and tragedy abound, unrelentingly. It has a reliably somber tone. The ending is spectacular; it consumed me. At some point, my face and mind become locked in a sort of feeling of anguish and foreboding that hasn't let go even after an hour. This is strong stuff; I'm glad that I only had a little every night

The series succeeds because of Lady Oscar. Lady Oscar is f**king awesome. I mean that literally. I don't know if any character had ever evoked such admiration and respect in me. (Curiously, the closet I can think of off the top of my head is Kino from Kino's Journey; not inappropriate) I'm usually bothered when fiction is goes to excess to praise its leads (I recently had a frustrating experience with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind because of that), but The Rose of Versailles has it about right and Lady Oscar just earns it. I was right with all of the ladies of the court who were infatuated with the dashing lady Captain of the Guard. The entire female cast of this show, except for the old lady, seemed to have a massive lady-crush on Lady Oscar. Who could blame them? She's the sexiest character I've ever seen in any anime. (Well, maybe a tie with Fujiko from Lupin III ~The Woman Called Fujiko Mine~... now there's a fanfic waiting to happen)

Lady Oscar really worked for me because for as much as she was obviously amazing and beloved, I think she was very damaged beneath the surface. The series seldom emphasized it, which is why it worked so well, and I might have imagined it, but I'm pretty sure that Lady Oscar spent long stretches of The Rose of Versailles suffering severe depression. I don't just mean the obvious parts. At various times as things seem to be falling apart in her life and her perfect, heroic image seems distant from what she's really going through. I saw a subtle hint of brooding melancholy in the cast of her face and her listless repetition of her habits. Playing the piano and sparring with André sometimes seemed less like things that she did as part of her life than things she did to try to feel like she was still living. I found her deeply flawed too; there was obvious, intense affection between Oscar and Marie Antoinette and it very much seemed as though this blinded Oscar to the reality around her when that reality would reflect ill on her beloved queen. This made the anguish of the end a greater shock and more painful than it would have been if her eyes had been open the whole time.

I might have been imaging all of that.

The Rose of Versailles is classical high drama. There's nothing 'artsy' or wildly innovative about it, although the premise was surely novel at the time, but it's just so finely made and sincerely presented that it works wonders. The depth and pain of the tragedy was profound and unflinching. The ending... the ending is just so merciless. It refuses any easy comfort. I mean... for chrssakes... the last line informs out that spoiler[Lord Fersen became a cruel lord and was killed by his subjects]. That's cold, Ikeda-sensei, and it was great.

I loved the look of this series. They evidently didn't have much of a budget, but they wove some remarkable things out of those shoestrings. The artwork is superb and the staging matches the high drama of the series.

It would be great to have prints of Oscar's portrait and the still frame of cannons firing on her order to hang on my wall.

I also loved how much of the series is true to history. There are simplifications, changes and insertions, but a remarkable number of people and events were real. Ryoko Ikeda chose her subject well and knew when to leave well enough alone.

One simplification that bothered me only really matters because of my own peculiarities. The series portrays France's poverty as largely a consequence of the extravagance of the nobility, but in reality, at least so some quick research tells, it was because of military adventurism. The series shows the expeditionary forces leave for America, but doesn't link them to the budget. Of course this might have been dramatically infeasible, but it frustrates me because it plays into how badly the general population always misunderstands budget problems. They need to attribute it to things that they can easily hate or that could be gotten rid of without cost. Hence why so many Americans blame the federal deficit on foreign aid, which is in fact a pittance.

Awwww, but who cares about that? (Well, you should, but not in this context) The Rose of Versailles is great and I loved it.

You know, I was content watching it with subtitles and I found it interesting how the voice acting felt very different from contemporary anime voice acting, but I would really have loved to hear a bang-up (but probably not Bang Zoom) English dub. I tried to think of how I would cast the parts, but I just couldn't do it. I'm sure that other could and I would probably agree, but I just couldn't name a name.

Who cares about that either? The Rose of Versailles is amazing and all of the excitement that I'd built up since last September, has been vindicated.

Surrender Artist wrote:

One simplification that bothered me only really matters because of my own peculiarities. The series portrays France's poverty as largely a consequence of the extravagance of the nobility, but in reality, at least so some quick research tells, it was because of military adventurism. The series shows the expeditionary forces leave for America, but doesn't link them to the budget. Of course this might have been dramatically infeasible, but it frustrates me because it plays into how badly the general population always misunderstands budget problems. They need to attribute it to things that they can easily hate or that could be gotten rid of without cost. Hence why so many Americans blame the federal deficit on foreign aid, which is in fact a pittance.

I've seen writings that cast war as an especially brutal form of entertainment - and not many people denounce their bread and circuses. Given the twenty-three years or so of near constant warfare that the French Revolution begat, it's relatively easy to see why someone might overlook that particular aspect.

Of course, there's also another aspect, much more relevant to our modern American problem: people seem to love great empires, albatrosses though they be(eg, cutting US military spending to levels actually needed for defense would nearly cut the budget deficit in half). I've seen equations of war to especially brutal entertainment, part of the circus half of how the elite stay in power, so it's hardly surprising that people refuse to see it as a problem(not that the bread half is irrelevant to our modern issue, but it's besides this point here).

RE: errinundra Garden of Sinners post.
Kind of a shame I had the trauma of Juden Chan fresh on my mind.
I rented it from PSN, partly in response to the absurd price being asked for the Blu Ray. After viewing... I might have actually sprung for the price. The movies beg for a rewatch.
As a one shot view, I agree with most of your assessments, but make no mistake, despite the plot holes, and jumbled order, I was HIGHLY entertained from start to finish.

Natsume Season 4:much more of the same, but finally some needed advancement of the main characters. This series is starting to threaten Aria for my favorite obsession.
Galaxy Express 999 Eternal Fantasia: Not sure what to make of this. It seemed like a prelude to more content, but research comes up blank. I even saw the Yamato in a closing sequence.
Yamato Movies: These finally came to the front of my Netflix queue. Heh, most are disposable, though the 2 hour and 46 minute Final Yamato kind of stood out. Make no mistake, all of these films are epic, but Yamato is capable of sustaining infinite damage, and even an extreme self destruction leaves 2 huge pieces.
Southern Cross, wow can the pointlessness of war be portrayed any more clear?

Watched Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II - The Battle for Doldrey (that's a mouthful of a name), and rated it as Very Good.

Now this is more like it.

The animation and CG look have been vastly improved, so the creators obviously learned valuable lessons from the first movie. Another improvement is that while a lot has still been left out plot-wise, it doesn't feel like we are only getting the bare-bones story, even though we are. The movie's pacing is actually fairly well done, and the story is clear to follow, especially compared to the first movie. That said there were still some problematic areas. For example there are several quite large continuity issues that do niggle at the realism, and the members of the Band of the Hawk are not really fleshed out. Of course, the movie's main strength was supposed to be gory action, and it delivers. The fight scenes look fantastic, with the sort of quality choreography and smooth bloody savagery that we've longed dreamed for in the Berserk franchise, but which the first movie didn't quite deliver on.

In almost every way this is a superior effort to the first movie, with obvious signs of lessons being learned and a more sure hand at the helm. I look forward to the third movie and hope it finishes the Golden Age arc as well as this movie continued it.

I just watched Colorful (the movie).

I really enjoyed it, but put it in the class of anime that make me feel like a bad person ("I'm really a pig to my mother sometimes...") along with Whisper of the Heart ("I must try harder...") and some few others.
Since I can vaguely remember being a teenager myself, I found the unlikeable main character all too relatable:
• Loneliness and existential despair? Check.
• Found it hard to forgive my parents for being human? Check.
• Threatened girl acquaintance with sexual violence? Check.
No, wait... What was that last one...?

Oh... anime! [Shakes head and chuckles indulgently]

Looking forward next to watching Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, which — going on the synopsis on the back — sounds like a non-comedic remake of Haunted Junction. Wink

Last edited by Errinundra on Thu Nov 09, 2017 12:15 am; edited 1 time in total

Kick-Heart

Reason for watching: Because, as anime's first project funded through Kickstarter, it was fun to be part of something perhaps significant in the future production of anime. And, just as important, it was a project directed by one of anime's most distinctive creative minds, Masaaki Yuasa.

Synopsis: Romeo Maki is the CEO of an orphanage where the roof leaks and a python has taken over the toilet. Working there is a novice nun, Sister Juliet. Secretly, and unknown to each other, they try to raise money for the orphanage as professional wrestlers - Maskman M and Lady S. The two meet in a $50,000 winner take all bout where they discover how well matched they truly are: he gets off on pain while she loves inflicting it.

Sister Juliet's thoughts don't stray far from wrestling. Don't let her sweet looks fool you.

Kick-Heart has created something of a buzz, being the first successful Kickstarter anime project. It's hard not to approach it hoping that it will be better than it ends up being. What's more, at only thirteen minutes long there's not a lot to consider - about half a dozen scenes, including two extended, visceral wrestling matches.

If you're familiar with Masaaki Yuasa you will quickly recognise his fluid, messy, irreverent, rumbustious style, though more Kemonozume or Mind Game than Tatami Galaxy or Kaiba. Despite his seemingly primitive animation, Yuasa has an absolute sure touch when it comes to timing and motion: Kick-Heart moves at a cracking pace. Yet, like so much of his work, there's more happening on the surface than there is underneath. There's an uncouth grace to Yuasa that overlays a sentimental core that never amounts to all that much. What matters is what's being done to your senses, not your intellect. And that's a good thing in its own way.

Ouch. Yuasa's brilliant timing gives these moments maximum impact. They love it.

Rating: Somewhere around decent or good. It's place in the history of anime will probably outweigh its significance as animation but I'm chuffed something as eccentric as this got its moment in the limelight.

Kickstarter is connecting creators and fans in an entirely new and exciting way.

I just finished watching Waiting in the Summer which I brought on a bit of a whim.

I was more than pleasantly surprised; I laughed, cried, smiled and frowned which I was not expecting.

I warmed to the characters rather quickly. Kaito isn't a crying wimp and is willing to state his feeling for the girl he likes, which was refreshing to see as I thought that his unrequited secretive love was going to be the centre of the series but it became the opposite. Ichika isn't completely oblivious to the feelings of other around her. Kanna isn't selfish and bitter. Tetsuro isn't irrelevant and has a more complete character than meets the eye. Mio has such a natural and strong change of character and confidence it's endearing. Remon is her meddling secretive self. I feel they stay just far enough away from their stereotypes to feel natural but close enough to work well together.

The series is pretty much a slice of life series about teens looking to make a film during their summer break. When they become acquainted and friends with new exchange student Ichika, who unknown to them is an alien (as bad as I have made that sound this surprisingly does not hinder the series).

Waiting in the Summer would be rated with my favourite series if the si-fi element didn't become so prominent in the final few episodes as it felt out of place. That aside the series on a whole I found very heart warming and fun and the si-fi element does not take away from the overall feel of the show.

I rated the series as excellent due to the multiple emotions I felt and laugh out load humour. Realistically I should have rated this as very good but I'm a sucker for emotion draining episodes e.i. Anohana's final episode.

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