×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
GATE (TV).


Goto page Previous    Next

Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
GhostStalkerSA



Joined: 17 May 2015
Posts: 425
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 4:30 pm Reply with quote
Badge304 wrote:
Quote:
In the manga, the lead helicopters are even painted with the crossed sabers of US Cavalry regiments, to make the comparison even more obvious.


Point of detail that the crossed swords on the nose of the helicopters in the manga were katanas in lieu of cavalry sabers. A nice Japanese adaption.

Right, forgot about that detail. I think they also painted the kanji for will or patriot beneath the crossed katanas there as well? I believe its a samurai thing.

Also, ugh that battle scene was poorly choreographed with all those cutaways and such... And where was all the blood? That final minigun strafing run should've produced rivers of it or at least left the ground which the marauders were standing on all bloody, not to mention all those attacks with Rory's halberd and the helicopters doing their thing...

What's the point if it all looks way too clean? It is a late night anime, so they should be able to show all the effects of what happens when a modern military goes up against a severely technologically inferior force and get slaughtered, right?

Also, Kurabayashi's design changes form the manga to the anime still piss me the hell off. All the moe-ified characters still piss me the hell off... Yes, the manga isn't the original source, and I don't think she was drawn in either the novel or LN covers, but still, how does something like this happen:

The scene of her charging in with her bayonet just loses a lot of its impact when its a moe-blob doing it and not the short fireplug of a woman shown above. You can't really get her bloodthirstyness across looking like that...


Last edited by GhostStalkerSA on Sat Aug 08, 2015 12:49 pm; edited 6 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:26 pm Reply with quote
I actually don't watch war movies much, so while I'm familiar with Apocalypse Now, I've actually never seen it and didn't know about that scene. So the JSDF in this show are military movie otaku and purposefully recreated that scene to psych themselves out, and the lot of 'em actually enjoy mowing down a (compared to them) defenseless enemy. This is where the right wing militarism rears its head, huh?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GhostStalkerSA



Joined: 17 May 2015
Posts: 425
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:32 pm Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
I actually don't watch war movies much, so while I'm familiar with Apocalypse Now, I've actually never seen it and didn't know about that scene. So the JSDF in this show are military movie otaku and purposefully recreated that scene to psych themselves out, and the lot of 'em actually enjoy mowing down a (compared to them) defenseless enemy. This is where the right wing militarism rears its head, huh?

Part of it, yes. The JSDF can do no wrong, while their politicians are the ones holding them back and the leadership of foreign countries on both sides of the Gate are stunningly incompetent. You'll probably see more of it down the line...

And psych ops are a large part of standard military operations. We as modern armies are just a lot better at it than an ancient/medieval force would be. You do a ton of stuff to pump up your own troops and demoralize the enemy when heading into battle. Apparently, modern helicopters do have mounted speakers for just this kinda thing, and there are brackets for them to be placed on ground vehicles such as tanks and IFVs as well.


Last edited by GhostStalkerSA on Sat Aug 08, 2015 12:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
LordByron227



Joined: 12 Feb 2011
Posts: 158
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 7:18 pm Reply with quote
Goddamn, I loved the scene, wished they kept the Wagner playing during the massacre. RUNNN CHARLIIEE .
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Badge304



Joined: 21 Jun 2015
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 10:24 pm Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
I actually don't watch war movies much, so while I'm familiar with Apocalypse Now, I've actually never seen it and didn't know about that scene. So the JSDF in this show are military movie otaku and purposefully recreated that scene to psych themselves out, and the lot of 'em actually enjoy mowing down a (compared to them) defenseless enemy. This is where the right wing militarism rears its head, huh?


"defenseless enemy"?
Who were in the process of killing everyone in the city if not stopped.
Swords, spears, axes and maces are threatening deadly weapons. As deadly as firearms at short ranges by the way. The threat was stopped with overwhelming force. Not equal force. With overwhelming force.
It is how it is done. The realities of war are not pretty or fair. They are effective because they are so brutal. That the SDF "enjoyed" killing is not evidenced by anything shown in the battle scene. They did their job.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Galap
Moderator


Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 2354
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:00 pm Reply with quote
I actually like Kurabayashi's design here a lot more. It shows that most soldiers aren't really these big menacing-looking titans, but rather just normal people. Normal people who have been trained to be violent and aggressive when they need to be. The scene was pretty impactful to me; to be a soldier, even in a country that hasn't seen much action for a long time, isn't a joke. When the cards are on the table, they're ready to play.

Last edited by Galap on Sat Aug 08, 2015 4:39 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GhostStalkerSA



Joined: 17 May 2015
Posts: 425
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:01 pm Reply with quote
Badge304 wrote:
That the SDF "enjoyed" killing is not evidenced by anything shown in the battle scene. They did their job.

Well, there was that scene of Colonel Kengun sipping nonchalantly from a mug of coffee in his helicopter as his troops and copters are massacring the attackers. It's not even a battle for him to get excited at, just another day at the office.

Found this image on /a/ a couple hours ago, comparing that scene to another fictional colonel who was known for nonchalantly commanding a strike force that was attacking a drastically technologically inferior force and treating it like any other day, with a cup of coffee in hand as his troops assaulted from air mobile platforms:

Can't believe I didn't see the similarities between the two scenes until it was pointed out to me in that thread...

I'm not saying that overwhelming force wasn't necessary to relieve the siege at Italica, but there was pretty much no threat to the JSDF at all there after they swept in with the copters. This was pretty much meant as a show of force by the JSDF, meant to shock and awe Pina to convince her that its better to cooperate with them instead of going against them instead. Also, Kurabayashi was a bit too eager to mix it up there as well...

Galap wrote:
I actually like Kurabayashi's design here a lot more. It shows that most soldiers aren't really these big menacing-looking titans, but rather just normal people. Normal people who have been trained to be violent and aggressive when they need to be. The scene was pretty impactful to me; being a soldier, even in a country that hasn't seen much action for a long time, isn't a joke. When the cards are on the table, they're ready to play.

I dunno, Kurabayashi looks way too much like Ami and/or Mami from Idolm@ster. If she was a reservist or something like that, I could see her character looking like that, but she just looks way too much like a moe-ified idol to me to be a professional soldier who dreams of getting into SF and is an expert in bayonet and melee fighting.

I mean, the director for this anime was previously known for working on Love Live!, so why choose him to do something like Gate now?


Last edited by GhostStalkerSA on Sat Aug 08, 2015 12:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:39 pm Reply with quote
GhostStalkerSA wrote:
..there was pretty much no threat to the JSDF at all there after they swept in with the copters...

So I wonder why the airborne soldiers felt a need to sit on their helmets.

A little off-topic but I am wondering if anyone else remembers what I do about that movie when I saw it decades ago. When the soldier is asked why he is sitting on his helmet the original answer was "to keep your 'hole from being shot off." Every clip I have seen and this copy uses the word balls instead. Either I misremember or someone changed the dub for some reason and I wonder what the reason is.

Anyway I am very impressed by this anime and its ability to take on the scope of what it has carved out for itself. It seems to be performing well and nearly every level.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GhostStalkerSA



Joined: 17 May 2015
Posts: 425
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 1:21 am Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
GhostStalkerSA wrote:
..there was pretty much no threat to the JSDF at all there after they swept in with the copters...

So I wonder why the airborne soldiers felt a need to sit on their helmets.

A little off-topic but I am wondering if anyone else remembers what I do about that movie when I saw it decades ago. When the soldier is asked why he is sitting on his helmet the original answer was "to keep your 'hole from being shot off." Every clip I have seen and this copy uses the word balls instead. Either I misremember or someone changed the dub for some reason and I wonder what the reason is.

The air cav is having fun and psyching themselves up by re-enacting that scene from Apocalypse Now. Because if you can say you literally did the same thing as one of the most iconic scenes in the history of cinema while riding into battle, why wouldn't you?

Also, I've always heard "balls" used in that line whenever I've seen that scene in question, but then again, I've never actually seen the movie in theaters and only via streaming services or clips from YouTube. I think you're misremembering, since almost every source on the internet which references the quote has "balls" in the line.

Quote:
Anyway I am very impressed by this anime and its ability to take on the scope of what it has carved out for itself. It seems to be performing well and nearly every level.

Censoring the blood seems to be a big sticking point amongst most people who're familiar with the source material, though. Just leaves the battle scenes looking way too clean afterwards. Also, most were disappointed with the way that the Wagner wasn't playing during the entire scene after the helicopters showed up.

Also, I hate the way Myuute (the green haired spirit wielding siren who was taken prisoner by the JSDF in the aftermath of Italica) is drawn in the anime. Sure, we never got an image of her before the manga, but her character design in the anime looks way worse than what's there in the manga. Doesn't bode well for the spoiler[animal girls we'll be getting in the Clan Formal estate next episode].


Last edited by GhostStalkerSA on Sat Aug 08, 2015 12:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15578
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 3:43 am Reply with quote
The women who ran into the combat with her bayonet, yeah that was kind of crazy. Well axe crazy fighting women really are not too rare, just look at Rory, it felt kind of different with her.

Liked Pina was impressed with her own person for getting a good treaty, but then we see that she is freaking out on what could possibly be the catch. The JSDF took several prisoners (I guess prisoners of war), while the picking women because harem thing is an easy accusation, I guess you could pick out reasoning that they might be at more risk being in the hands of the fantasy people than with the SDF.

While the "slaughter" was rough, I think that it was perfectly okay. I also rather liked all the cut things on screen, a problem often in anime is that you only ever see one thing so it can be a bit hard to understand multiple things happening at once, so I thought that it was good. So what if this looks like glorifying the Japanese army, they have been pretty good so far in helping people and trying to reach out. I had a much bigger problem with Kantai Collection which was glorifying Japan's actions in WWII.

Looks like Pina's knights may have made a mistake in just taking prisoner against a treaty. I could only see that they will need to try and smooth things over from both sides to avoid them turning out like the brigadiers.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
MrTerrorist



Joined: 20 Oct 2010
Posts: 1348
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 6:43 am Reply with quote
That Apocalypse Now tribute.
They even got the sitting on our Helmet joke.
That was an epic scene to watch.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GhostStalkerSA



Joined: 17 May 2015
Posts: 425
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:50 am Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
The women who ran into the combat with her bayonet, yeah that was kind of crazy.

Yup, that's Sergeant Shino Kurabayashi for you. She's a battle junkie who's an expert in bayonet and melee combat, and wants nothing more than to get into the JSDF Special Forces group. Still don't like her anime design though, looks way too moe-ifed, like I've said above, posting her manga counterpart for comparison. She got a rep for damaging her equipment by being too enthusiastic for battle, to the point where the quartermasters are irked with her.

Quote:
I could only see that they will need to try and smooth things over from both sides to avoid them turning out like the brigadiers.

You mean brigands. Brigadiers are the lowest rank of General, so named because they used to command brigade sized formations (several thousand men).


Last edited by GhostStalkerSA on Sat Aug 08, 2015 12:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15578
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 8:24 am Reply with quote
GhostStalkerSA wrote:
Quote:
I could only see that they will need to try and smooth things over from both sides to avoid them turning out like the brigadiers.

You mean brigands. Brigadiers are the lowest rank of General, so named because they used to command brigade sized formations (several thousand men).

Sure, I kind of had something else on my mind so I got the word wrong. Army terminology and the like is not my forte.

As for the design, well this was a novel first, so you really should not expect that the manga would be the main influence. And looking at the comparison images, there is a problem. Anime as we know sells itself at images to sell the tone of the particular scene, it looks like you are comparing a light hearted more feminine scene with one meant to shown a different side. As an extreme I could probably compare something like Natsu from Fairy Tail looking goofy in the anime, and the looking scary in the manga. As a personal opinion I think her design so far has highlighted a particular difference in her character that she might be lighter doing first aid or raging on her superior officer, but then get incredibly reckless and dangerous in combat.

I will say that particular image you chose of her in the anime does make her look like something that came out of K-ON. I would not mind taking a look at perhaps her different faces for different situations to look at the range or perhaps inconsistency. But indeed a main selling point of this series is combining fanservice like fantasy elements with some more gritty modern military scenes. Or perhaps the other way around depending on what you think is the soft elements and what is the hard.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
GhostStalkerSA



Joined: 17 May 2015
Posts: 425
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 9:30 am Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
As for the design, well this was a novel first, so you really should not expect that the manga would be the main influence. And looking at the comparison images, there is a problem. Anime as we know sells itself at images to sell the tone of the particular scene, it looks like you are comparing a light hearted more feminine scene with one meant to shown a different side. As an extreme I could probably compare something like Natsu from Fairy Tail looking goofy in the anime, and the looking scary in the manga. As a personal opinion I think her design so far has highlighted a particular difference in her character that she might be lighter doing first aid or raging on her superior officer, but then get incredibly reckless and dangerous in combat.

I will say that particular image you chose of her in the anime does make her look like something that came out of K-ON. I would not mind taking a look at perhaps her different faces for different situations to look at the range or perhaps inconsistency. But indeed a main selling point of this series is combining fanservice like fantasy elements with some more gritty modern military scenes. Or perhaps the other way around depending on what you think is the soft elements and what is the hard.

True, when the comparison image was first made on /a/ way back in response to when the first episode of the anime came out, that was the only image of Kuribayashi from the anime available, since she hadn't shown up yet in show and was only featured in the OP. A more apt image to compare the manga version to is probably from this episode, and I'll see if I can pull one up for comparison.

As for the manga not being the original medium, I'm aware of that. However, there's no official artwork of Kuribayashi in either the novel covers or in the light novel illustrations. None of those are the original mediums either, as Gate started as a self-published web novel, which then got popular enough to get picked up by a publisher, albeit requiring a rewrite to change the ending and remove a lot of the more "poisonous" political commentary, and as a matter of fact, the Gate light novels, which is apparently what the anime is apparently taking its design cues from, came out after the manga, and is essentially the same as the regular novels, albeit split into smaller volumes for ease of reading, along with added illustrations.

The manga is where most got their first glimpse of Kuribayashi in images not of their own making, and her appearance there seems to have stuck with the fandom. Most fans I've seen blame either the studio doing the anime, A-1 Pictures; or the director, previously known for working on the Love Live! anime, for the change. They think they moe-ified Kuribayashi so that they could sell more merch of her to otaku collectors and such.

For a more neutral comparison, maybe this shot from this past episode vs this one from the manga would be better? I dunno, the side ponytail in the anime version plus the softer face doesn't really work for me at all. Also, it reminds me of how the anime opted to go for olive drab uniforms for the JSDF instead of the mottled digicam that they use in real life, imitated by the manga.


Last edited by GhostStalkerSA on Sat Aug 08, 2015 1:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 10:09 am Reply with quote
GhostStalkerSA wrote:
I dunno, the side ponytail in the anime version plus the softer face doesn't really work for me at all. Also, it reminds me of how the anime opted to go for olive drab uniforms for the JSDF instead of the mottled digicam that they use in real life, imitated by the manga.

The anime business is tough, and obviously the opted for the lower-risk character design. Maybe it doesn't work for you but there is no denying there will be some incremental percentage of sales because they went with cute rather than "real."

And I suspect that some of that business will be girls. Fan girls aren't made from gritty role models.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 8 of 21

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group