Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Brave Witches
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18435 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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To be clear, I'm talking about the characters also being rendered in CG, not just the Neuroi or other military planes/ships/vehicles. |
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jirg1901
Posts: 150 |
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Yeah, the franchise has had heavy usage of 3D for characters since the first TV episode. Strike Witches started at Gonzo, which were in those days renowned for pushing CGI no matter what.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_uqGedYkLg The first appearance of the Strike Witches is at 3:15. The third cut where the entire group flies over the camera is CG. The shot at ~3:32 where the group splits is CG except for Lynne and Sanya's closeup at the end. 3:39 where Shirley, Minna, and Erica fly over the Neuroi and stop is (pretty bad) CG. Sanya's missiles are also CG. But all of the fancy action is 2D at sadly a much higher quality level than pretty much anything in Brave Witches. Sakamoto's fly-by at 18:14 is heavy CG followed by a really brutal 3D shot with the wrong LoD at 18:29. Eila and Sanya at 20:28. By Strike Witches 2 there was a bunch of CG characters in the OP with the entire tower circling sequence, Striker unit spin, and one of the fly-bys. It's been glaring pretty much all season in Brave Witches because now that they have higher detail 3D models (and perhaps a lack of 2D animators) they try to pull off stuff like mostly stationary middle distance talking scenes in 3D when it was originally limited to mostly high speed group shots with minimal individual character motion where you couldn't see clear faces. I'm actually surprised you didn't notice it until this episode, there has occasionally been some pretty bad shots since episode 4 or 5. The action sequence in the OP is entirely done with CG characters but there's a bunch of motion and depth of field blur to try to soften it so only Rall's blurry head and one or two other frames stick out too badly. Episode 8 was definitely the low point in terms of animation so far anyways, it was obvious there was several animation cuts that weren't even finished when they kept recycling things. There's a particularly bad bit where with nothing else between they go from a CG shot of Nao flying in, turning around, and stopping while shooting, to a close up of her shooting while flying forward, to a different close up of her shooting while stopped, then back to the previous close up of shooting while flying forward. The complete lack of continuity was like watching an 80s stock footage robot anime. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
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They have been using CG from the beginning but to be fair it did stand out more this episode.
For my part at least, whenever I see Naoe, I'm reminded of the version from Drifters, mostly from their shared penchant for beratement, though for the one from Drifters it is more a constant refrain. Like that is how he ends every other sentence with kono yarou. If these two are any indication of the historical figure, he wasn't the nicest guy to say the least. |
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kevinx59
 Posts: 959 Location: In sunny California |
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Yeah, CGI has been used for the flight scenes since the beginning, although it has been used more heavily this season. S1 had mostly hand drawn. S2 had some noticable CG but not as much as now. A shame, but the series is still entertaining. Im loving all the little cameos with the 501st members, it really puts the "world" in "world witches".
Also about Gundala spoiler[ the novels and supplemental material have stated that she recieved a back injury during an earlier battle. Its also why she wears that black corset, for back support.] |
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Northlander
 Posts: 911 |
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To be clear (since I apparently wasn't in my last post ^^;; ), I was referring to the characters too. I think Brave Witches even allowed for CG during closeups from time to time, which was something I'm pretty sure the Strike Witches shows never did. |
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7jaws7
 Posts: 705 Location: New York State |
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Takami certainly lost a few fans after kicking her own sister out of the unit.
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a2colin
Posts: 1 |
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In historical elite squadrons there is no way that Takami would have been allowed to waltz in and kick any proven, reliable veteran out of the squadron. If, in fact, Takami couldn't have just been added to squadron it would have been much more likely that she would have been the one reassigned. After all, she had no actual history with the 502nd.
Who knows wether she would fit into the group dynamics or not. All she has going for her is reputation, which really doesn't matter much until reproven. Furthermore where is the evidence that she is fully recovered? Time spent with a rear squadron would give her time to demonstrate that she is fully up to par. When Strike/Brave Witches ignore historical reality just for melodrama when it would be just as easy to get much more realistic drama is when the series drives me nuts. I thought that they had been going along quite well without, more or less artificially, reinserting Takami into the middle of things. Nevertheless I am interested to see how things play out from here. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24136 |
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Indeed. I've demoted her to Sgt. Beeyotch in my mind. Fortunately, the Gods of Fate will not let this injustice stand and Hikari will be allowed to fly with the 502th, saving the day to her everlasting glory and her despicable sister will be forced to grovel for forgiveness in the dust. At least, that's the version that's playing out in my head. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1121 Location: Puget Sound |
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To the extent that historical reality is relevant... within the world (and the backstory) of the show, Takami is a senior, proven, reliable, well known, very capable veteran witch. (And much more all of those things than Hikari.) It's quite realistic that when a more capable and powerful senior shows up, the less capable and less powerful junior is going to get kicked to the curb. (BTDT, both as the junior and the senior.) Especially when the senior was supposed to be there in the first place, and the junior never should have been by the show's own internal logic.
Yet you had no problem with them ignoring historical 'reality' in artificially inserting a junior, unqualified, and inexperienced individual into an elite unit... You're trying to have it both ways, and that just doesn't work. If you want to play the 'accuracy' card, then Hikari shouldn't have been there in the first place. |
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jirg1901
Posts: 150 |
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Hikari being there at all is a pretty serious breach of orders for everyone involved that they tried to hide by pretending she was her sister to command, so this is actually letting them off easy. Besides it was Takami's idea as the condition for accepting a borderline suicide mission that literally nobody thinks should be done by Hikari. (even though it probably will be...)
Takami has always been really stern when it comes to protecting Hikari even before. I think she liked Hikari having a goal to strive for but has never wanted her to actually fight. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2902 |
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I thik they are either gong to ahve the punch loli carry hikari or hikari will use takami's strike unit. but yeah, I was also wondering how is she going to make it to the battlefield.
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HandofBobb
Posts: 83 |
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"This magic AP round contains the magical power of several hundred ground witches"
... starts having Concrete Revolutio flashbacks He means witches that fight on the ground, right? right? WHATS IN THE BOOOOX?!? spoiler[yeah, I know about 'Ground Witches', but I couldn't help thats where my mind went when I first read the line...] |
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Parsifal24
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When it's all said and done this just felt like a "pallet swapped" version of the original. Episode 12 even felt like the ending of season two of Strike Witches with superficial changes. This combined with the conspicuous CGI and dip in quality of some of the action scenes made this an okay series. I can't work up enough bile to actually hate it as it's a continuation of one the franchises that helped get me back into Anime.
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3768 |
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This is what makes me question the idea that it had "strong technical merits" |
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WitchWatcher
 Posts: 73 |
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that cameo of spoiler[Aurora] at the end though
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