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This Week in Anime - What's Going On With BLUE LOCK'S Animation?




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SinisterOracle



Joined: 13 May 2023
Posts: 385
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 12:50 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
BLUE LOCK, Wonder Egg Priority, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, Mobile Suit Gundam, Hanebado!, and Yowamushi Pedal are currently available on Crunchyroll, while Shirobako and Whisper Me a Love Song are available on HIDIVE. The First Slam Dunk is currently streaming on Netflix, while Aim for the Ace! is streaming on RetroCrush. Macross is available on Disney+/Hulu everywhere except in the U.S.


This is what’s wrong with the world today. Too many streaming services.
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yeehaw



Joined: 09 Sep 2018
Posts: 550
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 3:11 pm Reply with quote
Is there evidence for what MartinKiings is saying is true? I'm sure he's not because I mean, look at the show, but I also don't trust a tiktok

SinisterOracle wrote:
Quote:
BLUE LOCK, Wonder Egg Priority, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, Mobile Suit Gundam, Hanebado!, and Yowamushi Pedal are currently available on Crunchyroll, while Shirobako and Whisper Me a Love Song are available on HIDIVE. The First Slam Dunk is currently streaming on Netflix, while Aim for the Ace! is streaming on RetroCrush. Macross is available on Disney+/Hulu everywhere except in the U.S.


This is what’s wrong with the world today. Too many streaming services.


That's not the problem here, the problem is we get like more than 200 new shows every year and frankly, we don't need all those shows because more than half of them is yet another isekai about some boring noncharacter going to another world to be boring and buy slave girls. And Kadokawa is a big part of this problem since they decided to publish every mediocre isekai LN and also make an anime adaption of it.


Last edited by yeehaw on Thu Nov 14, 2024 3:21 pm; edited 1 time in total
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
Posts: 3030
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 3:16 pm Reply with quote
We only have his immediate statements and what another animator has also said (this is why the portion about his claims specifically state that they are claims). But he is really credited on episode 2 for his work, so we could verify that much.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2306
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 3:57 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I know we're all just human at the end of the day, and things happen (minus meddling from the higher-ups), but it just blows my mind that not a lot has been done in the past 50 years to install much in the way of guard rails.


Arguably 60, if we go back to the production practices Tezuka developed for the Astro Boy anime that most of the industry has been built on since.
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KrisPNatz



Joined: 20 Jul 2024
Posts: 41
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 4:05 pm Reply with quote
Production rumors aside (I always wish the best conditions for animators) I feel like I'm the only person who thinks the way this season has been animated fits what has been going on and that despite the lack of dynamic animation it still looks better than most things airing this Fall PLUS has some of the most consistent, detailed and good-looking character art maybe out of anything that has come out this year (outside its cg models but the 2D is consistent). Every episode up until now has been about highlighting new characters and what they're good at. Its several character trailers back to back with exposition and when you're adding close to 10 new notable characters for the first few "games" and then expanding on characterization of existing characters like with Reo and the Pokemon Puzzle League Champion Isagi I don't know where in the plot there is even time for a coherent soccer game to be played. From jump Blue Lock frames itself as the NLOG of soccer anime and as someone who's seen plenty others (Offside, Shoot, Days, Ao Ashi) I'd say the animation being slow mo "cool moves" back to back with copious talk no jutsu just makes sense for what its trying to do. Not to mention there's a whole swath of Blue Lock fans who are watching it for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with soccer Laughing.

Overall Blue Lock is less about soccer games actually being played and more "lets monologue every time the ball is passed and frame every move like its this earth shattering thing that has never been done before" and no production is going to give the audience sensory overload with extended dialogue and hyper fast animation at the same time. Aren't these early games like 5 minutes long? Yet they take two 23 minute episodes to cover the one with Isagi alone. If you had actual soccer play and cut the dialogue and slow mo's we'd be at the U-20 match in the first episode but we also would not know who literally half of the cast is so again TO ME the way things have been executed just make sense for the narrative. Do people want to have the characters moving and doing 50000 things a second while having to read endless dialogue at the same time? Maybe they do or maybe its dub watchers moreso complaining in which case I'd be out of the loop. Either way since the first season I've been under the impression the loudest group of Blue Lock fans have not been happy with literally anything the anime has done from the animation to the official english translation of "hetakuso" Rolling Eyes so again aside from complaints lobbed at anime productions for effectively harming their animators which I always agree with, I expect something new being whined about with every episode to be the norm for this franchise.
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 4:06 pm Reply with quote
I think unless someone super important to the industry is willing to risk their status to take up this cause, there isn't going to be any change.

The above scenario would probably be the case anywhere, but Japan is especially not going to want to fix things without a push because 1) that's how it's always been done and 2) making a fuss about it is culturally inappropriate.
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Flash33



Joined: 06 Jun 2024
Posts: 72
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 8:21 pm Reply with quote
Joe Mello wrote:
I think unless someone super important to the industry is willing to risk their status to take up this cause, there isn't going to be any change.

The above scenario would probably be the case anywhere, but Japan is especially not going to want to fix things without a push because 1) that's how it's always been done and 2) making a fuss about it is culturally inappropriate.

My thoughts exactly. There's the old saying "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down", and this is true in many places, but in Japan especially, which makes you wonder sometimes how they even got anywhere in the first place if their culture hates sticking out so much from the status quo (side note: it reminds me of the One Ok Rock song Stand Out Fit In which sorta discusses this topic). I also think that there needs to be actual legit punishments for those higher ups who intentionally and repeatedly push staff too far to the point that it results in these shoddy products, as if people see actual legit consequences for these kinds of actions aside from just a smaller paycheck then they'd be more encouraged to do their jobs properly rather than constantly contribute to the rushing crunch culture that plagues the industry. Will that actually happen? Probably not but I'd be open to be proven wrong there though honestly.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4792
PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2024 12:14 am Reply with quote
I've felt for a long time that the only way the anime industry will be forced to address its underlying issues is by experiencing a significant contraction, if not an outright crash. It'll take something that drastic for the higher-ups to understand that the current version of it isn't sustainable. Maybe then what comes out the other side will treat the incredibly talented people who make the shows we all love with some basic respect.
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Philmister978



Joined: 12 Jun 2011
Posts: 332
PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2024 1:22 am Reply with quote
yeehaw wrote:
Is there evidence for what MartinKiings is saying is true? I'm sure he's not because I mean, look at the show, but I also don't trust a tiktok

SinisterOracle wrote:
Quote:
BLUE LOCK, Wonder Egg Priority, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, Mobile Suit Gundam, Hanebado!, and Yowamushi Pedal are currently available on Crunchyroll, while Shirobako and Whisper Me a Love Song are available on HIDIVE. The First Slam Dunk is currently streaming on Netflix, while Aim for the Ace! is streaming on RetroCrush. Macross is available on Disney+/Hulu everywhere except in the U.S.


This is what’s wrong with the world today. Too many streaming services.


That's not the problem here, the problem is we get like more than 200 new shows every year and frankly, we don't need all those shows because more than half of them is yet another isekai about some boring noncharacter going to another world to be boring and buy slave girls. And Kadokawa is a big part of this problem since they decided to publish every mediocre isekai LN and also make an anime adaption of it.


Look, I get money is the root of all sins, but come on, Kadokawa. you of all companies should know that Isekai bubble's going to burst sooner or later. Well that or it'll become like what Disney's doing with Star Wars and the Simpsons and be put on life support as worse and worse efforts are put out.

It also begs the question why we need 200 anime titles a season when animated productions in North America breaks that number in a whole year (this including both new shows and new seasons of returning titles). No one wants it but the companies producing them, and it doesn't seem like they'll ever get the hint that audiences don't want "Isekai series #2050 with terribad animation and generic characters" unless they're willing to do something different enough with it. That's why shows like Konosuba and Re:Zero thrive while a show with a long title no one will bother reading only lasts one.

And again, why even do a fantasy series when the animation's going to go in the toilet anyway? At that point, stick to either doing slice-of-life titles (also a heavily over-saturated market with equally forgettable titles containing equally bad animation), or just don't bother.

Joe Mello wrote:
I think unless someone super important to the industry is willing to risk their status to take up this cause, there isn't going to be any change.

The above scenario would probably be the case anywhere, but Japan is especially not going to want to fix things without a push because 1) that's how it's always been done and 2) making a fuss about it is culturally inappropriate.


And that is why this problem is emblematic of a larger problem. Japan's culture as a whole is stuck in the past. I don't know why it feels the need to be when so many other places have (at least for the moment) moved on from those tired standards. The anime industry and how terrible it is is pretty much a symptom of Japan's "work-until-you-die-at-your-desk" Philosophy, and I'm honestly shocked no one's called them out on how this isn't right. The system is broke and it needs fixing. Or an outright dismantlement and rebuild from the ground up. I feel like that's probably the only solution to it next to a (major) animation studio or production company like Kadokawa going belly up. Because as it stands, neither the industry, or Japan's general workaholic mentality won't change.

Then again, when the same stuff is happening in the VFX industry, and how companies like Technicolor and Disney are overworking their artists like MAPPA or 8bit are. Something tells me the "anime animator culture" of Japan is something other countries are more than willing to adopt and adapt towards, rather than taking a look at it and themselves and wondering if that should be the route they take.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5935
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2024 11:43 am Reply with quote
I like how we are blaming the Isekai phase for the over abundance of anime. The Isekai phase was just like the Moe phase, and probably every other phase that came before it.

The over abundance of anime is caused by the mainstreaming of anime, which has created a greater demand. Where there are fields of money to harvest, they will come. There is nothing that can be done for it. In time, the novelty and cachet of anime will fade with the mainstream and so will the money.

Even that is not the main problem, bad productions are usually caused by poor budgets and bad management. Even in the United States, a lot of movie associated games suffer from being cheap throwaways. So some anime productions are just that, cheap throwaways. All to cash in.
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