Azathoth wrote:Goodness gracious me! am I reading? ep1 is hilarious. The "Chariots of Fire" sequence alone is funnier than any other show Anno's ever done (as far as I can recall...Nadia wasn't very funny, was it?) With the exception of female seiyuu who clearly don't know yet how to call their attacks like manly men, ep1 is flawless when compared to the half-assed Starship Troopers wannabe that is the main plot.
Ep 1 is pretty funny but in terms of dramaturgy it's a rushed mishmash of Ace wo Nerae parodies and shojo cliches. I think overall the directing isn't too focused yet and whole thing comes off as yet another 80s OVA episode that packs too much in one episode and as a result both storytelling and character development is pretty clunky and botched. Episode 2 would suffer from same to lesser extent while Anno would finally find a groove and focus on ep 3 with increasingly more impressive results. The last two episodes are fantastic in my opinion, a huge contrast to the haphazard and pretty pointless opening duo.
I also never found anything about the episode laugh out funny (Chariots of Fire sequence being the...training montage?) so the comedy value is rather lost to me. Though having giant robots do push ups and stuff is grin worthy for sure.
As for Anno's funniest show that would be Kare Kano which proves that even if he can't write comedy all that well he can direct comedy bloody brilliantly if you give him the right material. That show was a riot often. Cutey Honey live action is pretty darn funny at times too, being probably the best comedic project of his.
Azathoth wrote:Oh lawd. I knew I forgot something. Uh...I should really be studying for finals this week but come weekend, I'm taking the train from Portland -> Chicago so I'll watch it then, at least.
yay. I wasn't active on the forum when you posted the first part so I never commented on it but it was amusing
Azathoth wrote:Yeah. Utena is memorable in its characters because it's a show about people encountering society/civilization for the first time. Up until we meet them, they only live in an illusion childhood, and so are free to be as ridiculous and glorious as they please. Penguindrum's characters are different. Mostly designed not to have that sort of illusion life - Shouma and Himari have both seen the true nature of the world for a long time, Yuri and Tabuki lost their innocence even earlier - the exceptions being Ringo whose character arc so far has led to that innocence being repeatedly beaten down, Kanba whose dream is to be a boring cunt, and Masako who is not coincidentally the most interesting character.
Guhh, summing up Utena's cast as "people encountering society/civilization for the first time" is awfully reductionistic and I'm not sure if I'd agree with that at all but that's off the point. What makes Utena's cast much more vibrant and interesting is not some great thematic context within which the characters operate, it's simply how much development (yes, I realize your argument assumes many characters have already "realized the truth" and reached the end point of their arc) they get, how many faces the writers let them show and how much internal dynamism they have. On top of this there's also the question of seiyuu performances and character animation, of course, but that's non-issue in this comparison.
To drive point home Rin and Daikichi are much more vibrant, living characters than most penguindrummers and this has very little to do with the fact Usagi Drop guys are more "realistic". It's simpy that they're allowed to live much more nuanced internal lives with more going on and show depicts this well. As a direct counterpoint we have Spike from Cowboy Bebop who IS a character who has been "dead" and at the end of his character arc before the show even begins but he still is far more interesting and dynamic character than most penguindrummers who "suffer" from same condition according to your understanding.
I don't think Penguindrum's cast is badly written overall but I too often have felt them insufficient to carry some of the drama and simply not all that fully realized. My harsh reaction to ep 17 being a good example.
Instead of Haruhis and Kyons they feel like Haruhis and Koizumi's when they should be Haruhis and Kyons.
I also find it pretty funny we disagree so heavily about Masako because to me she's one of the least interesting cast members :)
Azathoth wrote:In Utena the process of realizing the truth lasts the entire show. In PD it's more sharply divided into those who already have and those who never will, with Ringo only briefly bridging the divide.
Perhaps. If you ask me what is essential that she has got most on (and off) screen development and she has got to show the widest range of "faces" so to speak. Due to her arc being so long we really get inside her head in a delightful way.
symbv wrote:That is a fair point. I think Akimoto had Macross specifically in mind when he approached Kawamori. I did not expect sci-fi but now I come to think more of it it actually made absolute sense that it
has to be sci-fi because this is what Kawamori is good at and famous for.
Still, Okada as series main writer and Yoshimasa Hiraike (Working, Hidamari Sketch) probably says something... buut as already mentioned, I wrote more about this in other thread.
symbv wrote:I am not so sure. Didn't Kawamori say after the MacrossF movie that he wanted to give the series a rest or something? Perhaps it will be some OVA or music video but not something big and lengthy?
Well Macross Frontier project was supposed to be over once and for all with Sayonara but he's been giving somewhat contrarian, almost trolling signals about this too through the year. There won't be any animated continuation for main story as it's over but something like another music video collection seems possible to me...if unlikely. But in any case Macross 30th Anniversary project is underway and it'll be a new, fresh take on franchise. I guess the business and producers won't like leaving the lucrative Frontier subfranchise behind but it's not like this is first time.
symbv wrote:And if AKB0048 has covered the singing and music, then we have Aquarion covers the mecha. Does it mean it leaves romance?
Well, Aquarion will have that too but yeah, I initially figured AKB0048 is about moe and idoling while Aquarion is the SF and mecha title...and then the two would again fuse in next Macross. But now that AKB0048 overlaps so much with some Macross tropes I can't help but wonder just how different the next Macross will be. Hopefully they don't pull another Zero on me which minimized the musical aspect entirely after exccesses of M7.
symbv wrote:But the Nyan Kuri was done in 2010.... We are talking about the actual year 2012 being the year of Macross Flashback. Something
must happen in that year, for the sake of old time, man, for the sake of old time...
ahh, okay I misunderstood... I thought you ment another music video collection or something in Flash Back style. I'd love to have OVA or something on whatever happened to Misa, Hikaru, Minmay and Megaroad-01 but especially after suicide of Hikaru's seiyuu it's clear their fate will be eternal mystery.
symbv wrote:A few days ago I accidentally bumped into the song "Runner" (SDF Macross ED) and I could barely hold back my tears when listening to it. It brought back so much memory.... And then I found that the singer, Makoto Fujiwara, died from liver cancer several years ago..... Time that can no longer come back....
I didn't know Fujiwara died. That's really sad, RIP :(
I love Runner...
Seriously, that guy is a clown without make up, even Gamlin would go "dude, you have messed up hair".
Try wrapping your head around that for a minute, I myself am having a hard time. I know Go Nagai's no stranger to bondage fan service, but this.................. Excuse me, I need to sleep this off so my brain can comprehend what the hell I just watched.
