robersora wrote:Do you mean Gunbuster, by any chance?
Yep.
I doubt I'll have to explain to anyone why it's
good throughout, but as for why I esteem it
so highly... it just does so much in such a deliciously short time. And the contrast between the first and sixth episodes is astonishing, yet the passage between them was smooth.
The Eva series, on the other hand, has a very limited plot and is rather repetitive (and in a less æsthetic way than Utena), is visually inferior, and gives the impression of being improvised.
Of course, Gunbuster was an OVA and Eva was not, but still.
robersora wrote:I always felt some parts where too stretched out, while others could have been expanded upon. The pacing in Mononoke always struck me as weird - then again, I haven't watched it for at least 5 years, so there's that.
The most easily nameable element that makes me feel that something is missing is that Ashitaka falls in love with San and becomes dedicated to her seemingly on first or second sight.
I remember finding Miyazaki's own essay on the film, and learned something quite fascinating: that the samurai faction had
perfectly understandable reasons for their aggression against Eboshi- viz. that her industry was polluting the river and rendering their farmlands infertile, or something. That Miyazaki understands history like that is truly admirable. But there was no suggestion of that particular plot point in the film.
