symbv wrote:The artstyle and the subject matter of HM may not be for everyone. But I give credit to HM precisely because of that. On the other, Fractale seemed to a bit too nostalgic thinking (at least for now).
I loved Hourou Musuko and art played big part in that love but weird scifi adventure stuff Fractale depicts plays to my tastes better.
I watched Soremachi and thought it was decent. SHAFT's stuff was derailment for the most part however, in my opinion. While I really like Shinbo's style as is usual with directors strongly influenced by Anno's visual style I'm not überfan of his - he doesn't weild the weaponry of crazy camera angles, extreme fisheye lens, punctuated editing etc. with same grace someone like Ishihara does - not to mention Anno himself. In general his "style" - while seemingly complex and initially very wowing - is also extremely repetitive and unnyanced: having seen couple of Shinbo shows just prior Soremachi I was getting seriously annoyed by out of place shinboisms everywhere - especially since it was so damn predictable. I could predict editing of some scenes many cuts ahead which was extremely annoying because it's the same formula over and over again. Similarly extreme camera angles and general "hyperity" of direction I feel often took away from the series and didn't add anything. I read some chapters of manga for a test about halfway through series and in general I liked it better: SHAFT's touches really didn't bring anything worthwhile to it. The raccoon was also extremely obnoxious and easily the worst addition. Furthermore SHAFT managed to squeeze in one or two completely unneeded fanservice scenes that were out of place from original's tone.
Of course OP/ED were fantastic: this is one rule SHAFT and Shinbo never seems to break, even if rest of the show is really bad. Anyway, Soremachi is decent and I didn't hate it but it's example of when I did not like SHAFT at all.
I'm also happy Katanagatari wasn't done by SHAFT and Shinbo. The approach was refreshing and unique in terms of art without going at all "SHAFT".
Anyway, Madoka has been reminding me why I dig SHAFT once again, after a while. Shinbo's directing is also damn good; he has calmed down considerably in comparison to normal, art designs are expertly used etc.
I rewatched Laputa today in BD quality (I'll propably order the Japanese BD release immeaditly after I get BD player, it has english and even finnish subs on it) and was reminded of this once again. Honestly speaking I can't think of better action director in anime overall. Miyazaki doesn't do full blown action scenes often but when he does results are phenomenal and pretty much perfect (Mononoke Hime and Porco Rosso's aerial combbat are state of art filmmaking). Oshii is also fantastic whenever he wants to do action, but that's quire rare.
yeah, it's pretty new. Great stuff. Seven Samurai/Kagemusha comparison just came quickly early on as starting point for his general musings that make up bulk of essay
I finished it just before Fractale started; I wanted to get a feel of Yamakan's directing. I was very positively surprised. It's about as fluff and empty contentswise as it can be but the execution was excellent, occasionally fantastic. I was very impressed with Yamakan's directing and the animation A1 Pictures put out pretty much through the series (I don't remember a single notable drop of quality, albeit of course some scenes and eps are better animated than others). I was especially impressed by his editing and versatility. My top picks would propably be episode 7 and episode 10. Episode 7 is just perfect in every way from editing to animation. Lots of playing around with points of view (in fact the bug cam is from ep 7) ec. whereas episode 10 showed that he can also utilize very different camera and editing styles to perfectly synch with content. Those static long shots of wavering karaoke performances were nearly painful watch due to the way Yamakan lingered on scenes - and then we had HHY levels of editing and choreography chops in one particular performance.
It was good series and it's problems seemed to stem from the source material, not from adaptation.
it's real pity because to be perfectly honest I think most of Japanese live action television is absolutely terrible. I think current system of tv anime production has some huge pitfalls and problems that should be addressed properly for betterment of all parties from customers to studios. This is one of them and a big one.
Long running discussion usually form strings of threads and when one reaches its post limit next one is made with "part 3", "part 10" or whatever added behind it. 4chan should be fairly similar to 2chan in that it has shitloads of trolls, crap and the general level of discussion is low. But it can be dangerously addictive and there are good discussions now and then.
Shitkaku (as it is called) is good for schlock and weird shit that doesn't really count as genuine news and as such is not to be found from anywhere else. Itss flaws are too commonly unreliable quality of actual news reporting, the ridiculous biases and often questionable tone of writings and the fact most of the content isn't worth much, which is pretty critical for a "news site". Typical day on Sankaku Complex goes something like: gallery posts of fanservice in show X ep X, random gallery of cosplay/artist/whatever, pictures of some new figurine, news post about Japanese hating chinese or vice versa, translating and copypastain' crap from "2chan" and then passing them off as news etc.
You can tell the guy running the site can't stand Aya Hirano, for example. He also delights in postin' all sort of jingoist right wing crap from Japan so readers can express their disapproval and more often than not the tone is a bit racist towards koreans or chinese. Most of the actual news are about people raping stuff, people having sex with minors, "scandalous news" about low prices of schoolgirl prostitution, Fritzl type sick shit etc. Shitkaku is also very adept at projecting picture of all Japanese otaku as crazy, creepy stalkers and generally miserable.
It's ok site as long as one approaches all written there with skepticism and keeps in mind many of the "news" come from sites like 2chan aka reliable as hell material.
Check the seiyuu list in the ED credit and come back to me later... 
