chee wrote:seething in film nerd THE EDITING THE BLOCKING THE COLORS THE CHARACTERS THE FRAMING THE CHARACTER SAKUGA THE SHEER LACK OF DUMB ECCHI BULLSHIT EVERYBODY'S AN ADULT abby best girl of the year

Doesn't Abigail step out of the shower in episode 1?

Or was the emphasis on dumb and I'm just "it" for not noticing?

Gundam Build Divers Re: Rise finale

The air of a guy walking into a bar with a shotgun, thinking he'll own the place and call the shots, only for every patron to pull a gun and level it in his direction?

That silly bastard was Alus this episode.

OP for the finale features omitted sound elements of the Mobile suits powering up, along with weapon and ambient effects and the result is quite nice to listen to.

Hiroto's CORE Gundam now has 8 armor variations for each of the 8 planets. Yes, you heard me, 8. Pluto sniffers can go howl at the moon.

That ending arsenal shot of the CORE Gundam is an image I'll keep in mind long after I forget everything else. It's really Iconic, has Gundam honestly never done it before? Given how prevalent that is for actual weapon systems ...

Ending dialogue confirms the El-Divers are reborn Eldoran ancients who Fantastic Chidren'ed themselves to Earth as digimon. Gundam style.

WOW! Boy are these Berserk 1997 episodes 1-4 hardcore dark territory or what?!

The first episode was almost unnecessary since it barely ties in with the main plot of the Band of the Hawk so you can skip that one. As for the main arc, Casca and Corkus are reprehensible due to their personality clashing with Guts for no apparent reason but at least for Casca since I already saw the movie trilogy I pretty much get the gist of her beginning hatred which changes, but Corkus just has no redeeming qualities at all. Analyzing Griffith's overall goal of having the world and his own kingdom but understanding the lengths he eventually goes to get it, I now understand why it's sometimes hard to tell whether he really did anything wrong since technically, he was wronged by the kingdom that welcomed him and his Band of the Hawk members like equals all because of a booty call with the wrong person.

Gus Hanson wrote:WOW! Boy are these Berserk 1997 episodes 1-4 hardcore dark territory or what?!

I suddenly feel an interest to see this all of the sudden.

I remember seeing Dark Egg (did I get that Berserk title right?) on Netflix a few years back. And I gotta say, Guts seem like a pretty hardcore character.

C.T.1290 wrote:I remember seeing Dark Egg (did I get that Berserk title right?) on Netflix a few years back. And I gotta say, Guts seem like a pretty hardcore character.

If you mean the first Golden Age Arc film, the accurate title would be The Egg of the King.

Gus Hanson wrote:If you mean the first Golden Age Arc film, the accurate title would be The Egg of the King.

Oh, that’s right! That’s the one there. Thanks for correcting me there. I haven’t seen that in a while, so I didn’t remember the title right.

Rent-A-Girlfriend - Yes, the general story and main character are terrible. Lying makes everything better, right? It's a shame, considering the effort put in to the look of it all. The characters are very pretty drawings, I was even thinking "Blimey, those are some cute old ladies".
One source of entertainment is the comment section of Crunchy and the vitriol people express for Mami and... wow, I've actually forgotten the main character's name

Food Wars Season 5 - Season 4 was a satisfying enough conclusion, there didn't need to be more... but its nice to know there's more anyway.
I often find myself saying "Put some clothes on" of the cast, and that's before the ridiculous clothes-exploding flavourgasms even begin.

Uzaki-Chan wants to hang-out - "Put that ass away"; "Sugoi Dekai" and an impassioned endorsement of mint-chocolate have been the only memorable things about this show.
The hijinks have been no different from most typical teen comedies; the college setting never really being used. At one point the main duo go out drinking, but besides that- they could just as easily be declared high-schoolers.

Fruits Basket Season 2 - Considering its been so long since I read the comic, being reminded of all the sad and happy moments and seeing the characters brought to life again is very soothing. They actually got most of the original English dub cast back too? Very welcome fan service.

Re:ZERO season 2 - Having to keep track of all the names, events, revelations... this is bloody tiring to watch.

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Season 3 - Having to keep track of all the names, relationships, subtle emotional changes... this is bloody tiring to watch.

Alaska Slim wrote:Did you notice that the sky in the OP ending shot changes?

Didn't until you pointed it out Do people even watch OPs nowadays? I remember a day when openings actually opened the episode...

chazthesilencer wrote:Rent-A-Girlfriend - wow, I've actually forgotten the main character's name

Main character's name is Kazuya.

I’m finally watching Violet Evergarden. About 5 episodes in.

It’s one of the most beautifully animated shows I’ve ever seen.
I’ve also strangely felt absolutely nothing watching it.
All the right elements are there and the characters with their big hypnotic pupils cry and emote at the right moments in just the right ways all beautifully animated in soft focus and perfect pastel color palettes... and I feel nothing. Which is odd cause I cry at movies and tv shows all the time.

Maybe it’s the world of the show not making any sense. Maybe it’s the fact with the life she’s lived this girl should be 24 and not 14.

It;s an odd one.

Absolutely gorgeous though. Every frame is perfect.

Gendo'sPapa wrote:
Absolutely gorgeous though. Every frame is perfect.

A shame they have an awful tendency to obscure it with tons of blurring and other effects. If I was an animator I'd have a stroke seeing most or all of my work be nearly invisible because of some effect they put there later. Not that I have anything against said effects, but I think they really overdid it in Evergarden.

I felt something similar when I watched it back when it came out. The visuals are great and the execution is fine, but I found the stories on display to be just ok, I guess? I kept thinking that something so pretty should be better than it really is.
I finished it and have no desire to ever see it again, I don't even care about the movie and whatever else came out since then, the world and characters just aren't interesting enough.

chazthesilencer wrote:Rent-A-Girlfriend - Yes, the general story and main character are terrible. Lying makes everything better, right? It's a shame, considering the effort put in to the look of it all. The characters are very pretty drawings, I was even thinking "Blimey, those are some cute old ladies".

I still didn't need to see Grandma's rump while she fondled Chizuru. That was unnecessary.

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Season 3 - Having to keep track of all the names, relationships, subtle emotional changes... this is bloody tiring to watch.
Didn't until you pointed it out Do people even watch OPs nowadays? I remember a day when openings actually opened the episode...

This dates back to the Zoku OP -- they were changing the utensils and their state in the clubroom to signify the relationship level of the three Service Club members (whether Hikki was there)... Oh they also changed who appeared by the desk.

But for this show the OPs are a must watch, they function as character songs more or less. S1 was Yukino, Zoku was Hachiman, and Kan arguably is Yui.

Anyway, in Kan episode 10 Yukino turns towards the camera.

And in episode 11, we finally have our decision. They cut out a lot of LN content to hold this scene intact, and I'm actually glad they did. It was worth the 5 year wait in the end.

We also have like 5 glorious minutes of watching the animators break a cutie. The flex on this and Haruno's face last episode is just fantastic.

Justacrazyguy wrote:I finished it and have no desire to ever see it again, I don't even care about the movie and whatever else came out since then, the world and characters just aren't interesting enough.

This is 100% how I feel about Violet Evergarden

I think to me it was just too cliche? Like I felt I saw the story be done a lot before, and it seemed like the scenes that were trying to get me to feel something were just trying too hard. It was a tad too cheesy.

chazthesilencer wrote:Re:ZERO season 2 - Having to keep track of all the names, events, revelations... this is bloody tiring to watch.

I honestly barely know what's going on in the second season, man, and I just watched the first season so it's still really fresh in my mind. I feel like I might need to marathon rewatch the second season if I want to get a gist of what is happening. I'm enjoying watching it because I like the characters and the universe, and I wouldn't say it's a show I have to force myself to watch, but I wish I had a better grasp on it...but a lot of times things do tend to go right over my head and this is something I've made peace with

I'm following Appare Ranman just fine though so I've got that going for me. Probably the show I look forward to most each week.

chazthesilencer wrote: Do people even watch OPs nowadays? I remember a day when openings actually opened the episode...

With a show I always watch the OP, and watch the ED at least once and I'll rewatch it if the songs a banger(Fire Force Season 2 has a great ED and the Angel Beats! ED was always cool to watch to see how it changed). But yea, I like the OP starting the show and the ED ending the show, seems like we don't see it too much anymore. Man, sometimes an OP will happen like 8 minutes after the start of the episode! I'm towards the end of a Dragon Ball Super watch and the show starts with the Toei logo, the intro, the OP, and the last episode recap, so after about 15 minutes we get to the actual episode

Joy Evangelion wrote:This is 100% how I feel about Violet Evergarden

I think to me it was just too cliche? Like I felt I saw the story be done a lot before, and it seemed like the scenes that were trying to get me to feel something were just trying too hard. It was a tad too cheesy.

The show is a meta-symbol for studio Kyoani at this point.

A story of losing those important to you and having to find a way to move on?

Hits it even more on the head in the OVA.


Now, that's not to blackmail anyone into thinking it's good. The "iron maiden" schitck ending I thought was a bad move; it would have been better to have left her exploits as a soldier vague, and continued developing Violet through less violent means.

The presentation of the finale also left me thinking they had run out of time, as everything felt fragmented at best. The animation and the story beats.

But the one-off stories up to about episode 10 I thought were pretty good; as how they vicariously developed the emotionally-budding Violet. In the film they gave Benedict ( blonde delivery guy) much needed characterization, and an "update" to the world that makes it feel more alive. The relationship at the center, that of the two sisters, was also well-crafted if a bit slow in pacing.

Joy Evangelion wrote:
With a show I always watch the OP, and watch the ED at least once and I'll rewatch it if the songs a banger(Fire Force Season 2 has a great ED and the Angel Beats! ED was always cool to watch to see how it changed). But yea, I like the OP starting the show and the ED ending the show, seems like we don't see it too much anymore. Man, sometimes an OP will happen like 8 minutes after the start of the episode! I'm towards the end of a Dragon Ball Super watch and the show starts with the Toei logo, the intro, the OP, and the last episode recap, so after about 15 minutes we get to the actual episode

With music now in a world of non-linear editing I have to think that it's this direct connection to the music industry, along with the nature of anime production committees, that's lead to Japan better holding onto practices of traditional scoring.

So much of the scoring in the West is just ambient noise meant to match the beats of character dialogue or plot developments. Leitmotifs and themes are harder and harder to discern. I don't like it.

Equally, Oregairu and shows like Plastic Memories made me aware that certain shows do "play" with their OPs, and so some attention should be paid lest a kernel of the experience be overlooked.

If it's something like Mob Psycho's 99, or just anything with Sawano Hiroyuki's involvement, it's hard not to get swept up even after the 10th watch,

I finished the Violet Evergarden series. Not very good. It's predictable but I really loved Episode 10 - the dying mother writing her letters to her young daughter - but the series as a whole was a bit of a mess.

Justacrazyguy wrote:I felt something similar when I watched it back when it came out. The visuals are great and the execution is fine, but I found the stories on display to be just ok, I guess? I kept thinking that something so pretty should be better than it really is.

I finished the Violet Evergarden series. Not very good. It's predictable but I really loved Episode 10 - the dying mother writing her letters to her young daughter - but the series as a whole was a bit of a mess.

I think a key issue for me is the series felt like the author had a very specific image in their head of Violet herself, created her and then did not follow through so she felt an organic part of the world around her. A restrained blond child solider with robot arms living in Victorian/World War I era Europe is a wonderful concept of a character. But then didn't do the work after that. The Victorian era mixed with like WWI imagery is interesting but then Violet has these incredibly articulate and flawless prosthetic arms and hands with dexterous fingers that feels like something out of a Ghost in the Shell future world. Nothing else in the world of the show even hints that they have technology like this. And were child soldiers a thing in this world? There was certainly no signs of any other teeny tiny murder children in the world of the show. Violet was the only one. Why?

Things like that bugged me.

I also just couldn't engage with the central through-line of Violet and the Gilbert guy. Everything leans so heavily in a romantic direction and when I thought Violet was in her early 20s at the start it felt like a promising central hook for the series but when I learned she was 14 at the start of the show - and several years younger when she met and worked with Gilbert - every scene with him that was heavily coded as a romance felt gross.

So the show was a bust for me.

But I'm a completist and Netflix has the OVA and first movie of the series so I continued. Thankfully those two continue doing what the series did best which was have Violet be a driving force for someone else's story. The OVA is solid and effective.

But the first movie, Violet Evergarden: Eternity & the Auto Memory Doll, is something I thoroughly loved from start to finish! Again, Violet herself is more of an element for the two main characters of the film, two "sisters", to react off of and grow and THAT'S the sweet spot of this series. Violet is a boring character, her peers aren't that intersting, but the concept of the "writing doll" is a solid vehicle for genuinely interesting stories to be told. By leaning entirely into how Violet and her peers work affects other people and giving almost zero attention to the odd "Violet was an emotionally repressed super-soldier/murder machine who found her humanity when she fell in love with a handsome rich pervert when she was 11" nonsense the movie does everything right I felt the series got wrong. It just kinda hit all the right sweet spots for me.

So, yeah, while I wasn't a fan of the show that first movie I absolutely adored! I want that baby on 4K Blu-Ray one day!

The show, bit of a wet noodle.

Gendo'sPapa wrote:I also just couldn't engage with the central through-line of Violet and the Gilbert guy. Everything leans so heavily in a romantic direction and when I thought Violet was in her early 20s at the start it felt like a promising central hook for the series but when I learned she was 14 at the start of the show - and several years younger when she met and worked with Gilbert - every scene with him that was heavily coded as a romance felt gross.

Agreed, the relationship should have been more like Marida Cruz and Captain Zinnerman; one of a foster Father/Daughter. If that meant aging up Gilbert, so be it; nothing story wise is changed if he were the same age as, say, Hodgins. Everything in his backstory could remain.

Gendo'sPapa wrote:I also just couldn't engage with the central through-line of Violet and the Gilbert guy. Everything leans so heavily in a romantic direction and when I thought Violet was in her early 20s at the start it felt like a promising central hook for the series but when I learned she was 14 at the start of the show - and several years younger when she met and worked with Gilbert - every scene with him that was heavily coded as a romance felt gross.

This element got to me as well, I felt it was creepy

I enjoyed the series but not the movie but that's just me

Okko's Inn
I watched this but as I was watching I kept thinking this is not aimed at me this is clearly aimed at someone far younger. Just because it kind of washes over its hard issues and does not take them on head on and the ending is so far from reality it derails the movies.

Yeah silvermoonlight, as much as I loved Eternity & the Auto Memory Doll - like LOVED IT. I rewatched it already - I took a peak at Reddit about the just released final Violet Evergarden movie and that sounds like it's all just everything from the show I actively did not care for. I'll watch it when the thing gets dropped on Netflix but I am not looking forward to it. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised but expectations are low. Thankfully according to Bluray.com Eternity & the Auto Memory Doll is coming to Bluray in December as a standalone release (this is for the US) so I'll be buying that. Give me more softly lit "totally not gay" women friendships and that one dude going the extra distance in high heeled boots.

Gendo'sPapa wrote:Thankfully according to Bluray.com Eternity & the Auto Memory Doll is coming to Bluray in December as a standalone release (this is for the US) so I'll be buying that. Give me more softly lit "totally not gay" women friendships and that one dude going the extra distance in high heeled boots.

It's not a movie I'll be buying ether, though like you I might watch it on netflix just for curiosity as I'd rather get just the series and in my canon I say that she moved on and maybe married Amy Bartlett as Gilbert is not coming back.

My issue with Eternity & the Auto Memory Doll was not the first half I really enjoyed that but the second half with her step-sister was an issue for me

I just got caught up with the first two episodes of Teknoman or Tekkaman Blade as it is originally called in Japan, this would be the Saban version that was heavily edited back in the day. Because of that, the lines that come off the characters feel slightly dated but hey, bonus points for putting Rita Repulsa's voice actress as the main female character voice in this one. Her normal voice at least I believe what is portrayed here is more than somewhat entrancing.

Oregairu S3 Finale

Well that was a 5 year wait for... ok'ness...

Episode 11 was well delivered, but this episode, as expected, just felt waffy and out of place next to the tone of most of this series.

Narrowing the "I want something genuine" of Zoku to "I wanted a girlfriend" here in Kan just doesn't feel like what Watari originally intended. It feels like a compromise he was pushed into accepting, another convention of the genre he gave into along with the spinster jokes and the harem teasing.

We didn't get the "darker" Iroha who would blackmail Hiki to get her way. We didn't get Yui doing anything truly "unfair" despite what she said. We didn't get Hiki "destroying" really anything at all despite what he said.

For whatever reason, Watari said you needed to read Volume 1 to see better what Volume 14 would be concluding... and that really came to nothing. It was hinted to be the nature of the Service Club, why it existed, but the story never actually gets to that.

Why did Yukino make the club? Why did she guard the key for so long? Both of these points are explicitly brought attention to by Hiki several times in the series and the LN, yet they're never answered.

Equally, we never get a real resolution to the plight of the two heavy-lifting side characters; Hayama and Haruno. Hayama is still stuck without forgiveness, Haruno is still stuck in her self-isolation. This honestly sucks.

Now, Volume 14.5 is still to come out, perhaps some of these loose ends will be addressed then. And perhaps from that, we'll get the season cap OVA.
But I just don't think we'll ever get what Watari intended when he wrote Volume 1, or even Volume 11. The series as it stands just feels disconnected.

Still for the confession in episode 11, and Haruno revealing herself in episode 10, it is worth the watch. Also, 90% of scenes with Sensei in it. Best girl, we all know it.