Never has bad spelling been so moving
Maybe I should move onto Diebuster next...
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It's post-FLCL Gainax rather than the 80s classic version. You have been warned.
robersora wrote:Well, as I said, I don't really care while watching. I still like listening to "her" music (except Macross J-pop, which just isn't up my alley), but after discovering the uncanny similarities that occurred one too many times, I lost a great deal of respect of her. Then again, being comfortable in so many styles and churning out all of them with ease would border on a miracle. Let's just agree on the fact that you can hear from which artists she has been heavily influenced for some soundtracks.
At least she's not Kajiura whose output sounds even more interchangeable in recent years.
Guy Nacks wrote:DYRL (1984)
I'd watched Macross Plus around this time last year and was happy with it, but never followed up on any other Macross property afterwards. Hearing about how legendary of a property DYRL was multiple times all over the forum, I decided to give it a watch. The animation is the best I've seen from that era until Akira.
Xard wrote:What the fuck, people here are liking Mekaku?
This has been so far the most reviled and widely shat on Shaft productions in ages. Japan downright hates it while /a/ threads are 90% bashing too.
I'm not watching the series myself (I'm watching NOTHING from season as is) but seeing three positive comments on series in a row is a new one for me.
Xard wrote:SPOILER: ShowDennou Coil[/size]
Everyone is searching...
Dennou Coil is yet another proof for validity of NHK's high reputation. Through the decades many of Japan's most beloved anime classics have aired on the channel from Miyazaki's born-classic debut Future Boy Conan to GAINAX's Nadia. Written and directed by animator genius Mitsuo Iso Dennou Coil is remarkable aughts production that fully deserves its reputation as top rank anime from the decade.
Dennou Coil remarkably excels in three things.
First there's straight up production quality. Dennou Coil was funded by NHK, animated by Madhouse and had superlative staff even beyond its chief architect - for example one of series's two principal animation directors was no other than Takeshi Honda. The series is a joy to watch. The earthly, brown and grey hued colour palette is beautiful and offers nice contrast to scifi story being told. Designs are good and characteristic. Art is gorgeous with equal care given for city serving as backdrop as well as various wonders of Web 10.0 and its use. CG looks good and is well integrated with traditional animation. Then there's animation that maintains admirably high standards through the series without a single drop in quality. Character animation in particular - which given unusually low key nature for SF piece is majority of it - is truly exquisite and captures the kind of details and nuances in movement and expressions on a level very few creative teams in industry reach. Music is probably the weakest link in the series - it gets the job done but is nothing to write home about per se though opening and ending songs are very beautiful and crucial for setting the tone of series.
Secondly there's the richness of cast and their development with genuine empathy on creator's end. Very rarely in anime or fiction in general do I see such close understanding of what makes kids tick and how it feels like to live in the world of 6th graders. Outside Miyazaki's oeuvre such grasp of child's experience and nuanced characterization is almost non-existent but Iso does it. These kids are not larger than life heroines or demure loli fapbaits. They're kids dealing with pains and joys of growing up and exploring the brave new digital frontiers of their world that adults don't really understand. My favourite character was the intelligent, brash loner Isako caught up between wise-beyond-her-years maturity and the soft core of a child that reminds you this is only 12 year old girl in the end.
Third there's the exquisite quality Dennou Coil carries as piece of science fiction and I think it's very easy to understand why this is the only anime ever to win both Hugo and Nebula award equivalents of Japan. The twenty minutes into future feel and speculation on how internet and integration of our concrete world with the virtual might proceed is very well realized and feels remarkably plausible. The series also expertly explores how kids in particular would act in such environment, being intuitive learners and quick adaptors of new technologies and the like. The kids use the Web 10.0 in ways that don't really occur to adults. As work of science fiction I think Dennou Coil is one of the most genuinely accomplished works of last decade and it doesn't have a single giant robot in it, even. The storyline is basically complex puzzle that is used to explore all important aspects of this new information society quite deftly. If I had to compare it to something I guess calling it spiritual successor of Serial Experiments Lain would not be far off, given focus on adolescent girl protagonist and SF ruminations on evolution of the 'net. Dennou Coil does differ from Lain significantly though; it's nowhere near as creepy or mindfucky as Lain so don't go in expecting acid fueled brain rape and X-Files conspiracies.
Thematically the series is as simple as it is valid and has its own profoundity. In words of Iso himself "there will always be a distance between people, and even between things that seem within ones' reach. And that one must walk down a long, thin and winding road before they reach one's heart. There are tons of obstacles. It's in fact like the roads in towns of old." Needless to say this central theme is beautifully metaphorized in activities the children partake in and the long, narrow roads of the city itself.
Iso's writing and directing keep it all together and are remarkably accomplished as one can deduce from all the praise I've heaped on it. The few negative remarks I have to make don't significantly impact Coil overall. In terms of it's pacing it's a bit on the slow and slumbering side for me and as much as I enjoyed the slow exploration of the world first half of the series felt like it went nowhere at times. Poor chorus to this was also the anti-climatic nature of some reveals and resolutions after the long buildups provided. I also feel one of the standalone episodes halfway through goes a bit too far into laughably absurd territory even by standards of this future society (you should be able to recognize this episode when you see it) though it was pretty darn hilarious, I must admit. Perhaps the biggest problem for me was that I felt the final stretch of the series invoked a bit too many unexpected tweeeests for good of its own coherence as a narrative but the series ends so tidily and beautifully even these gripes aren't major grievances.
In summary Dennou Coil is exquisite science fiction series with interesting SF speculation about possible future mingling of our information technologies with concrete reality might take in future, interesting core storyline and very well written characters - and plenty of heart, too. I figured I'd especially recommend this title to someone like Mr. Tines here but not too surprisingly he has already seen it going by MAL...
Verdict: Kids will be kids even in 2020s and this series is borderline impeccably realized and enjoyable reminder of the fact. If you consider yourself science fiction fan you owe it to yourself to see this.
9/10
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