Finished
Canaan. It was good. Great action, good animation, lolTypeMoon plot dynamics and the pacing of a speeding freight train, but enjoyable given the amount of action they crammed into it. Some of it was ridiculously cliche, and some of the melodrama felt rather unwarrented, though all in all it was a fun ride. 7/10 or something, I guess.
Finished the
El Hazard OVA, as well as the sequel 4-ep long sequel/follow up to it. The original was awesome, and contained all the reasons 90s OVAs kick ass (except for bloodspray, there wasn’t much of that). Setting, character designs, and color palate were IMO its strongest features, but the narrative was solid and enjoyable enough to keep these things vibrant over some seven episodes. Animation quality was pretty slick as well. The second OVA was a little lack-luster compared to the first, suffering from a smaller budget (manifested in cheaper animation and more off-modelness that didn’t really affect enjoyment IMO), and its narrative wasn’t as apocalyptic or intense, but the characters remained consistent and it flowed well. All total, first OVA = 8/10, the sequel = 7/10. Highly recommended.
Lastly,
Twilight QFinally got my filthy digital fingers on this baby. First part was hodge-podged and could have used more time and better writing, but it wasn't bad. Second half lived up to my expectations, though--no, actually, it surpassed them. For those who aren't aware, Twilight Q was initially intended to be a relatively long-running project that would use a series of pseudo-experimental OVAs to spotlight various directors in the anime industry. It didn’t really get off the ground and was cancelled after only two episodes were released.
Well, Mamoru Oshii was the director for the second episode of this project, and it shows. People who dislike his style will no doubt be turned off by this gem, but whatever. The things at which Oshii excels--namely, atmosphere, suggestion, thematic subtlety, and surrealism--he delivers in spades with this segment. It belongs solidly within the category of "old Oshii", the period roughly spanning from
Beautiful Dreamer (1984) up through the early 90s (
Gosenzosama Banbanzai was really the last work of his that resembled these things). I don’t want to spoil anything by summarizing the story of the ~30min short, but I will say that it is quite the absurdist mystery tale.
It's slow, it's meditative, it's awkwardly edited, rhythmic, moody, circular, and hilarious. Any fans of Oshii in general would probably enjoy this title, but those who dig his early period especially should look into it.
dem sunglasses. dem fish
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toe mash wrote: I'll watch the 2nd movie
Innocence is probably Oshii’s second worst work to date.
his absolute worst IMO being the somewhat obscure OVA Dallos Expect shitloads of quote-dropping, disjoint and purposeless atmospheric work in the second half, long tangents, and a plot that might as well have been assembled by a team comprised of stoners and epileptics. Action scenes were great and the first half of the film isn’t so bad from a formalism standpoint, but the rest is surprisingly bad. And it's a shame too, seeing as how the first film was so good.
Kamiyama’s take on the franchise (the SAC series) is great, though.
Have you checked out the Patlabor films? You might dig them if you liked GitS. I personally enjoy Patlabor 2 more than Ghost in the Shell, though you can see how Oshii progressed and played with things in P2 that he would later develop a bit more fully in the GitS.
