Absent
And twice is the only way to live.
- Jan 25, 2023
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- The boring one
The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition
- Thread starter TheMysteriousGX
- Start date
You know, I full expected the latest ARC of Demon Slayer to end with a fizzle, but they somehow managed to squeeze in an amazingly cathartic ending and then provide a very distinct sense that the show is going somewhere.
I say that a lot about anime, but looking at it unbiasedly you can't argue that a great number of popular shows fumble with providing a sense of locomotion. Anime always seems divided between great shows that only get 2 seasons and then shows that go on for a hundred episodes of Ubisoft micro upgrade like character/progression.
It's a compliment that it feels like the author/studio is heavily inspired by Hollywood, Like each season is a movie in a series with just about the right amount of Acts and Arcs. This one's definitely gonna be brought up the next time people discuss how long its been since a good anime came out.
I say that a lot about anime, but looking at it unbiasedly you can't argue that a great number of popular shows fumble with providing a sense of locomotion. Anime always seems divided between great shows that only get 2 seasons and then shows that go on for a hundred episodes of Ubisoft micro upgrade like character/progression.
It's a compliment that it feels like the author/studio is heavily inspired by Hollywood, Like each season is a movie in a series with just about the right amount of Acts and Arcs. This one's definitely gonna be brought up the next time people discuss how long its been since a good anime came out.
I enjoyed Oshi No Ko. Does it deserve to be called the best anime ever after a single episode? Fuck no. If anything I think that first episode might have been the worst one of the season, or at the least the most boring.
One of my biggest problems is that the whole sorta-isekai aspect of it only ever pays off for Ruby. Aqua's past life is almost totally meaningless, and just makes all of his love troubles weird and awkward.
But just like Kaguya-sama, the effort that they put into each and every episode is way above the norm, and the voice actors were cast perfectly and give it their all.
One of my biggest problems is that the whole sorta-isekai aspect of it only ever pays off for Ruby. Aqua's past life is almost totally meaningless, and just makes all of his love troubles weird and awkward.
But just like Kaguya-sama, the effort that they put into each and every episode is way above the norm, and the voice actors were cast perfectly and give it their all.
Was a mood for some chill summer iyashikei, something like: Grand Blue | Anime-Planet
Found two things, one was Amanchu! | Anime-Planet which seems alright so far.
And the other was Tsuritama | Anime-Planet that I'm now going to rant about until I lose steam.
There's this whole sub-genre of anime that's about obscure hobbies and manages to make said hobbies look as the dullest, most unfun, crap. I?m reminded of Rail Wars! | Anime-Planet the interesting thing about that was nothing. It's about trains, and trains can be very interesting, but in these types of anime the hobby is always portrayed as even less interesting than it's perceived.
The art is really good...on things specific to the hobby. In the case of Rail Wars, the trains look neat. In the case of Tsuritama, fishing poles look neat. Everything else is traced, filtered, or CGI.
Story, the story is always about how super serious the hobby is and how super serious you must take the hobby and only then may you experience some fun. Maybe.
Characters, who cares? It's all about the trains and fishing rods. The characters are there just because someone has to stand around while the author drones on about his hobby and how serious it is.
I love learning about different hobbies and people involved with them. I assume I'll see passionate people have with their hobby. Yet it always turns out as this weird, sweaty, miserable thing for dull gits.
It makes me unreasonably furious.
Found two things, one was Amanchu! | Anime-Planet which seems alright so far.
And the other was Tsuritama | Anime-Planet that I'm now going to rant about until I lose steam.
There's this whole sub-genre of anime that's about obscure hobbies and manages to make said hobbies look as the dullest, most unfun, crap. I?m reminded of Rail Wars! | Anime-Planet the interesting thing about that was nothing. It's about trains, and trains can be very interesting, but in these types of anime the hobby is always portrayed as even less interesting than it's perceived.
The art is really good...on things specific to the hobby. In the case of Rail Wars, the trains look neat. In the case of Tsuritama, fishing poles look neat. Everything else is traced, filtered, or CGI.
Story, the story is always about how super serious the hobby is and how super serious you must take the hobby and only then may you experience some fun. Maybe.
Characters, who cares? It's all about the trains and fishing rods. The characters are there just because someone has to stand around while the author drones on about his hobby and how serious it is.
I love learning about different hobbies and people involved with them. I assume I'll see passionate people have with their hobby. Yet it always turns out as this weird, sweaty, miserable thing for dull gits.
It makes me unreasonably furious.
My problem with hobby specific show is they usually try to make an overly dramatic reason for the character to be into the hobby rather than just enjoying the hobby because they like it. That and they also often set the show in alternate reality where the hobby is crazy popular. There was one show about rock climbing where they had idol star in the rock climibing world that would do rock climb in front of packed stadium of cheering fan, it just seem like a low blow. I like the down to earth version more like laid back camp.
The second bit is mostly an issue with sports anime, but I get what you mean. Grand Blue does a fantastic job at avoiding that, highly suggest it if you just want to relax with something fun.
This is what I mean,
this was just more than half of an episode where this lady explained what pressure does to a body while diving. This screen is what most of the episode looked like while she kept dropping facts. Surely there's an entertaining, or at least interesting, way to present this information that's not a Ted Talk.
I finished Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. (Review copied over from my MyAnimeList)
It has been a very long time since I have enjoyed anything as consistently or as viscerally as Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. It is a piece of work that builds on the legacy of Gundam as a franchise, but also draws significantly from Neon Genesis Evangelion and plays with concepts drawn from Shakespeare's The Tempest. The series has a deep and clear anger at how rich nations exploit poor nations and the military industrial complex forments conflict for the sake of profit, and at how the older generations are willing to sell out the younger generations for their own comfort in general, and that anger is given meaning by the tenderness and humanity with which it treats its characters. The warfare of this setting is not an all out conflict, but a pervasive ill whose wider effects draw in and harm people outside of it, and despite the efforts of some to contain it, death and destruction can still spill out into places that seem safe. This is a very astute and appropriate evolution for a franchise that is principally about the horrors of armed conflict but is now in a world where Japan and the main markets for anime are now separated from it, even as it continues elsewhere.
The principle defect it has is that it's only 24 episodes long, and unavoidably feels truncated at that length. There is simply not quite enough time for the world and the characters to breathe and simply be as much as they should, and there are a couple of moments where the plot makes slightly jarring progressions. At the same time, I have to acknowledge that it still does a very good job of fitting as much as possible into the time available and has the ambition to try to do so, and the short length gives it a great intensity of pace. I'd have preferred more, but the concentrated dose we got has a great effect all its own.
The animation and direction is good, if unshowy. The fights between the mobile suits are suitably impactful. I don't know if any of the designs will go down as classics, but I do very much like the look of the central Gundam Aerial. The direction contains many subtle flourishes that make key moments hit harder, and since the general direction is fairly standard this actually allows them to stick out more. The series does a very effective job of making space feel very big and hostile, which is appropriate for a story which considers whether humans belong up there at all.
The series is mostly hinged on the odd couple relationship between its central characters. On the one hand there is Suletta, the anxious and naive but skilled Gundam pilot. On the other there is Miorine, sharper and more worldly but very vulnerable heiress to the biggest arms manufacturer. They play off each other well, offering new perspectives drawn from their differing backgrounds, but also hurting each other because they are damaged people without the emotional tools to properly relate all the time. They are also pawns in a larger game being played by their respective parents and indeed pretty much everyone around them. There is a pervasive sense of threat as the duplicitous schemes to rob them of their dignity, agency, and lives play out. Suletta's mother Prospera is the series resident masked villain, at once cloyingly sweet and ruthlessly driven, and is a particularly memorable creation. The series has a fairly large supporting cast and cannot give them all interesting things to do in its short length, but still covers more than you may expect. There is one notable criticism I have to make in this area: the show does not commit to being fully gay on screen. This is textually a love story as far as I'm concerned but Suletta and Miorine do not get physical intimacy beyond holding hands, even in the coda - even a single kiss at the end would have gone a long way.
To sum up, while the deficiencies of The Witch from Mercury are very evident, this is still a triumphant assertion that Gundam still has a place in the anime landscape, delivering moments of tragedy and triumph with the incomparable, genre defining image of a mobile suit in motion.
It has been a very long time since I have enjoyed anything as consistently or as viscerally as Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. It is a piece of work that builds on the legacy of Gundam as a franchise, but also draws significantly from Neon Genesis Evangelion and plays with concepts drawn from Shakespeare's The Tempest. The series has a deep and clear anger at how rich nations exploit poor nations and the military industrial complex forments conflict for the sake of profit, and at how the older generations are willing to sell out the younger generations for their own comfort in general, and that anger is given meaning by the tenderness and humanity with which it treats its characters. The warfare of this setting is not an all out conflict, but a pervasive ill whose wider effects draw in and harm people outside of it, and despite the efforts of some to contain it, death and destruction can still spill out into places that seem safe. This is a very astute and appropriate evolution for a franchise that is principally about the horrors of armed conflict but is now in a world where Japan and the main markets for anime are now separated from it, even as it continues elsewhere.
The principle defect it has is that it's only 24 episodes long, and unavoidably feels truncated at that length. There is simply not quite enough time for the world and the characters to breathe and simply be as much as they should, and there are a couple of moments where the plot makes slightly jarring progressions. At the same time, I have to acknowledge that it still does a very good job of fitting as much as possible into the time available and has the ambition to try to do so, and the short length gives it a great intensity of pace. I'd have preferred more, but the concentrated dose we got has a great effect all its own.
The animation and direction is good, if unshowy. The fights between the mobile suits are suitably impactful. I don't know if any of the designs will go down as classics, but I do very much like the look of the central Gundam Aerial. The direction contains many subtle flourishes that make key moments hit harder, and since the general direction is fairly standard this actually allows them to stick out more. The series does a very effective job of making space feel very big and hostile, which is appropriate for a story which considers whether humans belong up there at all.
The series is mostly hinged on the odd couple relationship between its central characters. On the one hand there is Suletta, the anxious and naive but skilled Gundam pilot. On the other there is Miorine, sharper and more worldly but very vulnerable heiress to the biggest arms manufacturer. They play off each other well, offering new perspectives drawn from their differing backgrounds, but also hurting each other because they are damaged people without the emotional tools to properly relate all the time. They are also pawns in a larger game being played by their respective parents and indeed pretty much everyone around them. There is a pervasive sense of threat as the duplicitous schemes to rob them of their dignity, agency, and lives play out. Suletta's mother Prospera is the series resident masked villain, at once cloyingly sweet and ruthlessly driven, and is a particularly memorable creation. The series has a fairly large supporting cast and cannot give them all interesting things to do in its short length, but still covers more than you may expect. There is one notable criticism I have to make in this area: the show does not commit to being fully gay on screen. This is textually a love story as far as I'm concerned but Suletta and Miorine do not get physical intimacy beyond holding hands, even in the coda - even a single kiss at the end would have gone a long way.
To sum up, while the deficiencies of The Witch from Mercury are very evident, this is still a triumphant assertion that Gundam still has a place in the anime landscape, delivering moments of tragedy and triumph with the incomparable, genre defining image of a mobile suit in motion.
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Wait so... is Witch from Mercury over??? If the last episode I watched was the finale, that was ridiculously abrupt.
It is regrettably a mere 24 episodes. (The final episode came out today) It is a very, very good 24 episodes but it could have been a better 36 episodes.
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Hey now, they have rings. It's blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but they're there.
But yeah, thirded on the abruptness. I swear to god, I wouldn't be shocked if there's an interview in like, 5 years where the showrunners lament executive meddling and shortening of the series. It's probably the best show that I can rant for hours about the things that went wrong. Solid 8/10 for general audiences, 9/10 for specific mecha or yuri fans
And now my own: Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island (2022), a 108 minute remake of the 15th episode of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. It was largely made because the poor outsourcing led to legendarily bad animation in the original, the remake does much better in that regard, while also suitably expanding on the story. Honestly, the CGI looks great on everything *except* the Gundam, but it's still passable.
I highly recommend people watch this movie because it definitely showcases what an '80s anime would look like with 2020 technology: the pacing is classic, everybody's expressive, and there's plenty of, for lack of a better term, "fucking around". If only G Witch had the episode count for some fucking around.
If you like the pacing of Doan's Island, I highly recommend checking out the rest of the early Universal Century Gundam
But yeah, thirded on the abruptness. I swear to god, I wouldn't be shocked if there's an interview in like, 5 years where the showrunners lament executive meddling and shortening of the series. It's probably the best show that I can rant for hours about the things that went wrong. Solid 8/10 for general audiences, 9/10 for specific mecha or yuri fans
And now my own: Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island (2022), a 108 minute remake of the 15th episode of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. It was largely made because the poor outsourcing led to legendarily bad animation in the original, the remake does much better in that regard, while also suitably expanding on the story. Honestly, the CGI looks great on everything *except* the Gundam, but it's still passable.
I highly recommend people watch this movie because it definitely showcases what an '80s anime would look like with 2020 technology: the pacing is classic, everybody's expressive, and there's plenty of, for lack of a better term, "fucking around". If only G Witch had the episode count for some fucking around.
If you like the pacing of Doan's Island, I highly recommend checking out the rest of the early Universal Century Gundam
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Okay, so what I thought was the last episode was actually the 2nd to the last. So maybe the ending isn't RIDICULOUSLY abrupt. But let's see how I feel after I actually watch it. I'm watching it on Netflix, so I'm guessing that's why you guys are so ahead.
I just finished it. I enjoyed it, but yeah I had no idea what was going on. But hey, the kids are happy, that's all I really need.
In the Universal Century fandom, that's what's known as Newtype Bullshit. It usually shows up in climaxes, complete with ghosts, and you just kinda need to roll with it. Honestly, I'd call Witch from Mercury the most faithful of the alternate universes. Short run time aside, it's got the vibes.
My Adventures With Superman released. Nails Clark Kent in a way I haven't seen in a long time Leading to a large chunk of the fanbase wanting to nail him too
Lois is pitch perfect too. Still warming up to Jimmy, though the classic obliviousness is spot on. It could change in the future, but the first episode, at least, has me thinking that the story isn't supposed to be Epic™️©️®️, which is a welcome change of pace.
First episode is up for free, but I'm not paying whatever HBO's calling itself these days for tax purposes
Lois is pitch perfect too. Still warming up to Jimmy, though the classic obliviousness is spot on. It could change in the future, but the first episode, at least, has me thinking that the story isn't supposed to be Epic™️©️®️, which is a welcome change of pace.
First episode is up for free, but I'm not paying whatever HBO's calling itself these days for tax purposes
Eh, I'm not too sure yet.
The artstyle is solid enough. I like that young Clark tries to save the car passanger before even knowing he has powers, though seeing as the car was in the middle of crashing it was also a tad dumb. The way in which it moves on from that moment was incredibly odd though - Clark stops the car from crashing, and the mother in the drivers seat seems to just drive off like nothing happened; no 'oh my god, thank you' or Clark checking if they're okay. Also, we see Clark grab onto the car at a vertical angle lodging in between him and the tree, but the very next shot shows the car driving right past him as if it was at a horizontal angle. That's a big fat lazy continuity error. *tsk tsk*
I think the implication was that it was pulling a two-point turn because it crosses the foreground twice, once in each direction, but yeah, not great on that animation
