Anime

[red snow]

53 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I think it's more concerning that Netflix have done several of these anime-to-live-action shows and they're pretty much all sucked. However, some might argue because adapting anime or manga into live action is inherently silly: there are tropes and visual tics of the genre which don't work in live action and just adapting them straight over makes for a messy story.

Cowboy Bebop does have the strength going for it that it's a very un-anime-like anime, and you could actually adapt it straight with relatively little problem. The break point will probably be the music, which Netflix have kept completely silent on so far.

There's quite a lot of film adaptations eg Fullmetal alchemist and Bleach but I took those as been Japanese ventures rather than Netflix commissioned?

I think Cowboy Bebop is more adaptable so it has that going for it.

The avatar live-action is the one I'm most concerned about it

[Werthead]

1 minute ago, red snow said:

The avatar live-action is the one I'm most concerned about it

Avatar isn't an anime and has pretty straightforward storytelling that can be adapted to other genres, so I don't think that's as much of a problem, plus the showrunners and writers of the original series are directly working on the live-action show also as showrunners and writers (which I think is almost unprecedented: only The Tick has ever had the same creative team transition from animated show to live action - twice! - and has been brilliant in every format).

The only concern I have about that is that not the entire Avatar writing team is moving over, and the two main ones who aren't are making The Dragon Prince instead (which is also brilliant), and they're the guys who have a lot of the credit for Avatar's best episodes and moments.

[The Grey Wolf]

My Fate/Stay Night-Heaven's Feel DVD arrived today!

[A True Kaniggit]

On 12/3/2018 at 3:07 PM, Werthead said:

 Sword Art Online is the next one up,

Ugh. I really hope they make major revisions to the story and only keep the general concept (Them being trapped in the death game). I don't think anyone wants to watch 4 straight episodes of Kirito saving different girls, and said girl immediately falling for him.

Long live SAO Abridged.

[Sci-2]

Oh god SAO is insufferable. I made through the first half of S1, then just read the summaries. I will try S2 and the movies tho.

[A True Kaniggit]

3 hours ago, Sci-2 said:

Oh god SAO is insufferable. I made through the first half of S1, then just read the summaries. I will try S2 and the movies tho.

Have you tried the Abridged version? It's a parody of the original that is pretty hilarious. The first episode is only like 8 minutes if you wanna give it a shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kJKxvbgZ0

 

[Darth Richard II]

I liked SWO when it was called Otherland. :p

[Sci-2]

1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

I liked SWO when it was called Otherland. :p

I think you mean .hack//SIGN? ;-)

[Darth Richard II]

12 hours ago, Sci-2 said:

I think you mean .hack//SIGN? ;-)

Ha! Otherland is still older! Though I think the .hack guy said Otherland was an influence.

[Sci-2]

7 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Ha! Otherland is still older! Though I think the .hack guy said Otherland was an influence.

Ah prolly another thread needed to express my extreme disappointment in Otherland.

22 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Have you tried the Abridged version? It's a parody of the original that is pretty hilarious. The first episode is only like 8 minutes if you wanna give it a shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kJKxvbgZ0

"I have a feeling you get beat up a lot in real life"

Haha perfect, thanks for the rec!

[red snow]

On 12/3/2018 at 10:00 PM, Werthead said:

Avatar isn't an anime and has pretty straightforward storytelling that can be adapted to other genres, so I don't think that's as much of a problem, plus the showrunners and writers of the original series are directly working on the live-action show also as showrunners and writers (which I think is almost unprecedented: only The Tick has ever had the same creative team transition from animated show to live action - twice! - and has been brilliant in every format).

The only concern I have about that is that not the entire Avatar writing team is moving over, and the two main ones who aren't are making The Dragon Prince instead (which is also brilliant), and they're the guys who have a lot of the credit for Avatar's best episodes and moments.

I know Aaron erhasz was the head writer from avatar but I'm not sure he could be considered the main reason the show was a success. For one he had no involvement in legend of korra and that was still a great show so i'd say having  demartino and konietzko (having trouble remembering/spelling these names) involved in live action avatar is still a big plus. That said "dragon prince" feels like a much better use of creative juices and I'm pleased erhasz is carving out his own show instead of doing remakes.

I'd need to check whether these other live adaptations have had mych involvement. It may not guarantee success. If anything i can see pitfalls in how an animated showrunner can hit trouble with live action (much moreso tham the reverse). Eg i wouldn't worry as much about dave filoni doing live action star wars as i would rian Johnson doing the opposite.

[red snow]

On 11/2/2018 at 6:30 AM, A True Kaniggit said:

Not directed at me but I'm going to answer anyways.

In This Corner of the World. 

It's about a young Japanese woman and her life during WWII.

I found this on nowtv. Need to watch before my trial period runs out next week.

[red snow]

In this corner of the world is a beautiful look at an aspect of world war 2 I've never observed before - japanese civilians. The way the frag explosions in the sky were portrayed as psint bombs was wonderful. It's also very understated which makes the dramatic moments very effective. The ending choked me up when

the child who had just watched her mother die and rot from the nuke mistook the main character due to them both missing an arm

leaving the film on a surprisingly upbeat ending. 

Also a question regarding a character

was the navy man she knew from childhood still alive at the end? I got the feeling he was maybe a ghost or shadow at the end when neither noticed the other on the beach

[A True Kaniggit]

20 hours ago, red snow said:

In this corner of the world is a beautiful look at an aspect of world war 2 I've never observed before - japanese civilians. The way the frag explosions in the sky were portrayed as psint bombs was wonderful. It's also very understated which makes the dramatic moments very effective.   1) The ending choked me up when

  Reveal hidden contents

the child who had just watched her mother die and rot from the nuke mistook the main character due to them both missing an arm

leaving the film on a surprisingly upbeat ending. 

 2) Also a question regarding a character

  Reveal hidden contents

was the navy man she knew from childhood still alive at the end? I got the feeling he was maybe a ghost or shadow at the end when neither noticed the other on the beach

 

1) What gets me is how

 

Suzu and Keiko react when they hear about the surrender, completely breaking down. They both lost Harumi, and Suzu had her drawing arm blown off. Yet Suzu wants to continue fighting stating, "I still have one arm and both of my legs". I assume that to cope with their losses they would've forced themselves to believe that it was all necessary. That these sacrifices had to happen in order to win the war. When the unconditional surrender was announced, having to face that everything they lost was for nothing must've been devastating.

2) In regards to the character.

 

I think you're right about Suzu just imagining him. As she walks by the image we hear a voice-over of him telling her to smile when she thinks of him after he dies (He said it when he was on shore-leave a few months before).

We also had a couple other scenes of Suzu imagining things differently than reality. Like when she was a kid and she was visited by the "House Spirit" who was actually just a poor orphan named Lin that later ended up in Kure's Red-light district.

Or her imagined "kidnapping" while crossing a bridge, where she met a young man who later asked her to marry him.

 

[red snow]

4 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

1) What gets me is how

  Hide contents

Suzu and Keiko react when they hear about the surrender, completely breaking down. They both lost Harumi, and Suzu had her drawing arm blown off. Yet Suzu wants to continue fighting stating, "I still have one arm and both of my legs". I assume that to cope with their losses they would've forced themselves to believe that it was all necessary. That these sacrifices had to happen in order to win the war. When the unconditional surrender was announced, having to face that everything they lost was for nothing must've been devastating.

2) In regards to the character.

  Hide contents

I think you're right about Suzu just imagining him. As she walks by the image we hear a voice-over of him telling her to smile when she thinks of him after he dies (He said it when he was on shore-leave a few months before).

We also had a couple other scenes of Suzu imagining things differently than reality. Like when she was a kid and she was visited by the "House Spirit" who was actually just a poor orphan named Lin that later ended up in Kure's Red-light district.

Or her imagined "kidnapping" while crossing a bridge, where she met a young man who later asked her to marry him.

 

There's definitely a lot of fantastical elements to it like a mild version of "pan's Labyrinth".

the hairy man who tried to kidnsp her as a child turned out to be the drawing of her lost brother on an island who was in live with a crocodile too

I think you're right in the psychological scarring of the Japanese public upon defeat. They'd been led to believe they were unstoppable so for their emperor to surrender must have been pretty devastating for them. I've often heard in discussions over the use of nuclear weapons that without the Japanese population would have fought on until the bitter end resulting in many more deaths. Although i noticed the film made a point of saying Russia had declared war on them at the same time and apparently that had as much to do with their surrender as the nuclear threat. Apparently it was a firm belief of Japan that the nukes were used as a prelude to cold war with Russia. I suspect there's sone truth in that.

[Rippounet]

Just found out a new Ghost in the Shell anime is planned for 2020 (Netflix apparently). I understand it would be called SAC2045, when the last stopped around 2034.

Not sure whether to be thrilled or scared. I'll go for a bit of both.

[red snow]

3 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Just found out a new Ghost in the Shell anime is planned for 2020 (Netflix apparently). I understand it would be called SAC2045, when the last stopped around 2034.

Not sure whether to be thrilled or scared. I'll go for a bit of both.

I think it's by the creators of SAC which is promising as i found those to be the most consistent and enjoyable version (i live the film but prefer the more straight forward storytelling if SAC)

Finally finished Naruto. The last few episodes were fun with them preparing for the wedding and it was touching to see how Iruka was/is such a big part of of Naruto's life despite their being very little screen time between the two.

It's scary to think the show has been with me for 15 years and how i devoured episodes at various stages. I think the quality dropped off substantially after the "pain" arc but it remained entertaining and when it was good it was excellent. It also had that quality of all great shows where many of the side characters were strong enough to carry their own show.

I'll be giving boruto ago but first i need to finish cowboy bebop and start fullmetal alchemist brotherhood. 

[Toth]

Oh my god, this horribly overrated mess that is the Fate franchise just keeps throwing out more spin-off Anime. Fate/Apocrypha was already so ridiculously average that it felt like a total waste of time that I didn't bother with Fate/Extra anymore.

So now we get another Fate/Grand Order Anime portraying the Babylon arc? Well, it is comparably fine alongside the Camelot arc, but it is also the one where it was most apparent just how horribly stereotypical the writing is in regards to its characters (males=badasses, women=fanservice). Yes, it is great to see a Gilgamesh who is actually seriously trying to save the world and cares about his subjects and some of its twists are pretty dark, but that's it. Otherwise it's a really old-fashioned adventure story... one that I see a few troubles with in terms of how they could possibly animate all the battle scenes. Duels are always a thing in Anime, but not large-scale warfare with whole armies, because they are a pain to animate.

Anyway, that's not the one I want to talk about. Yesterday released the first episode of "The El-Melloi II Case Files", a... mystery spin-off around Fate/Zero character Waver Velvet set at "Evil Hogwarts", the Clocktower University for Sorcery in London. Of course the camera keeps lingering on the Palace of Westminster during establishing shots for some reason, despite the university being set underground beneath the British Museum. I'm not exactly sure whether they think their viewers so dumb that they have to remind them in every scene that it takes place in London or whether the writers themselves are so dumb that they think the House of Parliament is the British Museum...

In any case, my following review of the prologue episode. Since I can't help myself, there will be heavy spoilers for Fate/Zero, so be warned. Also cat-lovers shouldn't click...

Spoiler

The story: El-Melloi II Case Files takes place 10 years after Fate/Zero. Waver has become a lecturer at the Clock Tower university, in fact he has somehow taken over Archibald El-Melloi's old place after the arrogant fool got himself killed in Fate/Zero. We are shown his lecture being visited by some creepy old folks who commend him on his simple, but very easy to understand way of explaining magical theories, but also remind him of his fragile position as he's just carrying the position until Reines, the underage head of the El-Melloi family, comes to age.

We are also getting a glimpse into his relationship to his students, of which three seem to be his favourites: Gray, Flat and Svin. Since Waver, despite his vast knowledge about magic, is still crippled by his limited inherent magical energy, he has to rely on them to do all the magic in the show while he keeps up the pretense of being the unapproachable mentor character (except around Gray, for some reason). In any case, the prologue story revolves around how Gray has taken a liking to a stray cat that now declared Waver's office its own, scratching at the furniture, stealing his shoes and in general being both a source of frustration and hilarity. At least until one morning Waver and Gray find it fatally hurt, being run over by a car. And Waver, who up until then only showed annoyance and anger at the animal's presence, is pretty much devastated, taking it home and working tirelessly the whole night on healing spells attempting to save it (while two sinister mages watching his office have a conversation about how unbecoming this is of a mage). But all of it fails and as they bury the animal, Waver is in open anguish that a better sorcerer would have easily managed to save the poor animal... at least before Gray realizes that his exhaustion is not just the all-nighter, but that a curse has his fate connected to the cat. This was no accident. Someone killed the cat in order to kill him remotely.

Waver calls in Flat and Svin and together they use a spell to identify the car that killed the cat. Waver lets them think that he doesn't break the curse on purpose so that they can track the assassin, but his facial expression makes it clear that he is simply incapable of doing so. Soon thereafter they have already found their car on the motorway, beginning a magical car chase scene (that admittedly seems to have some worldly repercussions, if Waver getting called by the police later is any indication^^). His students make short work of the assassin, but under the interrogation by Reines it turns out that his memories are altered and he doesn't know who truly hired him.

All in all, a very convincing first episode with a surprising lot of thematic coherence (a few really unnecessarily complicated conversations aside... it seems they have heavily altered the prologue of the light novel to improve upon the characterization, the few snippets kept untouched however stand out rather bafflingly.

The characters: My biggest fear was how they'd portray an adult Waver. The wiki made it sound like he's outright rejecting everything he learned in Fate/Zero, which would be an odd thematic choice, to say the least. But this prologue managed to create a really convincing bridge (apparently by completely walking over the source material). Waver is still the stubborn empathetic idealist, with his easily riled up pride showing here and there (especially with how tsundere he was towards the poor stray cat Gray had taken in). They got him right down to the letter, with the whole prologue showing the contrast between his unapproachable public persona and his still ongoing quest for knowledge, recognition and of course a bit of sanity in the insane world of mages.

I also find it interesting how he has to keep pretending towards his students that he's a badass calculating mage so they don't realize just how limited his actual magical capacity is (like he didn't sever the curse to track the assassin, but it seems obvious that he actually couldn't do so). That's kinda interesting. And it doesn't diminish the fact that he has an awful lot of helpful knowledge, it's just that he's incapable of actually putting it to use himself and has to rely on his students for it.
The many flashbacks are kinda interesting as a stylistic choice... though they feel a bit out of place, having Fate/Zero scenes painstakingly recreated without the ufotable budget. But it seems they only did it for the prologue, so it's fine. They certainly served their purpose of enforcing that bridge. In the same vein are the amusing lapses to his old high pitched voice when he's angry. Poor Waver can't catch a break, even at 30 the world still takes a pleasure tormenting him.

In regards to the other characters? Let's see... the mysterious Gray certainly is the most memorable cast member here. She looks like Artoria, which really unsettles Waver, but apparently she is now his closest aide and in her company he effectively drops all pretense. He rants about his colleagues, beats himself up about his lack of magical prowess and even goes as far as walking around in the game merch T-shirt Iskandar had bought him in Fate/Zero. I think she even lives with him, or at least it is somewhat implied by the way she compares herself to the stray cat before Waver started tutoring her... I find it kinda funny how Waver hates her face (even though he is really a dick about it), I suppose it's because he's tired of Saberfaces. Basically just like he walked into Shirou at the end of UBW just to tell him that he's an idiot. I'm starting to see Waver as a kindred spirit there. XD

I'm not so sure about the dudes, Flat and Svin. Flat seems to have a crush on Waver and worships the ground he walks upon, while Svin is the snarky model student who happens to have a crush on Gray. I find the first one somewhat interesting (despite my loathing for teacher-student relationships in media), simply because they made Flat's adoration so openly a matter of attraction. I still remember having read that Urobuchi intended for Waver to be gay or at least bi like Iskandar and that they indeed had sex during Fate/Zero... So having a guy pining for him isn't something new to him, really. That said, beyond this the two are flat as cardboard. I hope they get some more spotlight, though for now I'm interested how they handle Gray or whether she falls onto the same pile of wasted female characters that pretty much carries the whole bloody franchise.

I have read Luvia will play a large role in this show. Oh dear god, please make it so that they finally flesh her character out beyond 'rival for Rin', because some more respect outside of tiring harem shenanigans is what these characters desperately need!

No really, I'm looking forward to this! I'm really hopeful here. Especially since this massively rewritten prologue shows how the writers of this show are less unscrupulous when it comes to improving upon flawed source material instead of just telling a mediocre story by the letter.

 

[Pliskin]

It baffles me when I see someone actively trying to watch or play anything from the Fate franchise other than Fate/Zero.

[Toth]

9 hours ago, Pliskin said:

It baffles me when I see someone actively trying to watch or play anything from the Fate franchise other than Fate/Zero.

*high five*