Anime

[Fez]

17 hours ago, sifth said:

Darling in the Franxx was my biggest anime disappointment of last year. To say that show made me angry would be an understatement.

I'm fully prepared for disappointment, I've seen a bunch of non-specific reviews that were pretty down on it. But I liked Kill La Kill enough that I'm willing to give any original work by Studio Trigger a shot; maybe I'll turn it off pretty quickly, like I did Little Witch Academia, but I've found so few anime that I like so far (but really liked the ones I've liked) that I'll follow any potential lead.

[Toth]

8 hours ago, the hound of sansa said:

I just watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the follow-up movie, and I must say I am underwhelmed. 
Sure, maybe the hype around is too high, but I went into it fully prepared to like it. 
Could someone tell me why is it revered by so many, or you could tell me your personal experience with this anime.
I am not hating on it, for me it was just ok/underwhelming. It felt similar to Ergo Proxy.

That's actually suspiciously similar to my own experience. Watched the series and then End of Evangelion? Yeah, sounds good. There may be people arguing about it, but to me that's the most sensible combination.

I went in expecting a needlessly confusing show that would hide plot weaknesses with mindscrew elements that lack any substance to look clever. And I was pleasantly surprised in that I was getting exactly what I expected, but with a touch of very solid character writing.

In my opinion, going out and saying it was 'just' okay is no problem at all. It is a fairly generic story with good characters that got harmed by its chief writer having his depression affect the story as well as the fact that it quite literally ran out of budget in the last few episodes and was reduced to still shots.^^

I guess being the combination of genre deconstruction, people reading too much into its shallow fake symbolism and pure memes resulted in its quite tight-knitted fandom. It's a fine show in my opinion, none that made me stick to it for long.

[sifth]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

I'm fully prepared for disappointment, I've seen a bunch of non-specific reviews that were pretty down on it. But I liked Kill La Kill enough that I'm willing to give any original work by Studio Trigger a shot; maybe I'll turn it off pretty quickly, like I did Little Witch Academia, but I've found so few anime that I like so far (but really liked the ones I've liked) that I'll follow any potential lead.

I liked Kill La Kill as well.............the first 7 or 8 episodes in particular and I'm a huge Gurren Lagann fan.

I hope you can fine some joy in the show that I wasn't.

[Toth]

Apparently just as I mentioned the Fate/Grand Order Anime, they brought out a new trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FS3jW8-318

Looks surprisingly lukewarm to me... As if they forgot the sound effects in many of the clips.

[Varysblackfyre321]

I’m half way through Gintama. I have to say I saw a few episodes in the past but recently I’ve started binging the entire series. It’s awesome.

[Toth]

Okay. So. Since there is no manga thread around and this is the most trending general Japanese drawn media thread, I just use it to vent a bit.

I just finished Hotarubi no tomoru koro ni. A manga written by my favorite author Ryukishi07 who is also behind Higurashi, Umineko and the only good chapters of Rewrite.

What is Hotarubi about? Two estranged brothers with their children return to the creepy little village they were born to in order to attend their mother's funeral. Of course, clashing with the plethora of ridiculous religious rules and taboos they have to adhere to. The protagonist Yue is the cripplingly shy daughter of one of the brothers, an interesting choice as she barely says a word and mostly just observes the bickering of her brother and cousins. Unfortunately, the characters are not quite as much of a focus as they are in other Ryukishi works, I'm especially iffed that the backstory about Yue's disappeared mother goes nowhere.

That's because it's actually survival horror. The next morning they wake up in a strange alien hellscape with two suns, a toxic mist enclosing the deserted village, monsters and demons running abound and even the environment itself trying to kill them. The setting is terrific. And so is Higurashi character Miyo Takano into whom they bump into and who, while still acting very sinister, actually somewhat seems like a badass action hero here, going up against the demons guns blazing. The story itself is very concise and makes a lot of sense as usual, but I can't help but find the values in this story to be just atrociously old-fashioned... Especially Terumi's ending left me similarly angry as the ending of UBW.

Spoiler

So basically the characters find out that they are in literal hell and can only escape by promising to be better people. Terumi does so by... promising to found a family. Also she reveals that she's pregnant and considered abortion before in order to not endanger her career as an actress. So... now she reconsidered... Well, okay, the only boon there is a single sentence that implies that she is not going to abandon her dream, but admits that she needs someone to support her if she goes at it with a child. It's still odd that this someone never gets a mention, even in the epilogue. Does she actually have a supportive boyfriend or is she going to end up a single mother? From what we see and hear, the latter seems more likely, otherwise why not mention the father at all?

I'm not completely opposed to her story ending the way it did, but for that it sorely needed to establish that there is a longing for family in her and the option to have it. And not frame it in a way to make it possible to interpret that she is forced to carry out an unwanted child under threat of literal hell. Bad move, Ryukishi! I had expected more from you! Especially since you made your name by writing amazing multi-layered female characters who put this entire industry to shame with not only their complexity, but also the respect with which they are treated.

I guess that's one more reason to avoid Rose Guns Days. He is most of the times so good, but sometimes so bad, so I don't want him to tackle hot political issues like nationalism. Is that a strange position to have with your favourite author?

[Fez]

I am increasingly glad I've stuck with PsychoPass, that show's gotten good. Is the second season really that much of a let down? I'm not done with season one yet, but it seems a shame that my time with it will be wrapping up so quickly.

[sifth]

58 minutes ago, Fez said:

I am increasingly glad I've stuck with PsychoPass, that show's gotten good. Is the second season really that much of a let down? I'm not done with season one yet, but it seems a shame that my time with it will be wrapping up so quickly.

Season 2 is bad.........real bad. The movie that came out a few years ago is really good though. I’ve not seen any of the more recent 2019 films, but they’ve been getting really good reviews; so take that for what you will.

[Conflicting Thought]

What did you guys thought about One Punch Man season 2trailer?. It seems they changed animations studio and to me it looks pretty bad. 

[Varysblackfyre321]

Huh you know watching the english Dubbed version for Gintama really makes appreciate Anime dubbed with voice actors who can be on par with their Japanese counterparts. 

[Varysblackfyre321]

I’m curious on what you guys think of Mob Psycho 100 in comparison My hero Academia. 

[sifth]

2 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

I’m curious on what you guys think of Mob Psycho 100 in comparison My hero Academia. 

I really like MHA, granted the last few arcs in the manga have been pretty horrible. That being said, I can't wait for season 4 to start, since they're animating my favorite arc.

Never saw Mob Psycho 100, but I've heard good things.

[Werthead]

Casting for the live-action Cowboy Bebop. Hmm.

[red snow]

17 hours ago, Werthead said:

Casting for the live-action Cowboy Bebop. Hmm.

Jet and Faye work for me - now idea of their acting talent.

Cho has shown with "the searching" film that he has range, I'm just not sure he has the physical side down. Spike seemed tall and lanky to me. That and he's older than imagined the character. Trying to think whether he's done much action outside a limited amount in star trek?

I guess all the Asian actors with serious martial arts skills are keeping their schedules free until marvel casts shang chi? 

Other tgan that Cho is a great person to get on board. Maybe they'll focus more on the guns and general brawling over super ninja skills. Hopefully he grows the hair for the part

[Fez]

19 hours ago, Werthead said:

Casting for the live-action Cowboy Bebop. Hmm.

Since I've now seen the first 18 episodes of the anime (so good!), I feel qualified to comment. That casting all looks good to me. I wonder if they just haven't cast Ed yet or if they are planning on severely cutting back/eliminating her character.

[john]

It’s a diverse cast, I thought it would be more Asian though.  Hope they get the martial arts right, don’t want an Iron Fist situation.

[red snow]

3 hours ago, Fez said:

Since I've now seen the first 18 episodes of the anime (so good!), I feel qualified to comment. That casting all looks good to me. I wonder if they just haven't cast Ed yet or if they are planning on severely cutting back/eliminating her character.

She is a weird character and they left her a bit of an enigma in the anime. I guess for the TV show they could make more of the fact she downloaded an AI into her (at least that's the impression I got from her introduction). That in turn could make her a target. But I'd be cool with them leaving her until a later point - just like they did with the anime. 

I realised the guy playing Jet is in the Deuce. It's an odd role but again one that should fit - I'm still struck by how much he'll look like the anime version with the facial hair. Definitely a case of skin colour being the only difference but minor when everything else fits so well.

[Werthead]

51 minutes ago, red snow said:

She is a weird character and they left her a bit of an enigma in the anime. I guess for the TV show they could make more of the fact she downloaded an AI into her (at least that's the impression I got from her introduction). That in turn could make her a target. But I'd be cool with them leaving her until a later point - just like they did with the anime. 

I realised the guy playing Jet is in the Deuce. It's an odd role but again one that should fit - I'm still struck by how much he'll look like the anime version with the facial hair. Definitely a case of skin colour being the only difference but minor when everything else fits so well.

Wasn't the AI downloaded into the dog?

[Ran]

I've said this before and will say it again, but a live action version of just about any cartoon makes no sense to me, and doubly so for a real classic anime like Cowboy Bebop. The fight scenes will be nowise as cool, the music will never in a million y ears surpass the work of Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts unless they're willing to bring them back on board, the quirkiness will not translate, and so on and so forth.

They should fund a new OVA or something instead.

My recollection is that no one had the AI in them, they just had a backup made of it. Ein was a genetically-engineered super dog, and Edward is a born savant.

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

I've said this before and will say it again, but a live action version of just about any cartoon makes no sense to me, and doubly so for a real classic anime like Cowboy Bebop. The fight scenes will be nowise as cool, the music will never in a million y ears surpass the work of Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts unless they're willing to bring them back on board, the quirkiness will not translate, and so on and so forth.

They should fund a new OVA or something instead.

My recollection is that no one had the AI in them, they just had a backup made of it. Ein was a genetically-engineered super dog, and Edward is a born savant.

You could say the same thing about live-action movie versions of comic books, but they seem to have worked out well. I think the issue is more that most anime is rooted in Japanese storytelling motifs which fail when transferred to a Western perspective, which we've also seen in US remakes of Japanese live-action films.

That said, there are a couple of decent anime-to-live action movies. I think most people forget that Oldboy is based on a manga (not an anime though), and the 2006 Japanese live-action Death Note is apparently okay (certainly far superior to Netflix's WTFery). One of my anime-loving friends was raving about the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy as well as having pretty much nailed the anime down to a T.

Cowboy Bebop has I think some potential. The original wasn't as rooted in Japanese storytelling as some other anime and manga are, and it has a broad appeal. The "small band of morally dubious but well-meaning misfts on a spaceship" trope is fairly classic (as seen from Blake's 7 to Farscape to Firefly to The Expanse) and the setting, restricted to the Solar system with Earth having been rendered partially uninhabitable after blowing up the Moon, is fairly interesting.

If anything, I'm now leaning towards them not trying to emulate the anime: don't do the music or anything like that, as I don't think they can pull it off. Take the same set-up and do something else with it that's more inspired by the original than trying to slavishly adapt it, and if it's done well it won't matter.

I'm also reminded that Season 2 of The Tick has hit Amazon tonight, where they have somehow managed to translate a fairly iconic 1990s cartoon series (based on a fairly iconic late 1980s comic book) into live action very well for the second time.