Anime II: Back to Zero

[The Grey Wolf]

Yeah. I honestly prefer watching complete shows. (Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, Devilman Crybaby, etc.)

Edited March 16, 2021 by The Grey Wolf

[red snow]

1 minute ago, The Grey Wolf said:

Yeah. I honestly prefer watching complete shows. (Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, Devilman Crybaby, etc.)

I agree - it's why I wound up having to rewatch AOT thanks to the huge gaps between seasons

[Toth]

I should probably note what happened with my Higurashi Gou watch: The show has wrapped up its first season and is on a break with a second cour following in July.

Now looking back on the show I am extremely conflict. The core idea and the conflict that they want to create is really great and I love how Gou is built to be a crossroads for the wider When they Cry franchise which up until consisted only of rather vaguely connected individual stories which take place in completely different worlds and only a very meta-textual overlap of characters. And then in comes Gou and massively fleshes out that concept and telling a story that Umineko alluded to that seemingly was Higurashi, but never quite and now rectifying that dissonance.

Unfortunately on the other hand of the spectrum I must note that the direction is abysmal. I already noted in my previous reviews that I found myself very irritated about how the show keeps covering already well known Higurashi material for no other reason than an initial joke that got dragged out for FAR too long. Similarly the second half, while starting out as a great bridge between Matsuriyabashi and Gou to explain what the fuck happened that the characters got stuck again in 1983, it ended up surprisingly hasty in explaining how it happened while at the same time treating the necessary character development haphazardly and outright ignoring characters and motivations that would have affected the outcome that they wanted for the villain of the story, something that goes extremely against Higurashi's core principle of being a character-driven clockwork made of confliction motivations that all create the plot. It's a serious shame because I could see it working out extremely well with a tighter script and only half the episodes.

 

In other news, I also recently saw the third Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel movie. If you had read some of my reviews here before, you probably noticed I'm a masochist for the Fate franchise.

And the weirdest part is... I... I actually liked the movie! Bloody hell, how did they manage that? Okay, I do know how they managed that, but that only makes me more confused: The movie was basically just a barrage of pivotal character moments where they agonized about the decisions they are making and question their motivations. The only problem is that the two movies before that do an abysmal job getting these motivations across (if they even attempted it at all). So... Heaven's Feel III works great, for people like me who spent the last seven years tearing this franchise apart and know these characters and their motivations by heart. People who just watched this and UBW (and you have to watch UBW because Heaven's Feel I skips all the scenes they have in common) will probably feel super confused and not buy it at all.

Also the fight scenes in this one are spectacular in a good way. So far I had been very disappointed in the fight scenes in ufotables Stay Night in comparison to Fate/Zero since their fights and their choreography rarely accomplished anything other than paint the characters as super duper powerful. Something Fate/Zero accomplished utterly implicitly if you bothered to look at the carnage around them, but the focus of the Fate/Zero fights still lingered on the strategies of how the characters approach their fights and become more a test of their motivations than anything. Meanwhile in Fate/Stay Night it's just flailing with pretty CGI effects. So imagine my surprise that I found them actually interesting here, given how short most of the fights are and how they usually served a clear purpose for the advancement of the plot, while also allowed moments of characterization to shine through instead of "Gate of Babylon goes brrrrr". Apparently it helps that they poured all their budget into the ultimately relatively meaningless Rider vs. Saber fight that goes on for seven fucking minutes and is just 'splosions as Michael Bay took over for a bit.

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

@Toth

You just reminded me that I can't watch Spring Song in theaters or buy the blu-ray.

:(

[Rippounet]

Finished what was out of Attack on Titan last night.

Now that I know the ending (having finished the manga), the anime is a better experience somehow. No doubt the plot is a bit too elaborate in some ways. But once you finally know everything it becomes this experience of delving into a form of brilliant insanity. The whole thing is nuts, disturbing, and somehow manages to be entertaining as well.
Dunno if others have had this feeling, but the way the show piles on layers of meaning is impressive. Even if you don't like the genre, it's a tour de force to make each season affect the meaning of previous ones as well. Though come to think of it, it's not that uncommon for animes to use time creatively.
The action and the character development are also remarkable. Lots of minor characters are cleverly fleshed out.
Anyway, good stuff, though terribly bleak. Reminds me of Evangelion. I guess both subvert the shonen genre in a comparable way.

Spoiler for both shows:

 

The original Evangelion ending was uplifting though. And made sense (at least to me). Not sure Attack on Titan has any deeper lesson to offer otoh. It's an incredible story, but it ends up being about cranking the rather common shonen theme of sacrifice to the max. Oh well, we get amazing -and truly original- fights in exchange.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Rippounet

[Ran]

About two years ago, there was word of the Cowboy Bebop being turned to live action on Netflix. While I still have exceptionally little belief that this is a worthwhile endeavor, I did say one thing about it:

Quote

 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

Well....

 

[Werthead]

16 hours ago, Ran said:

About two years ago, there was word of the Cowboy Bebop being turned to live action on Netflix. While I still have exceptionally little belief that this is a worthwhile endeavor, I did say one thing about it:

Well....

They did confirm this a year ago, but for some reason it didn't pick up much traction.

[Ran]

Netflix's been revealing some stuff in the works. A new Castlevania series (sans Warren Ellis) following Richter Belmont (son of Trevor and Sypha) and Maria Renard in the late 18th century. Then it was announced that Netflix was ordering up a Far Cry(!) anime series, as well as giving Adi Shankar (Castlevania's showrunner) the reins to make Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix (!!!!) based on the FC3 DLC Blood Dragon. His presentation of it is an unusually honest description of its inspirations (including DC's Elseworlds, synthwave music and art, Captain N: The Gamemaster, and his own "Bootleg Universe" fan films):

There's a clip at the 32:20 that's a sort of conceptual tease.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Ranivaka

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

Apparently a SW anime is being made for Disney+...

[Ran]

20 minutes ago, The Grey Wolf Strikes Back said:

Apparently a SW anime is being made for Disney+...

 

[Toth]

What is happening? What should have been good is mediocre and what should have been mediocre is suddenly actually great?

Now a couple of weeks ago the second season of the Higurashi sequel, now dubbed Higurashi Sotsu, started. Individual scenes are well crafted and there are a lot of interesting visual callbacks to the original Higurashi in there. Unfortunately that's all there is to it. There are some stunning leaps of logic in there and it is all so stunningly predictable, depicting the most lazy way the 'mysteries' presented in Gou happened. I suppose the idea is indeed that they think it clever that it's the original arcs, just that the most obvious solution is this time correct, but for this kind of non-twist the show has far too many episodes. It drags on and on detailing stuff that has been already blatantly clear since about 20 episodes ago and it's so goddamn boring. Please go back to the meat of the story with the whole post-Matsuriyabashi looper-thunderdome.

Then the second season of the Madoka Magica spin-off Magia Record started yesterday. I went in with all my hazy memories of being disappointed in the first season not being daring enough to actually change the meat of the rather thin Mobile Game it is made from. And then comes in this episode that works basically on the premise of how Madoka and Homura not being present during the arc where they had been originally introduced has massive consequences on the dynamics of the cast as they end up having to speed-run through the core revelations of the setting and work out their issues in time to go rescue Mami in Kamihama. This is all Anime original stuff and it was fantastic. Especially as a Sayaka fan, her journey through all kinds of emotions during this episode was a massive treat and made me somewhat teary eyed. My girl is so strong here! XD Hot damn. Am I being more hopeful? Fuck, I think the first episode of the first season was also rather good. No.... please don't give me hope only to then be mediocre again, please... But until then, I can encourage every Madoka Magica fan to watch at least this episode, because it's absolutely worth it: https://imgur.com/a/JO4xXsv

[Fez]

I guess this is the thread for it, since no trailer is out yet for that thread. Netflix has released the first stills from the live action Cowboy Bebop. https://bloody-disgusting.com/tv/3679522/netflixs-live-action-cowboy-bebop-series-will-premiere-november-first-images-revealed/

Also it'll premiere November 19; I don't know if that's news or not.

The actors look on point, especially Cho. There's something a little off-putting about the sets to me though; like they're caught halfway between live action and animated. It almost reminds me of the sets from the Dick Tracy movie. Maybe they'll grow on me in motion. At least the designs seems faithful to the original.

[Ran]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

The actors look on point, especially Cho.

Faye Valentine is a bit less pneumatic, one must admit.

They've not yet revealed Ed. Not sure if they're saving her for the last episodes or if they've decided to keep her for a possible second season.

1 hour ago, Fez said:

There's something a little off-putting about the sets to me though; like they're caught halfway between live action and animated. It almost reminds me of the sets from the Dick Tracy movie. Maybe they'll grow on me in motion. At least the designs seems faithful to the original.

I'm only interested in the soundtrack, personally, since Yoko Kanno is involved. Live action makes zero sense to me, but de gustibus non est disputandum.

[Fez]

3 minutes ago, Ran said:

I'm only interested in the soundtrack, personally, since Yoko Kanno is involved. Live action makes zero sense to me, but de gustibus non est disputandum.

If this is a straight one-to-on adaptation of the anime, I agree. But have they said if that's actually the case? If, for instance, this is basically some of the other adventures the crew had during the time they were together and it's new stories within the framework of the original, that makes things more interesting to me. Assuming the writing is any good.

The things I don't want are a basically shot-for-shot remake, because that seems pointless; or a total focus on dealing with Vicious, because that would miss the charm of the original.

[Ran]

2 hours ago, Fez said:

Assuming the writing is any good.

Keiko Nobumoto, who wrote all the episodes and the movie, isn't involved, as far as I understand it. I know Shinichiro Watanabe is a creative consultant, but IMO without Nobumoto it's just going to be Americanized pastiche and that's not interesting to me.

[Werthead]

Apparently "Hajime Yatate" (i.e. Sunrise as a collective enterprise) will have direct writing credits on the show, which is interesting.

There are several reasons why I think adapting Cowboy Bebop to live-action is a viable idea:

1. It's itself a pastiche of American genres (the Western, the US-centric space opera, the Bogart-style noir mystery), rather than employing Japanese cultural ideas which will get lost or hamfistedly-handled in adaptation.
2. It's relatively short (26 half-hour episodes and an optional side-story movie), so it's improbable they'll fail to adapt the whole story.
3. The original story was also fairly chill and not particularly complex (by any standards, let alone anime ones) so the chances of a US adaptation fucking it up is surprisingly low (unlike, say, a Western adaptation of Evangelion which would have to be immediately killed with fire).
4. The Sunrise staff are involved and Yoko Kanno is doing the soundtrack.
5. The cast looks great, even if Cho is a fair bit older than Spike in the TV show.
6. They have Ein.

Also, if it is a failure then it might bring a lot of fresh eyes to the original, which in itself might be the #1 point of accessibility to anime as a medium, so it could benefit the medium even if the adaptation isn't great.

The only thing I'm not looking forwards to is people comparing it to Firefly (and usually failing to mention Blake's 7).

[Ran]

8 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Apparently "Hajime Yatate" (i.e. Sunrise as a collective enterprise) will have direct writing credits on the show, which is interesting.

Per IMDB, they are basically "Characters created by" credits.

There's no way WGA would allow a collective to get a normal writing credit.

 

 

[Rippounet]

The pictures look good. Bringing to live-action the atmosphere of the anime is what counts though, and that'll require lots of quality visual effects and great music. Yoko Kanno being on board is great news.
The short episodes is also good news. It means they intend to stick closely to the original format, which makes adapting the stories rather easy. As Wert said there's nothing too complex, so it's hard to imagine them screwing it up. All they have to do is refrain from doing more than adding a few details or scenes here and there.

[Werthead]

Yup, she's going to be fine as Faye.

[Werthead]

https://www.vulture.com/2021/08/john-cho-cowboy-bebop.html

 

Quote

Okay. Did you get to meet Yoko Kanno, the composer of the series?
I haven’t. She was in Japan the whole time. I made sure that she was locked in before saying yes. I didn’t think the show should go forward without her involvement. [She is] too integral to the show. Our iteration minus her would suffer too much.

Was there anything else you needed to know in order to say yes to the show? 
I was like, we’re not gonna just remake each episode, are we? I didn’t want to re-stage everything exactly frame by frame. I didn’t want to do that artistically, and I also thought that that was a recipe for encouraging unflattering comparisons. How could you do it better? You can’t. You have to do something a little different. I guess that’s the tightrope you’re walking, which thankfully isn’t my job. But it touches on me.

Some fans thought Spike, who is 27 in the anime, should have been played by someone younger. Were you concerned about that?
The biggest fear that I had was I was too old. I knew people were gonna have issues with my age. And I had to get over it. I’m not a person who says age is just a number or whatever. It was gonna be harder — physically. And I was gonna look different than a 25-year-old guy. At some point, the opportunity is “Yes or no — do you wanna do it?” And I did wanna do it. So I wasn’t gonna stop myself from doing it.