Anime II: Back to Zero

[sifth]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

Have you seen the remake? How does it compare to the original?

I've only seen the first 3 seasons. I've been meaning to get around to the 4th season. It's a pretty good remake, though I have a few issues with it's pacing. For example the first season ends just one episode short of completing the first book. As a result the first episode of season 2, is literally the climax of the first novel, which just comes off as strange to me.

Edited May 27, 2023 by sifth

[Ran]

10 hours ago, sifth said:

I've been meaning to get around to the 4th season. It's a pretty good remake

Thanks. There's a Legend of the Galactic Heroes subreddit that has a FAQ that discusses things... and has some interesting news. It looks like there's no season 4 dub being made, from recent news (the company that was doing them said they have not heard anything about dubbing S4 and arent' sure if someone else is doing it or if they decided it wasn't worth it) ... and a live action Chinese adaptation has been announced, with a writer for the Chinese adaptation of Three-Body Problem attached, but apparently the transfer of rights from one company to this new one happened without original author Yoshiki Tanaka knowing anything about it and he only learned of it from the announcement.

Apparently there's a lot of pessimism about adapting it to Chinese television -- the books are allowed in China, but there's a much heavier-handed state censorship for TV and film, and there's definitely political aspects to the story that would be tampered with.

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Ran

[Rippounet]

Watched season 1 of SpyXFamily (season 2 is coming next month).

Well, it's exactly what you'd expect. There's a few truly good episodes (we laughed out loud quite a few times), but the main story is a bit ridiculous and more importantly, its progress is agonizingly slow, to the point where the entire season 1 could be seen as merely setting up the story and introducing the characters.

I don't say this often, but this anime may truly be for children, though there are some cute moments that will move adults as well.

[Proudfeet]

Never watched the anime, but assuming its the same as the manga, think you're looking at it at the wrong angle. The plot is background for character interactions/development. Its meant to be slow. At least it seems to have steady progress so far, some manga/anime are on loop with clear annual events repeating and never aging despite that.

The primary target audience might be for children, but there is cross appeal to adults in watching the silly antics of children. For reference, Yotsuba to!(manga) is in a similar vein without the exaggerated background, and feels to be more targeted at adults than children. Or maybe you'd prefer Usagi Drop if you require the story to advance?

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Has anyone send Heavenly Delusion ? What’re your reviews of it.  I’ve heard good things, considering to watch. 

[TheLastWolf]

Just finished my first anime/manga adaptation, well, the first part (E26) at least. Death Note.

Spoiler

L here is a big fat W

Ryuk is my man

[Toth]

On 9/2/2023 at 2:09 AM, Rippounet said:

Watched season 1 of SpyXFamily (season 2 is coming next month).

Well, it's exactly what you'd expect. There's a few truly good episodes (we laughed out loud quite a few times), but the main story is a bit ridiculous and more importantly, its progress is agonizingly slow, to the point where the entire season 1 could be seen as merely setting up the story and introducing the characters.

I don't say this often, but this anime may truly be for children, though there are some cute moments that will move adults as well.

It's a feel-good Anime about cute characters in amusing situations, so... I pretty much only view it like that and enjoyed it. Though I haven't gotten around to watch most of the second half... still have to do that one of these days...

 

Amusingly, right now I'm a weird nostalgia spot. I played a couple of Pokémon fangames and ended up wondering how it's going with the Anime. And... was quite surprised to hear that after 26 years they finally retired Ash as a protagonist and are trying to do a completely new serialized Anime with a new set of characters. I watched the first 5 episodes now and... I'm intrigued. It starts out astonishingly strong. Liko is more of a standard shoujo protagonist. Introverted, riddled of self-doubts, but also in her narration amusingly leaning on the fourth wall, lampshading the sillier tropes wondering whether she's become the heroine of some story. And also surprisingly perceptive and pragmatic, immediately getting suspicious of the villain claiming to have a letter from her grandmother, seemingly agreeing to hand him the amulet, but making a run for it the moment she's out of sight, going for the eyes of a Pokémon that outmatches her Sprigatito or even have it directly attack the trainer to force his Pokémon to disengage and protect him. The Anime also tries to walk a tightrope bringing old fans in with a main cast of prominent adult characters. Essentially the plot is that Liko gets a mysterious amulet from her grandmother, a bunch of shady villains show up to take it from her, but she gets whisked away by Professor Friede and the "Rising Volt Tacklers", essentially the Pokémon A-Team with some shades of the Firefly crew, a group of family-friendly mercenaries walking the earth on their air ship and helping people out against pay. They'd been hired by Liko's parents to protect her while she's on the run, at the same time as she's starting out her trainer career with her starter Sprigatito that... is literally just a cat, but green and it's adorable. It also has a number of surprisingly realistic aspects everywhere. I like all the traveling kids being shown having to sign up for online classes. So no illiterate vagrant children roaming the world anymore. And the Rising Volt Tacklers shown having to juggle their budget so that they can keep going.

I really enjoyed the first few episodes for how serious it takes itself. However, I'm a bit worried the villains are quickly loosing their initial competency. The fifth episode that I watched yesterday was a bit of a low point for me as the pacing was way off, with pretty much all battles being off-screen and no acknowledgement of downright illogical outcomes that make all the adults look like idiots. Even though... much of it could have been fixed by showing the villains' Pokemon taking hits and struggling against the other adults so that it doesn't come off as a complete ass-pull when Liko somehow outright wins against a fully evolved Golduck off-screen(!) or Roy's unevolved starter he just got getting a seemingly decisive ember in at a freaking Rhydon that just before effortlessly wrecked a Metagross(!), a Chansey and a Rockruff from the adults (and that just stood there, waiting for Roy to spend several minutes motivating his lizard thing to get his mojo). If that Rhydon and that Golduck had visibly taken damage before, it would have made somewhat sense, or if the villains had been befuddled at the kids's antics and commented on it instead of not been shown at all. But like this, it made the villains look incompetent. Which is especially frustrating because their leader was at the same time calling Friede out for being distracted cheering the kids on, which apparently means his Charizard just sat there doing the same in the middle of a battle, taking several unnecessary hits without doing anything about it. Come on, show, decide whether "Talking is a free action" is in place or not! This whole thing was just weird and chaotic, with the 20 minute episode struggling badly to handle four simultaneous battles.

Edited September 3, 2023 by Toth

[Ran]

This is one wiiiild trailer:

First off... Toshiro Mifune??!?!! He's been dead 26 years, but I guess they've gotten the rights to his likeness? Or have they ... have they gone so far as to use AI to do his voice? Very, very curious to learn more about this aspect of things. (ETA: Listening to it a second time, there's a bit that definitely sounds nothing like Mifune, so I don't think they've crossed that particularly controversial bridge.)

And then Takashi Miike is directing?! 

With characters designs by the late (RIP) Kim Jung Gi?!?!

WTF!

(And then Måneskin providing the trailer music is just... Eurovision fan mind exploded!)

ETA: Apparently they released some more information somewhere and there's a professional voice actor in the role, and Mifune's estate did indeed give permission (no doubt for a licensing fee).

Edited September 20, 2023 by Ran

[Ran]

Interesting news: Studio Ghibli has been sold to Nippon TV (a frequent, long-time collaborator with the studio) for the express reason that they've not been able to find a satisfactory successor for Hayao Miyazaki for whenever he does, finally, by one way or another, retire. 

It shouldn't mean too much difference to the output, such as it is, or the studio's internal culture. Which, as it happens, is part of why there is no successor-. It is so dominated by Miyazaki, that his past retirement announcements kept leading some of the top talent to decide to branch out elsewhere and start their own studios, and those who hung on tended to be worn down by Miyazaki's self-admitted exacting standards, and he has acknowledged that he "devoured" the talent of these possible successors. Brilliant, brilliant artist, but giving to driving himself and his employees to the bone. 

Goro Miyazaki, his son, has repeatedly been suggested but has turned it down and his father certainly did not credit it as the right choice. His entries into directing Ghibli films have generally not been well-received (From Up on Poppy Hill is the exception, and that one was co-written by Hayao), and he and his father have both been very open about the very difficult working relationship they have. His Tales of Earthsea was a big disappoinment for Ghibli fans (and for Ursula K. Le Guin).

 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

 

[TheLastWolf]

The Berserk manga is exquisite 

[TheLastWolf]

Vagabond too!

Why is it on a break since 2015 or so?

[TheLastWolf]

AOT Finale 

Spoiler

Nothing changed from manga ending as claimed -_ just included more scenes skipped earlier while adapting

 

[Ran]

Not actually anime, but anime-inspired. Watched the first episode and... it's quite good! Very violent, rather adult, some really nice design and animation. Netflix put the first episode up on Youtube:

All eight episodes are available now.

They also released Onimusha, I see, the one that has  licensed the right to  Toshiro Mifune's likeness. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Ran

[JGP]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

Not actually anime, but anime-inspired. Watched the first episode and... it's quite good! Very violent, rather adult, some really nice design and animation. Netflix put the first episode up on Youtube:

All eight episodes are available now.

They also released Onimusha, I see, the one that has  licensed the right to  Toshiro Mifune's likeness. 

I finished this series already

Tried following it up with Onimusha and didn't make too much beyond the opening fight in the latter, so can't speak to Onimusha's story but the designs and animation quality between the two brook little comparison. To my trained eye it's the stylistic design of Onimusha that limits its animation, lacking weight and dynamic movement. Character expression also limited by same.

Anyway

I thought Blue Eye was fantastic. Good character development, serious speckled with humor. The fights, character beats, it had everything I wanted for the medium and genre. The story as developed over the 8 episodes definitely subverted my expectations too, leaving off with lots of story to tell. Bet on two more seasons.

So... If S2 doesn't get greenlit, I'm going to be salty.  

 

 

[Ran]

4 hours ago, JGP said:

I thought Blue Eye was fantastic. Good character development, serious speckled with humor. The fights, character beats, it had everything I wanted for the medium and genre. The story as developed over the 8 episodes definitely subverted my expectations too, leaving off with lots of story to tell. Bet on two more seasons.

 

3 episodes in, and yeah, it's great fun.

Though I just realized that I suspect that Kenneth Branagh was not first choice to voice Fowler (he's very good, though!), because the character design looks an awful like Brendan Gleeson.

[JGP]

15 minutes ago, Ran said:

3 episodes in, and yeah, it's great fun.

Though I just realized that I suspect that Kenneth Branagh was not first choice to voice Fowler (he's very good, though!), because the character design looks an awful like Brendan Gleeson.

Now that you've said, I can't unsee it lol

Edited November 5, 2023 by JGP

[Ran]

18 hours ago, JGP said:

Now that you've said, I can't unsee it lol

Yeah, it's too uncanny to be coincidence.

Got through episode 5. The Lady Snowblood influence is worn on the show's sleeves with this particular episode and the not-so-white kimono. But man, it's really very good, with some real complexity to the characterization of Mizu.

[Ran]

Holy shit, episode 7.

No wonder they had Alan Taylor direct that one.

[Ran]

Finished it. Blue Eye Samurai is excellent and lived up to its potential. Very much recommended to anyone else who's looking for good animated fare with an adult turn to it.