Guaporense and Zotis Review Animation [Archive] - Page 2

Zotis

03-10-16, 04:52 AM

Agreed but assuming it all looks the same because you don't know it is kinda racist. If you don't know it then you should not make assumptions.I would say it's ignorant, but "racist" is a bit harsh.

I see. I am selective but I enjoy mainstream stuff. Usually best sellers are entertaining but sometimes superficial.

I have the impression that the best stuff tends to be a combination of popular, acessible and critically acclaimed. Stuff that succeeds on all levels. For example, in Manga we have stuff like Nausicaa, Gunnm, Vinland Saga and Vagabond, in film, stuff like Star Wars, The Godfather, 2001 and Seven Samurai. In animation, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, EVA and PMMM, all these are incredibly well made and widely popular while being critically acclaime and are among my favorites.
Hmm, okay, so that's how you look at it. That makes sense. I think I'm in the minority with the way that I perceive what "the best" is.

In my experience, as I reflect on my personal growth throughout my life, the more I learn and understand about film the more I realise why certain things are so good. Before I reached that point I was oblivious to it. So when I see how much further I've grown in my understanding of film than most people, and yet how little I know and how much further I have to go before I can really say that I understand film... When I see that, it shows me how hard it is to actually understand what has reached the lofty height that even most experts can't understand. So I think there is a very good chance that the best animation ever made has gone completely unnoticed and unappreciated, because practically no one else besides the creator of that work has reached that level of understanding. So it probably wouldn't get critical acclaim, and it definitely won't be popular, but maybe a decent amount of people in the higher society of art film will know about it and spread the word and highly regard it.

Guaporense

03-10-16, 11:02 PM

Essay - The Evolution of Taste: Liking or Disliking a Medium

It's very common for people to claim they like and dislike "things" that are very broad worlds. Although most of the time these claims are made based on the ignorance and concurrent prejudice instead of an opinion formed by any experience at all (for example, everybody who claim to dislike anime never watched a substantial amount of animation). And the fact is that tastes are not absolute: people's tastes evolve through time, a person can learn how to understand and appreciate cultural products like music, film, animation and books.

I did not "like" music until I discovered Iron Maiden, or at least, I did not find music that I found powerful enough to make me actively seek to find out more music, after I discovered Iron Maiden I turned from a person uninterested in music to someone who dedicated most of my free time to music. That's why I was a bit put off when people claimed that I "love anime" when I posted several animated films in my top 100 films over 3 years ago. I don't really think that a person who has sensibility to art cannot "love anime", at least not if such a person is intelligent enough to be able to learn the language of modern Japanese culture. I don't think it's very hard to learn that as well: most anime is "popular culture": adaptations of manga which sold millions of copies and are read by all demographic groups in Japan, like Hollywood movies they are (mostly) not "hard" in the sense that Tarkovsky's or Goddard's movies are.

However, to learn a cultural language requires a bit of humility: such a person must first try to understand it without having very strong expectations of what a narrative/movie/music is supposed to be. If someone watches K-On! thinking that fictional narratives must be like American narratives (such as those of Hollywood movies) such a person will not be able to appreciate it. As a result most western animation fans hate K-On! because of it's very Japanese nature. While american animation fans love Cowboy Bebop, which is a good series that is not exceptionally acclaimed in Japan, because Cowboy Bebop appeals to the american cultural psyche and is heavily influenced by american music and american cop TV shows. Is essentially anime for the fanboy of american pop culture (made by a fanboy).

Another example of the prejudice against animation in Western society is the prejudice against pornographic animation. Why would be wrong to enjoy animated pornography? Its not considered wrong to enjoy pornographic book, live action or photos. But drawn pornography (either in comics and animation) suffers from a stigma. The reason is that drawn pornography is not part of Western culture. That is due to historical reasons: since comics and animation never developed as an artistic medium but instead as peripheral entertainment sources, animation is still considered a babysitter thing: to entertain small children to allow parents some free time. As a result since Western culture is xenophobic, consuming graphic pornography is frowned upon.

It's also a fact that animation is the least developed artistic medium (perhaps, even less than the far younger medium of videogames). It's a medium that the vast majority of people do not consume in significant quantities if compared to live action film (including TV and movies), books or music, for example. The only type of animation that is widely consumed consists of simplistic comedies like Family Guy, South Park and The Simpsons. Before I discovered Miyazaki that was also the only type of animation I consumed, after I discovered Miyazaki I decided to expand my knowledge of animation and got to understand much better how incredibly rich and diverse animation can be.

Although a serious problem animation has is that it is mostly restricted to one country. There is some animation made outside of Japan but they are usually very simplistic or if relatively complex then in a very small number (in movies like Wrinkles or When the Wind Blows, good serious animation made in Europe). In Japan animation is also mostly restricted to manga adaptations and mostly a slave of manga aesthetics (something Miyazaki heavily criticized), there is very few creative and original animation like Miyazaki's, Takahata's, Oshii's, Norstein's and Anno's.

Still if one takes into account the total volume of animation produced in shorts, movies and TV, it still adds up to a huge amount and probably greater than, for example, the entire literary output of 16th century Europe (because only around 10% of Europe's population was literate back then and fewer had access to ways to distribute what they wrote and Europe's population was also much smaller). I have already consumed several dozens of animations that can be regarded as masterpieces and I know less than 5% of all animation (although I know most of the most highly regarded stuff).

The modern world now produces much more art than at any previous period in history and at much higher orders of magnitude: the world economy today is estimated to be around 100 times the world economy in 1800 (source: Angus Maddison) and hence the number of people with the free time and resources to dedicate themselves to art is also enormously larger. These objective facts contradict the subjective statements that people make regarding the decline of art, if today there is much more art being made than in any previous period why do people worship the old stuff so much and complain about the decline of art? I suspect two main reasons:

(1) The psychological need to feel superior to other people by claiming appreciation of stuff nobody else consumes.

(2) The fact that the most influential works of art are the oldest ones because they have more time to become influential.

Another reason is that longer periods of time allow for art to prove itself universal, stuff like the 9th symphony is appreciated by people from many cultural backgrounds and different personalities, it's not a product of it's time but instead timeless. We don't know now if a recent popular movie like Star Wars 7 will prove itself a masterpiece in the future.

Guaporense

03-10-16, 11:07 PM

I would say it's ignorant, but "racist" is a bit harsh.

True. Prejudiced is a better word.

Hmm, okay, so that's how you look at it. That makes sense. I think I'm in the minority with the way that I perceive what "the best" is.

In my experience, as I reflect on my personal growth throughout my life, the more I learn and understand about film the more I realise why certain things are so good. Before I reached that point I was oblivious to it. So when I see how much further I've grown in my understanding of film than most people, and yet how little I know and how much further I have to go before I can really say that I understand film... When I see that, it shows me how hard it is to actually understand what has reached the lofty height that even most experts can't understand. So I think there is a very good chance that the best animation ever made has gone completely unnoticed and unappreciated, because practically no one else besides the creator of that work has reached that level of understanding. So it probably wouldn't get critical acclaim, and it definitely won't be popular, but maybe a decent amount of people in the higher society of art film will know about it and spread the word and highly regard it.

Well, I personally believe there is no such a thing as "best". Only things that I personally find myself liking at a point in my life. I also find myself liking stuff that lots of other people like, popular stuff (at least among some circles). I also like some less popular stuff but usually the more popular it is the higher are the chances that I will also like it. Some other people have more "individualized" tastes.

Zotis

03-12-16, 11:36 PM

Well, I personally believe there is no such a thing as "best". Only things that I personally find myself liking at a point in my life. I also find myself liking stuff that lots of other people like, popular stuff (at least among some circles). I also like some less popular stuff but usually the more popular it is the higher are the chances that I will also like it. Some other people have more "individualized" tastes.

Everyone has individualized taste. Most people have undeveloped taste, so things that appeal to less developed taste are usually more popular.

My parents forced me to eat food that I didn't like, and eventually I grew to like it. That taught me to regularly try things that I don't like and eventually learn to like them. I apply it to not only food, but everything in life. Music, movies, sports, etc... I've learned to like Basketball even though I didn't used to like it. I've learned to enjoy trashy B-movies even though they're horrible quality. I've learned to appreciate Rap music even though for most of my life I couldn't stand it.

People who watch a movie, don't like it, and say it's bad, are just exhibiting an ignorant attitude. I think because they want their opinions to be just as valid as people with more developed taste and more informed opinions, they argue that quality is subjective. But I think they are inconsistent as soon as they start arguing with someone else, or say that someone else is wrong in their opinion. If people think that quality is subjective, then they should never say that one movie is better than another, or that another person is wrong. They should just say they like one movie more than another and leave it at that. As soon as someone says a movie is a good movie, there must be criteria for why it's good. Because "This movie is good," is a factual statement.

I would say first look at an obvious comparison. The Godfather compared to Avatar. You can clearly see that The Godfather has better acting, better directing, better cinematography, better dialogue, a better story and plot, etc... So why would you assume that two movies which are so close in quality that you can't tell which one is better aren't necessarily better or worse than each other just because you can't see the difference? It's like if you have two sticks and one is only a millimeter smaller. Which one is longer? Is it subjective? No, you just can't tell, but if you had a ruler then you would be able to tell.

In the example of a stick, length is the quality that is being measured.

In film, you would be measuring acting, directing, cinematography, etc... If they're close and you can't perceive which is better it just means you lack the tools to decipher which is better.

That's my opinion, and I don't think it's more valid than someone else's if they know more than me, but I do think it's more valid than someone's who doesn't know what they're talking about.

At least I studied how to do word studies in University and have done a word study on the word "Quality."

Guaporense

03-13-16, 03:24 AM

I would say first look at an obvious comparison. The Godfather compared to Avatar. You can clearly see that The Godfather has better acting, better directing, better cinematography, better dialogue, a better story and plot, etc... So why would you assume that two movies which are so close in quality that you can't tell which one is better aren't necessarily better or worse than each other just because you can't see the difference? It's like if you have two sticks and one is only a millimeter smaller. Which one is longer? Is it subjective? No, you just can't tell, but if you had a ruler then you would be able to tell.

I guess that in art the ruler is subjective in itself. The quality of directing, writing and acting is subject to aesthetic judgement which is dependent in the stabdards that are socially constructed. A ruler is physical and a 1 cm is 1 cm at any country or time, aesthetic standards change across cultures and periods. That's why it's so hard to come up with objective judgment standards in art. Although it's true that there are some regularities in art, usually I can understand why things are regarded as great.

In animation, for instance, taking the average out of many blogs this fellow animation fan https://aquabluesweater.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/compilation-of-top-anime-of-the-decade-lists-around-the-internet-series/, made this list up:

https://aquabluesweater.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/100306-series-top-501.jpg

The top 10 is pretty solid stuff (except 9) and the top 1 is my favorite animation of all time. This is the average of the opinions of hardcore fans so they know their stuff well. I think that watching most of that top 50 is essential for knowing modern animation specially in terms of narrative driven animation.

In terms of liking and disliking stuff. I like some genres more than others. I like metal more than rap, I like science fiction more than gangster themed stuff. I still can enjoy rap and gangster stuff but not as much as the other stuff. I dislike, however when people claim to dislike entire worlds like "videogames" or "manga/anime", when they are not genres but entire worlds that reflect the spectrum of tastes of large number of people, in that sense they are not actually saying anything other than signaling that such a person doesn't know what he/she is talking about and that such a person is arrogant in writting off entire world they do not know.

Guaporense

03-14-16, 01:08 PM

Essay - Animation, drawing, live action and photography

Animation is a reflection of the human mind while live action is only a mechanical process of producing images through photography. Animation uses drawings and the illusion of movement generated through sequence of drawings. Drawings are always and everywhere art and the thing about drawings is that they are not a reflection of reality but a reflection of the human mind.

For example, when you see the drawing of a military vehicle it is much clearer and well defined than a photo:

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/346/7/a/2nd_panzer_iv_illustration_from_osprey_by_wolfenkrieger-d4ix9i5.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-297-1722-24%2C_Im_Westen%2C_Panzer_IV.jpg

That's because the artist emphasises the key details that matter for the human mind, while the photo is just the outcome of a physical process that is not conscious and hence does not articulate the human perception of reality. The drawing focuses only on the aspects considered essential by the artist, producing a portrait of the reality as perceived by the artist's mind. This additional clarity explains why in WW2, Japan produced instructional videos for aircraft repair animated, despite the massive costs of producing animation at the time, because learning was much faster with animated instructional films instead of live action ones.

Live action film is a sequence of photographs, images produced from the mechanical process of a machine filming. As a result the degree of detail and most of the images portrayed are beyond the control of the makers of the film, instead live action film is filled with extraneous detritus that makes it harder for the viewer to digest vis a vis animation. Live action is an inefficient medium.

I always liked animation since I was a child for this abstract quality and efficiency in the way it transmits information to the viewer. Besides these qualities animation also has a higher degree of freedom, since the artists are in full control of the process of making it. This means that animation holds a greater artistic potential than live action but this artistic potential is most of the time not realized.

The idea that animation is for children is the outcome of a historical process. Although I also think that since simpler drawings are easier to draw than more sophisticated drawings, then children would be more open to animation made using simple drawings. However, I am not quite aware of this preference for simple drawings in regards to children: When I was 10-11 years old I found Disney completely lame and I liked the art of games like Starcraft, which is much more complex. The idea that children's minds are simple is a myth that exists in the minds of adults who have forgotten their younger selves. Still this idea has provided a strong influence for the development of animation, or more precisely, for its stagnation as an artistic medium in the west.

AboveTheClouds

03-14-16, 02:57 PM

I always liked animation since I was a child for this abstract quality and efficiency in the way it transmits information to the viewer. Besides these qualities animation also has a higher degree of freedom, since the artists are in full control of the process of making it. This means that animation holds a greater artistic potential than live action but this artistic potential is most of the time not realized.

The idea that animation is for children is the outcome of a historical process. Although I also think that since simpler drawings are easier to draw than more sophisticated drawings, then children would be more open to animation made using simple drawings. However, I am not quite aware of this preference for simple drawings in regards to children: When I was 10-11 years old I found Disney completely lame and I liked the art of games like Starcraft, which is much more complex. The idea that children's minds are simple is a myth that exists in the minds of adults who have forgotten their younger selves. Still this idea has provided a strong influence for the development of animation, or more precisely, for its stagnation as an artistic medium in the west.

This actually hit me in the feels, because I felt/feel the same way as you do. Disney at a point was basically a joke to a kid watching Dragon Ball, Gundam Wing, Trigun, Lupin III and movies like Wings of Honneamise, Macross Plus, Princess Mononoke, Castles In the Sky and Patlabor. What my young mind was able to make of those films is really just a less definitive version of what I make of them now. Of course I understand concepts within the films better and I'm a little more critical about certain things, but I'm able to view this material with the same exuberance that I did as a child.

On the same page, this is the reason why I prefer animated sitcoms to live action sitcoms, the possibilities are essentially endless and allow for total freedom to tell a story.

Zotis

03-16-16, 12:40 AM

I'll just comment on the subject of subjectivity in art before I read the two most recent posts.

Quality is by definition objective. To make a qualitative statement, "One thing is better than another," there must be a standard of excellence. Art has many subjective elements, but it's qualitative elements are not subjective even though at high levels they may be impossible to determine. People have a hard time separating their feelings and personal taste from objective standards of quality. When it comes to art, even defining what art is, is hard to do and may have subjective elements. There's an expression that often rings in my ears, "All great artists are misunderstood." I don't think it's possible for the human mind to fully grasp true art. Not even the artist their self fully comprehends their own art. When I made my own art I always felt like it was creating itself and I was just a vessel. That kind of thing can't be measured. I understand why people say quality in art is subjective, but while the idea trying to be communicated is reasonable, I don't think those words are accurate. No one can determine which of the greatest masterpieces are the absolute best, but perhaps a supreme being who knows everything can. The point is there are subjective elements to art, but quality is always objective.

It's like this: If art is subjective than there is no "best" but there are degrees of excellence. It's not subjective in the sense that a person can say the art they like most, or that makes them "feel" the most, is better than art they like least. It's subjective in the sense that within the same grades of excellence no one can say which is better, only which they like more.

People who say one is better than another because art is subjective are always wrong. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of subjectivity, objectivity, quality, and art. It is only ignorant people who make no effort to even understand the meaning of the words they use who say such absurd things, and who make little effort to develop their own taste.

Zotis

03-16-16, 01:53 AM

The Twelve Kingdoms (Seasons 1&2)
(2002-2003) Animation, Fantasy

Directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi
Based on the light novels by Fuyumi Ono

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t191/LydiaDianne/anime/Twelve%20Kingdoms/TwelveKingdoms17.jpg

Season 1, Episodes 1-14 contain the first story arc revolving around the character Youko Nakajima, a high school student who later becomes Queen Kei. Season 2, Episodes 15-33, expands on the world in a broader scope and focuses on other characters as well as Youko. Youko still remains a central character, but is no longer the main focal point. Season 1 is a complete story arc, but Season 2 ends somewhat abruptly in the middle of events. I didn't realise that there was a third season, so I was actually surprised when it suddenly ended in the middle of things. Now I'll have to get my hands on the final three chapters. I bought both seasons bran new on Blu Ray. Season 1 was $85, and Season 2 was $95. I've been poking my head around on eBay to see if I can get the third season, and so far I have only found individual DVD's or the complete series for less than I payed for Season 1.

The animation is based on a series of light novels by the same name. The story is based on Chinese mythology, and there are many similarities with Western fairy tales too, such as talking animals. High schooler Youko Nakajima and her two friends, Yuka and Asano, are transported to this mystical land where they suffer hardships due to language and cultural barriers as well as political intreague and monsters known as Yoma (another word for Demons or monsters in other series such as Claymore). In the second story arc another girl from Japan is transported to this world and serves for 90 years as a servant to an imortal noble woman. Immortality is granted to all rulers and their servants in this world. There are also gods walking among mortals, and a higher supreme God, Tentei. Another central character in the second story arc is a princess who's father was corrupt and overthrown. The princess lived a lavish lifestyle and was very ignorant, and gradually after many hardships comes to realise the error of her ways. There are many character criticisms, and especially a lot of attention paid to criticising ignorance. One of the most tolerant characters, Rakushun, is a talking human sized rat who can also transoform into a human form. He helps Youko and the princess, Shoukei, gain greater perspectives on life. But it's interesting how the creators project their own personal views through their characters. For example, Rakushun does not believe that gods exist, but in subtle ways he questions himself internally over the course of the series. I think there is a criticism of the Christian view of God in the way that the gods of this world are more directly involved with affairs of state. It reminds me of the way people often say, "If God exists then why is the world so corrupt?" So the gods of this world elect rulers and punish them for being corrupt. It's a very human perspective, because there are just as many "Why do the gods allow evil?" Questions raised.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iW0M5ulVy8I/T1ymrre9neI/AAAAAAAAQdU/BYRnpB-lE_o/s1600/Juuni_Kokki_anime_screenshots_4.jpeg

This series captivates and entertains me so much that I was willing to fork out that much money. Probably the strongest element is the story. The characters are very strong with well developed personalities and flaws. The mythology sometimes goes into so much detail that it's confusing and hard to remember everything, but the depth of the mythology is fascinating. The animation quality and drawing style are great. It's not the best I've seen in terms of animation quality, but well above what's typical for mainstream animation. Most mainstream animations suffer from limited drawing angles and character movements. The Twelve Kingdoms has a lot of very interesting perspective angles, character motions, scenery, and motions.

Overall it is a very unique animation. The excellent artwork, deep characters, life insights, fantastic mythology, and charm make for a truly memorable animation. I consider this a must see for animation fans.

4.5

Guaporense

03-17-16, 11:18 PM

This one is a series I didn't appreciate fully the first time I watched it.

Guaporense

03-18-16, 02:01 PM

66) Journey to the Stars

Reason for watching: Went to DC the other day and watched this movie about the universe because I was bored but it ended up too little for the price.

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQwsS_hI0pF8BTiN4nFyE3hIIXqVTw9eTJ7ifQF3v9RazU20jG1

This is a short animated documentary without a plot or character driven narrative. Instead it is an educational short film explaining how the universe was constituted and how stars work. I found parts of the film interesting but other parts appeared to insult the viewers intellect a little bit. The voice of Whoopi Goldberg was a bit annoying as well.

The computer animation was very good all around and it fits the subject really well. Computer animation works better for depicting inanimate objects like galaxies and stars rather than humans/humanlike characters. Overall the art was excellent and fit the subject depicted very well. The art tries go for photographic realism and succeeds in that respect, which is a problem when depicting humans (exp: the Final Fantasy movie).

Guaporense

03-24-16, 08:54 PM

67) Demon City Shinjuku (1988)

http://fantasyanime.com/anime/images/demoncity/demoncity_shot29.jpg

The period from 1983 to 2000 can be perhaps regarded as the golden age for animated cinema. The reason is that at the period Japanese animation became dominated by OVA's which are direct to video films, produced by the thousands in the late 1980's and 1990's.

After 2000 OVA's declined vertiginously as late night animation flourished as the main medium for adult animation. Thing is, OVA's are shorter than late night TV shows and hence have bigger budget per minute and better direction. Today the bulk of animation produced in the world consists of late night anime series, which have poor direction and animation quality. In that sense animation as cinema declined in the past 15 years although now plots and writing got more complex in return. An example is Serial Experiments Lain, from 1998 is a early example of late night anime series, has terrible animation but great direction (exceptional in that sense). And there is the fact that larger number of theatrical anime films are made today versus the 1990's and 1980's. But overall, there was a substantial declined in the total number of anime films, counting OVA's as films.

One typical example of great OVA from the 1980's is Demon City Shinjuku. It's the adaptation of a novel and I found it very impressive in terms of art and animation. The plot is pretty conventional but the animation and art is very impressive. In fact, it shows how great animation made directly for video release was in the late 80's, looking more impressive IMO than the animation of a Disney blockbuster from the same time. The direction is also great, from the same guy who made Ninja Scroll.

Also it is a good example of horror animation. While there are few horror anime, some can be great although I am seldom scared by it. Madoka is also classified as horror but its more of a tragedy than horror.

Guaporense

03-29-16, 04:45 PM

68) The Seven Deadly Sins (2015)

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/hnewman/files/2015/10/7DeadlySins_SDP-1-1-copy.jpg

Reason for watching: A top selling 2015 manga plus well regarded among industry professionals. I have the impression that in Japan popular culture is more closely adherent to the opinions of the "elite" than in the West: top selling manga usually shows up in the top manga lists from industry professionals while in the US movie critics and filmgoers have completely different tastes.

Now for a generic shounen action series. Shounen action is the single most popular form of narrative in Japan and also in the world considering that most of the blockbuster films made these days are variations of Shounen action. Here we have a typical example of the genre: featuring super human characters, including a main character that holds enormous hidden powers and is not quite human, just like Goku. Also the main character is supposed to be around 35 but looks 12, well, in a sense he represents us manga fans who are children from the inside. Anyway, the show had good pacing and interesting characters and was a fun ride overall although inferior to many other manga/shows I have read/watched.

The animation is pretty impressive for a TV show. However, the shift from OVAs to TV has indeed drastic negative impact on the quality of the animation: demon city Shinjuku despite having been made nearly 30 years earlier has way better animation than The Seven Deadly Sins. Still for TV standards its quite great.

AboveTheClouds

03-29-16, 04:55 PM

I got two episodes into that Guap and couldn't watch anymore. I found the characters to be annoying at times, and the story wasn't doing it for me. To be fair I did only watch two episodes and it could get better, but nothing really hooked me about it and I was thinking about watching other stuff while watching it. Maybe I'll give it a fair try one day, but I don't think it will be for a while.

Guaporense

03-29-16, 06:34 PM

I watched it mostly because the talking pig was cute:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/26k2rjiqNQk/maxresdefault.jpg

Zotis

03-31-16, 04:52 AM

Demon City Shinjuku is great. I wouldn't call it Horror though, but it is ultra-violent.

Guaporense

04-01-16, 06:50 PM

Well, compared to Genocyber its pretty light on the violence.

Guaporense

04-01-16, 10:22 PM

69) Genocyber (1994)

http://orig01.deviantart.net/e714/f/2012/354/f/1/genocyber_female_android_montage_by_blake290383-d5oks08.jpg

Reason for watching: It is at the top of the most gory anime list. Also, the name sounds cool and Z has it on his list of anime.

Review: Well, while watching it I felt a strong sense of deja vu. Reason is that I actually watched Genocyber back in 1997 when I was 8 years old, yes, I clearly remember certain scenes and while watching it I felt the same atmosphere as before. Genocyber is the essence of anime in the sense that it is exactly what Western animation would never try to be: undiluted violence, extreme goryness and a powerful and hauting atmosphere.

I myself tend to feel that manga possess certain spiritual qualities that most movies lack. When I watch Genocyber this becomes clear. Genocyber is essentially the essence of that feeling that is unique to Japanese cultural products. Its like a more concentrated version of Nausicaa in that sense, although it lacks Miyazaki's artistic genius it makes up with sheer brutality. I don't think I ever experienced a work of fiction which the same level of brutality ad Genocyber. The reason is that in Genocyber everybody is "bad" and is killing each other like animals, there are no main characters or leads that possess some sort of moral superiority for the viewer to identify with, what is presented is pure carnage, almost continuous and that this carnage is ultimately the product of men's selfish desires.

Genocyber is also a great success in terms of direction. It is very well directed given its not a big budget movie but a small budget OVA although it's animation is of superior quality compared to most TV animation, which is typical of OVAs. Still the direction is typical of Japanese stuff from the period (late 80s and early 90s), reminding me a bit of films like Tetsuo the Iron Man and manga like Parasyte. Like those articles, this is a quintessential work and essential for those who are serious about animation.

Example of brutality?

https://seeanimeondaniel.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/genocyber-51.jpg

Zotis

04-02-16, 01:24 PM

The main character of Genocyber is the blonde girl.

Did you see all five OVA's, or just the first one?

Also check out Angel Cop. I can't remember if you've seen it yet.

Guaporense

04-03-16, 03:40 AM

The main character of Genocyber is the blonde girl.

Did you see all five OVA's, or just the first one?

All 5. I liked the 2nd arc the most.

Also check out Angel Cop. I can't remember if you've seen it yet.

Watched it in 2014. Put it into my top 100 animations.

Zotis

04-03-16, 04:01 AM

Elaine is the girl's name. I liked the first story arc the most. When I saw it for the first time I shed a couple tears when the boy's spirit departed. I still shed a tear at that scene a couple of years later when I watched it again. I didn't shed a tear the third watch, but it still hits me deep in the heart. It's so interesting that such a violent anime could also be so emotional and have such meaningful content.

Hmm... what else should I recommend to you...

Fight Iczer
Galforce (I think you've seen at least one, but you should see the rest of them if you haven't)
Armor Hunter Mellowlink (set in the Votoms universe)
Iria: Zeiram the Animation (not sure if you've seen it, but a must see for sure)
Curse of Kazuo
A Wind Named Amnesia (essential)
The Dark Myth
Dagger of Kamui (essential)
Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma (essential)
Bio Hunter
Baoh (essential)
Wicked City (not sure if you've seen it, but another ultra violent and essential)
The Cockpit (I think you've seen it, I consider it essential)
Big Wars (essential)
Lensman: Secret of the Lens (a star wars knock off, but also the movie Titan AE completely ripped off parts of it)

Guaporense

04-05-16, 03:06 AM

I have watched Baoh, Iria and the Curse of Kazuo. I plan ti watch now in terms of OVA's Gallforce and Detonator Orgun as well as Wicked City at some point. I remain relatively ignorant of the world of the OVA's.

70) M. D. Geist.(1986)

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l115/Skellor/BT/BT2/mdgeist_dbnl4.png

Reason for watching: It's M.D. Geist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :p

Review: Now, that's some manly stuff. This is heavy metal in the form of a cartoon. Indeed, it's extremely direct, discarding any pretension of being concerned with exposition and complex character development. Instead all information you need is communicated through actions to the viewer's subconscious. It's a glorious film in many ways and a testament to the glory of 1980's animation. In terms of live action films the one closest to this would be The Road Warrior and also obvious influences from western films like Terminator and Blade Runner. However, in this case the main character is much, much, much more badass. So badass that his coolness transcends morality and standard hero tropes.

After 30 years, it appears that Japanese animation evolved into a quite distinct direction. Less manly and more cute, less westernized and more Japanese. Super violent manly stuff like M.D. Geist is something that is becoming more and more rare in animation, now most animation looks increasingly more like Moe Geist:

http://img09.deviantart.net/2f3c/i/2010/319/f/c/md_yui_by_vzmk2-d32wg6n.jpg

:D

Zotis

04-05-16, 03:21 AM

I consider M.D. Geist essential anime. And I think OVA's are generally more important and higher quality than series. Even the better series like Claymore are iconic but not very well animated or as deep and meaningful. So I'm not usually impressed when people watch a lot of series and consider themselves anime buffs. Quality is way more important than quantity.

Guaporense

04-05-16, 05:47 PM

OVA's indeed have better quality of direction and animation than series on average (for the same reason as theatrical movies). In terms of writing, series have the advantage of being longer allowing for greater character development.

Most anime buffs only watch the new stuff and the new stuff is mostly series. OVAs were popular in the 1980's and 1990's but since Evangelion they began to lose popularity and the industry shifted to late night series.

I actually watched M.D. Geist back in 1997 when it aired on Brazilian TV (it aired in the same block as Genocyber on friday night's around 8 PM, a small channel decided to air it at the same time as the mainstream soap operas air in the bigger channels, since otaku don't like soup operas in general it made sense). When re-watching it I noticed I remembered little of it (like with Genocyber, only some scenes were burned in my memory).

71) Detonator Orgun (1991)

http://lparchive.org/Super-Robot-Wars-W/Update%20155/8-Detonator-Orgun.jpg

Reason for Watching: It aired on the same block as M.D. Geist and Genocyber in the Brazilian TV.

Review: Another one of those OVAs that aired on Brazilian TV, like M.D. Geist I could recall some elements of it from those days.

But this one is more like Gunbuster B: it's plot however contains a lot of elements of transhumanism besides evil aliens and stuff. Overall, though, it's animation is superior to Gunbuster but it lacks in terms of direction and overall quality (well, in that sense Gunbuster is not expected to be surpassed easily). And the ending was extremely silly, even by anime standards, some elements really made me cringe during the ending and the plot appears to be rather nonsensical: why the aliens are attacking? In Gunbuster they had a very lame excuse for it but it sufficed (because humans are considered a threat by the "universe" and the aliens would be the universe's immune system response to the plague of humanity).

I liked the way it depicted space ships and cities and other mechanical things (specially the mecha), everything looked very nice and streamlined. However, the character designs were not very good, the main character looked really weird with his oval face.

Zotis

04-05-16, 11:16 PM

Here are some more recs from the 80's:

Megacity 23
Goodnight Althea
Goku: Midnight Eye
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01
Battle Royal High School
Lily C.A.T.
Grey: Digital Target
Harmagedon
Roots Search

This one is on my to-watch list: Hades Project Zeorymer

http://www.anigamers.com/media/entry-uploads/zeorymer_splash_2_250914_025958.png

Zotis

04-05-16, 11:36 PM

90's Recs:
Roujin Z
Silent Mobius I&II
Gasaraki (series, I haven't gotten around to finishing it though)
AD Police Files (the manga is way better though)
8 Man After
Darkside Blues (essential)
Big Wars
Psycho Diver: Soul Siren
Bounty Dog (I can't remember if I've seen it, but it looks pretty good)

This one looks cool, but I have not seen it: Genesis Survivor Gaiarth

http://img.snowrecords.com/laser/1/473.jpg

Zotis

04-05-16, 11:40 PM

Ninja Gaiden OVA is also pretty decent:

http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/5/69415.jpg

Also check out the Devilman OVA's. I didn't like the series, but the OVA's were good, especially Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman.

Devilman: The Birth (1987)

http://www.projectosoldschool.com/wp-content/uploads/Devilman-The-Birth-03.png

Devilman: Demon Bird Sirene (1990)

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS7ANRCRBF9kxAMUHtcxNatsLDV02YVvJipG8wiVfEpEyjVI71oKQ

Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman (2000)

http://media9.fast-torrent.ru/media/files/s2/zy/pq/amon-apokalipsis-cheloveka-dya.png

Zotis

04-05-16, 11:53 PM

Zotis

04-06-16, 03:11 AM

Darkside Blues (1994)

Directed by Nobuyasu Furukawa and Yoshimichi Furukawa
Written by Mayori Sekijima

http://www.fullmoon88chan.extra.hu/blog/wp-content/gallery/darkside/snapshot20110321235206.jpg

I forgot about this anime for a long time. I remembered it only vaguely and could not find it. When I was looking for recs for you, Guap, I came across it again, thankfully. It's been years since I watched it, so I wasn't sure how my old impression would hold up now that I understand a little more about the technical side of the medium. It does hold up, very well. The animation quality is excellent, and it's a great story. In the future an evil corporation owns most of the Earth, but Kabuki-cho, A.K.A. The Darkside of Tokyo, still remains free. Terrorists try to overthrow the corporation, and getting mixed up in the conflict is a small gang of resistance fighters called Messiah who are lead by a beautiful young woman named Mai. A mysterious stranger from a realm of darkness calls himself Darkside and protects the town of Kabuki-cho.

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/942429da4.jpg

It's a really beautiful movie with great atmosphere, excellent music, and strong emotional scenes. The characters are deep and interesting. I consider this an essential anime. This anime should not be obscure, but sadly even most of the die hard anime buffs have not heard of it. It's up there in terms of quality with works like Vampire Hunter D and Appleseed.

http://www.anime-kun.net/animes/screenshots/darkside-blues-4854.jpg

4

Guaporense

04-07-16, 01:28 AM

Looks good. There are many hundreds of anime films that nobody in the west knows, it's truly an ocean of unexplored gems.

Guaporense

04-07-16, 01:36 AM

After all the OVA's I've watched, and how superior they are to mainstream series, I just scoff at people who "watch more anime" than me because they really don't know jack squat about good anime.

Like when we had the animation MoFo list, and some people were saying they watch a decent amount of anime. They have no idea...

Very few Westerners have any idea of how big of a culture Manga and it's cinema offshoot, anime are. As I explained above,the number of pages of Manga sales in Japan are larger than book sales in the US, even though Japan's population is 40% of the US's: There are many hundreds of thousands of mangas and hundreds of thousands of manga artists, there is more manga to read than live action films produced in the whole world.

The impact of manga on Japanese culture has been compared often to the impact of popular music on Western culture (i.e. Jazz, Blues, Rock, Pop, Metal and Hip Hop), like popular music it's a huge world that's dominated by young people and consists of stuff that's usually more aggressive, visceral and less "elegant" than classical art (i.e. Beethoven and Tolstoi) but has more appeal to the average person.

Anime is smaller than manga but still pretty big. For instance, in terms of shows of cute girls doing random cute things (like K-On! and Azumanga Daioh) these are produced in Japan at the rate of 20 seasons per year. :eek:

The canon of essential anime includes a similar number of titles than the canon of essential Hollywood movies (about 100 titles each) and since these titles are OVA's and series for the most part it takes a longer time to watch all of them than the canon of Hollywood: In number of hours, Japan produces 6 times more animation per year than the US produces in terms of Hollywood movies.

Anime is also about 6-7 times bigger than Western animation, it's a huge medium that most westerners are not really aware off.

Guaporense

04-09-16, 10:06 PM

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k3utn5icP7k/hqdefault.jpg

71) Reason for watching: It's the sequel to M.D. Geist also said to be ultraviolent and ultraviolent animation is always great.

Review: This is a good example of extremely violent animation. That's a good description of it. ;) The plot is pretty confusing, in my opinion, but overall it still is pretty standard plot which follows the 1st movie story: the world has now been completely f*cked up by Geist's decision to release the "hounds" over the Earth and only a tiny portion of humanity still resists extermination. Geist doesn't waste time and by the end of the movie manages to kill those renmants. Geist is a complete anti-hero and the movie's "villain" if there is one is also the protagonist. I like that: a movie where the villain wins and kill everybody is interesting. At least I had never seem animation quite like that before this and Genocyber.

The art and animation are excellent IMO, very good stuff to watch. Better than the 1986 first movie (for obvious reasons), this was made in 1996 and now it was made digitally, which means that it's colors lost their "organic" feel from being hand painted but the animation became more fluid and detailed, although the changes made to Geist's power armor made it look a bit silly with those wings and stuff.

Overall worthwhile but not for people who are not fans of superviolent anime, since that's what this is and nothing more.

Zotis

04-09-16, 11:49 PM

Well I'm not sure if I watched the English dub for M.D. Geist II, and if that's what ruined it for me, but I also thought the plot was really stupid and it wasn't well drawn or animated. There is a lot of stills with the camera panning instead of actual motion. I got the impression that someone was cashing out on the success of the first one (due to it's cult following). I was so appauled by M.D. Geist II that I couldn't even get through the whole thing and turned it off half way. I may have to take another look at it (and be sure to watch the Japanese version), but my impression was that it was not worth watching.

Guaporense

04-09-16, 11:55 PM

I don't think it's worth watching 2 times though. Its way weaker than the 1st one, I liked it mostly because of its exceptional level of violence.

Zotis

04-10-16, 12:05 AM

I like violence, but not arbitrarily. For me it has to have a good story and acting too.

Guaporense

04-10-16, 12:29 AM

72) Is the Order a Rabbit?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Gochūmon_wa_Usagi_Desu_ka%3F_volume_1_cover.jpg

Why I watched it: As a big fan of the CGDCTs genre I couldn't leave this title unwatched.

Review: Now, this is the stuff. Hardcore slice of cuteness delivered intravenously. Its said that there exists two eras of animation: the era of the 1980's and 1990's of hyperviolent stuff and the 2000's and 2010's era of cutesy stuff. Of course, these are gross generalizations because only 7% of the animation that Japan produced over the past 5 years is CGDCTs and it's hard to find OVAs from the 1980's and 1990's as violent as Genocyber.

The sort of stuff you find in here can be found in and also was first published in Manga Time Kirara and it's spin-offs, this in fact was first published in Kirara Max spin-off magazine. Basically the "cute girls doing cute things" manga magazines. Although K-On!! Was published elsewhere.

This is pretty much the most hardcore cute girls doing cute things (CGDCTs) animation I ever experienced. It consists of three basic building blocks:

1- Girls: about 99% of all characters in it are girls. The only male character with substantial screentime is the white rabbit.

2 - They are cute. Really deformed to maximize all cuteness you can conceive of extracting from such character designs:
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSwI-n7VdkL2rkt9jtg3pnKcGdJyQF3jvnL25TOSQTTRdZJwgoncA

The whole environment they are also maximizes cuteness, with the cutest looking city and buildings as well as cute clothes and of course, the reason I watch the animation, cutest voice acting.

3 - They do random cute things.
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSrmQ7d9mJVWYmPVdcAi5nZVEJJT5Ohssw2zOhW0c0MwxbbI7f1

Plot? None.

Character development? Almost none, at least explicitly. Of course we know and learn the characters personalities from the way they act as their personalities are very distinct if not a bit cliche: there is the small cutest girl, there is the big one, strong and with big bobs who likes weapons, the childish and airhead main character, etc.

This is the stuff. Cuteness pornography in its purest form.

Zotis

04-10-16, 12:47 AM

Lol, awe man Guap, I could never watch that.

Saikano and Madoka pushed me past my limits already.

Guaporense

04-10-16, 02:31 AM

The sypnopsis of Is the order a Rabbit? Is pretty indicative of its contents:

"Kokoa Hoto just moved to town to start a new life at a new school. While looking for the boarding house where she is supposed to live and work, she stumbles across a cafe called Rabbit House. She's excited, imagining it's filled to the brim with rabbits that she can cuddle. Instead she finds out that it is a very ordinary coffee house with only one rabbit named Tippy, who doesn't even always act or sound like a rabbit should, and a quiet girl named Chino Kafuu. Kokoa learns that Rabbit House is actually the boarding house she was looking for. She is to be their new waitress. Now Kokoa must balance school and work life while also learning all about things like customer service, coffee art and much more from her new friends. As Chino's father says, things are going to get very lively in Rabbit House!"

Also, its categorized as a comedy but actually it has almost no jokes.

Well I'm not sure if I watched the English dub for M.D. Geist II, and if that's what ruined it for me, but I also thought the plot was really stupid and it wasn't well drawn or animated. There is a lot of stills with the camera panning instead of actual motion. I got the impression that someone was cashing out on the success of the first one (due to it's cult following). I was so appauled by M.D. Geist II that I couldn't even get through the whole thing and turned it off half way. I may have to take another look at it (and be sure to watch the Japanese version), but my impression was that it was not worth watching.

Also, I would add that I first watched this back in 1997 when I was like 8-9 years old, so that now it feels nostalgic, its like the nostalgia of watching Star Wars 7.

Guaporense

04-10-16, 09:20 PM

73) Paranoia Agent (2004)

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/paranoiaagent/images/5/5f/Paranoia20agent.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110827220533

Why I watched it: Well, I wanted to finish the Satoshi Kon filmography and also I wanted to watch the stuff in the top 80 anime list I computed from 49 top anime lists from several blogs, this was there.

Review: Satoshi Kon, the most overrated animation director of all time. Why? Well, his work is not specially impressive, just your standard westernized psychological stuff, the stuff that Westerners like more than the Japanese (in Japan, Kon's work is not as relatively popular as in the West, he is not regarded as one of the major animation directors in Japan).

Overall, though, its not a bad series. However, I couldn't feel like something was missing. It lacked anything exciting, instead it was boring and felt too cliche, just too close to mainstream culture instead of being something that explores the artistic possibilities of animation.

Still, its well directed, animated and acted, I didn't like the character designs, they are too close to live action go exploit the artistic possibilities of animation. However, Satoshi Kon disliked otaku style art, such as the art in manga like Is this Order a Rabbit?, instead favoring a more realitistic style, which I would have found more interesting 4 years ago rather than now. I think that now my tastes converged more and more to proper otaku tastes (hyper violence and hyper cuteness) rather than the tastes of a Western live action movie fan who is the target audience for Satoshi Kon. And Kon explicitly criticizes my beloved Japanese lolicon manga culture in that series. :p

Zotis

04-11-16, 01:33 AM

I watched the first episode of Paranoid Agent some years ago, and it did not appeal to me at all. I found it really boring, and so I didn't watch any more. I also found Millennium Actress boring, a bit of a second attempt at producing what he did with Perfect Blue. In my opinion Perfect Blue is the only time he really achieved true greatness. Perfect Blue is his masterpiece. Paprika was a very good movie too, but it didn't have as strong a narrative or characters as sympathetic and real. I have watched Perfect Blue about 15 times. I still have not watched Tokyo Godfathers though. Kon also wrote the segment "Magnetic Rose" from Memories which is a great piece.

If all of his work was of the level that Perfect Blue was, then I think he would be one of the greatest film makers of all time. But reflecting on his work overall I think you're right Guap, that he is not as great a film maker as Miyazaki.

Guaporense

04-11-16, 02:51 AM

The second ending of Is the Order a Rabbit?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ou2PDjTCF8

Guaporense

04-11-16, 02:59 AM

Zotis

04-11-16, 03:15 AM

Where would you rate Mamoru Oshii and Masaaki Yuasa? Actually, could you post your top 20 animation directors?

I would also put Rene Laloux very high up there.

Guaporense

04-16-16, 03:31 AM

My top animation directors:

1st - Hayao Miyazaki
2nd - Hideaki Anno
3rd - Isao Takahata
4th - Masaki Yuasa
5th - Mamoru Oshii
6th - Tsutomu Mizushima
7th - Akiyuki Shimbo
8th - Ryutaro Takamura
9th - Yutaka Izubuchi
10th - Nobuhiro Ishiguro
11th - Kunihiko Ikuhara
12h - Makoto Shinkai
13th - Junichi Satou
14th - Seiji Mizushima
15th - Koichi Ohata
16th - Junichi Satou
17th - Mamoru Hosoda
18th - Yoshifumi Kondo
19th - Naoko Yamada
20th - Hiroshi Hamasaki

Satoshi Kon ain't in top 20. Neither is any Western animation director, because I find that Western animation lacks the aesthetic edge to achieve the potential of the medium.

I didn't put Haibane Renmei's director there because the main creative artist is Yoshitoshi ABe, who is credited as character designer.

Guaporense

04-16-16, 03:50 AM

74) Symphogear GX (2015)

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/04f1dca1fd0dc400fcd8eb1b6bd71e4e1437167720_full.png

Reason for watching: I like the art style and I think the costumes are cute and really silly (which is a plus).

Review: These days its hard to find something truly entertaining. While Symphogear might be tremendously silly it is something that I found entertaining to watch. What is it about? Well, its about girls in ludicrous costumes fighting other girls with ludicrous attacks in a ludicrous fashion. Although I found the 3rd version of it to be significantly inferior to the first and second versions. The best was the 2nd season which was still pretty mediocre compared to other anime series. However, despite being pretty mediocre in its writing and animation I found myself quite entertained by it.

Also, this stuff is very musical. The whole thing consists of fight sequences with J-pop music inserted. I am finding myself enjoying it quite a bit, as j-pop is more melodic and emotional than Western pop music, although also being extremely silly sounding. But sillyness is part of the genre's charm. And some tracks were slightly heavy, reminding my a bit of Baby Metal.

Although the animation is pretty bland and the direction is nothing special. Well, obviously you shouldn't watch this erotic action show for its artistic qualities. It has lots of explosions and a pretty generic plot although I was disappointed with the villain which I found to be pretty unconvincing but yet they tried pretty hard to make her appear 3 dimensional.

Zotis

04-16-16, 04:48 PM

I'm only familiar with a few of those directors off the top of my head. I'll have to get some to-watch goodies off their filmographies.

Guaporense

04-17-16, 07:55 PM

Some of my favorite work from each of my top 20:

1st - Hayao Miyazaki
(Nausicaa)

2nd - Hideaki Anno
(EVA)

3rd - Isao Takahata
(Grave of the Fireflies)

4th - Masaki Yuasa
(Ping Pong)

5th - Mamoru Oshii
(GitS)

6th - Tsutomu Mizushima
http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/fcc618e79bb56e87e456a6604040fe451351543013_full.jpg

7th - Akiyuki Shimbo
(Madoka)

8th - Ryutaro Takamura
(Serial Experiments Lain)

9th - Yutaka Izubuchi
http://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/apr12/69004.JPG

10th - Nobuhiro Ishiguro
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--sZ1Rmp0J--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/1329868130367056229.jpg

11th - Kunihiko Ikuhara
(Yuri Kuma Arashi)

12h - Makoto Shinkai
(5 Centimeters per Second)

13th - Junichi Satou
https://thecajunsamurai.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/ariapictures032.jpg

14th - Seiji Mizushima
(Full Metal Alchemist)

15th - Koichi Ohata
(Genocyber)

16th - Hiroyuki Imaishi
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/95NAGyQoThs/maxresdefault.jpg

17th - Mamoru Hosoda
(Summer Wars)

18th - Yoshifumi Kondo
(Whisper of the Heart)

19th - Naoko Yamada
(K-On!)

20th - Hiroshi Hamasaki
http://static.zerochan.net/Texhnolyze.full.203842.jpg

Zotis

04-19-16, 12:54 AM

Appleseed (1988)

Written and directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama
Based on the manga by Masanori Ota (A.K.A. Masamune Shirow)

http://media9.fast-torrent.ru/media/files/s2/qa/pm/yablochnoe-semya-1.png

I like this a lot more than the newer movies. I have seen the 2004 movie, which is decent, but I wasn't a fan of the computer animation style. It made the characters seem a bit clunky and stiff in their movement. I've also seen Appleseed Ex Machina and I thought the plot for that was really lame although the computer animation was much better and there was an incredible amount of detail in the animation. The 1988 OVA had much more appeal to me in it's plot and animation. The characters are charming and it was an essential classic from the era.

4

Guaporense

04-20-16, 01:20 AM

Computer animation is garbage and looks like plastic. Hand drawn all the way.

Guaporense

04-27-16, 08:35 PM

75) Blade Of the Phantom Master (2004)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/61/Saocover2.jpg/220px-Saocover2.jpg

Reason for watching: I saw it in Netflix and decided to watch it because if looked fun.

Review: Featuring pretty good animation and art but overall it felt a bit derivative and uninteresting.

Its a film adapted from a Korean manga and the film is a Japanese and Korean co-production. Although the film is in Japanese.

The setting of the film reminds me of Trigun mixed up with Ninja Scroll. And the way it's executed feels pretty generic. The plot wasn't interesting and it felt like it was only an excuse for the almost continuous fight scenes.

So good art, animation and character designs. Rest was plain, specially the completely bland plot.

Guaporense

05-01-16, 11:22 PM

Essay - American Animation fans and Japanese Culture

What is the most insular country in the world? In cultural terms is the US. While living in the US since 2013 I noticed how incredibly closed the country is to foreign culture in general, I will not comment on the reasons for that.

One thing I noticed is that Anime is the single most popular form of foreign culture in the US, and the reasons for that are pretty obvious:

1 - Animation is the only medium that is not well developed in US culture. Other well developed mediums like live action film or literature have an abundance of US/English content so Americans don't bother consuming foreign stuff. Since Japan produces about 2/3 of the animation in the world, anybody with an interest in animation is driven torwards Japanese animation.

2 - While animation is not the main driving force of Japanese culture, manga is, the fact is that Americans and Westerners in general don't know how to read comic books, but they know how to watch TV. So they end up watching poorly animated adaptations of manga, which in Japan exists only as a means to advertise manga (yep, most anime just consists of manga commercials, made to boost manga sales and their plot is wrapped up in a rather hapzard fashion). So anime is what Americans like to call manga commercials for TV.

3 - Japanese pop culture is extremely rich and reflects the issues facing the people of an advanced industrialized society. Indian movies or Brazilian soup operas are not as easy for middle class Americans to consume since these societies are very different, Japanese society is similar to American society in many ways (more similar than Brazilian society is). While French movies are just plain boring and don't appeal to young people, despite being also from an advanced industrialized society. And young people are the ones more open to new and foreign stuff, older persons tend to only consume the same type of culture they consumed in their youth (their brains lose the capacity to learn new cultural languages, which explains why the middle aged parents hate their kids rap music).

As a result we have anime fans whose entire understanding of Japanese culture comes from animation and are virtually ignorant of other elements of Japanese culture. In fact, when I am watching Netflix I noticed that most foreign language stuff on Netflix consists of anime, there is very little live action Japanese stuff. And also, in book stores its pretty hard to find stuff that's foreign that is not very old stuff like Dostoyevsky. Animation becomes the only channel through people are exposed to Japan in the US. In fact, the highest grossing foreign movie of all time in the US is a Pokemon film.

Modern Japanese culture is pretty different from Western culture and specially American culture, despite being heavily influenced by Western culture in general and American culture in particular. These differences manifest themselves when Western animation fans complain that anime "panders to otaku". Well, its Japanese culture made for Japanese people, of course it "panders" to the interests of the Japanese and not the Americans: While some anime is exported abroad only about 15% of the anime industry revenues come from licensing outside of Japan, which means American market represents at most 4-5% of the anime industry's revenues. And the manga industry (who finances most anime) is several times larger than the anime industry.

American and Western anime fansin general constantly complain that anime doesn't pander to American and Western cultural norms and tastes. This form of complaint occurs in many ways, one type of complaint is their complaint that it's "paedophilia" or that "moe is killing the industry" and they miss the days of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. Well, thing is that obe should actually try to instrospect on the reasons why they think they like Cowboy Bebop and hate K-On!, and then it becomes clear: Cowboy Bebop is one of those rare americanized types of anime and was directed by Watanabe who is a fanboy of US culture, hence, being the type of stuff Americans would tend to identify with. K-On! is feminized slice of life stuff, both feminized stuff and slice of life are foreign to the highly masculine and "active" American culture. Since American and Western anime fans in general are not actually aware that such a thing as a culture different from the Jewish-Christian one exists they tend to think badly of anime which appeals to different cultural elements than those existing in the Western world.

I would advise these people to actually try to learn a little bit more about Japanese culture and also try to understand it from a Japanese perspective not a American one. I learned to like American culture even though it's completely different from Brazilian culture (although it shares some Western similarities, its degree of difference is similar to Japanese culture if not more so) and so it's equally possible for them to actually understand other cultures. Learning the cultural languages instead of complaining like babies would do a favour for them and for the culture they misubderstand and insult constantly.

Zotis

05-02-16, 07:09 AM

Well, I don't know a lot about American culture. I live in one of the most multi-cultural cities, if not THE most multi-cultural city in the world, Toronto. So here there are a lot of manga/anime fans, and I do meet Americans here regularily.

Even though I watch a lot of foreign films, most people here don't, and they probably watch more TV than films. I know several people who read a decent amount of Manga, and one or two who read a lot of manga. I know one or two people who watch more anime than me, and I know one person who watches more movies than me (or I should say has watched because he's older and doesn't watch a lot any more). But that's not counting people like the video store clerks I've encountered over my life.

Even here I would say very few people know much about Japanese culture, or any culture besides their own, myself included. I know a little bit, but that's it.

In my conversations with people I find that most people identify with the most mainstream forms of everything almost exclusively. They generalise about Anime the same way they generalise about Emo. The commercial product is the majority of it's identity to them even if it's completely misslabelled, like when Derek thinks Avenged Sevenfold is Metal.

Some people dig deeper, but most don't. Almost everyone digs a little into particular things that interest them. Now and then I encounter people who know about obscure realms of their areas of interest. Usually the people who I encounter who know more than me about my own interests which I've dug into are online on web sites dedicated to those things. They're spread thin over the world, but they run into each other online.

To me a peer is someone who contends with me in such areas of common interest. Take you, Guap, for example. You have seen lots of animation and films that I've not seen, I've seen lots you haven't, and we have a lot of overlap too. And we share other areas of interest too, like Metal.

I like you because you've taken your interests to exceptional depths and I can learn a lot from you and share my own enthusiasm with you. Most people are too shallow and ignorant to ever get to experience that, and it really seems to me like an essential aspect of life.

Guaporense

05-02-16, 09:44 PM

I think that I should add that I was talking about the "sociology" of culture there though not individual experience. The point was:

1 - Western fans of animation only know western culture.
2 - Most animation is not western and hence their only link to non-western cultures.
3 - Because of that there is a cultural language barrier and so western animation fans are constantly complaining that Japanese animation doesn't appeal to them.

It's also true that the US is also very multicultural in the sense that there are peoples of many cultures, however, the US native population is not exposed to other cultures unless they consciously become interested. For example, there are 30 million Mexicans in the US, but 99% of white or black Americans never read a Mexican book, listened to Mexican music or watched a Mexican movie.

In a sense the US is open (to people), in another sense, the US is closed (to culture). Brazil is more open to foreign culture because of our 3rd world status so we idolize foreign culture because it's from countries more advanced than ours.

Guaporense

05-03-16, 09:27 PM

76) Minions (2015)

http://www.thevipconcierge.com/images/UploadedEventPhotos/Minions-2.jpg

Well, this movie was bland. Hollywood blockbuster movies are converging more and more to feel exactly like each other and appeal to the largest possible number of people. The problems with that approach is that the more artistic elements of expression tend to become downplayed (and that means anything that might not appeal to some demographics) as well as that filmmakers become chained to political correctness to an enormous level.

Despite these issues this film was entertaining and very "easy to consume": The minions were cute and watching them move around was enjoyable. It reminds me of Monsters versus Aliens as well, which is a very similar in style Dreamworks movie but with less "explosions". The animation is good but the art is a bit tad simplistic and the jokes are not very good (well it appears that the cuteness was the selling point not the jokes).

Also, in terms of cuteness there are many anime titles that operate on a far higher level such as Is the Order a Rabbit? (although their mixture of erotic elements might scare away most western people as well as their inclusion of more complex/adult writing:

Cuteness and erotica combined in Is the Order a Rabbit?
http://www.theanimegallery.com/data/thumbs/790px/0181/tAG_181150.jpg
This doesn't fit well with western cultural stereotypes.

Overall Minion is an entertaining movie.

AboveTheClouds

05-03-16, 09:48 PM

Zotis

05-04-16, 01:32 AM

I can't say I was ever tempted to watch Minions.

Guaporense

05-04-16, 02:22 AM

I like cute movies. I liked even the My Little Pony movies and more so than Minions.

Zotis

05-04-16, 08:17 AM

Yeah, I don't think I could watch My Little Pony. I don't know how you do it. :p

Saikano was pretty cute though. That's my favorite cute anime. Much more than Madoka in terms of cuteness.

Zotis

05-04-16, 11:04 PM

I updated the first page with the links you sent me Guap, and I added links to all my reviews. I also posted your list of top directors and my list of obscure gems.

Guaporense

05-05-16, 09:49 PM

Cool. In my list of favorite directors Junichi Sato shows up twice, so in the second time he shows up you can put Hiroyuki Imaishi.

Zotis

05-05-16, 11:00 PM

Okay, I made the change.

Zotis

05-06-16, 05:28 AM

Okay, so I began work on my Top 100 Anime list. So far here is my first draft of contenders listed alphabetically. There's 103 so far.

.Hack//Sign
8 Man After
A.D. Police Files
Akira
Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman
Angel Cop
Angel's Egg
The Animatrix
Appleseed
Armitage III
Armor Hunter Mellowlink
Arrietty
Baoh
Battle Angel
Battle Royale High School
Berserk
Big Wars
Bio Hunter
Black Magic M-66
Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma
Blood: The Last Vampire
Bounty Dog
Claymore
The Cockpit
Curse of Kazuo
Cyber City Oedo 808
Dagger of Kamui
The Dark Myth
Darkside Blues
Demon City Shinjuku
Demon of Steel
Devilman: Demon Bird Sirene
Devilman: The Birth
Dragon's Heaven
Fight Iczer!
Flag
Gall Force: Eternal Story
Gall Force 2: Destruction
Gall Force 3: Stardust War
Genocyber
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Goku: Midnight Eye
Goodnight Althea
Grey: Digital Target
Haibane Renmei
Harmageddon
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance
Iria: Zeiram the Animation
Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Kai Do Maru
Kemonozume
Kite
Knights of Sidonia
Lensman: Secret of the Lens
Lily C.A.T.
M.D. Geist
Megacity 23
Memories
Meso Forte
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01
Mind Game
Mobile Suit Gundam: A War in the Pocket
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counter Attack
Mobile Suit Gundam: Stardust Memories
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Mushi-Shi
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Neo Tokyo
Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Scroll
Ocean Waves
One Punch Man
Only Yesterday
Paprika
Perfect Blue
Ping Pong: The Animation
Princess Mononoke
Psycho Diver: Soul Siren
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Red Hawk: Weapon of Death
Redline
Rhea Gall Force
Robot Carnival
Roots Search
Roujin Z
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise
Saikano
Serial Experiment Lain
Silent Mobius
Spirited Away
Steins;Gate
Summer Wars
Sword of the Stranger
Tekonkinkreet
Twelve Centimeters Per Second
The Twelve Kingdoms
Vampire Hunter D
Venus Wars
Whisper of the Heart
Wicked City
A Wind Named Amnesia

Guaporense

05-06-16, 02:34 PM

Maybe you can make a top 100 animation list and include the other non-Japanese stuff to fill up to a 100. In my top 100 animations list there were 25 or so non-Japanese titles.

Zotis

05-06-16, 09:41 PM

I just added .Hack//Sign, so now it is 100. :p

tatmmw2

05-06-16, 09:47 PM

No hunterhunter?
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121210103844/hunterxhunter/images/1/1c/Hisoka_disappointed.png

Zotis

05-06-16, 10:41 PM

I think you mean Hunter X Hunter. And no, that anime is annoying.

tatmmw2

05-06-16, 10:48 PM

you are annoying >:c

Zotis

05-06-16, 11:03 PM

I just added Red Hawk: Weapon of Death.

Zotis

05-07-16, 01:03 AM

Muramasa (1987)

Directed by Osamu Tezuka

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X9on2UM3hRA/T1O-T4vp2UI/AAAAAAAAIMU/hGulDOdkh4o/s1600/Muramasa+-+Osamu+Tezuka.jpg

This is a short film running 9 minutes. The artwork was very good, but the animation quality was poor. There was virtually no motion except for a few shots where only small things moved a little, like a person's hand shaking back and forth, or a bird flying by. There was no dialogue, only eerie music. A samurai finds a sword, and the sword slowly makes him go insane. It was very interesting for an old short film. The subtle message was quite potent. This text was the intro:

"A man with arms which can kill people like puppets is not aware that he himself has already become a puppet."

Guaporense

05-07-16, 01:16 PM

I plan to watch most of the stuff in your list that I haven't watched. I liked everything you recommended to me so far.

Guaporense

05-13-16, 01:14 AM

Digibro's videos

I have watched a fair amount of videos by Digibro, I find his opinion on many subjects very agreeable.

For example,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLIMHh6GclA

About an overlooked genre in the west. I think I will watch his K-On!! Review at some point.

And his video about the medium in general is pretty cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XRe612LFvs

Zotis

05-13-16, 01:58 AM

I liked the way Digibro talked and analyzed. Those videos were surprisingly easy to watch and enjoyable. I don't agree with everything he says, but most of it was pretty solid. I subscribed to his channel. :up:

Guaporense

05-13-16, 05:08 PM

One thing he apparently is not aware is the fact that most of these series are manga adaptations and what he calls anime are TV manga adaptations, hence, the innovations he attributes to animation were done first in manga. Also, since there are lots of live action manga adaptations many of these innovations he attributes to anime are also present in live action Japanese TV shows.

Zotis

05-13-16, 07:41 PM

Yeah, that makes sense. Well, I just finished One Punch Man, so I'll do my review tonight.

Zotis

05-14-16, 02:02 AM

Gasaraki (1999)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/Gasaraki_cover.jpg

After watching six episodes of Gasaraki I stopped watching it. The pacing is slow to the point of being boring because it lacks the grace of skilled directing and writing. The drawing and animation of vehicles is probably it's strongest point, but by contrast most of the drawing style and animation quality are quite poor. Some characters are drawn better than others, and the occasional unconventional angles are interesting when they show up, but the bulk of it has this distasteful "filler" characteristic that's a bit of an eye sore. The characters' mouths move as if the original language isn't even Japanese. The trope of characters' being surprised constantly by the slightest things is exceptionally annoying. In episode seven, by the five minute mark the main character had been surprised a dozen times. When other characters move, he's shocked. When they speak he's startled. When someone else enters the room he's caught off guard. It's excruciating. There are a lot of typical money saving aspects to the animation where it's just obvious that they didn't go all out and were suffering from budget constraints. Lots of stills and reused scenes as "flashbacks." The same flashback was used repeatedly, two or three times an episode for three or four episodes. I finally couldn't take it any more. I would not recommend this anime.

https://i.imgflip.com/144nuy.jpg

https://i.imgflip.com/144o15.jpg

Zotis

05-14-16, 02:24 AM

One Punch Man (2015)

Directed by Shingo Natsumi
Written by Tomohiro Suzuki

http://geekandsundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/wp_ss_20150329_00011-e1427687788793-970x545.png

The origin of One Punch Man was a web comic by an anonymous author. It was very popular and spawned a manga illustrated by Yusuke Murata. That was also very popular, and hence they decided to make an anime. I'm told the manga is much better than the series. The series is quite entertaining and decently animated, but there are plenty of filler moments where the animation quality is lackluster. The plot reuses the same gimmicks continually. Enemies ramble about how powerful they are, and then he cuts them off by killing them in a single punch. I found it quite amusing for the first couple of episodes, but the novelty wore off pretty quickly. Another repetitive gimmick is the way that he doesn't get credit, is despised by the general public, and is ranked low on the hero rating system despite being the most powerful being in the universe. All kinds of mid level heroes mock him and boast about being stronger than him, but then after they are easily defeated he in turn easily defeats the monster that defeated them. It happens every single episode, and it often happens several times within each episode. It was funny at first, but then it was just rehashed to the point of being a little boring and predictable. I did somewhat enjoy the series, and I did want to see what happened next as the plot built up, but I did find myself getting a little bored by how repetitive it was. Initially it was really captivating because it's quite different from anything else out there, but the main problem is that there is not enough depth overall.

2.5

Guaporense

05-15-16, 02:17 AM

77 - Non Non Biyori (2013)

https://korisanime.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/non-non-biyori.jpg

Another example of the slice of life genre of cute girls doing cute things. There is no plot and nothing of consequence as well as nothing related to the development of the charcters psychological "problems". Like Seinfeld it's about nothing but this time I wasn't very entertained by its relatively subtle comedy.

Unlike Is the Order a Rabbit?, Non Non Biyori is more realistic and less "cute". The characters behave more like children as opposed to completely unrealistic constructs aimed at its adult male audience. However, because of that I was mostly bored by it. As well as one of the issues I have with film as opposed to Manga is that it heavily taxes the viewer's attention, in this case the attention didn't pay off most of the time for me, it was just too boring to see jokes about these girls from rural Japan not understanding that people in Tokyo don't own a mountain each.

Also the music, the direction and the animation were pretty bland and not interesting.

Guaporense

06-02-16, 05:36 PM

78) Girls und Panzer: Das Film (2015)

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qVsVi3DUxSE/V1nW2tUi1kI/AAAAAAAAAY0/2VZQBOrsM7c_aigtzlzhRI9DSiAQ2EPowCLcB/s1600/GuPdF.jpg

Now, this is entertainment. Real entertainment, not pseudo entertainment like a bland generic blockbuster movie Hollywood that I watched recently (Man of Steel). Indeed, this movie is worth watching just for the tank warfare. Although it's not just because it's 80 minutes of tank-on-tank!! We see a lot of tanks in the movie, almost every model that fought the second world war and even some early post war tanks are featured in the film, like the Centurion and the Pershing tanks.

The movie does not consist of only tank battles, it also features some drama. Although the plot is a bit forced and cliche, it does not hold the movie back, instead because its so well executed and intelligent in subtle ways I found it quite amusing. The movie also features a lot of cuteness mixed in specially in the middle parts, including some parts that are amusing to watch because the cuteness is so, so forced it becomes hilarious.

The art and animation is also pretty conventional but excellently made. Mizushima is a master of conventional animation and his work is not experimental or very creative but it's passionate and expertly executed, this film is a good example of modern Japanese culture and extremely cool and entertaining stuff.

Its critical reception was excellent in Japan, winning prizes even among the association of film critics (http://jmcao.org/index.html), something rare for a piece of unconventional otaku animation.

Guaporense

07-04-16, 09:11 PM

Essay - Elitism and Stupidity in Film Criticism

https://robertsnow.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/anton_critic.jpg

From observing, mostly Anglophone, film's critics opinions regarding movies I came to develop some impressions of the perception of film criticism regarding movies that reflect a profound level of stupidity and elitism which is rooted in the inferiority complex fans of films have in regard to more developed art forms like music and literature. And also reflecting the overall drive of Western art over the past few generations toward novelty and the sacrifice of any aesthetic standards.

What I mean by that is that movie's critics opinions are extremely biased by a sense of elitism that is a manifestation of an inferiority complex and also influenced by trends in painting over the past few generations. It explains why film critics tend to praise movies like Malick's or Kiarostami's movies while they heavily criticize popular movies.

A film critic wants to feel like his life's dedication to movies makes his/her taste superior to the "casual" film watcher. To "prove" to others of his/her superiority of taste the film critic usually criticizes movies that the public likes (or reviews under very high standards popular blockbuster movies) while praises the types of movies that the public usually dislikes or underestimates. For example, personal movies are favored by film critic's opinions while epic movies, which tend to drawn in larger audiences, are regarded as inherently inferior: that's a reaction of the popular audience's perceptions.

This explains why among Western film critics (or even animators), Miyazaki's personal movies like Totoro and Spirited Away are more well regarded than epic movies like Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke (at least they always place higher in polls like Sign and Sound 2012). In Japan these perceptions do not exist, usually in polls (involving film critics, animation critics, animation fans and film fans) the ranking is 1st - Nausicaa, 2nd - Totoro, 3rd - Mononoke, 4th - Spirited Away. This bias against epic films is tremendously stupid and reflects a profound inferiority complex that overwhelms objective critical judgment.

Interestingly, movies that are mainstream in different times or cultures tend to become more well reviewed than movies that are mainstream in our current environment. For example, Hitchcock's movies were not regarded as art when they were made instead were regarded as popular entertainment just like Dragonball is today, after he left the popular spotlight, his movies acquired the status of great art of timeless significance. Same applies to Akira Kurosawa whose movies were popular entertainment in 1950's Japan but in Western countries today are "arthouse" masterpieces.

Another example is that while a Japanese director Mizoguchi whose most famous films are from the 1950's, which are simple films, are described as "pure and intense", while a modern mainstream guy like James Cameron, whose films, which are also simple, pure and intense, is called a simpleton's director. Maybe in 50 years, The Terminator will show up in the top 50 of a Chinese poll (which then will probably be the dominant cultural power in the world) like Ugetsu shows up in critics polls today.

This is more of a Western film critic thing as well. The opinions of critics from other cultural spheres and other mediums appears to be less biased against current mainstream stuff. For example, in Japan its common to see popular and simple mainstream manga rated very highly in polls involving professionals in the industry or critics. And in Iran, the highest rated films are not as philosophically pretentious as Kiarostami's, whose films do not register in the country's top movies lists.

Why directors like Kiarostami and Malick are so praised by film critics? Well, I believe that the most important factor in explaining why critics love them is to note that a randomly picked normal person will almost certainly hate and feel it's like torture to watch a movie from these guys. Therefore, critics "love" it because it shows how superior their taste is from "casual" film watchers. I know that feeling of "superiority" because I also feel good when people feel it's like torture to listen to my favorite metal albums. This feeling exists and its a powerful element in understanding the opinion of movie critics and "serious" fans.

Another factor is that movies that are explicitly philosophical in content, even if they are not good, like The Tree of Life, "prove" that film is a serious "artform". Since film critics need to show off that their art is "serious" because they just cannot accept film for what it is (which is escapism, 99% of the time), they feel the need to praise movies that prove that, even when they are not exceptionally good. Another reason is the lack of explicitly philosophical films so the few that are explicitly philosophical are praised to heavens for being novel. While novelty is important in art since consuming the same thing over and over will get boring, it's also overrated by many, because "new shite is still shite". Although new bad stuff has to be made so that hundreds of new things will eventually culminates in a new masterpiece.

One good example of the profound stupidity of film critics is their hatred for Gladiator (2000). Gladiator is one of the best blockbuster movies ever made and it's Hollywood at it's best, it's even perhaps the best original blockbuster movie (i.e. not adapted) made since. It's a movie based on visceral impact and is characterized by a deep emotional intensity created through a relatively simple plot and it's its simplicity its perfectly executed. Also, by recreating the ancient world in all it's glory (even if not historically accurate in some cases) it's a movie that allows viewers to "travel" to another world. Movie critics hate simple and intensely emotional narratives because they are insecure of their passion for film and for the same reason they hate well executed world building because it's "escapism", instead they look for "intellectual" movies that are "difficult" to watch. As a result, movie critics (and pretentious film buffs) eventually hated Gladiator precisely because of the factors that made it a great movie. Which is an example of the great stupidity of movie critics and which makes their profession really problematic as well.

Genuinely smart people, when they want to engage in intellectual stimulation, they become mathematicians or philosophers. Trying to find what you can find in a textbook of algebraic topology or in an academic journal of philosophy in a movie is stupid and reveals more about the person than about the movie: it shows that person wishes his/her hobby to be serious intellectual enterprise instead of accepting it for what it is. Movies are primarily an entertainment/artistic medium and not an intellectual medium and there is a profound difference between "artistic achievement" and intellectual or scientific achievement. This difference escapes the grasp of most movie critics and "serious" film buffs.

A difference that's often forgotten by movie critics. I like Roger Ebert's opinions because he transcended these limitations present in many film critic's minds and was more able to see greatness in popular stuff while criticizing "high art" movies. I remember agreeing with almost all of Ebert's opinions. That guy was really good in understanding movies even stuff like Japanese animation which most western critics are absolutely ignorant, his opinions were not that ignorant although he sometimes revealed ignorance when reviewing Spirited Away and being impressed by the level of detail on the backgrounds as if that wasn't standard in Japanese animation.

While there exists a difference between "art" and "entertainment" it's hard to poinpoint and it's not correct to say that "art" is superior to "entertainment". Many times people say that Kurosawa is art while Star Wars is entertainment when in fact both are similar: popular entertainment that happened to be art as well.

Finally, this reminded me of Kino's Journey, an animation that shows a town where all people are addicted to books and that literature critics are kept in a tower in isolation from society for their snob opinions to not perturb the enjoyment of books which is by itself a personal thing: it's the interaction between the individual and the artwork, since each individual is different then each individual will have a distinct experience and so there is no way for film critics to truly evaluate something and their arrogance makes it even more difficult for them to truly understand movies.

Guaporense

07-07-16, 10:24 PM

I think you mean Hunter X Hunter. And no, that anime is annoying.

Many people really liked the (2012) Hunter x Hunter. I don't know it myself, it's 150 episodes make watching it a rather time consuming experience.

Zotis

07-07-16, 11:26 PM

It's just your typical mainstream anime series. I found it extremely boring, but lots of people are into that sort of thing, that's why it's popular. Maybe I shouldn't criticise it, because I have friends who are into that sort of thing, but I think it's lame.

Guaporense

07-10-16, 03:36 AM

One of the best reviewers in animation in English is a big fan of HxH:

http://wrongeverytime.com/2014/03/31/top-30-anime-series-of-all-time/

Entry 22:

As the only long-running shounen on my list, HxH’s a bit of an outlier. But HxH is not your typical shounen – directed by Madhouse (likely my pick for the best studio of all time) and adapted from a source by the writer of Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter is basically a master class in what makes adventure entertaining. Though it starts off “only” demonstrating it knows how to make challenge-based television entertaining (in lieu of actual fights, it generally sets up compelling puzzles of all shapes and sizes for its heroes), it ends up jumping from genre to genre, dabbling in crime thriller, tournament shounen, and even war drama. And through it all, the show’s fantastic aesthetics elevate it above almost everything out there – in direction, in sound design, in pacing, in animation, in basically every relevant aesthetic metric, Hunter x Hunter triumphs. That it’s been maintaining this level of quality for well over a hundred episodes is nothing short of astonishing – in fact, I’d say Hunter x Hunter has only gotten better over time.

Overall, it appears that it's considered to be very good stuff. I just read a mainstream shounen manga recently as well (Assassination Classroom) and I though it was great.

Guaporense

07-13-16, 09:48 PM

79) High School Fleet and Military Moe (2016)

https://i.jeded.com/i/high-school-fleet-haifuri.44258.jpg

Over the past 8 years or so in Japan emerged a new genre that I like to call Military Moe. What's that? Welll, it's basically little cute girls and military stuff. In animation the first series of the genre was a mecha-Musume called Strike Witches (2009):

http://orig05.deviantart.net/bc23/f/2013/165/1/3/strike_witches_assemble__special_by_ioriasakura18-d692rwc.jpg

All shows of the genre feature character designs copied from a Ken Akamatsu manga:

https://mikeolotaku.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/mahou_sense_negima_dsp.jpg

After Strike Witches which was a very bland offering, the genre evolved into something more special with a masterpiece, Girls und Panzer (2012), is still the gold standard of the genre. GuP is a more complex show that incorporated the talents of Tzutomu Mizushima, who had just directed an adaptation of a baseball manga, and was suited for making a sports series that consisted of little cute girls competing in tank warfare as a highschool sport for girls.

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/fcc618e79bb56e87e456a6604040fe451351543013_full.jpg

The show was a tremendous success of public and critical acclaim and as a result a clone was made, this time featuring cute little girls running second world war warships. Overall the show was a success but it had very little meat in terms of themes and plot, it's mostly a nerdy treat that people who like animation as a sophisticated storytelling medium will not like. In fact my favorite scene of the show was when the ship ran out of toilet paper and the girls had to organize themselves, find a port get money to buy more. :D

Also it features very realistic naval warfare, only thing is that nobody dies because that wouldn't be cute!

http://s4.postimg.org/4olawknct/ONS_Haifuri_02_mkv_snapshot_13_27_2016_04_18.jpg

Guaporense

07-17-16, 02:11 AM

80) Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei! (2014)

http://www.anime-source.com/banzai/images/articles/reviews/2015-12-03_fate_kaleid_liner_prisma_illya_2wei_by_gaileoxstain/fate_kaleid_liner_prisma_illya_2wei-cover_thumb.jpg

Really cute stuff. It's rather similar to High School Fleet but this time features magical girls instead of battleships. It's not, however, a show driven by action and plot, instead it chooses to focus more on slice of life stuff. Overall it's a pretty good show with some flashes of brilliance in the dramatic heights it reaches at some points. In those senses it's a more successfull show than High School Fleet, which I found unconvincing in its drama. Here I was significantly invested in it.

I was also a bit impressed by the degree of detail in the art and aniamtion. Although the animation is not very good for most of the time at some points it's really amazing stuff. The contrast between the level of detail of Osomatsu and this was also very glaring. That show is set for my next review here.

Guaporense

08-13-16, 09:29 PM

81) Hunter X Hunter (2011-2014)

http://www.animexis.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Hunter-x-Hunter-image-01.jpg

I resisted watching this highly popular show because of it's long episode count and the fact that it was based on a shounen manga published in shounen jump. That was a severe mistake and represents my own prejudice against certain lines of manga. It's a great show indeed that is characterized by the cliches and the aesthetics of mainstream 2000's boys' manga applied to TV in all it's glory.

It's cliche? Yes, it is indeed. However, it's a great cliche. While I though I had watched the vast majority of animation worth watching I sometimes find a title that transcends the lower expectations for cinema (in general) that I have these days. While it's not a cinematic achievement of any kind: it's style and direction are quite safe, it's still masterfully executed and the timing is really well done, to keep the viewer entertained at all times. It's in fact safer entertainment than even the most carefully refined Hollywood product.

The reason is that it's highly dense plot is structured in a fashion that makes me watch it without ever stopping. Indeed, it's more addictive and entertaining than video games because it lacks the repetitive qualities of games and it's very hard to find anything else that I have read of watched to be as entertaining as this.

A-grade quality entertainment product and also very diverse, as the reviewer I cited before says: it's essentially a pack of about 10 novels that is animated into an short film series. Some of the stories, however, are more interesting than others. The one about the giant ants eating the humans was really boring but most stories were great. Overall it's an excellent example of entertainment in the form of adventure and it's a textbook example of contemporary mainstream Japanese popular culture.

tatmmw2

08-13-16, 11:18 PM

You guys should totally watched an anime of Key Animation :). I loved Angel Beats and Charlotte!! They also made Clannad

(Seeing the part were you said is a cliche made me want to argue with you, but I realize you are absolutely right :laugh: I couldn't prove it wrong, I guess sometimes you want people to think the same way that you do, but everyone is different I guess :D)

Guaporense

08-13-16, 11:20 PM

Key is a videogame studio not an animation studio. However their videogames have been adapted into animation by Kyoto Animation. I think I watched all their adaptations, they are really cute.

tatmmw2

08-13-16, 11:22 PM

You watched Charlotte too? Then I guess I don't have anything to suggest :p

Guaporense

08-13-16, 11:28 PM

Yep I though it was ok. My sister had recommended it last year. I didn't review it here?

tatmmw2

08-13-16, 11:34 PM

Just checked, nope :)

Guaporense

09-20-16, 11:46 PM

82) Spirited Away (2001)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_jGXcSBcvQQ/maxresdefault.jpg

After watching this masterpiece of cinema for the 7th or 8th time I am asking me: what makes this movie so great? What's so incredible about it?

Spirited Away represents Miyazaki at his prime, after several highly successful movies, Miyazaki was already the king of the Japanese box office and as such accumulated a huge financial backing that essentially allowed him to do whatever he wanted to do. Hence, Spirited Away is simultaneously an auteur film and a commercial blockbuster, combining the best of both worlds: entertainment value with serious artistic accomplishment. The animation and art are simply incredible to behold in the film as the film is worth watching just for its visual aspects alone.

Spirited Away also, through the use of animation, reaches a very high level of tactility, in the sense that the simplified images of animation allow for the more abstract expression of reality through the interpretation of the human mind. This amplifies the emotional and sensory impact of the film, enabling it to reach levels that you perhaps cannot attain in any other type of medium (either live action film, literature or music).

Of course, the vast majority of animaiton is mediocre, in fact, it can be said to be generally an inferior medium to live action in depicting reality, is only through exceptional works such as Spirited Away that the full potential of animation is exercised.

And this films is truly exceptional work of the medium indeed. Pretty much all of the rest of the universe of Japanese animation pales in comparison to it's greatness, it's not only superior to other animation but also to pretty much anything I can think of: if one were to ask me just now, after watching it, what might be the greatest work of art of all time, Spirited Away might be a good candidate for such a title.

One thing that sets Spirited Away apart from other Miyazaki films is the fluidity of it's characters relationships with the protagonist: they are antagonists in certain parts of the film and then evolve to become "friends", in a way this movie reflects our own perception of the world as we see people we don't know as something apparently hostile but as interaction process we grow to develop affection for these individuals. While other Miyazaki movies have nuanced characters that are not villains or heroes, only in Spirited Away we see characters possessing fluid roles and relationships whose nature shift over time in radical ways. This allows for the creation of additional layers of profundity into the characters' that would be otherwise impossible to do in less than a couple of hours. In fact, I am not quite aware of any other film that manages to exhibit such fluidity of character's relationships.

It's truly a work of postmodern art, reflecting our post-industrialized society and also represents also a criticism of modern 21st century post-industrialized society: Miyazaki thinks that kids these days are all spoiled little brats and a little bit of child labor would do good for them to make them grown up (hence the plot of the film). Also, the movie teaches the audience that kidnapping is a good strategy for making people do what you want them to do. :D

Zotis

09-21-16, 02:30 AM

I liked Spirited Away. My impression is some years old now, but I was really impressed with the amount of motion and detail in the animation. However, that's really the only thing that impressed me about it. Content-wise it was fairly light-hearted and all-age friendly. It's really hard for me to be impressed with that because I don't feel pushed. I didn't learn anything. There was nothing that I hadn't really seen before. Even in terms of the quality of the animation, I am much more impressed with older works like Akira which were so detailed and had so much motion back in the eighties. Akira made me see the whole Big Bang Theory in a light that actually made so much sense, even though I completely reject the Big Bang Theory and evolution, when you add psychic power and supernatural phenomena to the mix it makes a lot more sense. I didn't feel that with Spirited Away in terms of it's content, the spirits and gods, and the supernatural realm. It didn't add any meaning to any perspective of life. To me it felt more like a mediocre fairy tale. The old fairy tales had such fantastical elements, like talking animals and magic, but they also had profound moral lessons. The lessons that Spirited Away gave, such as the parents eating the food and turning into pigs, by comparison were unimpressive and too simplistic. Spirited Away felt more like a parade of Kami that a girl happened to get swept up in than anything else. The fantastical world almost ignored her existence, and she felt way too safe the whole time without anyone really protecting her. There were molevolent forces that should have at least tried to harm her a little more, and benevolent forces that should have had more power to protect her. Instead it felt like she was protected by luck and a lack of effort from antagonistic forces. I honestly find a lot of Miyazaki's work boring content-wise because of it's Disney-like approach to naive goodness minus the actual cultural experience to support it. That whole concept of the American family life before WW2. The American dream, when everyone from Europe flocked there because of the freedom and prosperity. Simply put, Miyazaki was influenced by Walt Disney's work, but didn't have the experiences that Walt Disney based his work on. So he tried to accomplish it, but ultimately lacked the understanding of how to. It's like Disney from a Japanese perspective with the central puzzle piece missing.

I wonder why you're so impressed with Miyazaki Guap. I really have been unable to understand it. There is obviously something about his work and style that you really enjoy, but I feel like you over reach a little when you praise him for how you feel about his work. Regardless, Spirited Away is high quality animation no matter how you look at it, and overall a solid film.

I think the five greatest works of animation are Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Akira, The Animatrix, and Fantastic Planet. But I'm also tempted to put Ping Pong up there, and maybe... just maybe... Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade.

Guaporense

09-21-16, 09:00 PM

Well, art is art, some people are touched others are not. I should add, though, that one thing brilliant about Spirited Away is the way the characters shift from being presented as "villains" to becoming "friends", in a way the movie's plot transcends conventions and it becomes something really special in that sense.

83) Osomatsu-san (2015)

http://blog.honeyfeed.fm/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/osomatsu-san-key-visual-355x500.jpg

Imagine a show about 6 unemployed virgins living in their parents home and not doing anything with their lives? That's Osomatsu-san, already a modern classic of comedy it's very popular show among women in Japan as well. I notice that from the high number of artwork posted on the Japanese internet featuring the characters of the show and it's high popularity among females in those websites.

http://pm1.narvii.com/6005/ce1e3837ec300e9bafdb6646f533fedf057a5962_hq.jpg

Its an adult comedy kinda like Family Guy but with a relatively more sophisticated and dark humor. It less satirical and more personal, essentially making fun of people's attitude with life instead of making fun of particular individuals or institutions in reality (like South Park does). It's more creative that way.

Some of the humor is really aggressive as well and really surpasses anything you might find in a western show.

Guaporense

10-06-16, 05:48 PM

84) Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei! Hertz (2015)

https://myanimelist.cdn-dena.com/images/anime/4/70295l.jpg

Very mediocre stuff. Adapted from a Manga but divided into two 10 episode long seasons, by the time they made this second season they ran out of plot to adapt and the TV show writers decided to try their own and we got essentially 5 episodes of slice of life often involving 10-12 year old lesbian schoolgirls jokes. Perhaps not the most healthy type of humor but it managed to keep me entertained for its duration.

https://myanimelist.cdn-dena.com/images/anime/7/75297l.jpg

After that the real plot started to unfold from episode 6 onwards and it became a completely different series now focused on action, shifting back to its original genre of fantasy action. A genre in which these characters are more competent in. Although the quality of the writing overall was significantly below the previous season, perhaps due to the discontinuity caused by the 5 slice of life episodes. Still it was more entertaining than most stuff you might find on TV these days.

Zotis

10-10-16, 07:40 AM

I've been watching the Patlabor series, but it's a lite dissapointing.

Guaporense

10-11-16, 02:15 AM

85) Re-Zero (2016)
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/X4Z_5a61AaR3FF0Nd5SDcKaDf4Can-BKJB7BT0KY_FmXFZvae-PEeL89eX5SERBdZYb8HtynY9CRaI_8xgWy6Kl3NG-t3isSLkoqGEtZJfZEIppXOcgL3k6JHi_qiRNnAysFXoCGIsO4PVAH_A

Now for something really entertaining. One great thing about the current Japanese entertainment industry is that while Hollywood is catering to the mainstream masses, the Japanese entertainment industry is focusing more and more on the hardcore nerds. That's great because it means they focus their products on people like me. :D While at the same time making stuff from time to time that feel fresh (for the most part).

This is an example, I never felt so entertained since the days when I first watched Steins: Gate. One interesting element is that it's more and more common in East Asian popular culture for RPG game mechanics to be incorporated into plots. This is an extreme example since the main character dies a dozen times during the series but when he dies he returns back in time to a certain fixed point in the past like a save-point in a videogame (hence the series' title). The series is actually set in a medieval fantasy style world where there is magic and stuff, so the main character, being a Japanese Otaku that wakes up in the middle os that world, is not even scared but starts thinking "oh this is just a traditional medieval style RPG world" It's never explained why he got there and how he manages to be immortal (although that's a skill he certainly needed because he was completely outmached by the cruel and violent medieval world he got himself into, in fact this series is realitstic in the sense that if they picked up anybody from our current world and magically transported them to the middle ages, they would certainly die and die rather quickly, as we, highly civilized 21st century denizens, would be completely unable to adapt to the conditions of life in those days).

The art and animation are very good I liked the character and costume design a lot. Although the quality of the animation declined over the course of time, as in the beginning it was really great while by the end it was just OK. Overall, it's visual quality is above average while CGI has been well integrated with hand drawn animation as Japanese animators have been improving on mixing the two up over the last 15 years.

Guaporense

10-31-16, 09:02 PM

86) Your Name (2016)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/Your_Name_poster.png

So I finally managed to watch Your Name, for me perhaps the most highly expected movie of the past couple of years. The reason being, it is already the highest grossing Japanese film of all time that's not directed by Miyazaki.

So, how good is it? Well, it didn't disappoint. It's indeed an exceptionally well crafted melancholic shoot in the arm. It's a really cute movie as well, with characters that feel substantially more human than in Makoto Shinkai's previous films. The reason is that this film is more "domestic", in the sense of depicting the not very remarkable events of daily life of it's characters. Which gives them substantial grounding, reinforcing our emotional connection to the characters in ways his previous films did not.

Overall, though, my taste for Shinkai's films is pretty inconsistent with the opinions of his fans: my favorite of his films up to Your Name was Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below. But this time my opinion of his film matched his fan's opinion. It's indeed majestic: the animation is among the best ever, visually it's absolutely top notch, specially in terms of background details and the subtle integration of computer effects into hand drawn animation.

I would think it's the best animated film (released first for theaters unlike PMMM which was released for theaters in 2012 as a pair of compilation films) made since 2001, when Spirited Away was released. Yes, it's that good.

Zotis

11-05-16, 03:18 AM

I really didn't like Children Who Chase Lost Voices. I bought it a couple of years ago, watched about two thirds of it, and pawned it. It was well drawn with a lot of attention to detail and motion, but the writing made me cringe. Still, Your Name does sound like it's at least worth checking out.

Guaporense

11-05-16, 07:38 PM

Most people like the other Shinkai movies, I am the only one who likes C.W.C.L.V.F.D.B. to be better than his other pre-Your Name movies.

Your Name is on another league, it's like Miyazaki level. In fact, better than any Miyazaki film since Spirited Away (although inferior to Spirited Away) and better than even Takahata's Kaguyahime no Monogatari

Zotis

11-06-16, 12:18 AM

Okay, I'll check it out. I watched an interesting anime, but I keep forgetting it's name. I have the DVD at home, it just has such a weird name. It was pretty charming and had two episodes. I think it was an OVA, but the story wasn't concluded and alluded to a third episode. I don't know if it actually does have a third episode though, or if they just never finished it.

I got my brother to watch Baoh, and he liked it. I noticed that the animation was a little rough around the edges, but there is a lot of motion and it has a really charming old-school 80's vibe to the character design and artwork that I really love. It's ultra-violent too which is a plus. :D

Zotis

11-09-16, 06:25 AM

RG Veda
Fantasy, Mythology (1991-1992)

Directed by Hiroyuki Ebata and Takamasa Ikegami
Written by Nanase Ohkawa

http://fantasyanime.com/anime/images/rgveda1/rgveda1_shot03.jpg

This two episode OVA was based on the manga by CLAMP from 1989. Each director directed one episode. The first was made in 1991 and the second in 1992. The story in the OVA isn't complete. It left me wondering where the next episode was. There were no more episodes made though, so you'd have to go to the manga for the complete story I guess. On the DVD I have there are a few special features about the story, verses, and cast, so maybe that explains more. In total the OVA's are 90 minutes long. The story is about a mystical land ruled by an oppressive dictator who has by some mystical power become some sort of god. There is a prophecy that six warriors will destroy him, and he is trying to hunt them down before they can. Five of the warriors search for the missing sixth while being pursued by evil forces. It's a charming little anime with endearing characters and potent atmosphere. The artwork is detailed, but rough around the edges. I had never heard of this anime before, but saw it on the shelf of a second-hand shop and thought it looked interesting.

3

Zotis

11-09-16, 06:31 AM

A Country Doctor

https://adziu.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/b_kafka5.jpg

A twenty minute short based on Franz Kafka's story by the same name. The artwork is unlike anything I've seen before with distorted perception that gave me an uneasy feeling. It was recommended to me by someone on reddit when I asked for arthouse anime like Angel's Egg. Well, I wouldn't say it's anything like Angel's Egg, but it's definitely artistic.

3.5

Guaporense

11-13-16, 12:36 AM

Essay - Why Animation has only Developed in Japan

To say that Japan is the world's leading animation producer is a sheer understatement of Japan's relative position in terms of animation. A more accurate statement would be that Japan holds a monopoly of animation as a serious artform and as a general medium for entertainment. Only in Japan it's possible to find, for example, action animation, slice of life animation, serious science fiction animation, serious historical setting animation and pornographic animation.

Anyway, the interesting question to be asked is: why? Why out of 190 countries in the world only one has a well developed animation industry? Why in all other countries animation does not exist as an integral part of the cultural media mix?

I conjecture that the reasons are multiple:

1st - Market Size

Animation is costly to produce and requires a lot of manpower, which means it's much more costly and difficult to produce 1 hour of animation than 1 hour of live action film. This means that only in a country with a large population that is rich enough to spend money on animation that the artform can fully develop. This means that animation could have only develop in either:

Europe
US
Japan

Any other region of the world was too poor or too sparsely populated (Australia and Canada) to support a large animation industry. China now is becoming rich so I expect it's animation industry to develop as well in the future. Hideaki Anno himself said that the future of animation is in China. Japan with is 125 million people can be said to be the smallest market possible to support an animation industry, Korea, for example, a similar culture to Japan, doesn't have a well developed animation industr although their comics as well developed.

2nd - Western Photographic Culture

So, out of 3 regions of the world that could develop animation, 2 regions are Western: Europe and the US. These western regions have a severe cultural barrier against animation: realism in art. Since ancient greece in about 500 BC, Western Art has been dominated by the aesthetic ideal of reproducing reality accurately.

A good example of western art in its essense is this 2450 year old sculpture:
http://etc.ancient.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1023-1024x768.jpg?x42976

One might say that modern art has evolved beyond that but I would argue that modern art is only a reaction against western art (it values the inverse of the values of classical western art: the ugly over the beautiful, the asymmetric over the symmetric, chaos over order) rathef than something that is self supporting and also notice that very few people actually spend time appreciating modern art. 99% of the western people consume art in the following forms: live action film (either movies or tv), videogames (which try to be as realistic as possible) or literature and music. Most visual art consumed in the Western world today is not painting, it's videogames. And most videogames try to be as realistic as possible given the technology available:

http://wallpapersonthe.net/wallpapers/b/1024x768/1024x768-geralt_of_rivia_the_witcher_3_wild_hunt-21964.jpg

Japan lacks the same aesthetic culture that values photographic realism as the absolute ideal. This makes it possible for Japan to develop art that is less realistic but still beautiful in its own way. If you take the character designs of modern seinen manga they are unrealistic but still very detailed and can be quite beautiful yet being completely different from reality. This is also because Japan's heavily developed comic book industry lead to a continous refinement of comic art and the development of a visual language that has not anchoring in western art nor in physical reality:

https://hansangel.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/blame_manga_desktop_1400x1100_hd-wallpaper-531143.jpg

3rd - Historical events

Comics and animation have a close relationship. Actually one cannot differentiate the two that much: animation are comics that are filmed and edited by a director. In other words, film made using comics instead of live action photography. Hence, animation requires a well developed comic culture to develop as a medium.

The US almost developed a substantial comic book culture during the so called golden age of comics until government pressure lead to the regulation of the comic industry and it's collapse in sales and cultural significance as well as diversity. As a result, US animation became divorced from comics and hence lacked the backbone of comic book writing as a foundation for the sophistication of its writing. That's one of the reasons why the only adult animation in the US consists of cheap crude comedy like Family Guy, Archer and South Park that lacks any sophistication in direction, art, animation, writing and subtlety being very poor as examples of animation as an artform, although that might also be a consequence of the fact that US culture is lacking in subtetly in general.

Europe as a whole also has not developed a comic book industry. One might be interested in knowing why although I don't know very well the commercial history of European comic books. Things like: per capita comic book sales. It would be interesting to compare to Japan's. Anyway, the only big country in Europe is Russia and Russia is pretty poor as a country wilst the other countries lack the language market size to develop an animation industry. Europe as a whole is a bigger market than the US or Japan but lacks the unified language to be a single cultural market.

Overall these factors combined help to explain why Japan is currently the only region in the world with a well developed animation industry and culture.

Zotis

11-13-16, 03:24 AM

What about the whole Pixar/Disney world of animation in the West? I wonder if the market in the U.S. for animation has brought the quality of it's art form down due to commercialism and industry standards. The CGI teams will tackle various animation elements for this movie or that movie, like hair in Brave. And they succeeded in nailing that aspect, but not in an artistic way like the old Disney cartoons. In my opinion Snow White was a lot more artistic in it's aesthetics than anything they've made in the last two decades. But there is still a large market for animation, it's just that for some strange reason they seem to just be focusing on bringing anime over from Japan instead of making their own adult animation. They still make a lot of Saturday morning cartoons and family oriented movies. But then, what about Avatar, and Transformers, and the way they put a lot of CGI animation into movies that also have live-action actors. A lot of movies are made on green or blue playgrounds, and then the backgrounds and other characters are added in through animation, like the Star Wars prequel trilogy, or The Matrix.

Guaporense

11-13-16, 09:21 PM

There isn't really a well developed market for animation in North America. There are very few people in NA who watch animation seriously (Japanese government estimates are of about 200,000 to 500,000 "anime fans" in NA) and that would be the potential market for animation that's not little kids stuff. There are a lot of adults who watch cartoon network as well but apparently their interest in animation is not serious enough to warrant it's own niche industry. For example, here in this forum very few people are familiar enough with animation so that they can understand the references in PMMM and this is supposed to be a forum of people that have serious interest in visual media.

Disney/Pixar does not represent an industry of animation but a section of Hollywood's market: animation in Hollywood became a genre of children's entertainment that co-exists with 95% of live action movies, this animation is always characterized by negative elements (i.e. what it cannot do):

lack of any violence,
lack of any sexuality,
lack of any moral ambiguity,
lack of any attempt in achieving gravitas
lack of seriousness
strict adherence to puritanical ideological principles
lack of any experimentation in art style
lack of any experimentation in narrative structure
lack of any experimentation in direction
lack of complexity in writing and narrative structure

When Pixar made a couple of movies with moderate complexity in it's writing, but still strictly adhering to all the other principles above, movies like Ratatouille and UP (or a movie like Wall-E that had some gravitas but it was very simplistic in it's writing), people started talking about "a revolution" in animation. Well, it certainly shows how these people certainly don't have a minimum clue about animation.

There is also the clear possibility now that serious fans of animation satisfy their need for the medium with Japanese animation. So it crowded out the possibility of the creation of a North American animation industry. Although I might add that before 1990, virtually nobody over the age of 10 in North America consumed animation and now it's common for adults to watch stuff like Simpsons. So I guess that anime's influence started to be felt in North America (thanks to stuff like laserdisks of Miyazaki films being shown to Disney executives) since the late 80's and it's not a coincidence that Disney's Rebirth in the 1990's and adult animation like Simpsons, Aeon Flux and other MTV shows started being made around 1990, about the same time that Akira showed up in cinemas in North America. Since the modern trend of North American animation began as an offshoot of anime it's unlikely that the domestic industry would have quickly developed to a degree high enough to satisfy an animation fan need's to a similar degree as the Japanese industry does without being suffocated by the anime industry. That would have only happened if Americans suffered a country-wide cultural mind erasing that essentially erased from their minds all their prejudices and biases against "cartoons". Overall, adult american animation subsists as simple cartoons made to get a cheap laugh like Simpsons and Family Guy.

Akira represented a huge cultural shock when it showed up because it was an adult animation that featured highly ambiguous characters, highly levels of violence and sexuality, highly dynamic and aggressive atmosphere, serious tone, highly complex direction and narrative structure (although not a high level of complexity in writing) and essentially was everything that NA animation was not. People who watched it understood that animation could do ANYTHING. However, the same people just consumed Japanese stuff instead of trying to create their own stuff (which is tremendously hard). For a movie like Akira to be made it requires a whole manga based highly industrialized civilization like Japan was in 1988, nothing else in the world is comparable: in 1990 the average Japanese read about 400 to 800 times more pages of comics than the average American. And for each adult animation like Simpsons or Aeon Flux made in NA, hundreds of adult OVAs were being made in Japan.

Guaporense

11-19-16, 11:15 PM

Essay - "I don't like anime"

http://img-9gag-lol.9cache.com/photo/aPy47DP_700b_v1.jpg

The term "anime" as it is used in the Anglo Saxon countries is problematic. It's a term like no other because it refers to art made in a specific country: "anime" means all animation made by the Japanese people. There does not exist any similar terms like: "Runovel" for Russian novels or "whitemu" for music made by "white people". Why the hell people started using a term connected with an ethnic group? I am not aware of any term similar to "anime" and "manga" in the English language.

The term anime was made as a reaction of Anglo-Saxon animation fans to the fact that animation is regarded as a children's medium in the Anglo-Saxon countries. So they stopped calling the cartoons they watch by "cartoons" and instead used the Japanese term for cartoons, which is "anime". Thing is that this term backfired due to the rather xenophobic character of Anglo-Saxon culture because it is now possible for people to just write-off a whole world of Japanese culture with four words: "I don't like anime".

What is the meaning of those four words? The meaning is the following:

"I don't like anime."="I don't like animation that is not made by white people."

The reason is that in Japan and the rest of Asia, the term "anime" does not exist: there is only animation. The people who say "I don't like anime" are only people from Anglo-Saxon countries, in these countries the only animation most people are aware of is Anglo-Saxon animation. So when they say they dislike "anime" they are saying that "they like animation, but not the animation made by the yellow people from Japan, they just like the animation made by the local white people".

So, it's much better to just do not use the term "anime", its just a bigoted term: it associates an ethnic group with a "type" of animation. Of course, this "kind" of animation only exists in the head of some people living outside of Japan: it's is as if the whole universe of Japanese people were only capable of making one type of animation. Could anybody claim that Akiyuki Shimbo does the the same kind of animation as Masaaki Yuasa? Only the people who are ignorant of the work of both men. People who are serious about animation talk about "animation" not "anime", although it's true even among professional animators there exists a lot of prejudice.

The term "anime" is used today mostly by younger animation fans and it's also a bad term to use because younger animation fans might think that the only animation that matters is Japanese animation, while that is not far from the truth, it still excludes a lot of great stuff like Futurama and South Park (crude but great nonetheless) or movies like Gandahar, the Illusionist and Fantastic Planet. Animation is animation: good is good no matter which ethnic group makes it.

So when one watches something, one must always try to understand the appeal of it. Why people like it? Because anything is made as entertaining to some group of people which means that it's not very hard for someone to understand it if they let go of their specific ethnic biases. For instance, many Westerners think that a lot of "anime" has pedophilia, while of course 99% of it never has any pedophilia, although it's true there is some pedophilia in some titles, for instance in the 2nd to 4th seasons of Fate Kaleid features passionate graphic depictions of kissing between 11-12 year old girls, however, one must understand it and not be disturbed by it. I personally think it's cool because they are showing a big middle finger to Eurocentric cultural norms. It's the same appeal as satanic lyrics in heavy metal: it's in the spirit of rebellion from traditional society's norms. In Japan the type of comics featuring little girls made for adults has received a popular backlash as well around 1990 because a serial killer named Miyazaki who killed and mutilated the bodies of several schoolgirls in 1989 had a lot of manga featuring little girls but he had a lot of everything else in his apartment (including thousands of VHS tapes that he used to record TV shows).

But, how about if you dislike the "anime style"? There is no such thing:

https://ksk09069396766.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/blbh7mmcqaa8apb.jpg
https://images.puella-magi.net/5/51/Madoka_Chara_Sheet.jpg?20110119210900
http://www.japanupdate.com/img/2015/06/Sazae1.jpg
https://transcendgaming.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/parasyte_ep16_2.jpg
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/533252a3e4b0e6650a1f4eae/t/5592b4b9e4b033a211e8faca/1435677882677/food+wars
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/03/04/arts/04BOY/04BOY-master768.jpg

The variety of styles is enormous, of course, there are tens of thousands of animators in Japan and hundreds of thousands of cartoonists, hence there are many different styles of comics and animation.

So, "anime" does not really exist: the idea of "anime" being a kind or "genre" of animation is just something that exists in the heads of some people in the Western countries. What exists is just animation, the same applies to the word "manga", that thing does not exist, what exists is comics, which is the meaning of the word "manga" of the Japanese language. So, you like/dislike animation, you like/dislike comics, you do not like or dislike a comic or animation just because it was made by a person of a specific ethnic group.

Racism, by the way, is still disseminated in the world: It's considered okay in America to claim you dislike the culture of an ethnic group and "write it off". It's even considered okay for a president to be racist since the Americans just elected a racist one right now. However, that does not mean one has to tolerate bigotry and yes "writing off" the culture of an ethnic group is bigotry.

Also, bigotry reproduces bigotry: Miyazaki has said he does not like American culture. Well, that's understandable since his work is not appreciated enough in the west, so if America is bigoted with Miyazaki's work then Miyazaki is bigoted with America. :D

Camo

11-19-16, 11:35 PM

Also, bigotry reproduces bigotry: Miyazaki has said he does not like American culture. Well, that's understandable since his work is not appreciated enough in the west, so if America is bigoted with Miyazaki's work then Miyazaki is bigoted with America.

Miyazaki is pretty much the only well known anime director in the west and he is highly revered, much more than most of the other foreign directors you hate like Kiarostami, or even other American directors like Wes Anderson or Richard Linklater. Miyazaki films usually get the stupid 'must be great' label that revered american directors get, so other than coming across like you are losing your mind i'm not sure what your point is in a thread that only me and the big anime fans actually read.

Zotis

11-23-16, 10:51 PM

I think when people say they don't like anime they mean different things based on the person. I met a guy a couple of months ago who said he didn't like anime, but when I put forward titles like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Ninja Scroll he revealed his interest in them and we got talking about anime. I realised that he says he doesn't like anime simply because he doesn't want to talk to people about popular anime like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. Other people say they don't like anime because the anime they are familiar with doesn't appeal to them and they don't know that there is other anime out there that might appeal to them. People have the same attitude towards genres of music. When I was a teenager I said I didn't like anime because I didn't like Dragon Ball Z, Digimon, Gundam Wing, and other popular titles, even though I did like Robotech and Voltron. I just didn't know what I was talking about, and I didn't know much about anime. When people say things like that you really can't read into it too much. They aren't saying they dislike an entire culture. They are just saying they disliked what they were exposed to so far. I know people who say they don't like Chinese food, but they're of course referring to some low quality restaurants that serve a more Westernised style of Chinese food that isn't very authentic to begin with. It's not necessarily racism or bigotry.

Anime may be a superficial term, but what is important is that idea floating in people's heads that they are trying to communicate. People may not be very good at communicating. Maybe it's better to say "Japanese animation." But why use two words when there's one word that means the same thing?

Guaporense

11-25-16, 01:25 AM

Well, as you said Japanese animation has a clear meaning while "anime" means different things to different people. However, it means different things because of ignorance. The best term is just "animation" because that is what it is, saying it's "Japanese" does not add anything besides stereotyping and prejudice.

tatmmw2

11-27-16, 03:40 PM

Essay - "I don't like anime"

I wasn't expecting to read that massive essay but your point of view was really interesting :D. I think people tend to say they don't like anime because of things that they are not use to watch in an animated series, like fanservice and bizare stuff that is pretty common in Japon.

I remember that they used to discuse whether Avatar: The last airbender was anime or not. Some said it is, a lot said it wasn't, and this people like Avatar a lot! The answer was that anime is one kind of animation made out of japonese techniques (or so does I think it said). And therefore Avatar is suppose to be anime, but as it was made from Americans people don't want to accept it is. It does have a japonese style of animation and people LOVE Avatar, but they can't accept to like anime.

I love Monogatari, I found out this is (I'm not surprised to be honest) a really popular series of novels that have won Anime of the Year twice I believe now and a really well-claimed anime too. I love it's style, the references, how meaningful it is and a lot of stuff that I can't describe in any language. Maybe deep is the word? Anyway, I love it. However, I can't recommend this wonderful anime, because I don't think any of my friends would focus on the awesomeness of this anime, and they would rather focus on how weird it is, like all the (I don't want to call it like this since it's a lot more complex that it but..) "fanservice" which for me it's an incredible way to make people laugh but it's just not what other people is used to I guess. For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cynDQD-16Y

Here Pedoragi is just playing with Mayoi but some people may think as it is bizarre :(. Actually in the series he kinds of evolves into this personality and then he is really friendly with her sometimes to even annoy here.

The point is, I love this scene, but out of context everyone would say it's really weird, and that's why I can't recommend this amazing series :(

I guess the moral here is that you need to be openminded to this kind of humor? I really don't know.

Spirited Away

I need to rewatch this, it's always claimed to be one of the best animated films and after some time I forget why this is so.

Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei! Hertz

I watched 3 episodes of the first season, I understand the references by watching the original Fate/Stay but I don't get how making it a Majo Shoujo's series would make it entertaining. I wanted to watch it because I saw a picture of Gilgamesh as a kid and he seems badass but it wouldn't be the first time I watch a whole series that I might not enjoy just because of some scene/picture. For example: I saw Crow, from Bakuman and I wanted to watch Bakuman then. I found out later this wasn't and action anime, it was an anime about mangakas (which I really enjoy btw).

Is this the 2nd season? Did you watched the first one and you didn't like it and then watched another one or you just didn't like the second one?

Your Name
I saw this everywhere and everyone is talking about it, I really need to watch this!

Guaporense

11-27-16, 07:44 PM

If people just stopped using the word "anime" it becomes much easier to classify Avatar: Its an animated fantasy action TV show.

Calling it "anime" is based on the stereotype common in the US that all Japanese animation is fantasy action, which is the same as calling a superhero movie made in India a "Hollywood movie" stereotyping that all American movies are superhero movies.

Although Avatar certainly features far better art than typical for American animation it is still not similar to Japanese art in comics and animation which is heavily focused on "lines":

Avatar
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131106171530/thegamingfamily/images/b/b7/Avatar-the-last-airbender-13595-1920x1200.jpg

Some comparable children's fantasy action cartoon from Japan:

http://static.zerochan.net/MAGI%3A.The.Labyrinth.of.Magic.full.1487130.jpg

The art in the second case is more 2D (less focused on giving "volume") and also has much more apparent lines and features more straight lines and more detail. Both reflect the distinct Western and Japanese traditions in art.

On another note, I think Your Name is a very safe movie indeed. Even Anglophone movie critics who usually are not serious about animation loved it.

tatmmw2

11-27-16, 09:12 PM

The art in the second case is more 2D (less focused on giving "volume") and also has much more apparent lines and features more straight lines and more detail. Both reflect the distinct Western and Japanese traditions in art.

I always thought that I couldn't find an explanation about why they are so similar but yet so different, I never thought about it by that point of view :)

Guaporense

11-27-16, 10:45 PM

tatmmw2

11-27-16, 11:14 PM

Also I should say that stuff like Nisemonogatari is deeply entrenched into Otaku culture. People who are not well acquainted with otaku culture just will not understand it.

Stuff like Miyazaki or Shinkai is less dependent on knowledge of Japanese pop culture specially otaku culture although Shinkai's work is a bit heavy on specific Japanese cultural elements.
English is not your first language either but you really put thoughts into words better than me :p that's exaclty what I was trying to say but somehow I couldn't describe it too well

Guaporense

11-28-16, 03:44 PM

Well I scored among the 96% percentile in the graduate level English proficiency test. Although there were a lot of Chinese grad students who bring the average score down.

tatmmw2

11-28-16, 08:52 PM

You mean the CPE? Wow all my friends did that one, I was kind of new in the bilingual school so it took more time to prepare the First but I was glad that I got 85% in a test, I remeber my average in practice were 45% mostly so I was happy I did some progress. Anyway I did it the last year so I couldn't take the CAE. CPE is must be difficult! 96% is really impressive :D, sometimes I would like to take some lessons in summer and try to do the CAE

Guaporense

12-01-16, 12:16 AM

No its was the GRE

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Record_Examinations

Guaporense

12-05-16, 08:42 PM

87) YuruYuri: San☆Hai! 2015

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/pt/f/f1/YuruYurivol1.jpg

Well, this is an episodic TV series, however I decided to review it anyway because this thread has lacking posts on actual specific animation titles. YuruYuri is a comedy slice of life manga series featuring cute girls doing cute things and is actually written by a cute girl (she was also around 20-25 when she wrote most of the material adapted into this show, so it's actually a "autobiographical" experience of sorts and it does indeed feel very authentic if compared to other slice of life series). It's not plot based and in this sense it feels quite different from most western shows although the main difference is the fact that all characters in it (I mean ALL, there is not a single male character or even middle aged female character in the show, everybody is a young girl including the teachers of the school) are young girls. This property of the show is a reflection of past Japanese society where women and men were strictly separated for most of their lives and so women found it usual to be only among other women.

Also, YuruYuri is a distinct experience from other slice of life stuff because its characters are lesbian: the show is about friendship involving girls and besides being friends once in a while they suffer bursts of sexual attraction for each other. Still that sexual element remains only a source of comedy and has no bearing on the actual plot (although there is no plot to be seem). Like Seinfeld, it's a show about nothing: nothing happens of substance and by the end of 3 seasons of YuruYuri the whole cast is in the same way as it was at the beginning: we have the hyperactive funny one (Kyoko), the delicate and feminine one, whose presence is almost inexistant (Akari), the "straight girl" (serious and mature Yui), etc. The characters never truly grow and change (at least not very perceptively). Still the show has been very satisfying in doing what it does which is a relaxing comedic experience.

In this third edition of the TV adaption (hence the name "San Hai"), the animation studio in charge of adapting the manga changed so now we got a different studio with vast experience in the slice of life genre: TYO Animations, which actually resulted in a substantial improvement in the quality of the series. Now the series incorporated more creative direction (including a whole section of an episode done in silent film mode without dialogue or sound besides the music soundtrack) which made for a more memorable experience.

Zotis

12-07-16, 12:14 AM

Heh, oh man Guap, you sure do watch a lot of cute girl and slice of life anime. :p

I don't know how you do it. PMMM actually pushed my boundaries a lot in terms of absorbing cuteness, and besides that Saikano: The Last Love Song on this Little Planet (A.K.A. She The Ultimate Weapon) is probably the only other "cute girls" anime that I really like. Haibane Renmei is probably the only slice of life anime that I really like. I prefer live-action arthouse when it comes to interpersonal drama. :D

Guaporense

12-07-16, 03:22 PM

I find it to be the easiest thing to watch/read. Its not challenging and it's pleasurable while feeling fresh since there is nothing else quite like it. Its best after working 10-12 hours in a day.

I have watched this year about 100 episodes of CGDCT plus several manga volumes of the genre. Now I am finding it harder to find more of this stuff to consume, since I have watched and read most of the more popular stuff.

I think I will review the other CGDCT shows I watched here as well.

Guaporense

12-07-16, 09:28 PM

88) Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Space_Pirate_Captain_Harlock_2013_poster.jpg

Captain Harlock is a popular figure of Japanese pop culture. A creation of Leiji Matsumoto, one of Japan's greatest creators of pop culture, it's a universe endowed with a vast and diverse mythology. And the universe was the most interesting thing about the movie.

The direction was pretty standard, in fact, the film felt it was directed like a Game of Thrones episode but with more dramatic takes. It's also an example of a serious CGI movie: American CGI movies are nearly always very light family friendly comedies, this movie, in contrast, features a lot of violence and deaths, although nothing that makes it a R rated movie.

Still the movie tried to look more realistic than typical CGI, it's not quite Final Fantasy levels of photo realism but the CGI looks very similar to that previous movie and in terms of quality is also on a similar level of detail. Still, I would rather have 2D animation than this extremely detailed but not very "natural looking" 3D computer generated dolls who look pretty weird.

The movie suffers a lot in terms of execution and that's its main problem and not the art style. It tries to be big and dramatic at every moment but without moments of more peaceful character development the big moments don't feel authentic and so the movie as a whole suffers. Overall it's decently executed but has nothing great besides Matsumoto's world building which feels rushed in this film given the time it had to develop the universe.

Zotis

12-07-16, 10:25 PM

Guaporense

12-08-16, 12:28 AM

Still I watched 148 episodes of Hunter x Hunter this year which is more than all CGDCT stuff I ever watched this year.

These are some very artistic animation (visually audacious stuff with lots of symbolism):

Yuri Kuma Arashi (2015) (it's on YouTube it's a very artistic series)
Mawaru Penguindrum (2011)
Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997) and the movie version (1999), all these from the same director regarded as the master of surrealistic animation.

I regard stuff like Lain, Haibane Renmei and Texhnolyze (2003) as "arthouse" as well. Another title with similar atmosphere as these ones is Ergo Proxy (2006).

RahXephon (2002) is also a very sophisticated series but it's symbolism is not as pronounced.

Although none of these are pure symbolism like Angels Egg since they have some plot, but they are not as plot driven and artistically sophisticated enough to be categorized as "art film" IMO.

Also, for something like "animated Mizoguchi" you should check Hyouge Mono (2011). Although Mizoguchi is not art film (according to the definition being film driven mostly by symbolism and inner thoughs of the characters).

Pure art animation you will find mostly in shorts (which have no time to build up a plot), although I am not that familiar right now with short films the movie compilations of short films Robot Carnival and it's sequel have plenty of "art film" there.

Guaporense

12-13-16, 09:13 PM

89) The Boy and the Beast (2015)

http://www.funimationfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/COPYRIGHT2015-the-boy-and-the-beast-film-partners-ressources-2015-06-19_17-30-50_GAUMONT_TBATB_main.jpg.jpg

Mamoru Hosoda is already a well established name among the finest animation directors in the world. Given that I had high expectations regarding this film (much higher than regarding The Space Pirate Harlock's film). However, these expectations did not materialize.

Instead I got an expertly well animated film and also very well directed film but lacking in the writing department: the characters felt really one dimensional and I meant in the sense that they acted in a way such that they did not feel like people but just puppets in a show. Hence, the movie's 2 hour duration dragged quite a bit since I wasn't invested in the plot: a boy with a dysfunctional family is "adopted" by a monster who lives in the monster world and grows to adulthood while being raised by "the beast". However, both the boy and the beast felt really flat as characters and in that sense this film reminded me quite a bit of Anglo American animation, although this film is much longer and more complex (plot-wise not character-wise) than any Anglo American animated film I recall watching.

Still, I appreciated the art and animation of this film even though the plot and characters felt really uninspired. So far this is by far the weakest film Hosoda directed and the sense of disappointment overwhelmed me after watching it: it was about as weak as Harlock but made by a much superior and well regarded creator. A true disappointment.

Zotis

12-15-16, 07:13 PM

I did feel a bit hesitant to watch The Boy and the Beast. Now I don't think I'll bother watching it at all. What has Hosoda done that was very good?

Guaporense

12-15-16, 08:08 PM

Summer Wars and The Girl who Leap Through Time were excellent.

Guaporense

12-16-16, 01:57 AM

90) Upotte (2012)

http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/c/cf/Upotte_L85A1_title_card.jpg/600px-Upotte_L85A1_title_card.jpg

Another one of those "military moe" titles. This time is a series about guns but these military grade rifles are represented as cute 14 year old schoolgirls. Yes, the rifles the girls in the pictures are holding are "themselves". The show features lots of shooting and cuteness. It's pretty short at 240 minutes in total and the execution is pretty mediocre but the concept was cool for it's absurdity. The battles were cool though the comedy elements didn't work very well.

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/30700000/FN-FNC-upotte-30776902-600-337.png

And this is the Murican rifle:

http://static.zerochan.net/Ichiroku.(Upotte!!).full.1381834.jpg

:D:D:D

Guaporense

12-16-16, 02:07 AM

91) Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (2008)

https://images4.alphacoders.com/229/229948.jpg

Now I also watched some simple romantic comedy stuff. It's pretty decent and actually the simplicity makes it very easy to digest and enjoyable to watch. The plot also demonstrates the obsession of the Japanese nerd community with itself: apparently a large fraction of all otaku animation is about otaku culture itself. In this case it's about a girl who loves comics but she is "not supposed too" because she is from an aristocratic family and whose secret was discovered by a boy.

The art style was super generic mid 2000's otaku manga style. Like, one could use this an example in a class of art history to show how otaku "seinen shoujo manga" style looked like in the mid 2000's (I can easily know this show is from 2005-2009 period just by looking at that poster).

Guaporense

12-17-16, 04:24 PM

92) Tamako Market (2013)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/Tamako_Market_promotional_image_1.jpg

From the director, writer and character designers who worked on K-On!, we get this. It's actually pretty different from K-On! which was adapted from an adult moe manga, this one is actually more of an auteur effort by Naoko Yamada and reflects very feminine sensibilities given it was directed and written by girls who were under the age of 30 when this series was made.

It's very light, very smooth and very "boring" as well. One might say it feels like a modernized animated TV version of an Ozu comedy movie from the 1950s like Ohayo.

The plot is the following: a talking bird from an exotic tropical island country is sent to find a bride for the tropical island country's prince. It accidentally lands on a neighborhood in Japan where a teenager girl Tamako lives. And he lives with her and follows through her daily life while eating the mochi her family cooks (since Tamako's family runs a mochi shop) and becoming a fat bird (a "mini blimp").

Series has no real conflict and can be quite "boring". However, like K-On! it's a joy to watch although it lacks the raw moe factor of K-On! since the characters now are more realistic (and hence "boring"). The art, direction and animation is of tremendous quality though.

Guaporense

12-21-16, 03:53 AM

93) Magical Girl Raising Project (2016)

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/aea9bdfe10390c74cd52550dbacc59b41470856538_full.jpg

It is my impression that TV anime tends to be superior to theatrical titles: for instance the last 3 shows I talked about in this thread are substantially superior to the last two movies. I would think that the reason is that in TV budgets are smaller and that allows for greater creative freedom since the number of clients that needs to be pleased is smaller: only a small number of fans need to buy it's merchandise to make it profitable. An expensive movie like the ones I reviewed above need to appeal to a wider audience which tends to restrict the degree of artistic freedom. This is specially restrictive in the case of Western blockbuster films like Disney/Pixar's (which are restricted to satisfying the broadly held perception in most film markets that animation should be artistically barren).

This series essentially is in the tradition of horror manga. It it's also perhaps one of the shows that appear to have been heavily influenced by Madoka, while Yuki Yuna is a Hero also appears to be directly influenced this one is much closer in look and feel: a brutal action horror show that borrows the aesthetic elements of a genre of children's manga: magical girls.

Even the way it's executed reminded me of Madoka with a "feminine and inactive main character", more "masculine" side characters (Homura in Madoka, here the role is played by characters like La Pucelle and Hardgore Alice). I also found it closer to Madoka in atmosphere than Daybreak Illusion which I found to be pretty mediocre (I didn't like it's art style as well, reminded me too much of a Nickelodeon show). Still, this show, despite being very good, is not remotely on the same league as Madoka (which is expected since Madoka is one of those masterpieces that only show up once every 1,000 shows or so). Anyway, I should stop comparing it to Madoka now and talk about it on it's own terms.

The art and animation were very good in my opinion. It shows how refined the graphic quality of TV animation has reached in Japan. I also liked the character designs: consciously chosen to reflect a self awareness of shoujo manga aesthetics. In effect they can be said to represent the so called "men's shoujo manga" in style: consciously borrowing shoujo manga stylizations but modifying them to fit the tastes of adult male manga and animation fans.

The plot is pretty straightforward: after a couple of episodes introducing the setting, it's shown to be a situation of Battle Royale where each girl must try to kill the others in order to survive. To me the plot started to feel a bit forced when it was becoming more obvious where this was going as supposedly they were supposed to allow for half of the magical girls to die for some "mana scarcity reason" however after they killed half of the mahou shoujo population them it just changed to "need to kill half of the remaining".

Also, the 12 episode format was just too short to allow for ideal character development regarding the dozen or so important characters of the show. Still there was a lot of information about each character compressed and transmitted to the audience but it was done in a very obvious way (because there was not room for natural development of the characters they had to "do a briefing of each character's personality and back story in 5 minutes"). I would think that the show could be improved if they restricted attention to a smaller set of characters.

Still the show was a moderately memorable experience and succeeded very well in entertaining me for it's duration. One thing I liked about it was the "post modern" feeling of the show, since it's very feministic since it is essentially about women (and some children) doing what's traditionally regarded as men's stuff: fighting, killing and dying violent deaths.

Also, it's essentially an inversion of gender roles in cinema: in most movies women are supposed to watch movies with male protagonists and try to see the movie's world from their (male) perspective, here males are supposed to watch something that (almost, considering that it's revealed that one of the magical girls is actually a boy) only features female protagonists and see the fictional world from this female perspective.

Guaporense

12-23-16, 01:05 PM

94) Sausage Party (2016)

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTONiGO00diA7Z9WpHnY_5GtKeooM0HiGpJouh_ZAKBGSzkOLgBXQ

So, this is apparently the first adult American computer animated film, 20 years after the first American computer animated films were made. So, how good is it? Well, its a gross comedy in the style Seth Rogen makes but animated (hence better for an animation buff like me). I liked the constant barrage of jokes and the violence involving food: how would food feel if they were conscious? The movie is a lot of fun thanks to its cool premise.

Still the execution failed a bit too: the movie was very fast with nonstop action during its whole duration, too fast for my tastes. I rather would have a slightly slower movie with more subtle character development. The quality of the computer animation was also lower than in other CG films be either Pixar's or more "adult" films like Space Pirate Captain Harlock, with very plain character designs and low level of detail in the physical environment.

Still I liked the gum character a lot and I found the ending to be quite amusing. Overall it was more interesting and creative than your average Pixar/Disney movie.

Guaporense

12-23-16, 01:56 PM

95) Konosuba (2016)

http://skythewoodtl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/55852611_p0.png

Speaking of animated comedy, this show is one of the funniest animations I ever watched. Its a brilliant satire of the "trapped in a medieval style fantasy world genre". The main character is a Japanese nerd who dies from nervous shock after being almost hit by a tractor. Being a pathetic coward he dies from shock even though nothing happened to him in a physical sense. When he dies a goddess gives him the opinion to reincarnate in another world, a fantastical RPG style world and to choose something ("object") to bring to that world. So he chooses to bring the goddess as his "object" in revenge for her bullying him about his cowardice in dying from nervous shock so easily.

The decision of the medieval fantasy world is also quite realistically nice in the sense that when he wakes up in there he begins his "adventure" by working as a construction worker and sleeping with the horses. After doing that for several weeks (with the goddess reduced to his sidekick also working as a construction worker (lol)) he notices: "ohh, wasn't I supposed to do quests and stuff?". Funny attempts at killing giant monster frogs follows while he meets additional companions for his "guild": a caster who only knows one spell and when she uses the spell she falls catatonic on the ground due to mana drain and a masochist knight who loves to be a tanker so that she can be in pain.

I also liked very much the art style which was very colorful and full of eye candy, remiding me of the art style of the state of the art MOMRPGs. The direction and visual style however were not very creative but still the show was well paced and well executed.

tatmmw2

12-23-16, 02:22 PM

Darkness blacker than black and darker than dark, I beseech thee,
combine with my deep crimson. The time of awakening cometh. Justice,
fallen upon the infallible boundary, appear now as an intangible
distortion! Dance, dance, dance! I desire for my torrent of power a
destructive force: a destructive force without equal! Return all
creation to cinders, and come from the abyss! This is the mightiest
means of attack known to man, the ultimate attack magic!
Explosion!!!

I love Konosuba, luckily enough there will be a 2nd season really soon :)

Guaporense

12-23-16, 02:38 PM

96) Chaika the Coffin Princess: Avenging Battle (2014)

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire4/314cfbd63e31cda89024c459ad62911c1412706516_full.jpg

Now, this one was a more traditional "medieval fantasy style" narrative. Its played completely straight from start to finish: it features a teenager girl who happens to know how to operate a giant magical sniper rifle and is carrying a coffin of her father's remains has as sole objective in life to find all her dad's remains to make a funeral for him. She hires two mercenaries to help her who become her friends. And they embark in a sequence of conflicts with people who held parts of Chaika's dad's body (like his left arm and right foot and stuff).

The animation and art are ok, a bit generic looking shounen manga style. Although I liked Chaika's Gothic Lolita outfit, it looks even more amusing for her to wear such unpractical clothes and do acrobatic maneuvers in battle. She also is talks like a non native Japanese speaker apparently not knowing basic grammar speaking sentences like "water, need, drink", which makes her more amusing.

Overall though it was a mostly bland fantasy show that was carried by the main character's charm and it's entertainment value was as a whole heavily dependent on how much one finds her amusing. I liked her quite a lot but still found the show pretty average. Although the ending was poignant because she had to wipe out her memories to create magic to operate her rifle and so she becomes completely mentally crippled by the end of the show.

The plot concludes with by revealing that her dad was actually using an army of brainwashed girls (she was only one among the many and yes, she was brainwashed to think he was her dad) to make a black magic ritual where he would be killed and reincarnated to become "stronger". They manage to kill her "dad" and them she and her mercenary friends decide to live together as a family (since they had nothing else to do with their lives).

Guaporense

12-23-16, 03:41 PM

97) JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2013)

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQETEF3iwuwXQ1Ec9IGeQy1hWt7QbwKx4mj8cA5vn6ywMBWBNF-

Adapted from a manga from the 1980's, this series was really something. Japanese fictional narratives tend to be more theatrical than typical Western narratives (something that the Japanese themselves are well aware of) but Jojo's degree of theatricality is extreme. I never ib my whole life read or watched any other fictional narrative that was as extremely dramatic as this one: every 5 seconds characters are screaming for their lifes as if something extremely important was happening. No time is wasted in building up for the climax: the series behaves as if the climax were permanent at all times. I actually was never able to take it seriously instead I found it extremely amusing to watch even though I didn't feel like I was ever completely invested in the narrative given its ludicrous levels of "dramatization".

One interesting element of JoJo though it's the very unique art style that's considerably different from typical shounen manga. Although the very complex character designs made if difficult to animate, so only a few frames are drawn and movement feels very awkward but that gives the melodramatic series an extra boost to its charm. Indeed its a great series if perhaps great for the reason it's so extreme in its style.

Guaporense

12-26-16, 12:07 AM

98) Vivid Strike (2016)

https://images6.alphacoders.com/743/thumb-1920-743922.png

In the tradition of boxing manga but this time with girls. It's from the same studio that did Nanoha and it's set in the same universe (one of the characters is Nanoha and Fate's adopted child. However, this one is all about contact fighting in a "magical martial arts" championship: the martial arts athletes are magical girls essentially. The plot and the style of the writing were clearly influenced by classic boxing manga in the vein of Ashita no Joe.

While I found animation is pretty mediocre (except in the fight scenes where the studio focused their budget on) the art was very nice, I like the style of this studio that uses extremely bright colors and lots of contrast. It's very saturated and very cute. The art style also looks like something from 2007 or so not 2016 (for most studios now character designs are getting more realistic, on average) and the lines look like something I used to see on TV tropes back in 2008.

The plot is very "masculine" actually: the characters do stuff to "become stronger" and train 12 hours a day until they puke from exhaustion. While the role of the main character is more or less to be the point of the view of the audience who is shown this "magical martial arts world" so her personality is not the focus of the series, rather, its her childhood friend and rival who is the most fleshed out character (whose history includes a childhood trauma where she almost kills several of her classmates in school in reaction to violent bullying).

The character development was very sactisfactory and the series was quite successful overall, one of the most entertaining and easy to watch shows I watched recently.

Guaporense

12-26-16, 12:15 AM

99) Koihime Musou (2008)

https://starchildap.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/2004806194660784455_rs.jpg

Now, for something really mediocre. This 2008 series was adapted from a "erotic historical strategy" computer game set in ancient China during the three kingdoms period. So we get all these girls character who are adapted from fictional figures from Chinese literature. Yet, the show was pretty bad: bad animation, bad/mediocre direction and the art style was the generic late 2000's otaku art. I think this is one of the weaknest anime shows I watched from beginning to the end: videogame adaptations tend to suck all the time even the ones made by Japanese animation studios. Although the fact the whole series was only 5 hours long made it watchable and also it had a lot of bright colors so that was enough to make it stimulating. :D

Zotis

01-01-17, 10:47 AM

Summer Wars and The Girl who Leap Through Time were excellent.

I love The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Summer Wars was good but I didn't feel like it was quite as potent or well-written. So what happened with The Boy and the Beast? Why did it turn out so poorly?

I recently rewatched Naussica of the Valley of Wind. It had been years since I watched it, and I had forgotten a lot of it. I think it's very similar to Princess Mononoke, and it has the same sort of "everyone's good on the inside" naive and unrealistic portrayal of repentance and the struggle between good and evil; a very upbeat and joyful adventure for all ages. I liked it more than Mononoke though. I'd give them both 4.

At the moment I'm watching Cybuster. Here is a quote from a post I made on another forum:

I was originally drawn into Cybuster by its artwork. I thought the characters' poses were interesting, and the characters themselves looked distinct. I got the first DVD in the series individually second-hand for fairly cheep, so I figured it was worth checking out. I ended up liking it initially and getting invested in the story and characters. I won't say that it's a good show overall, but I do feel invested enough to keep watching.

It looks like they experienced budget issues, because the quality took a serious hit in the second act. The plot was never great, but it got considerably worse. Explanations for going-on's became less sixteen-year-old fanfiction and more thirteen-year-old fanfiction. I suppose the story also took a dive, so I guess it's just the writing overall. At least in the first act I felt like I knew what the story was, but in the second act I'm not exactly sure what's going on anymore. It's become a haze. Some of the interactions feel meaningful, and there is a hint of an overarching story. It just feels like the writers have started wavering. Plot-wise, characters will recklessly decide to go off with good intentions and potentially endanger the mission costing everyone around them their hard work and energy if not their very lives. But from both the bad guys' and good guys' perspectives these irrational and dangerous excursions are treated frivolously even though they reoccur from the same unreliable individuals. I chalk this up to bad writing, but also I think you can see a personal agenda from the writers. Being polite and avoiding hurting people's feelings is deemed paramount by the show's view of moral law. It's not just certain individuals who do this with results demonstrating this behavior as flawed, but the results rewarded this behavior. It reminds me of bad parents who don't discipline their children because they're afraid that spankings will traumatize them. So when a character actually does something that could jeopardize everyone else's safety, the person who's upset with them is the one who gets chastised by the group, and everyone else brushes the situation under the rug in light of the person's "good intentions." It's really quite absurd. Well, all that in and of itself isn't really necessarily poor writing, but it's the way they go about it. It's all too vague without drawing attention to the severity of the issue. If one character voices complaint, it's overly simplistic and extremely stereotypical. They'll just yell something along the lines of, "You shouldn't have done that," Along with something that makes them seem selfish so they're the bad guy instead of the person who just jeopardized the mission. Two characters freequently argue, and it often reduces to, "You're stupid, no you're stupid, well you're ugly, oh yeah well I hate you." There are insightful moments in the dialogue where there's heartfelt admissions, people realise their wrongs and painfully admit it, and well-rooted mystery to things going on behind the scenes. I definitely noticed more fluff and meaningless banter in the second act. I feel like I'm still watching it in anticipation of some serious character development that will happen, and more heartfelt dialogue. Beneath the sloppy writing, there is some decent writing too.

I find a number of characters surprisingly likable, and I really want to know what happens to them. Commander Saphine is a wonderful villain. She gets other people to do the dirty work for her, and plays from the sideline, but apart from being a bit harsh she doesn't seem like a villain. She does feel like a real person. I've known people with that personality type, and they really nailed it. Ken Ando is the central character, a bit reckless and thick-headed, but a fairly heroic type who would sacrifice himself to save the ones he loves, and who would not jeopardize his ideals. He is probably the most stereotypical of the central characters. He is always standing up for the greater good and being chastised for not being nice or polite enough about it. He tends to verbally attack someone for doing something wrong instead of targeting the issue, but no one else targets the issue either. Mizuki is a spunky budding love interest for Ken. She's pretty level-headed and down-to-earth. Mizuki and Ken often quarrel, but you can tell they like each other and are well-suited for each other. Lyune is a selfish spoiled brat, but a surprisingly sympathetic one who has to struggle with her personal character and admit to some pretty grievous mistakes (although getting away with some equally grievous ones, even rewarded for them). She prioritizes her own personal vendetta over the safety of others. In many works this type of character would have an even harder time dealing with the potentially disastrous consequences of their actions, but in this series the dice are loaded with circumstances panning out so that nothing dire happens and all is forgiven even though she'll do it again and again. I find myself drawn to her character despite some facepalm-worthy implausibilities in the plot. She has noble ambitions, is fighting for the greater good, and does make effort to face her problems and change. Nanase is probably my favorite character. She has less screen time than the others I've mentioned, but she seems like a pivotal character nevertheless. She's the compassionate type, very kind and courteous. She's always thinking of others and doing the right thing. What I really like about her is that she's insightful, encourages others to do the right thing, and takes decisive action herself even before anyone else supports her. Because of her taking the first step, other people rally behind her into a larger movement.

I could talk about more characters, and I want to talk about the artwork too. I think I'll leave it here now for a start though.

I'll briefly add concerning the artwork that some of the artwork is very good, but then other shots look like they were drawn by monkeys or something.

This is when the artwork is good, usually on close-ups.

http://i0.wp.com/www.chrismagnifico.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/SHADES.png

Look how the same character suddenly developed giant brain syndrome:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Psylis/2017/badart_zpsjvednjcb.png

It looks rushed and/or drawn by their b-team.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Psylis/2017/badart2_zpsgkkaxskz.png

Zotis

05-13-17, 04:07 PM

http://psgels.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5.jpg?x67383

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (2016)

This action series resembled Attack on Titan, though in my opinion was much better in it's artwork and writing. The animation quality was very good, with none of those typical budgeting constraint issues that plague most anime. Characters were very cutely drawn. I liked the artwork. The protagonist had an annoying personality, he was naive and high-strung. I am not sure what the writers were trying to accomplish with his personality. I felt they sympathised with the naive simpleton and should have criticised that personality more. There were strong themes of loss, intense passion, and betrayal that were emotionally engaging. In the setting, the world had been overrun by zombie-like creatures, and most people were so paranoid they would kill uninfected people out of mere suspicion. Cowardice was heavily criticised, but I do think it was a little over-the-top and could have been more realistic in it's portrayal of cowardice. The series had one full season and was a complete story with a satisfying ending.

3.5

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/onecall_dazeee/imgs/a/c/ac96dd2e.jpg

Guaporense

05-16-17, 11:11 PM

I hears of this one, but I haven't watched it. From 2016 my top animated series would be Flip Flappers and Mob Psycho 100. People talked mostly about Yuri On Ice in terms of animated series because it's a serious gay drama with high production values but I didn't think it was exceptional in terms of quality. They say Kabaneri is exceptional in terms of production values but it's writing has been criticized so I didn't watch it, I might watch it though.

Zotis

05-17-17, 11:49 AM

Oh shoot, Mob Psycho 100! I forgot about that. My brother showed me a couple episodes and it was really good. I want to watch the rest.

Yuri on Ice doesn't really interest me purely because of the subject matter. A gay anime about figure skating is just a really unappealing concept.

I rewatched some Attack on Titan and it was a lot worse than I remembered. There was a lot of camera panning of stills with dialog voiced over. Sometimes they would have city pans or flashback stills, but even worse was when they would have characters moving and talking with sound effects like footsteps, or battle sequences and it would be to a still. It was repulsive. Equally repulsive was the constant meaningless filler dialog of people saying repetitive generic nonsense. At least half of the conversations were like this, and the rest were unintelligent and basic. The pacing dragged on extremely slowly with all these dull repetitive conversations and camera pans, and the drama was extremely forced and high strung. In that regard the writing and artwork for Attack on Titan were utterly horrible. Although not as bad as Cybuster, lol.

Kabaneri didn't have great writing, but it was still better than most mainstream anime. I say it was similar to Attack on Titan because it also had people living in walled cities panicked and paranoid to the point of turning on each other, but the drama is not too forced and the characters have a lot more depth. The conversations make sense and people exchange meaningful dialog rather than merely pushing a narrative with little effort as some shows do. Their version of zombies is distinct from others I've seen so I give them points for originality. Even though some characters are naive and high-strung, they are still believable and every character feels like they have their own tangible personality. Even extras each look distinct rather than having a generic face with a hairstyle variation. They obviously put a lot of work into detail. Though it is by no means an artistic masterpiece.

resopamenic

05-19-17, 08:35 AM

Kabaneri and AOT was animated by the same studio

Guaporense

05-19-17, 11:50 PM

Well if the animation and art is good I watch it even if the writing is not. I can appreciate the animation and art as long as the rest is not awful.

resopamenic

05-20-17, 12:28 AM

Both have awfull and dull storywriting and I bet it follow it "dull" source material as well. But Aot has lot more cool and shocking moments-tho' in the end it always could be overused

AoT got moment to develop it story, has more better world and myth building. Attack on Train(kabaneri) just follow it straight and just ended it early with that bisho prince cliche path- also it's not like there something likeable as character and story progress- just zombie and train stuff

It's, AoT, probably become more and more worse tho' , excluding it intensive and annoying "flashback as tool for adding facts, story and chara development"
Because,
there will be more and more titan shifter I heard

Zotis

05-20-17, 08:30 AM

also it's not like there something likeable as character and story progress- just zombie and train stuff

Lol, that made me laugh so hard. You're going to say that Attack on Titan has more likeable characters and better story progress? Hahahaha, please don't kill me bro.

I don't know how you can even watch Attack on Titan, it's so bad. Kabaneri obviously borrows themes from Attack on Titan, but the writing and artwork are vastly superior. Probably the most glaring difference is in the dialogue. When characters talk in Attack on Titan they use a lot of words to say very little, and often repeat themselves. They say very generic things like, "I don't want to fight those things, are you crazy? If we're all going to die I just want to spend my final moments with my family. Let me go, don't try to stop me, I've made up my mind. blablabla." People don't talk like that in real life, it's the kind of writing a teenager comes up with in some online fanfiction or freeform play by post roleplay. In terms of the plot it's extremely linear, and it drags on and on. It moves very slowly. Let's say this is the plot for one part: The titans attack the city, and break through the wall. The civilians flee for refuge behind the inner wall while the soldiers fight to hold off the titans." That would take like six episodes, and there would be very little substance actually filling up those six episodes. In Kabaneri the basic plot has some similarities, "The zombies attack the city, break through the wall, and the citizens flee for safety."

The initial concept of having only one city in Attack on Titan with a massive wall around it, is absurd. The territory is too large for what they describe in the history of the story. There is no way with titans eating everyone (the cause for them to flee to and build a walled territory) that they would have time to build such massive walls. The territory is way too large for them to build it when you see how quickly they are devestated as soon as the Titans attack. Now imagine how could they possibly survive long enough to build a wall that large when they can't even survive long enough to run away without a massive wall already existing to protect them? In Kabaneri there are many cities, all over the country, and the zombies are a threat that under normal circumstances can be kept from entering the cities. The initial concept is better written because it makes more sense. Train tracks and walls around normal sized cities are things that did not have to be built on the spot in the face of an overwhelming threat. When they flee from the zombies after they break into the city, this is something way more realistic than in Attack on Titan, it doesn't drag on and on, and there is a lot more going on between the characters (who have much more developed and distinct personalities, and talk like real people instead of generic fanfiction writing). They reach three times further in the plot within the same amount of time, and have more going on in between because they don't drag out the pace.

resopamenic

05-20-17, 08:50 AM

Lol, that made me laugh so hard. You're going to say that Attack on Titan has more likeable characters and better story progress? Hahahaha, please don't kill me bro.yup, guy like levi was such a badass
better story progress? no, both suck on that, but at least aot has more progress, show it into more world building, kabaneri stuck with the prince

Zotis

05-20-17, 08:56 AM

yup, guy like levi was such a badass
better story progress? no, both suck on that, but at least aot has more progress, show it into more world building, kabaneri stuck with the prince

I completely disagree. I think Kabaneri has more world building and way more progress. By episode 12 in Attack on Titan they only moved past one wall. By episode 12 Kabaneri completely finished it's entire story lol.

resopamenic

05-20-17, 09:08 AM

Zotis

05-20-17, 09:30 AM

lol, u talk about ejaculate pace from point A to B a good progress, world building? when they just reach the capital? - AoT still on the same wall but already takin more and more revelation with some twist and there more plenty stuff to come, eventho' it's not guarantee anything

I never said anything to the effect that Kabaneri's fast pace was good progress and world building. I said that it was more progress. They progress further in a shorter period of time. And I said this because you said Attack on Titan has more progress. So, am I correct in understanding that what you meant by Attack on Titan having more progress is that you meant it had better progress? Is that why when I said Kabaneri has more progress you thought I was saying it had better progress? I do think it has better progress by the way, but quality has nothing to do with quantity. How much progress there is has nothing to do with how good the progress is.

resopamenic

05-20-17, 10:24 AM

Okay I mistaken ur line there saying it "good or bad" - I'd thought I see you said it as "way more better" - my bad

. They progress further in a shorter period of time. And I said this because you said Attack on Titan has more progress. that show has bit potency but too short as there could be more progress, there were more potency on their world behind them and I recalled it story in anime just end like that, that why I said it always stuck with the prince

So, am I correct in understanding that
what you meant by Attack on Titan having more
progress is that you meant it had better progress?yup

Is that why when I said Kabaneri has more
progress you thought I was saying it had better
progress? I do think it has better progress by the
way, so my bad sight wasn't bad at all , at least u acknowledged u thought it was good progress, apparently

but quality has nothing to do with quantity. How much progress there is has nothing to do with how good the progress is.that's cool line, but tbh kabaneri didn't have both of that

Like I said both were bad -in story progress, as well- but AoT
show and foreshadowing more, what front and behind them , eventho' they can be simplified as stuck in the sampe place, literally

resopamenic

05-20-17, 12:23 PM

Oh I just see this,

I don't know how you can even watch Attack on Titan, it's so bad. Kabaneri obviously borrows themes from Attack on Titan, but the writing and artwork are vastly superior

Better artwork, checked. tho' some design of kabaneri characters way more lame on attributes and fashion -something personal- but I can see it suit well with the settng
AoT way worse but the studio did lot hardwork to fix it compare it to the chaotic grotesque artwork in the manga. The fashion way more minimalist but also still suit the setting as well.

Better writing, well no I don't think so.

Probably the most glaring difference is in the dialogue. When characters talk in Attack on Titan they use a lot of words to say very little, and often repeat themselves. They say very generic things like, "I don't want to fight those things, are you crazy? If we're all going to die I just want to spend my final moments with my family. Let me go, don't try to stop me, I've made up my mind. blablabla." idk what u said lol, I thought kabane was just the same kind issue regard that, in way cliche and more boring as well.

[B]People don't talk like that in real life, it's the kind of writing a teenager comes up with in some online fanfiction or freeform play by post roleplay.[B]everyone know that, no japanese talk the way they do in anime

In terms of the plot it's extremely linear, and it drags on and on. It moves very slowly. Let's say this is the plot for one part: The titans attack the city, and break through the wall. The civilians flee for refuge behind the inner wall while the soldiers fight to hold off the titans." That would take like six episodes, and there would be very little substance actually filling up those six episodes.I don't consider it that way, especially when it binged lol. There more show that more severe in pace and chronically dragging - an earlier episodes already long praise as it establish the chaotic and horror of it world, like "no hopes for humanity" kind of vibe, more strong emphasized than kabaneri "road to safe place" kind of stuff

In Kabaneri the basic plot has some similarities, "The zombies attack the city, break through the wall, and the citizens flee for safety." The initial concept of having only one city in Attack on Titan with a massive wall around it, is absurd.well I know u don't care and hate AoT but that sound more absurd as criticism, I'll put it in spoiler
it was builded via-titan, and how was that happen? Hence the fact
There more revelation about history and fact regard how the world build and shaped that I consider mindblowing, shocking, and sickening. but how deep the conspiracy and it history can goes, I still can see it turn worse (AoT)

The territory is too large for what they describe in the history of the story. There is no way with titans eating everyone (the cause for them to flee to and build a walled territory) that they would have time to build such massive walls. The territory is way too large for them to build it when you see how quickly they are devestated as soon as the Titans attack. Now imagine how could they possibly survive long enough to build a wall that large when they can't even survive long enough to run away without a massive wall already existing to protect them? In Kabaneri there are many cities, all over the country, and the zombies are a threat that under normal circumstances can be kept from entering the cities. The initial concept is better written because it makes more sense. Train tracks and walls around normal sized cities are things that did not have to be built on the spot in the face of an overwhelming threat.I guess it will be pointless to explain some more, as it
1. Spoiler
2. u don't/won't care about it afterall

When they flee from the zombies after they break into the city, this is something way more realistic than in Attack on Titan, it doesn't drag on and on, and there is a lot more going on between the characters (who have much more developed and distinct personalities, and talk like real people instead of generic fanfiction writing). kabaneri was just like some bad arc happen in shounen. try to getting somewhere but going nowhere and then it die with the cliche prince -

- so the realistic was in context here - zombie stuff is close in that way rather than gigantic humanoid - but in the end not much of the show could be said, really something that's grounded on realism - tho' both could be said post-apocalyptic in nature -

They reach three times further in the plot within the same amount of time, and have more going on in between because they don'tlol, they got the train of course someway they should reach further, geographically, but it don't even make something and bring much as the plot goes, at the end, then how it supposed. It simply A must go to B , tried to convoluted somekind of weak plot like prince rebellion but then died with it

drag out the paceopposite to that, I thought kabaneri was kind of premature in ejaculation.
*I don't denied AoT has the dragging, especially went it came from ongoing series of manga. but for 12 or 26 typical episodes out of pace was way too much to put as statement

Zotis

05-21-17, 09:16 PM

Well obviously we disagree. I think you don't know what you're talking about, and I don't think you've watched as much anime as me. You certainly haven't reviewed as much, and I don't know if you watch good anime or just mainstream crap, but so far I haven't seen you talk about much good anime. I consider Attack on Titan utter trash. Kabaneri is at least decent, though it's not an artistic masterpiece like Angel's Egg or anything.

Anyway, I hope Guarporense watches it. I really want to hear what his thoughts are. In the meantime I'm watching Mob Psycho 100.

I also finished Saga of Tanya the Evil and I'll probably write up a short review of it at some point. I really enjoyed it and can't wait for season 2.

Equilibrium

05-22-17, 05:48 AM

Well obviously we disagree. I think you don't know what you're talking about, and I don't think you've watched as much anime as me.

You have a serious attitude problem. Are you like 13?

No wonder you went drive by posting in the other thread.

Guaporense

05-23-17, 11:28 PM

100) Bakuon (2016)

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/cda9bcf111c8a974295a683c643f89801459737569_full.jpg

One of my favorite 2016 series. So, what are it's strengths? It has girls and bikes. The girls are cute and they don't sing annoying songs like in an idol show like Love Live, is it's a plus. The show also has lots of bikes and it makes fun of itself all the time: when the all girls highschool motorbike club decides to run a race competition all the girls drive safe and even use the turn signal when making curves and stuff during the race.

The show ends with a dream exposing the absurdity of motorbikes: they are not safe and are overall an impractical mode of transportation. Why people still use then? Because they are cool.

So, it's K-On! with Bikes, like Girls und Panzer was K-On! with tanks. A solid and nice addition to the cute girls slice of life genre if perhaps not entirely original, specially if you take the look of the manga covers:

http://pm1.narvii.com/6138/9a829a0d7a5abc5de2ed2ad0602f86052c742f7b_hq.jpg

However, it's not remotely on the same level of quality as K-On! That show had an exceptional level of direction and art (just take a look at Digibro's video on K-On! The Ultimate adaptation.

Zotis

05-24-17, 12:31 AM

Aldnoah Zero (2014-2015)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/g4tpXvkCw3Q/maxresdefault.jpg

A mecha anime I watched a while ago. It stood out to me as something quite different from other mecha shows, although the Gundam influence was obvious, and they borrowed somewhat on the plot device of spacenoids declaring war on Earth and invading. The animation and artwork were top notch, although nothing mind-blowing. It's a single season from start to finish consisting of 12 episodes. The people of Mars have superior technology to the people of Earth, who they refer to as Terrans. One Terran lives among the Martians, Slaine, and is a close friend of the princess of Mars. When the princess is killed during her visit to try and establish peaceful relations, the Martians declare war and invade. Meanwhile on Earth, a highschool student named Inaho and his friends get caught up with a group of military personnel after their hometown is evacuated, and Inaho turns out to be a very gifted pilot. I thought the characters had well developed personalities, though there was quite a bit of naivete, and the plot was plentiful with twists and intrigue. The CGI blends well with the drawn artwork and doesn't look out of place. It seems to me that they used quite a lot of computer techniques in the visuals.

3

http://momoandcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/az2.png

Guaporense

05-25-17, 05:48 PM

I also finished Saga of Tanya the Evil and I'll probably write up a short review of it at some point. I really enjoyed it and can't wait for season 2.

Oh yeah that show was really good. It's like the serious "war moe" stuff although the only moe thing is the visual of the main character (whose personality is of a 40 year old man :D).

I think that the quality of anime today has been consistently superior to manga although that's because a lot of trashy manga never gets adapted into animation and another problem I have with manga is that it's hard to know whats the good stuff when western manga criticism is so scant. While anime criticism today is quite well developed in the west.

Guaporense

05-25-17, 06:03 PM

everyone know that, no japanese talk the way they do in anime

That's a completely invalid generalization, super realistic anime like Re-Life, Only Yesterday and Whisper of the Heart, for instance, reproduce the way Japanese people talk.

Stuff like K-On! has obviously super exaggerated cuteness dialogue but does indeed represent in an super-exaggerated way the way high school girls talk when they want to talk in a cute way.

Overall, there is a lot of variance in anime like there is a lot of variance in live action film. But it's true Japanese fiction tends to be more dramatic and theatrical than Western fiction (in Kurosawa's film Rashomon the way the actors portray the characters is super exaggerated as well).

Anyway, we cannot say anything about "anime" in general because Japan's animation output is 2/3 of the world's and is by far the most heterogeneous animation in the world. So, despite having some patterns (such as the massive influence of shoujo manga aesthetics), it's hard to make any generalizations regarding anime (which is a mistake many anime fans themselves make).

Zotis

05-25-17, 10:37 PM

Oh yeah that show was really good. It's like the serious "war moe" stuff although the only moe thing is the visual of the main character (whose personality is of a 40 year old man :D).

You're forgetting about this character:

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/webdata-anime_twitter/imgs/d/3/d3d538c8-s.jpg

Zotis

05-26-17, 06:23 PM

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HTTRweJ7jVs/maxresdefault.jpg

Garden of Worlds (2013)

I didn't get around to watching this for a very long time because the only thing I ever heard about it was that it was very detailed and well drawn. It just wasn't enough to reel me in. It was enough to put it on my to-watch list, but not enough to quite get me to put it on top and watch it. One of my friends told me a little about the premise, the romantic attraction between a high-school student and a teacher with the barrier of their age gap. Suddenly I wanted to watch it desperately, and so I just finished it. I'm really glad I finally watched it. It's very atmospheric and slow paced (or has an ejaculated pace if you compare it with Attack on Titan). But I must say that I actually shed a few tears when the plot reached it's apex. I did find the ending a little unsatisfying. But I appreciate the writer's approach to the story. This short film, 46 minutes long, is a must see.

4

resopamenic

05-27-17, 04:09 AM

Well obviously we disagree. obviously

I think you don't know what you're talking aboutwell, I thought opposite

and I don't think you've watched as much anime as me.lol, wtf is that xD , so in this case you already seen "thousands" anime then, but why that quantity seems not correlated with quality of your opinion?
In the end I'm not some random guy that'd seen couple mainstream like OP or naruto , so to be clear, if you thought that quantity have something to do with legitimacy of opinion.. Well No I am not what u thought
https://myanimelist.net/profile/karambia

You certainly haven't reviewed as much,lol, yeah, I don't like articulate my thought into paragraph that;s for sure.

and I don't know if you watch good anime or just mainstream crap, but so far I haven't seen you talk about much good anime. I consider Attack on Titan utter trash. Kabaneri is at least decent, though it's not an artistic masterpiece like Angel's Egg or anythingI don't consider angel's egg masterpiece, personally. but surely something pinnacle and essential like that can't be compared to forgettable stuff like kabaneri (imo)

In the meantime I'm watching Mob Psycho 100.I wonder with ur opinion next if I said I like mob psycho

Zotis

05-27-17, 04:45 AM

why that quantity seems not correlated with quality of your opinion?
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.

In the end I'm not some random guy that'd seen couple mainstream like OP or naruto , so to be clear, if you thought that quantity have something to do with legitimacy of opinion.. Well No I am not what u thought
https://myanimelist.net/profile/karambia

That is exactly the kind of anime watcher I expected you were. I never figured you for someone who had only seen a couple mainstream shows like Naruto. But it's no surprise that you actually watched Duel Masters, lol.

I don't consider angel's egg masterpiece, personally. but surely something pinnacle and essential like that...

Okay, you don't consider it a masterpiece, but you do consider it "pinnacle and essential." Then why can't you see my point?

I wonder with ur opinion next if I said I like mob psycho
Why do you think that might change anything?

resopamenic

05-27-17, 05:06 AM

That's a completely invalid generalization, super realistic anime like Re-Life, Only Yesterday and Whisper of the Heart, for instance, reproduce the way Japanese people talk.you did take that literally, but well, in context, how percent shows you'd seen/found have something relied on realism in comparison with things that is not?
Even for thing "suppa realistic" like omoide poroporo, something that I called a "close one" for real life representation(but also a glimpse one), I can't guarantee all of it depict the correct way 100 percent close to how real life japanese behave and talk, thing like the logic and nature of conversation, the dialect, the punctuation, or in simply said how organic was the dialog itself? Can you assure it?

Stuff like K-On! has obviously super exaggerated cuteness dialogue but does indeed represent in an super-exaggerated way the way high school girls talk when they want to talk in a cute way.that's completely invalid generalization too about high school girl.

Overall, there is a lot of variance in anime like there is a lot of variance in live action film. But it's true Japanese fiction tends to be more dramatic and theatrical than Western fiction (in Kurosawa's film Rashomon the way the actors portray the characters is super exaggerated as well).apparently

Anyway, we cannot say anything about "anime" in general because Japan's animation output is 2/3 of the world's and is by far the most heterogeneous animation in the world. So, despite having some patterns (such as the massive influenced of shoujo manga aesthetics), it's hard to make any generalizations regarding anime (which is a mistake many anime fans themselves make).nah, it's depend. you can generalize it on context like what the trend and tendency of it - as I don't think it was so hard to spot lack of proper and organic conversation just from experience from the nature of dub itself, it's just like everywhere -

resopamenic

05-27-17, 05:17 AM

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.okay, I try articulate it more : if you really had seen that much anime (thousands) I don't see so much different with other ppl's opinion that'd seen much less stuff, per se

That is exactly the kind of anime watcher I expected you were. I never figured you for someone who had only seen a couple mainstream shows like Naruto. But it's no surprise that you actually watched Duel Masters, lol.yup, that one is my childhood gem

Okay, you don't consider it a masterpiece, but you do consider it "pinnacle and essential." Then why can't you see my point?what point?

Why do you think that might change anything?lol, I'm just teasing you if you were not the same dude that'll get a grudge with someone that have different opinion with his

jal90

05-27-17, 11:34 AM

Sounds like a nice place and moment to comment the animation I've been watching in 2017. So I will start with my very first viewings of the year and one of my fondest discoveries.

http://i.imgur.com/rxg2cel.jpg?1
Birdboy (Pedro Rivero & Alberto Vázquez, 2010)

A short film with bleak aesthetics and a depressing setting that adapts the same comic as the full-length film Psiconautas by the same authors, which I haven't watched but I assume it will be way better because this one finds its major issues on the feeling that it's an abridged version of a much larger story, lacking context and immersion. Still, it is really interesting and manages to transmit a feel of uneasiness that can be quite intense. I haven't watched much animation from my own country but the style of storytelling and artwork of Alberto Vázquez immediately stood out as something with a lot of potential. Which was further confirmed by my other two viewings.

3.5

http://i.imgur.com/nZSVBgM.png?1
Unicorn blood - Sangre de unicornio (Alberto Vázquez, 2013)

Okay, so here we have an edgy retelling of typical child-oriented elements, like unicorns and teddy bears. Lots of blood, swearing and subversion of tropes. Nothing that stands out on paper. So how does it work? Well, from the setting and atmosphere being portrayed as delightfully disturbing and sinister to the voiceover narration making the whole thing look like an ancient devil invocation, this short makes a lot of right aesthetic choices that capture a mood one can only describe as satanic. Add some of the most legitimately evil dialogues I have heard in a long while and you have an outstanding work of pure edginess and perversion.

4

http://i.imgur.com/2NMqTqM.jpg?1
Decorado (Alberto Vázquez, 2016)

The aesthetics keep being impressive and this time they are reasonably detailed but equally dark and distressing, to recreate something that is half dystopy half nightmare. In terms of narration this is by far the most complex with an intricate storytelling following a fragmented and non-linear development. What it tells could be summed up as a satire about existence, and our meaning and purpose in life, the superficiality of our society and forms of communication. But far from being preachy, it is absurd and ironic, filled with black comedy and references to modern trends. It is a work that can be enjoyed in various levels, that leaves a lasting aftertaste, and that, if the previous two weren't enough, sold the author to me, definitely and absolutely.

4.5

jal90

05-27-17, 12:02 PM

http://i.imgur.com/5cHK7oZ.jpg?1
One Piece Film: Gold (Hiroaki Miyamoto, 2016)

Well, the highly anticipated One Piece movie that had the potential to be the next Strong World or Z was, indeed, better than expected. Note that I'm not specially fond of the former, specially Z. This one does not fix all the flaws of the former completely, of course. The villain keeps making lots of convenient decisions, the drawings are irregular with wonderful backgrounds and sometimes way too sketchy or deformed character designs, the climax is overdone and cheesy, and of course there's a lot of moments that wouldn't be less subtle if they had a voiceover narration shouting "BUY THIS!! BUY THIS!!" to the audience. But on the other hand this one actually managed to offer a narrative that at times is truly absorbing. It fixes the main issue I had with Strong World and Z (over-dependence on the Monster Trio) and highlights the role of the rest of the Straw Hats, giving them a main role in the fights and the development of the story. Another good thing it does is keeping always something to itself, which makes things more interesting in contrast with the often too straightforward narration of the One Piece movies.

This one was the first One Piece movie to ever be shown in theaters here and it was very curious to read the professional reviews on it from people who clearly hadn't experienced the style of the series. The talk about zany and overacted animation was interesting because I have become so used to this that I didn't notice how out of the norm its style actually is and how crazy and creative it may look for newcomers. I'm somewhat glad that it earned positive reactions and it finally cleared the pathway for the arrival of the rest of the movies, in domestic format but hey, it's something.

As always with these kinds of movies I can't blindly recommend this to anybody, and like any other film in the franchise it has its fair share of flaws and inconsistencies, but still, it's a great ride and a lot of fun that I'm sure fans can always appreciate.

4

Guaporense

05-27-17, 07:29 PM

you did take that literally, but well, in context, how percent shows you'd seen/found have something relied on realism in comparison with things that is not?
Even for thing "suppa realistic" like omoide poroporo, something that I called a "close one" for real life representation(but also a glimpse one), I can't guarantee all of it depict the correct way 100 percent close to how real life japanese behave and talk, thing like the logic and nature of conversation, the dialect, the punctuation, or in simply said how organic was the dialog itself? Can you assure it?

The same lack of adherence to reality applies to American movies and TV shows (or stuff from any country): they also don't speak exactly the same English as spoken by people on the streets. Yet, people never talk about that.

While it's obvious that the degree of realism in Only Yesterday is much higher than 99.9% of movies made in the world, therefore the director obviously wouldn't try to make the language spoken in the movie to differ from the actual language people speak. Why would he?

It's true that in some cases anime goes further into stylization of voice acting than the animation and film of any other country as the Japanese have developed the art of voice acting to a much higher degree and so have levels of aggression or cuteness that you will never see in daily conversation (or in the voice acting of any other country). It's similar to their higher development of the artforms of comics and animation overall since it attains many forms of expression you will never see outside of Japan in any artistic medium.

But that's kinda obvious that characters from a show like Bakuon will never reflect reality (I mean, it's about little schoolgirls riding super large and expensive motocycles) and so are a purely artistic endeavour. It's like the vocals in death metal: which express aggression that reflects the expressive objective of what they are trying to accomplish. In the same way the voice acting in Only Yesterday is realistic because the movie is realistic whole the voice acting in K-On! is extremely cute because the show aims for that effect. So, it depends.

nah, it's depend. you can generalize it on context like what the trend and tendency of itAnime and manga is too large a world to have a single trend. The type of stuff I watch and read is very different from the type of stuff other fans watch and read. It's like saying "European music is like X", as if European music was a single homogeneous thing. Like European music, Japanese animation and comics is a big world and so one cannot really make any generalizations about it, even though many fans do.

Well, that's called ignorance and also the fact fans usually associate the type of anime they are interested in with the whole medium or the fact people have the tendency to stereotype, since it's easier to stereotype than to actually see the reality and think with their own heads. When people say "anime is X" they always and everywhere are talking about the very specific subset of anime they know, but even fans who know a lot of shows tend to stereotype, well, it appears to be human nature to stereotype foreign cultures: it's a way to fake understanding, instead of actually perceiving that they do not know.

Guaporense

05-27-17, 11:47 PM

101) Saga of Tanya the Evil (2017)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVnKCkGauIA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVnKCkGauIA)

I believe this kind of show might be a good representative of the particularities of otaku subculture. It's one of those series adapted not from manga which is consolidated as a mainstream entertainment medium but adapted from light novels (called "ranobe" in Japanese) which are a by-product of otaku subculture. And one of exceptional quality in that (it's in my opinion one of the best light novel adaptations I know, as usually light novel adaptations are inferior to manga or (normal) novel adaptations).

Now that's an interesting plot: in 2013 a 30 year old atheist Japanese salary man is killed in a train station by god who is trying to make him believe in him. To bake his soul into a believer god reincarnates the soul as a girl living in Germany before WW1 (here the dates are moved about decade later from the historical dates to justify the use of more advanced technology, and the names are changed, Germany = Empire, France = Republic, etc), in a much harsher world than in a 21st century country. Interestingly, the soul still retains its previous memories so Tanya remembers her previous life and as a little child already acts as an adult. Giving a certain justification for the habit common in anime since the early days of Miyazaki in the 1970's of putting children in adult situations. In this case, Tanya become a military officer at the age of 10. :D

Also, since this is an otaku product it also contains a heavy dose of fantastical elements, so the military discovers Tanya has talent for magic and in this case magic means being deployed in the flying mage squadrons in the military. Interestingly, the French flying mages ride things resembling horses. Anyway, to make Tanya into a believer god endows her with a special extremely destructive spell but also forces her to enunciate her faith in god every time she user her special spell, forcing her to pray against her will given that she is an atheist if she wants to survive the war:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pCE7iH4hAU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pCE7iH4hAU)

Anyway, the show also features the first serious depiction of lolis in warfare. Before we had military moe of the style of Girls und Panzer, High School Fleet and Strike Witches which were comedy series that made fun of their own absurdity (look at how cute it is that bunch of little girls trying to run a battleship or a tank battalion). Here the cute characters are also extremely serious, aggressive and cruel:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtdfHkuTH-Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtdfHkuTH-Y)

The series also features excellent art and animation and I loved the look of the battlefields.

Interestingly, despite Hollywood's obsession with WW2, WW1 was in fact a perhaps better example of the destructive effects of warfare since it involved a larger number of countries suffering the full effects of large scale warfare (in WW2's most of the actual combat involved only 2 countries: Germany and USSR). So when one wants to do a more serious war movie they usually do a movie about WW1 (like Paths of Glory, All Quiet in the Western Front,etc). This is the animated version of such serious WW1 movies but combined with lolis and magic but still taking itself very seriously. It also reminds me of the psychiatrist Tamaki Saito's book on the common use of beautiful fighting little girls in anime (he attributes it to the anchoring effects of little girls on anime on the human psyche by their capacity to produce a "reality" alternate from the daily reality).

Also, they modified the history a little bit allowing Germany to fight only half of the countries they fought at once: in WW1, Germany was at a point fighting simultaneously France, UK, Russia, Italy and the US. Here this doesn't happen in the plot as France surrenders before Russian enters in the war, which was partly caused by Tanya's brilliant strategy, which makes it more interesting as Germany is given a fighting chance in WW1 which it never had historically (being suffocated by the commercial blockade while being at war with the entire rest of the world simultaneously). Also, this show among others shows the Japanese Wehrmacht fetish (such as the ending I posted in the beginning of this review).

I would give this show a very high ratings, it keept me interested all the way (even though the Japanese emo band hair style of a couple of officers made me cringe, while lolis don't make me suspend disbelief some weird hair styles do (which are inconsistent with the show's tone) look at this:
http://www.anime-planet.com/images/characters/erich-von-rerugen-119412.jpg?t=1484951589
what an awfully unrealistic hair!).

Also, for curiosity the voice actress who performed as Tanya also did Madoka.

Zotis

05-27-17, 11:50 PM

Guaporense

05-28-17, 12:04 AM

How much a person watches really doesn't matter, but it does account for experience. However, what you watch is much more important than how much you watch.

Indeed. The concept of anime being something homogeneous that many fans have is because they only tend to watch the same type of stuff and never experience anything else but one if watch, for instance: Miyazaki's movies plus Ghost in the Shell plus Akira plus Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday, which are about 15 movies and totals at only about 30 hours of animation, is already enough for one to perceive how incredibly diverse the anime medium is: from historical drama (GotF) to arthouse science fiction (GitS) to action science fiction/fantasy (Akira) to historical fantasy drama (PM) to cute slice of life (Kiki's Delivery Service).

On the other hand you can try watching all episodes of One Piece and the movies (totals at over 700 episodes and dozens of films, hundreds of hours of animation) which are all in one genre: Shounen adventure.

Zotis

05-28-17, 12:11 AM

Indeed. The concept of anime being something homogeneous that many fans have is because they only tend to watch the same type of stuff and never experience anything else but one if watch, for instance: Miyazaki's movies plus Ghost in the Shell plus Akira plus Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday, which are about 15 movies and totals at only about 30 hours of animation, is already enough for one to perceive how incredibly diverse the anime medium is: from historical drama (GotF) to arthouse science fiction (GitS) to action science fiction/fantasy (Akira) to historical fantasy drama (PM) to cute slice of life (Kiki's Delivery Service).

Also, a lot of people have this innate need for what they enjoy to be considered as great as they enjoy it. The kind of people who think that Star Wars is a great movie, because they don't realise and can't articulate what is great about it or why they like it so much, they just praise what they like and criticise what they dislike and close their mind to other perspectives. It's a delusion. But also what a lot of people who are in that ignorant state don't understand, is that I used to be and everyone starts in that state, and those of us who have come out of that state have more awareness. That's why some people have criticised me saying that I'm arrogant because I must think I'm enlightened or something. Because they can't see the bigger picture while they're still in that state.

But ignorance is never about being ignorant or not being ignorant. Everyone is ignorant, but only once we realise we're ignorant can we begin to educate ourselves. And it's something we all have to learn, but many people for some reason are adverse to learning. Maybe it comes down to honest? Liars prefer ignorance because they are striving to maintain a delusion. It's as if the majority of the population on the planet are pathological liars.

Captain Steel

05-28-17, 12:12 AM

Guaporense

05-28-17, 12:31 AM

But ignorance is never about being ignorant or not being ignorant. Everyone is ignorant, but only once we realise we're ignorant can we begin to educate ourselves.

Precisely. The more stuff I know the more that understand how little I know. This applies to any field.

And it's something we all have to learn, but many people for some reason are adverse to learning. Maybe it comes down to honest? Liars prefer ignorance because they are striving to maintain a delusion. It's as if the majority of the population on the planet are pathological liars.It's called unawareness: not knowing that you don't know. Very few people are wise enough to know that they know nothing. It's just a very rare skill to be aware of our tremendous unawareness.

Also, things like statistics help us to put our unawareness into perspective: in 2016, Japan produced about 900 seasons of shows and movies of new animation, while in 1996, manga sales totaled 2.3 billion books in tens of thousands of different titles plus hundreds of thousands of amateur manga works. Knowing this one knows that it's impossible for a person to actually know a significant fraction of the manga/anime medium.

Guaporense

05-28-17, 12:34 AM

Guap, what did you think of the Speed Racer (2008) movie (some kind of art or CGI trash)?

I haven't watched it but I believe it's from the same director of The Matrix and Cloud Atlas which are great movies. I heard good things about it though. Also, CGI trash can be art too.

Look at this CGI art:

https://www.facebook.com/brianbbrianbrian/

Captain Steel

05-28-17, 12:38 AM

I haven't watched it but I believe it's from the same director of The Matrix and Cloud Atlas which are great movies. I heard good things about it though. Also, CGI trash can be art too.

Look at this CGI art:

https://www.facebook.com/brianbbrianbrian/

I had mixed feelings - I could understand some calling it art or a cartoon brought to life (and I could understand those who called it "epilepsy-inducing").
What I didn't like was the racing scenes - not because they didn't look real (they didn't, but that goes for most of the movie), but because they were indecipherable. Since you really couldn't tell what was happening, the movie needed a lot of extra exposition to let you know what was happening.

Guaporense

05-28-17, 12:42 AM

Anyway, this thread is about animation and not about live action film (which Speed Racer (2008) is). The fact it is influenced by an animation and it's title is from an animation doesn't make it one (just like the hundreds of live action manga adaptations that also have animated adaptions).

resopamenic

05-28-17, 07:48 AM

okay, I try articulate it more : if you really had seen that much anime (thousands) I don't see so much different with other ppl's opinion that'd seen much less stuff, per seI guess I need to take a step back. I was being arrogant. Let me try to be more honest now. I think I have seen maybe around 700 anime. I'm not sure because I don't keep track, but I also spend a lot of time making myself aware of what's out there, and I'm selective with what I watch. well you have quite big amount, but look back the remark above, it's still fit as why this (quantity) should be a thing lol when we both could be considered experience it more than normies watcher

I'm guessing you binge quite a fair amount of mainstream series though, judging from your myanimelist and the way you talk.I'm not being stubborn here but I don't think I even close to what you accused me. I'm just not have problem what, any type you bring , whether obscure, mainstream, whether for music, movie anime book etc. I just give try what pick mine interest, and from what I feel and seen nothing seasonal and mainstream compare like you guys did, from what I seen in this thread so far. And to be quiet honest if you only spot what you called mainstream title in from your stalking of mine, I have lot question to you really :/ because kabaneri was mainstream anime :p

I try to watch more important works and things by the great directors. I also look for obscure gems. I really can't stand stuff like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, DBZ, Digimon, Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, Gurren Lagan, and all that stuff. I just consider it mainstream garbage. It's uninspired, talentless, mediocre. Now, for someone like you who does enjoy that stuff, I think I can understand why you like Attack on Titan and call Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress mediocre, and criticise it's pace for being too fast.lol, I'm not gonna bragging my material , and this conversation really close to "you have bad taste" "watch more animu" , a smell of legit elite attitude I'd seen for a while, which was kinda stupid -
but tbh I'm disappointed with the argumentative you bring, said the mainstream was utter garbage also utter generalization that kind of show the only thing I watch and even like (and also to say you seems don't realize kabane was mainstream)
-Lol, it's just like guap said above to broke me away- tho' they(mainstream stuff) tend to be trash ofc-

and no, obscure also mean it could be only appeal for niche audiences rather than mass, which mean, not always work for everyone, and not everybody should enjoy and like it, not everybody can "appreciated" the why of it (as it talk your expertise , layman-ship, and it could be personal)

not being said I'm not digging obscure at all , you can check my list more clearly and attentive, my completion, my onhold, my ptw my dropped, and tell me what you found. But in the end obscure or not it's not a prove to put someone less bellow you, just said, opinion-wise

Because you're used to watching material that dumbs down it's audience, you probably don't even notice half of things wrong with most of those shows. And they are long shows with slow pacing and lots of dreary filler, which you probably don't mind or actually enjoy. lol, been a while I'm not watching stuff like OP or even naruto and someone criticizing me for that , wow -which was fit the stereotype-
but even to that , there different type of audiences that aware all the negative and flaw of their fave show , whether obscure or mainstream, but still can take the necessary essence of what he like and enjoy with audiences that don't

*If I gonna put the like naruto filler into my account of consideration(score), I don't think I can't stand it, so I exclude it out - just sayin' , you don't seem read my list properly because there were notes for it.

So you wouldn't think anything special of a work that actually uses proper pacing techniques, because you don't even notice that stuff.the problem for kabane was, it have potent for a decent show, a survival horror show, let's said, with a proper pacing, just like you said. but When the princess biba introduced, it put the show into another course of hardcore ejaculation. It become less suspense and thrilling comparison of AoT, Prematurely ended because that twist was where that show -disappointingly- gonna went compare to it premise. the wreck they put on the train became way more worse.
Not to mention there more/could be potential backstory or history of their world/verse, it just throw away just for the sake "proper pace" u said.

And again this pace problem (idk where you really found this term), it's like and sound(from my point of view) you will despise any show that have more than 12 episodes because it wasn't properly pace for your, and sound like to cop out any long story because it's surely and solely "dragging" which is not always the case

And of course I wouldn't then expect a person like you, who doesn't consider Angel's Egg, one of the only true Arthouse Animes that exists outside of short films, a masterpiece, to understand.your logic in nutshell. Fetish-ing stuff like that not have corelation for you become smart or got superior brain, turn you to be better human, or at least have better opinion lol -

How much a person watches really doesn't matter, but it does account for experience. However, what you watch is much more important than how much you watch.I tried to follow your flow, but now you really contradictive here, hmm in compare what you implied before lol

Even though Guap watches a lot of slice of life, cute girls doing cute things, and mediocre mainstream anime, he also knows about the great works and has seen many of them.hmm yeah guap seems pretty well cope more than us for sure, sorry

He is able to identify their flaws and merits, and doesn't merely praise them because he likes them or criticise them if he doesn't like them. He's able to identify their merits and flaws separately from his personal taste. And that is not something that what you watch and how much you watch can give you. That is something you have to realise about life. I can do it, and Guap can do it, and that is why I like talking with Guap about movies. But you can't do it. You don't do it with anime, you don't do it with music, it is just something you have not yet learned about life. It's something most people don't understand.separating subjectivity with objectivity - idk what you ppl talk about , read back ur review for kabaneri and tell me that other way :/ .

- be honest with, my subjectivity was all my sole of existence, whether it has merit with me or not, it was the primary thing to look for me. the objective knowledge , information and it appreciation was the secondary and addition. That why I tend to appreciate angel's egg, but not consider it masterpiece personally, because I still can't relate with all the doubt of his (of mamoru ishii) religion believe try to implemented, with all of symbolism - tho' I enjoyed some excerpt of it atsmosphere - and I don't see why i should be fake with mine opinion that surely subjective?
And also there thing like Nostalghia that I adore much more, make angel's egg just feel like a minor carbon copy (by my own standard)

Most people here who are 40 and watched over 10,000 movies don't even do it. Some kids who are 16 and have watched only a few hundred movies can do it. You have to learn that. Then you'll be able to understand why Angel's Egg is a masterpiece, because something like that has nothing to do with your opinions, and nothing to do with whether you like it or not, it has everything to do with art, which every media of "entertainment" is.it has thing to do with my opinion, the way I like it or not and why , what the reason I like it or not. That must put first in every of my statement regard thing. Because it mine, not your.

And, I'm not sure you really truly know how to evaluate art, like u implied - in comparison of guap in this thread, you still seems more like another layman, sorry

resopamenic

05-28-17, 09:14 AM

The same lack of adherence to reality applies to American movies and TV shows (or stuff from any country): they also don't speak exactly the same English as spoken by people on the streets. Yet, people never talk about that.like you said before
But it's true Japanese fiction tends to be more dramatic and theatrical than Western fiction -- lack adherence to reality did applies to western fiction too but in comparison? Eastern vs western? Just from what u'd seen, I bet u seen many

While it's obvious that the degree of realism in Only Yesterday is much higher than 99.9% of movies made in the world,you said don't generalize, because there much varies, style etc in [insert medium], we can't talk like that etc - bet you don't even yet watch all those "movies made in the world"

therefore the director obviously wouldn't try to make the language spoken in the movie to differ from the actual language people speak. Why would he?obviously- why would he- lol idk that remark can achieve.
I'm just said even with that intentional of realism you ppl can't assure 100% . So there fiction for you

It's true that in some cases anime goes further into stylization of voice acting than the animation and film of any other countryyup

as the Japanese have developed the art of voice acting to a much higher degree and so have levels of aggression or cuteness that you will never see in daily conversation (or in the voice acting of any other country). It's similar to their higher development of the artforms of comics and animation overall since it attains many forms of expression you will never see outside of Japan in any artistic medium. But that's kinda obvious that characters from a show like Bakuon will never reflect reality (I mean, it's about little schoolgirls riding super large and expensive motocycles) and so are a purely artistic endeavour. It's like the vocals in death metal: which express aggression that reflects the expressive objective of what they are trying to accomplish. In the same way the voice acting in Only Yesterday is realistic because the movie is realistic whole the voice acting in K-On! is extremely cute because the show aims for that effect. So, it depends.idk what you want to achieve with that elaboration, but I never have problem to begin with realistic or not
My first question is, how much in percentage show like intentional omoide poroporo that's you found? In compare the rest of that kind none realistic shows?

nah, it's depend. you can generalize it on context like what the trend and tendency of itAnime and manga is too large a world to have a single trend. [/quote]I never said it was single trend, and why put manga??? Wasn't you talk anime voice acting? ---- as it was can varied like a more moe typical sound for example

notice big catalog of anime how much Ppl that have just watch couple, hundred, thousand anime will have same common ground about lack of realism in voice acting in compare of real life japanese(if they know how them talk). Problem or not that was personal.

The type of stuff I watch and read is very different from the type of stuff other fans watch and read. It's like saying "European music is like X", as if European music was a single homogeneous thing. Like European music, Japanese animation and comics is a big world and so one cannot really make any generalizations about it, even though many fans do.lol, voice acting was just like easy generalization mate. Ppl will generalize and affiliated anime character with big eyes but sure there lot anime that's don't, but in comparison? That you can see by urself without even need to watch all of it. the same case with voice acting, as long as you now RL ppl behave.

Well, that's called ignorance and also the fact fans usually associate the type of anime they are interested in with the whole medium or the fact people have the tendency to stereotype, since it's easier to stereotype than to actually see the reality and think with their own heads. When people say "anime is X" they always and everywhere are talking about the very specific subset of anime they know, but even fans who know a lot of shows tend to stereotype, well, it appears to be human nature to stereotype foreign cultures: it's a way to fake understanding, instead of actually perceiving that they do not know.pointless elaboration. I mean you're right(absoulutely right) and I'd seen ppl and wrote that also over time but I don't think It repel anything in this case. You like repel something cultural, tradition that will easily found in any anime.

Zotis

05-28-17, 01:58 PM

well you have quite big amount, but look back the remark above, it's still fit as why this (quantity) should be a thing lol when we both could be considered experience it more than normies watcher

Yeah, I'm agreeing with you that quantity is not all that important.

I'm not being stubborn here but I don't think I even close to what you accused me. I'm just not have problem what, any type you bring , whether obscure, mainstream, whether for music, movie anime book etc. I just give try what pick mine interest, and from what I feel and seen nothing seasonal and mainstream compare like you guys did, from what I seen in this thread so far. And to be quiet honest if you only spot what you called mainstream title in from your stalking of mine, I have lot question to you really :/ because kabaneri was mainstream anime :p

Well, actually you said yourself that you take the subjective approach. You think something is good if you like it and bad if you don't, and that's the main issue here. When you criticise or praise anime/music/anything you do it from this subjective realm where somehow if you really like something it must be good, and if you really aren't impressed with something then it's not all that great. If you want to do that, go ahead. I think it's a wrong approach, but you're entitled to do that. What I take issue with is when you try to tell me that I have to value your opinion as equal to my own, and I have to look at it from your perspective. I don't have to adopt your perspective, and you don't have to adopt mine. If you want to tell me that you think your way is right and I should learn it from your way, remember that I used to look at it that way when I was younger. So don't think for a moment that I haven't looked at it from that perspective and I don't understand that perspective. But you've never looked at it from my perspective, so also, don't pretend to understand the objective approach to quality.

Remember this, you are the one with the subjective approach. That's yours not mine. Yet, you insist I accept your perspective, while you don't accept mine. This is a double standard. You just use ideology to say that whatever your perspective is, even if it's wrong, is valid, yet you won't validate other's. It's messed up. I don't think every perspective is equally valid. I think I understand it better than you. I don't think I'm better than you, but I think I have more awareness. You point out flaws with Kabaneri that are overreaching, and you don't acknowledge the flaws in Attack on Titan, that's kind of messed up.

lol, I'm not gonna bragging my material , and this conversation really close to "you have bad taste" "watch more animu" , a smell of legit elite attitude I'd seen for a while, which was kinda stupid -

It's, you have bad taste, watch better anime. I don't care if you think my attitude is elite. I don't care about your feelings. I care about the truth. Sorry if you don't like it, but too bad. I'm not gonna tolerate your nonsense.

but tbh I'm disappointed with the argumentative you bring, said the mainstream was utter garbage also utter generalization that kind of show the only thing I watch and even like (and also to say you seems don't realize kabane was mainstream)
-Lol, it's just like guap said above to broke me away- tho' they(mainstream stuff) tend to be trash ofc-
You bolded a quote of me saying, "a fair amount of mainstream," and now you say that I, "said the mainstream was utter garbage also utter generalization that kind of show the only thing I watch and even like." That's very strange of you to quote me and then get what I said completely wrong.

Anyway, I'm not going to spend 2 hours dissecting everything that's wrong with what you're saying. But I do want to say something about "Mainstream" since you seem to have a very misconstrued understanding. I did not criticise "Mainstream" in such a broad sense, only in the broadest sense. I gave several examples, so I'm surprised you didn't get it. Mainstream is not merely a yes or no, this is mainstream or this is obscure. There is a large spectrum of varying degrees. And it's really based on two things, the production and the popularity. Kabaneri may technically be mainstream, but I only know one other person in real life who's even heard of it. Even people who don't watch anime have seen Naruto. And Angel's Egg is more well known than Kabaneri, thanks to the internet, even though it was obscure when it first came out, word spreads. It's not obscure anymore.

- be honest with, my subjectivity was all my sole of existence, whether it has merit with me or not, it was the primary thing to look for me. the objective knowledge , information and it appreciation was the secondary and addition. That why I tend to appreciate angel's egg, but not consider it masterpiece personally, because I still can't relate with all the doubt of his (of mamoru ishii) religion believe try to implemented, with all of symbolism - tho' I enjoyed some excerpt of it atsmosphere - and I don't see why i should be fake with mine opinion that surely subjective?
And also there thing like Nostalghia that I adore much more, make angel's egg just feel like a minor carbon copy (by my own standard)

You should know that your opinions, because they are subjective, have absolutely nothing to do with whether Angel's Egg is a masterpiece. Since you don't even understand what we're talking about, you should be in the student role, asking questions and learning. You aren't qualified to asses whether Angel's Egg is a masterpiece. If your opinion is that you couldn't relate to it and have doubts about it, then just say that. Just say, I didn't particularly appreciate or understand it, or whatever. Don't say it's a masterpiece or it isn't a masterpiece until you understand more about it.

And, I'm not sure you really truly know how to evaluate art, like u implied - in comparison of guap in this thread, you still seems more like another layman, sorry

Lol, this is really funny to me. Of course I am a layman. Guap is an Otaku, that's why he knows how to explain things a little better. I watch more live action films, he watches more anime. But all three of us are lay persons. None of us are experts lol. Guap doesn't have a PHD or work as a highly qualified professional. Lol, You talk about layman as if you don't even know what that means.

resopamenic

05-28-17, 04:44 PM

I have lot question to you really :/ because kabaneri was mainstream anime :p Well, actually you said yourself that you take the subjective approach. You think something is good if you like it and bad if you don't, and that's the main issue here. When you criticise or praise anime/music/anything you do it from this subjective realm where somehow if you really like something it must be good, and if you really aren't impressed with something then it's not all that great. If you want to do that, go ahead.Take a look how this conversation start.. Pot calling the cattle black
I never pressing my subjective realm to anyone, just unexpectedly exchange one two conversation with.. and yeah everybody can disagree with me, and it could be healthy, it's no need to tell blatantly "hey I'm gonna put my subjective thought here", I merely tell my opinion, I even object that AoT's bad too , even can go worse , until.........

I think it's a wrong approach, but you're entitled to do that. What I take issue with is when you try to tell me that I have to value your opinion as equal to my own, and I have to look at it from your perspective yeah, what take you so long

I don't have to adopt your perspective, and you don't have to adopt mine. adopt what? Flaw perspective of your?

If you want to tell me that you think your way is right and I should learn it from your way, remember that I used to look at it that way when I was younger.no way.. It's just popped in this conversation on you just claimed it on the way as part of your pass lol

So don't think for a moment that I haven't looked at it from that perspective and I don't understand that perspective. But you've never looked at it from my perspective, so also, don't pretend to understand the objective approach to quality.now you begin to talk perspective, lol, and sugarcoating yourself here. First one that bring superiority attitude was your and you act like an angel now lol - And now suddenly he want to talk perspective

Remember this, you are the one with the subjective approach. That's yours not mine. Yet, you insist I accept your perspective, while you don't accept mine. This is a double standard. You just use ideology to say that whatever your perspective is, even if it's wrong, is valid, yet you won't validate other's. It's messed up. I don't think every perspective is equally valid. I think I understand it better than you. I don't think I'm better than you, but I think I have more awareness. I'm the one with subjective approach - reading your review - wow - mindgigling

You point out flaws with Kabaneri that are overreaching, and you don't acknowledge the flaws in Attack on Titan, that's kind of messed up.read back the conversation before, as I never denied the bad aspect of AoT - but even if it messed up it has lot joy with more weight than kabane (as it was never can be subtle, then, imo)

It's, you have bad taste, watch better anime. I don't care if you think my attitude is elite. I don't care about your feelings. I care about the truth. Sorry if you don't like it, but too bad. I'm not gonna tolerate your nonsense.you're not elitist, elitist was rare mythology creature. stop acting like one lol.

You bolded a quote of me saying, "a fair amount of mainstream," and now you say that I, "said the mainstream was utter garbage also utter generalization that kind of show the only thing I watch and even like." That's very strange of you to quote me and then get what I said completely wrong.no, u just implied that, be honest with urself. u thought mainstream were blatantly bad and because fortunately you find mainstream titles in my list then try to put me off with that lol.

Anyway, I'm not going to spend 2 hours dissecting everything that's wrong with what you're saying. I don't think I will spend more hours with dude that have superiority issue like you

But I do want to say something about "Mainstream" since you seem to have a very misconstrued understanding. I did not criticise "Mainstream" in such a broad sense, only in the broadest sense. I gave several examples, so I'm surprised you didn't get it. Mainstream is not merely a yes or no, this is mainstream or this is obscure. "I really can't stand stuff like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, DBZ, Digimon, Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, Gurren Lagan, and all that stuff. I just consider it mainstream garbage."

There is a large spectrum of varying degrees. And it's really based on two things, the production and the popularity. Kabaneri may technically be mainstream, but I only know one other person in real life who's even heard of it. Even people who don't watch anime have seen Naruto.it's still mainstream anime. It's just not as mainstream as naruto but still a popular one, just popped out freshly from last year.

And Angel's Egg is more well known than Kabaneri, thanks to the internet, even though it was obscure when it first came out, word spreads. It's not obscure anymore.who said angel's egg was obscure especially in what they called "anime community"?? And no, lot ppl still more know about kabaneri lol
https://myanimelist.net/anime/28623/Koutetsujou_no_Kabaneri/stats
https://myanimelist.net/anime/885/Tenshi_no_Tamago/stats

You should know that your opinions, because they are subjective, have absolutely nothing to do with whether Angel's Egg is a masterpiece. Since you don't even understand what we're talking about, you should be in the student role, asking questions and learning. like you were none subjective, at all :/. Lol. I want to meet this "objective opinion" of your regard angel's egg, I mean really :p if it really exist

You aren't qualified to asses whether Angel's Egg is a masterpiece. neither do you

If your opinion is that you couldn't relate to it and have doubts about it, then just say that. Just say, I didn't particularly appreciate or understand it, or whatever. Don't say it's a masterpiece or it isn't a masterpiece until you understand more about it.no it isn't masterpiece.

Lol, this is really funny to me. Of course I am a layman. Guap is an Otaku, that's why he knows how to explain things a little better. I watch more live action films, he watches more anime. But all three of us are lay persons. None of us are experts lol. Guap doesn't have a PHD or work as a highly qualified professional. Lol, You talk about layman as if you don't even know what that means.It turn to see guap just another layman as well, i thought he was from creative industry or some expert but from the latest reply and you said he was like another self proclaimed otaku, seems it isn't. No expert among us here, Merely layman.

I don't think this pick my interest no more lol. At first it was your and guap thread, it was mistake to tell slightest opinion here lol. Cao

Guaporense

05-29-17, 06:19 PM

102) Hanamaru Kindergarden (2010)
http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/4cf51d9ef0398071bf43d087a62b3f831279147051_full.jpg

How CUTE! This show is about a kindergarden teacher and his pupils.

The teacher is one of the few male kindergarden teachers in Japan (according to a statistic presented in the show itself only 1 out of 50 kindergarden teachers are male). The show uses that to make jokes out of pedophilia all the time, I think that I like those jokes because they are a rebellion against Western moral standards.

The plot is the following: the male kindergarten teacher starts working at that kindergarten in episode 1 and quickly falls in love with another teacher at that school (they are the adult pair in the picture) but one of the students (the one with half brown/half blond hair in the picture above) develops a crush on him (like, as a 5 year old :rolleyes:).

And the show is filled with cuteness porn all the way:
http://gph.is/2ctYC4n

https://thecajunsamurai.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/zero-raws-hanamaru-kindergarten-10-raw-tx-1280x720-x264-mp4_snapshot_04-24_2010-03-15_21-35-551.jpg

It's a fine example of slice of life animation shows, one of many good ones. In this particular example they focus on a kindergarten and dynamics between the kids and the teachers there which is rare for animation (as they usually focus on older kids, usually teenagers, in series involving school environments).

Although I find they harder to find myself, well it's not like I will ever find a new K-On! since such classics are impossible to equal (it's like expecting Hollywood to make a new sci fi movie as good 2001:A Space Odyssey, it's not going to happen, ever).

Although this show, despite the extreme cuteness in it's art style, it is very realistic in its depiction of the young adult Japanese zeitgeist circa 2010.

Guaporense

05-29-17, 07:01 PM

103) New Game! (2016)

http://cdn4.dualshockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/NewGame-1.jpg

This one was a good one as well, very enjoyable. It's about office workers and the main character has just finished high school and begins to work for a game developing company as character designer. Apparently, in Japan people don't go to college before doing such kinds of jobs which makes sense since why go to college to learn how to do stuff you can only learn through "learning by doing?", it's better to earn minimum wage for a while developing ones' skills instead of wasting money on college tuition for courses that are mostly irrelevant for ones' job. Alright, ending with this rant. :D

The show's art and animation are pretty standard for contemporary otaku. The art style is typical of manga time kirara which is kinda the leading otaku manga magazine about cute girls (Is the Order a Rabbit is another show adapted from the comic strips of the same magazine) as this show is adapted from one of the running stories in that magazine. In this case this is a comedy show about office workers, but all office workers are cute girls (as it's SUPPOSED to be :D).

I really liked the joke of the new girl going to the restroom and getting locked out of the office because she forgot her magnetic office key (it happened to me several times). There are also jokes about people confusing her for a child many times since she is like 18 but looks 13. Which is also a staple for this genre.

And the show also features some elements of Japanese work "culture" such as a co-worker who always sleeps at the office and they are depicted working very long hours non-stop before the game is released (something that I guess it's common among game developers worldwide, but in Japan the workaholic culture is even more intense). They even try out all these energetic drinks that are stronger than coffee in that episode.

Zotis

05-30-17, 02:41 PM

I bought The Place Promised in our Early Days, and Initial D: First Stage. Can't wait to watch them as soon as I'm finished season 7 of The Walking Dead. Hey Guap, when are you going to watch some of those obscure gems I gave you? :3

Guaporense

05-31-17, 12:07 AM

Oh, sorry I don't recall your recommendations. Can you pm me again?

104) Hakone-Chan (2015)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ac/Onsen_Yōsei_Hakone-chan_volume_1_cover.jpg

Hakone-Chan is a nice light diversion, the whole thing is 39 minutes long by the way and it looks like it was animated by 3-4 people. It's a very light comedy about a hot spring spirit which is represented as a cute little girl (as its supposed to be).

Anyway, I am finding myself converging in terms of cinema to a similar restrictive set of stuff as my tastes in music. In music I only listen to classical music and to metal and I cannot listen to anything else (or I get the felling I am wasting my time watching subpar music). Now I have reached a point in terms of entertainment that I can only find the time to consume one genre of animation: CGDCT and it's associated subgenres. The reason is that I think now I don't have a lot of free time anymore nor do I have the patience anymore to sit through stuff I might dislike. CGDCT is a pure visceral pleasure that will never disppoint because no matter how mediocre the writing and direction are the show itself are the bright colors and the raw feelings of cute characters interacting in cute ways will male itself time we'll spent.

Take this show, it's only a bunch of comedy gags each episode lasting 3 minutes and has no redeeming properties whatsoever: it's uncompromising mediocrity is a virtue in itself and specially because I was too tired to enjoy anything more complex (I was also watching some Shimbo but I dropped it).

Zotis

05-31-17, 01:12 PM

A.D. Police Files
Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman
*Angel Cop
Armitage III
Armor Hunter Mellowlink
Arrietty
*Baoh
Battle Royale High School
Big Wars
Bio Hunter
Black Magic M-66
Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma
Bounty Dog
The Cockpit
Curse of Kazuo
Cyber City Oedo 808
*Dagger of Kamui
The Dark Myth
*Darkside Blues
Demon City Shinjuku
Devilman: Demon Bird Sirene
Devilman: The Birth
*Fight Iczer!
Flag
Gall Force: Eternal Story
Genocyber
Goku: Midnight Eye
*Goodnight Althea
*Grey: Digital Target
Harmageddon
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance
Iria: Zeiram the Animation
Kai Do Maru
Kemonozume
Kite
Lensman: Secret of the Lens
Lily C.A.T.
Megacity 23
Memories
Meso Forte
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01
Mind Game
Mobile Suit Gundam: A War in the Pocket
Mobile Suit Gundam: Stardust Memories
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Mushi-Shi
Neo Tokyo
Ninja Gaiden
Ocean Waves
Psycho Diver: Soul Siren
Redline
Rhea Gall Force
Robot Carnival
Roots Search
Roujin Z
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise
Silent Mobius
Sword of the Stranger
The Twelve Kingdoms
Venus Wars
Wicked City
*A Wind Named Amnesia

I removed some that I know you've seen, but I'm sure there are more on this list you've seen. I can't remember if you watched The Twelve Kingdoms, and I'm pretty sure you've seen Venus Wars, Ocean Waves, The 08th MS Team, but I left them on just in case. I marked with a * the one's that I especially think you need to watch.

Angel Cop is a cyberpunk 6 OVA miniseries with psychics, police, and terrorists. It has a mystery element similar to Patlabor, and violence akin to Genocyber.

Dagger of Kamui is one of those obscure titles that shouldn't be obscure. It's very well animated, with great artwork and a very well written story and dialogue. It's about ninjas, and it's an extremely important movie to watch. Somewhat similar to Ninja Scroll. Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma is not as well animated, but similar in it's ninja and demon themes, and with a great story.

Darkside Blues is another obscure title that deserves way more recognition. It's akin to Vampire Hunter D, with great artwork and an intensely deep plot. You have to watch this, it's crucial.

A Wind Named Amnesia is a kind of post-apocalyptic and philosophical tale about the state of the world after a mysterious wind wipes out everyone's memory setting things back to a barbaric time. One man regains his memory, and his ability to speak, and he travels the world with a mysterious woman. An absolute masterpiece and must see.

Other than that, Fight Iczer! is a pretty important OVA, there were several sequels too. Baoh I think you may have already seen. Grey: Digital Target is a really cool war/gladiator sci-fi that I personally adore. Goodnight Alethea is pretty obscure, it's one that for a long time I couldn't even find anywhere online in English. Eventually someone uploaded it with english subtitles, a sci-fi space-age OVA.

Alright, enjoy. :D

Guaporense

05-31-17, 10:18 PM

Let's see.

These are the ones I watched:

*Angel Cop
*Arrietty
*Baoh
*Black Magic M-66
*Curse of Kazuo
*Demon City Shinjuku
*Genocyber
*Highlander: The Search for Vengeance
*Iria: Zeiram the Animation
*Kemonozume
*Memories
*Mind Game
*Mobile Suit Gundam: A War in the Pocket
*Mushi-Shi
*Ninja Gaiden
*Ocean Waves
*Redline
*Robot Carnival
*Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise
*Sword of the Stranger
*The Twelve Kingdoms
*A Wind Named Amnesia

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise is the best of these, a true classic. Genocyber is also very impressive while Mobile Suit Gundam: A War in the Pocket and Kemonozume are great as well. That's mostly vintage stuff from the days when anime was more focused on science fiction and violence than today.

It's said that the Japanese nerdy subculture changed focus from these (traditionally western) themes to more slice of life stuff.

Zotis

05-31-17, 11:05 PM

Okay cool, yeah I'm glad you've seen quite a few of them. I agree that Honneamise is a masterpiece. I thought its artwork was a bit of an Akira rip off before I learned that it was older.

You should also make sure to watch Gal Force: Eternal Story. It's an all female race at war with another alien race in large scale star fleet battle. It's really cool and has a good story. I think you'll love it.

Guaporense

06-01-17, 04:04 PM

Zotis

06-01-17, 08:52 PM

The akira manga started in 1982 though and ended in 1990. Its extremely important for manga and anime because that manga redefined the standards in line art for manga and animation since. It's a huge impact in that sense as modern otaku art styles are all heavily influenced by akira, specially it's use of strong lines.
Okay cool, but have you ever closely compared the art between the two movies? Because the Akira film art is pretty different from the manga, and exactly the same as Honneamise. Look at the shading, texture, facial expressions, and background detail. It's identical, yet I couldn't find one single person on the same art team.

Guaporense

06-02-17, 05:32 PM

And they went to make gunbuster whose art looks quite different from wings of honneamise.

Zotis

06-03-17, 03:44 AM

https://68.media.tumblr.com/a3aa12a0467bef505b28713ec9a99f1f/tumblr_n60c4lpCxy1trs8b6o1_500.jpg

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991)

I loved the artwork in this movie. There were a lot of interesting characters. In the battle scenes they often did something that I really appreciate and rarely see; they show a lot of people getting killed collaterally, and destruction in the wake of the fighting. Although I felt like there were a lot of characters that they didn't have enough time to focus on, and the pacing was a little rushed.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c3n3leaHBpw/maxresdefault.jpg

http://www.anime-kun.net/animes/screenshots/mobile-suit-gundam-formula-91-110064.jpg

4

Zotis

06-03-17, 05:47 AM

http://i65.tinypic.com/mlo3nc.jpg

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky (2016)

With crisp artwork and smooth fast animation this was a delight on the eyes. There was a lot of attention to detail, and unlike F91 this one had perfect pacing and focused on just the right amount of characters. There was no pointless filler, delays, or meaningless dialogue. Every piece fit. There was an even amount of focus between Zeon and the Federation. The story was set during the original one year war. And I thought it handled the gritty elements of war, the pain, suffering, and constant death and destruction very well. This was originally a four episode miniseries, and they compiled it into a movie. I have yet to watch the second season.

https://extraimago.com/images/2016/07/16/3332.jpg

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h5BJ4cWdNsM/VuY5whrlR4I/AAAAAAAKizA/NUYm_CIW-k4F27qyQ2zT8j-o3fK_IQGWQ/s1600/Untitled-14.jpg

4.5

Guaporense

06-03-17, 11:45 PM

@Zotis (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=84264), hum, this mecha stuff I find it hard to watch. I don't know why but I have trouble suspending disbelief with mechas, I think their appearance feels silly. While mechas like in EVA or RahXephon are more organic looking and in that case they doesn't feel like mechas so I can fully suspend disbelief. While in self-consciously silly stuff like Gunbuster and Gurren Lagann (which was heavily inspired on Gunbuster), it's so silly that mechas fit the overall silliness.

105) Gourmet Girl Graffity 2015

https://myanimelist.cdn-dena.com/images/anime/3/70561l.jpg

Now, that is the kind of stuff that I find entertaining. Well, it's kinda boring but still entertaining. :) Like Non Non Biyori but with food. Clearly based on the very popular genre of food manga but applied to a CGDCT setting. It is also infused with a substantial dose of erotic content as well (although it exists perhaps in a self conscious exercise to poke fun out of the erotization of food consumption: in one scene the girls are eating in the erotic way and the mother of one comments that "Oh, I see you are not the only one who eats in that way" :D).

The quality of art, direction and animation is very high and I noticed that instantly when I was watching it. I soon noticed Shaft on the credits and although it does not look like a Shaft show (which tends to be more experimental) it is of very high quality. Essentially a mediocre cooking manga featuring some erotic scenes adapted into a show with high production values. It's good if you are a fan of slice of life stuff otherwise it's not exceptional: the writing is rather bland and the characters are not very entertaining (although I liked Kirin the most as she was the most entertaining character with a powerful appetite):

https://jamietalksanime.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/large-6.gif

She is also not depicted in an erotic fashion (because she is the kiddie one).

Zotis

06-04-17, 01:32 AM

I should also mention Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Pailsen Files is really good, my favorite from the VOTOMS franchise so far.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mwyHgbVMknw/S_ZLhBz2exI/AAAAAAAAAoY/m6NRYV_lMAQ/s1600/votoms+-+pailsen+files+screenshot+1.png

That purple haired girl, the plaid on her shirt doesn't move when she moves, it's kinda funny. I like her cactus shirt...

Do you have a top 5 slice of life animes?

Guaporense

06-04-17, 03:54 AM

Top 5 slice of life anime?

Well I might give out a top 10 instead!

1 - Haibane Renmei (2002) (it's a slice of life title aright, my favorite animation of all time)
https://fantasticmemes.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/haibane-renmei-full-122982.jpg

2 - Only Yesterday (1991) (THE slice of life animated film)
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/568d706ea128e69ddbd6c021/t/569021749cadb6feaa1753d8/1452286335614/1008117.jpg?format=2500w

3 - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
http://moviemezzanine.com/wp-content/uploads/whisper-2-1024x552.png

4 - Aria: The Origination (2008)
http://i.imgur.com/Q4s6ATT.jpg

5 - Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (2017) (an instant classic, perhaps the best thing Kyoto Animation ever did)
http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/0ca054e55cbf834578f167a0e6d9ad021480076021_full.png

6 - K-On!! (2010) (the second season, better than the first)
https://d1m6vmmwsgiy3l.cloudfront.net/wallpapers/kon-season-2_706_1680.png

7 - Azumanga Daioh (2002)
http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/71a27b9ebd98d374351f6db5a96d6a9f1463844190_full.jpg

8 - Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou OVAs 1-2 (1998-2003)
http://pa1.narvii.com/5660/18943ceabc21f20237edc84178c1323ffebbb8d6_hq.gif

9 - Ichigo Machimaro (2002)
http://rs641.pbsrc.com/albums/uu139/00Connie00/Sequence01.gif~c200

10 - Lucky Star (2007)
http://static.zerochan.net/Lucky%E2%98%86Star.full.223524.jpg

They vary from more realistic slice of life (Haibane Renmei, Aria, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Only Yesterday, Whisper of the Heart, Azumanga Daoih) to more "moe" stuff like Lucky Star and K-On!!

I also think that K-On! is in a way an important landmark slice of life because it pretty much abandoned any pretension of being "realistic" but focused on maximizing it's "immersion" while being very, how can I say this, very slice of life: think of it as a slice of life fantasy. After K-On! they made stuff that was even more fantastical slice of life like Is the Order a Rabbit (2014-2015).

Zotis

06-04-17, 06:55 PM

Haibane Renmei, Only Yesterday, and Whispers of the heart are all excellent. I really do want to see Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. And maybe I should watch K-on since it's fairly important.

Dragon Maid on the other hand I have lots of negative things about.

The others I'm not familiar with.

Zotis

06-06-17, 01:42 AM

I watched the first Yokohama OVA, it was really charming and soothing. I loved the facial expressions, and the cute girls' personalities. It's strange to think of them as robots when nothing else seems futuristic at all.

Guaporense

06-06-17, 08:55 PM

The manga is also a classic (even better than the OVAs). My top slice of life mangas are:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3a/Yotsuba_vol1_cover.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/Yokohama_Kaidashi_Kik%C5%8D_volume_1.jpeg
and
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71BnXg2CuTL.jpg

Zotis

06-07-17, 03:51 AM

https://s1.frozen-layer.net/images/descargas/73757/Yokohama_Kaidashi_Kikou_Quiet_Country_Cafe-1.jpg

Quiet Country Cafe (2002-2003)

It's funny, when I was looking at images for this, our thread came up on google. These two OVA's according to myanimelist.com aired in 2002 and 2003, but they feel very 90's, even possibly 80's. They were elegant and charming. What really made them stand out to me is the mannerisms and expressions of the characters which were unlike anything else I've seen. They were cute and graceful in a way that made me want to fall in love with them. The pace was slow and the atmosphere soothing. It almost lulled me to sleep. I really enjoyed it.

https://www.animeclick.it/images/Anime_big/YokohamaKaidashiKikou-QuietCountryCafe/YokohamaKaidashiKikou-QuietCountryCafe4.jpg

http://68.media.tumblr.com/24af0ad033b79b7bb5f7b899637451a0/tumblr_o7x8vlZAJ31tes8zmo1_540.gif

3.5

Guaporense

06-07-17, 11:07 PM

Glad you liked those.

Zotis

06-08-17, 07:31 PM

I watched the first episode of Aria, but I don't think it's for me.

Guaporense

06-09-17, 12:57 AM

Aria was very boring for me at the beginning but I started to like it more and more.

106) Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (2017)

https://images7.alphacoders.com/817/817794.jpg

Now that was something very special. Perhaps the best work of Kyoto Animation since 2010's K-On!!, in fact superior to that title in many respects. It's slice of life animation at its finest and despite the massive presence of supernatural elements (half of the cast are dragons), the show is very realistic. It's part of the tradition followed by the likes of Miyazaki and Anno in trying to depict realism in fantastic settings. In this case the show is about being part of a minority and the fear of being excluded/hated by mainstream society.

It's was a very touching show and also the culmination of animated cuteness in terms of art and voice acting. Just look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YtY_ke2rP8

Pure brilliance.

Guaporense

06-11-17, 02:51 AM

Eurocentrism and Japanese Comics and Animation

Japan completely dominates the fields of comics and animation, that is the use of abstract graphical representation in the expression of fictional narratives. The reasons for this situation are complex and historical and will not go into detail right now as I talked extensively about that in a previous post in this thread. What I am talking right now is the general perception of Japanese comics and animation in the Anglo Saxon countries.

I find itself puzzling is this Anglo-Saxon conception of liking or disliking "anime" as if the entire universe of Japanese animation (which is almost all the world's animation, essentially, hence anime and animation can be used almost interchangeably) was something homogeneous. People in Anglo Saxon countries are not so disposed to homogenizing other cultural mediums such as music and live action film. Why is that they homogenize animation? Anime is not an homogeneous thing so terms like "like" or "dislike" do not apply to anime. In Japan the term anime does not exist by the way which is something that should also apply to the West.

And the degree of heterogeneity in anime has increased tremendously over the past two decades with the development of many new genres of animation hitherto inexistent. Today, given the lack of variety in Hollywood movies, one can even claim that anime is more diverse than live action American movies or French movies.

Animation is an artform whose perception in Anglo Saxon society is deeply rotted in ignorant prejudice. The reason for the existence of prejudice is clear: western art since the days of Classical Hellas has explicitly determined that art exists as a subjacent and inferior dimension to physical reality. Since live action film is automatically more realistic in its reproduction of physical reality vis comics and animation it is regarded as the superior visual medium in western culture over comics and animation. This essentially is at the root of all prejudice in Western Culture regarding comics and animation (as well as videogames to a large extend that vidsogames remained as more abstract form of visual representation, now Western vidsogames are also seeking to reproduce physical reality and so to become like photography and live action film).

In Japanese culture this western cultural construction is inexistent. This allowed Japan to develop abstract graphical art into sophisticated narratives consumed by the general public, being so far the only culture in the entire world where animation and comics emerged as really developed artistic mediums. However, Japan has existed through history as a country in the periphery of the developed world, which has been over the past several centuries Europe and North America, the regions which have dominated the world over all of modern history.

This peripheral position of Japan in the Eurocentric world means that Japanese society disregards their own culture in comparison to European culture. This explains why manga/anime exists to a degree as a subjacent subculture inside its own home ground: even in recent decades, Japanese people do not respect their home grown medium of manga to the same degree as European art forms such as literature and live action films. And this inferiority complex is also why Japanese museums about manga were established only after the Europeans (which includes their colonies) recognized the merits of manga artists. Japan itself consumed their own culture voraciously as manga sales have been 10 times larger than sales of novels and movie tickets, but officially they never respected the specific forms of their own culture until the west began to appreciate it, revealing the existence of a rather sad inferiority complex. Miyazaki has talked at lenght about this inferiority complex (as he suffers from it as well).

In the west, however, prejudice against manga exists in a different form. The western world regards all other cultures in existence (in present and past) as inherently inferior to contemporary US/European culture. This ethnocentric perception is overwhelmingly dominant in the minds of nearly all Western persons. In fact, the elements of non-western culture that westerners value the most are actually the elements of such non-western culture that approximate more closely western culture.

For example, Akira Kurosawa was named the Asian of the century by an American newspaper, the reason is clear: his movies were live action movies (hence, European cultural medium) that heavily influenced Hollywood movies. In other words, Asia is regarded as relevant only to the degree it influences European cultures. Which is clearly a case of ethnocentrism. Cultural forms that are specific of Japan such as adult animation and comics are regarded as inferior to cultural forms that exist in the West such as literature and live action film. Comparing manga to literature written by the likes of Haruki Murakami is regarded as a maximum compliment to the manga even when it was applied to a manga that has absolutely no similarities to Murakami's novels, clearly revealing the ignorance of the reviewer (that was in the back of a manga I brought). Anyway, from my perspective one could even conjecture that Tezuka is the most important Japanese artist in the 20th century as he was the single most important individual in the emergence of manga (and hence, animation as its derivative) as a fully developed artistic medium in all of World History.

Besides its ethnocentrism, Western culture disregards such cultural forms because they directly conflict with it's basic aesthetic principles. Nothing goes more against Western culture than the highly stylized forms one can see in contemporary Otaku manga: specially if used in serious fictional narratives. In those cases Western culture views as a necessary component of a serious fictional graphic narrative the utilization of photorealistic visuals (Schindler's list for instance). Since otaku manga is characterized by the complete disregard of photorealism it clashes directly with this basic Western cultural norm.

One thing in by I also understood by interacting with Anglo Saxons was their view that it's regarded as normal that Anglo Saxons will only consume and experience Anglo Saxon culture. It's not regarded as normal that Anglo Saxon people will consume the culture produced by other cultures. When they do that they use the term "love" in regards to the culture of a foreign civilization. I personally regard that kind of behavior as extremely disturbing and clear proof of the complete dominance of xenophobia in such a culture: it's like thinking is normal to never interact with jews and call the people who talk to jews as a "jew lovers".

People are people everywhere, art is the expression of individual persons. The culture they happen to live in is of minor relevance compared to their individuality: Miyazaki is great not because he is Japanese as there are thousands of mediocre Japanese animation directors, he is great because he is Miyazaki. People in Anglo Saxon countries like to think their culture is individualistic but they are usually strictly collectivists when they think about any foreign culture by generalizing over its population. This can be called hypocrisy. But in our civilization contradictions are plenty, the reason is that individuals are stupid and hence they are incapable of becoming aware of the contradictions between what they claim to believe and the implications of their actions: since the minds of individuals are weak they use simplistic generalizations about subjects they are ignorant about (which are the so called "stereotypes") to lie to themselves that they are not ignorant.

This helped me to understand why Japanese comics and animation are rather unique in the world in their systematic disrespect by Western culture. Well, other non western cultural forms such Arabian music have not reached any degree of penetration in western culture and so have not had the chance to be disrespected.

Interestingly, as China emerged as the dominant country in the world in recent years so have Japanese attitudes changed regarding their own culture: now it's hipster to be an otaku. I expect future decades, as European and specially Anglo Saxon influence declines that Japanese perception of their own culture as well as Western perceptions will change radically from the recent past perceptions as they already are.

Guaporense

06-11-17, 09:38 PM

107) Nekomonogatari: Kuro (2012)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kv1n5uuJ0Z8/Un_FFBwZkFI/AAAAAAAAJPM/SucROmPFqAU/s1600/Nekomonogatari+Meddlecat.jpg

A OVA that works as a prequel to Bakemonogatari (2009), the already classic otaku title. It's from the same director as Madoka and Bakemonogatari, so I expected the use of a fair amount of experimental direction. Indeed, the visual qualities of the OVA are it's most attractive aspect as the writing itself is not interesting to me: teenager romance.

Very cool stuff, quite avant garde and beautiful art. It also has quite a lot of erotic elements: it's a story about a 17-year old girl turned into a "cat" by a supernatural apparition. It's a metaphor of teen romance and the cat represented her inner desires.

Guaporense

06-13-17, 05:22 PM

108) Sweetness and Lightning (2016)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/Sweetness_and_Lightning_vol_1.jpg

Realistic slice of life is perhaps the most popular genre of adult manga these days and also represents a large influence on the largest comic book culture in the Western hemisphere which is the French comic book culture, where a movement of adoption of these slice of life characteristics in manga is gaining momentum in recent years.

And that's a nice slice of life series. Very relaxing as it is about cooking, or more precisely, it's about a single father raising his daughter. The show also has a lot of underlying drama (focused on the pain of growing up without a living mother), like an Ozu film.

The art and animation is pretty mediocre though.

Guaporense

06-18-17, 08:48 PM

109) Black Butler (2008)

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/5f328772676bb1fcb7543d4060a5aa331481846453_full.jpg

Its a very entertaining show. Very nice art, I specially liked the over the top victorian costumes. And the show is full of homoerotic elements although nothing happens, officially the main character is hetero. I liked the circa 1900 depiction of the UK (it's easy to see from this kind of stuff that Japan loves the English).

The plot is also extremely dark, basically the contract between a child and a demon to enact the child's revenge over the ones that killed his parents in exchange for the child's soul. The show doesn't deviate from that and by its end it features the "exchange".

The animation is pretty bland, a natural consequence of the show's low budget. But the soundtrack is very good.

Guaporense

06-19-17, 01:56 PM

110) Momotaro Divine Sea Warriors (1945)

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/momotarouminoshinpei01.jpg

Now, that was a crude WW2 propaganda film. Animation has indeed gone a long way over the 40 years that separate this from Nausicaa (1984), here we have some of the most primitive animation I ever witnessed. While it was obviously an imitation of Anglo Saxon American cartoons, it was even more primitive than what the US was producing at the time. Its value lies mostly as a historical document rather than a piece of entertainment being the very first full length Japanese animated feature.

The animation if compared to the current stuff is very primitive and the art is very simple, however its clear that an enormous amount of work was involved in producing this movie: its just that back then the skills for animation were not very developed so the quality suffered no matter how much money was poured into the project.

The film is also very deficient in intellectual terms, with very simple writing that feels more like an attempt to do brainwashing on children than a actual artistic script with has some meaning. Overall, this film was a complete failure.

Guaporense

06-19-17, 04:15 PM

Why so Many Little Cute Girls in Animation?

http://goboiano.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/yt35v15.jpg

For anyone perusing this thread or any serious animation fan community, extremely distorted representations of cute girls are abundant. This is not true in manga, by the way, where there are significantly more older characters that look less cute, on average.

In fact, cutesy characters were only common in children's manga until the 1980's. And today the most popular adult mangas have character designs like this:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xqGCoQ1djxo/hqdefault.jpg

While the most popular adult anime has character designs like this:

https://images.puella-magi.net/e/ec/PN_10.jpg?20111204064051

So, why?

Well, there are several causes:

First animation fans are more experienced with abstract representations than manga readers. That's because manga is supermainstream so manga readers tend to be commoners while animation fans are hardcore nerds. So, being more hardcore means they developed greater tolerance for abstract representations. Also, in Japan, animation nerds are usually a bit younger than manga readers.

Although they are still way older than the characters in most adult anime shows: Madoka's main character is a 14 year old girl, for a show aimed at men aged 18 to 40. While manga aimed at adult audiences usually has adult male main characters: Monster's main character is about 35, Space Brother's main character is 31, Vagabond's main character age varies from 18 to about 30.

One should also note that the majority of manga fans and the majority of the people who work in animation studios in Japan are women. This feminine presense, while not reaching the elite of the profession (the top directors and manga artists are overwhelminly male), exert powerful feminizing influences over the whole culture and specially over animation, which is a more collaborative work than manga, which is under strict control of the individual manga artist.

Also, most people who work in Japanese and other Asian animation studios tends to be very young because wages in animation are very low. Most animators in Japan are very young women who still get money from their parents (and/or husbands) to complement their very low starting income, so it's natural these childlike young women would tend to like animating childlike female characters.

And, as I said before, animation fans are more experienced than manga fans and more experienced consumers of narrative get bored of narratives made in traditional sense: that is, made with characters that the audience is supposed to identify with (exp. adult male for an adult male audience), when consuming a fictional narrative from the perspective of characters very different from oneself can be regarded as an innovative act of rebellion. I personally am bored of traditional Western narratives always and everywhere dominated by male characters (which also show how sexist Western fiction is: even Harry Potter, the biggest selling book ever written by a woman, stars an almost all male main cast).

Consuming fictional narratives featuring casts very different from what you would expect has it's own countercultural attractiveness and hence is the main reason why I am a fan of shoujo manga influenced fiction. Although I am also a big fan of a lot of traditional narratives centered on not-cute adult male characters in manga and animation (Vinland Saga, Monster, 20th Century Boys, Lone Wolf and Cub, LOGH, among others).

Another important factor for the appeal of the cute bishoujo archetype in character design is that cuteness and beauty are automatic attractors, not only sexually but also in many other ways. I am not heterosexual for instance yet a big fan of animation and comics featuring these cutesy female character designs. I think that Western culture lacks the same development of cuteness due to historical repression, perhaps also due to sexism, since male sensibilities are overwhelmingly dominant in Western fiction and more importantly, due to the inability of the Western man to accept comics and animation as an artistic medium and so the inability of the Western mind to allow it to be fully impressed by abstract representations instead of photorealistic ones.

Guaporense

06-20-17, 05:57 PM

111) I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying (2014)

https://33.media.tumblr.com/72cbd2a0bde9a811d55310d059c64b29/tumblr_nhzu8n6bL91u7sj3so1_500.gif

A nice short comedy series, based on yonkoma manga, it's very short but fairly entertaining. But the art and animation are very poor.

I watched it because the manga has the same author as Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (2017), although it is far inferior as a show. Well, that shows how the adaptation is important: animation is a different medium from manga, so adaptations can vary quite a lot in quality from the source material, like films adapted from a novel. In many cases the animated adaptation doesn't even borrow the art style from the manga (Ghost in the Shell has much more realistic art style in the film than in the manga, while Kobayashi's Dragon Maid has a rounder and cuter art style in the animation).

Not bad but not very good either. It's nice in illustrating some of the issues young married Japanese might confront in their daily lives.

Guaporense

06-21-17, 10:17 PM

Why I am an animation fan

I was a live action movie fan until quite recently, I can say I became a movie buff when I watched There Will be Blood in theaters in 2007, or 10 years ago, at that time I was really excited about live action movies. Today I don't have that kind of excitment anymore: I am now desensitized regarding this type of film. Like the effects of weaker drugs become nill when a person is already using stronger drugs, that's the way I feel about live action movies now.

Since 2011-2012 I have been an animation buff and since mid 2013 I have been watching more animation than live action film and TV. Although from 2015 onwards I have been reading more comics than watching stuff and among stuff I watched since mid 2013, about 90% has been animation.

Why? Well, that's because I first discovered the full potential of comics and animation with Miyazaki. Although I always liked comics and animation I never though they could surpass literature and live action movies, instead I regarded then as two mediums only suited for light comedic narratives. All changed when I watched Miyazaki's Spirited Away. I was doubly shocked by that timeless artistic masterpiece: it's emotional power and beauty and the fact my whole outlook about art was plain wrong. After that crucial moment I had to understand why animation could be better than live action.

While by reading Miyazaki's comic, Nausicaa, which I finished reading not very long after watching Spirited Away, I also had to reflect on the power of the comic as a means of expression: after I finished reading Nausicaa I was in such strong shock that I couldn't bring myself to focus on anything else for about 36 hours.

But, the relationship between comics and literature is very different from the relationship between animation and live action film: comics are a very different medium from literature because their sense of time is essentially different, live action film and animation are both film: Animation is more similar to live action film relative to comics/novels in that in both animation and live action, the experience of consuming it consists of watching a screen. Although it's true that photography and painting are different mediums and so is live action film and animation. Animation has greater artistic potential than live action film because it allows full artistic freedom for it's creators: the images on the screen can be anything the creators might think. So, animation represents something closer to the direct contact between the creators' mind and the audience's.

Art is communication. And animation can be regarded as a more efficient form of communication inside the medium of film than the mechanical reproduction of physical reality through live action photography. Yep, one might argue that efficiency is not everything: for a minority of persons, the difficulties in communication adds to the experience, for those people that we have stuff like Kiarostami. In fact, while film is not automatically art, since simple filming stuff is a mechanical procress, animation is always art since it always involves the active expression of the human mind in drawing the frames. Of course, it doesn't mean live action film cannot be art, only that live action film requires an active and directed effort to become art while animation is already art in it's painstaking creation process.

Since comics and animation allows full artistic freedom, as these mediums developed in Japan (and in East Asia, thanks to the massive popularity of comics in the region), the imagery used in comics and animation became progressively more attractive and their degree of sophistication increased. As a result, today, in Japan, many more young geeks are into animation than into live action film: approximately 6 times more Japanese college students reported being animation geeks than film geeks in a survey done in 2014. And I would even guess among Western developed countries anime fans already outnumber film buffs, despite animation being foreign culture and live action film being local culture. Comics and animation have reached the point now where both can be regarded as a fully developed artistic medium at least in East Asia

In future decades animation will probably eclipse live action film in popularity among serious fans of screen media, like it did in Japan. Although among commoners, live action film is going to be the medium of choice because it's the mechanical reproduction of the physical reality people live in and that is easier for most people to stomach. While more cultured people with artistic sensibility will be already used to stylization and so will consume more animation. The shift in the world's center of economic and political influence from the West to Asia, which is already occurring will also play a role since the photographic culture of the West will lose relative global influence.

In my case, after I watched Miyazaki's films I changed my perspective on the potential of animation but only partly since the quality of his films was also due to his genius besides the fact they were animated films. When I watched PMMM, which was the first non-Ghibli animation that really impressed me. That changed my perspective on the prospective number of great animation as there appear to be many. So I stopped looking for artistic masterpieces among live action movies (since that point I only discovered two new live action movies for my top 50 movies list and that was well over 4 years ago) and instead turned almost my full focus on animation: stuff like RahXephon, LOGH, Aria, K-On!, Shirobako, Kaiba, Ping Pong, Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Lain, Yuri Kuma Arashi and Haibane Renmei. Those shows are very special combinations of visual inventiveness, beauty, aggressive expression and emotional power. Live action film feels quite like a obsolete medium by comparison: you cannot achieve the same visual effects and hence attain the same level of emotional impact. It's like comparing a stronger drug to a weaker drug.

Still, even now sometimes I still find live action stuff that I might think it's worth watching for it's literary qualitities but I have not been really impressed by the visual aspects of live action film for several years. Last time I was really impressed by the visuals of live action film was with the last Tarkovsky film I watched and that was over 5 years ago. Still I liked watching the live action TV show Mr. Robot recently although it's emotional impact was dulled by my desensitization to live action film I still identified with the show's characters to feel invested in the shows' narrative and I liked it's visual aspects.

Guaporense

06-23-17, 11:48 AM

112) JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (2014)

https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/jjba/images/3/3b/StadustAnime-Promo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20161111024204

This second installment of Jojo is very different from the first. While the first took itself very seriously this second season is a comedy horror narrative: now the plot got even sillier with the stands (essentially spirits that they can summon and control directly, kinda like familiars). The art style is a bit closer to the conventional 1980s shounen manga than most current stuf, it feels very distinct and is part of its appeal of it: it lacks any traces of cuteness that are present in most current animation.

The degree of melodrama is also very high but now with the higher level of comedy makes the show easier to consume even though it's ludicrous to an extreme degree, but that's the whole charm of it: it's over the top and it is now fully self conscious of it.

Zotis

06-23-17, 01:49 PM

I can't bring myself to watch Jojo.

Guaporense

06-24-17, 03:20 PM

113) Space Brothers (2012)

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/9b11916ae9d5d8e53323ea072fd6157e1343265507_full.jpg

This is among the most Japanese things I ever watched. In which sense do I say that? This narrative is strictly focused on realism and hard work: its an average guy whose challenge is to dedicate himself to his work and whose challenges he faces are perfectly reasonable and normal, in other words, its a fictional narrative that is strongly adherent to the reality of a career. Its very different from western fiction which is focused on exceptional things, even when set in a realistic setting they focus on the things that do not usually occur in reality.

Also, this is adapted from an award winning manga. Hence, greatness was to be expected, although Knights of Sidonia is also award winning but is not that great manga (although its very good). This is quite possibly one of the best animations ever made: the plot has great emotional resonance and it even brought tears to my eyes. Some people might find this highly emotional take of a fictional but realistic person's life to be too melodramatic but I could find full resonance in it's simplicity.

Zotis

06-24-17, 07:03 PM

One of the best ever made eh? Maybe I'll have to check it out.

Guaporense

06-24-17, 08:45 PM

It's a seinen by the way so I think you might like it.

resopamenic

06-24-17, 09:13 PM

I really enjoyed it, but It's did has problem. It's way slow in narrative and one of extensive use of flashbacks I'd ever seen just step behind naruto shippuden.

Guaporense

06-24-17, 11:34 PM

Its slow and builds up atmosphere. Its a masterpiece in simplicity since its adapted frame by frame from the manga.

resopamenic

06-25-17, 12:09 AM

Actually I think they did it as matter prevented it catch the ongoing manga so the they must sacrifice the pace a lot. I don't realized it was panel by panel as I don't read the manga but it end when manga still going and has story to cover. I hope there 2nd course for continuation tho', the story was great so did the characters

resopamenic

06-25-17, 12:10 AM

But I can see for someone it was on their meditative pace for it melodramatic story

Guaporense

06-25-17, 09:02 AM

They could do like in FMA when they made up an ending to finish the TV series while the Manga was still in the middle.

Guaporense

06-27-17, 01:27 PM

114) Eromanga Sensei (2017)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hjTAakwP924/maxresdefault.jpg

Some of the newest teenager stuff thats been coming out. Now, adapted from a novel from the same author of Oreimo, we have another tale of incest between teenager siblings. Although since this is an asian visual narrative aimed at a teenager audience there is no explicit depiction of a physical relationship between the characters (like in the Wong Kar Wai film In the Mood for Love).

The series is a harem, the traditional genre of youth fiction where a guy gets the company and love of multiple girls simultaneously without making any effort and without any rational reason: in this case the main character is a writer who writes the same type of novel that the series was adapted from (that is, Eromanga Sensei is also metafiction) and for no reason several female writers of the field fall in love with him plus his little sister who is a hikkikomori illustrator and a 13 year old girl: she appears to be homosexual in terms of being turned on by illustrations, so she is the object of the male gaze and simultaneously the male gaze.

Has awesome production values though but overall it suffers a bit from contrivances regarding character development.

Guaporense

07-01-17, 03:39 PM

115) Hinako Note (2017)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JxzYvpZnoiw/maxresdefault.jpg

This is a rather mediocre show: its art and animation are subpar and the direction is fairly standard. The writing subsists on cliches of the genre of CGDCT, although some specific elements were rather interesting: main character is a girl who is so scared of human contact that she freezes up like a scarecrow and she was employed as a scarecrow by the local farmers, being a girl who grew up in the mountains (in Japan the only countryside of the country consists of mountains) and the animals love her. So she moves to Tokyo to overcome her fear of human contact.

I am reflecting now what I find so fascinanting in these CGDCT shows? Well, a main part of the attraction is perhaps the fact that its a forbidden fruit, being something that you would never initially expect an adult men to watch, hence being a way to rebel against society. But fundamentally the reason is that this kind of fiction explores an universal element of the human condition: the invocation of protective feelings through characters designed and whose behavior is such that it works with the objective to maximize this evocation without any regard for realism. I think that realism is overrated in Western culture.

That is an element that is mostly repressed in western culture. Interestingly, before Heavy Metal music was invented I don't think Western culture had any comparable way to invoke genuine aggression. Henceforth, this development in Japanese visual culture is a rather special thing: its like the invention of horror movies or action movies, its a new genre of fiction developed in the 21st century.

Zotis

07-01-17, 04:37 PM

Hmm... What do you mean by realism in Western culture being overrated? Is it just a broad generalisation, or do you mean something more specific like the contrast to moe? Or they way that those type of shows let go of realism by such an extreme extent and western shows don't?

Guaporense

07-01-17, 08:06 PM

Moe shows are an abstraction from reality. They do not correspond to physical reality and do not try to correspond. Western movies always try to reproduce physical realism.

Here is a good book about the subject:https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0816654514/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498950387&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=beautiful+fighting+girl&dpPl=1&dpID=511zG7QSKWL&ref=plSrch

Zotis

07-02-17, 09:29 AM

I found a good summary of the book on another site. Hmm, well I think I kinda get what you're saying. Personally I prefer reality over fantasy and moe is difficult for me to absorb. Some stuff like Saikano and Madoka I can appreciate because they are so well done, but most moe shows I don't enjoy. I understand it is an acquired taste and a niche, but sometimes it feels pedophelic or exaggerated so much that it becomes a little irritating. I find fantasy is just as popular in the West, but different kinds of fantasy. Well for one thing shows like Naruto and DBZ are way more popular than stuff like Ghost in the Shell and Akira. Hollywood blockbusters throw realism away like it's going out of style, and people love Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering. World of Warcraft was the most popular mmo for a long time despite being cartoony and extremely unrealistic. Twilight, Harry Potter, Star wars, James Bond, all absurdly unrealistic and insanely popular.

Guaporense

07-02-17, 11:11 AM

In Harry Potter and Star Wars they are unrealistic settings but they are realistic in their depiction of this unrealistic world. In moe shows like K-On! the setting is 100% realistic while the characters are all unrealistic and their behavior is very distorted. I think it's kinda like thrash metal in the sense that they focus strongly on a small set of emotions.

World of Warcraft is made by Blizzard which is a videogame company that had heavy Japanese influence in their art. For instance, they even named the cannon of a starship in Starcraft as Yamato Gun in reference to the 70s anime and a character in reference to escaflowne.

By the way, I recently read the Saikano manga (it's even better than the show) and the author said at the end of the last volume that he wrote that story based on his own life story metting his wife. He then introduced the sci fi elements to spice it up. But overall it's a more realistic and mainstream title (Saikano was published in one of the most popular Manga magazines) than those moe blobs like K-On! and YuruYuri.

Zotis

07-02-17, 12:04 PM

Harry Potter was realistic in its depiction of an unrealistic world? I think you lost me there, not sure what you mean by that.

I know that a lot of stuff, like Blizzard, were heavily influenced by Japan, but what I'm saying is that they are really popular in the West even though they're so unrealistic. I mean, in general in my experience here in Canada, most people say things like, "It's a movie, it's not supposed to be realistic." At least I get that more than I get people agreeing that the lack of recoil in a typical action movie is absurd. Things like Hollywood action movies in contrast to Moe anime, it's just the cultural differences in interests that people have, but I don't think one is more unrealistic than the other in general. They are just unrealistic in different ways. But I see what you're saying that Western stuff is rarely unrealistic in the way that Moe is.

jal90

07-02-17, 12:36 PM

In Harry Potter and Star Wars they are unrealistic settings but they are realistic in their depiction of this unrealistic world. In moe shows like K-On! the setting is 100% realistic while the characters are all unrealistic and their behavior is very distorted. I think it's kinda like thrash metal in the sense that they focus strongly on a small set of emotions.
I think you are selling the lack of realism of K-On! and similar anime a bit too high. A lot of people do identify with the quirks and attitudes from its characters, there is a level of stylization that makes it divert from the real world but many things still resonate a surprising lot.

Harry Potter and Star Wars are hardly realistic. The characters are constantly put in unrealistic situations and respond in ideal, heroic or transcendental ways. Normal people do not behave like that and it's all fine because that's how it's supposed to be in a fantasy that owes nothing to reality.

Guaporense

07-02-17, 01:12 PM

By the way, here is an example of a mainstream manga magazine:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Young_Jump_issue.jpg

Manga serialized in there? Kingdom, Legend of Galactic Heroes, Tokyo Ghoul, etc.

While these are niche manga magazines:

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/cedc5917c29f2d86fac2e7e666c9b5f31461071231_full.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4WXoeKSpKsA/UA1gi2X8zbI/AAAAAAAAFKI/aJBIMYivmlY/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/manga%2Btime%2Bkirara%2Bmagika%2B01.jpg
https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/6/67663/3282278-2011-11.jpg

Aimed at publics with specific tastes.

Guaporense

07-02-17, 01:15 PM

I think you are selling the lack of realism of K-On! and similar anime a bit too high. A lot of people do identify with the quirks and attitudes from its characters, there is a level of stylization that makes it divert from the real world but many things still resonate a surprising lot.

Harry Potter and Star Wars are hardly realistic. The characters are constantly put in unrealistic situations and respond in ideal, heroic or transcendental ways. Normal people do not behave like that and it's all fine because that's how it's supposed to be in a fantasy that owes nothing to reality.

Resonance doesn't mean realism.

I will try to put it into the simplest terms I can:

K-On! is a abstract articulation of elements of reality.

While in Harry Potter and Star Wars are concrete articulations of fantastical worlds.

Western art is always and everwhere about concrete articulations of either reality or fantastical. Japanese art has the abstract articulation of the reality and of fantasy.

jal90

07-02-17, 01:43 PM

Resonance doesn't mean realism.
True, but resonance stems from, mainly, realism. The characters of K-On!, their events and their attitudes resonate on a lot of viewers because beyond, or sometimes even through the stylization they still feel real. Yui is enthusiastic and naive like a lot of girls her age are or have been at some point.

I will try to put it into the simplest terms I can:

K-On! is a abstract articulation of elements of reality.

While in Harry Potter and Star Wars are concrete articulations of fantastical worlds.

Western art is always and everwhere about concrete articulations of either reality or fantastical. Japanese art has the abstract articulation of the reality and of fantasy.
You lost me here and I think it's for the usage of words. How is K-On! an abstract articulation at all? In Harry Potter characters and situations are not any less of walking representations of high concepts than in K-On!, a lot more, actually.

Then again probably talking about abstraction/concretion is not the real matter if we want to tackle realism. K-On! is realistic precisely due to this "abstract" (more like "lacking in goal") articulation. Characters are not there to represent concepts but to act organic. The dialogues do not drive a linear storyline. Maybe the most arguable example lies in the artstyle/animation which both diverts from AND evokes/mirrors reality, depending on the scene. But still, there is a lot more realism, both factual and intended, than in the visual depictions of the Harry Potter or Star Wars universes.

I found this about Naoko Yamada, the series director, on Sakugabooru:

https://i.imgur.com/EVojHeb.png

And reading her interviews you can see how realism in her works is not only a relevant matter, but can actually be considered the main driving force for her visual direction.

Guaporense

07-02-17, 03:45 PM

I agree that K-On! is very realistic in the sense that it evokes real feelings and resonates in the (open minded) viewer. However, it does not attempt to reach for this "realism" through a mechanical reproduction of physical reality but through the abstract medium of animation and with obviously unrealistic voice acting. So, it is realistic in the sense that it produces a feeling of immersion in the fictional reality of those girls but it achieves this realism through an abstract path.

While a western movie like Harry Potter uses computer animation in attempt to achieve "photorealism", that is the mechanical reproduction of physical reality, even in a fantasy setting: it attempts to show how would fantasy look like if it existed in our physical world. And it uses the photographic reproduction of human actors to represent characters instead of any form of animation. And the voice acting of the actors is obviously realistic. It achieves immersion through the accurate reconstruction of fictional setting by adhering as closely as possible to physical reality.

They represent, respectively, the Japanese and the Western approaches to art and fiction. Japanese fiction often tries to depict daily life and often does that using an abstract medium and abstracting away from physical reality, while producing a powerful and immersive alternate reality (which is what manga, anime and the more manga inspired Japanese videogames essentially do). Western art tries to depict fantastical/exceptional things (either outright fantasy or heroic deeds in realistic events in history) and does that by trying to mimick directly the appearance of physical reality to achieve immersion in an alternate fictional reality.

Hence the relative lack of line art in western books and film and the preponderance of photographic realism in western art.

jal90

07-02-17, 11:09 PM

Guaporense

07-03-17, 01:43 PM

116) March Comes like a Lion (2016-2017)

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/8b79ef6503704a56fb33e81bb4aba06c1475807454_full.png

Shogi or Japanese chess is a very popular game in Japan and like a lot of Japanese things, nobody outside of that country plays it. This series is adapted from a manga telling the story of a prodigy in shogi and his struggle with depression, given his pretty terrible life (losing both parents, becoming a professional shogi player due to lack of alternative and to get adopted into another family). Eventually he finds some happiness by interacting with a family of three orphaned sisters and their grandfather.

It's made by Shaft, the same studios who made Madoka and Bakemonogatari, which is now perhaps one of the leading animation studios of the world and it shows in the adaption of the manga: the show is full of very creative visuals that completment the atmosphere. Although some might think they are excessive, I like this over the top visual style, even for a straight drama as this one. Hence, the show might be artistically superior to the manga due to these additions.

My only criticism of this show might be for some parts of it being relatively boring, but overall I found it generally superior to Honey and Clover (also a show adapted from a manga by the same author). The quality of art, animation and voice acting is all top notch and combined with creative direction.

Guaporense

07-05-17, 03:11 PM

But it does. I think I understand what you mean, but it's K-On! we are talking about. Not Lucky Star. It is probably one of the worst examples to talk about anime diverting from reality because the creative focus is literally on the contrary. Naoko Yamada conceives characters as real people. Her art direction is pretty much focused on reflecting that through details, body language and etc.

Yes, but my point is that this realism is achieved through abstraction/stylization. Isao Takahata always talks about the realism of animation, by that he doesn't mean the accurate graphical and audio reproduction of a physical reality (which is what live action does) but the reproduction of the subjective perception that people have of reality. K-On! is a great example of that: it's subjectively realistic but obviously real people do not look like those characters nor the voice acting corresponds to the typical way Japanese teenager girls talk.

Japanese art is more about the reproduction of the subjective perception that people have of reality while Western art is more about the graphical and audio reproduction of a physical reality.

Not that I disagree with the rest of your thoughts, but the example... Yamada is kind of a female Miyazaki in that sense. And K-On! has quirks and reaction faces for comedy, if you remove them you can get something like A silent voice, where the attention to detail towards realism is in every frame.

I have to watch that movie.

Guaporense

07-07-17, 11:29 PM

117) Little Witch Academia (2017)
https://myanimelist.cdn-dena.com/images/anime/13/83934.jpg

A masterpiece indeed: great art, animation, direction, dense and powerful atmosphere reinforced by a great soundtrack. Memorable characterization, slice of life but still contains an epic feel. And has a feeling that reminds me of WoW in fact. Best animation since Madoka in 2011.

Zotis

07-08-17, 10:31 PM

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q5638T5DL.jpg

Today I bought this. Looking forward to watching it.

Guaporense

07-10-17, 07:44 PM

118) A Silent Voice (2016)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/A_Silent_Voice_Film_Poster.jpg

What a great little movie. I actually read the whole manga in which this movie was based in a couple of years ago and this movie manages to condense the whole 2,000 pages of the manga into 130 minutes of film (kinda like Akira, but here it's a very different experience). This is a deeply affecting psychological slice of life movie about relationships and bullying, and the movie's tone and feel are identical to the manga, so it's a very successful translation. In fact it's one of the few movie adaptations of manga that do full justice to the original (Akira, Nausicaa, Ghost in the Shell, among other manga adaptions are all inferior to the original medium's).

The movie's art and animation are top notch, in fact a lot of psychological content is transmitted by the body language of the characters. It's a great example of what Isao Takahata called the "realism of animation", that is, the fact that animation translates the subjectivity of the human mind into images in a way you cannot using photographic reproduction (i.e. cinematography). In fact, I don't think I ever watched an animation or film for that matter that's conveys' so much about the character's subjectivity of perception through depiction of body language.

It's a great achievement and perhaps my pick for top animation of 2016.

Zotis

07-11-17, 03:24 AM

A Silent Voice looks really good, I'll definitely watch it. I'm intrigued by the manga too.

Guaporense

07-12-17, 12:57 AM

119) Re-Life (2016)
http://breakbang.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2.png

A rather mediocre show but interesting nonetheless. It's about a guy in his late 20's who lost his job in a company when he fought with his boss (which is like, almost as bad as dying from a Japanese perspective). Being depressed and in despair he was used as a test subject of the "re-life" program which is that he takes a pill that makes him look 10 years younger and he enrolls in a high school. The idea is for he to relive his teenage life in order to reset himself.

The execution was decent as well as the animation, however the art style was bland and overall it didn't feel like an special experience although it was regarded as one of the top picks for 2016 and it is one of the most popular web mangas as well.

Guaporense

07-12-17, 01:06 AM

120) Girlish Number (2016)
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/hotlink-full/encyc/A18676-1837812794.1472196440.jpg

Now that's a very cool show. It's not exceptional in terms of animation, direction and art, in fact, it's pretty mediocre and standardized (character designs are the staple Otaku manga style, for instance). However, the show's criticism of the state of Japan's voice acting industry is powerful. It is indeed a show criticizing the Japanese animation industry as the main character is trying to land a successful job as a voice actress and become popular. She, of course, fails and lands hard on reality.

Zotis

07-12-17, 09:49 AM

https://www.animeclick.it/images/serie/ShinKimagureOrangeRoad/ShinKimagureOrangeRoad1.jpg

Shin Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning (1996)

This was a romance about a young man who gets hit by a car, and while he's in a coma he's sent through time to glimpse at various aspects relating to two women in his life. There is a love triangle between them, but Kasuga is clearly in love with Madoka. Hikaru is also in love with him. The romance was touching, but the artwork was a little bit inconsistent. Some of the artwork was fairly interesting, while at other times it seems to be drawn by their b-team to save budget. It is based on a manga, and there appears to be another movie and a series.

3

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c5/13/3d/c5133d709d54ff31edd27ba0ed65d562.gif

A Silent Voice (2016)

This was the most refreshing thing I've seen in a while. I can't remember the last time I've felt so moved by a film/show/comic/novel. It was full of so many important life issues that we face daily that strain our emotions and our psyche. Sometimes life can be hard, and you want to push away everyone around you, shut out the world, and you think maybe the world would be a better place without you. Sometimes you see someone you love hurting so much, and you want to help them, but you feel like you're just making things worse. On top of that pain, we have to deal with other people being self-righteous hypocrites trying to burden us with guilt. There were a lot of topics handled very well in this film, and on top of that the artwork was superb. I would have to call this film a masterpiece, and now I want to check out the manga. Thanks Guap for bringing this beautiful movie to my attention. I loved it. I felt like my heart was going to break, and I was almost brought to tears several times. My heart was going out to the characters so much. They felt like real people, and I could relate to a lot of their struggles and their pain.

4.5