Guaporense and Zotis Review Animation

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I already understood simple sex jokes when I was 13. What I didn't understand was it's own genre awareness and the fact that it was extremely sarcastic.

I also watched Ghost in the Shell when I was 14 and then 10 years later when I was 24. The first time I was left deeply disturbed by it, almost like it was an horror film. The second time I understood it, noticed how smart (I found it very smart in it's idea of artificial intelligences also evolving through reproduction) and artistic it is.



I already understood simple sex jokes when I was 13. What I didn't understand was it's own genre awareness and the fact that it was extremely sarcastic.

I also watched Ghost in the Shell when I was 14 and then 10 years later when I was 24. The first time I was left deeply disturbed by it, almost like it was an horror film. The second time I understood it, noticed how smart (I found it very smart in it's idea of artificial intelligences also evolving through reproduction) and artistic it is.
Project Eden didn't strike me as particularly self aware.

More the opposite, actually.
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Top 100 Action Movie Countdown (2015): List | Thread
"Well, at least your intentions behind the UTTERLY DEVASTATING FAULTS IN YOUR LOGIC are good." - Captain Steel



@ Maybe it was me who became more aware of the genre it is satirizing, so I was able to take it as a pop culture thing instead of something to be immersed in. The satire might not be consciously sought after by their creators, however.

47) One Punch Man (2015)



It has been almost a year since I was this entertained by any animation. Last time I had such a good time was with the old classic, Gunbuster, which I was re-watching. One Punch Man, however, is the best animation I first watched in the past 12 months.

While I think I have watched almost all great animation that has been produced a few titles like this proves that from time to time a new masterpiece gets made: One Punch Man aired in october, november and decenber 2015, being super fresh. While it may be a bit early to say it's a masterpiece, it certainly hit the spot: all the characters are very memorable, all the action is amazing and the animation is also among the best ever for a TV show and superior to many film, specially in it's aggressive use of animation to portray extremely fast/aggressive shoots that are impossible to portray in any other way.

One Punch Man is also now my favorite animated comedy. While I have watched plenty of animation I don't think I ever watched a comedy that I found to be on the same league as the more serious dramas I watched. Indeed, if asked before a few weeks ago I would think that my favorite animated comedy would be Futurama, which is very good but not on the league of Serial Experiments Lain or Haibane Renmei.

While One Punch Man is not exactly "artistic" it is still a very memorable experience. I usually don't care much about superheroes, although I find their superhuman habilities entertaining but I never found anything (movies, comics or series) so good as One Punch Man.

The idea of the show is that of a character who is essentially invincible, infinitely more powerful than anything else on the universe. And how boring is to be such a character: anything he faces, he deals with without any significant effort. For him, to kill Godzilla is like for me to go to the kitchen and pick up a glass of water. Although the show introduces a cast of "normal" superheroes and even weak superheroes so that we can also feel some tension (mainly involved in the "normal" superheroes holding the monster without casualties long enough for One Punch Man to arrive and kill it, instantly).

In a way I feel like I am watching DBZ again, since the fights are similarly over the top but it's self aware and sarcastic: in a way it makes fun of our own child selfs and our former obssessions but also essentially allowing us to celebrate our love for that sort of entertainment, since many fights are also played straight.

This is essential and indeed the best animation of 2015.

My list of top animated series of recent years:

2010 - K-On!!
2011 - PMMM
2012 - From the New World
2013 - Yamato 2199
2014 - Ping Pong
2015 - One Punch Man

Of all of these K-On!! and One Punch Man are the least artistically sophisticated, however.



@omizoa, For example, Project Eden's opening is obviously spoofing James Bond movies:


It's LIKE James Bond movies, but what's spoof about it?

I don't think Star Wars is a spoof of Flash Gordon just because it opens up the same way.



48) Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (2014)


Honestly, this film didn't feel very much like Yamato 2199 for me. While Yamato 2199 (2013) is one of the finest series of all time (indeed, possibly the greatest space opera of all time), this film is a bit more mediocre and different from the series. It reminds me quite a lot of a Star Trek movie, like the horrible 1998 Star Trek movie or the first Trek movie, the 1979 one.

Why? Well, it's a very similar style: a ship voyaging through space and finding something weird in a wierd planet with illusions and stuff. Then in the end there is a space battle involving a few ships (again just like Star Trek) and the "episode ends" with everybody happy and they leave the planet. Just like that. Boring.

Though the illusions were pretty cool and I felt a bit scared in that part of the movie. But after that it became more cliche and borign, much like a generic Star TreK: Next Generation episode. And the bad guys reminded me of the Klingons.

Still the art and animation are pretty first rate. Not quite the level of Ghibli's films but superior to standard TV anime (which tends to be very low budget).



49) Otome Wa Boku ni Koishiteru Futari no Elder (2012)



They should translate that title at some point. This is a highly "weird" material and I decided to watch it becuase it looked weird enough to be interesting. It is an OVA based on a erotic visual novel game (which is the most otaku type of game/media one can think of), in particular this one:



The plot is that a guy gets into a girls only elite highschool (through personal connections and undercover, crossdressed) and drama ensues. Of course, the "guy" happens to look exactly a girl (which is something that works only in manga and animation as sometimes they tend to drawn people the same way, although in here it's pretty disturbing though because they drawn a supposedly male character with exactly the same as the female ones: the white haired one is supposed to be the guy). This also happens in a lot of Japanese media (Maria Holic is another animation with a guy in a girls highschool who happens to look like a girl).

Anyway, despite the weird premise the rest of it is very conventional stuff, if not a bit too serious for it's own good. It is not even erotic as there isn't anything really sexual happening, besides a little kiss here and there. The animation is pretty good and I found it pretty impressive in some parts (way better than typical TV anime). It's decent but ultimately boring stuff.



50) Sword of Art Online (2012)



While containing some of the worst writing to ever grace our planet it is also pretty good at parts. I don't even understand what is wrong with it, it just feels really bad torwards the end.

It's a TV show based on a very popular novel series (which sold >15 million copies in Japan) although the show is also regarded as some of the worst things ever made in animation. While I might disagree it's really bad I also understand from where this is coming. Sword of Art Online starts really promising, featuring high end production values and Kajiura Yuki's score. Has two "cours", the first one is pretty decent but then, the cour that follows is awful, AWFUL!

The plot of SAO is the following: in 2022 there are virtual reality MMORPG that are so realistic that they simulate even pain and taste. Essentially virtual worlds. In one of those games a crazy psychopath, who happens to be the game's creator, decides to trap everybody inside SAO without the option to log out and if they in game, they die. Which makes for a very interesting setting, however, the series becomes progressively duller.

By the end it becomes completely boring and I couldn't care about any of the characters.



I barely got through the first episode of SAO. I didn't enjoy it all. I got the impression it was just another piece of stereotypical mainstream trash. At least in the first episode the dialogue, plot, and characters were really boring.



Wanna Date? Got Any Money?
I watched the first 2 episodes hoping for something I didn't get then forgot about it. My buddy watched it until all the sudden it was no longer about a medieval MMO and suddenly about faerie world MMO. I feel like the first MMO idea was an alright idea, but people being stuck in VR machines is kind of a dumb concept to begin with and I agree that the dialogue was weak, I don't think the show once elicited feelings of excitement or awe, and the characters had little depth.
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I barely got through the first episode of SAO. I didn't enjoy it all. I got the impression it was just another piece of stereotypical mainstream trash. At least in the first episode the dialogue, plot, and characters were really boring.
Gotta go with Digibro on this one.





Dragged over from the "judge your taste in movies" thread:

Originally Posted by Guaporense
I don't like this Japanese thing of trying to give a name to every "type" of person. Each person is a very particular individual, so each person is just that: I am just Guaporense. I guess it fits the Japanese collectivistic mentality to group people together with labels.
That's pretty unfair. The term Yandere, Dandere, and Tsundere exist mainly to refer to certain character cliches. These characters are virtually always one-dimensional in precisely that way.

It's not like we don't do it outside of Japan either.




I just bought the first volume of The Twelve Kingdoms on blu-ray. It contains the first 14 episodes, which I think is the first story arc. It was $75 dollars. And the second volume is $85 which I'll probably get next week. I have seen the first story arc twice and the second story arc once. Well, I guess the second half is really two story arcs. But it has been a while so I'm eager to rewatch it. I really love getting my hands on these kinds of things and growing my personal collection.

My collection so far:
The Twelve Kingdoms
Ghost in the Shell
Perfect Blue
Paprika
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Serial Experiment Lain
Kai Do Maru
The Dark Myth
Kite
Demon City Shinjuku
Battle Angel
Berserk
Patlabor 1&2
Ninja Scroll
The Animatrix
Armitage III
Blood: The Last Vampire
Venus Wars
She, the Ultimate Weapon (A.K.A. Saikano)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Rhea Gall Force
Fist of the North Star



+1 Because

Ninja Scroll
The Animatrix
Patlabor
Paprika
Ghost in the Shell
Fist of the North Star
Berserk
Kite

are all awesome.
Everything in my collection is awesome! B)



I read the manga and watched the movie. It consists of a lot of jokes about countries. It's quite racist if you think about it: its humor is all about stereotypes.
I didn't like Hetalia.
I just finished the first season and oh my god it's freaking HILARIOUS! I was very nearly on the floor laughing at some parts. All the characters are hysterical—particularly Italy, America, Britain, and Germany. The English voices are excellent as well, they embody the stereotype for their country very well.

I'm only finished the first season but its already one of my favorite anime series I must say. I nearly lost it early in the series when Italy started playing that song about how much he loves Germany.



Really? Hmm... I may have to give it another glance.

I watched a few episodes of The Twelve Kingdoms with a buddy of mine, and I was really noticing some interesting elements that I didn't even fully appreciate before. It is really proving to be so solid and worth every penny.



Dragged over from the "judge your taste in movies" thread:


That's pretty unfair. The term Yandere, Dandere, and Tsundere exist mainly to refer to certain character cliches. These characters are virtually always one-dimensional in precisely that way.
But they do that with real world people: otaku, aniota, gyaru, hikikomori, etc. Labels on people all the time.