Guaporense and Zotis Review Animation

I stopped watching Attack on Titan after six episodes or so. I just couldn't take it any more. Sometimes it would get really cool and exciting, other times it was boring, and other times it was outright stressful just to watch.

I recently picked up Iria: Zeiram the Animation, an old favorite of mine.

Next week I'll buy the second volume of The Twelve Kingdoms.

I also really want to watch Evangellion. I only saw a couple episodes years ago. But I figure since it's such a cultural icon I really should watch it. I want to see what all the fuss was about with the death threats and all.

Lol. It's a pretty bland series indeed but I enjoyed it's first half quite a bit.

Those Digibro videos are pretty good. I liked this one:



Indeed, the use of the word "anime" is very problematic. It's easier to just say you are into animation: Giovanni's Island is an animated film. That's it.

Also this video is pretty great:

55) Wrinkles (2011)



A film strictly inside the tradition of animation as an extension of comic books this film feels very much like your typical anime (which is a comic book adaptation), featuring strong lines, vivid colors and focus on narrative instead of experimentation (as it's typical in most adult western animation).

I liked also that they even used some pillow shoots at some points in the movie (at least one scene had a very clear pillow shoot), as it's traditional in Japanese cinema and comics as well.

Overall an excellent film and among the best western animations I ever watched.

Evangelion is the Citizen Kane of animation, being perhaps the single most important work of animation of all time. In fact, I might think it might be the single most important work of cinema since the fall of the Soviet Union, if you think in terms of it's influence and cultural impact. That's because Evangelion helped to create a new world.

For instance, before 1995-96, when Evangelion aired, all adult anime was either made direct to video or the few theatrical movies like Akira and Patlabor 1 & 2. After Evangelion aired, more and more animators started focusing their efforts on TV shows, even Miyazaki felt the need to justify his focus on theatrical films after EVA. EVA in many ways epitomized Japanese animation while at the same time advancing the medium through new paths.

It's impossible to watch any modern otaku anime and not think about EVA (in fact, shows like Ping Pong make several EVA references while PMMM is a copy of EVA applied to Sailor Moon type shows): most late night anime are directly influenced by EVA and most animation produced in the world is late night anime. Hence, EVA directly influenced the majority of animation produced in the world and heavily influenced the whole Japanese nerd community.

EVA is so influential because it focuses directly on the main issue of many people who are seriously into fictional narratives (be it TV, comics, film or books): that they are usually introverted and isolated. And associated with isolation, EVA also talks about suicidal depression (since the director was suffering from depression at the time), the show even drops out all it's science fiction elements by episode 24-26, focusing exclusively on the psychoanalysis of it's main character, who is the personification of the director of EVA, Hideaki Anno and who also epitomizes the Japanese nerd.

It also features a lot of visual experimentation by Anno, who later used it on his live action films. I am deeply influenced by EVA, specially because I watched it when I was 12-13 and at that time it was almost too heavy for me to handle it.

56) Psycho Pass: The Movie (2015)



Psycho Pass is one of the best animation franchises. It's an spiritual sequel to the Ghost in the Shell franchise and I like it's cyberpunk setting and world. This is the third iteration of the franchise, after 2 TV shows, and like Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark, it feels more like a very long episode of a series than an individual standalone film. Still, I found this to be better in many ways than Yamato 2199 but not a great movie in itself. For enjoyment of it one needs to have watched at least the 1st Psycho Pass.

Basically it felt like a smarter version of a James Bond film even though the actions of the main characters had no effect at all on the development of the basic plot: if the main characters had done nothing the movie would have ended in the same way. The film also was written by Urobuchi who also worked on PMMM and the original Psycho Pass TV show. While this film was more "classic Urobuchi" writing than Expelled from Paradise (the first movie I talked about in this thread since I don't regard my posts as "reviews", they are just too badly written to count as such), still it's not anything really remarkable and I found myself slightly disappointed with it.

The art and animation are top notch however, vastly superior to the Spanish animation I watched the other day. Japanese animators really have the monopoly on high quality hand drawn animation with detailed art.

Psycho Pass was decent, but I don't think it's one of the best animation franchises. Why do you see it as a "spiritual sequel" to the Ghost in the Shell franchise?


I think I'll start Evangellion tonight.


I also bought Princess Mononoke second hand for like $15 the other day. I've already seen it a few times, but at that price it's about time I added it to my collection. I consider it an essential animated film.

Psycho Pass is cyberpunk and philosophical, just like Ghost in the Shell. And the staff who made Psycho Pass consider it to be "another" Ghost in the Shell.

My collection of films and animation is pretty scant, the only movies I have are Nausicaa and My Neighbor Totoro.

I don't really see any connection between Psycho Pass and Ghost in the Shell.

I'm on episode 6 of Evangelion. The pacing is fairly slow. I'm not impressed by the animation quality, and the drawing style is pretty typical. I think its strengths are in its story, emotion, and atmosphere. I really like the character Rei.





One thing I really don't like is the attitude that Misato has towards why Shinji should pilot the Eva. She says things along the lines of he shouldn't do it just because he feels obligated. He should only do it if he wants to. And they don't need pilots with that kind of mentality. When in reality they desperately need him because so few people can pilot them, and it's a matter of life and death for the human race. So him not piloting it would mean everyone, including him, dies. So they are willing to use a girl who's severely injured, and who can't even operate her Eva when they do a test run, but they aren't going to use someone who doesn't feel like it? It makes no sense to me. I wonder if it's a kind of psychological projection by the creator. Did he feel that way? Is that why he made his characters preach such nonsense and do such a stupid thing as send Shinji away because his heart wasn't in it? I don't think it's realistic at all. I think his Father would have used him anyway, at least the way his character seems to be designed. I don't think he would have let him go just because of Misato's personal feelings about why he should or shouldn't be doing it. Misato seems too young for her rank. And the higher ups financing the whole ordeal, and giving the orders, they certainly wouldn't have allowed it. So far it lacks a lot of depth in terms of realism and plausibility. I get that suspend disbelief feeling, and it's just entertainment that can't be taken too seriously feeling. Well, to be honest this is why I never watched it in the first place, but I will see it through and try my best to just enjoy it. It does have enjoyable qualities.

From wikipedia: "Psycho-Pass originated from Production I.G.'s interest in making a successor to Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor; the company hired Katsuyuki Motohiro—who became the series' chief director—and veteran I.G. animator Naoyoshi Shiotani to supervise direction."

It's not a sequel or anything but just another cyberpunk themed franchise. I never meant anything more than that.

The art is typical because of the stuff that EVA influenced, at the time (1995-96) the series art style was pretty unique.

I didn't notice any stylistic differences from anime typical of 1991-1992. I'm not saying you're wrong. You probably know more about it than I do. I just couldn't see it.


I'm on episode 8 right now, and to be honest I'm getting bored. There are so many things on my to-watch list that look way more interesting.


I guess it had police, crime, and cyberpunk themes. I just didn't feel like they progressed any of the Ghost in the Shell's subject matter.


Have you seen Angel Cop? That's an OVA mini-series that gives me a similar feeling to Ghost in the Shell in terms of violent cyberpunk with a police/crime theme. It was released in 1989, the same year as the original Ghost in the Shell manga.

EVA gets good only around episode 14-15 though. Also, one thing about EVA is that it appears that you need to be a teenager when you first watch it to fall in love with it.

Yes I have seem Angel Cop. From your recommendation back in 2014 I think. I liked it, it's super violent and also talks about Japan's perception as being a rising economic superpower at the time (which didn't come true in the end ).

In EVA I think that character design is pretty advanced for the time and highly influential, specially in this of having a certain sharpness and straightness of lines that I don't easily see in manga or animation made before 1995:



For example, the eye is drawn as a polygon in EVA, 6 straight lines. In other anime from before 1995-96 eyes were drawn usually more rounded.

Like this OVA, "You are Under Arrest":


At least this is the general impression I have from EVA is that it represented an important landmark in character design. Modern anime tends to have even more angular designs than EVA does.

It's hard to generalise. There are many styles.



Nadia (1990-1991)


Stuff like Nadia has a lot of similarities, I think.





But I noticed that a lot of stuff had rounder faces and smaller eyes.


I guess Evangelion was one of the earlier ones to move the trend in that direction.

I watched a few episodes of this show called Yawara! from 1989.





It was fairly charming. It's a comedy, but honestly it's not very funny. It's about a Judo girl who's been trained by her grandfather. I didn't mind it, but I didn't feel compelled to continue.




Aoki Densetsu Shoot is a soccer high-school series. I watched two episodes and dropped it. It wasn't bad, but it didn't really peak my interest too much.

Nadia was also directed by Anno and made by the same studio. EVA clearly looks like it's in the same tradition. Although Gunbuster which is also from Gainax doest look like either.

Hmm, that makes sense.

For sake of completeness.

My and Omi's review of Nausicaa:

57) Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
http://www.movieforums.com/community...32#post1454532

58) Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)



There exists two Fullmetal Alchemist series the 2003 and the 2009 series. Thing is that one was adapted from the manga before it was completed while the other was adapted after it was completed. Still, despite having full access to the source material it can be argued that the 2003 series is indeed superior to the newer one.

Both series have an extremely dramatic premise: two boys try to use "alchemy" to resurrect their dead mother and end up losing a lot for nothing (one loses his whole body but not his life as his brother manages to sacrifice his arm in exchange for a spell to put his brother's soul in a suit of armor, allowing him to survive). However, the first series continues to dig deeper and deeper into the dark and highly dramatic things that are implied by the setting.

Since they had to adapt the manga halfway and come to a conclusion the director and his team decided to go crazy and create their own version of the plot, And, guess, what, it was better than the manga's author's story in the end. The show also contains much more philosophical material than the second one, and I love stuff that mix manga fantasy/sci-fi aesthetics with philosophical ramblings: As Schopenhauer said, art is the stylistic presentation of ideas.

The art and animation are pretty good but overall nothing that is artistically exceptional. I know many TV anime that surpass this series in terms of visual creativity, still the classic image of the two brothers, with the juxtaposition of colors. is a memorable and powerful image. The rest of the show is competently directed but does not have anything really incredible in the way the camera (imaginary in this case since it's animation) moved.

I was also extremely impressed by how dark and brutal the show became and by how powerful was my emotional response to it's climax, building up from 25 hours of animation. Despite some caveats, this is a true masterpiece of animation indeed and a classic for a reason. One of the greatest animations ever? I would have to agree.

I bought Tekkonkinkreet. It's style reminds me of Maasaki Yuasa. It's based on the manga by Taiyo Matsumoto who also made the manga Ping Pong. I'll review it once I've watched it.

For the record I also love Nausicaa, more than Princess Mononoke too.