Guaporense and Zotis Review Animation

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Angel's Egg is great. It's very different from anything else I've seen, very artistic.

I'm sorry you didn't like Starship Troopers Guap. While it does feel a bit low budget, I thought despite that it was pretty well made. I liked it.



Registered User
Not to derail but I have to admit that Zotis is great at drawing in MS paint, I never knew that people even did that.

Maybe he should make his own comic in MS paint.



Haibane Renmei and Lain are both fantastic. The first episode of Lain is one of my favorite pieces of animation of all time. By the way, I did dig up a copy of Angel's Egg, but haven't had a chance to watch yet.
I would recommend for you to watch Texhnolyze as well. Its one of the major 3 ABe's works together with Lain and Haibane Renmei. Lain is about the mind, Haibane Renmei is about the soul and Texhnolyze is about the flesh.



24) Oseam (2001)



This Korean animation was beautifully animated and features exquisitely designed art. However, I disliked it. Why? I don't know but I didn't feel anything for it and it felt more like an experimental/practice work by animators in training rather than a film made with a definite objective.



The plot is very simple and based on a Korean folk tale about siblings who lose their mother and are taken by monks of a temple. It feels uninspired though.

Interestingly how similar Korean and Japanese aesthetic sensibilities are. Not identical as well but certainly similar in many ways. Well, its all "East Asia". Today there are many animator in Korea because labor is cheaper there than in the US, Europe, Canada or Japan, hence both Japanese, European, Canada and American animation studios use Korean labor to produce the in between frames in animation which is a horrible and painful process.

5/10



I saw a couple episodes of Texhnolyze, but it was a little boring. I'll give it another go at some point, but I couldn't really get into it last time I tried.

You've been giving quite a few critical low ratings lately Guap. What's happenning? Why are you watching so many bad ones?



A system of cells interlinked
I don't understand why one would like to make CGI animation when traditional animation looks so incredible in fact. A painting always looks better to me than a digital rendering, which looks like plastic. And the cost of production of this 100 minutes long film was pretty low, at 1.15 billion yen.
Totally agree with this sentiment.
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



I saw a couple episodes of Texhnolyze, but it was a little boring. I'll give it another go at some point, but I couldn't really get into it last time I tried.
Its really snail paced but its atmosphere is incredible. I also though it was boring in the beginning which all the random violence and no dialogue but it good more conventional later or.

You've been giving quite a few critical low ratings lately Guap. What's happenning? Why are you watching so many bad ones?
Most stuff is not good so high ratings will tend to be rare. I gave 8/10 to several titles among the last 7 I reviewed, I gave 5 to several as well, overall I don't think my ratings are low now, the worst thing I commented on was number 12 so far.



Totally agree with this sentiment.
Even in films that mix up the two such as Ghost on the Shell 2, the CGI stuff looks a bit out of place and artificial. Though Steamboy was able to integrate CGI and still make an impressive looking piece of animation.



A system of cells interlinked
The stills you posted speak 1000 words. Just beautiful stuff. I know I have mentioned this before, but in Mononoke, during the scene at the beginning, there is some riding going on and the backgrounds are whooshing by. No background is ever repeated. I am sure they could have gotten away with repeating at least some of the background content, as it goes by so fast, but the fact that they didn't just shows the level of commitment to the artwork.

RE: Texhnolyze: I am all over that. I googled some stills and they immediately drew me in.



25) Bubblegum Crisis (1987-1991)

Essentially a series of 8 direct to video movies/shorts (some are 50 minutes long others are only 25 minutes and each kinda works like self contained episodes unlike a more serial narrative). Featuring vintage late 80's rock soundtrack and usually excellent animation (though some parts are not as good as others).



After the late 1990's the anime industry shifted from direct to video animation to TV late night stuff. One of the effects was the substitution of movies to longer TV series whose animation quality was substantially lower. Some OVAs featured some incredible animation quality and Bubblegum Crisis is a classic of the OVA world, not quite on the same level as gunbuster which is perhaps the greatest direct to video animation of all time, but Bubblegum Crisis is excellent entertainment of the type that is rarely made these days.



It feels very much like a Masamune Shirow manga, more so than adaptations of his manga in fact. One good thing as well is the more organic look of the designs and the colors if compared to contemporary computed colored stuff which has extremely straight lines and feels excessively angular and overproduced.

More organic looking 1980's animation:


Also, this OVA eachoes the atmosphere of 1980's cyberpunk science fiction better than any movies except Blade Runner (which is an obviously enormous influence on Bubblegum Crisis).



The characters are very memorable band of 4 female cyber mercenaries who work by taking out rogue robots that the police cannot deal by themselves. Though their equipment design is quite tacky I guess: such thin armor wasn't apparently stronger than much larger robots they fight against though they have bigger "suits" when the need arises:



As the OVA series progressed they also changed/upgraded their suits several time though design changes are a bit subtle to the eye. And overall is an highly entertaining and excellently executed piece of late 1980's cyber punk science fiction, even better indeed than movies like RoboCop.

9/10



OMG I love Guaporense-senpai's taste in anime. Really excited for the next 25 movies too. I am a big fan of anime and I reallt enjoy this kind of threats. I watched PuniPuni Poemy as it was related to my favorite kid's show Excel Saga but I wasn't too into anime right then so I didn't finish it, so I will watch it right now if senpai says it's an 8/10.

I watched some of Gintama series before watching the movie (like half a dozen episodes). But you are right that I would have certainly enjoyed it more had I watched more of the series before watching the movie.
I have watch almost all of them (I still need to find some of the 100 than I didn't see) and still not sure why they call Kondo gorilla, because he is hairy I guess but I was hoping something else and still didn't find it. The first episode I have ever seen was first of the 2011 series so I didn't get sh*t of what happen but really happy I keeped watching it and then I fully understand all the inside jokes an all.



I have watch almost all of them (I still need to find some of the 100 than I didn't see) and still not sure why they call Kondo gorilla, because he is hairy I guess but I was hoping something else and still didn't find it.
Basically because he has a quite big body complexion that stands out among the rest.



26) Dominion Tank Police (1989)



4 part OVA, excellent cyberpunk science fiction dealing with very sophisticated themes, as usual for adaptations of Masamunr Shirow manga, though this one in particular is very comedic in its style.

Its also very serious in some parts. Its more ambitious than the manga which is just light comedy all the way basically. The OVA has more developed villain as well. And the characters of the OVA are all pretty memorable.



The animation is also very good as its the characteristic of OVAs and the art is very unique if compared go other OVAs with its organic citiscape designs.



7/10



I never really got into Dominion. I guess it was a bit too light-hearted and not funny enough for me. So it just end up boring me a bit.



27) Tokyo Marble Chocolate (2007)



This 50 minutes long animation is pretty bland. The art style tries to be different and more retro looking than traditional Japanese art but I didn't find it particularly interesting. Though the animation quality is very high for an direct to video animation.



The plot is typical melodramatic/introverted Asian style romance. Almost like in the vein of Shinkai and Kar Wai's movies, but here an element of fantasy is present and it's a bit more simple considering the short running time as well and the fact that the narrative is split between the two characters: the first 25 minutes are from the girl's viewpoint while the last 25 minutes are from the boy's viewpoint.

Also there is a magic mini donkey that acts pretty weird in the movie, I don't understand it's symbolic meaning but it probably is the reason why I didn't connect to this overall.

Donkey:





28) Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya OVA (2014)

This is typical moe animation: it consists of nothing but slice of life of a couple of 4th graders. Plot revolves around the difficulty of the Edelfelt in learning how to dance for a school competition. Despite being quite good at sports and stuff she is stiff and cant express herself well in dancing.

Though after some cutesy and more cutesy talk and stuff she manages to overcome her stiffness and partly thanks to the success of the dancing routine (coupled with the success of other activities performed by the girl's class), their class wins the school competition, whose prize consisted of a bunch of meat, which would be awarded to the teacher responsible for that class.



The art and animation are not exceptional, typical of TV stuff, but contemporary TV stuff tends to be much higher quality than even a TV show from 6-7 years ago. Anime "graphics" have been improving very fast indeed.



+



29) Fist of North Star (1986)


This stuff is hardcore dude! Hardcore! It's like groove metal animated or something. It's so dumb that it makes Avatar look more intelligent than Spirited Away and 2001 put together, and it's so aggressive and macho that it makes The Road Warrior look like a chick flick. It's so over the top it makes The Matrix Revolutions' fights look realistic.



The animation is relatively limited if compared to the stuff Miyazaki was making at the time (Castle in the Sky), and art is also not very unique though I liked the super deformed way they portrayed characters here. Instead of cute as is common in most contemporary animation, here it is gritty and ugly, indeed, less cutesy like than realistic designs with huge arms and body in proportion to the heads, with the exception of the little girl character who is moe indeed. Also, 90% of all characters are male and the gore and brutality is extreme, even for the standards of violent anime from the late 1980's and early 1990's.



Though the final fight was a bit too over the top for me, stretching my suspense of disbelief a tad too much (much like Akira in a way but here it's even more exaggerated and the art and animation are inferior to Akira as well). It's a movie essentially about being more aggressive and macho than the others and crushing anybody else that does not follow the correct way with your feet. Yes, it's extremely dumb and it makes it a rather special film in many ways, perhaps the single most authentically stupid film I ever watched (authentically because stuff like movies aimed at 5 year olds are made to look retarded to adults and do not reflect the creator's creative intentions but here the feeling and passion of the creators is actually genuine!).



It can be regarded as a masterpiece in it's extremism of violence, brutality and manly aggression to subjugate others. Similar perhaps to 300 but even more aggressive and stupid.



, for it's rather unique levels of aggression in animation.