Trailer up for IG's LOTGH

[Fvlminatvs]

Well, since the show is airing now, and I'm watching it on the old RunchyCroll, I figured I'd toss in my two pennies regarding the show thus far.

I've not read the novels. I am looking forward to reading them, though. Therefore, I cannot say how well the two shows are as adaptations of the source material because I need to have read the source material before I can judge that.

Thus far, I am enjoying the show. The original OVAs were beautiful and hand-drawn but the direction and storyboarding weren't nearly as dynamic and occasionally over-reliant on time-saving techniques that reduced character movement and made the shots more static.

I don't like CG but I've learned to live with it. I prefer hand-drawn anime but I understand that CG space-battles, robots, and star ships, as well as computer-enhanced animation saves time and has a lot of benefits. I've learned to adjust and I can appreciate the benefits that computer technology has on anime. Granted, there is a loss of creativity in finding solutions to problems in interesting ways that I miss both in anime and in live-action cinema that has resulted from CG. Nevertheless, it's not going away and I've learned to live with it.

That being said, the space-battles so far look gorgeous. I really like the updating of the technology that has made the future look less dated than it does in the original OVAs. The animation is smooth so far and as I said earlier, the storyboarding, direction, and cinematography is more dynamic and energetic. The pacing also seems to be structured with a bit more complexity.

However, I'm only two episodes in. The original series was over 100 episodes. This one is only, what, 12? I have suspicions as to what story point it will have as an ending and if my guess is correct, then I am excited to see where this goes.

My biggest complaint? Some characters haven't shown up yet. So far, no Dusty Attenborough, Job Trunhit, Olivier Poplan, or Tonio. Then again, I have no idea when they pop up in the books, or even if they exist in the books at all. Regarding the latter two, I felt their inclusion into the original series helped to give a grunt's-eye-view of the war and its cost to the individual soldiers as a good counter-balance to the grand tales of the admirals and politicians of the story. And Attenborough was a great "bro" for Yang. (I hear they show up later in the novels and that's why, though).

Oh, yeah, and where's the old music? Originally, everything was classical and romantic composers. Heck, thanks to LoGH: My Conquest is a Sea of Stars, Maurice Ravel's Bolero is the centerpiece of my go-to soundtrack for epic space-battles whenever I'm playing Stellaris.

A friend of mine said he thought the dialogues of the new one tended to be a bit boring, with one sticking out as being basic close-up exchanges (near an elevator, I think he said), unlike the more dynamic angles and gestures when Yang and Attenborough were talking in the first episode.

I remember plenty of static standing in place with only mouth-flapping being animated quote often in the old OVAs. There were a few times in the new show when I noticed a bit more movement and motion. I haven't the time to do a 1-to-1 comparison, though. That and I tape-traded back in college to get the entire original run fansubbed on VHS... and I currently have no VCR... and they don't make VCRs anymore. So I haven't watched the original in about a decade. I managed to get the first 15 or so episodes on fansubbed DVDs but never got around to getting the rest.

To sum up, I am a bit hopeful thus far. I like what I've seen by this point. We'll see where this thing goes. I liked Yamato 2199 well enough.