What are you Watching?

[greg]

I'll update you all on my recent viewing. Over the weekend, we watched the first couple of episodes of Gundam 0083. On Sunday, I stopped by Tsutaya to rent more videos. They finally had the 4th DVD of Yamato 2199! It wasn't as action-packed as the previous DVD, but the episode that mimicked a submarine movie was cool. All the Gamilus guys on the sub had beards even! Nice touch. The ghost episode was pretty wild, too. I had to ask my wife to translate for me. Quite a cliffhanger!

Tonight we watched K-On! for the first time. Only 2 episodes on the disc. Either Danth or Ilj mentioned earlier about the anime trope of the girl late for school, dashing out the door with a jam toast in her mouth. Yep, it's in the beginning of the first episode. But I like the show. It's funny, real cute without being moeblobbish (I think that's a real world, otherwise I hereby coin the term immediately), and the music is actually kind of nice (I'm not keen on modern J-pop type stuff, and this music is slightly more rocky). I thought that it was a nice attention to detail that the instruments were all real instruments: Yamaha drums, Fender bass, KORG synthesizer, and a Gibson guitar. I got the jist of the show without subs, but ---heck--- 1. I probably gripe about newer anime too much on this forum, so I don't want to bag on it too much 2. Amazon has it for a decent price (it hasn't skyrocketed despite being by Bandai), 3. It'll help me score some points with some of my students to say that I got the K-On! DVD box set because it's fairly popular with the kids, and 4. why not?

Oh yeah, and I've stated renting New Yatterman for my daughter. I like how the Doronbo and Dokurobei all have the original voice actors!

[llj]

Even though the original creator is a man, K-On! was directed by a woman and the head scriptwriter is also a woman. So it doesn't have the skeezy feel that other moeblob shows targeted at men have. It feels very much like an all-girls show truly targeted at teenage girls. It also passes the Bechdel Test:

1.It has to have at least two women in it,
2.who talk to each other,
3.about something besides a man.

I don't even recall any real fanservice in it.

[greg]

Great! I don't regret my impulse purchase of the K-On Anime Legends box set then! It looks like the rest of the show was picked up by Sentai Filmworks, so those DVDs should hopefully stay un-rare for now.

[danth]

Hmm, K-On sounds like it might be worth checking out.

I've recently watched almost all of Black Lagoon. It's pretty gosh darn good. It has enough good things going for it that I'm just going to list them:

1) Attractive, almost 80's style character designs
2) Adult main characters that act like adults
3) No sign of high school anywhere
4) Passes the Bechdel Test mentioned by llj
5) No lame attempts to evoke emotion that fall flat, whether they be inspirational speeches that just sound cheesy or whatever
6) No reliance on constant flashblacks
7) Almost no exposition
8) Exceptional dialog that sounds intelligent and natural, complete with amazing metaphors like "...in this city, where the balance of power walks a tightrope on its f*ckin' hands..." I mean this show is just full of great lines like that.
9) A perfect dub.

The only thing that bothered me about the show is some of the unrealistic shootouts. You the old trope where all the bad guys are too in awe of the posing heroes too just shoot them? Yeah, that one.

This is about as good as new anime is going to get for an old grump like me. I kinda wish it had mecha.

[llj]

I liked Black Lagoon too, but only when it embraced its grindhousey side and stopped trying to copy Hollywood action movies. And it's definitely totally unrealistic--when people are running straight at each other and firing their guns without a single bullet hitting their mark, you know this is anime.

I think visually exciting, sophisticated action choreography is increasingly becoming a lost art. Bones and Madhouse still consistently do good action choreography. PA Works had CANAAN, which had extremely good action choreography, but they haven't done anything comparable since. JC Staff is inconsistent. Sometimes they crank out sequences of impressive action, and sometimes they phone it in.

[Animusubi]

K-On! was just enjoyable and fun to watch. I also like the quality of Kyoto Animation's work. I just wish they would do more action shows. There was a trailer for a series I wish they had done a full season for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNti4Bf2t-c

Minus Lucky Star, which I do not like at all, I pretty much watch all of Kyoto Animation's series. I am currently watching Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai. So far of all the ones I have seen, this one is my favorite of the KyoAni works. Just about finished with it. EDIT: And done, probably one of the better anime series I've seen since watching all of Clannad about 3 years ago.

[greg]

K-On looked like it was cel animated. It didn't look way-too-clean, and the backgrounds actually looked artistically painted. I had it shipped to my friend, and he'll take it with him when he comes to visit in September.

[llj]

Kyoto Animation is a very talented animation studio. You could say that a lot of their shows are fluff, but they might be one of the few anime studios out there who can rival Studio Ghibli from a purely technical standpoint.

I have The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya as the best non-ghibli anime film of the past 5 years, for what it's worth.

[greg]

Unfortunately, Haruhi fetches a high price (it's Bandai, RIP). That's part of my motivation for snagging K-On, because its price hasn't skyrocketed yet. So those two shows were made by the same animation studio, huh? I seem to remember that.

[llj]

Even the Haruhi movie fetches a high price? That was one of Bandai's last releases so copies should still be floating around.

Personally, I think the Haruhi TV series was largely inconsistent. The second season was actually pretty awful in some spots. But somehow, the movie turned out to be the best thing to come out of the franchise. It looks great, it's ambitious, and it just "feels" like a real film, rather than an extended TV episode (not to mention it's nearly 3 hours in length, actually just one minute shy of Final Yamato for the longest anime film ever made...). Unfortunately, it does require some knowledge of the TV series' events to fully grok everything in it, but I think it still sort of stands on its own because it establishes a main character, a personal crisis, and an emotional and physical journey for the main character, which is all a good movie needs.

An additional thought I just had about the Haruhi movie: a good comparison might be the GoShogun Time Stranger movie. I know it's weird, but hear me out: both films strip the story down to focus on the emotional crisis of a single character. While the rest of the cast is obviously still important, it only focuses on their importance insofar as the type of relationship they have with the lead character. They are movies that sort of defy fans' expectations by NOT giving every character equal screen time. Some of the cast members get very little screen time, and Haruhi herself is actually missing for a large chunk of the film.

That reminds me: someone needs to license rescue the GoShogun movie. The old DVDs were only available in full screen, and I'd like to own an anamorphic widescreen version of it.