What are you Watching?

[llj]

Nadesico was a parody of space opera shows, though. So its nonsensical-ness was obviously deliberate. Is Girls Und Panzer a parody of something?

[Daniel]

I remember that you like this series, Dan.

Not sure on subtitles, but I didn't have any. The level of Japanese is pretty low, so I could understand most of it anyways. Not that Dragon Quest is a real difficult show to understand in any case.

Have you seen the other Dragon Quest series? I've heard of them, but never watched them, myself.

[greg]

The one set of characters I DO find remarkable is actually the 4 history buffs. (One girl dresses like Rommel, another like Caesar (sort of), and the other two like Japanese figures that I always forget) I REALLY wish they were better developed because what little I got of THOSE characters I found amusing.

Yes! I did think that, too. The girl wearing the German uniform and hat seemed cool. If the main characters are not as interesting as the background characters, then that is a big problem. The thing is, those girls who actually are interesting are not moeblobs! Moeblobs work for stuff like Yotsuba or Lucky Star. Not for badass stuff like tanks firing live rounds at each other. IF the whole cast were as interesting as those four you mentioned, and if it wasn't set up to be some school club activity, the show could work for me.

I guess I don't mind the moe style much. There is a place for it, as I said. The moe concept existed long ago too, but it just took on a different form. My daughter actually insisted on watching it during our lunchtime, and it's on the TV in the other room right now as I type. The very first shot of seeing tanks rumbling along in the distance is cool, but as soon as I saw JHS uniforms, it immediately disengaged me. I say have cute girls piloting tanks and such, I'm fine with that. But marrying that concept with generic junior high school stuff just doesn't work for me. I just think that Girls Und Panzer needed to stretch the premise further. The high school club premise worked for K-On for sure, but it's disappointing in this show. I was hoping the show would take me to a world further removed from reality. But it took me only as far as an aircraft carrier out in the ocean. Oh well.

What I'm saying is, shows like Future Boy Conan can feature an 8 year old boy and girl taking on soldiers and saving the world. It works for its premise. Girls Und Panzer just fails to grab me.

[Heero]

If the main characters are not as interesting as the background characters, then that is a big problem.

I don't know, I often like background characters. They can be like the backup quarterback, you have enough information to make you want to see more, but not enough to make you hate them. But you have a valid point, there should always be at least ONE "main" character that you like.

But marrying that concept with generic junior high school stuff just doesn't work for me.

But without it you wouldn't have greatness like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHzwNNbO7h0


Seriously tho, last comment about GuP, pondering it today I must remember that the beginning has a decent amount of the high school setting because it's going through the "character introduction" aspect. The back half (at least) of the series is primarily tank battles. I'm not saying you should watch it, I'm just saying I think the high school stuff was all just an excuse to setup the premise (which, again, I grant is not strong) rather than a preferred setting.
This is what "Girls Und Panzer" is really about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q6KRqbMtCU
(it's apparently really popular with people that play "World of Tanks")

[Boite Diabolique]

Today "Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion" played all around the country. One-off screenings in most capitals with Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne sold out apparently. Canberra had about 260 or so in the cinema, nearly 3/4 full (population of the city is 358,000, so I guess that's pretty good, especially the tickets being AU$20 each). Got my ticket, and god, there were Madoka cosplayers there, and bemused looks on those who were there to see "12 Years A Slave", "The Book Thief" or "The Wolf of Wall Street" or whatever other "normal" films were screening. I was informed that there were only 100 mini autograph boards and posters to be given out (apparently Aniplex didn't give Madman Entertainment, the local distributor, many), so with around 50 people already lined up, I reluctantly got in line, right next to a cosplayer dressed as Madoka.

Unfortunately Madman gave the job of giving out freebies and prizes to a local cosplay group whom I have never heard of. Totally unannounced and a complete surprise to anyone not in their little group, they announced the winners of the scavenger hunt. Apparently the only people who wanted to go to this film were the local anime club and the jokers running the cosplay group. Why bother telling anyone else of the scavenger hunt? Yeah, "outsiders" wouldn't want to take part, would they? Then there was 15 minutes of a cosplay competition (can you just show the fucking film already?!) which was MC'ed in a cringe inducing way (I admit a few of the costumes were bloody well done) and the crappiest (lame and cheap looking) cosplay won anyway...

Before the film there was a little pre-recorded message for overseas fans from the cast members. Kaori Mizuhashi looked like she would give anything to be anywhere else. The film itself, well it's more spectacle than anything of any substance. There is a pretty good story in there in be honest, it's just buried in tons of flashy and over the top visuals. Shaft really got their money's worth from Gekidan INU Curry. The film would have been a whole lot better if a lot of material was cut. Especially a lot of the first half hour. It takes that long to get to the actual plot. It's also pretty damn confusing as to who is a [highlight to read spoilers!] witch and who isn't. There's a ton of dialogue to explain what's going on, but it's a info dump and really hard to take it all in. The final seconds of the coda after the credits was also a bit confusing. Will Shaft make a fourth film to fleece the fans again? I thought the series and the compilation films were pretty good (not mind blowing, but a really clever and good take on the magical girl genre), but this film is quite mediocre. Edit: oh, and the new character was quite pointless and served absolutely no point other than to make expensive PVC figures of to sell to otaku.

[usamimi]

Yikes! Sounds like the showing was kind of a mess! I feel lucky that every "anime" film I've seen in theaters was mostly just small crowds of people who where either there because they were an adult anime fan (like when I saw Spirited Away), or they were clueless parents who were just bringing their kids to an animated movie (like Arrietty). There was no Madoka showings close enough to me to go see, but given how many times I've heard my friends who DID go say they had to wade through a bunch of kids and/or cosplayers, well...I'm almost kinda glad? XD;

[Boite Diabolique]

Yikes! Sounds like the showing was kind of a mess! I feel lucky that every "anime" film I've seen in theaters was mostly just small crowds of people who where either there because they were an adult anime fan (like when I saw Spirited Away), or they were clueless parents who were just bringing their kids to an animated movie (like Arrietty).

Admittedly I wasn't the happiest person that day. I got a panicked call from my mum the previous night. Dad has Parkinson's. He was doing some gardening and his legs gave out suddenly and he couldn't get up. He was out in the sun in 98ºF temperatures for about an hour before mum discovered him. He's 75 now and the Parkinson's + the medication have really screwed him over. Luckily mum got him to hospital and he's OK, but I live too far away from them to help. I wasn't really in the mood for nonsense come Saturday morning, hence my narky tone about how the local club handled the screening.

What's weird is that the patrons at the previous Madoka Magica movie screening for the first two films were less "otaku". Well at least those tendencies didn't come out unit they got into the theatre. The way that the anime/cosplay club gave away the freebies in both screenings was pretty bad. They were giving the stuff away to their own little group. If you weren't cosplaying, you didn't have a chance of getting anything. And you wouldn't know that a competition was taking place unless you were in the group. If Madman release the Anohana movie here, I really think I'll email in attempt to change things. It's unfair on those outside of their group.

Anyway. I just finished "Space Pirate Captain Harlock". I had the VHS fansubs of this back in the late 1990's, but only got to the second tape for some reason. It's a pretty good show. It has aged and probably isn't as good as some shows from the era, but it's a really fun adventure show. I think the video is an old composite master which does its job but could look better. Discotek's subs are a lot better than some of their other recent efforts. That other great TV show from 1978, "Future Boy Conan", needs to get a release. In fact I don't really understand why it has never been released in the west considering who was behind it.

[greg]

Discotek's subs are a lot better than some of their other recent efforts. That other great TV show from 1978, "Future Boy Conan", needs to get a release. In fact I don't really understand why it has never been released in the west considering who was behind it.

Indeed! I own this show on LD, but I still own my VHS fansubs of the show because I don't want to part with them in English. Nippon Anime has so many fantastic shows that ought to be made available in English, such as Conan, Romeo's Blue Skies, and the new Anne of Green Gables that is currently airing on Cartoon Network on Saturday nights in Japan.

[usamimi]

Wow, yeah, that sucks that the little cosplay group didn't give everyone a fair chance. :/ I hate it when people do stuff like that, it really can put a damper on an otherwise awesome experience!

I've always wondered why no one tried to put out Conan here, too. I've only seen a little of it, but I did like what I saw, if I recall.

[llj]

I used to rent Future Boy Conan from my local Chinese VHS rental shop. But they didn't have all the episodes, just MOST of them. I still don't know what happened after Lana fainted on the metal beam late in the series.