I'm not one of those people who can identify the work of all but a handful of individual Japanese animators just by looking but anyone who has seen early Urusei Yatsura should at least be able to tell that Jarinko Chie was done at Kitty Films in the early 1980s even without seeing "Kitty Films" in the credits.
EDIT Never mind, it's Kitty Music in the credits, not Kitty Films (though I presume there's some company relation). The animation still looks similar to Urusei Yatsura but it may just be that many anime productions produced around 1981 have a very similar look.
I'm not one of those people who can identify the work of all but a handful of individual Japanese animators just by looking but anyone who has seen early Urusei Yatsura should at least be able to tell that Jarinko Chie was done at Kitty Films in the early 1980s even without seeing "Kitty Films" in the credits.
EDIT Never mind, it's Kitty Music in the credits, not Kitty Films (though I presume there's some company relation). The animation still looks similar to Urusei Yatsura but it may just be that many anime productions produced around 1981 have a very similar look.
I have the whole film in 720p. I got the torrent off of nyaa before the site shut themselves down. The site's up, but there are zero leechers and zero seeders on the torrent.
The Tokyo Ghoul:re anime is a pretty solid adaptation so far, the animation isn't nearly as bad as I feared. But still what did they do to Touka's hair
I went down the anime timetunnel and all the way back to 2012 and watched Pumpkin Scissors, now reading the manga and the Karussel storyline and all I can say is holy shit.
Is there a substantial difference between "urban fantasy" and the term with which I am more familiar, "magical realism" or are they pretty much the exact same thing?
Kamichu! is one of my favourite examples of that vaguely-defined genre; junior high school girl gets nominated to god status, but in a nation with thousands of gods so she's not the supremest of supreme beings and also she still has to be a normal junior high school student at a normal school.
It's a great show with a couple of bizarre episodes like the one where they raise the ghost of the Yamato or the one with a cat version of Fight Club, and then there's the alien with the Kiki's Delivery Service hair ribbon.
One minor aspect of it I like is that it's a 2005 TV series but it's set in 1983-84, though they keep the nostalgia elements subtle enough that you might not even notice that it's set in the past if you don't pay attention to small details.
Since Yakuza 6 is out in North America today, I should mention that it shares something major in common with Kamichu!: Yakuza 6 is partially set in the real-life seaside town of Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, which also happens to be the setting for Kamichu!. It seems to be a popular city for "nostalgia" possibly because it was also the home town of the elderly couple who went to visit their adult children in Tokyo in Yasujiro Ozu's 1953 film Tokyo Story, regarded by many filmmakers and critics to be among the greatest films of all time.
Omg so I just started Alakazam the Great 'cause I needed to watch a quick movie today, and learned that Sterling Holloway is the narrator in the English dub and now I have the case of the feels. This is like the exact opposite of when I learned Bill Farmer was in the dub of Hyper Doll as the giant earthworm monster and I was laughing myself to tears.
Omg so I just started Alakazam the Great 'cause I needed to watch a quick movie today, and learned that Sterling Holloway is the narrator in the English dub and now I have the case of the feels. This is like the exact opposite of when I learned Bill Farmer was in the dub of Hyper Doll as the giant earthworm monster and I was laughing myself to tears.
I don't know if anyone has ever seen an anime show titled "Kaiba". I did a search, and the only references that came back were for that Yu-gi-oh, or whatever it is, here on the farms. I'm not a huge fan of anime, but this show along with Sailor Moon are my faves.
Kaiba is very different, the animation is very cartoonish, but the storyline is deep, way deeper and darker than most shows. For some reason, it goes unnoticed a lot, but every single episode makes me cry. It's got drama, love stories, and terrorism all presented in cartoonish/wanky animation that makes it more presentable. The storyline is very futuristic but very relatable and revolves around memories implanted into sold bodies.
If the failing budget of Evangelion is a myth, why do they copy-paste so many things?
I finally picked it up and it's pretty good, mostly because it's "physically" simple, leaving a lot of the depth to what's not shown, but I swear I've seen the same few scenes and animations on repeat to the point it gets silly.
If the failing budget of Evangelion is a myth, why do they copy-paste so many things?
I finally picked it up and it's pretty good, mostly because it's "physically" simple, leaving a lot of the depth to what's not shown, but I swear I've seen the same few scenes and animations on repeat to the point it gets silly.
Noone with half a brain would ever deny that NGE ran out of dosh.
The same thing happened to Gunbuster and they had to resort to sketches and storyboard drawings in the last episode, which sort of happens to NGE, too, even though not as bad.
It does have a few scenes that are essentially just insanely long still shots.
Finished it and End of Eva as well. What a shit show.
Like, I can understand that it's not pretentious if Eva was indeed the first mainstream media to include religious themes in a non-traditional setting, but the as far as I've read, religion was just chosen to stand out. Oh okay, so robots and some crosses and 'angels'. Then their budget/time fell through halfway into the anime, and now they had to take the symbolism to the extreme to pad out the last 12 episodes.
How is this a masterpiece? If it was the intention from the start to slowly dig deeper into even the big friendly robots being monsters, sure, but it clearly wasn't the intention according to the first 12 episodes. Darling in the Franxx is doing this theme way better currently. The first major arc is just settling into the universe, seeing kids kill innocent monsters, and now it turns out that all is not right and things get interesting.
Except if this was Eva, they'd all drop LSD and walk in circles. I don't know, it was a good anime up until the last 4 episodes minus 24 (I believe), but holy hell did it turn on its head for the sake of "It wasn't about money, it was our intention to become existential!".
Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc Manga Resumes in June
The official website of Shueisha's Jump SQ.magazine announced on Monday that Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc manga will resume in the magazine's July issue on June 4. The manga went on hiatus last December following Watsuki being charged for possession of child pornography. Watsuki was later fined 200,000 yen (about US$1,900) in February.
The announcement noted that Watsuki is living a life of reflection and atonement, but that Shueisha and Watsuki decided that continuing the manga to answer the desires of fans was a matter of duty.
At the time of the manga's hiatus, Shueisha commented that it is taking this news seriously, and that Watsuki expresses deep regret.
Watsuki first launched his 28-volume Rurouni Kenshinmanga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994. The manga has more than 60 million copies in print. The manga centers around Kenshin Himura, once a deadly assassin during the Meiji Restoration, who is trying to find a new life beyond violence. The manga has since been adapted into a 95-episode TV anime series, an anime film, three original video anime projects, three live-action films, and a stage musical by the all-female musical theater troupe Takarazuka Revue. The Daily Sports newspaper reportedlast year that a new live-action film in the works.
Just about every single anime (and hell, just about all animation) uses recycled frames. Some may try to wave it off as a "choice", but it's indeed a budgetary shortcut, some are just more egregious about it than others. Typically those frames are done by the more experienced animators because they have to look good, but when your series is using limited animation, recycling is important.
Funnily enough, I just got done through my... I wanna say fifth rewatch of Evangelion, but maybe it's my fourth. I think I'm miscounting, but I just have to say that with every rewatch, my feelings are completely different, like it has to be the true definition of a love-hate relationship for me to flip-flop on how much I like certain episodes/scenes/characters/etc and vice-versa. For example, I used to hate the long still-shots that's quite rampant throughout the series, but now I like them--maybe it's because I know what to expect during them and can brace myself, but I also understand them from a directorial, if not narrative point-of-view. Meanwhile, I once liked the very first two episodes, but I just wanted to get to things quicker and was wondering to myself "Yooo was it always this slow?" Which is funny, because Evangelion goes by pretty fast for me. I also thought the religious symbolism was a bit over-excessive, but over time I've come to accept the symbolism because getting rid of all of it would completely change Evangelion's identity. Also as a religious person, I think it's just fun to see what the Japanese think of Christian themes, though I think someone on the team had studied up and knew what they were doing, especially when it comes to the Angels.
So this rewatch was a little different 'cause I finally got to watch it subbed, and it has made a difference in my understanding of things like expositions and some sound design, especially in the voice-acting. I also noticed that there was a lot of exposition/explanation that was done as background noise, particularly through radio and TV, which wasn't something I had caught on through the dub, but basically they were used to explain (subliminally, maybe?) the kind of psychosis that was going on in those scenes between those characters. Which I think is weird that they'd be listening to radio stations where people are basically getting armchair analyses with the radio host, but eh, I think it's helped. I also had gotten some chills last night watching End of Evangelion because of the voice-acting alone, especially during the Giant Naked Rei sequence. Like I don't remember all that heavy breathing in the dub, and it was quite creepy.
Anyway, uh, so I have to wonder if my enjoyment/immersion has been affected by how late I was watching some episodes. I mostly watched it at night up to around midnight or so, and so I would end up getting tired by the end of the disc. But I noticed that I pretty much had my full attention on the TV up until episode 21, 'cause I was nearing the end of the series and so I was going to watch all two discs that night. And then I was getting tired right as soon as I was about to watch the last disc, and I just really love Akira Ishida's voice anyway, so him as Kaworu was just soothing to me and then I realized about halfway through episode 25 I was struggling to pay attention even though I actually really do like what they did with the last two episodes. I totally understand why it happened, but multiple rewatches and just looking up discussions for further reading have helped me come to realize just what exactly was going on during those two episodes (what Instrumentality is), and so I completely appreciate the ending.
So I'm thinking your enjoyability of Evangelion totally and completely depends on your current mood of that day, week, month, year, decade of you watching it. There is no true "right" mindset, but for sure your attitude and state of mind is what shapes your interpretation of the series.
Because of how open it is to interpretation. It's been 20 years, and people are still talking about it, having debates and discussions and writing essays motivated by raw emotion or educated guesses. You don't have to like it, and despite what the hardcore Eva fanboys say (avoid them at all costs), that is perfectly okay. You are supposed to come to your own conclusions. For fuck's sake, Hideaki Anno himself can't seem to decide the meaning behind certain scenes, and he created the damn thing from start to finish. Of course, that could just be because he doesn't know how to explain himself verbally to people ('cause I'm pretty sure Anno is a sped and not from his depression--he's a very talented sped who rightfully deserves his fame and infamy, though), so he's much more comfortable with giving you visuals of what he wants to talk to you about.
Thing is, though, everyone sees and interprets things differently, and I think he's come to understand that (over time, like post-EoE I guess). So even though he'd say "X-scene is meant to embody Y-theme" because that's how he felt at the time, the viewer will think things differently. No one hates or loves Evangelion for no reason, but if there wasn't anything worth talking about or to dissect years after its initial release, we wouldn't be here discussing it, now would we?
It's also extremely important to the anime industry and Japanese pop culture as a whole, but that's on a more influential level, that doesn't necessarily make something a "masterpiece".
But anyhoo, sorry 'bout the wall of text there. I noticed this was your first viewing and all that mindfuckery got you to change your tune pretty quickly, so I just have this to say:
Finished it and End of Eva as well. What a shit show.
Like, I can understand that it's not pretentious if Eva was indeed the first mainstream media to include religious themes in a non-traditional setting, but the as far as I've read, religion was just chosen to stand out. Oh okay, so robots and some crosses and 'angels'. Then their budget/time fell through halfway into the anime, and now they had to take the symbolism to the extreme to pad out the last 12 episodes.
How is this a masterpiece? If it was the intention from the start to slowly dig deeper into even the big friendly robots being monsters, sure, but it clearly wasn't the intention according to the first 12 episodes. Darling in the Franxx is doing this theme way better currently. The first major arc is just settling into the universe, seeing kids kill innocent monsters, and now it turns out that all is not right and things get interesting.
Except if this was Eva, they'd all drop LSD and walk in circles. I don't know, it was a good anime up until the last 4 episodes minus 24 (I believe), but holy hell did it turn on its head for the sake of "It wasn't about money, it was our intention to become existential!".
Two aspects to keep in mind with NGE:
1) The religious symbolism is chosen mainly to look cool. There are key concepts such as "The Tree of Life" and "The Tree of Knowledge", a lot of terms such as Lilith, Eva, Adam, various names of angels and so forth strewn all across the plot, but at the core, it's just a Kaiju/Super-Robot anime. Gainax never boasted about the religious stuff and pretty much said from the start, it was just to give the show a more exotic vibe to japanese audiences (who are understandably unfamiliar with many aspects of the christian religion). The mysticism and mythology is a nice background detail, not a core aspect of the show.
2) There is a very sharp change in tone the moment Anno Hideaki got treatment for his depression. Up to a certain point, NGE was a lot more light hearted, since Anno essentially was trying to cover up his issues, but once treatment started to gain traction, he was much more open about his negative feelings and put them more clearly into his works (namely NGE). Many characters in NGE showcase how Anno was feeling about himself and others. Shinji as the guy who just doesn't know where he belongs, for instance. It's also interesting to note that (afaik) Ayanami Rei was originally supposed to be a character that the audience should hate. Her distant, robotic behaviour was supposed to drive people away, but it turned out that people enjoyed the kuudere type, so one thing lead to another.
People seem to think that it's supposed to be groundbreaking for the religious undertones, but that's simply not the case. The groundbreaking aspects of NGE are the psychology of pretty much every main character, their motivations and the interaction between the characters.
One thing that gets overlooked a lot is also that NGE was a huge deconstruction of Super-Robo anime at the time. The main character is a meek, whiny dude without any confidence. The robots are relying on external power sources and have giant cables in their backs. Hell, the "robots" are actually more like giant humanoid monsters.
The plot is pretty straigthforward, but the presentation leaves a lot up to the viewer to piece together and interpret.
And of course, small milestones such as NGE being the anime that turned the kuudere archetype into one of the most popular ones in the entire media. It certainly didn't invent it, but Ayanami Rei has become so popular, that (amusingly) you'll find endless clones of her throughout many shows.
The last few episodes in NGE are... well. Special. Which is a nice way of saying "they stick out like a sore thumb". They do make sense in context of the plot, since it's pretty much humanity unraveling after the 3rd impact, but their presentation is really weird and unusual. Not everyone's cup of tea and it's pretty obvious that many choices were made due to budget.
Many people felt it was lackluster, which was why Gainax made Death&Rebirth and End of Evangelion (which is notable since the plot deviates from the original series: In the show, Shinji decides to become part of human instrumentality, whereas in EoE, he refuses that).
I wasn't happy with how the show ended, either, when I watched it the first time. I felt like I was promised a huge climax and got some wonky arthouse doodle episodes.
I felt cheated, tbh. But I can now appreciate it for what it tries (especially given the limitations), even though it's a giant clusterfuck.
EoE pretty much gives me the big climax with Asuka's fight and the 3rd Impact before suddenly going into arthouse overdrive.
During the production, Gainax ran out of money, so a lot about the end can be explained with that. However, when they made EoE, they were swimming in money and they still chose that style, so it's not just a queston of money that made them go for this end.
And, of course, it's a very bold decision to make an ending like that.
What I outright refuse to understand is how people deny NGE being a groundbreaking anime when that's the absolutely overwhelming consensus both on a global scale and within Japan. Forgot who it was, maybe Miyazaki, but some really important anime celebrity once said that one of the big reasons why Anime was stagnating for decades was due to an inability to surpass NGE and the huge impact it had on anime.
I think NGE introduced so many things or at least made them popular, that nowadays, said things have become so commonplace that NGE doesn't seem to stand out that much (even though most modern shows just copy NGE to large parts in these regards). It's like the "No Luke, I am your father" plottwist in "The empire strikes back". It was a huge shocker back in the day, but so many movies have copied it ever since that it lost its edge. Citizen Kane seems unremarkable from a modern PoV, too. But that doesn't take away CK's pioneer role in making movies what we know today.
and in case anyone wonders what this huge wall of text is all about, this is what happens when someone mentiones NGE on an anime board...
