anime

[Gormongous]

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata (known as Saekano) is getting very favorable retrospectives from the blogs that I follow. Did anyone watch it? I know anime often gets more credit than it deserves when it goes meta, but both Karmaburn and Omonomono are usually hard to impress with that sort of thing...

[jennegatron]

I've cried a bunch at Your Lie In April and am not yet done with it but really like it.

[Twig]

I have never heard of Saekano! I wonder if that's something I'm in the mood for right now...

 

NO! BACKLOG! ALMOST CLEAR!

 

Your Lie in April is the best. It is my favorite anime from this year.

[Gormongous]

I've cried a bunch at Your Lie In April and am not yet done with it but really like it.

 

I actually stalled out last night at Arima's second on-stage breakdown in the show. The flashbacks accompanying it made me feel like he's got horrible issues with past abuse that would probably need a therapist to heal in real life. Hopefully, it's just a roadbump, because it's the first bad impression that I've had of anything in the show...

[Valorian Endymion]

Heard a lot about Your Lie in April and do plan to watch it.

I am still not sure which direction Aquarion Logos is trying to go - but I keep watching since a part of me also hope this to turn in Evol or Genesis at some point... still the episodes aren´t bad, in fact some of them where quite good (for character development) and I am curious of what will happen, is just the don´t have much to do so far with Evol or Genesis. While the did one episode with a Gattai (union) with 3 people (big point in previous series), they returned the 2 people gattai.

 

Meanwhile, Cinderella Girls second season is really good, so much few episodes managed to make me like more the rest of the cast which is getting a much deserved developement and this along with the whole plot of the girls and the producer dealing with Mishima and her new direction for the 364 Productions, provide a interesting conflict and we do see the girls supporting each other a lot.

[Codicier]

Since I'm going through one of my nasty insomnia phases and the world itself seems particularly grim tonight I've decided to mainline 6 episodes of You Lie In April tonight with nothing but a bottle of wine and some more wine.

First time i watched it i bailed at the scene where she is playing music with the the kids because it seemed so saccharine, turns out i should have kept going

That said there's something really weird about the way the art style handles eyes. It takes the typical big anime eyes and then actually properly renders the whole construction of the eye, which would be fine and interesting but they then seem to whack up their gloss to ridiculous levels do they almost end up gem like. Actually gems the wrong way of describing them it would be better to say they are like giant marbles.

Which make the fact they seem to have decided to give all the children black dots for eyes sorta creepy

I'm not sure who said it (might have been twig or gorm)but some of the conversation 100% is the kids taking way to much like adults

2 episodes in & i think I'm getting the same sort of vine from the dialog as i remember getting from shows like Buffy back in the day. These are teenagers as teenagers imagine/hope they are instead of the inarticulate mess that most of us are at that age.

Ohh the cg piano hands aren't too bad,i remember Kids on the Slope (for a while that auto corrected to Kiss on the Dope, a different show i imagine) having a bigger disconnect between its animation style and the CG it used fire close ups than this does, however Im also trying desperately to remember how Nodame Cantabile and other older shows dealt with it did they actually animate the playing or just rely on allot of still mood shots.

Really like the lightly discordant music we get for some of the male protagonists moments of introspection. Not sure how i feel about how they are seeing up future drama surrounding the love interest/muse. It just feels like a big old obvious DANGER HEARTBREAK AHEAD sign.

After three episodes I'm enjoying the whole thing more than expected though i wonder if they will actually do anything interesting with three supporting cast or if they are gonna just pop up say a few impossible wise for their years lines and then vanish again without any development.

If they actually give the jock friend a character arci really will be impressed

[Twig]

Yay everyone watch it!

[Codicier]

Ok I'm determined to get through another three episodes of You Lie in April tonight.

Does anyone know if the title is a specific term of phrase in Japanese culture? I get that April/Spring is supposed to represent the experiences of youth (with a emphasis on young live in particular) and the lying part is sorta self explanatory but I'm interested whether it's a pre existing phrase or if the title id's just something that someone had come up with from nothing.

[Gormongous]

Ok I'm determined to get through another three episodes of You Lie in April tonight.

Does anyone know if the title is a specific term of phrase in Japanese culture? I get that April/Spring is supposed to represent the experiences of youth (with a emphasis on young live in particular) and the lying part is sorta self explanatory but I'm interested whether it's a pre existing phrase or if the title id's just something that someone had come up with from nothing.

 

I had the same question, and the only thing that I can find is that April is traditionally seen as the "end" of the spring season, owing to the school schedule in Japan and the slightly different rhythm of the seasons. Accordingly, drawing on the connotations of spring that you mentioned, the title could be read, "Your Lie at the End of Youth." That's a pretty aggressive read, though, and I think the rhythm of "Shigatsu wo Kimi no Uso" is just as much a reason for it being the title.

[Gormongous]

Double post, because I just finished Your Lie in April. I liked it a lot, although I didn't love it like Twig, I think. The moments that got me teary were the flash of a bow in Kaori's hand while she was miming a duet to Arima's piano-playing over the phone, and the paralleled scenes for Arima and Kaori during the final two episodes (which put me so strongly in mind of the final chapters of Iain M. Banks' Use of Weapons that some waterworks were inevitable). Listening to the points discussed in the final monologue, I feel like this show suffered a little for not being thirty-seven or even a full twenty-six epsiodes — there needed to be a bit more filler to make Arima's relationship with Kaori feel less like a prolonged encounter and more like a full relationship to match the one that he'd lost with his mother. Still, I'm nit-picking, because the show never missed an emotional beat or injected useless drama into the plot, which is something big when I just got done watching Golden Time a few weeks ago, another show that made me cry but less than it could have.

 

Now I'm watching Saekano and... it's good? The first minute of the first episode has four naked girls relaxing in an outdoor bath while talking about how hard it is to get into anime series that frontload their fanservice. They then wonder if the male protagonist is trying to peek on them. Cut to him leaning against the dividing wall, weeping that they're talking about anime without him. I admit, I laughed. It's going to be an odd show to watch, though, if it tries to walk the like of "mocking shitty anime tropes while still using shitty anime tropes." I'll keep everyone informed!

 

 

EDIT: The OP is almost entirely panning shots up the bodies of the female characters that cut before showing their faces. I'm feeling more cautious, now.

[Twig]

Seeing Your Lie in April and Golden Time mentioned in the same paragraph makes ME want to cry!

 

I'm currently watching Gatchaman Crowds. Yo that show is not what you'd think it's going to be from a synopsis you'd read on the internet. Also it is liberal and accepting of gender fluidity, which is surprising and pleasant to see in anime without it being the butt of the joke. (EDIT: Just realized this is maybe a spoiler, but really it shouldn't/doesn't matter?)

One of the key characters is a guy who just wears dresses all the time when he goes out and nobody ever, ever makes a joke about it.

Is this actually anime any form of media?!

 

(It also features a girl who is frequently just hanging out in her underwear, and similarly no one ever comments on that. But uh you know, anime, or whatever, I dunno. It's sort of grown on me as part of her character, possibly as a result of the fact that there's no pervert Lakitu camera man with inappropriate and sexual angles. It's still weird, though.)

 

I'm now four episodes into Insight (the second season). It's doing something different from even the first season, and has also introduced some new characters. One of whom is, from what I've seen, near-universally disliked? So far I can't see why, though.

 

spoiler for episode four

Also, the alien introduced as a young girl in the first episode of Insight shapeshifts into an adult male and everybody switches gender pronouns on a dime. Though, that may just be the sub, now that I think about it. I wasn't listening closely enough to the audio, and my Japanese is probably not good enough to tell whether they use gender-neutral terms (i.e., "that person", etc.) or not. I mean, either way, the end product for me is a pleasant one. I suppose given that it's a shapeshifting alien, it's not all that impressive on its own, but given the context of the aforementioned spoiler-marked character, it all adds up to something nice.

[Gormongous]

Harem anime is such a delicate balance in general, actually. If the girls all suck, it's not believable that the protagonist just pick the best one (or none) of them, and if the girls are all amazing, it's not believable that they're all interested in the protagonist. I guess that's why there's so many "crazy" archetypes in harem anime, because apparent mental instability is a low-effort way to make a female character plausibly "undesirable."

 

For the record, Saekano seems to be erring heavily on the "amazing but crazy" angle, except for the titular "girlfriend" who is incredibly bland and boring. Still withholding judgment here.

 

Also it is liberal and accepting of gender fluidity, which is surprising and pleasant to see in anime without it being the butt of the joke. (EDIT: Just realized this is maybe a spoiler, but really it shouldn't/doesn't matter?)

One of the key characters is a guy who just wears dresses all the time when he goes out and nobody ever, ever makes a joke about it.

Is this actually anime any form of media?!

 

Like I'd said before, that really reminds me a lot of SNAFU and the feminine male character after whom the protagonist openly lusts, while still insisting on his heterosexuality. I think we're entering a new (marginally more) progressive era of anime stereotypes where scriptwriters are just putting homoerotic and transgender influences into their scenarios without any commentary and letting audiences decide on their own if they're a joke or in earnest.

[Twig]

There's also Princess Jellyfish, of course, which features a cast of mostly women and one cross-dressing man!

 

You're right that this kind of thing seems to be happening more and more. I'm just always super wary every time I see anything remotely approaching non-heteronormative content that eventually someone's going to wink at the camera, letting us know that it's all a joke.

 

(I don't think Gatchaman Crowds is going to do that, for the record. It seems remarkably solid on that front. If it was going to be played off as a joke, it definitely has had plenty of opportunities.)

[Gormongous]

(I don't think Gatchaman Crowds is going to do that, for the record. It seems remarkably solid on that front. If it was going to be played off as a joke, it definitely has had plenty of opportunities.)

 

I'd believe it. Gatchaman Crowds and all related materials for it have their scripts and series comp done by Oono Toshiya, who's only ever worked on Magic Kaito 1412, Tsuritama, Suite Precure, and Perfect Insider. He looks like he's just part of the new generation of anime creators who don't have the same baggage as the sort of people who wrote Leeron from Gurren Lagann (for example).

[Twig]

Haha, funny you mention Tsuritama now, as I JUST saw a reference to it in one of the scenes (with the four main characters from it standing in the background). Wasn't sure it was at first, but now I am.

[Gormongous]

Uh, the twintails tsundere character is whipping the male protagonist with her hair...

 

 

There are enough gifs online to convince me that I'm not imagining this, and that it's apparently a recurring thing...

 

I really don't know what to think of Saekano after two episodes. The writing is incredibly savvy, but it's in the service of a surprisingly rote harem plot starring a celibate Potato-kun — in short, "An otaku uninterested in real-life relationships accidentally asks out several of the most talented girls at his school when he seeks their help in turning his brief encounter with unremarkable girl from his class into a video game, now he must string them all along to make sure that the game gets finished!" As a whole, the anime feels very much like a high schooler using their smarts to avoid hard work rather than to excel academically... which was me, way back when, so I'm sympathetic enough to see it out, I suppose.

[Twig]

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone here that I did binge the rest of Gatchaman Crowds Insight last night.

 

My thoughts on both seasons, summed up, as stolen from my spreadsheet...

 

Season one:

 

One of my favorite things: this show is very liberal and non-judgmental in regards to gender fluidity, and I think that's a beautiful thing. I love this show and all of the characters and themes and arts and music, oh man the music. It's thematically focused on the growing reliance on technology for communication, especially things like social networks, and how that affects the way people think. It does some interesting things with that, all while couched in this ALLEGED super-hero type of presentation. It's good.

 

season two (Insight):

 

Repeat everything about the first season of Gatchaman Crowds, except it's even better. It's maybe slower to start, but once it gets going, it really gets going. On top of the general commentary re: social networks and how that affects our thinking, it doubles down on the theme of going with the flow, and really challenges the idea that everyone should always be on the same page. And also it still has amazing music! (the first OP was better, tho)

 

I never did figure out why people hate Tsubasa (a new character in Insight). My guess is because, unlike nearly every other character, she's very stereotypical in nature. Believes strongly in the good of all, etc. And that i'd agree with, but it definitely does some things with her that are interesting, though, so to hate her because of her character archetype, when it's so integral to the story, seems a little... misguided. Especially when people claim that (and this is a paraphrasing of what I saw someone else saying) "Insight might even be better than the first season, if they just got rid of Tsubasa." You can't! You can't get rid of Tsubasa unless you change the season's core story arc! Geeeeeeeeez.

[Valorian Endymion]

Since you guys are commenting on Harem, it did remind anime I watched sometime go - Ai Yori Aoshi, which is nothing spectacular or anything (I could make a list of minor things which annoyed me), but kind had this interessing twist, where the protagonist (Kaoru, which unlike other protagonist from the period and genre already was at the university and had a job) find the girl he was looking for (Aoi) very early one and the history shift more to the whole group felt as a family and how they know sometime they will need to split it up, sure you still had the elements of the harem, but the tone was more of resignation and acceptence (from the other people around) and the chapters where Kaoru spend time with the other girls where more to focus and develop them.

 

Also to keep in the theme, Dance with Devils was a nice surprice, I watched it knowing very little (only later I saw that it was from the same people behind Diabolik Loves) and I was catch by surprise by the musical parts. Now I do wonder if I should give Diabolik Lovers a second chance, I didn´t liked the first episodes of the first season.

[Codicier]

Ok so Ninja Squirrel and Twig were having a conversation on the Key Frames Slack about the opening sequence for The Perfect Insider and i found it quite interesting so thought id repost a condensed version of it and what it made me think about here:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa1ckFWKi-Y
 
n1njasquirrel:

The song is cool but not the video. It's pretty clearly trying to tell a story, but it's like amateur a level interpretive dance if you take away the animation. It's clearly just rotoscoped all the dancers were recorded and then drawn over. Or at least, it looks that way to me, the animation is so smooth
I'm not saying that rotoscoped is a bad thing, Just the actual dance is super lame.
It's done in such a cheesy way, like j drama level acting. Maybe it's just my upbringing, but interpretative dance is like, the worst? It's the kinda crap your drama teacher does when they can't think of anything to do.
I mean ultimately I don't care, it's not my cup of tea. But I'd be interested to know other peeps feelings. I can assure you I'm in the minority, though I do think the op thinks it is being smarter than it is

 

Twig:

There is a story but why does that negate the OP being fun? and iff it's all rotoscoped then they definitely went out of there way to hide it the vast majority of the time.

They're often super distorted or not at all animated/rendered realistically. Its most obvious with Magata of course, no part of here movements ever look rotoscoped cause she's always melting and fracturing and teleporting all over the place, and the way moe and ...the teacher guy (i forget his name) sometimes melt, or their arms turn into whips, and the way moe's hair moves when it does a close up of her it feels like if they did rotoscope it as i said they went way out of their way to obscure it
 
I'm not sure why interpretative dance being used makes it bad, it portrays the three characters and their relations to each other and their own personalities and it has a cool style
We can gather three obvious things: 1) magata is fractured as fuck, 2) sensei and moe are chasing magata around, trying to figure her out, and 3) moe is chasing sensei, probably through admiration or something (though watching the show you know what it is).
 
would you rather an op where they just sit and talk? why is this more egregious than a normal op where they're fighting or running at or away from each other? that's effectively the same thing, just with more bombast

 
 
To me now that its been pointed out, I like the idea that rotoscoping was used for this because the process and the intent feel like the mesh really well.
Its a technique which takes reality and then step by step, frame by frame, creates a new reality on top of it that simultaneously mimics its structure but is totally different.
 
I feel like Magata (the long haired lady in the OP and subject of the anime's main mystery) is framed as the only person who truly understands whats going on, but that inside she doesn't feel that way at all.
Instead this is a result of her grasping emotionally for a answer to something and then trying to make that reality by projecting a aura of absolute intellectual conviction on those around her.
 
So basically flashback sections of the anime cover a period where Magata is coming into her emotional and intellectual adulthood, terrified of her mortality and feeling utterly alone, and wishing that she didn't have to see the world the way she does.
Initially because needs someone who has undergone the same experiences as her she creates new personality within herself based on people she knows who have died. People assume this is a reaction to loneliness but a way to preserve the ghost of a person but its not that, and while there is some truth in that its main purpose is so she can understand if there's a flaw in the way she sees the world. 
 
So now all that she experiences of the world is also run through the lenses of these different personalities layered upon her own, in the same way that the animation we see in the OP is drawn onto of a real person.
 
In the end i think she goes even further than this but since logic on this is based on some really wildly speculative guesswork about Magata which i'll put under a spoiler 

 

She needs to have a child, someone just as smart as her but utterly separate from her influence, who she hopes that when she reaches the same age will ask the same questions, experience the same doubts, who maybe will understand her. so for the past 15 years Magata has been subtly manipulating her life so that it mirrors her own. 
 
So in the present day
 
She isnt dead (& She doesn't have a sister)
She does have a daughter
 
and Nishiosono Moe is that daughter
 
Rotoscoping Moe's life on top of hers you could say

 

[Codicier]

Turns out i totally misunderstood how old a character was because i instinctively assume the drinking age is the same abroad as it is I the uk (16).

This week's perfect insider was a strange one particular because it had one of the longest English language conversations i remember in a anime. The cadence was very strange like some computer voice spelling word after word out with no flow between them.

I also wonder if a Japanese audience would pick something else up from it that i didn't that my perception is so coloured by the rhythm it's spoken I'm missing out on tone.

[Codicier]

ok I'm exhausted and need something that isn't very taxing to watch

 

help me idle thumbs anime thread, your my only hope!

 

(lots of larger than life but likeable characters, with only 1-2 seasons to get through would be great)

[Ninety-Three]

I just remembered I never watched all of Death Note. I quit when

L dies

because it felt like a good place to end, and I couldn't imagine how it would continue from there without doing something pretty stupid (also I had been told in vague non-spoilery terms that it does something pretty stupid). Is it still worth watching after that, and would continuing to watch undermine the sense of a satisfying ending I got from stopping where I did?

[Codicier]

Iirc today is the last day before 

 

http://animatorexpo.com/

 

takes down all its first two seasons of short animation experiments there's some truely insane visual stuff in there, along with some nice compact short stories so have a gander while you stil can

 

 

[BadHat]

Way to have a really horrible predatory gay dude stereotype, One Punch Man.

 

I just remembered I never watched all of Death Note. I quit when

L dies

because it felt like a good place to end, and I couldn't imagine how it would continue from there without doing something pretty stupid (also I had been told in vague non-spoilery terms that it does something pretty stupid). Is it still worth watching after that, and would continuing to watch undermine the sense of a satisfying ending I got from stopping where I did?

 

It's generally agreed upon that the series goes downhill after that, but I was one of the weirdos that still liked it quite a bit? I'm planning on rewatching it soon, so maybe my opinion will change. It doesn't hurt that I freaking love the music, and some of the themes in the second half are great.

 

Also fuck the haters I really liked the final ep.

[Gormongous]

I just remembered I never watched all of Death Note. I quit when

L dies

because it felt like a good place to end, and I couldn't imagine how it would continue from there without doing something pretty stupid (also I had been told in vague non-spoilery terms that it does something pretty stupid). Is it still worth watching after that, and would continuing to watch undermine the sense of a satisfying ending I got from stopping where I did?

 

The second half suffers for i) being a full-cour of episodes compressed into a half-cour virtually at the last minute, and ii) having the "antagonist" of the first half effectively split into two halves that are less than the sum of their parts, but I still say it's enjoyable, especially if you're watching the show to experience the escalating brilliance and degrading psyche of Light, rather than looking for a specific resolution.