3421

So yeah…Uchuu Kyoudai… any opinions?

— Alan

3422

I know a lot of people like it, but I just couldn’t bear it any more past a certain point. In my opinion, it’s glacially paced to a fault and fails to generate any tension or threat of failure, which would be the only ways I can see it being interesting (unless you have a fascination with astronaut training).

If everyone else comes out in support of it, you may want to go along with them rather than me, but 30+ episodes of it was not an appealing prospect after about the first 8.

3423

It’s the best series I’ve seen this year.

Otagan complains about the slow pace, but I’ve found that to be its strength. It spends a lot of time focusing on its characters and having them interact with each other in ways that can be surprisingly poignant and touching. It’s full of these great little, deftly handled moments that more plot driven shows rarely have room for. I like the characters so much that I don’t even care when they drag out the story - it’s never felt slow to me, though I recognise that it has a pace that might be a turn off for others.

I disagree that it’s without tension. Perhaps in the first 8 episodes, but things have barely got started at that point and it has a good number of cliff hangers later that made the wait for the next episodes difficult (even if I knew things would work out).

It’s also really funny and has a genuine, infectious love for its subject matter (space).

3424

The first trailers for Ghost in the Shell: Arise are appearing today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfHdMgR7_HI

Which by all appearances looks like a prequel series to Stand Alone Complex. Or it could be a reboot set in an earlier time frame, as Arise takes place just 3-4 years before SAC, which would make Motoko’s seemingly odd adjustments to life as a cyborg (or what appears to be that) to be a bit odd. But would Production IG really do a reboot? In any event, it’s a mini-series and not a full-length one.

OP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzJ5yj8roiM

No Yoko Kanno however.

— Alan

3425

As long as the new GITS has that combination of obtuse pretentious faux-wisdom, nice graphical design, and cheesecake, I don’t care about the details; as far as I’m concerned the anime can do no wrong. :)

I looked at a GITS manga for the first time just recently. Uh, don’t have it at hand, the most recent compilation, I think the one with Motoko Aramaki mostly on her own as a “security consultant.” [Is there some previous manga someplace that explains how this particular Motoko clone arose, and why she took Aramaki’s name? I assume she is a sort of reincarnated fragment of the dissolved Motoko/puppeteer entity, but who knows.]

Anyhow: the cheesecake is fine, but the story is just dreadful, unless the translator was on crack and didn’t actually know Japanese. It’s all just one confusing mess of action scenes and crotch shots with no actual explanation of what is going on.

3426

Motoko takes the Aramaki surname after she merges with the Puppetmaster at the end of the original manga if I recall correctly. I think it’s partially due to a fatherly respect for him and his influence on her, but it’s hard to tell really. The second manga series was pretty much Shirow going off into the deep end of crotch shots and other crap instead of a mix of decent storytelling in his hey day of Appleseed and GITS.

— Alan

3427

His newfound obsession with digital effects didn’t help either. Much prefer the old school black and white Manga art of the original run and his other early works.

Excited by the prospect of a new GitS series from Production IG, though. Hasn’t been an anime series that really excited me in a few years.

3428

Which is a horrible shame. Oh well. I’ll be over here waiting for a Seatbelts reunion tour.

3429

My twitter comments on the new season:

Shingeki no Kyojin 01: nice production value. Decent direction & script. Nice atmosphere. Not overhyped. Some potential. Hence 7/10

so overall not a fraud as Highschool of the dead. Need to know if next episodes keep same budget & detail.

so in the end it’s an anime that could go wrong, since a lot depends on execution. Plot is average.

I watcheed gg The fact that titans kill while smiling is a nice touch.

Aku no Hana 01: very good direction, excellent atmosphere, wonderful music. It is quite a thing. Environment/backgrounds protagonists. 8/10

lacks some substance, so it depends on next episodes whether it has something worthwhile to say. I just like the direction.

at this point no concessions to anime-isms. Tries to stay realistic and understated. If it keeps this style it’s EXCELLENT.

it’s [gg] again. No complaints.

Kakumeiki Valvrave 01: pre-modern, pre-Eva mecha anime. Quite bombastic style. Average art. Weird cocktail of cliches. 6.5/10

like Gundam, but embracing fully silliness. Some fanservicing too. Tries to be dramatic while being showy.

so it’s like the opposite of understated, which is not my preferred style. It’s in-your-face oldschool mecha anime.

as long not taken seriously, it’s fun pulp stuff. If they keep the production budget up. Could deflate into nonsense.

it’s [gg] once again.

Red Data Girl 01: flimsy but creepy. A weird anime, probably wanting to be like Lain. 1st episode makes no sense. Quite baffling. 6.5/10

atmosphere is somewhat well done, and it’s hard to tell where it is going. Characterization is fine, but not great.

but with its calmer pacing it feels also relatively fresh. But it also lacks some depth. But not even being pretentious.

not gg this time. It’s FFF

Suisei no Gargantia 01: supposed to be mecha anime. First half is a CHAOS OF FRACTALS on screen. Baffling. It’s interesting. 7-/10

they probably blew up the whole budget on that first half, but if they keep the quality it’s really good.

direction is not so good, but it seems a good anime overall. Done with enough care and interesting plot. Messier than Vlavrave.

so the premises aren’t bad, but it depends if it develops into cliches or not. Seems like a chaotic version of Macross.

group of choice is UTW

–
So just on the first episode of each my rating goes like this:

Aku no Hana 8
Shingeki no Kyojin 7
Suisei no Gargantia 7-
Red Data Girl 6.5
Kakumeiki Valvrave 6.5

3430

After learning that Tom Cruise will apparently start in a live action version of Yukikaze, I stumbled around another anime I hadn’t heard of, Zipang, which is like crazyland Final Countdown where the roles are swapped.

— Alan

3431

Shingeki no Kyojin (aka “Attack on Titan”) - saw the first two episodes last night. Really like the visual style and how it leaps in medias res; wastes no time getting pretty violent & bleak. Only qualm is the male lead is incredibly generic & predictable. Still, this is an early front-runner for best show this season.

3432

Tom Cruise in Yukikaze? Crazy. The protagonist is evidently gay, or at least very ambivalent in his preferences; can Tom Cruise seriously play a gay jet pilot? That would take some balls, I have to admit. Sort of bookends of a career from Top Gun if you think about it. To be clear, I think the guy is a real mental case, and his prominence in scientology is profoundly repugnant, but even so, if he were to do that I’d have to tip my cap. But isn’t the pilot in Yukikaze a young man? Cruise certainly does keep himself in great shape, but I just don’t think he can cut it as an under-30 character anymore…

3433

Does it really matter that much?

— Alan

3434

Anyone here see any of the Bakemontogari series? If so, can you recommend it? I’ve seen it recently in some anime music videos and it looks like it has promise.

3435

The anime I just watched shot up at the top of my ladder.

AIURA BEST SPRING ANIME!

AIURA 8+
Aku no Hana 8
Shingeki no Kyojin 7
Suisei no Gargantia 7-
Red Data Girl 6.5
Kakumeiki Valvrave 6.5

Bakemonogatari is SHAFT. Which means it’s a masterpiece.

3436

I’ve seen the first season and enjoyed it, but it’s kind of a tough sell to others. For one thing, there’s a lot of dialog, including wordplay which doesn’t seem to translate well. This also means there are a lot of static scenes of characters just standing around talking; SHAFT does what it can to make those scenes pretty, at least, but it’s not exactly action-packed.

Plus there’s an awful lot of fan-service shots, which gets ratcheted up in the second season - particularly of the more loli girls - and is a big part of why I haven’t finished Nisemonogatari yet. I consider myself pretty jaded / inured to such things (I managed to watch “Highschool of the Dead” while barely flinching), but it still managed to cross my comfort zone.

I think it’s at least worth checking out; but if the first few episodes don’t grab you, it’s probably not for you.

3437

Just to add more Baikemonogatari comments:

  • mostly a harem show, but the main guy is not playing dumb about knowing how the other girls like him, or how he feels about the other girls. So there aren’t any stupid filler episodes doing “character development” of 3rd-tier girls.
  • mostly a supernatural mystery show, actually
  • this show is seriously full of talking

I am gravitating towards sequels this season: Hayate, Railgun, Samaurai Girls. I am also watching Hataraku Maou-sama!, which has an interesting premise, but the de-powered demon lord is unbelievably nice and down-to-earth.

3438

Checked out the first couple of episodes of Shingeki no Kyojin (aka “Attack on Titan”) last night with the kids on Crunchyroll. Interesting. I wonder if this is going to be some sort of environmental cautionary tale.

3439

Thank you all for your input. While I’m not as fond of Harem anime shows as I used to be, it sounds like this one is sufficiently interesting in other ways to make it fun to watch.

I read the first couple of volumes of Hataraku Maou-Sama! online and thought it was interesting.

3440

I had to force myself to finish Bakemonogatari. It’s not that it’s full of talking, it’s that the dialogue mostly just came across as irritating and hollow for me. Characters that are all thoroughly unlikable, saying a lot about absolutely nothing that’s of interest. I found the whole show to be pretty lousy really, but for whatever reason it has a lot of popularity. I guess it just wasn’t for me.