![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
And Now For Something Infinitely More Substential: Assorted Anime I Have Seen Recently
Cuts mean spoilers!
Toward the Terra, OR, the Men in the Life of Keith Anyan
Epic soundtrack, okay.
The character design is kind of retro I think.
But it would have been so easy to make the space battles soundless it makes me sad.
LOL gravity inside spaceships.
Maybe I like the manga!Keith better. Or maybe not.
And ten years later Swena adopts an orphanage of Mu brats.
Blue is my hero.
Matsuka, too.
I like Tony more and more. The more I watch this series. Next time is fourth time watching it through.
Physis needs a bigger role.
(Maybe one where she watches soap operas.)
((The drama CDs were amazing.))
Jomy why are you so boring.
But the black female elder is the best character ever.
Her/the captain = OTP.
Serge is so the next leader of humanity.
And they're not bowing to the Mu but welcoming them as equals.
The negotiations are going to be epic.
(TONY VERSUS SERGE OK GO.)
But why wasn't Twellen chosen as Soldier?
(Tony makes more sense in this adaptation.)
"The Blue Planet" gets me in goosebumps. Every. Single. Time.
Holy shit TONY AND MATSUKA'S HAIR.
Blue/Physis = OTP Number Two. (But only in the anime.)
The lion sleeping in the depths of space shall awaken far off in infinite time.
Should have done poetry for all the major deaths.
Michelle/Captain Murdock = OTP Number Three.
Jomy's parents are badass.
Swena is also badass.
Matsuka is SUPER BADASS.
Sam why do you make me cry.
Shiroe why do you make me cry.
OMG Keith and Matsuka, stop hitting each other, you're making me cry.
...OMG.
(OTP Number Four.)
Simoun, OR, Just Lie Back And Think Of Tempus-Spatium
Well, I appreciate that they lost the war in the end.
What I don't appreciate is the utter disregard of all the bigger plot points scattered so tinglingly all over the first half of the show.
Somewhere around episode four we're promised a greater look into the political and social workings of the surrounding, technologically "inferior" nations. Some episodes later there's a look into just how well fanatical religion and war mix together, but it was only a tiny story in the middle of all else and never turned into a series-encompassing lesson (from the point of view of the episode, at least - religion and war in general are, in the end, what the whole thing supposedly was about).
Dismantling a Simoun is considered a huge taboo, and Dominura's revelation is set up as a huge turning point in the whole show, only... nothing really comes of them. The most they affect the advance is some relatively minor changes in Dominura's personality.
The huge power-play between the politicians and the spiritual leaders constantly, constantly alluded to in the background stays forever in the sidelines, instead of cultivating in a powerful climax in the final episodes, and in the place of a real climax we're given the remains of the romantic story (of suspending believability) of the two leads, who, compared to every other romantic or romantically ambiguous realtionship in the whole opus, never had that much chemistry as a couple anyway.
And what's up with the ruins and the spring? The time traveling thing was anticlimactic where it should have been awesome!
That said, the final two to three minutes of the final episode is some of the most powerful endings I've seen in my life. Flickering figures on a ship of past glory.
...I fully admit it: I fell in love with the Arcus Prima.
Baccano!, OR, The Oriental Express Meets Foucault's Pendulum Meets The Godfather
Things I didn't realise until the reveal: 1) Rail Tracer's identity. More specifically, that Rail Tracer WASN'T the supernatural force of evil from an urban ghost story. 2) Just who the immortals on the train were.
This was an excellent anime, clever and fantastically constructed. Having nearly half the story taking place aboard a moving train creates a kind of atmosphere I haven't seen in anything but old American movies. I wish more anime tried for a mood like this.
Just two half-hearted criticisms: First of all, Eve's part felt tacked on. Both the other storylines were tied together by most of the leading cast, even if the plotlines weren't dependent on each other, but the 1932 part didn't fit so well. Dallas wasn't such a major player that his story exactly needed real conclusion, and Eve wasn't connected with anyone but the robber duo who had connections everywhere anyway. ...But no matter, it brought more out about the African American informant for Daily Days and his excellent rivalry with the Caucasian one. (Can't remember their names.)
The second one is that while most of the romances worked just fine (a feat unto itself, considering my picky taste in romance), some of them worked better in theory than in what was shown. Firo and Ennis were a tad abrupt, though it could be argued we're never shown if anything really came of it, afterwards. And Claire and Chane were just awkward in the OVA - a real shame because they were the best part of the series' ending for me.
(I disliked the OVAs somewhat in general. The tricksy puzzle-like storytelling thing of the series sort of fell off. Or wasn't done nearly as well. I don't know. Maybe it would have worked had it been longer. But the OVA episodes aren't mandatory watching, so that's okay.)
Toki wo kakeru shoujo, OR, Time Waits For No One
Watch it, if you haven't already.
This is how time travel works if the author's infatuation with ~the foreordained~ doesn't stand in the way of how causality really works. And the completely convincing feel of lazy summer afternoons with your best friends from high school. And the bewilderingly detailed art. Oh god, the background art.
Too bad about the ending. A little more compact and this movie would have been perfect.
Kino's Journey, OR, Socrates And Her Talking Motorcycle
What a shame about the poor art/animation quality. And the different countries' inhabitants should have been a variety of races instead of just the same old westerners. Same thing about the architecture.
Fix those two things and the outcome would have been excellent. This makes me feel superficial to admit, but they really dampened my enjoyment of the series.
Vandread, OR, Fuck You Too, MediaFactory
The worst waste of a series I've recently witnessed. Made worse by the first two episodes, which were hilarious! And tricked me into thinking it would continue the same! Then suddenly they start taking the gender stereotyping and the worldbuilding seriously, at which point everything falls flat on its face. It would have worked as overblown comedy. It didn't work realistically.
The least original main characters since I DON'T EVEN KNOW SINCE WHAT, NOW AND THEN, HERE AND THERE MAYBE, constantly rubbed in your face by how the supporting cast (or majority thereof) is actually entertaining! And manages to have the same depth with tenth the screentime!
It was painfully obvious that most of the story was build episode by episode. (And if it wasn't, the producers need to learn how to actually pace plot developments. The viewers aren't going anywhere! You're allowed to play with the story a little!) There were several storylines which would have worked a thousand times better had they lasted just a little longer, but no - the build-up for the main character's life-altering view-changing experience lasts exactly one episode. And it's hardly referenced to after that at all.
...On a plus side, the music was at least fun, if not exactly good.
Minami-ke; see: Series itself
Mako-chan and Touma: hilarious
Hosaka-senpai: I want one of my own
Series itself: just a plain depiction of the lives of the three sisters of the Minami household. Please do not get your expectations up.
Toward the Terra, OR, the Men in the Life of Keith Anyan
Epic soundtrack, okay.
The character design is kind of retro I think.
But it would have been so easy to make the space battles soundless it makes me sad.
LOL gravity inside spaceships.
Maybe I like the manga!Keith better. Or maybe not.
And ten years later Swena adopts an orphanage of Mu brats.
Blue is my hero.
Matsuka, too.
I like Tony more and more. The more I watch this series. Next time is fourth time watching it through.
Physis needs a bigger role.
(Maybe one where she watches soap operas.)
((The drama CDs were amazing.))
Jomy why are you so boring.
But the black female elder is the best character ever.
Her/the captain = OTP.
Serge is so the next leader of humanity.
And they're not bowing to the Mu but welcoming them as equals.
The negotiations are going to be epic.
(TONY VERSUS SERGE OK GO.)
But why wasn't Twellen chosen as Soldier?
(Tony makes more sense in this adaptation.)
"The Blue Planet" gets me in goosebumps. Every. Single. Time.
Holy shit TONY AND MATSUKA'S HAIR.
Blue/Physis = OTP Number Two. (But only in the anime.)
The lion sleeping in the depths of space shall awaken far off in infinite time.
Should have done poetry for all the major deaths.
Michelle/Captain Murdock = OTP Number Three.
Jomy's parents are badass.
Swena is also badass.
Matsuka is SUPER BADASS.
Sam why do you make me cry.
Shiroe why do you make me cry.
OMG Keith and Matsuka, stop hitting each other, you're making me cry.
...OMG.
(OTP Number Four.)
Simoun, OR, Just Lie Back And Think Of Tempus-Spatium
Well, I appreciate that they lost the war in the end.
What I don't appreciate is the utter disregard of all the bigger plot points scattered so tinglingly all over the first half of the show.
Somewhere around episode four we're promised a greater look into the political and social workings of the surrounding, technologically "inferior" nations. Some episodes later there's a look into just how well fanatical religion and war mix together, but it was only a tiny story in the middle of all else and never turned into a series-encompassing lesson (from the point of view of the episode, at least - religion and war in general are, in the end, what the whole thing supposedly was about).
Dismantling a Simoun is considered a huge taboo, and Dominura's revelation is set up as a huge turning point in the whole show, only... nothing really comes of them. The most they affect the advance is some relatively minor changes in Dominura's personality.
The huge power-play between the politicians and the spiritual leaders constantly, constantly alluded to in the background stays forever in the sidelines, instead of cultivating in a powerful climax in the final episodes, and in the place of a real climax we're given the remains of the romantic story (of suspending believability) of the two leads, who, compared to every other romantic or romantically ambiguous realtionship in the whole opus, never had that much chemistry as a couple anyway.
And what's up with the ruins and the spring? The time traveling thing was anticlimactic where it should have been awesome!
That said, the final two to three minutes of the final episode is some of the most powerful endings I've seen in my life. Flickering figures on a ship of past glory.
...I fully admit it: I fell in love with the Arcus Prima.
Baccano!, OR, The Oriental Express Meets Foucault's Pendulum Meets The Godfather
Things I didn't realise until the reveal: 1) Rail Tracer's identity. More specifically, that Rail Tracer WASN'T the supernatural force of evil from an urban ghost story. 2) Just who the immortals on the train were.
This was an excellent anime, clever and fantastically constructed. Having nearly half the story taking place aboard a moving train creates a kind of atmosphere I haven't seen in anything but old American movies. I wish more anime tried for a mood like this.
Just two half-hearted criticisms: First of all, Eve's part felt tacked on. Both the other storylines were tied together by most of the leading cast, even if the plotlines weren't dependent on each other, but the 1932 part didn't fit so well. Dallas wasn't such a major player that his story exactly needed real conclusion, and Eve wasn't connected with anyone but the robber duo who had connections everywhere anyway. ...But no matter, it brought more out about the African American informant for Daily Days and his excellent rivalry with the Caucasian one. (Can't remember their names.)
The second one is that while most of the romances worked just fine (a feat unto itself, considering my picky taste in romance), some of them worked better in theory than in what was shown. Firo and Ennis were a tad abrupt, though it could be argued we're never shown if anything really came of it, afterwards. And Claire and Chane were just awkward in the OVA - a real shame because they were the best part of the series' ending for me.
(I disliked the OVAs somewhat in general. The tricksy puzzle-like storytelling thing of the series sort of fell off. Or wasn't done nearly as well. I don't know. Maybe it would have worked had it been longer. But the OVA episodes aren't mandatory watching, so that's okay.)
Toki wo kakeru shoujo, OR, Time Waits For No One
Watch it, if you haven't already.
This is how time travel works if the author's infatuation with ~the foreordained~ doesn't stand in the way of how causality really works. And the completely convincing feel of lazy summer afternoons with your best friends from high school. And the bewilderingly detailed art. Oh god, the background art.
Too bad about the ending. A little more compact and this movie would have been perfect.
Kino's Journey, OR, Socrates And Her Talking Motorcycle
What a shame about the poor art/animation quality. And the different countries' inhabitants should have been a variety of races instead of just the same old westerners. Same thing about the architecture.
Fix those two things and the outcome would have been excellent. This makes me feel superficial to admit, but they really dampened my enjoyment of the series.
Vandread, OR, Fuck You Too, MediaFactory
The worst waste of a series I've recently witnessed. Made worse by the first two episodes, which were hilarious! And tricked me into thinking it would continue the same! Then suddenly they start taking the gender stereotyping and the worldbuilding seriously, at which point everything falls flat on its face. It would have worked as overblown comedy. It didn't work realistically.
The least original main characters since I DON'T EVEN KNOW SINCE WHAT, NOW AND THEN, HERE AND THERE MAYBE, constantly rubbed in your face by how the supporting cast (or majority thereof) is actually entertaining! And manages to have the same depth with tenth the screentime!
It was painfully obvious that most of the story was build episode by episode. (And if it wasn't, the producers need to learn how to actually pace plot developments. The viewers aren't going anywhere! You're allowed to play with the story a little!) There were several storylines which would have worked a thousand times better had they lasted just a little longer, but no - the build-up for the main character's life-altering view-changing experience lasts exactly one episode. And it's hardly referenced to after that at all.
...On a plus side, the music was at least fun, if not exactly good.
Minami-ke; see: Series itself
Mako-chan and Touma: hilarious
Hosaka-senpai: I want one of my own
Series itself: just a plain depiction of the lives of the three sisters of the Minami household. Please do not get your expectations up.