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Iaboo, Youaboo, Weallaboo for Anime!

I've been watching Ramparts of Ice and I've been liking it a lot, so much so I sought out the original webtoon and read as much as was freely available.

I think what stuck with me is that Koyun is clearly on the spectrum, in a way that is very familiar to me. It's by no means 1:1 but her inability to read people was more or less the same for me. It absolutely turns into a romcom and less and less attention is focused on the 'scary eyes' aspect of Koyun, but the characters are fun so far and I'll probably keep watching it and rooting for her to make friends.

Oh and the way the closing credits song slowly creeps in before the needle drop rules, it's no Roundabout in Jojo but it's still a great touch.
 
Johnny Unusual said:
It Gud?

I think Nippon Sangoku is one of the best shows of the season no one is talking about.
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I'd been meaning to give this show a watch based on looking up PVs a while back, and took the plunge b/c of your rec. Two episodes in, I don't know how to feel about the show just yet, but it's very interesting and looks gorgeous.
 
Anyone else have thoughts on the new GitS trailer?


I’m liking the visual style, very period for the source material. The action scenes evoke a very Cowboy Bebop flavor to me, but that could be the power of suggestion since the major is at the bar in a very Spike Speigel outfit. Batou going full Rainier Wolfcastle is a bit of a tone shift, and overall this version seems a lot more loose and cartoony than the Oshii films or SAC.

I’m not all that familiar with the manga, just the movies and SAC. Based on what I’ve seen online this could be closer to the source material? Overall I’m into it but I think it requires disconnecting from what came before and taking it on its own terms. I think there’s going to be less philosophizing and more robo maids with arm cannons.
 
I'm very excited as someone who holds Shirow's manga dearest of all the iterations the series has had; for non-interactive media it's really only Oshii's work that stands as a truly compelling alternate adaptation to it, while the rest range from point-missing to sore dilutions--including the highly regarded Stand Alone Complex branch, notable to me as a bland procedural, tonal void and character-negation of Kusanagi in the extreme. That what should always have been the foremost point of entry and focus of the franchise to begin with now has a chance to get more eyes on it by the power of Wide Accessibility through a medium that's not as niche is a bargain I'll accept... especially when signs point to maintaining what's interesting and valuable about the source material, Kusanagi's queerness for one. If you get unfiltered Shirow, it's going to provoke absurdly layered musings on technology, civics theory and geopolitical debate through a military otaku sexploitation lens... but some of that is easier to scribble into exhaustively detailed comics margins than an animated medium, so we'll see.
 
Mr Bean said:
I’m not all that familiar with the manga, just the movies and SAC.
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Everything about this trailer is 100% faithful to the original comic. I'm excited that most people will finally get to see a much more authentic version of GitS. And I'm mildly dreading the chorus of ignorance that is already beginning to pop up from people who don't even know GitS was originally a comic.

As great as Oshii's film is in a vacuum, I've always resented it. It completely drains all of the color and joy and texture out of GitS. Deciding to take one aspect/slice of the story's themes, and hyperfocus on it at the expense of everything else. That alone I would find forgivable. But the fact that his adaptation has not just completely overwritten the original comic in the popular imagination, but set the tone for every single adaptation of all of Shirow's works from then on, has been beyond painful. The joyless, monochromatic, dour, collapsing dystopian aesthetic infecting works even like Appleseed that is the polar opposite of that.

On a side note, I just got in a copy of the GitS manga. I haven't read through it in full, in decades. I made the mistake of lending out my Dark Horse copy to a friend to borrow/read and never got it back. I'm very excited to read through it again so be able to make a comparison with the new show in a few months.
 
I'm not crying at the Road to Gundam 50th special animation short A Boy and Gundam,
YOU'RE crying at the Road to Gundam 50th special animation short A Boy and Gundam.
 
Tomm Guycot said:
I'm not crying at the Road to Gundam 50th special animation short A Boy and Gundam,
YOU'RE crying at the Road to Gundam 50th special animation short A Boy and Gundam.
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To anyone who doesn't immediately understand this reference:

This is a short film released this morning celebrating the (three years from now) 50th Anniversary of Mobile Suit Gundam.

I personally think it's a very cute short, gorgeously animated, but I can't help but look at it with deep cynicism lol
 
My coworker and I had plans to see Gundam Hathaway 2 in theaters so I threw out the idea of ever finishing Double Zeta and was suddenly drowning in Gundam again.

Char's Counterattack - It's the goat for a reason. Had a Japanese-speaking colleague explain Char's ridiculous "Mother to me" line and now I've been relocalizing it in my head and depressing myself. But a great action-packed finale for original Gundam (the first finale of many)

Beltorchika's Children - Anime ja nai (manga no koto sa) - better than Counterattack. Disappointed the inciting incident of Hathaway is so glossed over.

Unicorn (OAV) - I liked it! I think it really condenses the essence of Gundam is a smaller package than 50 eps of a series. Interesting political stuff, great action (mostly saved for the tail end). If you ignore the character names it's top tier.

Hathaway - Really interesting new vibes for Gundam. The mix of animation styles doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. Even my wife (who is very bothered by quirky animation - even Spiderverse, Mutant Mayhem, etc) was engaged. The dark scenes are VERY dark and all the action scenes are at night, which is a bit frustrating.

Hathaway: The Fantabulous Emancipation of Witch Circe - As the movie opens I realize every MGS after 4 was just Kojima remixing the Hathaway novels. More solid down-to-earth (literally) Gundam stuff, and then a final sequence that is BONKERS. Why not mix in three more animation styles for fun? High point: first-person Bright slap.
 
Tomm Guycot said:
My coworker and I had plans to see Gundam Hathaway 2 in theaters so I threw out the idea of ever finishing Double Zeta and was suddenly drowning in Gundam again.
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IMO you ditched the best Gundam you listed lol. Glad you've enjoyed everything else though, and I get it, getting through 50 episodes of anything can be a slog.

I watched Hathaway 2 last weekend with some friends. I really don't have much if any positive things to say about it.

I think to me, the most interesting/amusing thing about the film is just how discordant and outright inappropriate the advertising for the film has been from Bandai. That's including all of the western pop songs that feel just completely out of place with the tone and themes of the film and feels slapped on.

It really feels like Bandai saw the recent wave high profile, huge success anime films and set their most out-of-touch boomers to task trying to make this film into the next Demon Slayer or Your Name or something. I believe a Gundam movie could do gangbusters if they played their cards right. But they've got a 2/7 in hand and are acting like they've got pocket rockets. It's kind of embarrassing.
 
WisteriaHysteria said:
IMO you ditched the best Gundam you listed lol. Glad you've enjoyed everything else though, and I get it, getting through 50 episodes of anything can be a slog.

I watched Hathaway 2 last weekend with some friends. I really don't have much if any positive things to say about it.

I think to me, the most interesting/amusing thing about the film is just how discordant and outright inappropriate the advertising for the film has been from Bandai. That's including all of the western pop songs that feel just completely out of place with the tone and themes of the film and feels slapped on.

It really feels like Bandai saw the recent wave high profile, huge success anime films and set their most out-of-touch boomers to task trying to make this film into the next Demon Slayer or Your Name or something. I believe a Gundam movie could do gangbusters if they played their cards right. But they've got a 2/7 in hand and are acting like they've got pocket rockets. It's kind of embarrassing.
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I think Hathaway is a VERY specific un-Gundam Gundam movie (and the mobile suits in it look stupid imo) so it's odd to lean in so hard, like you've said.
 
Oh, I forgot to mention: the best part of that Boy and Gundam short is the part where the 1st gen Gundam fan is watching G Gundam with his kid, and he's got the most perplexed, possibly annoyed face, and the kid is just juiced and happy. Which to me is probably the most honest and self-aware moment in the short.
 
Oh, the new season of Dorohedoro is only 11 episodes. Of course, ending on a big cliffhanger. Season 3 is announced but man, I hope it isn't like the 6 year wait between seasons last time because boy, did they not help me remember the eventful first season.

Also, I'll be really happy if they don't bring back En. He was a fun character and all but I was really kind of done with him and though it is strongly implying he will return to life, I would be just as happy ending with the cast that remains.

Good season and based on my memory, I think it looks better than the last season. And I liked the animation in season one but I feel like the 3D animation and 2D looks a little more smooth in it's meshing here.
 
Oh huh, didn’t know more of that was out - I remember enjoying the first season, but yeah, I could barely tell you the first thing about the plot.
 
I'm really enjoying the show Nippon Sangoku. The story that's being told is essentially just an adaptation of Three Kingdoms, but set in a future post-apocalypse Japan. And it's this fascinating blend of influences from Chinese and Japanese history. And then they blend those influences with novel little reminders that this is in the future with references to contemporary Japanese history and pop culture being treated like Europeans in the Middle Ages looking back fondly on the majesty and heights of the Roman Empire. Or having these armies marching like a medieval army, but they're wearing modern jackets along dilapidated highways. It's great for a history buff like me, but the intrigue, drama, and master strategy moves being done by the various factions are all enthralling on their own and worth watching in itself.
 
United States and Canada folks: Gkids will be screening classic 1999 film Adolescence of Utena in theaters on June 21 and June 22.

You don't need to be familiar with the television series to understand the film, although the series is available for free on Youtube.
 
Pity they didn't keep the original title, Revolutionary Girl Utena: Adolescence Apocalypse.

Anyway, the movie barely manages to hold itself together in terms of plot and concepts, but it's friggin' gorgeous and generally awesome, I'll see if I can manage to make it out to a showing...
 
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