Author Topic: General Anime Talk/Reviews  (Read 44237 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #100 on: July 07, 2020, 05:31:07 PM »
Erased and Dr. Stone are two I have heard of before. I'll look into them. I've seen Steins;Gate but it didn't do much for me.

I've reviewed every episode of FMA: Brotherhood in this thread if you want to go back and read along although obviously there are spoilers! The index thread should have a link to each post.

FLYmeatwad

  • An Acronym
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28785
  • I am trying to impress myself. I have yet to do it
    • Processed Grass
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #101 on: July 07, 2020, 07:18:28 PM »
About to start Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, but Devilman Crybaby is also great and is also Yuasa. FLY, of course, highly recommends Beastars on Netflix, I blasted through that one.

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #102 on: July 23, 2020, 11:01:49 AM »
Also recently finished the baseball anime Ace of the Diamond and the basketball anime Kuroko's Basketball. Didn't really care for the latter, but I really warmed up to the former and its love for the game.

pixote

I just wrote 2500 words on CROSS GAME (available soon?), another baseball anime, and used those two shows to beat up on! Maybe I owe ACE OF THE THE DIAMOND another chance.

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #103 on: July 23, 2020, 01:49:59 PM »
Stick around, roujin. There will be more anime reviews soon!

Eric/E.T.

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3830
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #104 on: July 23, 2020, 08:39:08 PM »
The Erased manga is my favorite manga. The live action show on Netflix is not bad, either. Never saw the anime, but you have a list that'd take me until retirement to finish.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

colonel_mexico

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1416
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #105 on: July 26, 2020, 03:44:38 PM »
DEATHNOTE - This was an intriguing adventure, one that took away from some of my bar prep, haha. I liked the premise, though immediately I found myself unsure if there were any 'good' characters in this show.  Ryuk is such a fun creature, but also very scary (I was very intrigued to see Willem Dafoe played in what appears to be a terrible live action version).  Once L makes his way into the show as the direct adversary of Light the show gets really good, every episode that fear of who is going to get who.  When it does finally climax I felt the show was a little more empty than it could have been had L remained around.  His awkward social coupled with a high intelligence made for a really interesting character.  The chips scene was pretty funny too and I am glad the show wrapped up the way it did, even if it was slightly obvious and a bit drug out.  The animation is great and I love all the strange creatures from the world of the dead, though we get very limited experiences outside of Ryuk and Rem. Very interesting, strong recommend.
"What do you want me to do draw you a picture?! Spell it out?! Don't ever ask me, as long as you live don't ever ask me more!"

colonel_mexico

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1416
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #106 on: July 27, 2020, 03:03:42 PM »
TENSURA - I loved the introduction to this series, as if an entire whole other life (and show) created as if just an episode--that time I got reincarnated as a slime.  The character building is quite good of Rimuru and his innocence/naivete makes for a fun character who is creating a world that strives for varying levels of equality. There is some locker room humor and male gaze (still dominant in a lot anime), but I do like some of the non-binary gender roles Rimuru takes that are very non-traditional. Generally the show is fun battling anime where Rimuru is always trying to get stronger, but does a bit more learning on the way.  The Kijin Benimaru is probably the coolest character in the show and a personal favorite, maybe a future Halloween costume!? Ha!

BERSERK (2016 series) - I hear the manga is way more intense than the show and this way critically panned because of the CGI animations.  This story follows from the film(s) released in the late 90s, showing a demon marked Guts (our protagonist) who is trying to pick up the few remaining pieces of his life after the cruel fate from the films.  The battles are just as intense as the film, though I can see why some people disliked the clunky CGI of this 3D series, vs the 2D animations that made the movie and earlier 90s series much more popular.  The sound effects are also pretty generic. Still I love the themes of the "religious" embodied in Mozgus who is the epitome of evil using the name of God to bring fanatical righteousness to the people.  The battles are epic, but this is not for the average anime fan, it can be very gruesome, but Guts is the right man for the job and a lot of fun to see him escape seemingly overwhelming odds.  Sadly the series was cut short so after Guts has finally assembled a sort of family to help him take on the evils in the world, we are left sort of unsure of what will come next.  Hopefully the major issues will be worked out if they go forward. 

Next up COWBOY BEBOP (a revisit) and ONE PIECE (an anime I've heard not to miss out on).
"What do you want me to do draw you a picture?! Spell it out?! Don't ever ask me, as long as you live don't ever ask me more!"

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #107 on: August 04, 2020, 08:24:03 AM »
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency 10-15

Note: Season 1 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is made up of two parts, the second of which is called Battle Tendency and starts with episode 10. The first part is called Phantom Blood.



10 New York’s Jojo

It is the 1930s and Joseph Joestar, grandson of Jonathan Joestar, is visiting New York. While Jonathan is long dead, Joseph’s grandmother Erina is still alive and keeps him in line. Jojo gets in an altercation with the police when a street child named Smokey steals his wallet. Meanwhile, Speedwagon discovers a stone pillar full of the masks that gave Dio his power from Phantom Blood. Straizo takes the mask and takes it upon himself to kill Jojo who he believes is the only person who can stop him.

The new Jojo is a brash smart aleck who is quick to fight at the slightest provocation. He’s not as self-serious as his grandfather, often using his humor to distract or diffuse a situation. These attributes make him a bit more endearing as a character to follow. He’s not as stuffy and melodramatic as his grandfather, making the humor of the show a lot more overt when absurd situations happen.

Speaking over the top, the show is extremely violent. Blood is shed liberally with lots of fountains of red in this episode. Broken bones and teeth are also featured. Jojo also knows Hamoun but doesn’t have any formal training with it meaning somehow he ends up using it without having full control over it. Sadly, this gets dropped rather quickly by the show as it could have been an interesting conflict for Jojo as he struggles with a power beyond his control.

One of the big draws of the show is its flashy, distinct style. The show is colorful and filled with lots of striking posing and framing. The framing for many shots uses comic book frame effects with actual frames within the frame. Add in the sound effect text appearing on the screen and it’s a show that leans heavily into its manga roots.



11 The Game Master

Straizo’s attempt to ambush Jojo resulted in Jojo unloading a tommy gun into an occupied cafe. Straizo is now a vampire and declares he plans on realizing Dio’s full potential and killing the Joestars. The two fight over the course of the episode and Straizo teases that there is a bigger threat known as the Pillar Man before Jojo kills him. Then there’s a look at the secret lab in Mexico where the Nazis have taken the pillar Speedwagon discovered and are studying it.

There’s a lot to unpack this episode. First, I’m surprised how quickly Straizo is introduced only to be swept away for a new villain. After Phantom Blood built up a great villain for the entire story arc, it is strange to introduce a villain one episode and throw him away the next. However, to tease future things to come, this will quickly become the norm.

A problematic element of this show is its treatment of women. Jojo threatens to French kiss a woman for being hysterical in the cafe he just demolished. First off, screaming seems a natural reaction to seeing someone shoot up an entire cafe. Second, sexually assaulting someone for that behavior is disgusting. Some may dismiss it as the casual misogyny of the time, but it quickly becomes a pattern of the show, especially later in the episode when Straizo uses a female bystander as a hostage and Jojo calls her a derogatory term. It’s a bluff, but the woman at least berates him afterwards for being an asshole.

Sadly, I wonder if Jojo is going to get away with this behavior because of how charming he is. He has this knack to know what people are going to say or do next and he calls them out on it when it adds to the absurdity of the show.

There’s a point in the cafe fight where each opponent has some feign within feign within feign that it becomes hilariously complicated in the matter of a minute. It’s as if somehow each person has seen the oddball move the other had planned months in advance and had enough time to come up with an extremely specific counter.

The show does have some animation problems. There are lots of shots of people holding poses with little to no articulation. It has very few frames of actual animation when compared to other anime. That being said, its use of stylistic backgrounds and a poppy color pallet go a long way to making the entire experience more palatable. It reminds me of Andy Warhol’s signature color pallet.



12 The Pillar Man

Jojo encounters Nazi assassin Donovan on the way to the secret lab in Mexico. From Donovan he discovers that Speedwagon is alive in the German lab as a prisoner of Stroheim, a Nazi officer. Stroheim awakens the pillar man and names him Santana. They test him and it turns out Santana can eat people and he also contorts his body to escape through the vents.

It’s a staple of a lot of anime for people to declare or say what is happening which can be a bit much and a lot of this episode is the Nazi soldiers exclaiming exactally what the audience is seeing. Maybe it’s supposed to be funny, but it quickly becomes tedious here and is mostly filler for the episode as it extends a lot of moments that could have been told much more quickly and efficiently.
This episode is intriguing for how it slowly evolves Santana’s abilities through the episode. He initially shows little intelligence but the more he observes human behavior, the more he quickly picks up new actions to do and begins mimicking them. It makes him come across as this alien threat whose true capabilities are unknown.

Once again I have to bring up the problematic treatment of women here. There’s a short scene in which a couple of creepy Nazi guards grope women while patting them down and also force the women to expose themselves. Then Jojo shows up disguised as a cross-dresser. Of course the disguise doesn’t work but the way the cross-dressing is presented feels icky. It’s a scene that easily could have been Jojo sneaking past the guards or trying to pass off as a Nazi but instead it’s a gag at the expense of women.



13 Jojo vs. The Ultimate Lifeform

Jojo faces down Santana in the lab as Stroheim and Speedwagon watch. Jojo’s elite tactic is to behave foolishly, jumping around and saying nonsense. His theory is that Santana is simply emulating human behavior and if Jojo acts silly, Santana will follow suit. However, this ends up not being the case and a fight ensues. It’s also revealed that the Nazis have secured another pillar.

Lack of results with diplomatic silliness means that Jojo reverts to the ways of Hamon. A long fight ensues in which Santana has a number of nasty biological tricks up his sleeve. His skin appears impervious to Hamon, he is able to phase through bodies, and tendrils jut out of his body to ensnare his prey to be absorbed through his skin like a blob.

There are little freeze frames that sometimes explain what just happened as well as the occasional clunky line declaring what the audience is seeing but it’s a bit of a smoother episode than the last one in this regard. I’m sure most people are not coming to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure for the writing but it sometimes gets in the way of the stylish action.

The episode ends with Stroheim proving himself to be a hero by not only asking Jojo to cut off his leg so he can crawl to the door and let sunlight turn Santana into stone but he also then sacrifices himself when Santana phases inside his body to avoid the sunlight. Why does this Nazi gotta be so brave? Of all the unlikely heroes, this is a bit of a curveball but it certainly doesn’t condone Nazi ideology, it just gives this Nazi a bit of a redemption story, albeit one condensed into two episodes. This show loves introducing characters one episode and killing them off the next episode.



14 Ultimate Warriors From Ancient Times

Speedwagon takes Santana’s frozen body to Washington DC to be kept dormant under UV light. Then Speedwagon and Jojo head for Rome to meet the grandson of Zeppeli. While eating at the hotel, a casanova type is working over a lady and when Jojo tries to sabotage his advances, he discovers the man is none other than Caesar Zeppeli, his would-be trainer. Off to a bad start, the two quickly fight and Caesar concludes that Jojo is irresponsible and arrogant, not worthy of his family name and will only get in the way of Caesar’s quest to destroy the masks.

It’s clear that they ran out of budget making this episode because there is a sequence where still images are drawn of a number of locations and panned over with the classic Ken Burns effect. This does happen in some animes with big establishing shots but here they are almost all medium shots and stand out like a sore thumb.

Luckily, the budget for this episode went into a well choreographed and interesting fight. There’s a neat bubble effect which shows off a new use of Hamon. Meanwhile the mythos evolves more as more of the nature of the pillar men and the masks are revealed. When the new baddie finally makes his entrance, it’s an epic moment.

The introduction of Caesar reintroduces the problematic depiction of women in this show. Women exist primarily as sexually desirable objects for Caesar, which is compounded when Caesar grabs a random woman off the street and gives her a Hamon kiss. What is a Hamon kiss? It’s a kiss so powerful that it makes someone do your will and gives them super strength. In this case, fight Jojo for Caesar. It’s got a rapey undertone to it and the continual mistreatment of women is pushing me close to my breaking point with this series.

Lots of anime contain sexualized depictions of women but those women tend to have agency and relevance to the plot (joke not intended). Here they are literally treated like objects and it’s only getting worse as the show continues. Besides Jojo’s grandma who is in a couple of scenes of the first episode, every speaking female in this show is treated first and foremost as a sexual object.



15 A Hero’s Proof

The new ancient entity known as Wamuu ignores the presence of the mortals until Caesar fights him with his Hamon Bubble Launcher. Really? Bubbles? Even Caesar can’t match him in battle. Jojo challenges him, using a trick boomerang to land one hit and tries to distract Wamuu so that Speedwagon and Caesar can escape. We learn that the Pillar Men are searching for the Red Stone of Aja and Jojo convinces Wamuu to spare him by proposing a rematch in 33 days time when he can be properly trained in the ways of Hamon.

A lot of what I have to say about this episode is a rehash of previous episodes. There’s lots of characters saying their intentions and actions, lots of posing for fights, lots of dramatic declarations and I’m still not completely won over by it. The animation is flashy and switches to a more old school comic book color scheme and fits well into Jojo’s colorful world.

By this point, Jojo has solidified himself as a likable protagonist. He’s cocky and arrogant, but also goofy and disarming. He’s not as self-serious as his grandfather and often uses humor and his quick wits to get out of situations. He initially comes off as moronic, but it’s all a guise for a man of deeper thoughts. Jojo talks his way out of being killed by a seemingly immortal being by appealing to the being’s arrogance shows that he’s using his brains as much as his brawn.

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #108 on: August 20, 2020, 08:47:27 AM »
Girls' Last Tour 1-6

1 Starry Sky/War

Two girls ride a Kettenkrad through the ruins of a war-torn city in a nondescript time. Chito drives the Kettenkrad while Yuuri is responsible for the firearm they carry as well as eating the food. Yuuri is the more impulsive of the two, often given over to her feelings and whims while Chito takes the time to think through the situation.

As a high-concept, this works for a number of reasons. First, experiencing the aftermath of war from the perspective of the children allows it to pontificate on the senselessness of war while also rooting it in basic human behavior. Yuuri asks Chito about what war is and doesn’t quite understand it until they reach the last piece of their ration pack and can’t decide who gets it.

The undefined location and the setting after the war gives the story a chance to focus more on atmosphere while meandering through the aftermath of battles instead of engaging in the thrilling spectacle of most animes about war. It’s more pensive and quiet, soaking in the calm after the storm and trying to make sense of why this entire city is now in ruins.

Like most anime I end up watching, after the first episode I’m left feeling conflicted about the art style. Much of the look is realistic and grimy with a heavy industrial and post-WWII reconstruction look. However, Chito and Yuuri are drawn in the Kawai style as these cutesy girls you might see in a more comedic anime. There are comedy elements here, and so far it’s a show you could watch with kids, but that juxtaposition of the childlike against the realistic on a purely visual level is jarring.

2 Bath/Journal/Laundry

You know this is an anime because there’s a bath episode. Before you get your mind in the gutter, remember these are prepubescent girls and this isn’t like the typical anime bath episode with sexual humor and innuendos. It’s played up as a straight, relaxing bath. Then they travel more and Chito and Yuuri have a fight about a book when Yuuri uses it for fuel for the fire. The next day is laundry day and they encounter a fish which they decide to eat.

Girl’s Last Tour vibes as this meandering story through the remnants of destruction. There’s interpersonal conflict between the characters from time to time but for the most part this is a show about following these characters doing mundane, everyday things: bathing, sitting around a fire, sleeping, doing laundry, and eating. It’s a survival tale, but not bleak in tone. If anything, it revels in the simple sensations and pleasures of a hot bath or a warm meal and marvels at how simply meeting one's basic needs can elevate one's spirit.

The decision to break up each episode into tiny vignettes give Girls’ Last Tour a great sense of tempo. The show is made up of simple moments and ideas structured more like poems than narratives. Each piece is a sensation or an action taking six to eight minutes to complete. Then it flows into the next poem. There are larger questions that the show might one day address, but the show has no particular urgency about answering questions about the world or giving the viewer a larger plot thread.

This episode features snow for a bit and there’s a small moment that perfectly captures the feel of this show. Yuuri builds a snowman from the snow and for the nose she uses a bullet. In the eyes of a child, a tool for destruction has become a creative plaything. The natural snow from the heavens mixed with the industrial tool of man’s crafted plans for destruction mingle into a happy snowman.

3 Encounter/City/Streetlights

Chito and Yuuri, driven by the taste for fish meat, move deeper into the city to try to find the source of the fish. Along the way they come to a chasm they can’t pass until they stumble into Kanazawa demolishing a building to make a bridge to reach the other side. The girls are wary of him at first but then offer him a ride as he explains his desire to map out the city.

Kanazawa’s presence directly forces the two girls to think about the point of existence. Kanazawa is driven by a desire to map the city. It gives him a purpose and a life goal that drives him forward every day and gives him a sense of progress. The two girls are simply surviving and getting by. Yuuri seems untroubled by this and doesn’t particularly think she needs a reason to  go on at the moment.

This episode also gives more background to the city. The girls discover that there are layers to this city as they take an elevator up to the next level. Kanazawa also makes allusions to the technology that works being old, giving us the sense that technology has regressed in the wake of the war.

The show takes a dark, existential turn and ponders what humanity is when stripped of any purpose or goal. Why go on? We are all going to die anyway. It’s the goofy Yuuri that provides the most poignant answer in the end, giving a moment for both the characters and audience to ponder what it looks like to go on in a world as bleak and barren as the one in Girls’ Last Tour. It’s a relentlessly hopeful show in the face of hopelessness. It’s the anime version of The Road.

4 Photograph/Temple

At the end of the last episode, Kanazawa gave the girls his camera. Yuuri takes photos on the camera as they drive through the ruins of the city, particularly fascinated by mysterious stone statues throughout the city. Eventually, the girls come upon a temple and Chito explains to Yuuri the idea of a god and worship.

The use of photography in this episode is an interesting bit of musing about how the photograph will outlive us all. Similar to a couple of episodes earlier where Chito uses a journal to chronicle their journey, the photograph is a way to mark their passage of time through the world. In a landscape almost devoid of people, these last vestiges of record-keeping may be the only way to pass on information.

The temple sequence serves a couple of interesting functions. First, it provides a gorgeous set and a moment of reflection for the two girls as they take in the majesty of the temple. Second, it gives them a moment to muse about god. Yuuri muses if Chito is a god but then Chito says gods require food offerings. Yuuri thinks that is taking the god idea too far as no god is worthy of giving up her precious food.

Overall, this episode is a nice balance of playful and cute moments contrasted against deeper musings about the nature of what life is like in this world. It’s a good respite from the existential feeling of the previous episode and continues to get good mileage between the core differences between Yuuri and Chito.

5 Home/Nap/The Sound of Rain

The girls discover an apartment building and dream up their ideal home together. They then take a nap and Chito has a crazy dream involving a giant fish Yurri eating her. They venture onward and get caught in the rain. Seeking shelter from the downpour, the two take the time to stop and listen to the sound of the raindrops against various surfaces.

This episode demonstrates so much of what makes the medium of animation so special. The first section explores how easy it is to bring the world of imagination to life as the two girls conjure up furniture and fixings for their dream homes. Likewise, the dream sequence deals with the bizarre logic of dreams in a way that works much better in animation than it would in live-action.

The rain looks fantastic. For whatever reason, anime has a preoccupation with rain and I love it. This vignette elevates the animation so much by being preoccupied with the sound of rain, adding a real sense of depth and impact to the rain here as the girls play around with the kinds of sound rain can make when hitting different materials.

After a couple of episodes musing about existence, this episode is all about emanating chill vibes and it’s a relaxing and laid-back experience. One of the strengths of this show is its disinterest in an overarching plot and an exploration of tiny life moments in this interesting world. It’s a series of memorable moments and experiences that are closer to how we experience life even if the setting is fantastical. 

6 Accident/Technology/Takeoff

After chill vibes, this episode grinds to a halt as the Kettenkrad breaks down and Chito finds herself hopelessly trying to repair it. The girls meet another stranger, a woman named Ishii who says she has the materials to help fix the Kettenkrad she will give them if they do a favor for her. Ishii takes the girls to a hanger full of old planes and tasks them with helping her fix one so she can fly it to another nearby city.

Here we get another glimpse into the world that suggests that this is indeed a technological regression back into 1940s era technology. The plane being built is of that era and the fact Ishii has parts to fix the Kettenkrad suggest that those parts are what people tend to use to maintain what technology still works.

The more I think of the setting, the more I see it as Japan dealing with the trauma of World War II and the sense in which their country could have honestly become an apocalyptic land stuck in the ‘40s. The complete obliteration of the city and the sense that time is frozen in a place when Japan had its most traumatic experience (the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) suggests a struggle to survive in a specific moment in time even as the show keeps its timeline vague.

In spite of that, Girls’ Last Tour continues to be a show about having hope in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation. The episode starts with the two girls groaning about how it’s hopeless that they will be able to fix their Kettenkrad and yet the possibility of flight breaks into view give them a sense of hope that there might be a way to rise above their situation. Likewise, Ishii holds out hope to reach the other city even as the odds are stacked against her. The persistence of hope in the midst of hopelessness is what makes Girls’ Last Tour uplifting.

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: Sam Watches Anime
« Reply #109 on: August 20, 2020, 03:47:51 PM »
Can I piggy back here to post my thoughts about all the anime that I've been watching?  It's been quite a bit, my daughter is dragging me in...
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky