The animation in the new Trigun joint is really nice. I kinda think there’s actually not enough humor. Or what attempts they make kinda don’t work. The tonal whiplash worked better in the original.
I do like the way they remixed Monev the Gale, unless this is somehow more true to the manga and I just don’t know about it.
I’m hanging in there with Trigun, cause I want to like it. Not really enjoying it, though.
It’s really plowing through major plot beats at an extremely fast rate, which I don’t love. I’m also not a big fan of the big reveals so early - part of the appeal of the original Trigun was the idea that Vash could just either be extremely lucky, or an extremely talented normal guy, and you sort of came to understand what his deal was over a long series of encounters.
In this version, you know his backstory and importance right off the bat, and you also know that he can shoot bullets out of the air with ease. So he’s established as a superpowered, supernatural character, and both Meryl and The Old both understand he is skilled and kind, rather than slowly arriving at that conclusion. Don’t love that.
Also been a pretty big bummer so far. I don’t remember the original being nearly this dire.
It does look surprisingly decent for a CG show, though. Great work on the expressions.
Anyways, I checked out a few Best-Ofs-of-2022 and the only one that I ended up liking was Kaina of the Great Snow Sea. It’s a Tsutomu Nihei show, so, it’s got a cool-ass world, but it’s CG. So far, it’s good.
The new Bleach thing is also great eye candy that has a very whatever plot, at least based on the first episode.
i never finished the manga but i am tempted to watch anyway. . .maybe in a few years. i miss my teenage obsession so much but i’ve kinda sworn off shounen unless it’s really homoerotic or something
OH MY???
probably won’t mean anything to anyone who already knows where to watch an*me, but still, this is pretty neat.
started watching yamato re: the above and these lovely sharp remasters where you can see how crude the celwork really was are doing it
this needs to come back
I watched the 4K HDR’s of the Galaxy Express films and played this part from Adieu like 50 times
watching sailor moon crystal and feel dumb to only realize at the first mention of immortality that the crystal is like an elixir. i’ve known her name translates “moon rabbit” for the same 19 years i’ve known the myth
the show is paced better than the saiban dub but i am no expert
I started watching Sailor Moon for the first time. I’m watching the more recent dub that doesn’t cut episodes. So far, it’s a one gal show. I appreciate that Usagi is explicitly kind of dumb, but that doesn’t stop her from being capable in other ways. It’s funny how she’s never the first person to get in on a trend, which actually helps her to avoid the initial energy sapping that comes. The romantic play of Usagi dreaming about Tuxedo Mask, while getting dunked on by a tall, suspiciously familiar brunette is good stuff.
I’m weirdly looking forward to this a lot
by comparison in episode 10 of crystal the core five have assembled and are going to the moon. brisk!
The show really hits its stride in Sailor Moon R and then the next season S is the absolute peak of all Sailor Moon IMO, so I usually recommend newcomers start by watching R and S.
Sailor Moon is a bit like Star Trek TNG in that it’s above all about a friend crew hanging out together, so the vibe is better when the gang is already fully assembled. And then it keeps introducing even more sailors which sounds on paper like the show is jumping the shark, but it’s actually more interesting than introducing characters obviously predestined to be Usagi’s next BFF. That way they can have varying ages and lifestyles, different motives and a sometimes testy co-opetitive relationship with the gang.
I noticed the series director changes with R. I’ve seen an episode directed by who would become the series lead and it felt more inspired. The plot was an odd change from the norm, focusing on a specific character’s problem instead of some sensational fad. It also had some interesting angles and cuts during a high speed car ride. I’m looking forward to how it all develops!
Early series Moon/Mars/Mercury combo is my favorite dynamic. Series probably couldn’t go as long as it did with just them though.
Recently Youtube started recommending me some animated Chinese TV series called Jade Dynasty, and since my recs on there have become a bit of a dumpster fire lately I decided to give it a shot, intending to only really use it to pass 20 minutes or so while I ate dinner. Somehow I ended up watching the entire 8 episodes of the 2 hour video, and then basically binge watched the whole 24 episode series over the next few days.
I dunno if I could call it ‘great’, but I guess I found it engaging enough to be interested to see where the plot was going. It’s fairly typical xianxia immortal cultivation stuff with all the tropes, with the tone veering wildly from slapstick antics to serious drama and tragedy. It’s adapted from a novel and you can tell they’re trying to really cram the whole story in there, as there’s a lot of characters and plot threads that get introduced early on who feel like they get sidelined or not fully developed. It tries to establish something of a love pentagon, but it doesn’t really work because only 2 of the girls have any real connection to the main dude.
One thing I found funny was it felt like it spent the first set of episodes setting up the JRPG party that would set out on the main quest, only they almost immediately get separated and then it goes on to establish another JRPG party, who also then get separated and so on and so on. There’s even what feels like a fairly lengthy detour into a sidequest.
Animation-wise it’s fairly average. As still shots it looks pretty good, but things like facial movements are extremely stiff and unnatural looking. Action scenes are actually generally well done (and they probably make up like 60% of the runtime), but most of them kind of devolve into inexplicable magical nonsense. It mostly ends up looking a lot like a cutscene compilation for a Sword and Fairy knock-off.
It feels like I’m being mostly negative on this show, and honestly I can’t think of much to say in the positive, but still somehow I found it overall to be decently enjoyable. I guess you could say it’s the Chinese equivalent of a shonen anime, fairly middle road comfort food stuff. It ends with what seems like a cliffhanger for a second season, so I guess I’ll probably be watching that too. Youtube has since been recommending tons of other Chinese animations, pretty surprised that so many of them actually have english subtitles (but most of them kind of look like trash).
i think chinese media companies have seen the popularity of korean and japanese tv in english-speaking countries and they want in. there’s a bunch of chinese youtube channels with subtitled t shows and movies, and there’s also a lot of chinese tv shows on amazon prime, too.
i’ve watched a few episodes of something called douluo continent that’s like a magic boarding school story, but with cultivation instead of western magic and it’s pretty decent lowbrow entertainment. it’s not a cartoon though.
I think me watching sailor moon was one of the earliest instances I can remember of my parents worrying I was gay. there were some politely ventured questions along the lines of “why exactly are you watching this” and because at the time I lacked the context to explain to my father that I mostly just liked the show’s structure and I probably would’ve watched any super sentai thing but this is what we got, I instead claimed that I wanted to fuck sailor moon. which might’ve been traumatic if I didn’t, but I think I more or less subsequently persuaded myself that I actually did, seemed easier. basically a happy ending there.
