Was watching Brothers Conflict when it suddenly turned into Utena for around 30 seconds.
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god this is so gorgeous
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I keep saying it but lupin part 4 and 5 were unbelievably great, nostalgic and modern, a total gift I didn’t hear enough about until I watched them
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Lupin III 6 is really interesting to me as “older” anime fans love it, diehard Lupin fans hate it and newer anime fans think it’s whatever
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I was mixed-to-negative on it after 4 and 5, it’s a big step down from the syncretic, accessible ambition of those two
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5 had the better plot while 6 had the better standalones, glad oshii got to live out his dream in a severely truncated form after being fired from Babylon
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I like that they were so ambitious with the standalone episodes. I don’t think it worked that well with the way they tried to carry the overarching plot or the changed production style
Given how much the series has recycled and cannibalised itself over the past five decades from its source material which is no-one’s reason for being why the show is so well liked in the first place the cheapness of it never bothered me, and the london stuff especially in the first half is about what I hoped for while the second goes into twists dumb enough to make anyone smile.
Anyway speaking of LUPIN THE THIRDRD, the website for Koike’s project’s being updated now. Rumours point to that Zenigata movie he said he’d make after his Jigen/Goemon/Fujiko films
I watched Pompo the Cinephile a few days ago, mostly on a whim I guess because it looked colourful and fun. It’s about a perpetually stressed looking guy who works as an assistant for a moeblob little girl who is a producer of sleazy B Movies, and then lands the role of director for an Oscar bait prestige film written by said moeblob.
I’d say it was mostly an enjoyable film based on the fun characters and presentation, even if the constant over the top scene transitions and montages grate a little.
It’s definitely a very fluffy, sanitised depiction of film making though. The entire film shoot is shown to go ahead with almost no problems, with the zero experience director managing to come up with on the fly improvisations and inspiration that everyone agrees is genius. Most of the drama comes how the director is going to mold the story to fit his creative vision in the editing process.
The part where they face financial issues and get help from the director’s highschool friend who is now an investment banker was totally groan-worthy though. I have no real idea how big studio movies get their funding or how investment bankers do things, but I feel like it probably wouldn’t involve coercing the higher-ups by revealing the meeting is being livestreamed without their knowledge and setting up a kickstarter (all played out to a generic youtube advertisement inspirational music track)
The resolution of the film also felt like it was leading up to something more interesting but failed to follow through with it. Earlier on they establish that filmmaking is a collaborative effort and everyone is chipping in their ideas and interpretations etc. Then during editing it becomes more like the director is mercilessly chasing his own personal vision at the expense of everything else. He cuts out a whole bunch of the lead actress’s key scenes (this film is meant to be her big break). Basically it felt like it was building up to him turning the movie into some bloated, expensive, pretentious Terrence Mallick-esque flop and learning some valuable lessons to take on board for the future, but nope turns out he’s a genius and they all win multiple oscars.
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hey this feels like a good spot to plug the Shirobako movie which, while still presenting the kind-of sanitized version of anime production the show did, is still relatively bleak (I’d argue the antagonist of the movie is the concept of production committees)
probably the best bit is how at the beginning, you find out season 2 of the girly air squad show they made is being handled by another studio and got turned into a blatant fanservice show in the process. very big “that’s life” energy
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lycoris recoil please don;t fuck up
also a certain scientific railgun is pretty good, cant wait for that to crash and burn ruining my enjoyment of season 1
i just watched the madox-01 bluray. i’ve never seen it before, but this is exactly the kind of stuff i used to rent from royal videos as a kid, and the stuff that made me love anime.
also, it has maybe the most incredible animation of machines i’ve ever seen? and of course, it looks beautiful on bluray.
i clearly need to track down more of animeigo’s discs, they’re releasing the good shit
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I’ve lost track of how many times One Piece has made me ugly-sob. Jesus.
That said, I’m currently on the Fish-Man Island arc and am ready for it to be over. I hated Arlong and this dude is just, like, a worse Arlong! Get outta here!
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I’m about 500 episodes behind you and having a great time. It’s pretty cool how it operates like a Dragon Quest VII show. I had to switch from a Latin dub to a Spain dub, and most characters are worse for it, but at least Usopp is bearable. I’m taking it about an episode a day, so I guess I’ll be done in about three years lol.
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Oh wow, I can’t imagine watching the anime, given how many episodes there are. I’m just tearing through the manga.
It’s great. There’s an orchestral soundtrack and sometimes the characters make Hanna-Barbera sound effects.
It’s not fair to the anime, it’s been years, the company is dead and buried, and yet I struggle with considering the anime because, well.
I did watch…I wanna say Strong World? Can’t remember anything from it but I recall enjoying it.
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Oh yeah, the 4kids cut is all kinds of messed up. At least there are some funny quirks to it, like Sanji ashing his lollipop.
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arguably the worst arc from the new world portion of the story, which is a shame because the like three important pieces of information in it are all amazing (fisher tiger 
)
PLEASE tell me you’re watching one pace or some other no-filler cut, at the very least