anime

[Twig]

 

The implication I'm getting, partly from the way the world's developed, and partly from (the often notoriously misleading)credits is actually a bit different (Speculation below)

That the 'in game' characters exist at least to some extent (maybe even completely) independantly of their human owners

 

 

Huh, that's an interesting take. Not sure I see how you got there, but hey! I like the idea, though I am also concerned that IT could fall apart just as spectacularly.

[Codicier]

Huh, that's an interesting take. Not sure I see how you got there, but hey! I like the idea, though I am also concerned that IT could fall apart just as spectacularly.

I'll try to elaborate a bit on why I think that but obviously as with any such speculation it's a personal reaction to certain things (which obviously resonates more with me because those things seemed significant to me).

1. The Art style differentiation can be seen as having narrative significance, ie: it put a emphasis on the difference between real world and in game. Possibly implying that not only does the same person look different they ARE different.

2. The Memory loss of things from their former life that happens upon death in the game world, this suggests either we have a game able to rewrite a organic brain OR maybe a personality that is held within a computer independent of a organic owner.

3. We see 2 in game characters seemingly relatively unphased by (maybe even happy about) their deaths in some sort of 'afterlife' type environment , while what seems to be the real world owner of one of them laments his failure (in the real world).

Simply put I've always thought the idea of someone's brain being replicated or a simulacrum of someone personally built with their data leading to them (one way or the other) effectively being imported into a game is in a weird way a far more plausible sci-fi premise than them getting stuck for a long time and no one IRL being able to do anything about it.

Which is one of the reasons I took to this show with its ambiguity about what may or have may not happened, far more than sword art online.

[Ozzie]

So far I've been watching four episodes of Terror in Resonance/Zankyo no Terror. I'm glad somebody pointed out that Watanabe was the director of it, because I would never have figured. I'm actually quite puzzled by that. Terror in Resonance seems unlike any of the works I otherwise know him by.

I'm still not sure why I should particular care about the story the anime tells, or maybe more accurately, about any of the characters. There doesn't seem to be any lead protagonist in the anime. The motivation of the Sphinx guys remains unclear, and I'm not sure why the audience is left in the dark about it. I have the feeling it's spared for some shocking reveal, which might turn out to be trite. I'm not left in anticipation, though, more in confusion.

Also, was I the only one exasperated by how long the police officers needed to figure out the first riddle? I mean, it's only one of the oldest and well known riddles around. Maybe it's not as well known in Japan, though...at least I hadn't heard the alternative version of it before.

There don't appear to be any causalities to the terror acts so far, at least not shown?

Overall, the anime is entertaining enough so far.

 

At times though I catched myself not paying so much attention to the story as to the music. The music of the anime is spectacular! It's the first time I downloaded the soundtrack to an anime, it's that good. So, screw the anime, listen to the music!

 

Here's the extended ending theme:

[N1njaSquirrel]

Yeah, I watched all of Zankyou no Terror, feeling the same way. Most of your gripes are explained in the plot though. I hadn't heard of the first riddle though, so I'm guessing it's not that common.

 

Also I really disliked the opening and ending song. I skipped them every time.

 

Anyways, I watched Amagi Brilliant Park. It's about a guy who's asked to be the manager of a run-down theme park where the people in it are magical, and they have to get 250,000 people to come to the park in the next 3 months or it closed down, which then means that everyone dies - Including love interest 1 and 2! It's actually pretty good, and I enjoyed it a lot. Animation is as good as you'd expect from Kyoto animation, and the main protagonist is an understandable ass, if that makes sense. And it's written by the same guy who did Full Metal Panic, who's presumably quite good.

 

It's also weird again that this title hasn't been picked up by either Funimation or Crunchyroll, making it the second big title that's gone unofficially translated this season. I wonder if Netflix got this title too?

[Ozzie]

That first riddle seems as common to me as freaking sliding tile puzzles in adventure games. I must have heard it about a dozen times during my lifetime already, the first time in some cartoon when I was 5 maybe.

Regarding the opening/ending theme: whaa!?? It's the best! It's the main reason why I even start watching another episode! I always let it play out, which I don't let happen with other animes normally.

[Twig]

I never thought I'd meet anyone who didn't know The Sphinx Riddle. Everyone knows the The Sphinx Riddle! That said, wasn't the answer not the usual answer? I thought they did a good job of turning it around from the typical "MAN, MAN IS A BABY THEN AN ADULT THEN AN OLD MAN WITH A CANE" nonsense.

 

Anyway, yeah, everything you asked is answered through the show.

 

I am interested in Amagi Brilliant Park, and also dismayed no one has it...

[Ozzie]

There's an alternative answer to the riddle presented, yeah, which I hadn't heard of before, but even the commonly known one didn't spring to the police officers' minds immediately. Or after a quick google search, no, they had to consult literature on the subject, like it's some obscure fact.

Anyway, thanks for the assurance that questions will be answered. I'll keep watching then. As I said, the anime is entertaining enough, if emotionally rather uninvolving...

[Codicier]

Terror in Resonance/Zankyo no Terror was probably the most disappointing series of last season for me. It felt just completely devoid of anything original, and worst of all the plot felt like a mundane take on Death Note or any other "Genius criminal V's Genius cop" show.

 

 

So far I've been watching four episodes of Terror in Resonance/Zankyo no Terror. I'm glad somebody pointed out that Watanabe was the director of it, because I would never have figured. I'm actually quite puzzled by that. Terror in Resonance seems unlike any of the works I otherwise know him by.

I'm still not sure why I should particular care about the story the anime tells, or maybe more accurately, about any of the characters. 

 

It's discouraging seeing Watanabe outputting such bland stuff again, i don't recognise the director who made Bebop, or Kids on the Slope in any of his output in the last year or so

 

manager of a run-down theme park where the people in it are magical, and they have to get 250,000 people to come to the park in the next 3 months or it closed down, which then means that everyone dies - Including love interest 1 and 2! It's actually pretty good, and I enjoyed it a lot. Animation is as good as you'd expect from Kyoto animation, and the main protagonist is an understandable ass, if that makes sense. And it's written by the same guy who did Full Metal Panic, who's presumably quite good.

 

I wonder if I'd hate FMP if i watched it now, I remember finding it sort of adorably silly at the time but thinking now about it i suspect the 2014 me would find it insufferable. 

[Gormongous]

I wonder if I'd hate FMP if i watched it now, I remember finding it sort of adorably silly at the time but thinking now about it i suspect the 2014 me would find it insufferable. 

 

The comedy bits actually hold up fine, speaking as someone who saw it maybe four years ago? But the romance and global terrorism techno-thriller parts are not distinctive or interesting at all, especially so many years removed.

[N1njaSquirrel]

I never thought I'd meet anyone who didn't know The Sphinx Riddle. Everyone knows the The Sphinx Riddle! That said, wasn't the answer not the usual answer? I thought they did a good job of turning it around from the typical "MAN, MAN IS A BABY THEN AN ADULT THEN AN OLD MAN WITH A CANE" nonsense.

 

Oh that riddle. Ok yeah I knowthat one, I just forgot it was in the anime.

 

I wonder if I'd hate FMP if i watched it now, I remember finding it sort of adorably silly at the time but thinking now about it i suspect the 2014 me would find it insufferable. 

 

I've watched an episode of Fumuffou! and it was pretty funny. I haven't watched FMP.

 

I also discovered that Amagi Brilliant Park has three manga adaptations, a normal manga adaptation, a 4-panel manga, and an online 'anime' manga. why?!?!?!

 

I also checked out Parasyte -the maxim-, which is about a guy who gets an alien (possibly a parasyte?) imbedded into his arm, which then talks to him and stuff happens. I don't really want to spoil it for you, because it has some pretty original ideas in there, and I liked it a lot. It was sufficiently creepy, especially with the creepy animation of the alien hand transforming and mutating. It also didn't do the insufferable thing of wasting an episode with him being confused. It went along at a reasonable pace. The original manga was run in '98. It's weird that a manga series that old has only now gotten an anime (and 2 live action films).

 

Finally shirobako was also good, if not the weakest of what I've watched so far. It's about 5? 4? girls who are in the anime industry. I was expecting it to be totally moe fan service but it wasn't at all (ok, it was a bit, but not to the degree of a KyoAni anime). It was just an interesting, if not a tad unrealistic, look into how anime is created. The car chase was a particular highlight, as it was stupid. It was also animated superbly.

[Twig]

Just watch Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and get all the good stuff at once. (At least that's what I did. I've never watched the proper show.)

[Gormongous]

Okay, this .gif convinced me that Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun deserves to be the next thing I watch:

 

 

KarmaBurn tells me that it and Barakamon are two anime where the male leads are not involved in romance subplots. That is unbelievably attractive to me.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Okay, this .gif convinced me that Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun deserves to be the next thing I watch:

 

 

KarmaBurn tells me that it and Barakamon are two anime where the male leads are not involved in romance subplots. That is unbelievably attractive to me.

 

There are many more reasons than that to watch Nozaki-kun, the show is ace.

 

Also I'm not sure what stipulates 'romance subplots', because the male lead is definitely involved in a romance plot, even if he is unaware of it.

 

Edit: Ugh I just realised I wrote 'stipulates', which makes me sound like an ass. Sorry, I've been having arguments with landlords all weekend.

[Twig]

Using a word doesn't make you sound like an ass.

 

Unless you're using the word "pretentious" to look down on people using words you don't usually see.

 

Anyway, Barakamon is the best why aren't you watching it already, Gor, I'm so disappointed in you.

[Codicier]

There are many more reasons than that to watch Nozaki-kun, the show is ace.

 

Also I'm not sure what stipulates 'romance subplots', because the male lead is definitely involved in a romance plot, even if he is unaware of it.

 

Edit: Ugh I just realised I wrote 'stipulates', which makes me sound like an ass. Sorry, I've been having arguments with landlords all weekend.

 

I was assuming that when Gorm said "romance subplot" he wanted whatever romance the show has to be based on a relationship we see built up deliberately and prominently, and not shoehorned in against the flow of the narrative or ever under threat of it turning into yet another harem when some random supporting character suddenly becoming enamoured with the male lead. 

 

But yes, there is a lot to like about that series, although at times it does tread a fine line between parody and straight up cliché.

Spoiler for the finale

I'm not sure when she finally confesses to him again and fails (again) due to his cluelessness count's as the show staying true to it's central premise (by not going giving people the happy ended a traditional romance might) or is actually just bottling it by leaving it's central couple still in the prolonged holding pattern that so much Japanese romantic animation seems to go down, because god forgive us all if a romance actually goes anywhere

 

Sidenote: that Gif's great 

[Gormongous]

I was assuming that when Gorm said "romance subplot" he wanted whatever romance the show has to be based on a relationship we see built up deliberately and prominently, and not shoehorned in against the flow of the narrative or ever under threat of it turning into yet another harem when some random supporting character suddenly becoming enamoured with the male lead.

 

I was actually just meaning "not involved in a romance subplot" as in "unaware they are involved in a romance subplot, to the point that it has no bearing on their character." My fault for posting at four in the morning.

 

I'm still fighting my way through Honey & Clover, which has only recently risen from "abominable waste of time" to "not sure why I'm watching this." Some of the peripheral characters (well, two of the peripheral women) are interesting, but all the guys are boring and interchangeable, and the central love-object girl is a disgusting moeblob who looks and talks and acts twelve even though we're told over and over that she's eighteen and totally legal. This is an important enough anime in the history of the shoujo genre that I'm going to watch the whole thing, but so far I am thinking that its fame and regard is entirely unjustified.

[Ozzie]

I have to write some more about Terror in Resonance, even though I shouldn't, because it takes me a long time to formulate a post in a somewhat coherent manner. But there's still too much I have to say about it...

 

The anime frustrates often. It could have easily been outstanding at times, were it not for seemingly easily avoidable screwups.

Take for example the scene where one of the boys defuses the bomb that's strapped around the girl. The non-diegetic piece of music that the viewer can hear then is gorgeous and has a piano part that acts like a nervous pulse holding the suspension and constantly reminding that time moves on, and whose harmonies are achingly sad, but also beautiful and hopeful.

The scene would have worked wonderfully if the boy just tried in silence to defuse the bomb, trying to surpress the realization that he won't be able to defuse the bomb in time, growing evermore tense, while the girl at the same time comes to the realization that he won't be able to save her, culminating in the plea that he save himself instead while there's still time for it.

Instead what happens though is that the characters talk too much. He takes breaks from defusing the bomb, letting time go to waste. It seems like he doesn't really try, actually. They have the music there that does all the heavy lifting, and instead of letting it do the talking and otherwise let tension build in silence, the scene is weakened by talking breaks at a moment that has no time for it!

I think this scene could have been an equivalent to the scene in Samurai Champloo where one of the samurais (forgot the name) falls into water and has flashbacks while also a wonderful piano ballad is playing. But noo...

 

It's probably true that Terror in Resonance doesn't offer the most original story in anime history, but I think it offers an interesting subtext at times. Take for example the hyper capable youngster terrorists. Their capability at their young age is an example of a common trope in animes. How many animes are there about high schoolers being experts about, I dunno, whatever? But in Terror in Resonance it's actually not taken for granted. Their expertise is explained. Also, it's contrasted with a girl that due circumstances stays with them for a big part of the story, which doesn't have their capabilities. For reasons she becomes involved, but she doesn't handle the tasks that are given to her particularly well. She's just "normal". Maybe she isn't even that. The anime actually depicts her as incapable of anything, as absolutely useless. At the end I started to pity her. So maybe the subtext doesn't quite work, because she's not portrayed as average, more as incapable of anything as the boys are capable of everything. She stands on the other side of the capability spectrum.
 

One of the boys (was it Nine? let's say it was Nine) becomes romantically involved with her. Why he is attracted to her never becomes understandable. Maybe he wants to have somebody normal around, after a long time almost exclusively together with Twelve? Maybe he wants to care for her for...reasons, because she is alone and lost and he can empathize with that? The anime lets the audience guess about that.

Actually, the anime is frustratingly unclear about many things. Like the whole terrorist plot. It's somewhat explained, but I can't picture the character's emotional journey that leads them to the decision to act out the plan. It's a mystery. The main characters are and remain mysteries. Even after we get to know their back stories, the characters don't seem more sharply defined. The ending would have felt more like a gut punch if I would have cared more about the characters. But while I grew more fond of them, I still felt too great a distance to them, especially since their characterization remained too undefined. I don't think that it was necessary to withhold characterization with withholding the backstory, anyway.

The most interesting aspects about the anime were all subtext, what was made explicit wasn't as interesting to me.

I wish I could say that the anime failed in interesting ways, but for that it wasn't ambitious or unique enough.

It's good enough, I guess. I don't regret watching it, I'm just left frustrated that it wasn't more. It had potential which sometimes was missed by a narrow and at other times by a wide margin. Maybe you'll fall in love with the music if you see it, which I think is good enough a reason to do so. The anime can be quite atmospheric at times, though not particular emotional, because you won't ever care much for the characters. *sigh*

 

Okay, I think now I feel like I have said enough about this.

 

Edit:

 

I'm still fighting my way through Honey & Clover, which has only recently risen from "abominable waste of time" to "not sure why I'm watching this." Some of the peripheral characters (well, two of the peripheral women) are interesting, but all the guys are boring and interchangeable, and the central love-object girl is a disgusting moeblob who looks and talks and acts twelve even though we're told over and over that she's eighteen and totally legal. This is an important enough anime in the history of the shoujo genre that I'm going to watch the whole thing, but so far I am thinking that its fame and regard is entirely unjustified.

 

Oh no, don't start talking about Honey & Clover now!  Speaking of wastes of potential. It gets worse rather than better, especially in regards to the notatall pedophile relationship. It's an anime I love to whine about, though. My friends heard more about it than they ever wanted to.

[Codicier]

I'm still fighting my way through Honey & Clover, which has only recently risen from "abominable waste of time" to "not sure why I'm watching this." Some of the peripheral characters (well, two of the peripheral women) are interesting, but all the guys are boring and interchangeable, and the central love-object girl is a disgusting moeblob who looks and talks and acts twelve even though we're told over and over that she's eighteen and totally legal. This is an important enough anime in the history of the shoujo genre that I'm going to watch the whole thing, but so far I am thinking that its fame and regard is entirely unjustified.

 

 

Oh no, don't start talking about Honey & Clover now!  Speaking of wastes of potential. It gets worse rather than better, especially in regards to the notatall pedophile relationship. It's an anime I love to whine about, though. My friends heard more about it than they ever wanted to.

 

I remember watching H&C a year or two after coming out of uni and although some of the characters in H&C are far from great (particularly Hagu) it really did a number on me in terms of capturing a weird sort of idealised art's uni nostalgia, & captured the whole uncertainty that comes from transitioning from a young person to a actual factual adult.  

[Ozzie]

Oh yeah, H&C can be quite touching and moving, despite all the overbearing exposition/flashbacks and questionable story/character elements. Like I said, waste of potential. :/

 

Is it just me or does this sound for the most part like something Bon Iver would record? (YouTube preview image is spoilerific in regards to Terror in Resonance)

[Twig]

Haha that youtube image preview is quite the spoiler!

[Ozzie]

Oh, ehm, nah, he will be up and running again because of this drink he drank that made him invincible and stuff, the one that this vampire gave him...

yeah okay I'll spoilertag it.

[Codicier]

Ok maybe I over exaggerated the fall of Watanabe because (& believe me I never thought I'd say this) I just watched a legitimately superb episode of Space Dandy.

I'd been putting off watching more of S2 for a while because I'd been so underwhelmed by most of S1, but episode 5 of this 2nd season was legitimately old school bebop good (6 wasn't to shabby either).

[Ozzie]

I dunno if you did, I need to watch more of his work post Samurai Champloo. But in Terror in Resonance I didn't feel the hand of a storytelling master involved.

Well, who knows the reasons for how the animes turned out as they did and who is actually responsible for what. The process of their creation is opaque to us, and I don't want to speculate. But yes, I expected more from an anime with Watanabe's name attached to it.

[namman siggins]

Re-watched one of my favorite animes of all time today: Angel's Egg

 

 

SO beautiful.

 

 

[Twig]

Ok maybe I over exaggerated the fall of Watanabe because (& believe me I never thought I'd say this) I just watched a legitimately superb episode of Space Dandy.

I'd been putting off watching more of S2 for a while because I'd been so underwhelmed by most of S1, but episode 5 of this 2nd season was legitimately old school bebop good (6 wasn't to shabby either).

That's because Space Dandy is secretly incredible even though it wants you to believe otherwise.