Anime and Manga - New Season

[Bartimaeus]

16 minutes ago, Sarex said:

That one is pure nostalgia.

I wanted to like it more, especially as it's one of the very few titles I listed there that is both longer and presented in a nice high definition transfer (contrast that to the "Darkness of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea" OVA that I mentioned liking in the previous post, which was only available on a fairly miserable VHS transfer), but I just didn't really find it clicking for me. Characters weren't very interesting or likeable, and I found myself pretty checked out on the seemingly generic fantasy story from pretty much episode 1. But at least it's finally off my list now after years of being stuck there. Also was good to confirm that the Tenchi Muyou series certainly isn't for me either, so I can strike all of that as well.

Edited Monday at 02:29 PM by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

3 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I wanted to like it more, especially as it's one of the very few titles I listed there that is both longer and presented in a nice high definition transfer (contrast that to the "Darkness of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea" OVA that I mentioned liking in the previous post, which was only available on a fairly miserable VHS transfer), but I just didn't really find it clicking for me. Characters weren't very interesting or likeable, and I found myself pretty checked out on the seemingly generic fantasy story from pretty much episode 1. But at least it's finally off my list now after years of being stuck there.

I would agree with you. My good feelings on it are probably only nostalgia glasses as it's one of the first anime I ever watched. Kind of in the same basket as Vampire Hunter D. I think there is even a series for RoLW... yep, just checked. I kind of remember even at the time it being lesser than the movie.

[Sarex]

For some reason I though there was a movie for it. I must have mixed it up with the OVA. At this point I don't remember which one I liked more. Maybe I dare to rewatch it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

13 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I wanted to like it more, especially as it's one of the very few titles I listed there that is both longer and presented in a nice high definition transfer (contrast that to the "Darkness of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea" OVA that I mentioned liking in the previous post, which was only available on a fairly miserable VHS transfer), but I just didn't really find it clicking for me. Characters weren't very interesting or likeable, and I found myself pretty checked out on the seemingly generic fantasy story from pretty much episode 1. But at least it's finally off my list now after years of being stuck there. Also was good to confirm that the Tenchi Muyou series certainly isn't for me either, so I can strike all of that as well.

 

4 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I wanted to like it more, especially as it's one of the very few titles I listed there that is both longer and presented in a nice high definition transfer (contrast that to the "Darkness of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea" OVA that I mentioned liking in the previous post, which was only available in a pretty bad VHS rip), but I just didn't really find it clicking for me. Characters weren't interesting or likeable to me, and I found myself pretty checked out on the seemingly generic fantasy story from pretty much episode 1.

Oh no, Bartimaeus got sucked into the Black Lodge and now there is a doppelganger.

[Bartimaeus]

12 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Oh no, Bartimaeus got sucked into the Black Lodge and now there is a doppelganger.

The forum has been seriously wigging out for me like the last fifteen minutes - don't know how an earlier version of that post got re-posted like ten minutes after the first. I reported it for deletion.

12 minutes ago, Sarex said:

For some reason I though there was a movie for it. I must have mixed it up with the OVA. At this point I don't remember which one I liked more. Maybe I dare to rewatch it.

There's a 1995 movie, but it's not made by Madhouse and I don't think it has too much resemblance or relevance to the 1990 OVA, at least from what I can tell at a glance. And to my surprise, I apparently already tried the 3-episode 1996 OVA...which I rated even lower at 4.5/10. Whoops.

19 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Kind of in the same basket as Vampire Hunter D

I rather liked Vampire Hunter D - the original, that is. Bloodlust was...more hit and miss for me. Should probably re-watch the original to solidify my feelings about it at some point, though.

Edited Monday at 02:53 PM by Bartimaeus

[Amentep]

Watched LITTLE NEMO: ADVENTURES IN SLUMBERLAND.  Don't think I've seen it since it first came out.  Its a fun collection of vignettes that loosely follow a story about how Nemo has to learn responsibility after allowing the Nightmare King to take over Slumberland due to following his own worst impulses.  Animation varies, but is generally high quality - you can tell that producer Yutaka Fujoka was really trying to create a Japanese animated film with animation as fluid as Disney.  May not hold up as a great narrative, but I can see why it has developed a cult following.

Its also a fascinating behind the scenes story, though.  Its failure led to the retirement of Fujioka who'd founded Tokyo Movie Shinsha and invested in the startup of Madhouse. A veritable whose who worked on it (including Hayao Miyazaki, Isao takahata, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson, Yoshifumi Kondō, Yasuo Ōtsuka, Brad Bird, Kazuhide Tomonaga, John Lasseter, Jerry Rees, Osamu Dezaki, Moebius, Ray Bradbury, Chris Columbus, John Canemaker,  Richard Outten, Gary Kurtz, William Hurtz, Masami Hata, Ken Anderson, Leo Salkin, Brian Froud, the Sherman Brothers); several ideas Miyazaki pitched were used in later Ghibli films and the relationships made during its long production (going back to 1975 when Fujioka began seeking the rights from Winsor McKay's family) led to Japanese animation companies partnering with US companies to make animation for the US market that by the late 80s and 90s had become a regular site on US TV.  And you get great anecdotes like Thomas or Johnson (two of Disney's famed 'nine old men' looking at drawings from Miyazaki and saying "what are they expecting us to teach you?"

As a side note, as a comic strip buff, I remember seeing Capcom's Little Nemo: The Dream Master platformer in 1990 (which I bought because how many Capcom platformers based on turn of the century comic strips were we going to get) and wondering how that happened (since the movie wouldn't come out in the US for 2 more years).

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, I thought Little Nemo was pretty good...a little weaker with narrative and characters than you'd probably prefer for such a big and well-animated title, but it's basically an attempt to be a Disney movie, and if someone watched it as a child, I could definitely see it being a very lovely (albeit maybe confusing) trip down nostalgia lane. Didn't know all the surrounding story about it though - thanks for that. I do remember Miyazaki famously saying it was the worst experience he ever had making a film, but in all fairness, it sounded a bit like developmental hell along with there being way too many cooks in the kitchen while trying to collaborate across the ocean and through a language barrier - none of which would be trivial now, much less then. I thought I'd actually written about watching Little Nemo last summer, but it appears I did not. Whoops, wouldn't be the first time.

Edited Monday at 04:37 PM by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

The forum has been seriously wigging out for me like the last fifteen minutes - don't know how an earlier version of that post got re-posted like ten minutes after the first. I reported it for deletion.

[Amentep]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, I thought Little Nemo was pretty good...a little weaker with narrative and characters than you'd probably prefer for such a big and well-animated title, but it's basically an attempt to be a Disney movie, and if someone watched it as a child, I could definitely see it being a very lovely (albeit maybe confusing) trip down nostalgia lane. Didn't know all the surrounding story about it though - thanks for that. I do remember Miyazaki famously saying it was the worst experience he ever had making a film, but in all fairness, it sounded a bit like developmental hell along with there being way too many cooks in the kitchen while trying to collaborate across the ocean and through a language barrier - none of which would be trivial now, much less then. I thought I'd actually written about watching Little Nemo last summer, but it appears I did not. Whoops, wouldn't be the first time.

Yeah its a fun kids film - the narrative weakness probably won't be an issue when seen as a kid (I have vague memories of showing this to my niece and her enjoying it).

Production was a big mess and the way they divided narrative to the US producers and director and animation to the Japanese director and animators was probably always going to set it up to struggle narratively.  The descriptions of the original Bradbury script seem wrongheaded (admittedly I haven't read all the Nemo strips, but it doesn't sound like a Nemo idea - essentially the antagonist would be Nemo's opposite, Omen) and because the US production had say on the story, Miyazaki's story ideas (some of which were good, some a bit of a headscratcher) were pretty much DOA, which frustrated him immensely.  Gary Kurtz agreed to produce it, but production dragged out so long he got tied up with other projects which slowed things down until he left.  Eventually they used ideas from Chris Columbus' script for the story even though Bradbury get a story credit.

[Gorth]

Split off from previous thread....

 

 

 

Incidentally ran across this interesting take on Dandadan episode 7. About how to do flashbacks in an interesting way and the power of show, don't tell. As well as comparisons to manga panels for the same sequences

 

 

[majestic]

On 11/18/2024 at 3:24 PM, Bartimaeus said:

It's one of the things that I think Sailor Moon in particular usually got right outside of when the show was being more dramatic: when our characters are having just casual conversation between each other, the editing of conversation is appropriately quick and natural, like a live action conversation would be. It's one of the show's better qualities over even something like Cardcaptor Sakura, where dialogue is, a lot of the time, quite a bit slower than it probably should be.

It's funny how many things in Sailor Moon are good because the show only had a shoestring budget and was following a monthly manga. The episodes were pretty streamlined and felt tight because their actual runtime was not that long. Every episode has like 10% stock footage, not counting the opening, so there was much less runtime padding needed in dialogues. The understated and dream-like backdrops were fantastic and the fact that they couldn't follow the harebrained storyline lead to something that came together so nicely. Well, when the show was not revolving around pedophile unicorns with wings.

Also, isn't it funny how a pedophile unicorn with wings is the worst thing the anime did, while for the manga that was just Tuesday?

CCS on the other hand even had a new outfit for Sakura for each episode. I recall reading an interview where CLAMP stated that they wanted her to have more outfits instead of wearing the same costume for every episode, like in older magical girl animes. That extra production time had to come from somewhere.

's complaining on a very high level though. If all anime would be nearly as well written as CCS was I would be doing a lot less complaining.

[Bartimaeus]

I obviously adore Cardcaptor Sakura, that hasn't changed with re-watching it...but I did try to take a little more of a critical eye this time around, and it was interesting to compare against my viewing of Sailor Moon, which was, after all, my very first anime show. For both of them being magical girl shows with nominally many of the same qualities, they have very different strengths...and very different weaknesses. It'll be interesting to re-visit Sailor Moon once the outstanding issues I have with the current offerings resolve themselves, which could unfortunately still be years away at this point. I think Cardcaptor Sakura will always be the more complete experience (probably further aided by the fact that it's a tigther 70 episodes and 2 movies instead of 250 episodes and 3 movies), but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy it more.

And on the subject of Madhouse animated shows, I truly hope that Madhouse's Azuki-chan will someday get English subtitles for the complete series. That's one that will seriously continue to perturb me until it happens, as I'm 99.9 percent confident that I will at least really like it, and there is very precious little of anything across any medium of entertainment that I feel 99.9% confident about really liking.

Edited Tuesday at 08:08 PM by Bartimaeus