Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

Between that review I wrote a year ago and those podcasts I just put out, I should hope that this is the last I have to say about Eva 2.0. For now.

This isn’t going to be long, either. I simply want to say one thing that I’ve neglected to mention thus far, and that is: What happened to movies like these? Like, anime movies. Upon multiple viewings, I can say with some certainty now that Eva 2.0 isn’t the perfect, polished gem that I thought it was walking out of that theater in Ikebukuro on opening day, but it’s still an excellent film. It’s excellent because it is exactly what got me into anime in the first place. Yeah, I was one of those 10-year-olds in the late-90s/early 2000s who got into anime via Pokemon and Dragonball, but it was the big spectacles secured my interest in the medium. You know, them big crazy anime movies they used to make. While my tastes have matured to the point where I enjoy works that may be a touch more laid back, a movie like Evangelion 2.0 really does well to ignite a fire in my soul.

I mean, it doesn’t really take much. When I break it down, the things that blow me away in this movie are purely on a directorial and technical level. Take the final scene for example, which is really what drove it all home for me. It’s a wonderful mix of extreme, creative and beautiful imagery, along with a really acute attention to establishing tone through acting and music. Shinji hacking his way through various planes of existence while his skin gets torn off, NERV personnel spouting off exposition dramatically while looking on in horror, and the Eva doing her best Devilman impression, all matched to a rousing rendition of Tsubasa wo Kudasai. The way everything just culminates in that final scene is really mind blowing, especially the first time around.

But while I say it doesn’t really take much, I seem to remember seeing a number of other works trying their hardest to nail scenes like this, but they all fall flat. Maybe it’s just my imagination. But what I’m trying to say here–in hopefully under 500 words–is that this movie owns hard, and why don’t other anime movies own this hard? I mean, Tokikake owns really hard, but not in the same way. Is there just no market for crazy movies like these? Does the next masterpiece on the level of End of Evangelion just have to be Evangelion again? I mean, I guess there’s Gundam Unicorn… but wait, that’s Gundam.

Maybe the strengths of those franchises enables these works to occupy the godly realm that they do. I don’t know. But what do know is that I want crazy, big-budget action movies again. Actually, not even action. What I want is more super natural.

I mean, I guess I can just watch End of Evangelion again. I do finally have this lovely R2 rip, after all.

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Lineart is really weak. Tried to cover it with lots of textures and shading, and it shows.  Uhh, not sure if I’m actually allowed to sample those patterns. They’re traditional Japanese patterns, so it should be okay, right??

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The spoilerfic show! We do cover more technical information, but we really start to dig deep into the movie after that. What gems do we unearth? Eh, not much really. But it’s fun!

Guests

• Aaron Clark
• WELCOME TO BONERTOWN

Songs

• Opening Song– “Tsubasa wo Kudasai” by ~The Lovely Evangelion Girls~
• Ending Song– “Koi no Kisetsu” by Kon Yokou and Pinky & Killers

The more astute of you may have noticed that in the preview for the upcoming summer 2010 anime season, any sort of production by studio SHAFT is mysteriously absent. I can’t tell you why exactly, as my main source for inside information on the company has gone silent–probably at the hands of SHAFT special agents–but I do have my suspicions.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the quality of some SHAFT works has been lacking lately. I’m not even talking about things like story or direction. I’m simply talking about animation quality, at least for now. I’ll touch on direction at the end.

SHAFT is known for shoestring productions–it’s their modus operandi–but I’m under the impression that the issue now is simply a lack of man power. Take a look at SHAFT works from around 2007, 2008 and maybe 2009. Those first couple of episodes of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are pretty animated. Like, things actually move around a lot; for a SHAFT show, anyway. Similarly, in Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou sensei, there’s three fully animated episodes that look really great. On the sunnier side of things, Hidamari Sketch x365 had some uncharacteristically active episodes as well. There was also that killer opening for one of those Negima OVAs.

And there was something in that boring ef cartoon.

But yeah, while recent offerings have tried to make ends meet, it’s no secret that Dance in the Vampire Bund needs some cosmetic help, Bakemonogatari still isn’t done a year later, and that SHAFT was commissioned to do an opening for a TV show, and only has this to show for it so far. Given what I know, I can only really attribute this to the aforementioned lack of man power. SHAFT has lost two of their main partner studios, and from what I hear they’ve been losing some personnel. I’m not sure about that last one, but they are always hiring.

So, they’re taking a break. Rather, they’re not making any shows right now so they can work on completely re-animating Vampire Bund (Blu-Ray vol 2 has some sweet CG fish, and apparently subsequent volumes will be completely re-worked, according to Tamaki Nozomu.) and finishing off Bakemonogatari. Hopefully they can pick up some more staff in that time, too.

And honestly? I think SHAFT does need a break. I feel that a lot of their earlier works with Shinbo were all distinct and independent of each other, while still sharing the same directorial quirks. However, I feel that lately they’ve fallen into a pattern. Yes, there are tons of Shinbo hallmarks in these newer works, and I still find them entertaining. However, upon popping in an episode of Cossette, one can see how different a true Shinbo work is from one where a director under him is simply trying his best to imitate.

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We talk about Eva 2.22! This is a spoiler-free show that mostly covers the technical aspects of the movie, so I guess it’s kind of boring? Especially since I’m not an animation expert?? Good thing Aaron and Bonertown know things. Part II will cover more spoilerific details, so look out for it in a few days!

Some things mentioned in the show:

• Shameless Eva advertisements
• The NERV bucket
• The Evangelion humidifier

Guests

• Aaron Clark
• WELCOME TO BONERTOWN

Songs

• Opening Song– “Mellow 2009″ by Sagisu Shiro
• Ending Song– “Furimukanaide” by The Peanuts

Alright guys, here’s the story: I got wrapped up in a thing that I want to leave as a surprise for now, but for it to go anywhere I need to conduct some quick and dirty research. Since I have a readership and a comments field at my disposal, I figure I may as well use them.

So basically, I’m asking you guys for opinions. Specifically–as mentioned in the title of this post–your opinions on works by anime director extraordinaire Shinbo Akiyuki. I don’t need much. Just one or two paragraphs if you can.

Also, if some of you can drop a few names of any other communities where you feel I’ll get good responses, that would be great.

Thanks!

I guess this has spoilers.

I am not as allergic to works by Maeda Jun as some others can be. I can’t say I’m fan of his work,  but I do appreciate what he does some of the time. To recap a bit, Kyoto Animation’s Air, despite at times no making sense, hit hard with raw emotional force. Their adaptation of Kanon, being longer and more polished, also did well to pull at my heart strings, even if I didn’t care for how it ended. Clannad was a bit of a misstep, this time being  far too long and far too much of a re-hash. It was a solid production, put lacked the kind of highs the previous two works had.

Angel Beats, unlike those above-mentioned works, is not in fact animated by Kyoto Animation or an adaptation. It’s instead animated by P.A. Works and an original story. As far as I can tell, it’s penned by Maeda himself, rather than being another person’s interpretation of his work. Suffices to say, it’s a little different from the rest.

Before I lavish bits of praise upon the show, let me get the things I don’t like out of the way first. The character designs, despite having grown on me, are incredibly generic and unadventurous. They should take a page from SHAFT, who while only adapting character designs from manga or light novels, manage to make the most interesting looking characters out there these days. I also think there are too many characters, so many of them just come off as one-note gags. And not in the good Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei way.

However, those complaints have all become trivial now, as the show has some fairly strong story and humour elements that keep me relatively entertained. Maeda is usually content to just smother the audience in sob story after sob story, and that’ll be the whole story, but Angel Beats takes things a bit further. Since the characters are already dead, it would be lame for the show just to concentrate on why they all died, though that is a part of it. What drives the show–or drove it, I should say–to this point was an underlying sense of mystery.

I shifted into the past tense because in episode nine (the most recent one as of this writing) brought to light the truth behind a couple of unresolved matters, such as just why these dead people are being sent back to highschool (They had unfulfilled youths.) as well as Otonashi’s mysterious past before he died!

The former is what really kept things interesting between the moments of (mostly) well executed humour and questionable offensives by the SSS-Dan. The latter didn’t really nag you as much as the setting did, simply because they didn’t mention Otonashi’s amnesia all that much, but it hits pretty hard. I think the first half of Otonashi’s story, which focuses around his sick sister, is probably Maeda at his finest. Call me a sap, but I enjoy seeing characters being pushed to the edge by an unrelenting force, even if that unrelenting force is a magical dying girl. It’s kind of silly, but I choked up inside. It’s how I like it. The second half–the subway story–was a bit too far fetched for me, but Otonashi dying right as the rescue crews come in was a nice touch.

With some of the main threads taken care of, along with Otonashi teaming up with Angel/Tenshi/Kanade to help bring the rest of the SSS-dan to rest, the show is gearing up to conclude. The problem is, the prospect of Otonashi and Kanade trying to bring everyone to rest by having them spill their sob stories sounds pretty lame, so I hope Maeda has something really cool up his sleeve.

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I like it I guess? Probably bad.

If we lived in a perfect world, SHAFT and Shinbo Akiyuki would make shows that all centered around lolita characters in all manner of situations ranging from comedic to deadly serious. What they actually produce tends to be just as good, so I don’t make too much noise about it. But they do have off days.

I really liked Arakwa Under the Bridge when it first started. I wasn’t expecting to like it–since it didn’t fall into the criteria that I outlined above–but I was thoroughly impressed by the first three episodes. The composition of those episodes, along with their unique directorial nuances, really hearkened back to classic Shinbo work, while at the same time incorporating a lot of the directorial tricks SHAFT has amassed over the years. The humour was also wonderfully absurd and bizarre, putting a gigantic smile on my face. Underscoring all of this was a message that encouraged eccentricity, a message that’s wonderfully apropos considering the people behind the production of the show.

And while not completely related to all of that, I did find the character designs to be refreshing. I realize that this contradicts my first paragraph, but it is refreshing to see a show in which most of the characters are adults.

But things changed at around episode four. Like with most anime, the quality of the production tends to go down a little once the staff gets into the rhythm of the show. I don’t mind this, as it’s inevitable. So long as the script is remains solid and there is at least some effort on the part of the staff to make the show look half as interesting as it did for those opening episodes, I am content.

However, Arakawa has moved away from the bizarre humour that defined its first couple of episodes and has instead gone to a weird place. The humour now seems more reliant on the denizens of the bridge acting hostile towards Ko/Recruit, and Ko/Recruit not learning from his mistakes (even though it seemed as if he was learning earlier on in the show.) I’m probably asking too much of a gag anime, but there was a good amount of heart in those first few episodes that’s absent in these later ones, never mind the fact that the show isn’t as SHAFTy as I want it to be. I feel what they’re doing right now is fine in small chunks. If it’s sprinkled between portions of pure strangeness (see: Nino and Recruit’s date,) I feel that makes for good balance. But when entire episodes revolve around people who unanimously don’t really like this one guy, it’s too much negative energy for me. To that end, the latest episode (episode seven) was something of a return to form.

I still like the show. It’s certainly not bad, but when one takes the quality of those opening episodes into account, the rest falls in the realm of Maria†Holic-quality SHAFT productions.

SHAFT has been slipping a bit lately. They put on a fairly good show with Bakemonogatari, and the third season of Hidamari Sketch was my favourite of all of them, but it seems that lately they’re short of ideas and short of people. I do like the Vampire Bund anime somewhat, but I  am holding out hope that its home video release will be a lot better. Arakawa actually manages to look extremely consistent seven episodes in, which is a feat for most anime, and especially difficult for a studio like SHAFT, staffed with something on the order of twenty people. My guess is that since Arakawa is probably something of a mainstream property, they’re getting a lot of support in making the show look good, while at the same time keeping their strangeness down to a minimum. Which is pretty weird, considering the show is about a bunch of weirdos…

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So yeah, here’s a comic after a month of inactivity due to me more or less finishing my last semester in college. I have one summer course after this, but honestly? I don’t even care anymore. I’d write more about this comic–this comic about PORN–if I hadn’t already expended all my writing energy writing about porn just now. I’m not especially proud of this comic actually, but it’s what I need to do to get me going. The next comic is a little better. I think.

I watched Otaku no Video the other day with a group of people, and each time I watch it, I’m struck by how rich in culture it is. I am also struck by how unqualified I am to write anything smart about it. I know there’s a whole story there–a story beyond just what we see on the screen–as I read some of it in the Nontenki Memoirs, but I’m sure there’s some great analysis of the show out there that has been written for decades that I haven’t read yet. So, if anyone knows if things like that exist, drop a line. It’d be great if they were written by someone like Carl Horn…

And that’s all. See ya’ll next week. I hope.