Belladonna of Sadness packaging artwork discussion

Ferensviel

Ferensviel

Dandy Guy, in Space
I've been looking forward to Belladonna of Sadness for absolutely ages, and I'm so excited that this release date seems to be the real one. The collectors edition looks lovely, especially the art cards and the amaray case. Only thing I'm slightly disappointed by is the slipcover art, it's not particularly beautiful, I'm sure it'll grow on me though. it's just with such colourful and stunning art I would have expected something along these lines (I really hope we get the first image as an artcard at least):

Belladonna-of-Sadness_poster_goldposter_com_5.jpg large_large_iuFY2iuSKBEfCbbIBG4aiS249wg.jpg 13747_5.jpg
 
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I mean, it's not really my thing either but if you compare it to the generic af little anime girl artwork for Charlotte above it it looks pretty good, at least it's interesting anyway. :p
 
I must say, the putting random "cute" girl who's not the MC on the front cover thing is starting to tire me.

Do ****** "cute" girls really increase sales that much? :(
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
I dunno, I think that Charlotte art is gorgeous.
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I'm shocked by this news Lemon, SHOCKED! :p The character design does nothing for me, looks like every other little anime girl, but hey, different strokes and all that. I do like how clean the spine is, so there's that I suppose...

Buzz201 said:
Do ****** "cute" girls really increase sales that much? :(
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I often wonder such things, personally I know nothing about the show and that image just screams to me that the show isn't for me, which to be fair it probably isn't for me.

*After a quick google it actually sounds rather interesting.....

Buzz201 said:
I think the real question is why both discs are labelled Episodes 1-7? How very confusing... :p
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Ones the BD and ones the DVD.
 
Buzzkillington said:
I often wonder such things, personally I know nothing about the show and that image just screams to me that the show isn't for me, which to be fair it probably isn't for me.

*After a quick google it actually sounds rather interesting.....


Ones the BD and ones the DVD.
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The Eva 1.11 cover art really annoys me. Why is it not Shinji? (And why have you just put Manga's CE in a digipack and chipboard box?)

That was a joke. Clearly it was not well delivered. :(
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
I'm not sure you could describe any of the art as beautiful, really. Dunno if it's just not my thing, but it kinda looks crap...
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Hmm can't agree with you here I'm afraid, it's definitely highly stylised and will not be to everyone's tastes, but calling it 'crap' is a bit reductive. I personally love the style, which has been hugely influenced by western art, Art Nouveau specifically (namely Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt, and Aubrey Beardsley, all my favourites). Like another user mentioned, I also find the Charlotte art style to be dull and uninspired, but would never describe it as 'crap' just because it doesn't appeal to me.
 
Ferensviel said:
Hmm can't agree with you here I'm afraid, it's definitely highly stylised and will not be to everyone's tastes, but calling it 'crap' is a bit reductive. I personally love the style, which has been hugely influenced by western art, Art Nouveau specifically (namely Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt, and Aubrey Beardsley, all my favourites). Like another user mentioned, I also find the Charlotte art style to be dull and uninspired, but would never describe it as 'crap' just because it doesn't appeal to me.
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It just seems to me like it's trying too hard to appeal to the hipster crowd. Belladonna of Sadness just gives me this vibe that it's only going to be liked by a bunch of pretentious people...
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
It just seems to me like it's trying too hard to appeal to the hipster crowd. Belladonna of Sadness just gives me this vibe that it's only going to be liked by a bunch of pretentious people...
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Very weird and reductive line of thinking. I'm pretty sure people say the same thing about the Monogatari series...
 
I don't think it's trying to appeal to the mainstream. Though back in it's day, prog rock was big...

Personally, I think Belladonna's art is gorgeous. It's probably the film's biggest appeal; it's style really sets it apart from anime of its time and not many films have managed to match it since. Maybe Oshii's Angel's Egg and Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. There certainly won't be much market crossover with those buying Prison School, but all those David Lynch fans hyped for Twin Peaks S3? I could see them digging it.
 
Yami said:
I don't think it's trying to appeal to the mainstream. Though back in it's day, prog rock was big...

Personally, I think Belladonna's art is gorgeous. It's probably the film's biggest appeal; it's style really sets it apart from anime of its time and not many films have managed to match it since. Maybe Oshii's Angel's Egg and Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. There certainly won't be much market crossover with those buying Prison School, but all those David Lynch fans hyped for Twin Peaks S3? I could see them digging it.
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I mean, it is unique, I just think it's ugly too. Maybe that's the point? I'm not sure, I just despise artsy crap that seems to appeal to the kind of audience it's going for.
 
I take umbrage with the fact that you consider said people to be pretentious and hipsters not with the notion that it won't appeal to the mainstream, a stance that I agree with. The fact that you feel that way with anything that deviates from the norm makes me sad. Shows like Tatami Galaxy and the Monogatari series fall within this line.
 
qaiz said:
I take umbrage with the fact that you consider said people to be pretentious and hipsters not with the notion that it won't appeal to the mainstream, a stance that I agree with. The fact that you feel that way with anything that deviates from the norm makes me sad. Shows like Tatami Galaxy and the Monogatari series fall within this line.
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It's more the fact that the people who like this sort of thing have a kind of elitism about them, as if liking some obscure 70s art piece makes them better than people who like K-On or something. It just really pisses me off.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
It's more the fact that the people who like this sort of thing have a kind of elitism about them, as if liking some obscure 70s art piece makes them better than people who like K-On or something. It just really pisses me off.
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Although I feel that that statement is aimed at me, I nevertheless would like to see these so called people that you speak of because I think that a lot of it is in your head, you need to relax and stop being so negative! Those kinds of people always exist, you shouldn't think too much about said people and you shouldn't let such people cloud your view on things. "I don't watch Anime because anime fans are weird" is also a thought that a lot of "normal" people have in case you didn't realize. Anime and its fans are stigmatized and the medium is viewed as something that is indulged by man-children and people with no social life but I don't let that preconceived notion stop me from enjoying the wonderful world of japanimation because doing so would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Good movie are good my dude, whether it was released in 1973 or 2017.
 
Belladonna just looks weird and the trailer is rather trippy (it the 70's after all). Not my thing at all. It also screems hipster, im sure its a good film in its own right.

Nice design for Charlotte but is far down my purchase list and at its not a £50 series for me.
 
To be fair Belladonna probably does appeal to hipsters quite a bit, but the artwork is absolutely beautiful and very striking! The fact that it's sort of ugly at the same time is (in my opinion as a non-film-critic) one of the core themes of the story in the first place. The ugliness of humanity really comes out in the movie even with the decadent, highly stylised artwork; I don't think I can say that I 'liked' it but watching it was certainly a riveting experience.

Also in the group of people who like that kind of illustration a million times more than samey doe-eyed schoolgirls staring out from the covers of most releases.

R
 
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