deactivated
Hunter
The start of the second series aint too bad, but it ends up being a total trainwreak.
Stick with it though, the ending is unmissable.
Stick with it though, the ending is unmissable.
Rate the last anime you watched out of 10
- Thread starter Aion
- Start date
Kuroki_Kaze said:Hey sorry about the double post. Not entirely sure how I pulled that one off. Goes to show you how unused to posting on forums I really am! Glad the Code Geass anime is raising some talk.
I have to admit I hunted down the first couple of episodes of the second season over the interent as I had to find out what the heck happened at the end of the first and did find that it was a little werid the way it started one year later. However even if the second series turns out not to be as good as the first I gotta find out the conclusion to all the chaos!
The ending is epic. Srsly. You want to see it.
Aion
Time-Traveller
L/R - 6/10
This series tried so hard to be smart and cool, yet only managed to be confusing and mildly entertaining. The pacing was off right from the word go because it opened with a bland episode involving the spy duo stopping an old man selling a fake item connected to the the royal family, the reason being to avoid bringing shame on the royalty of Ishtar - a country modeled on the UK, the exciting country where every spy lives, as all James Bond fans know. Not exactly the best way to kick-off what I had expected to be a flashy and fun little series.
The people in charge really did think they were making something stylish. An example is that whenever possible, one of the spy duo gets asked which of the two is L and which is R, and the question is always avoided. Who gives a damn? Why should the viewers care about the initial a pair of underdeveloped characters go by? Instead of throwing in lines like those, dialogue of significance should've been put in.
When the series wasn't focusing on episodic stuff of no importance whatsoever, the main plot was busy letting me down. It was never clear exactly what was going on because the episodes tended to start after the point where explanations should've been inserted, but the basic jist of it was this (spoilers): a 15 year old princess had lived her life not knowing about herself, she finds out, she reveals that her father (the prince) hadn't tried to kill his brother when she makes a speech to the public, she fakes her death under overly dramaric circumstances...and the series ended. It could've been decent but the confusion caused by the lack of explanations and the way the good guys fooled the public into thinking the baddies had tried to kill her (a mask) ruined it. Attempts and adding depth by making a simple story confusing never work out too well.
The worst part of the series? The lack of any character development. Near to nothing was revealed about the spy duo - not even one flashback was used to add depth. Plenty of time was wasted on pointless one-shot stories, yet no episodes could be spared for the unimportant business of getting viewers to care about the main characters. It was like watching Cowboy Bebop without understanding the reasoning behind Spike's almost arrogrant looking smile.
Overall, not a great series. It's something anime fans shouldn't go out of their way to watch. If you're looking for a series with lots of exciting action (not L/R) and SOME character development (not L/R), go for Black Lagoon instead. At least you'd have some hot pants and a tight arse to look at if you watched that instead!
NieA 7 - 8.5/10
A diamond in the rough. For a series with such a lowly average on MAL, it's surprisingly good. It's reminiscent of Haibane Renmei because of its slow, dialogue heavy and relaxing style.
After watching the first volume, I wasn't too taken with it. It started off reasonably well, showing the struggles of a very believable young woman, Mayuko, as she tries to survive with little money and, at the same time, studies to get into college. But my interest levels dropped as soon as it was revealed that an alien, NieA, lived in Mayuko's closet, eating some of her food and causing her trouble. My interest continued to decrease as more cartoony aliens got involved and the usual anime silliness ensued.
Why did this bother me, you ask? Because NieA 7 didn't need an alien living in a closet and attempting to build a UFO. The highly enjoyable and realistic slice of life elements were, from my perspective, getting damaged by the random slapstick comedy elements. I can see and fully understand one of the reasons for the involvement of carefree NieA - to show the contrast between stressed Mayuko, trying her best to survive, and NieA, an alien so carefree that she comes across as thoughtless - but I feel the main reason was to take the anime away from the realm of the real. The thinking probably was that most viewers want to use anime to escape, and that if the story was too realistic it would've taken away from the enjoyment. This sort of thing is viewed as a negative by me because I like to see some anime that contain believable stories.
The good news for people like me is that after the mixed opening volume the series started to focus more and more on realism and less on anime insanity. Rather than having a UFO blow a hole through the roof and the like for giggles, the second volume had an episode where an arcade gaming competition was used for laughs, involving the staff at the bathouse where Mayuko lives and works playing against a small army of kids. I found it funny because it wasn't over the top; because it tried to be real. In my the eyes, the best kind of comedy is the kind I can imagine happening in the land of the real - not just on some nutyy planet on the other side of the galaxy.
After the first volume, there were also a lot of episodes that focused on the serious sections of the story without resorting to slapstick humour in an attempt to brighten up the mood randomly. My favourite depressing episode is probably the one where Mayuko gets invited to a 'Go-Con' (basically random group dating) and eventually decides against going because she doesn't have any nice clothes to wear and can't afford to have her hair cut. Simple, I know, but the feelings and thoughts Mayuko had during that episode are the kind many people have over the course of their lives and it was effective on an emotional level because of that. Slice of life is at its best when it allows you to go into the shoes of the characters and feel how they feel, and Niea 7 achieves this on a number of occasions.
Really, the reason Niea 7 is so endearing is because the cast, aliens aside, come across as real people. Mayuko struggles to get by and lacks a goal to work towards; the owner of the bathouse attempts to handle two jobs in order to keep the bathouse running, despite it bringing her debt, because of her ties to the people who work there; Genzo, the shy guy with a crush on Mayuko because of her helping him when they were kids, tries to help Mayuko by bringing her rice, yet struggles to express his feelings for her...etc, etc. It's very easy to get into the heads of the cast and see things from their points if view, and that's what makes NieA 7 a fantastic series to spend time watching.
The message of NieA 7 is to live life to the full, instead of worrying about everything constantly. Life flies by very quickly and there's little joy to be had if everything is always too difficult. That's why Mayuko is envious of NieA for being so carefree, like nothing can bother her. As Mayuko lives with NieA, she understands how it feels to be 'free', and I'm sure the objective of the series when it was created was to make the viewers feel the same way as Mayuko.
Watching the series is a relaxing, occasionaly depressive and mostly fun ride - a journey worth the time of any bored anime fan looking to unearth a gem. Do I recommend the series? Providing you can handle lots of talking and little in the way of action, yes. It's a charming series that fans of Haibane Renmei and its ilk will lap up.
This series tried so hard to be smart and cool, yet only managed to be confusing and mildly entertaining. The pacing was off right from the word go because it opened with a bland episode involving the spy duo stopping an old man selling a fake item connected to the the royal family, the reason being to avoid bringing shame on the royalty of Ishtar - a country modeled on the UK, the exciting country where every spy lives, as all James Bond fans know. Not exactly the best way to kick-off what I had expected to be a flashy and fun little series.
The people in charge really did think they were making something stylish. An example is that whenever possible, one of the spy duo gets asked which of the two is L and which is R, and the question is always avoided. Who gives a damn? Why should the viewers care about the initial a pair of underdeveloped characters go by? Instead of throwing in lines like those, dialogue of significance should've been put in.
When the series wasn't focusing on episodic stuff of no importance whatsoever, the main plot was busy letting me down. It was never clear exactly what was going on because the episodes tended to start after the point where explanations should've been inserted, but the basic jist of it was this (spoilers): a 15 year old princess had lived her life not knowing about herself, she finds out, she reveals that her father (the prince) hadn't tried to kill his brother when she makes a speech to the public, she fakes her death under overly dramaric circumstances...and the series ended. It could've been decent but the confusion caused by the lack of explanations and the way the good guys fooled the public into thinking the baddies had tried to kill her (a mask) ruined it. Attempts and adding depth by making a simple story confusing never work out too well.
The worst part of the series? The lack of any character development. Near to nothing was revealed about the spy duo - not even one flashback was used to add depth. Plenty of time was wasted on pointless one-shot stories, yet no episodes could be spared for the unimportant business of getting viewers to care about the main characters. It was like watching Cowboy Bebop without understanding the reasoning behind Spike's almost arrogrant looking smile.
Overall, not a great series. It's something anime fans shouldn't go out of their way to watch. If you're looking for a series with lots of exciting action (not L/R) and SOME character development (not L/R), go for Black Lagoon instead. At least you'd have some hot pants and a tight arse to look at if you watched that instead!
NieA 7 - 8.5/10
A diamond in the rough. For a series with such a lowly average on MAL, it's surprisingly good. It's reminiscent of Haibane Renmei because of its slow, dialogue heavy and relaxing style.
After watching the first volume, I wasn't too taken with it. It started off reasonably well, showing the struggles of a very believable young woman, Mayuko, as she tries to survive with little money and, at the same time, studies to get into college. But my interest levels dropped as soon as it was revealed that an alien, NieA, lived in Mayuko's closet, eating some of her food and causing her trouble. My interest continued to decrease as more cartoony aliens got involved and the usual anime silliness ensued.
Why did this bother me, you ask? Because NieA 7 didn't need an alien living in a closet and attempting to build a UFO. The highly enjoyable and realistic slice of life elements were, from my perspective, getting damaged by the random slapstick comedy elements. I can see and fully understand one of the reasons for the involvement of carefree NieA - to show the contrast between stressed Mayuko, trying her best to survive, and NieA, an alien so carefree that she comes across as thoughtless - but I feel the main reason was to take the anime away from the realm of the real. The thinking probably was that most viewers want to use anime to escape, and that if the story was too realistic it would've taken away from the enjoyment. This sort of thing is viewed as a negative by me because I like to see some anime that contain believable stories.
The good news for people like me is that after the mixed opening volume the series started to focus more and more on realism and less on anime insanity. Rather than having a UFO blow a hole through the roof and the like for giggles, the second volume had an episode where an arcade gaming competition was used for laughs, involving the staff at the bathouse where Mayuko lives and works playing against a small army of kids. I found it funny because it wasn't over the top; because it tried to be real. In my the eyes, the best kind of comedy is the kind I can imagine happening in the land of the real - not just on some nutyy planet on the other side of the galaxy.
After the first volume, there were also a lot of episodes that focused on the serious sections of the story without resorting to slapstick humour in an attempt to brighten up the mood randomly. My favourite depressing episode is probably the one where Mayuko gets invited to a 'Go-Con' (basically random group dating) and eventually decides against going because she doesn't have any nice clothes to wear and can't afford to have her hair cut. Simple, I know, but the feelings and thoughts Mayuko had during that episode are the kind many people have over the course of their lives and it was effective on an emotional level because of that. Slice of life is at its best when it allows you to go into the shoes of the characters and feel how they feel, and Niea 7 achieves this on a number of occasions.
Really, the reason Niea 7 is so endearing is because the cast, aliens aside, come across as real people. Mayuko struggles to get by and lacks a goal to work towards; the owner of the bathouse attempts to handle two jobs in order to keep the bathouse running, despite it bringing her debt, because of her ties to the people who work there; Genzo, the shy guy with a crush on Mayuko because of her helping him when they were kids, tries to help Mayuko by bringing her rice, yet struggles to express his feelings for her...etc, etc. It's very easy to get into the heads of the cast and see things from their points if view, and that's what makes NieA 7 a fantastic series to spend time watching.
The message of NieA 7 is to live life to the full, instead of worrying about everything constantly. Life flies by very quickly and there's little joy to be had if everything is always too difficult. That's why Mayuko is envious of NieA for being so carefree, like nothing can bother her. As Mayuko lives with NieA, she understands how it feels to be 'free', and I'm sure the objective of the series when it was created was to make the viewers feel the same way as Mayuko.
Watching the series is a relaxing, occasionaly depressive and mostly fun ride - a journey worth the time of any bored anime fan looking to unearth a gem. Do I recommend the series? Providing you can handle lots of talking and little in the way of action, yes. It's a charming series that fans of Haibane Renmei and its ilk will lap up.
fabio de lunatico
Claymore
Riding Bean - 8/10
I’d wanted to watch Riding Bean in English. It’s set in Chicago and it doesn’t make a lot of sense for everyone to be speaking Japanese. But the dub is so unrelentingly terrible that I was left with no choice but to watch in the original language with subtitles. Whatever. Riding Bean is the story of Bean Bandit, a ****-hot getaway driver. One day he becomes embroiled in a kidnapping. There’s some car chases. People die. The end.
So what do we have here? Outrageous action sequences that display a flagrant disregard for realism. Sporadic bursts of bloody violence. An indestructible hero. Random nudity. Some reasonably good hand-painted cel animation. Yes, Riding Bean is a 1980s OVA.
In truth, the score is as much for what Riding Bean represents as the show itself. It was made at a time when the industry would give people like Kenichi Sonoda the cash to do whatever crazy **** they wanted. Riding Bean is the kind of anime that wouldn’t be made today, and I think that's quite sad (although I'm sure Aion doesn't).
I’d wanted to watch Riding Bean in English. It’s set in Chicago and it doesn’t make a lot of sense for everyone to be speaking Japanese. But the dub is so unrelentingly terrible that I was left with no choice but to watch in the original language with subtitles. Whatever. Riding Bean is the story of Bean Bandit, a ****-hot getaway driver. One day he becomes embroiled in a kidnapping. There’s some car chases. People die. The end.
So what do we have here? Outrageous action sequences that display a flagrant disregard for realism. Sporadic bursts of bloody violence. An indestructible hero. Random nudity. Some reasonably good hand-painted cel animation. Yes, Riding Bean is a 1980s OVA.
In truth, the score is as much for what Riding Bean represents as the show itself. It was made at a time when the industry would give people like Kenichi Sonoda the cash to do whatever crazy **** they wanted. Riding Bean is the kind of anime that wouldn’t be made today, and I think that's quite sad (although I'm sure Aion doesn't).
fabio de lunatico
Claymore
I am bracing myself for impact.
NieA_7 has a few themes. It touches on that perennial Miyazaki obession with the disappearing Japanese countryside and the associated way of life, since much of the series revolves around a struggling bath house in a tiny nowhere town. In a way it's almost a love letter to a Japan of the past. And, I think, it's an allegory for Mayuko's life. She's struggling in a difficult present while longing for simpler times that have gone and worrying about a future that's uncertain.
It's rare that an anime resonates with me to such a degree that I look under the surface ^_^;
NieA_7 has a few themes. It touches on that perennial Miyazaki obession with the disappearing Japanese countryside and the associated way of life, since much of the series revolves around a struggling bath house in a tiny nowhere town. In a way it's almost a love letter to a Japan of the past. And, I think, it's an allegory for Mayuko's life. She's struggling in a difficult present while longing for simpler times that have gone and worrying about a future that's uncertain.
It's rare that an anime resonates with me to such a degree that I look under the surface ^_^;
chaos
The Boss
Ditto for Niea_7 - Althought I never put that much thought on anything I do for fun, I've lived a few months in Japan as a foreigner living out of Arubaito.ayase said:
It is somehow clear to me now how the allegories works in this series, considering Japan started having a shortage on manual labourers in the 80's, for which they invited foreign workers over to meet their production demands. I understand the use of the mini-market for the alien association as I've seen such thing (it happens in here as well). I can related to Niea somehow, simply because everything I cared for was left behind at some point so I adopted a "Work hard, play harder" attitude that I wouldn't have adopted back home.
WRT Riding Bean - Kenichi Sonoda is the character designer for Bubblegum crisis, just in case you didn't know. I also recommend the Gunsmith cats OVA's, which you should be able to find very cheap. I've got my riding bean for a quid or two from anime on line. Similar price on Gunsmith cats.
The Gunsmith Cats manga is FAR superior to the anime though. In case you didn't notice, it is still my favourite manga.
ayase
State Alchemist
It's a fairly common thing for me to do (Hell, sometimes I even over analyse things to the point where I think I see meanings which were only in the subconscious mind of the creator, that even they didn't realise they intended) but then I have real trouble putting my explanations of those deeper themes into words - They seem coherent in my head but on a page it looks like the ramblings of someone absolutely stoned out of their head. Maybe anime is even more addictive than I thought...fabricatedlunatic said:
fabio de lunatico
Claymore
I like the Gunsmith Cats OVAs a lot. So much, in fact, that I paid £13 for each of the three VHS tapes. I used to collect the monthly comics and bought a few graphic novels, but eventually I got bored with the manga. It didn't seem as though it was going to develop into anything more than the fun-but-shallow action series it had been until that point.chaos said:
ayase: It's just as well that I've never been too concerned about how stoned my ramblings make me appear
fabio de lunatico
Claymore
Isn't it more like 13 volumes including Burst? I love shallow girls-with-guns action as much as the next person, but only in small doses
Still, the omnibus editions are oddly tempting.
Still, the omnibus editions are oddly tempting.
chaos
The Boss
The original manga is 8 volumes. the original manga has an actual ending, so I'm considering Burst to be a new series. Burst is 3 volumes long so far, but it's still unfinished.fabricatedlunatic said:Isn't it more like 13 volumes including Burst? I love shallow girls-with-guns action as much as the next person, but only in small doses
Still, the omnibus editions are oddly tempting.
Aion
Time-Traveller
Laputa: 8/10
Laputa is a lot like a much loved TV series from years gone by called Nadia, which isn't too shocking when you consider that the director of Laputa came up with the concept of the Nadia story.
If you don't know how the story of Nadia goes: Nadia is about a girl with a mysterious pendant who is chased by pirates and a secret organization because of the pendants power, which is somehow connected the lost land of Atlantis. She spends most of her time running with a boy, who happens to be an inventor, in an attempt to evade her pursuers.
If you replace the names in the above with Laputa names, you'd have the same plot description. When it come down to it, I like Nadia more because of the added character development and more likeable characters. If they were both TV series and Laputa had had more time given to it, there probably wouldn't be much in it, though.
The first half of the film wasn't amazing. A girl falls from the sky, gets found by a boy, the two bond waaaaaay to quickly and end up running away together, the girl gets captured and the boy saves her - that pretty much sums it up. It was predictable and I wasn't able to connect with the characters because of the lack of development since the focus had been almost fully on running away from people.
The second half was better. The duo joined a pirate ship and, for a short period, the focus switched to the smaller picture. Then, everyone finally reached the castle in the sky; the goal of the journey. This reminded me the themes of adventure and exploration in Grandia, where a young adventurer sets off on a journey in order to reach Alent - a place of legend that no-one knows if real. It wasn't exactly exciting when the story reached the castle in the sky in Laputa because it hadn't taken much time or effort for the main characters to reach it (at least not when compared to longer stories), but it did make me feel kind of nostalgic and also allowed me to get into the story more.
...anyway, moving on, the story became much more interesting and difficult to predict. There was still the same running away and chasing that had gone before, but the new and unknown setting made it come across in a different light. Where as I'd been able to take breaks before the castle section of the story because of a lack of interest, my eyes were now glued to the screen. And, while some of what occurred at the end was a tad too convenient (the placement of a ship, for example), the end did leave me satisfied. It would've been nice if an epilogue had been added in after the credits, though...
To sum it up, Laputa is a classic worthy of its praise. I wouldn't go as far as to call it perfect due to me being unable to connect with the main two characters because of a lack of time spent on development, and the first half was a little on the boring side at times. However, it's hard to deny that Laputa is a charming film that has aged well, both in terms of the visuals and story. If you're a fan of adventure stories, look this up.
Laputa is a lot like a much loved TV series from years gone by called Nadia, which isn't too shocking when you consider that the director of Laputa came up with the concept of the Nadia story.
If you don't know how the story of Nadia goes: Nadia is about a girl with a mysterious pendant who is chased by pirates and a secret organization because of the pendants power, which is somehow connected the lost land of Atlantis. She spends most of her time running with a boy, who happens to be an inventor, in an attempt to evade her pursuers.
If you replace the names in the above with Laputa names, you'd have the same plot description. When it come down to it, I like Nadia more because of the added character development and more likeable characters. If they were both TV series and Laputa had had more time given to it, there probably wouldn't be much in it, though.
The first half of the film wasn't amazing. A girl falls from the sky, gets found by a boy, the two bond waaaaaay to quickly and end up running away together, the girl gets captured and the boy saves her - that pretty much sums it up. It was predictable and I wasn't able to connect with the characters because of the lack of development since the focus had been almost fully on running away from people.
The second half was better. The duo joined a pirate ship and, for a short period, the focus switched to the smaller picture. Then, everyone finally reached the castle in the sky; the goal of the journey. This reminded me the themes of adventure and exploration in Grandia, where a young adventurer sets off on a journey in order to reach Alent - a place of legend that no-one knows if real. It wasn't exactly exciting when the story reached the castle in the sky in Laputa because it hadn't taken much time or effort for the main characters to reach it (at least not when compared to longer stories), but it did make me feel kind of nostalgic and also allowed me to get into the story more.
...anyway, moving on, the story became much more interesting and difficult to predict. There was still the same running away and chasing that had gone before, but the new and unknown setting made it come across in a different light. Where as I'd been able to take breaks before the castle section of the story because of a lack of interest, my eyes were now glued to the screen. And, while some of what occurred at the end was a tad too convenient (the placement of a ship, for example), the end did leave me satisfied. It would've been nice if an epilogue had been added in after the credits, though...
To sum it up, Laputa is a classic worthy of its praise. I wouldn't go as far as to call it perfect due to me being unable to connect with the main two characters because of a lack of time spent on development, and the first half was a little on the boring side at times. However, it's hard to deny that Laputa is a charming film that has aged well, both in terms of the visuals and story. If you're a fan of adventure stories, look this up.
Urzu seven
Dandy Guy, in Space
Gungrave The Series 6/10,I bought this series without seeing an episode and I propably would have given it a higher score if I had not seen the first episode.I think that if you have'nt seen Gungrave yet and really want to enjoy it then don't look at the first episode as it gives away far too much about certain characters and their fates.
Aion
Time-Traveller
Dual: 7.5/10
A very fun little series - one of the few random anime purchases I've made that worked out well. The plot never makes a whole lot of sense - something about one dimension splitting into two over an ancient artifact, and two scientists going to war over it - but it was never meant to be taken seriously to begin with. It's an Evangelion parody (of sorts), it's a rom-com, the main character has a harem and it was only ever meant to be enjoyable. If you watch it and like the cast (Mitsuki Sanada = love - gotta love the tsundere type), then you'll get a lot out of the series.
Patlabor 2 - 5/10
The most boring film I've ever watched. At least The Wings of Honneamise was comical because of the main character randomly turning into rapeman.
Until right at the death, the pattern was something like this:
10-15 minutes of talking > 2-3 minutes of scenery shots > repeat
Oshii's 'deep' films bore me to tears because the characters are no more than plot devices. They're used to push the plot forward and express Oshii's own thoughts about the world, yet they never come across as people worth caring about. There wasn't any character development, with there being only a few short instances of the cast not sounding like robots.
I got lost somewhere along the way, during one of the endless seeming dialogue sections. I never cared about what was going on, I never worried about the possibility of any of the cast getting killed off and, because of the lack of time spent fleshing out the cast instead of plot forwarding or philisophical babbling, I struggled to stay awake. I had to push myself just to make it to the end.
I'm probably being a bit generous with my score, but I thought it best not to score it lower than some of my other favourite anime films until the day I rewatch them. At present, suicide is more tempting than rewatching the likes of Akira.
I'm going to stay FAR awake from Sky Crawlers, or any other film Oshii creates. There's only so much boredom I can handle.
A very fun little series - one of the few random anime purchases I've made that worked out well. The plot never makes a whole lot of sense - something about one dimension splitting into two over an ancient artifact, and two scientists going to war over it - but it was never meant to be taken seriously to begin with. It's an Evangelion parody (of sorts), it's a rom-com, the main character has a harem and it was only ever meant to be enjoyable. If you watch it and like the cast (Mitsuki Sanada = love - gotta love the tsundere type), then you'll get a lot out of the series.
Patlabor 2 - 5/10
The most boring film I've ever watched. At least The Wings of Honneamise was comical because of the main character randomly turning into rapeman.
Until right at the death, the pattern was something like this:
10-15 minutes of talking > 2-3 minutes of scenery shots > repeat
Oshii's 'deep' films bore me to tears because the characters are no more than plot devices. They're used to push the plot forward and express Oshii's own thoughts about the world, yet they never come across as people worth caring about. There wasn't any character development, with there being only a few short instances of the cast not sounding like robots.
I got lost somewhere along the way, during one of the endless seeming dialogue sections. I never cared about what was going on, I never worried about the possibility of any of the cast getting killed off and, because of the lack of time spent fleshing out the cast instead of plot forwarding or philisophical babbling, I struggled to stay awake. I had to push myself just to make it to the end.
I'm probably being a bit generous with my score, but I thought it best not to score it lower than some of my other favourite anime films until the day I rewatch them. At present, suicide is more tempting than rewatching the likes of Akira.
I'm going to stay FAR awake from Sky Crawlers, or any other film Oshii creates. There's only so much boredom I can handle.
fabio de lunatico
Claymore
Good to hear that you enjoyed Dual, since my DVDs are on the way. My instincts about how you'd react to Patlabor 2 proved eerily accurate...
Freudian slip?Aion said:
ayase
State Alchemist
Oshii gives the audience what they need, not what they want. I think he's even said as much, which does of course smack of a pretty massive superiority complex. The guy has his own philosphies which he likes to get across, which he's not going to compromise or let anything as throwaway as "mecha action" (or, in the case of Innocence "source material") get in the way. He seems to be constantly despairing for his fellow humans. He likes pretentious quoting.
In short, he reminds me of me, and that's probably why I love his films so much. Watching an Oshii film makes me think there is hope yet for the world because someone out there is creating deep, thought provoking art my favourite medium, animation. I wouldn't want every film to be an Oshii film of course, but when 90% of anime (98% of all entertainment) is mindless turn on, tune in, switch off stuff isn't it refreshing to see something different from the norm that makes you stop and think a little? Some people don't like finding philosophy in their entertainment, but by now people should really know what they're in for with Oshii.