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chaos said:
Completed School Rumble and Patlabor movies
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Huzzah! How did you find Patlabor? I myself heavily enjoyed their combination of retro mecha goings-on and nuanced, multi-layered and pensive narrative. (I hear WXIII isn't worth it though.)
 
Zin5ki said:
chaos said:
Completed School Rumble and Patlabor movies
Click to expand...
Huzzah! How did you find Patlabor? I myself heavily enjoyed their combination of retro mecha goings-on and nuanced, multi-layered and pensive narrative. (I hear WXIII isn't worth it though.)
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It isn't. Unless you don't mind the film being almost entirely devoid of Patlabor content. All the characters you know and love? They make some of the briefest and most pointless cameos in cinema history. The story itself is mainly a detective story... I know what you're thinking, maybe you get to see Detective Matsui again? Nope.

Seriously, what was the point? As I've probably said before (it's a good soundbite) WXIII isn't a bad film, but it is a bad Patlabor film.
 
WXIII isn't a great film, but it's as good as the first 'true' Patlabor film. In fact, it's very similar to the first, it being an investigation into a mystery with no mecha action until the end. Really, it's more Godzilla than mecha... but the Patlabor films suck on the robot front in general.

At least it never came close to sending me to sleep like the bore of a second film. I still feel proud for lasting until the end of that, despite me not caring (or, in truth, knowing) what was going on.
 
Aion said:
WXIII isn't a great film, but it's as the first 'true' Patlabor film. In fact, it's very similar to the first, it being an investigation into a mystery with no mecha action until the end.
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Um, execpt for one pretty big difference in that the main cast of characters were actually present and involved in the investigation throughout Patlabor: The Movie. And that mystery involved Labors as a central component.

My point is that WXIII might as well not have carried the Patlabor prefix - they could have made up another original mech team or done away with those (very short) segments altogether and the film wouldn't have been any worse off.
 
Since Oshii was more interested in exposition than character development and ranked showing birds (the feathery kind, sadly) over robots, the movies being called Patlabor... or even involving robots made no sense to begin with. 'The Dull Ramblings of an Arrogant Man' would've been a better title for the second film.

I didn't give a toss whether the Patlabor cast from the TV series featured or not when A) I haven't watched the TV series and B) Oshii likes talking through his characters rather than letting them talk. So, in my mind, the first and third films are pretty much equal.
 
^ I think A is the major difference. B is more complicated given our conflicting views of Oshii - Patlabor 2 was more of an Oshii film than a Patlabor film, granted (I'd point out Gotoh's and Shinobu's characters were still important though) - but then I like Oshii films as well, so it made less of a difference.

I did give a big toss about the characters, so when I went into a film called Patlabor: WXIII naively thinking I was about to watch a Patlabor film featuring the Patlabor characters (imagine that) I was more than a little disappointed. It's like when you get novels with names like:

FAMOUS AUTHOR'S: <title>!
(written by someone else)

As films go, it wasn't that bad, (and the letdown wasn't of Godfather Part III proportions) but it was made a whole lot worse for me as a Patlabor fan by masquerading as part of the franchise when it barely even touches on it.
 
Zin5ki said:
chaos said:
Completed School Rumble and Patlabor movies
Click to expand...
Huzzah! How did you find Patlabor? I myself heavily enjoyed their combination of retro mecha goings-on and nuanced, multi-layered and pensive narrative. (I hear WXIII isn't worth it though.)
Click to expand...
Patlabor 1 is trully a great movie.
The retro feel I blame on the fact it's actually a retro anime (89).

The second looks really good, but I have no idea what was going on. but it was all too pretty.

I forgot to mentioned that I've seen the patlabor movies I've got which are the first and the second, so I can't tell you my opinions on patlabor 3 as I haven't seen this one yet.

School rumble was a pleasant surprise. Reminds me of the best bits in Love Hina and had some serious LOL moments in it. The main girl is cute, but as a character she's quite annoying. The male lead is awesome and reminds me of Onizuka from GTO.

The rich girl is the one that creates the most funny moments in the series.
 
I can understand your issues with the third movie if you're a fan of the TV series. It must have been frustrating; watching a Patlabor film without Patlabor characters. But, like I said, I never cared about the characters because, beyond a few quirks being shown, you don't learn much of anything about them in the movies. The best way to watch the Patlabor films would be to jump in after the TV series... not that doing so would make a straight-forward crime investigation or standard Oshii film better - it'd just make the viewer more forgiving with regards to the lack of character development.

Also, comparing the fall of The Godfather (9-10/10 to 7/10) to the end of Patlabor is a little extreme, but I do get your point. The Godfather III just didn't feel like a Godfather film, with nearly all of the old cast gone and Al Pacino playing a tame old man who was supposed to be an almost emotionless and very intelligent crime lord.

I recently watched another anime film that pissed off fans - Tenchi 3. I rated it 9/10 because of it being an attempt at something more mature than the usual Tenchi silliness. However, because of its far more adult tone and the lead of a harem actually having sex with someone outside his harem, most fans hate it. I can understand why - like with WXIII, an inferior film - but I feel the fans are overlooking a quality film simply because of memories of the past.

---------

True Tears: 7

It's getting more interesting now. I expected Shin to get with Noe early on and Akemi to always be on the outskirts, but everything is still up in the air and starting get messy after the halfway point. And there was a nice, unexpected Hiromi plot twist that's made her possible relationship with Shin far more complicated, though I don't think there's any truth in what was said. I'm still sticking with my guns and think Shin will end up with Hiromi or no-one, her being the only character Shin has shown an interest in and long haired girls being far more attractive than those with short hair.

When I can be arsed, I'll more than likely marathon the six episodes on the final disc.
 
So, in short, Patlabor WXIII is a good film and well worth watching. It's not as good as either of the Oshii directed efforts, but if that's all you've seen of the franchise then it won't be so devastating to find that, other than the titular Labors, WXIII has little connection to it.
 
Through to ep 10 (ish) of Natsu no Arashi. I really like the juxtaposition of the two eras that the show (sort of) takes place in, some of the war stuff is genuinely good imo in terms of atmosphere and sense of place.

I really like a couple of the characters, too, Jun especially. I still don't really jive with a lot of the character designs, though.

edit: also saw Eva 2.0 and Summer Wars last week, my thoughts are now up in their respective threads.
 
Ryo Chan said:
Aires is one of my favs too

you need to move onto season 2 now though chaos

DO IT
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Aires ? In the subs it was Eri, but considering the japanese pronuonciation I can see some subs using Aires.

Is it release yet? or do I need the alternative way?
 
Been watching threw my Studio Ghibli collection at the moment so haven't been watching much else. Nausicaa FTW!

I have however been watching the long awaited (for me) Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai!! Seen upto Episode 15 as of last night. I am freaking loning it too. The story is so complicated yet so easy to understand, plus the blood flows like wine. I'm not wanting it to end at the minute. <:[
 
Genshiken 2 Volume 1. Nice to see the old crowd back. I mostly enjoyed the episodes here, but it seemed to fall flat at times compared to the first season.

Fullmetal Alchemist Premium OVA collection thingy. Whilst it was quite fun this really should not have been a disc I had to buy. All these bits should just have been extras on the season discs.

Currently marching my way through the Twelve Kingdoms. I am really enjoying it so far, but some stories and recap sections just drag a little. The character stories are interesting and the art is beautiful.
 
Valkyria Chronicles episode 21

Alicia Rocks.

Also I like how they have faithfully reconstructed the battle between Alicia and Selvaria. :D
 
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Air - completed.

If its reputation as the 'bona fide' moe tragedy isn't sufficient, I wholeheartedly recommend this to those tolerant of its genre. Though here are some fairly incidental side plots to get through, the show pays off in the end. Indeed, it is without question a beacon of sadness come the conclusion, but the production values and aesthetics never render it gloomy or hopelessly bleak. The heroine dies happily, and the implication exists that her fate is part of an ongoing quest for reconciliation.
I'd like to own this T-shirt.
 
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