racketboy.com

I recently finished GITS:Alternative Architecture and watched the entirety of Expelled from Paradise.

Alternative Architecture was aesthetically pleasing, and carried that strong cyberpunk vibe I so love about the series. However the writing was haphazard as hell, and quite difficult to follow. It felt like I was watching the CliffsNotes version of a much deeper story. Overall I'd give the 10 eps series a 7/10. GITS:AA is worth watching if you're a fan of the franchise. But as someone's first introduction to GITS it'd be a terrible place to start. Best to stick with SAC and 2nd GIG for that.

Expelled from Paradise was a pretty good film. It had fantastic production values and some really great ecchi + mecha eye candy. However the pacing of the film had serious issues. The movie drags tremendously during the middle, to the point that I actually fell asleep watching it at one point. You can only listen to a scavenger cowboy and a sentient AI discuss philosophy so long before the Zzzzs come. However the film picks up strongly at the end with some really awesome mecha battling. Overall I'd give Expelled from Paradise an 8/10. If you don't mind shameless ecchi and you enjoy mechs, check it out.

Now you can see why I'm a little meh on the new GITS Arise material. Good cyberpunk eye candy as you said, and I'm glad the new VA's fit really well... but well, let's see if you remember it exists again a few months being removed from your watch of it haha. Just doesn't really leave you with anything.

Xeogred wrote:Now you can see why I'm a little meh on the new GITS Arise material.

As much as it pains me to say it*, you were right.




*Pains me to say it, because I love GITS and I was hoping Arise/Alternative Architecture would still be great. It was not great.

It's better than the Mardock Scramble movies like I mentioned earlier.

Dare you to watch those...

Watched another episode of Outlaw Star last night. Gene and Jim are getting on each others nerves because they're cooped up on the ship without much dough. They stop at a space station that just so happens to look exactly like the set of a western movie. Suzuka splits. Jim walks into the saloon and claims to be a bounty hunter in search of Mr. Generic Bad Guy and the bounty of ten thousand double dollars...I mean Woolongs...err...ten thousand Wong. Naturally, Mr. Generic Bad Guy is right upstairs in the saloon. Gene tells him that he's here for the bounty, but instead of fighting/fleeing right there and then, cut scene to an old cathedral on the edge of town. How did the characters get here? Who cares, stained glass looks cool! At this point our hero, Gene, stabs Mr. Bad Guy in the back on direction from eleven-year-old Jim. That's a little unsettling, but it's OK, he was just a robot. Robots aren't people, except for the ones who are people like Melfina. Gene goes to collect the bounty, but it turns out that the robo-version of Mr. Generic Bad Guy is only worth two thousand double-pesos. Then Suzuka reappears after having killed the real Generic Mr. Bad Guy and collected the ten thousand double-lira reward.

So, nothing big or important happened, but despite my smart-assery, I had fun watching this silly wild west romp in space as a single episode. More anime series should learn to tell a story in one shot.

I have a question for all fellow anime nerds in this thread. What are the best anime films of the past ten years in your opinion? Say from 2005-2015, what're your picks?

Exhuminator wrote:I have a question for all fellow anime nerds in this thread. What are the best anime films of the past ten years in your opinion? Say from 2005-2015, what're your picks?

My top pick would be Paprika. The animation is just phenomenal. There are more animation tricks in just the opening credit sequence than most other animated films have in the whole run time. I could type again and again about how extraordinary the animation is, and I still wouldn't be doing it justice.

Paprika is an exploration of the nature between dreams and reality. That said, the story kind of runs off the rails towards the end. The characters are all likable enough, but many of them have dual personalities (one in dreams and another in real life) and it's not made explicit what is a dream and what is real. This lets the audience decide things for themselves at the cost of coherency.

Watch Paprika for the visuals, not for the plot.

samsonlonghair wrote:Watch Paprika for the visuals, not for the plot.

As someone who has also seen Paprika, I agree wholeheartedly.

OK, you've already seen Paprika.

Studio Ghibli released a few movies in the last ten years. You know they're usually quality.
-Ponyo is an adorable take on The Little Mermaid. This one is super cute like My Neighbor Totoro.
-The secret World of Arrietty is a fresh take on the Borrowers. This is a story of growing up. The animation is impressive. I especially enjoy the animation of drops of water or tea on a small scale.
-The Wind Rises is the most grown up, adult, and realistic movie Miyazaki ever made. This is a biopic about Jiro Horikoshi. There's a scene in this movie with an earthqauke that's so well animated, I think future animators will reference back to it for any disaster scene.

All great films, but I've seen every Studio Ghibli film released.

I'm looking for more esoteric lesser known stuff, especially sci-fi or action.