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#imagine if all this great action had been done by studio madhouse
tranxendance · 5 years
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“And now you’re down to half.”
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smokeybrand · 3 years
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The Tragedy of Ex-Arm
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I absolutely adore Cyberpunk. It’s probably my favorite sub-genre of entertainment. Doesn’t matter what kind of entertainment it is, film, television, comic, animation, whatever, if it’s got trans humanism and a dystopia, odds are I'm into it. Some of my favorite things are all thing GunnM or Battle Angel Alita as it’s known out here in the West, Akira, both Blade Runners, and anything Ghost in the Shell. Well, almost anything. That last thing kind of tied into this essay so, you know, bear with me. I stumbled across something that vibes perfectly with my neon new wave aesthetic while perusing new manga to follow and i immediately bought into the concept. It’s called Ex-Arm and the sh*t is fantastic.
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Ex-Arm is a manga written by HiRock and illustrated by Komi Shinya. It follows the young Natsume Akira, who was killed in 2014, only to be integrated into a cybernetic box called and Ex-Arm and used by a specialized police force to fight against cyber crime. He’s partnered with a rather passionate policewoman, Uenozono Minami, and her cyborg partner, Alma. Together, they fight against terrorist in a brand new world where the line between metal and flesh has been blurred into one. It starts kind of low, admittedly, but the narrative picks up almost immediately, Once you’re into probably chapter three, maybe our, you’re hooked. The narrative is excellent, if a little simplistic, but that worked as a framing device for the beautiful art. HiRock does a great job creating scenarios where Komi can really flex his creative ye for action. This thing is, by no means, an Akira or GitS, but it’s absolutely fantastic for cats just trying to get into the genre. You get a kind of crash course into what cyberpunk is and I'm all for growing the fandom. I really enjoy Ex-Arm so when i heard there was an anime adaption, i was hype. And then i heard it was licensed by Crunchyroll and immediately lost all fervor for what was about to happen. And then i saw the trailer. Bruh.
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Crunchyroll is a problem for me. When i was younger, and the platform was just starting out, they basically only  licensed anime and subbed it for a nominal fee. They were, effectively, a fansub group gone legit. I was okay with that. I preferred that. Getting y content fresh from Nippon but supporting the many studios making it felt like the right thing to do. When they released their streaming service, they became too rich, too fast. That money went to their head and they began to flex their clout in the industry. Crunchyroll was the first to release a streaming app and they had the most content. Funimation was second but they could only present the sh*t they already licensed but Crunchyroll could show that same sh*t, just in it’s original Japanese format. They are the Goliath in this industry and they began to flex that girth, altering subs to fit their politics, dropping hows they felt were too problematic, and wasting subscription fees on lavish work space and sh*tty original content like High Guardian Spice. This is who got a hold of the rights to not only license Ex-Arm, but f*cking animate it. They opted not to use traditional hand drawn animation in favor of that weird ass, digital sh*t, you See with the new Berserk or that last Git show on Netflix. See, i told you we’d get there. These shows are disgusting to look at and literally lose all forms of kineticism in the movement of the weird CG dolls. It’s like watching a kid smash their Barbies together instead of actual animation. This is the environment i which Ex-Arm was cast. And it’ the worst one so far.
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Ex-Arm is a fantastic read with brilliant art and the sh*t Crunchyroll did to it with their disrespectfully terrible adaption should be a whole ass crime. This thing is a f*cking train wreck You can’t even say it was lost in translation or that there were budget or whatever else because you’re Crunchyroll. You sit on the boards of legitimate anime houses as US consultants. Why not partner with them to produce a product that isn’t objective dogsh*t? How do you not learn the lessons of Netflix and their CG animated missteps? Those cats have come a long ass way from Sindonia no Kishi and Aijin. We’ve seen them flex those digital muscles with The Dragon Prince, Dorohedoro, and Dragon’s Dogma. Sure, their GitS 2045 is a little bit of a misstep but i imagine they’ll recover. Netflix is great t that. Hell, the Blu Ray versions of Berserk are infinitely better. Sh*t, man, The Magnificent Kotobuki, GEMBA’s second show after Berserk, is a marked improvement over whatever Berserk was and it was only three years between those release. F*ck, man, Hoseki no Kuni, Beastars, and Promare exist! There are ways to make this sh*t work so why the f*ck is Ex-Arm so goddamn terrible?
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This sh*t is a tragedy, for real. Ex-Arm has all of the hallmarks to be a hit stateside. Indeed, if you read the material, I'm sure you’d end up loving the content. It’s really a great example of cyberpunk media and seeing it butchered so egregiously onscreen is mad disheartening. I love cyberpunk. I love Ex-Arm. I can’t help but wonder what a proper studio, someone who knows how to actually create adaptions for this type of content, could have dome with the license. Madhouse, Brain’s Base, Pierrot, Bones, IG, or UFOtable, could have done something miraculous with this sh*t. UFOtable, specifically. The sh*t they’ve done with the Fate series, used t illustrate massive, concrete and steel, neon drenched, cities filled with epic battles fueled by cybernetic enhances action? Are you kidding me? Instead, I'm stuck with a sub-par adaption that robs the core content of everything that makes it great. It’s goddamn tragedy and i absolutely hate it. Ex-Arm is a fantastic manga that you should totally read. Don't watch that sh*tty show, though. Let it be know that lazy, unfinished, cashgrab, content I unacceptable. Ex-Am deserves better than that.
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officialotakudome · 7 years
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New Post has been published on Otaku Dome | The Latest News In Anime, Manga, Gaming, And More
New Post has been published on http://otakudome.com/recreators-part-1-review/
Re:Creators Part 1 Review
What if the creations of our imagination became a reality? That’s the question that Re:CREATORS asks, and answers in beautiful fashion. Produced by relatively new studio; Troyca, Re:CREATORS is a big first step into possible long-term investment of Amazon’s Anime Strike service. Part 1 is packed with action, fantastic animation, and compelling characters.
Re:CREATORS is an 2017 seinen anime series, it is produced by Troyca, and licensed by Amazon for streaming. It is currently available on Anime Strike with English subs.
Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete to complete spoilers for the first twelve episodes of Re:CREATORS.
Re:CREATORS’ character designs and excellent story are its biggest draws.
In Re:Creators artist and their creations bond in ways never imagined, one of which being the real world. After the suicide of a rising indie artist, one of her creations goes haywire within reality, sending creations from multiple works to reality in an effort to destroy our world. Though things don’t go as planned, as many of the creations end up having other plans for themselves.
From magical girls, to mages, to boys with mechs, Re:CREATORS has no issue combining multiple genres without becoming a bundled up mess in the process.
THE GOOD: While Troyca is a rather young studio compared to powerhouses such as Bones, Madhouse, Pierrot, etc, the only three pieces of work that they’ve done have received solid praise, the third of course being the aforementioned Re:CREATORS. The story involves a character (literally) named Altair, an online video creation who wants to destroy our world after people were being cruel to her creator, which caused her to commit suicide. Her plan is to release creations from multiple works throughout the anime, video game, and manga industry to destroy the world as a punishment and act of revenge. Two of the first creations to shift into reality are Selesia and Meteora, a female anime warrior & female video game mage respectively. After disagreeing with Altair’s plan, they eventually, though unintentionally meet main character Sota Mizushino, an aspiring artist with a connection to Altair, or more accurately, Altair’s creator Setsuna Shimazaki, whom he befriended once upon a time.
Main antagonist Altair.
Things really start to pick up when Sota, Selesia, and Meteora meet the creators of Selesia; Takashi Matsubara & Marine, it is discovered that Meteora’s creator died, and because of this she had planned to set back & do nothing, but gave her game a try and ended up enjoying her world from a first person perspective, thus ultimately deciding to save the real world. The trio eventually meets creations Mamika Kirameki, Alicetelia February, and Yuya Mirokuji; a magical girl, lance wielding female warrior, and cursed bokken user, the two former of which who have sided with Altair, while Yuya has decided to become independent within the real world (eventually choosing Sota’s side). Sometime after cyberpunk gunman Blitz Tokar and his creator Shunma Suruga are introduced, followed by Rui Kanoya, a mecha pilot is pulled into reality meeting his creator Masaaki Nakanogane. The series starts to pick up once Mamika starts to question her involvement with Altair & Sota and his group’s motives. She starts to become the heart & soul of the series, which makes her death at the hands of Altair even more heartbreaking.
A major shake-up effects the series.
After her death, like Mamika, Alicetelia begins to question her loyalty to Altair’s side, so much so that she questions Blitz’s actions during a conversation with him and lets her captured creator Gai Takarada after interrogating him over the creation of her world due to previous comments made by Sota after he had seen her anime. The anime finds another bump in quality once the villainous Magane Chikujoin is revealed, she’s basically an insane, psychotic murder who couldn’t give a single damn about the people around her. In fact, she actually KILLS her own creator with little to no effort or remorse (of course his actual death isn’t shown to the viewers, but he is shown hanging while she reads her manga story). Magane’s character is rather interesting, as its shown throughout the series since her introduction that she’s rather intelligent, some examples include her being able to find her creator with zero issues, when the other creations needed help to find their own creators, and she’s able to take Yuya’s curse and use it as her own weapon after trapping him with her power “Infinite Deception of Words”, which allows her to make a lie into reality, and the lie turned truth sticks for as long as she’s alive. She enjoys manipulating and torturing the other characters both mentally and emotionally, and gets a personal kick out of death regardless of it being done by her directly (and yeah she happily eats a corndog fashioned with Mamika’s blood, which she was totally aware of while walking to her in her dying breath).
The Villain of Villains: Magane Chikujoin.
One thing that makes Re:Creators such an enjoyable series, with a lot of potential for the remaining 10 episodes is its character development. As the mystery surrounding Altair’s creator’s death continues to unfold, the others come to realize that he was somewhat involved with Shimazaki’s death, after befriending her, she begins to gain a bit of success as an illustrator and even gets to work with a renown professional within the industry. This irks Sota to the point of ignoring Shimazaki’s cries for guidance & companionship once people accuse her of plagiarism (which Sota admits to getting pleasure of during the break down of his guilt). That lack of help is what caused her suicide, and Sota expresses his guilt over his involvement to the others. It’s an emotionally humanizing scene that feels all too real, so it may be hard to watch Shimazaki’s origin for those going through depression.
Re:Creators’ gorgeous animation showcases Troyca’s talents, especially for battle scenes.
Another plus for Re:Creators is its amazing animation, Troyca’s talent isn’t really shown too much in the first couple of episodes, but when the battles pick up in later episodes, the rookie studio really shows its stride. From Mamika’s fight with Selesia, to Mamika’s “Magical Splash Flare” nuke on Altair, the animation is very pretty to see, the ost completely composed by renown anime composer  Hiroyuki Sawano fits the tone of each and every scene his soundtracks are featured in.
Fun action scenery keeps the series going in a good direction.
THE BAD: The show kind of losses its heart with the death of Mamika, and it goes into a much darker tone afterwards, not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but her removal is definitely going to be noticeable moving forward.
A new classic anime in the making.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: The first twelve episodes of Re:Creators brings a lot of promise for what’s to come of the completed series. Excellent storytelling, great character development, and other attributions will make this a series that’s hopefully discussed for years to come. Otaku Dome gives Re:Creators Part 1 a 90 out of 100.
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