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crystalbehindthescenes · 1 year

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was scrolling thru bcuz i do like seeing discussion abt modern sailor moon stuff and I hadn't seen you on my dash in a while and when there was discussion a good studio to handle sailor moon as opposed to toei, I honestly was surprised no one brought up bones. like they choreograph some incredible fight scenes as seen in mob psycho 100 and one punch man (look up the mogami fight if you haven't seen mp100) but when i thought of a bones sailor moon, i first thought of carole and tuesday (directed by shinichiro watanabe- cowboy bebop) because bones can do very pretty, girly anime on top of create engaging fight scenes like mp100 (which btw if u haven't seen carole and tuesday its p good u should give it a shot). i keep dreaming of a bones sailor moon that looks something like carole and tuesday mixed with s1 sailor moon crystal.

Ive been busy with irl stuff, hadnt had time to go sakuga searching like I used to. im also working on a project with sailorcrisis and im trying to focus in that but adhd and depression be damned

I thought about bones or madhouse i only never mentioned bones cus I haven't seen recent anime from them outside of things like OPM and Mob.

Rememeber sailor moon is a melodramatic shojo anime first, with ballet, ice skating, fashion and vogue ect as its aesthefic. the aciton comes secondary and is not something like BNHA or OPM. you need that subtle sakuga for the emotional scenes and someone willing to make scenes slow, and a patinet audience willing to sit through scene i feel need to be slower than what Crystal-Eternal does. not the wild extreme action sakuga bones and madness tends to do form what i see. overacting really isnt sailor moon imo

subtle animation is also kinda hard to pull off

I'll have to look at Carol and tuesdy tho

#and i should mention i akways do say no studio can guarantee quality #i mean again look at s1/2 its Toei for christ sake but theres been some banger znimation moments #from the likes of Iwata Hayashi Shida Tanaka ect #i wish i can expkain what overacting looks like but u ever see when a charcater just mvoes too damn much?#like hayashi's usagi and mercury soeech is lively but its not too much its just a bit biuncy #shida i coukd say his action is def too much and downright unwatchable sometimes #tanaka doesnt have a lot of cuts i can see outright besides serenity and mako vs mako in act17 #bht his sakuga reel is full of promise #i usually suggest kyoani cus i feel they have some subtle moments that dint feel very Over the Top Anime tm #pike idk manga sailor moon always came off as like. vintage disney kinda animation #with bright colors but also not as saturated colors like eternal nd crystal and slkw movements #but especially eternal and cosmos the colors are crazy bright...#i also feel just a lot of modern anime feels flat in general (note i havent seen many but its starting to irk me)#and while Naoko's style is flat i feel it can benefit from a style with depth (not realsitc just depth)#iscmvref also music like sialor moon to me is a very quiet anims. of couree theres acfion still but again those small moments #just kinda quiet

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chocobosdungeon2 · 2 years

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Key Visual Novel adaptions had better written female characters than any of the popular shonens they were contemporary with.

#i saw a post talking shit about the art style again #kyoani #key anime #key #air #never talk to me or my autistic queens ever again #i stg why is this the one form of hyperstylization that no can appreciate for what it is #esp when theyve never watched the show and seen how gorgeous the animation is #like its such a style meant to be seen in motion #bleh #im getting butmad over what I know are extemely common opinions #i will defend key girls with my life tho

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bearofohu · 4 days

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laughing my ass off at rin in the new art that just dropped for harus bday event this summer

like thats literally champagne. i very much appreciate that kyoani has made it canon that everybody is over 20 now and the passage of time is still occuring post FS (more FUEL for my season 4 PROPAGANDA) but also rin being literally the only person evidently drinking on haru’s birthday is VERY funny to me

rin getting his shit fucked silly style on baby’s first pina colada sounds like a fun idea until you realize who rin is. like who let the fatherless gay baby hit the wine. now hes wandering into harus bedroom crying two hours after the party ended like a child that just threw up to hug haru and apologize for all his failings as a friend and a lover (they are not dating)

#free!#rin matsuoka #haruka nanase #rinharu #kyoani

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toskarin · 2 months

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do you remember that controversy about anime being made by a cult getting covered in western media without its origins being explained? did anything ever come of that?

that was happy science. they're infamous for financing anime productions related to their teachings from new studios that don't have any other options. kyoani, for example, was one of them

you see them conflated with aum shinrikyou (aleph nowadays), but it's worth noting they didn't get along at all. aum shinrikyou even planned assassinations against them, including a very notable attempt at killing their leader by putting VX into his car's AC

don't let that muddle the point: happy science is still not good. happy science is a cult with extremely dangerous beliefs in their own right

nothing came of the controversy. nothing productive really could come from a western "true crime" style focus on what is, even with its international branches, still a japanese cult

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tmntkiseki · 3 months

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Diary of an Idiot Trying to Learn to Draw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Part 1: Escaping the Comfort Zone)

Before we talk turtles and the early steps of my art journey with them, let's talk about me for a little bit.

Hello, most people know me by my online nickname, Star. I'm a perpetually tired gremlin in her late 20s from New England who still lives with her parents and two brothers. (I'm the middle child!) I love my two dogs to bits, I have a weird fascination with shipwrecks and maritime disasters, and I am a known art enjoyer to point of attempting to draw her own pictures. Sometimes it goes well, other times... ah, we'll get to that.

When I think about my history in terms of drawing, it all starts with anime. My first exposure anime was through a fairly obscure one called Sky Girls; I encountered it through Dance Dance Revolution: Super Nova 2 on the PS2, as the opening to the original OVA was one of the songs available in the game. I ended up watching most of the television series and I was quick to discover that, hey, there's an entire genre of animated television series that originate from Japan; subsequently, I ended up watching several anime that were popular during the late 2000s with Lucky Star, Haruhi Suzumiya, Clannad, and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni all being shows that I watched during this period. It's difficult to say what entranced me so much about the art style quirks we so heavily associate with anime, but it's definitely had the biggest influences on my art; not just anime itself, but video games with anime art styles as well. If I had to name which pieces of Japanese media have affected me most in terms of art development, it would be Odin Sphere, KyoAni's works (especially Violet Evergarden), and Hidari (the character designer for three of the Atelier games and Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.)

"Okay, but what about when you actually began to do your own art?" WELL, I can definitely say throughout elementary school I absolutely LOVED being in art class, but I didn't start seriously practicing until I was around 13; this was when my depression first reared its ugly head, but it was also about when I first got into fandom online. Now, the first fandom I actually made "content" for was Pokemon, but that wasn't drawing; that was fanfiction. The first fandom I actually drew for?

Call of Duty: Zombies. Yeah, I think we all have that one fandom we're embarrassed to mention that we were ever involved in. Regardless of the cringe factor, it was still important for me because that was when I first started interacting with other fanartists online and if I hadn't spent so much time drawing fanart of a bunch of WWII stereotypes while I was in high school, I wouldn't have laid the groundwork for what came afterwards.

In terms of overall skill, I'm definitely way better than I was back when I first started out, but there is still so much I have to learn; I do often look at other artists who are around my age or, hell, are even YOUNGER than me and think to myself "Why am I not that good?" and, ya know, art is an acquired skill that requires a lot of practice and due to my mental illness and lack of confidence/self-worth, there were periods where I would go for MONTHS without drawing anything, so the fact I'm not where I feel like I should be skill-wise is ultimately circumstantial (there are other personal shortcomings that have also been holding me back, but we'll get to those later). I have managed to learn to stop being so hard on myself and not be as perfectionistic, and I find myself drawing more and more for the fun of it and learning new techniques that'll result in better pieces rather than anything else. These are some of the Rune Factory 4 pieces I drew last year (all Arthur/Frey ship art, oops) and at this point I can look at them and think "Yeah, they're not perfect, but I also did a pretty good job."

All right, this is the part of the post where we finally get to talking about my experiences learning how to draw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--specifically, the 2003 versions. It's been about a month since I started studying the show's art and even if I'm not the best artist on the block, I still have a decent amount of experience under my belt that learning how to draw them shouldn't be too hard, right? Right? I mean how hard can it be to draw four humanoid turtles?

Oh boy, of all the fandoms I've drawn fanart for, TMNT 2003 probably has one of the steepest learning curves that I have EVER experienced.

All right, what are some of the advantages do I have going in? There is my existing experience drawing, but I'd argue the fact that my brain is so hardwired to draw anime is an advantage in some ways. When I first looked at the show's art style (more specifically that of seasons 1 - 5), I was thinking to myself "How the everliving FUCK am I supposed to draw this?!" However, when I actually sat down and studied the model sheets, I was delighted to discover that a lot of the basic fundamentals that I already learned drawing anime bodies can be applied to the turtles; one of the only major adjustments I had to make was exaggerating the muscles of the arms and legs. Not only that, but one of the less human aspects of the turtles IE the plastron is actually incredibly useful as a makeshift guideline for the torsos; it quite literally divides them into chest, abdomen, and pelvis areas and I absolutely love it!

Unfortunately, that's about where my happiness with drawing the turtles ends and where my actual struggles start.

("Nekomata Mikey" from January 7th, which is probably my best and favorite turtle attempt thus far)

So, I suffer from a little something called "not liking to leave my comfort zone." It's not something that I'm incapable of doing, but getting me to break out of a repetitive routine and try something new or challenging is insanely difficult--no idea if it's a result of my autism spectrum disorder or not, but it definitely explains why I've hesitated to experiment more with my art and try new things... which is important if you want to further develop your style and improve. Oooooooh boy.

Now, I'm not necessarily looking to accurately replicate TMNT 2003's style, but I am hoping to maintain certain aspects when I draw the turtles. Stuff that is definitely contradicting what I'm comfortable with when it comes to drawing; the thick lines you see in a lot of the official art, the fact this show really likes using sharp angles to define physical features, the dark color palette of the first five seasons, the fact those seasons break the rule of "don't shade with black" that I've been taught from the beginning--a lot of stuff that I'm just not used to. It's hard not to become frustrated because half the time you have no idea what you're doing and have no idea whether it's going to look good or not.

Beyond that, there is the matter of the less human aspects of the turtles that are giving me a run for my money. I can somewhat handle the chunky three fingered hands and large two toed feet, but when I get to the heads and shells, that's where I start tearing my hair out. Even with multiple reference screenshots from the show and sassatello's tutorial on the head structure handy, I still find myself fumbling and making heads that are too angular and chunky (especially in the cheek area) or heads that are too round to the point of almost looking babyish. The shells are another matter entirely; it's weird because they are basically a dome-shaped backpack, but something about those things keeps throwing me for the loop no matter what angle or pose I'm drawing a turtle from.

*LOUD SIGH*

For all the struggles and frustrations I have, I'm still very happy to be studying and practicing how to draw the turtles. It's been about a month since I started pouring over the model sheets, taking screencaps from individual episodes to examine and annotate, and just drawing, and I've already learned so much. Not only that, but this whole experience of trying to figure out how to draw the main characters from an (almost) 21 year old cartoon has pushed me to look up... A LOT of tutorials for art skills I've admittedly been neglecting. Basic shapes used in the structure of the body, color theory and shading, all that good stuff. It is also a fact that studying the art of TMNT 2003 is exactly what inspired me to start posting all the model sheets and concept arts I have saved on my laptop. When you have a ton of art resources at your disposal, why not share them? Someone else might need them as much as you do.

I'm hoping to make another post like this in a couple months or so just to see how much I've improved, where I'm still kicking and screaming, and what areas I ought to focus on. Until then, take care and have a good day!

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt art diary

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canmom · 12 days

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speaking of fantasy manga I'd really love to see adapted well? it is definitely too much to hope that the Witch Hat Atelier adaptation, supposedly still in the works, will get something half so tasty. two years without any movement isn't a great sign on the face of it, and the team is apparently the same one that did zom100, a production which apparently kinda collapsed, so that's two worrying signs.

but even without all that, Shirahama's precise and detailed art style, full of flowing hair and cloth, looks incredible in manga form but would be a real nightmare to animate. Kui's designs are inherently simple and relatively animation friendly (obvs Naoki Takeda put a specific Trigger spin on them, and generally made them a bit more angular and dynamic, but the design DNA is still there). for Witch Hat, I don't doubt it could be done - KyoAni probably could pull it off, given Violet Evergarden - but it would be a huge adaptation challenge to capture the feeling of the manga even a bit.

I would very much love to be proven wrong though!

#anime #witch hat atelier

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arbitrarygreay · 1 year

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Great iyashikei requires loss. A lot of examples are self-obvious, by being post-apocalyptic (Girls Last Tour, Sora no Woto, Kemurikusa). The central character exclaiming "suteki~!" at everything manages to not be insufferable because the audience knows how much better these characters could have it. It brings peace/joy by putting the audience's first world living into perspective. Some of those "living in the countryside" type iyashikei (Flying Witch, Tamayura, Non non Biyori) is kind of doing a contrast with urban living, but I nonetheless have a harder time connecting to those shows, because they often feel more like papering over the cracks than having it as underlining subtext. From that angle (advertising rural living), a more energetic TikTok Shenanigans approach or a more nonfiction nitty-gritty approach catches my own interest better, whereas the iyashikei approach doesn't land. Another category would be supernatural beings: Natsume Yuujinchou, Konohana Kitan. Their stories involving spirits and such are full of mono no aware, keenly aware of the passage of time when juxtaposed against the inhuman. It's a horseshoe of the very long-lived and the very short-lived entities and phenomena, always mismatched against human time-scales. There's K-ON, which stands out from other CGDCT by dint of its lush KyoAni Yamada Naoko execution. The dedication to atmosphere in the day-to-day lends it the "keen awareness of the passage of time" as the previous paragraph, both in the audience and in the characters. Everyone knows that graduation is relentlessly incoming. The care paid to the liminal scenes (such as the opening to S1E13) emphasizes to the audience the careless adolescence they will never experience again quite in the same way (or never experienced in the first place). Tamayura tries too hard to have the characters verbally point these things out, which ruins the immersion. But the way to sidestep that slight unreality of the characters is to inject more of the unreal into the world. And thus, some of Tamayura's shortcomings work perfectly fine in Aria. Aria is a curious case, threatening to stubbornly counterexample my theory. Sure, some of its episodes do follow the third "tales of the supernatural" category, but much of the rest is just post-scarcity paradise living. So what allows Aria to retain its "greatest iyashikei" title? Where is the loss? Well, for one thing, I do actually find some of the most "suteki~!"-centered episodes to be a bit too fluffy, and rarely rewatch those. I've heard that the manga is stronger on that point (as is Konohana Kitan), because they can go harder on drawing the luscious settings, which therefore creates that "and you will never quite have this experience again" feeling you can get in real life from exploring a location at your own pace. So again, what makes Aria the greatest iyashkei? Simple, really. Aria's strongest episodes are when the characters actually go through with meaningful turning points in their lives, or when the characters are being openly nostalgic about the past stages of life behind them (which is reinforced by the generational structure of the cast). And finally, the whole premise of Neo-Venezia underlines everything with the fact that the author and everyone in that world are striving to re-create a lost time and place. tl;dr iyashikei that fails to land is probably because they tried to create peace via pure paradise. As with using salt and/or acid in cooking, you gotta have lack as a contrasting palate cleanser and taste enhancer, even if you're going for a qingdan style.

#iyashikei #aria the animation #k-on #category: anime #natsume yuujinchou #konohana kitan #not tagging this properly for reasons #category: craft

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animehouse-moe · 7 months

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Hello again.....Do you mind if I ask your top 7 favorite anime (can be series or movies) ever? And why do you love them? Also, what are your top 5 (or top 7) favorite moments from any anime (can be series or movies)?

Sorry if I ask too much, feel free if you want to answer both of my questions or just pick either one......Thanks....

I'd answered the first question in that other post I just linked, but the idea of top moments in anime is a really interesting one. People love this sort of question, and I find it an impossible one to really answer truly.

Because, in my eyes, how much does a moment amount to in the eyes of someone that doesn't understand? The number of chapters and episodes that you've gone through to experience these things is part of why they're so incredible and favored. Regardless, I'll give it a shot of giving my favorite 5 moments, but in my own sort of way. These are the 5 that appear in my head first when I think of them. Though, is that maybe how favorites work? I'm not sure, I'll just get to them.

See You Space Cowboy - Cowboy Bebop

I don't really know if there's words to explain this one, but it's one of the best finales you could have out there. An incredible culmination of an equally incredible story. The lifetime of this moment in the minds of viewers and fans is a testament to how deserving it is of being on this list.

A Meeting Under The Bird's Nest - Sonny Boy

Sonny boy is one of those series that remains in my mind constantly. As a guy, this is my Roman Empire. All of the meaning and value placed in this passing meeting in regards to the idea of the cycle of life, rebirth, and growth as an individual and what that means in the context of society and your past self is just so strong that I still can't find a way to properly convey it to this day.

Gion Shoja Bells - The Heike Story

This one is a lot. I think while the other two so far remain impactful and insightful experiences, this one feels much more raw and open. Knowing the struggles and experiences of Naoka Yamada and KyoAni following the arson attack, the meaning behind this story, and consequently its ending, really hit home.

(Wo)Man on The Moon - Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

I live for Night City, I love Mike Pondsmith and CD Projekt Red's vision a great deal. I watched this show on all nighter during university when I had a midterm the next day, that's how important Cyberpunk is to me. This ending broke me, and still does to this day. It makes me feel like that gif of Pedro Pascal where his laugh turns into a cry. It's just that sort of beautiful thing that you can't help but love even if it hurts.

It's The Way I Show My Love - The Tatami Galaxy

I've written about the Tatami Galaxy at great lengths on here before, and I'm still in love with it and Morimi's messages. Watashi's final words here and how he morphs into Ozu's style is just perfect. The acceptance, the happiness that stems from experiencing the present and being grateful for what exists in front of you. It's such a wonderful piece that it continues to make me feel warm to this very day.

Something I've realized when writing this is that a lot of my favorite moments come from the ends of series, and I feel like that just echoes my earlier statement. The more context, the more weight and emotion you can put behind something, the greater that product is in my eyes. And so, by natural process, my favorite moments tend to be endings. Whether that's story or character arcs, volume or episode finales, or even the end of a series itself- I think that the best moments are built upon the rest.

#cowboy bebop #sonny boy #heike monogatari #the heike story #cyberpunk edgerunners #the tatami galaxy #tatami galaxy

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nflstreetsanimereviews · 1 year

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The Enjoyment of Rewatching Haruhi Suzumiya

There are often debates on social media and internet forums about which version of a series is the best–the anime or the manga? No matter the series, there are those who’ll argue until they’re blue in the face about which version is better. It’s a conversation that is, unfortunately to those who spend an extensive time engaging in, ultimately subjective–unless if you’re talking about trainwrecks such as EX-ARM or Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C³-bu, but that’s at the extreme end of the spectrum.

This also applies to light novels. ‘Anime vs. Light Novel’ usually doesn’t get the traction ‘Anime vs. Manga’ does, but it would be silly to imply that the discussion isn’t had. Anime based on light novels typically give off a different vibe than anime based on manga. There are also key details that’ll tell what an anime is based on. An isekai anime is probably going to be based on a light novel. A sports anime is probably going to be based on a manga. Some genres work better in more visual mediums, while others work better in the written word. The point is that fans of a certain genre are going to be attracted to certain mediums.

In the case of the Haruhi Suzumiya series, there are light novels, manga, movies, and even video games to go along with the anime. The Haruhi anime is one of the most iconic anime this millennium. It was the anime for a while, which is really amazing considering it aired in the same year with other hits such as Death Note, Code Geass, and Black Lagoon. It hasn’t had the continued popularity of Death Note or Code Geass, but Haruhi is still a hallmark of a bygone era in anime fandom.

When you think of Haruhi, you probably think of the anime. The thing is that it’s an adaptation–an adaptation of the Haruhi light novel series. While the light novel has sold millions of copies in Japan, I’ve rarely heard any Western anime fan talk about it. The Haruhi manga started being officially localized in English a year before the light novel was, even though it was originally released two years later than the light novel in Japan. I have to chalk that up to light novels not really having a following like manga does here.

Reading The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the first volume of the eleven-volume series, I couldn’t help to think that I had a better time watching the Haruhi anime. Don’t get me wrong, the novel was good. A fun read. But compared to the anime, it’s just average.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is the chronological beginning of the Haruhi series–when the Haruhi anime was first aired, the order it was aired in was “Kyon order”. I tried looking into why that was, but all I got back was that it was aired that way so the anime would end on a high note (the end of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya arc). “Kyon order” is irrelevant to the plot–the only reason you’d want to watch it in that order is to ‘experience the anime the way it came out’. It’s nothing new, with the Haruhi light novel series also being released in non-sequential order, but it’s not the ideal way to watch Haruhi in my opinion at least.

“Haruhi order”, or the chronological order, is the way you’d watch the anime if you wanted it to make sense to you. Rather than it being spread throughout the season like in “Kyon order”, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is wrapped up by episode six. While I enjoy Kyoto Animation’s willingness to think outside the box when it comes to Haruhi, this watch order is the way it’s meant to be viewed.

Indeed, watching the Haruhi anime, I really had a good time. Airing in 2006, Haruhi was the beginning of KyoAni’s golden era. You only have to watch one episode to see why. The animation quality, while not the main draw to Haruhi, is still superb. Everyone–especially Haruhi, but also everyone, moves with so much life. Thankfully it doesn’t have the same art style as other KyoAni anime from the era such as Air, Kanon, and Clannad. That Key visual novel style is such an eyesore. In addition to excellent animation, there’s also the unforgettable soundtrack. Hits like this and this amplify any scene, and totally match the vibe that Haruhi gives off. The ability to adapt faithfully and not have to abridge it is a huge help as well. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a fairly short novel, even by light novel standards. Six episodes are more than enough to adapt everything from the novel. KyoAni manages to fill that time and not make it feel like they’re stalling. It’s rare that a light novel volume gets six episodes to its name…most are lucky to get three!

Rewatching Haruhi, I have gained a newfound respect for it. Watching it the first time around, I liked the show, but I never got attached to it as so many others did. To be fair, I watched it originally in 2013, years after it was released, and years after it was ‘the big thing’ in the Western anime scene. The only thing different now, other than being ten years older and way more of an ‘anime veteran’ now, is that I have read the first Haruhi light novel. While the anime adapts pretty much everything from the light novel, reading the light novel first made the experience of watching the anime all that much better. It’s rare for me to improve my opinion of an anime by watching it the second time around–as time goes on and I get older (and presumingly more ‘mature’), my criteria for what I want to watch shifts. The dogshit harem anime I watched when I was a teenager and gave a 50/100 to would probably be a 20/100 today if I, for some reason, wanted to rewatch it. In the case of Haruhi, I gave it a 70/100 the first time around, but I can envision myself giving it a higher rating once the time comes.

For all intents and purposes, the anime adaptation of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya might be one of the best light novel adaptations I’ve ever seen. To be frank with you, as of writing this, I’m still only six episodes into my Haruhi rewatch–I’ll continue it after I’m done typing this, but six episodes in, I can already see KyoAni’s brilliance at work. Does that make Haruhi one of the best anime ever? Definitely not. Not yet at least (as I’m still only six episodes into my rewatch!).

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is only an average light novel, not due to any fault of its own. It’s the nature of light novels; the first volume is used to introduce characters and setting. It’s only the first chapter of what theoretically could be an endless saga. In the case of Haruhi, there have been ten volumes written after The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, meaning we’re not even really into the meat and potatoes of it plotwise. The rather short length, even by light novel standards, doesn’t help either. But what The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya lacks in length, it makes up in substance. A reason why the Haruhi anime adaptation is so good is that it had such inspired source material. KyoAni does have a history of making anime that’s better than the source material–the Haruhi anime doesn’t embellish its source material. So far, I’m enjoying my Haruhi rewatch. Hell, maybe this time I’ll watch all of Endless Eight.

#haruhi

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albino-angelo · 1 year

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Tsurune Season 2 EP 12: Ryouhei x Kaito appreciation

I have a mixed feeling about this series. I think there is no “peak” event for the story, but I think it is its own style. Anyway, the arts are really beautiful, the characters even girls are really likable, our boys are cute,Masa-san and Shuu are so handsome.

I hoped for more shipping service, but it is Kyoani, so everything is soft.

#tsurune kazemai koukou kyuudoubu #tsurune #yamanouchi ryouhei #kaito onogi #Ryouhei x Kaito

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centrally-unplanned · 1 year

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Since I have been praising Bocchi so much I will also lay down some criticism - its ‘concert’ scenes are not hitting the high water marks its slice-of-life scenes are. Bocchi has had two so far, the audition in episode 5 and the performance in the lates episode 8. Episode 5 is more of a straight shot, while Episode 8 has them sort-of botch their first song due to ~events, the same song you heard in Episode 5, before Bocchi moves to elevate them for the next two. These scenes are done ‘straight’, full camera lock on the band actually performing.

I won’t say Bocchi is “low budget” since I don’t know that; what I will say is that it very frequently keeps its motion, character linework, frame count, etc pretty simple. A lot of the crazy animation breaks are extremely energy intensive as like a creative lead; but taking say live action film reels of water flowing out of dams is not taxing the animation department. As such the limited animation is complemented by the style breaks, being the source of the creativity while giving the team time do the limited things it does well.

As the concerts scenes are played straight, they don’t have this technique to bail them out, and the seams start to show here. The band performance just have this, hm, stiffness to their motion, which I am finding very hard to showcase on tumblr with its limited gif size - you can see the whole sequence here on Sakugabooru. Essentially in these scenes there are times when the camera is stationary on a character, and times where their movement means they are “3D” and the angle of the body being displayed shifts; and in those latter parts their work on the movement isn’t quite up to task. Still good! But not amazing.

In the second concert of episode 8, as I mentioned they screw up the song we heard done well in episode 5, and this is communicated to the audience via the fact that the song itself is different and worse...but only like a little worse. I have heard some people say its really notable, but others say they literally could not hear the difference, and I was more in the latter camp. Meanwhile the animation for the sequence is pretty similar to the first one, they look less enthused and it has less dramatic cuts (they aren’t visual language amateurs after all), but its the same concept.

What I’m building to is that the scenes want to communicate A: badass music vibes, and B: a ‘bad performance’ and a ‘good performance’, but aren’t stellar at that. They don’t quite have the chops to make the super-amazing trad concert visuals, and the audio isn’t up to the job of communicating the bad performance. I get why the audio can’t do that job, its a more subtle art, but the visuals aren’t allowed to convey this gap either as they aren’t willing to get abstract here. Most of the work of the episode 8 scene is actually done via voiceover by Bocchi, which is tbh always the lazy man’s default answer to a conveyance problem.

Bocchi *should* be applying creative, abstract visual language to elevate these scenes, but its not due in my opinion to what a call the “God Knows” trope. In 2006 The Melanocholy of Haruhi Suzumiya aired its 12th episode, Live Alive, which featured a full on concert performance by Haruhi singing the song God Knows:

And at the time it was like the best animated thing TV Anime had ever seen. Haruhi was that in a lot of ways, it was the show where KyoAni first ‘perfected’ their stylistic approach that would become the anime quality standard for the next decade, and God Knows was one of the peaks. After Haruhi, a lot of shows would copy this sequence, some more literally than others, but the way of doing a concert performance - this sort of ‘concert realism’ mimicking the camera angles of a live filmed concert - became the standard way to communicate rock.

But its not 2006 anymore- the amount of detail Haruhi has is great, amazing, but not special, and we have seen dozens of imitators. Dutch angle drum sequences don’t wow, and they especially don’t if you are Bocchi and your depiction of realistic motion is not your strong suit. This is however what the genre *expects*, the default, you know it will work even if it wont amaze. I think Bocchi fell into a trope trap - breaking the mold on the “God Knows” staple is just a bridge too far for them, even if I think they should have.

#bocchi the rock!

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buttercatrho · 1 year

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New animation! Very short though

Gay time

#ddlc #sayonika #pan #bi #doki doki #doki doki literature club #doki doki monika #doki doki sayori #animation #Kyoto Animation #kyoani #k-on #art #digital art #ButtercatRho Art

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x0401x · 1 year

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Yes, please do a post after every Tsurune ep, reading them from your pov is amazing!! :D

Ask and ye shall receive. Here comes my opinion of episode 7. Really sorry for taking so long with this!

I usually begin with the positive points when doing these reviews, but I have to break this default here because I've never thought we'd come to this with KyoAni out of all studios. I almost fell off my chair with the horrible CGI in this episode. Yes, 3D and 2D walk hand-in-hand, especially for anime like Tsurune, but the viewers are not supposed to spot the 3D. I did mention before that the animation quality suddenly decreases at certain moments in this season, and this episode has been the worst example of that so far. This legit terrifies me and what makes it worse is that there are several causes for it. And again, this isn't just KyoAni. All Japanese animation studios have been seeing even if just a slight downgrade in overall quality for a few years now. We've just lost another one to this horrifying trend. I know it doesn't seem so bad and sounds like I'm exaggerating here, but this is unthinkable to the standards of such big-name studios. Unfortunately, the tendency is for it to continue, at least for now.

Another thing that bothered me is that this episode seems to be focused on long shots and showing the character's faces as least frequently as possible in order to mask the drop in quality. This is actually a commendable decision, since they're not just giving us static shots that feel a few seconds too lengthy, and instead are using these moments to explore the locations (gotta love that drawing of Kaito on the black board, for example). But it's hard to ignore the discrepancy in art style between said long shots and the contrasting close-ups.

Okay, enough about the animation and on to the story.

It's easy to tell from the first few minutes that KyoAni is still pushing Seiya as the MVP. Just as Seiya was the one who got Minato to realize where and how he had messed up in the tournament with the brilliant idea to record everything, and just as he was an indirect assistance to Kaito and Nanao making up not just by arranging for them to meet up at the dojo but also giving Kaito a prep talk, we have him being ahead of everyone once again in this episode. It's obvious from the beginning that, whatever the boys are trying to grasp here, he already has it all down and is just waiting for them to catch up to him. Yamamura Takuya might as well just make Seiya the protagonist at this point.

The whole deal here was about teamwork once again, but this time around, it was specifically about synchronization. Which, I must say, is one more thing that we should've had in S1 and are getting only now, therefore creating a disconnect between the level that this team should be and the level that it currently is. Just as I discussed in episode 6 that Minato shouldn't have to relearn everything from scratch because that's narratively inconsistent, the same applies to the way that the boys' team is relearning how to... well, be a team. They'd already been doing all of this for a while now, so it's kind of confusing to see them act like it's the first-ever time that they're trying it (not to mention it makes the viewers wonder how the hell they won the prefecturals when they can't even line up properly). Literally all of these movements and tips that they’re just figuring out are things they had been doing perfectly fine until this point and they wouldn’t even be able to participate in tournaments without knowing these basics in the first place. Yet suddenly they don’t. Make it make sense.

Another thing I'd like to make sense of is... why is Eisuke poor in the anime? I get that KyoAni is trying to sell him as someone Relatable TM, but that's going a bit overboard. He already has biological disadvantages (photosensibility), mental disadvantages (claustrophobia), club-related disadvantages (no dojo, no coach) and even spiritual disadvantages (wrong mindset being a bitch in general). There's already enough to sympathize without actually rooting for him. The scenes of Eisuke working hard at a café and having no money to hang out with his colleagues coming right in-between Ryouhei visiting Shuu's extravagant estate are kind of... not a very good look. Eisuke's situation in the anime sort of validate his envy. Makes it seem reasonable, and the only motive as to why it's not truly reasonable is because envy is Bad and you shouldn't harbor it even when the world is so ridiculously unfair. Miss me with that bullshit. I want this little shit to be the spoiled brat he is in canon. Life gave him lemons and he decided to take them and throw on other people. No amount of handicaps can redeem him from the pettiness of having lost to his juniors one (1) time.

All right, now following in this reverse order, we have the good points coming up!

I quite like that this episode showed a side of Masaki we hadn't gotten to see in S1, which is the pure-hearted, childlike elation he displays at his disciples fumbling for solutions and working together to solve problems. S1 was hellbent on the weird revenge stuff and kinda forgot that this guy genuinely loves to see his pupils making progress. The whole point of Masaki as a character is that he doesn’t see himself as the best fit for the job, but he actually is. Because he actually cares about these kids. Because he isn’t using them for revenge in canon. Because that doesn’t suit his personality at all in any possible way. And apparently, KyoAni at last understands that now, thank you very much.

One more thing that got butchered in S1 and this episode finally gave to us was Masaki's second nickname, "pervy old man". I gotta say I was particularly pleased by the fact that Minato's face and voice when he said it were exactly like how I'd imagined it when reading the books, but I'm still not digging the way that this was framed to make Masaki look like an actual pervert for the things he says without thinking. I get that the animators are trying to go for some lighthearted comic relief here, but underneath the joke, it's evident that they're also using these tidbits to poke fun at anything that seems remotely not-heterosexual in the series.

Sounds like another exaggeration, I know, but looking back at S1 and then at this episode, it's easy to find a pattern where Masaki either spouts a double entendre or is caught performing an action that doesn't seem appropriate, and when confronted by anyone about it, he responds in either a desperate or exasperated manner in order to clear up the misunderstanding immediately. These double entendres or actions always frame Masaki as preying on the boys, which is, of course, something that would never happen, so it's all played as a joke. The message this sends out is that the other person is totally overreacting, because Masaki would never make advances on his pupils, except this card is only ever used on the boys, specifically. So what we get between the lines is that making presumptions about Masaki's reckless word choice is ridiculous not just because he clearly isn't into kids, but also because that would be gay.

It's a simple recipe. We viewers are shown ambiguity on purpose and yet we're treated like we're reading too much into it if we so much as assume that it's ambiguous in the first place. Because if we assume it's ambiguous, we're also presuming the presence of homoerotic subtext, which is then shot down as something far-fetched, if not near-impossible. You know those scenes in movies where someone’s trying to connect the dots and comes up with overarching explanations as to how A relates to B, only to be dismissed by other characters telling them that they’re watching too much TV or something? That’s the vibe I get from this cheap-ass narrative device. It’s almost as if KyoAni is speaking directly to us, like, “I know this seems gay as fucking hell, but how dare you assume it's gay! You're implying that this perfectly decent man is a predator!”

Don't get me wrong, of course Masaki isn't actually suggesting or doing anything other than what he's supposed to. But what rubs me wrong about this approach is the fact that it gets gayness and p*dophilia lumped together. That's how KyoAni subtly rids this series of any unjustified gayness (i.e. gayness where you can't pay the "they're really good friends" card). And this is probably the clearest example of the difference between how the anime handles the gay subtext and how the novel does it. The anime makes it come from Masaki, in ways that are wholly unnatural, mostly through word usage that anyone with the bare minimum of common sense would never go for. It then makes the kids react negatively so that Masaki can brush off the delusions of these silly teenagers, because just how far ahead of themselves do they have to get to assume that their coach would want anything of the sort with them!

True enough, he would never want anything of that nature. The novel totally agrees with this. Except it doesn't laugh the gay away as a joke, oh no. The novel takes the gay very seriously. Which is why it gives the subtext from Minato's perspective.

Always from Minato's perspective.

Whenever we have anything coming from Masaki that looks or sounds like something else, it's from Minato's POV, 100% of the time. Not even other characters. Only Minato. And when it sounds like something else, it's usually Masaki being funny, but when it looks like something else, that's mostly Minato being confronted with something he wants that is directly related to Masaki, but that he can't have. Take the scene that this anime equivalent was based off as an example. Everybody (Seiya also tipped in) getting to have an exclusive lecture from Masaki, except for Minato. And there's great emphasis on the fact that everybody got to touch Masaki while Minato didn't. Plus the fact that even Shuu got to have his own share of it, despite him being from a whole different school. And Minato keeps sulking at how unfair all of that is, for days. He wanted to be there. Heck, he wanted to be the only one who gets this privilege. He has to hold it back and it gnaws at him. The pinning is real and it's never framed as negative, because it isn't.

When all is said and done, he manages to keep his ground. And in the end, he gets some sort of compensation for it, which always comes in the form of a private lesson and quality time. That's where he gets to have twice if not thrice as much of what he initially wanted. This is Ayano Kotoko working in accordance to Zen principles: you fight your inner demonds and desires, and for that, you get compensated with enlightenment. In Minato's case, he gets compensated both with that and... with Masaki. As far as plot devices go, that's just mandatory in the novel. It has both a character development and storytelling purpose and acts as a nod to Japanese archery and Buddhist ideologies, so removing that part is very much a disservice to the author’s intentions, but hey! KyoAni can’t pretend that it isn’t gay if it’s from Minato’s perspective. This would be just a kid having a puppy crush, which isn’t a crime and has no reason to be frowned upon if it’s unrequited. Ayano knows this and she makes conscious writing decisions based on that fact. So does KyoAni when reversing the positions.

Basically, KyoAni uses gay subtext in order to dismiss it in a total dick move. It's kind of their way of signaling, "Don't worry, snowflake audience who can't take anything that isn't cishet seriously, you can enjoy this show", and I find this kinda gross, to be honest. Meanwhile, the novel makes the subtext into the text itself, because Ayano Kotoko is powerful like that.

Anyway. I digress. Back to the good things.

The dedication to detail keeps delivering. I love the little things. The way Ryouhei goes back from school on a bus that is headed to a hospital. The knock on his door after he raises his voice that he knows is from his sister. The lush vegetation on the other side of the window looking like it's sprouting from Ryouhei when seen from behind. Shuu's reflex on the dojo's floor being tinted green. The way that a maple leaf falls on the pond and the ripples push away the other four leaves when Ryouhei starts talking about how far behind he is in comparison to everyone else in his team.

But I also love the big, in-your-face things. Ryouhei's shirt having no print except for the word "nice" in a small font next to his heart. Toujou serving cola in porcelain cups. Sae having the exact same reaction as Shuu when he drank it for the first time. The way that the light bulb lits up when Ryouhei talks about how Shuu's family is really supportive of him. The close-up on their wish slips.

My favorite has to be that fucking arrow casting a shadow over Ryouhei and Shuu. Second favorite those paper stripes. All of them represent not just the Kazemai boys' team, but also the girls' team, Masaki, Tomio, Shuu, Sae, Eisuke, Koushirou and even Minato's mom. I dare guess that one of them also represents Ryouhei's sister.

Honorable mention to the most obvious visual symbolism of this episode: the paintings. They sure were used a lot this time around. The painting in Shuu's study and the way his head fits perfectly under the crown in the center. When Eisuke is coarsed into hanging out with Koushirou after work, there's a painting of a grey dog being patted on the head beside him. When Shuu finally asks how Ryouhei and Sae knew each other, we see a painting of opening doors behind him. And goddamn. Goddamn. The way that the rest of the painting is revealed in the next scene. And the way the little boy looks like it's running from Shuu to Ryouhei. Fucking hell, what a good addition. If only KyoAni would put as much effort into the plot as it puts into this.

Also, other than paintings, there was that hilarious coca cola poster behind Eisuke when he's meeting up with Koushirou. For those who couldn't read it, it says, "Beginnings taste good. Peak youth", and that's a referrence to what the characters are going through right now. We're onto a new phase and that's youth at it's max.

Speaking of coca cola, anyone else feeling like KyoAni's going a little overboard with the marketing? First it was the kyudo tools, which I don't really mind, but then the accessories and now this. It's one thing to promote culture and small businesses that keep it alive, but coca cola.......... was kind of annoying. Even more so when there are already so many shows that are basically just one big ad nowadays.

#tsurune #tsurune tsunagari no issha #narumiya minato #takigawa masaki #takehaya seiya #fujiwara shuu #yamanouchi ryouhei #nikaidou eisuke #fujiwara sae #tsurune kazemai koukou kyuudoubu

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