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Anime
Feb 18, 2018 11:37:04 GMT -8
Post by Zarnium on Feb 18, 2018 11:37:04 GMT -8
New year, new thread!
I finished watching Blood Blockade Battlefront. It's pretty good, but it doesn't follow through on the plot elements it raises very well... like, Leo is ostensibly in the city to find a way to restore his sister's eyesight, but he spends barely any time doing that until the solution stumbles upon him at the very end of the second season. Also, what was with that Femt guy? He was introduced in the first episode as though he was going to be the primary villain, and then he barely appeared throughout the rest of the show. As a result of stuff like this, the story feel pretty aimless most of the time.
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Anime
Feb 18, 2018 12:47:42 GMT -8
Post by Jay on Feb 18, 2018 12:47:42 GMT -8
I'm okay with BBB being aimless. It's mostly just goofy and fun. It's hard for me to imagine that I'm meant to be taking seriously a show that insists on doing an over-the-top splash animation for just about every attack a good guy does. That being said, it does have some individual beats and episodes that I thought were good in their little bubbles, the interdimensional chess, the episodes with Ned, the one with the wandering hospital, whenever Blitz T. Abrams was around.
I don't know if you're alert to this, but it does suffer a bit from the old adaptation blues. The first season, they weren't sure if it was going to get picked up long enough to complete the story, so they invented the characters of White and Black in order to make it seem as if there was a clear arc that could run through a typical season's length. The second season ended up adapting a good chunk of material that was previously skipped over, and helped round out our senses of individual characters, but there wasn't much that it was trying to "do" as such other than that. It was more about playing catch-up, sort of.
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Anime
Feb 18, 2018 14:16:28 GMT -8
Post by Zarnium on Feb 18, 2018 14:16:28 GMT -8
I was vaguely aware that the show got chopped and screwed a bit in adaptation... I have to assume that Femt plays a bigger part in the manga, because I've never seen anyone be introduced with such fanfare only to have zero impact on the plot.
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Anime
Feb 19, 2018 5:52:50 GMT -8
Post by Jay on Feb 19, 2018 5:52:50 GMT -8
I just cross-referenced (haven't read much of the manga myself) and it sounds like he's the most commonly fought villain in the BBB rogue's gallery, at least in the manga. Also a bit of loose cannon, in that he's one of those types who could wipe everyone out in a heartbeat but finds that's not "fun" as such.
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Anime
Feb 19, 2018 19:57:11 GMT -8
Post by Jeremy on Feb 19, 2018 19:57:11 GMT -8
I watched Laputa: Castle in the Sky. I liked it, although not quite as much as Nausicaa.
The film has some gorgeous visuals and exciting action sequences (particularly during the last half-hour), and the rapport between Pazu and Sheeta is fun to watch. I'm a sucker for films which juxtapose large-scale adventure with childhood innocence, and Castle in the Sky has both in spades.
On the downside, the plot isn't all that interesting, smacking too much of generic fantasy. And the villain, despite a well-dubbed performance by Mark Hamill, is pretty flat. It's too bad we couldn't get more focus on the air-pirates, who provide some good laughs and give the film a great periodic dose of kinetic energy. (Of course, they also provide us with that creepy scene where the adult pirates try to charmingly flirt with the clearly-too-young Sheeta. I know laws are different in Japan, but still... ick.)
All in all, a fun and well-designed film, but not quite the "event" I was hoping for.
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Anime
Feb 20, 2018 12:19:00 GMT -8
Post by Jay on Feb 20, 2018 12:19:00 GMT -8
I don't think anyone really regards Laputa as one of Miyazaki's major films. Most responses come off pretty similarly to what you have said. That being said, you can have a range within the work from the high fantasy to the everyday lives of the people, and I think that he manages to do both relatively well, all things considered. The preference does skew more to the fantastical though. Whisper of the Heart and From Up on Poppy Hill would fall under his more realist attempts, though curiously, he wrote both but directed neither.
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Anime
Feb 20, 2018 13:30:15 GMT -8
Post by Jeremy on Feb 20, 2018 13:30:15 GMT -8
Haven't even heard of those. I'm working my way through the ones he directed; not even sure if my library carries the others. (It's kind of sparse in terms of anime selection.)
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Anime
Feb 20, 2018 14:04:03 GMT -8
Post by Jay on Feb 20, 2018 14:04:03 GMT -8
If so, I would guess that next up on the list would be My Neighbor Totoro, which falls close to the middle ground between the two. I'll be interested to hear your response to that as the Japanese take on surrealism and humor doesn't always perfectly translate to an American audience.
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Anime
Mar 8, 2018 14:35:19 GMT -8
Post by Jeremy on Mar 8, 2018 14:35:19 GMT -8
So, My Neighbor Totoro is... cute.
The story is cute. The kids are cute. Totoro is cute. The Catbus is... kinda freaky, but still sort of adorable.
I could see myself really liking this film as a kid. And I do admire the craft and nuance that goes into the animation. But beyond all that, Totoro is kind of dull.
There are hints of a really interesting story buried somewhere here, but nothing really germinates. Who (or what) is Totoro? Where does he come from? Why can he only be seen by children? (I assume he can only be seen by children. The film isn't exactly clear on that front.) These are all questions that the film has little interest in answering.
On the one hand, it's always refreshing to see a children's film that favors atmosphere over incessant hyperactivity. But I wish there was more to this film than just plain atmosphere.
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Anime
Mar 8, 2018 15:02:19 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by ThirdMan on Mar 8, 2018 15:02:19 GMT -8
That's the one Ghibli film I've seen that honestly seems aimed squarely at four-year-olds (I've heard Ponyo skews really young as well). Not a favourite of mine, either, even though I'm apparently in grade school.
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Anime
Mar 8, 2018 15:18:46 GMT -8
Post by Jay on Mar 8, 2018 15:18:46 GMT -8
I was hoping for a Jeremy reaction to the Catbus and was not disappointed.
You know that there's a catbus in the Ghibli museum? I intend to visit it at some point whenever I get to Japan. Maybe the Ghibli theme park will be open by then.
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Anime
Mar 8, 2018 15:24:56 GMT -8
Post by Jeremy on Mar 8, 2018 15:24:56 GMT -8
Dude, the Catbus plays a more important role in the climax than Totoro does! In fact, why isn't the film called My Neighbor Catbus? It should totally be called that.
(And yes, J.C., you're growing up quite fast.)
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Anime
Mar 23, 2018 19:06:05 GMT -8
Post by Jay on Mar 23, 2018 19:06:05 GMT -8
It's been many years and now it's happening again. The show that anime fans love and non-anime fans find utterly bewildering. Okay, both sides find it bewildering. But I can explain it if I have to.
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Anime
Mar 27, 2018 18:29:33 GMT -8
Post by Jeremy on Mar 27, 2018 18:29:33 GMT -8
I watched Kiki's Delivery Service. Actually, rewatched it. This is the one Miyazaki film I watched as a child, so I was curious to see how well it held up all these years later.
The answer is "extremely well." This is an incredibly sweet and charming film, with a lovable lead character and a buoyant supporting cast. At times, it feels like a slightly more dramatically weighted Totoro - you've got all the sweetness and joy that Miyazaki's previous film is known for, but with a more mature coming-of-age story (and a more dynamic climax).
I could tell by the fact that the cast features Phil Hartman and a very young-sounding Kirsten Dunst (more ER than Spider-Man or Fargo age) that the English version was dubbed in the '90s, before John Lasseter tried his hand at any of Miyazaki's earlier films. As such, the dubbing isn't quite as great as that in Nausicaa or Laputa - some of the dialogue feels ill-timed or deliberate, trying to match the characters' lip movements properly. This is most notable with Jiji the cat, whose dialogue can feel pretty forced at times. (I'm also disappointed that he never turns into a bus.)
But even so, there's something inherently charming about the aloof dialogue, and it fits right along with the sweet joys of the rest of the film. Even when the story slows down, the film's indelible atmosphere kept me invested. The beautiful animation doesn't hurt, either.
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Anime
Apr 19, 2018 18:47:31 GMT -8
Post by Jeremy on Apr 19, 2018 18:47:31 GMT -8
Quick take on Porco Rosso: This is the most overtly comedic Miyazaki film yet (kind of hard not to be, seeing how the main character is a pig-man), and I caught myself laughing quite a few times. Porco himself is a good lead - I like how nonchalant he is about his appearance, and how the other characters don't seem to care about it, either.
The story is pretty straightforward, featuring a vivid between-the-World-Wars setting, and punctuated by the usual cool flying scenes. (Although, seriously, can we get a Miyazaki film that doesn't primarily take place in the sky? I hear the ground is nice every now and then.) It's also a lean 90 minutes long, and nothing feels needlessly stretched out.
It's strange - of all the films in HM's canon, Porco Rosso is the one that seems to get the least publicity. (I knew virtually nothing about it before getting hold of the DVD.) And that's too bad - it's not his most brilliant or dazzling film, but it's easily worth some good laughs.
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