Reviews & Features Discussion

[Dr. Insomniac]

At the least, it'll be an episode a week. But there isn't a set schedule, so a new blog could come out within hours of the previous one if I'm interested enough.

[Avaitor]

Oh nice, I'm going to have to read this later! I still haven't seen Utena yet, but maybe this will convince me to start.

And I'm reminded of my SSM reviews, which I haven't kept up with since I just haven't been able to get around to watching my Blu, since if I'm not busy, someone else is using the TV. I want to try to at least get the next episode done this week.

[Dr. Insomniac]

And as my inconsistency promised, the second blog is up.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Good review. I pretty much agree with all of it.

I did try to keep my expectations in check, but the series didn't really impress me. For the record, I read the manga, and only watched a few episodes of the show. I attribute something like Attack on  Titan being popular because of 2 reasons (very shallow ones at that). For one thing, it has what one might call the "cool/bad-ass" factor to it. Now let me be clear, I think that the Titans look stupid, and the art-style doesn't feel appropriate for this type of story, but most anime fans just see the elements that they like, such as sword (or sword-like weapons), cool maneuvers which are admittedly well-animated, and basically a post-apocalyptic zombie plot with a dwindling population of survivors fending them off (and the Titans are basically just giant zombies when you really stop to think about it; there's even a clear homage to Day of the Dead in one particular scene of the manga).

The other factor that it has going for it is that pseudo-dark and mature nature that attracts many anime fans who want to say that they are watching something deep and for adults, but don't really understand what makes something adult in the first place. This is very similar to Death Note and how it was initially received by so many people, but in Death Note's case the author was never fooled about what it is he was writing, and the series was self-aware enough to not actively try to be pretentious about its story. With AOT, while it's fine that it takes itself completely seriously, you really get the idea that the author thinks the series is smarter than it is (or at least I do), but the characters are far too one-note and lacking in proper development to really call it that. Unlike something such as Monster or REAL, you don't really get a sense of strong themes such as life and human nature being explored with the characters.

Another problem I have with this series is that, for the type of survival story it is, you really get a sense that it's playing it far too safe. It's easy to see that, no matter what situation they are in, the main characters will make it through anything at least until the end of the series, and that just kills so much potential tension from any conflict in this series. It tries to throw you off by killing off a bunch of minor characters, but the fact that you don't care about them pretty much makes them nothing more than fodder. A story of this nature really could've benefited from a Game of Thrones style approach in not having a single true main character, and essentially making it so that no single character was ever truly safe. And just like that series, it doesn't have to kill people off just for the sake of it, but rather as a natural progression of the story. The Walking Dead (the comic series, not the show), is another smart source of influence that demonstrates a good way to tell a survival story of this nature, but instead we have what we have, and the AOT that we do have is quite honestly a decent, but very flawed action show. There just isn't that much too it past all of the hype.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Excellent review, Mahou. 

Like E-K, I pretty much agree on what you thought about the show. AOT just has the kind of superficial elements, post-apocalyptic survival story, grimdark nature, zombies, lots of people dying, etc. that attract a lot of people to it, but as a story it plays it surprisingly safe and isn't that much different from other battle shonen out there. The anime is a fun watch, and I do think the manga has started to become more entertaining again in recent chapters, but overall I agree that it's not nearly as good as the hype suggests it is.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Both of you, dance like you want to win.

[RacattackForce]

Wait, what do you mean that Korra is watchable again?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Great article, Rac! I agree that Korra has finally gotten up to the standard of quality we've all been expecting this season, and is a marked improvement from the last two. Moreover, I enjoy how the characters have shown growth and development in these episodes, in a better way than the previous seasons handled it. And yeah, I'm hoping they give Asami more to do in the finale at least, but at least she feels more useful/part of the group in this season than in the last.

It's cool you'll be doing be devoting an article to Nick's scheduling of the show and "the changing landscape of television," as well as another article for the web-premiere episodes. I look forward to reading both articles soon once they're ready. 

[Lord Dalek]

http://animationrevelation.com/readables/?p=3018 - I'm not proud of this article but these grievances need airing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

http://animationrevelation.com/readables/?p=3018 - I'm not proud of this article but these grievances need airing.

Someone really needed to right this after all that ranting we got into on the other thread. It's just so goddamn true, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh, and speaking of recycled animation, do you know how long the recap for a typical one-piece episode is? FIVE entire fucking minutes. I'm not shitting you, it's literally that long, and that's not even including the TWO-AND-A-HALF minute opening credits either (though, to be fair, they at least got rid of the ending credits altogether. Still, just imagine it. With those recaps, you only get about 13-15 minutes of "new" material per episode (and I say new sparingly because they'll even go so far as to recycle animation within the episode itself), and then the next episode will take up about 5 minutes of the run-time (sometimes even longer!) going back over those 15 minutes from the previous episode, so it's like watching a slightly abridged version of the episode that you literally just watched before the next one.

Yeah, and that their cash-cos. It's the most popular series that they currently have running. It just makes you wonder how little effort they put into their other properties if that's how they treat their biggest money-maker.

Oh, and don't even get me started on Battle of Gods. I enjoyed the movie for what it was, but for a film, it's hilariously cheap and obviously rushed animation. Now, even if the animation was outsourced to an outside studio (which I recall hearing that it was), keep in mind that it was still Toei paying the bills for it, and as LD's article says, "fast and cheap" may as well be Toei's motto. They are like the Capcom of anime studios,except that even Capcom does better animation than them, and that's a fucking video game publisher; how sad is that?

[Lord Dalek]

How did we get from this to this?

[Avaitor]

Damn, that was a bit of a treat to read.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It just makes you wonder how little effort they put into their other properties if that's how they treat their biggest money-maker.

You should've seen how they ended the Toriko anime. Being a shitty adaption with non-existent animation, directing, and terrible pacing wasn't enough, but they had to go and change the ending of that arc in a way that was completely insulting to both the manga and viewers' intelligence. 

Actually, now that I think about it, how they ended the Zatch Bell anime was just as bad. Clearly, they don't give a fuck about anything they have except their big money makers they can milk money from forever and ever.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It just makes you wonder how little effort they put into their other properties if that's how they treat their biggest money-maker.

You should've seen how they ended the Toriko anime. Being a shitty adaption with non-existent animation, directing, and terrible pacing wasn't enough, but they had to go and change the ending of that arc in a way that was completely insulting to both the manga and viewers' intelligence. 

Isn't the manga still going?

Wow, they've really messed that one up.