Rewatched RahXephon. I’d tie it with NGE at 9⁄10. I especially liked the first two episodes. I thought the romance in it was quite good, too. The animation goes off-model from time to time, but it’s serviceable. The music is wonderful, especially the closing theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aTUy44JA8w
I also watched Eureka Seven and found it vastly inferior to RahXephon—maybe 5⁄10 and that’s pushing it.
I’ve been enjoying Knights of Sidonia [slight spoilers] - a half-and-half mix of neat science fiction and annoying fan service. There was an interesting romance in the first season (and one wonderful scene of a couple stranded in space) but it’s pretty ridiculous how every female (including the eldritch monstrosity) loves the oblivious protagonist. Also, Izana has the potential to be super interesting but zer potential is mostly wasted.
As for the animation, I know it is controversial, but I think it’s quite good. It’s also obviously the future of the medium—people will get used to it. I’ll give it 7⁄10.
I still enjoyed the setting and some of the fights but I thought the second season was a fair bit worse than the first due to (as you mention) too much focus on harem antics, combined with a reduction in the overall sense of urgency/plot momentum.
What I find interesting about RahXephon is that having watched it and NGE several times and read staff interviews for both etc is that in almost every respect, RX is clearly better thought out and more competently executed*, and yet, it’s NGE which ultimately somehow turns out to be greater than the sum of its parts of RX and a part of anime history, while RX is ‘merely’ one of the best mechas around, especially from that era.
* with the exception of the music—RX’s is quite good but Sagisu’s NGE work is still considered one of the best, up there with Kanno’s Cowboy Bebop.
I agree, there is some magic to NGE that RahXephon doesn’t have—but I’m not sure how much of that is caused by the fact that I saw NGE first and it was the first Anime I ever watched. I love Neuromancer, but much of my love for it comes from the fact that it was the first science fiction novel I ever read. I had no antibodies. If I had read Vinge first, it’s likely I wouldn’t have been too impressed with Neuromancer, which has as many flaws as NGE.
I can’t justify giving NGE a higher score for the reasons you described, but I do slightly prefer it—though less so after re-watching RahXephon.
I watched it based on this recommendation. I’ll second it—great fun, great animation, but I don’t mind CGI. I thought I detected some Hannu Rajaniemi influences, too.
Gubhtu V guvax vg fubhyq unir raqrq jvgu gur gjb wbvavat gur iblntr. Qvatb’f bowrpgvbaf gb fvzhyngvba jrer cheryl n znggre bs gur cbyvgvpf naq Natryn pyrneyl cersreerq yvsr nf na rz. Gur erny jbeyq ybbxrq cerggl pehzzl.
Yes; it’s strongly implied that being an upload is great, but however Deva has been captured by a tyranny which deliberately keeps resources restricted in order to force ems to scramble for survival and compliance with the central government in order to stay alive, and which reacts to events by doubling down on control & liquidation of dissenters and outside elements. (So you could easily read this as a critique of North Korea, with Deva=Pyongyang.) Which is entirely true and I expect that an upload society could very easily tilt into an even more extreme totalitarian tyranny between the evolutionary pressures and direct modification of minds.
Before we even make this comparison, I find it extremely hard to believe that the fall in real wages over the past few decades was created by following the advice of our best political theorists. Neoliberalism has not been known for listening to theorists.
If it wasn’t imperfect, there wouldn’t be much of a story. I think it’s a well done transhuman society simply because it’s bad in a way that is not just possible but a pretty plausible extrapolation: someone is usually root.
Things that we haven’t dropped yet from the current season—there’s a bumper crop:
Classroom Crisis—does for corporate politics what Shirobako did for anime production. I have had those conversations with management...
Game of Laplace—trappings of a detective/mystery series, but more psychological thriller than particularly rational so far; still, has potential and the thriller is well done.
GATE—still not sure, but still watching. Fantasyland attempts to invade Japan, Japan retaliates, SDF starts a softly-softly invasion of fantasyland (after basically a massacre of their entire combined armed forces, medieval knights vs modern weapons isn’t really a contest). It raises interesting issues, and could get very good if it actually follows them up—though it has not so far, and will be quite banal if it never does; will report back here either way.
Honourable mention: Shimoneta. I was expecting a series with this premise to fail the ten second fanservice test, but we ended up watching the entire first episode and it is surprisingly worth seeing an episode (no idea if it remains worthwhile, we have not been brave enough to try a second!). Laugh-out-loud funny, unexpectedly high production quality. Think Fahrenheit 451 crossed with Gurren Lagann crossed with a whole lot of WRONG and WTF and NSFW.
EDIT: have read ahead in the GATE manga. It doesn’t quite ascend to the epic “The Irregular at Magic High School” Kim-Jong-Il-propaganda levels of Gary Stu, but that’s sadly the direction it’s firmly headed in and unless they’ve rewritten the script for the anime it looks like it’s going to avoid any redeeming features it’s raised the possibility of. Pity. Dropping.
Gakkou Gurashi is by far my favorite show of the current season. For anyone who doesn’t mind moe and wants to see a more exciting twist on the genre, I’d recommend watching the (entire) first episode with as little information/spoilers as possible.
I’m also enjoying GATE and hope that it plays to its original elements rather than being too haremy. I tried reading the manga but the only translation available in a readable resolution is very rough.
Gakkou Gurashi failed the “you have five minutes to make me care about any of this” test initially for us; a friend later convinced us to watch the first episode all the way to the end—they were absolutely correct and it is now firmly back on our to-watch-more-of list, but haven’t got round to confirming it stays good yet, good to have corroboration.
Another honourable mention: Akagami no Shirayukihime; strong, actually intelligent female protagonist in a misogynistic fantasy setting. Straight romance. It’s a little self-aware initially—she tears up in surprise a bit too often when men aren’t actively horrible to her—but gets better. Not as strong as Akatsuki no Yona though, would really like to see a second season of that.
Gakkou Gurashi is by far my favorite show of the current season. For anyone who doesn’t mind moe and wants to see a more exciting twist on the genre, I’d recommend watching the (entire) first episode with as little information/spoilers as possible.
I picked it up on recommendation from /r/rational. Then I fell over laughing, having accidentally downloaded ep 4 instead of ep 1. Then I watched ep 1 and was so excited to get to the “flip”.
TV and Movies (Animation) Thread
Watched a lot of robot anime last month.
Rewatched RahXephon. I’d tie it with NGE at 9⁄10. I especially liked the first two episodes. I thought the romance in it was quite good, too. The animation goes off-model from time to time, but it’s serviceable. The music is wonderful, especially the closing theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aTUy44JA8w
I also watched Eureka Seven and found it vastly inferior to RahXephon—maybe 5⁄10 and that’s pushing it.
I’ve been enjoying Knights of Sidonia [slight spoilers] - a half-and-half mix of neat science fiction and annoying fan service. There was an interesting romance in the first season (and one wonderful scene of a couple stranded in space) but it’s pretty ridiculous how every female (including the eldritch monstrosity) loves the oblivious protagonist. Also, Izana has the potential to be super interesting but zer potential is mostly wasted.
As for the animation, I know it is controversial, but I think it’s quite good. It’s also obviously the future of the medium—people will get used to it. I’ll give it 7⁄10.
I still enjoyed the setting and some of the fights but I thought the second season was a fair bit worse than the first due to (as you mention) too much focus on harem antics, combined with a reduction in the overall sense of urgency/plot momentum.
What I find interesting about RahXephon is that having watched it and NGE several times and read staff interviews for both etc is that in almost every respect, RX is clearly better thought out and more competently executed*, and yet, it’s NGE which ultimately somehow turns out to be greater than the sum of its parts of RX and a part of anime history, while RX is ‘merely’ one of the best mechas around, especially from that era.
* with the exception of the music—RX’s is quite good but Sagisu’s NGE work is still considered one of the best, up there with Kanno’s Cowboy Bebop.
I agree, there is some magic to NGE that RahXephon doesn’t have—but I’m not sure how much of that is caused by the fact that I saw NGE first and it was the first Anime I ever watched. I love Neuromancer, but much of my love for it comes from the fact that it was the first science fiction novel I ever read. I had no antibodies. If I had read Vinge first, it’s likely I wouldn’t have been too impressed with Neuromancer, which has as many flaws as NGE.
I can’t justify giving NGE a higher score for the reasons you described, but I do slightly prefer it—though less so after re-watching RahXephon.
Expelled from Paradise (review)
I watched it based on this recommendation. I’ll second it—great fun, great animation, but I don’t mind CGI. I thought I detected some Hannu Rajaniemi influences, too.
Gubhtu V guvax vg fubhyq unir raqrq jvgu gur gjb wbvavat gur iblntr. Qvatb’f bowrpgvbaf gb fvzhyngvba jrer cheryl n znggre bs gur cbyvgvpf naq Natryn pyrneyl cersreerq yvsr nf na rz. Gur erny jbeyq ybbxrq cerggl pehzzl.
Just from reading the wiki page: it has a critique of a transhumanist society?
Yes; it’s strongly implied that being an upload is great, but however Deva has been captured by a tyranny which deliberately keeps resources restricted in order to force ems to scramble for survival and compliance with the central government in order to stay alive, and which reacts to events by doubling down on control & liquidation of dissenters and outside elements. (So you could easily read this as a critique of North Korea, with Deva=Pyongyang.) Which is entirely true and I expect that an upload society could very easily tilt into an even more extreme totalitarian tyranny between the evolutionary pressures and direct modification of minds.
That sounds like a very badly done transhuman society.
What’s the point of comparison? Our best political theorists have not managed to make good societies. Look at real wages over the last few decades.
Whose real wages?
I haven’t looked, but I suspect that global real wages went up.
Before we even make this comparison, I find it extremely hard to believe that the fall in real wages over the past few decades was created by following the advice of our best political theorists. Neoliberalism has not been known for listening to theorists.
If it wasn’t imperfect, there wouldn’t be much of a story. I think it’s a well done transhuman society simply because it’s bad in a way that is not just possible but a pretty plausible extrapolation: someone is usually root.
Ah. So you’re only really interested in bad things.
peckishowl.deviantart.com/gallery/41509876/OAKENTOONS
a collection of collages from the Hobbit trilogy. Kind of like comics.
Things that we haven’t dropped yet from the current season—there’s a bumper crop:
Classroom Crisis—does for corporate politics what Shirobako did for anime production. I have had those conversations with management...
Game of Laplace—trappings of a detective/mystery series, but more psychological thriller than particularly rational so far; still, has potential and the thriller is well done.
GATE—still not sure, but still watching. Fantasyland attempts to invade Japan, Japan retaliates, SDF starts a softly-softly invasion of fantasyland (after basically a massacre of their entire combined armed forces, medieval knights vs modern weapons isn’t really a contest). It raises interesting issues, and could get very good if it actually follows them up—though it has not so far, and will be quite banal if it never does; will report back here either way.
Honourable mention: Shimoneta. I was expecting a series with this premise to fail the ten second fanservice test, but we ended up watching the entire first episode and it is surprisingly worth seeing an episode (no idea if it remains worthwhile, we have not been brave enough to try a second!). Laugh-out-loud funny, unexpectedly high production quality. Think Fahrenheit 451 crossed with Gurren Lagann crossed with a whole lot of WRONG and WTF and NSFW.
EDIT: have read ahead in the GATE manga. It doesn’t quite ascend to the epic “The Irregular at Magic High School” Kim-Jong-Il-propaganda levels of Gary Stu, but that’s sadly the direction it’s firmly headed in and unless they’ve rewritten the script for the anime it looks like it’s going to avoid any redeeming features it’s raised the possibility of. Pity. Dropping.
Gakkou Gurashi is by far my favorite show of the current season. For anyone who doesn’t mind moe and wants to see a more exciting twist on the genre, I’d recommend watching the (entire) first episode with as little information/spoilers as possible.
I’m also enjoying GATE and hope that it plays to its original elements rather than being too haremy. I tried reading the manga but the only translation available in a readable resolution is very rough.
Gakkou Gurashi failed the “you have five minutes to make me care about any of this” test initially for us; a friend later convinced us to watch the first episode all the way to the end—they were absolutely correct and it is now firmly back on our to-watch-more-of list, but haven’t got round to confirming it stays good yet, good to have corroboration.
Another honourable mention: Akagami no Shirayukihime; strong, actually intelligent female protagonist in a misogynistic fantasy setting. Straight romance. It’s a little self-aware initially—she tears up in surprise a bit too often when men aren’t actively horrible to her—but gets better. Not as strong as Akatsuki no Yona though, would really like to see a second season of that.
I picked it up on recommendation from /r/rational. Then I fell over laughing, having accidentally downloaded ep 4 instead of ep 1. Then I watched ep 1 and was so excited to get to the “flip”.
As much as I enjoy the show I’m not sure what makes it rationality material...
Well, it was mentioned in the Friday Open Thread where things don’t have to be rationality material.