Anime Nation

[dragontamer5788]

Moriarty the Patriot is your typical Victorian-era Bishonen ("Pretty Boy") anime about supporting commoners and their "right" to brutally murder nobles, while avoiding the watchful eyes of Sherlock Holmes.

Wait, that's not typical at all. Hmmmm... Episode 1 was intriguing. I'll give it a few more episodes. "The main character is the villain" shows are interesting to me, and I did read Sherlock Holmes stories when I was younger. I'm cautiously optimistic here. The detailed background life of Victorian England was replicated, and even plays a role in the plot and mysterious atmosphere of the first episode... as Moriarty shadows his target. Ultimately, Moriarty quickly establishes himself as a genius investigator while exploring the day-to-day life of London.

This show seems to be a crime-drama, except from the perspective of the criminals. That always makes things with a good twist. Seeing Moriarty portrayed as a Bishi is kind of hilarious: but it does work. Moriarty is clearly a charming fellow. The show holds no punches: in the 1st episode it is clear that Moriarty is a villain through-and-through, despite his devilish charms. Ultimately, this "Pretty Boy" artstyle is jarring but the show seems to work well with it. I'll get used to the dichotomy of pretty boys conducting brutal kidnappings and murders.

 

[kurosagi01]

So AOT season finale episode 1..who's watched it already?

 

[dragontamer5788]

So AOT season finale episode 1..who's watched it already?

I know its a hype series and all, but... I'm just not really that into it.

This isn't like Sword Art, Goblin Slayer or Shield Hero where I can list off a bunch of clear problems with the plot and progression. Attack on Titan is written well enough that I think I can see why people like it. But ultimately, since my pack of friends will inevitably watch AOT, I'll probably be dragged into it, just to keep up with their conversations and all.

I like a good conspiracy plot and all, but the Attack on Titan conspiracy just isn't fully connecting for me. Conspiracies that I've enjoyed are Code Geass, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Justice League Unlimited (Season2 specifically: President Luthor + Cadmus).

Hmmm... a good conspiracy has "who knew what, at what point of the story??". We know what Lelouch knew at various points of Code Geass. We know what Hohenheim / Father knew in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, we know what Ed / Al knew at all points of the story. Furthermore, the decisions they make with their limited knowledge makes tons of sense. (Hohenheim leaving his family to prepare for Father. Ed / Al not knowing the greater plot, leaving on their own adventure... etc. etc.)

But that's just not very clear in Attack on Titan. The information game is just not as tight or well written. Smart characters know things because they're "smart and know things". Armin is probably the most poorly written "smart character" I've ever come across. (fortunately, Commander Erwin's logic has been pretty good so far, and its through those eyes that we see the bulk of the conspiracy through).

--------

I want to be clear: publishing a story and then "reverse engineering" the conspiracy later on is fine. Both Code Geass + Justice League (and comic-books in general) do this. I'm on the fence about whether or not the AOT writer actually had all of this planned ahead of time, or if the author is also "reverse engineering" a conspiracy as time goes on... but that doesn't really matter. I'm just not sure if the "basement reveal" connected the overarching plot together well enough.

EDIT: I probably should follow up with what I do like... Attack on Titan is pretty logical with regards to fights. Where people are standing, the momentum of punches, that sort of thing. Its clearly able to build a strong hype train as well: its exciting and you really do want to root for the main characters. But the world that's been built just isn't as well thought out as some other shows IMO.

 

[djisas]

So AOT season finale episode 1..who's watched it already?

Me.
Might as well watch it and get done with, it's good enough...

 

[kurosagi01]

Glorious

 

[djisas]

Glorious

Nah that's pretty pathetic
They should have done an evangelion, nuclear reactor and all...

 

[dragontamer5788]

Nah that's pretty pathetic
They should have done an evangelion, nuclear reactor and all...

The nuclear power bot was too dangerous and that project was shutdown due to the runway incident.

IIRC: Eva's were powered by the soul of clones and/or mothers or something? Shielded by the concept of self, forming a barrier that only holy relics can pierce? If that's too weird, just remember what the last episode told us...

 

[Rei]

Nah that's pretty pathetic
They should have done an evangelion, nuclear reactor and all...

The nuclear power bot was too dangerous and that project was shutdown due to the runway incident.

That was Jet Alone model, not an Evangelion series model. And the "incident" was sabotaged by that scientist chick.

IIRC: Eva's were powered by the soul of clones and/or mothers or something? Shielded by the concept of self, forming a barrier that only holy relics can pierce? If that's too weird, just remember what the last episode told us...

View attachment 181260

Yup, this picture clearly sums up the last original episode of the series. Kudos for accurately describing it... And that is why that episode was replaced by two movies.

 

[djisas]

Well Evangelions where clones of Lilith clad in armor, the souls i think where meant to help control it and form a bond with the pilot, except unit 0 wanted to kill Rei.

 

[GoldenX]

Well Evangelions where clones of Lilith clad in armor, the souls i think where meant to help control it and form a bond with the pilot, except unit 0 wanted to kill Rei.

Clones of Adam with dark skin, only Unit 1 is a literal cut of Lilith, with pale skin.

 

[djisas]

Clones of Adam with dark skin, only Unit 1 is a literal cut of Lilith, with pale skin.

Ty for correcting me, it's been a while...

So yeah, EVA's basically angels, only way they could make a giant robot work...

 

[dragontamer5788]

Yup, this picture clearly sums up the last original episode of the series. Kudos for accurately describing it... And that is why that episode was replaced by two movies.

From a story perspective, I actually prefer the last original episode over the movies. The problem is that the 2nd to last episode sets up a group-therapy session over the entire cast (at least... Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Misato), and then only Shinji makes a breakthrough. I think I can appreciate what the director was going for: but two episodes of therapy is clearly boring to watch... so I understand why people don't like it.

Spoiler

There's also the issue of morality with regards to the human instrumentality project. Gendo is pretty much bringing about the apocalypse for what effectively amounts to a group session / therapy talk.

The movies had some eye candy: Asuka's fight was one of the best animated fight scenes I've literally ever seen in my whole life. But the movies don't really touch upon the psyche of the characters... except maybe Asuka's mother issues. From a "fight fight boom boom" perspective, the movies are visually far more interesting, but Shinji makes some... pretty toxic decisions... to say the least.

 

[bubbleawsome]

Hey 4.0 is on its way at least right.

 

[dragontamer5788]

Hey 4.0 is on its way at least right.

I think its called 3.0 + 1.0.

EDIT: Those movies can (not) make a good name.

 

[bubbleawsome]

I think its called 3.0 + 1.0.

EDIT: Those movies can (not) make a good name.

Yeah I think 3.0+1.0 is dumb, ha.

Jujutsu Kaisen looks incredible this season, but I promised myself I'd finish Code Geass first. Oh well, might skip geass for now.

 

[GoldenX]

Waiting for Re:zero and End of Eva 2.0. Watching the last AoT season while doing that.
Finished The day I became a god, strong emotions as always, thanks to Jun Maeda.
And Sigururi too, confirming that we will never have a decent airplanes anime.

 

[djisas]

Waiting for Re:zero and End of Eva 2.0. Watching the last AoT season while doing that.
Finished The day I became a god, strong emotions as always, thanks to Jun Maeda.
And Sigururi too, confirming that we will never have a decent airplanes anime.

Titan has been pretty interesting this season, although I got lost right on the first ep and had to go check the manga...

Does Last exile count as airplane anime? Sky Crawlers was good, was it not?
I also want a nice one,

 

[Rei]

From a story perspective, I actually prefer the last original episode over the movies. The problem is that the 2nd to last episode sets up a group-therapy session over the entire cast (at least... Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Misato), and then only Shinji makes a breakthrough. I think I can appreciate what the director was going for: but two episodes of therapy is clearly boring to watch... so I understand why people don't like it.

Yeah, I also see some would not like those episode. Personally, while I don't enjoy it from a viewer's perspective, I actually like it. I'm just into this whole breakdown of a person's psyche as well as the psychological, religious & philosophical themes of the series as a whole. Still don't like Shinji, he is too melodramatic, broody, with anxiety issues. Then again, most of the characters have issue with their issues.

Jujutsu Kaisen looks incredible this season, but I promised myself I'd finish Code Geass first. Oh well, might skip geass for now.

The movies had some eye candy: Asuka's fight was one of the best animated fight scenes I've literally ever seen in my whole life.

Why skip? Just watch all of em consecutively. That's 50 episode of Code Geass. Plus also recommend on watching the pre-sequel called Akito The Exiled. It's only three episode though but it's still good.
For that one, it has one of the best animated mecha fight scene, I've seen in my life. Yeah, I said it! Take that @dragontamer5788!

 

[kurosagi01]

Speaking of Evangelion..Utada Hikaru has indeed worked on a new song for 3.0 + 1.0 which is getting a public release in January.
Man it feels like forever ago 3.0 + 1.0/4.0 Rebuild evangelion announcement..next thing i'll be asking for is Shin Godzilla 2 from Anno.

 

[djisas]

Btw, did you guys know, Gainax was on the brink of bankruptcy and ran out of money before Evangelion was over, that's why we got those last 2 episodes...

 

[kurosagi01]

Btw, did you guys know, Gainax was on the brink of bankruptcy and ran out of money before Evangelion was over, that's why we got those last 2 episodes...

I only found out after getting access to the internet, crazy really that Evangelion saved them.

 

[kurosagi01]

Speaking of Evangelion again...I can finally post this to wrap up 2020.

 

[sepheronx]

I got this movie recently:

Macross: Do You Remember Love? - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I wasn't a transformers fan, but a Robotech Fan. Then I saw this movie which I liked and the Macross Plus Movie too.

Now I just gotta buy every collection of Studio Ghibli films.

 

[kurosagi01]

I got this movie recently:

Macross: Do You Remember Love? - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I wasn't a transformers fan, but a Robotech Fan. Then I saw this movie which I liked and the Macross Plus Movie too.

Now I just gotta buy every collection of Studio Ghibli films.

Do yourself a big favour and watch the original japanese Macross, it will blow your mind how different it is to "Robotech".
Macross plus was my first proper introduction to Macross franchise, I did buy a VHS tape which contained episode 9&10 of original Macross which had cantonese dub when i was younger.
I then watched Robotech on DVD and then download the original Macross which is by far much better and it's not mixing 2 other Anime franchise that has no relation to Macross.
Do you remember love is one of my favourite Anime film.

 

[sepheronx]

Do yourself a big favour and watch the original japanese Macross, it will blow your mind how different it is to "Robotech".
Macross plus was my first proper introduction to Macross franchise, I did buy a VHS tape which contained episode 9&10 of original Macross which had cantonese dub when i was younger.
I then watched Robotech on DVD and then download the original Macross which is by far much better and it's not mixing 2 other Anime franchise that has no relation to Macross.
Do you remember love is one of my favourite Anime film.

I saw this movie long long time ago (My uncle is a massive weeaboo and bought tons of these movies and shows from magazines here in Canada that imported from Japan). I liked it and saw the massive difference between this and Robotech. I never saw the original TV Japanese Series but did watch Macross Plus back in 1995 (I think that is when it was released). Also had the game on NES (played the heck out of it).

One day I will take a look at the O.series.