×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Shelf Life - Home Alone


Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Big Hed



Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 1607
Location: Melbourne, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:19 pm Reply with quote
I got 100 Years of Solitude and Halo Evolutions, myself.

Erin wrote:
I'm not one to buy things blind; not even Miyazaki movies.


Heh, I blind-buy all the time. It seems to me there's plenty of stuff that I can count on to be good so long as I put in a little background research beforehand.

Anyway, no love for the reanimated final battle in 1.01? I thought it was amazing... Well, I look forward to seeing your review of 2.02, whenever we get that.

Oh, and I'm no expert when it comes to Gunpla, not by any stretch of the imagination, but that Exia model looks like a bootleg to me; there seems to be a suspicious lack of detail on the head.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:29 pm Reply with quote
Great to see a shout out to Studio Sokodei's "Evangelion ReDeath" as I love it dearly. Smile
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rakkan



Joined: 28 Dec 2009
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:52 pm Reply with quote
Big Hed wrote:
Oh, and I'm no expert when it comes to Gunpla, not by any stretch of the imagination, but that Exia model looks like a bootleg to me; there seems to be a suspicious lack of detail on the head.
It's the 1/100 no grade. Normally less refined Non-Graded or "First Grade" models are released to hold people over till the more detailed High Grade, Master Grade and Perfect Grades come out or for suits that Bandai never plan on making a graded model for.

They're also much cheaper; for instance taking the Exia for example the 1/144 FG is $5 while the 1/144 HG is $15, the 1/100 NG is $24 but the 1/100 MG is $41.

That said in the hands of a decent modeler you can get a decent looking model out of a NG but it takes a good deal of time. In fact if Brett just went over it with a pen and panel lined it, it would probably look a lot better.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1528
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:04 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
If you didn't get GoGo Monster for Christmas, you should pick it up; it's one of the best manga of 2009.


I agree! Not only is the story fantastic, but I can't believe the gorgeous packaging/presentation Viz put together for the release.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Big Hed



Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 1607
Location: Melbourne, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:21 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the info, Rakkan. And yeah, I can see how just lining the panels would make a fair bit of difference.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Anime World Order



Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 389
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:23 pm Reply with quote
Erinf wrote:
I will say that if you've never seen Evangelion, this movie isn't a half-bad place to start.


I'll go ahead and voice my total and absolute disagreement on this one. (What, you thought you could say the "E" word on the Internet and NOT have this happen?)

Forget about whether you like or dislike Evangelion. That's irrelevant. The ostensible purpose of a remake or a reboot or what have you is to draw in new audiences, typically by way of modernization. The JJ Abrams Star Trek is the shining example of "how it's done" for 2009. As far as modernization goes, You Are (Not) Alone certainly looks pretty good with the updated animation, but at the end of the day this just isn't a story meant for introducing new fans. No, you have to ALREADY KNOW the story of Evangelion for this to make sense. Think about it: this movie is a truncated version of the first oh, say 7 episodes of the show. You can practically recite it word-for-word if you were so inclined. That's how similar it is to the original. This is generally agreed upon by every single review of the movie you will find, both positive and negative.

Now ask yourself: what got cut out to make this movie-length? There are undoubtedly full listings available--a feat made possible by the movie's general adherence to the original source material--but the short answer is "mostly side scenes here and there, typically involving the minor characters." The trouble there is these characters are still in the story and are still doing more or less what they did in the original TV show. If you already know the story, then you won't even mind this too much since you'll mentally fill in the blanks between what is and isn't shown. But what if you don't already know the story and characters? What happens if you can't fill in the blanks? Are the blanks really that big of a deal, or is the core narrative/characterization all actually there?

I'm too biased to answer those questions since I've already seen the show. So as a very un-scientific experiment, I showed this movie to a few anime-watching friends of mine who'd NEVER seen the original and hadn't heard all that much about it. (If you're finding this incredulous, note the show was from ~15 years ago and the DVDs for the show and movie are out of print and have been for some time.) The results suggested a conclusion many people on the Internet will never, ever, ever, ever accept: this movie, ON ITS OWN, makes little sense. The question most often asked by people who just saw this movie without seeing the show prior was "who IS this person and why are they doing that?" and the only answer I could give each time was to say "well, in the original TV show..." Regardless of whether my sample size was 2 or 200, answering questions like that to make sense of the movie isn't something you should have to do a lot (or at all) for a series reboot/remake proper.

I can only conclude that the "Rebuild" of Evangelion is NOT a remake or a reboot. The primary audience for this movie is NOT new anime fans. No, true to its title, the target audience for the "rebuild" is people who have already seen Evangelion that don't mind seeing it all over again, only with nicer animation and some story changes that won't become more substantive until the NEXT movie, which they're already committed to seeing. It's like the comicbook fans who'll buy yet another set of books detailing the origin stories of Superman and Batman, a story they already know quite well.

Again, none of this has much bearing on whether the movie is bad or not. Another anime movie that's even MORE guilty of this same phenomenon is Adolescence of Utena, and I like that movie. Nobody likes that movie! But I would never even dream of showing it to people as an introduction to the series. Certainly, you COULD be a new anime fan who watches Eva 1.XX to see what the fuss is all about and ends up becoming intrigued in Evangelion. I'm sure someone will post a reply to this saying that was in fact the case for them. But that's in spite of what this movie is trying to do, not because of it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Starre257



Joined: 13 Jul 2006
Posts: 90
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:38 pm Reply with quote
Totally agree with the Hanasakeru Seishonen review.

May I add that there was a scene in the first episode where her new classmates after she moved to Japan are asking her about past boyfriends ("loves") and she starts talking about the leopard? They don't realize she's not talking about a person until she mentions his fur.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address My Anime My Manga
Hentai_JP



Joined: 12 Feb 2006
Posts: 605
Location: Toronto, ON
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Erin Finnegan wrote:
You Are (Not) Alone is a re-telling of the original series as a trilogy of feature films.


Correction: Eva movies is a tetralogy not trilogy. I can't believe your editor didn't notice this (was it Zac? Who do I send hate-mail to? Just kidding).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:17 pm Reply with quote
Starre257 wrote:
Totally agree with the Hanasakeru Seishonen review.

May I add that there was a scene in the first episode where her new classmates after she moved to Japan are asking her about past boyfriends ("loves") and she starts talking about the leopard? They don't realize she's not talking about a person until she mentions his fur.


How is that bad? Either way, the show gets better later on and I'd say it would get an upgrade to "perishable", accordingly; since it does focus more on politics rather than harem.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Reibooi



Joined: 03 Mar 2008
Posts: 394
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:34 pm Reply with quote
People should keep in mind that if you own a PS3 or some other Blu-ray player that the Eva DVD is a total waste of money as the Eva 1.11 Blu-ray will be coming out next spring and has much more content that this current DVD does not have.

If you need to see it then just rent it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist


Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 598
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:38 pm Reply with quote
egoist wrote:
How is that bad? Either way, the show gets better later on and I'd say it would get an upgrade to "perishable", accordingly; since it does focus more on politics rather than harem.

Flushable isn't lower than Perishable, it's just that there are only two ratings for streaming anime; Stream Worthy or Flushable.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist


Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 598
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:41 pm Reply with quote
Hentai_JP wrote:
Correction: Eva movies is a tetralogy not trilogy. I can't believe your editor didn't notice this (was it Zac? Who do I send hate-mail to? Just kidding).

Holy crap! How did I not know that? In any case, the editors read this, don't worry.

Reibooi wrote:
...Eva 1.11 Blu-ray will be coming out next spring and has much more content that this current DVD does not have.

That is an excellent point! Thanks!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist


Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 598
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:44 pm Reply with quote
here-and-faraway wrote:
Quote:
If you didn't get GoGo Monster for Christmas, you should pick it up; it's one of the best manga of 2009.

I agree! Not only is the story fantastic, but I can't believe the gorgeous packaging/presentation Viz put together for the release.

The editor I worked for totally flipped out about the production values - great paper with those decorated red-trimmed edges, hardcover, and it comes in a sleeve like Kodansha Box books!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist


Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 598
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:59 pm Reply with quote
Anime World Order wrote:

I can only conclude that the "Rebuild" of Evangelion is NOT a remake or a reboot. The primary audience for this movie is NOT new anime fans. No, true to its title, the target audience for the "rebuild" is people who have already seen Evangelion that don't mind seeing it all over again...

I said it's not a "half-bad" place to start, which ought to sound hesitant, implying it's not "half-good" either. I think new fans would get enough out of these movies to want to watch the TV series.

I think you're right, this isn't a re-boot to gain new fans like the new Star Trek did. This feels like it was made to keep old fans enthusiastically playing pinball. I don't think the movie stands alone very well at all.

I ended up explaining a lot of things to my mom, who had never seen Eva, but it's hard to say if stuff like the Second Impact will be explained in subsequent films or not. She understood a lot more of what was happening than when Paul Chapman's mom watched Akira for his podcast - he said he had to pause the movie a lot to explain the action. My mom wanted me to pause Eva for explanation at least once, but I refused on principle because part of the fun of Eva is that you don't know why the angels are attacking until the very end. (And maybe not even then, without listening to CGH talk about it.)

Anime World Order wrote:
Another anime movie that's even MORE guilty of this same phenomenon is Adolescence of Utena, and I like that movie. Nobody likes that movie!

I LOVE that movie.

Anime World Order wrote:
But I would never even dream of showing it to people as an introduction to the series.

I once threw a party and screened it for all my friends, and none of them had seen the TV series. It was kind of cruel on purpose... although that was just before Noah and I started dating, and he came to that party, and now we're married, so maybe screening Adolescence of Utena is a great idea.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 4:51 pm Reply with quote
Erin Finnegan wrote:
This is one of the few cases of film and television I've seen where the direction is actively horrible.


Oh, LOL! I couldn't have put it better myself. Laughing Unlike you, I didn't feel embarrassed at all for Kajika and company. She has that Tohru Honda/John Locke quality where even if she's wrong, she's never...really wrong, so bizarrely enough, there ends up being a lot of credence to the theory that Mustafa is somehow part of Eugene. (Bear with me, there really is, as stupid as that sounds.) I thought the plot, far from being facepalm-worthy, was rather intriguing and the characters were unusual rather than being cliche. I'm sure it's a really fun manga.

But oh GEEZ, the direction was actively horrible. Anime dazed It really feels like the writers and director didn't care with how plastic and forced all of the cinematography and writing is. I laughed through parts of it too, but because I liked the characters and premise, it made me kinda sad, too.

Chiaki Kon, too! Weird! I thought she had more talent than that, but...oh well?

erinfinnegan wrote:


Anime World Order wrote:
Another anime movie that's even MORE guilty of this same phenomenon is Adolescence of Utena, and I like that movie. Nobody likes that movie!

I LOVE that movie.


I like it, too! Don't say nobody. Okay...the...TV series is about a million times better, but I still like it!

On the note of the EVA movies, so far with the superior dub and the spoiler[added introduction of Lillith to Shinji, WOW, was that an essential event sorely missing from the original,] I don't think they stand alone so well, but I already like the movies much better than the series...provided that what Justin said about the second one is true. It kinda sounds like everything that really bothered me about the original is being smeared off a little. But I can't say until I see 2.0 for myself.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next
Page 1 of 4

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group