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Round 3, Group A:

Been meaning to come back to this for a long time but I've just been so busy getting everything set up with grad school. And now I don't recognize a lot of the titles, gee. Well here goes, bear in mind most of these opinions come from the nomination pics.

A1
The Tatami Galaxy 1 2 3
Vs.
Mind Game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Mind Game looks to have a more varied style and it certainly doesn't hold back. It barely earns my vote over Tatami here, but it looks like the subject matter allows it to take even more risks.

A2
Paprika 1 2
Vs.
Asura 1 2 3

Paprika wins this one for me. Lots of falling, interesting imagery and camera angels wins out over what looks to be a rather dark and gothic style that looks too stiff in motion for what it is.

A3
Serial Experiments Lain 1 2 3 4
Vs.
Kemonozume 1 2 3

Man, this one is a really tough call without knowing what either show is really about or the context in which these images were taken. I feel like in both I'm not really getting the emotion that's supposed to be going on straight from the visual source alone. serial Experiments Lain wins out for me because image 4 gives me the best feeling about how everything is supposed to flow there and I like the atmosphere I can extrapolate form that. Other votes kind of helped too.

A4
Katanagatari 1
Vs.
Gankutsouou 1[/quote]

Katanagatari is the only one I know and I am patently voting against it. It looks colorful and bubbly and everything but it was a severe disappointment in the animation department. They didn't capitalize on the visual palate laid out for them and most of the fight scenes drew their suspense, if they had any, from the situation and dialogue.

Gankutsuou isn't something I've seen but it definitely strikes me. I hated the bed pattern not changing with the folds in Madoka, but it really works in something like this. The visuals clearly lend to the emotiong and atmosphere of the story and it is clearly capitalized on to a large extent.

A1
The Tatami Galaxy 1 2 3
Vs.
Mind Game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Tatami Galaxy’s got the ability to introduce ‘cartooniness’ into more realistic spaces, forms, and motion, and that’s something that I always think is really interesting. It’s got both caricature and sophistication at the same time.

A2
Paprika 1 2
Vs.
Asura 1 2 3

Paprika. Don’t like asura’s CG, nor it’s monotonous dark color palette and texturing.

A3
Serial Experiments Lain 1 2 3 4
Vs.
Kemonozume 1 2
3

Kemonozume has that lovely quality that some could say is the antithesis of what a lot of western animation values: it just shouts at you as bombastically as possible that you’re looking at drawings it’s not that “illusion of life” stuff, but rather you’re looking at pure constructed images that depict what they depict.

A4
Katanagatari 1
Vs.
Gankutsouou 1

Gankutsuou looks really nice and I do quite like the texturing even though I’m not the absolute keenest on how it was executed. I’m deferring to Ghost_Wheel’s opinion on Katanagatari because he’s seen it and I believe him when he says that it didn’t use its unique elements well.

Last edited by Galap on Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:18 am; edited 1 time in total

Round 3, group A is now closed.

Tatami Galaxy took out Mind Game 3-2.
Paprika blew up Asura 4-1.
Serial Experiments Lain took out Kemonozume 3-2.
Gankutsuou shut out Katanagatari 5-0.

I must say that this top half of this bracket isn't very interesting to me, with all the things I particuarly liked out by this point. There's also some stuff that I'm pretty ambivalent about, for example I think I voted against Lain in every single matchup so far. That being said, the next round contains a lot of my favorites, and there are some tough choices to make there, too.

So here is the bracket as it currently stands.

Round 3, Group B:

B1
Mononoke 1 2
Vs.
Kanashimi no Belladonna 1

B2
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1 2 3 4 5
Vs.
FLAG 1
Vs.
Flowers of Evil 1 2

B3
Madoka Magica 1 2
Vs.
Revolutionary Girl Utena 1 2 3

B4
Cat Soup 1
Vs.
Redline 1 2 3

B1
Mononoke 1 2
Vs.
Kanashimi no Belladonna 1

Gonna have to go Mononoke here. Don't know either of these and it's a tough choice bu this one feels fuller and I guess I think I appreciate its style more. I like how some objects in the animation sequences feel a lot more rigid than others. It shows and looks really cool.

B2
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1 2 3 4 5
Vs.
FLAG 1
Vs.
Flowers of Evil 1 2

Hands down Birdy here. The cuts of animation in the second half are emotionally disturbing and viscerally compelling. They spawned quite a big contoversy that got the DVD versions edited, but it was a huge leap of faith on the part of the animators to take the abstract route. That kind of direction trumps simply using a technique like rotoscping or taking a documentary style.

B3
Madoka Magica 1 2
Vs.
Revolutionary Girl Utena 1 2 3

Toughest matchup of the 4 today... Guess it's Madoka Wouldn't be voting this way if it weren't for Madoka 3. The witch zones and the blue-red swirl segment in the series were fantastic but the movie took the animation to a whole new level. Transformation sequences that ripped outside of reality, excellent and chilling shot composition to enchance the mystery, and gloriously staged fight scenes.

B4
Cat Soup 1
Vs.
Redline 1 2 3

Also tough call, and I love Redline to death, but while Redline is clean, polished, bold, and intense, demanding respect and being brazen with it's style. But Cat Soup Has just transfixed me here. This thing is really out there and I respect it for that.

Well the rounds certainly aren't getting any easier to chose a winner Wink

B1
Voting for:Kanashimi no Belladonna. I kept flicking between the two, not knowing which to award my vote to. For me Kanashimi no Belladonna's scenes stick in my head more. Not only are the athletics strange but from the videos I've seen I couldn't tell you what the hell is happening in each scene. Normally I find I know what is roughly going on even if I know nothing of the show but with KnB I couldn't tell you why the naked woman was being ripped in half or if the women were being raped or not or if it was even happening - I believe this add to the overall daringness. Also this scene had me in awe.

B2
Voting for: Birdy as I feel aesthetically as a whole Birdy brings more to the table. I don't really get FLAG so I haven't supported it so far and wont be doing so at this point. I was thinking FoE but its only the Characters that are strong, stronger than Birdy's, but the environment stays very safe.

B3
Voting for: Madoka Magica From what I have seen of Revolutionary Girl Utena there wasn't too much daring when compared to Madoka Magica. Yes Madoka Majica can be very typically animated but when it does step out from the mould it is very unique. In just the first 50 seconds of this video a number of different styles are shown.

B4
Voting for: Cat Soup. I love the look of Redline and really wanted to support it here but Cat Soup really does play with your brain - its disturbing and very weird but rather charming at the same time.

B1
Mononoke 1 2
Vs.
Kanashimi no Belladonna 1

Mo vote goes to Mononoke It has got some of the most stunning and weird visuals. Every time I rewatch this I admire the skeer amounf of work that went into animating the backgrounds. Like in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTQ6UOLaQek scene
It's weird and bizarre, but still understandable.

B2
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1 2 3 4 5
Vs.
FLAG 1
Vs.
Flowers of Evil 1 2

I will go with Flag here again.. I really appreciate what it does with the use of first person narrative and watching the world through the lens. It might have been done before in non-animated film, but not in anime and not on this scale.

B3
Madoka Magica 1 2
Vs.
Revolutionary Girl Utena 1 2 3

Voting for Madoka Magica, looking at the transformation scene I thought it looked really interesting. I have not seen either, so just basing the judgement on the clips unfortunately.

B4
Cat Soup 1
Vs.
Redline 1 2 3[/quote][url][/url]

Ohhhhhhh, such a tough choice. I agree with fellow voters, Redline is great and has a lot going on there, but Cat Coup in terms of originality and novelty outclasses it. Don't know how much longer I will be supporting it, but for now it definitely beats Redline.

B1
Mononoke 1 2
Vs.
Kanashimi no Belladonna 1

Belladonna

Very, very, very tough decision. I found that the backgrounds, clothing textures and character designs for Mononoke were actually kinda distracting. Plus they didn't really add much, and they certainly weren't used in any kind of way that was important to the narrative. (Okay, there was some symbolism to some of it, but not enough in my opinion.) On the other hand the show looked freaking gorgeous and it did have strengths elsewhere like scene cuts/editing.

I went with Belladonna by the narrowest of margins because I think the visuals - although a lot less polished and ingenious - were more meaningful in a narrative sense. It is really hard to explain but it's like the look of the movie was important enough that I cannot imagine the story being told any other way but with that particular style.

B2
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1 2 3 4 5
Vs.
FLAG 1
Vs.
Flowers of Evil 1 2

FLAG

Well, I picked FLAG over Birdy last time and I do so again, but what about FLAG over Flowers of Evil? Both were incredibly daring and difficult to pull off from a directorial point of view, and each had one central visual gimmick (camera's point of view and the realistic animation respectively). After much debate I really cannot pick them apart; they are both as good as each other, at least in my eyes. So this is unfortunately a vote for the aesthetic style I preferred, which was FLAG. And although this wasn't the tiebreaker, I do gotta say the titular flag of the show was incredibly striking.

B3
Madoka Magica 1 2
Vs.
Revolutionary Girl Utena 1 2 3

Madoka Magica

You gotta be kidding me. Seriously? How on Earth did we end up with these two facing off. It's not fair I tell ya.

Anyway, Madoka Magica hands-down wins because it is more bold, more creative and offers the more complete package. Utena is very normal and boring aesthetics-wise for most of the time; it usually looks no different than your typical shoujo. The show only gets creative and interesting in certain scenes (many of which are recycled). Madoka Magica on the other hand just wows all of the time. Even scenes where two characters sit and talk have great storyboarding and lighting design, and the show utilises many different animation styles. Plus the costumes, the backgrounds, the witches' realms - heck even the architecture - are all intricate, made with immense care.

B4
Cat Soup 1
Vs.
Redline 1 2 3

Redline

Redline has the animation, crazy designs for humans, aliens and machines, and yeah - as the second clip highlights - things do get a little freaky. It was designed to look and feel as cool as possible and boy do the visuals deliver. I don't think Cat Soup is unimaginative - not at all - but it is up against something that, let's face it, has some visionary visuals.

B1
Mononoke 1 2
Vs.
Kanashimi no Belladonna 1

Mononoke Interests me more because it seems to be more high energy and kinetic with its animation. I do quite like the imagery in both, but Mononoke seems to have more internal energy and degrees of freedom because of that.

B2
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1 2 3 4 5
Vs.
FLAG 1
Vs.
Flowers of Evil 1 2

Birdy Decode
In the vein of dtm, I've already explained my pick of Birdy over Flag, but here's why I prefer it to flowers:

Flowers looks kind of interesting with its rotoscoping, but to me it's not really doing anything that animation hasn't done before. To be honest most rotoscope looks pretty similar. On the other hand, Birdy does some stuff (like the parts that got changed) the likes of which I really haven't seen before or since.

B3
Madoka Magica 1 2
Vs.
Revolutionary Girl Utena 1 2 3

This is a pretty tough one, since both shows seem to be really strong, and going for things on essentially the same axis. I think I'll go for Madoka because it goes farther, particularly in Rebellion.

B4
Cat Soup 1
Vs.
Redline 1 2 3

This one's really hard, probably the hardest matchup for me in the tournament thus far. Both of these things are EXTREMELY creative. I've been going back and forth on my decision a couple of times now. In the end I think I'm going to commit to Redline, because in addition to all it's bombastic and high energy stuff, there are a lot of little things that go really well, like the worm spaghetti pasta, and the folding candy tear up dollars. I bet I'm the only person who champions those particular parts of redline, but there you have it. It was the thing that made the difference in the end.

Round 3 Group B is now closed!

Lots of great matchups this time, some interesting results!

Mononoke edges out Kanashimi no belladonna 3-2.
Birdy Decode FINALLY manages to break its deadlock against FLAG. Even though I'm not particularly fond of it, I'm kind of surprised FLowers got no votes.
Madoka shuts down Utena 5-0. I certainly thought this one would be a lot closer than it was.
Cat Soup took out Redline 3-2. I think both were really strong, and almost voted for Cat Soup, but I'm actually kind of surprised it managed to take down Redline.

So this is the landscape as we enter our quarter finals!

Round 4:

1
The Tatami Galaxy 1 2 3
Vs.
Paprika 1 2

2
Serial Experiments Lain 1 2 3 4
Vs.
Gankutsouou 1

3
Mononoke 1 2
Vs.
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1 2 3 4 5

4
Madoka Magica 1 2
Vs.
Cat Soup 1

Round 4

1 Voting for: The Tatami Galaxy I hate voting against Paprika, and this is the second round of me doing so, but I think it is more of a brain melter where as Tatami is an eye bleeder in comparison. For the purposes of this tournament Tatami advances for me.

2 Voting for: Serial Experiments Lain I'm not going to go into too much detail with this one but I will quote myself from the last round Gankutsuou was in "I probably wouldn't have voted for ether of these to make it past this round but I still stand by my opinion that Katanagatari shouldn't have made it past the first round so Gankutsuou takes this one." I think I must be missing something?

3 Voting for: Mononoke As awesome as Birdy looks, especially during the fight linked I feel Mononoke stands out more and is memorable for its visuals more than Birdy is.

4 Voting for: Madoka Magica I believe MM has more variety than Cat Soup and I love the way in certain scenes its the characters that look out of place rather then the environment.

1
I would normally vote for Paprika because it is so over-the-top extravagant and a feast for the eyes, but Tatami Galaxy isn't just unique and daring, but it also manages a perfect tie-up between its special aesthetics and the main plotline, so it gets my vote.

2
I'm voting for Gankutsuou, even if I haven't watched it, because it looks stunning in every possible way. Lain has a very special look that works for the story it's telling, but Gankutsuou manages something unique that also looks fantastic.

3
Voting for Mononoke. Honestly, Birdy shouldn't have made it so far in this competition when the most it has to offer is an arguably good looking fight scene, that, as I've said before, to me looks sloppy and has nothing all that special going.

4
I'm voting for Madoka Magica because it's the one I've seen and because it has so many symbolic elements that tie the visuals to the story, which I find extremely important. There's the stark contrast between the cute and innocent character design of the magical girls vs the dark and chaotic look of the witches. There's also the SHAFT direction and the high style architecture of Madoka's town. Lastly, every individual witch has a unique look, and diehard fans have been able to crack the symbolism in that uniqueness and finding the stories of these witches hidden in their labyrinths.[/b]

1
The Tatami Galaxy 1 2 3
Vs.
Paprika 1 2

The Tatami Galaxy

As I said before Paprika's dream sequences are certainly bright and ambitious, but they're too busy (i.e. cluttered). The rest of the movie is not particularly special either. Whereas The Tatami Galaxy fills every single scene with bizarre but awesomely inventive visuals, and it has an aesthetic that uniquely belongs to it.

2
Serial Experiments Lain 1 2 3 4
Vs.
Gankutsouou 1

Serial Experiments Lain

I said last time that if Gankutsuou were made today it would still be groundbreaking, and I stand by that. But ya know, its visuals and design sensibilities aren't really integrated into the story/narrative. It's a very good story with funky visuals, but that's about it. The director is almost superfluous.

Lain on the other hand has the symbolism, has the long silent shots to establish mood, uses different lenses and so on, making this not just an anime with nice visuals but rather something with a strong directorial identity and design aesthetic. I think that's very important, and more worthy than a show where the art department were on LSD.

3
Mononoke 1 2
Vs.
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1 2 3 4 5

Mononoke

Poor FLAG, I miss ye. Birdy has some fluid fight scenes but that's all it has, whereas Mononoke's sumptuously intricate backgrounds and flatly-drawn character designs are amazing. And unlike Gankutsuou, Mononoke's visuals do carry a lot of symbolism, so it isn't just a pretty face.

4
Madoka Magica 1 2
Vs.
Cat Soup 1

Madoka Magica

Cat Soup looks really creative and I'm glad it was featured in this tournament. I've watched more clips than the one given with its nomination and I'd love to see more anime like it. However, I can't give my vote to it; Madoka Magica is just too good. The work that Inu Curry did is simply sublime and established what a mature magical girl show should look like. As I said last time, every scene is outstanding in the care and effort that was put in, and the aesthetics are integral to establishing the mood of the show and defining the dark world the characters inhabit.

1. Tatami Galaxy

Definitely seems to shine out in the surrealistic department. I haven't seen either of these but Tatami seems to have a more solid and daring visual identity.

2. Gankutsuou

Tough to vote for Lain when I don't have an understanding of the symbolism. Outside looking in it doesn't look nearly as special as Gankutsuou does.

3. Mononoke

Really pains me to vote against Birdy here but I'm taking a leap of faith and trusting dtm. If mononke is as rich in visual meaning as it seems to be in visual aesthetics then it is a strong competitor in which the visuals are more explicitly the point of the thing.

4. Cat Soup

I think this is the point at which Madoka starts to be a little underwhelming on comparison to the rest of the competition and while it doesn't matter, I'm still really struck by the variety and atmosphere presented in Cat Soup's nomination.

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