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v1cious
 Posts: 6281 Location: Houston, TX |
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now i normally don't like to judge things too soon... but i gotta say so far this series is incredible. Bandai's gone a completely different direction here, this might be a landmark for storytelling in anime. the way it's executed reminds me a lot of Metal Gear, even the mecha looks similar. also this series has an certain authencity you never see, like the sound of the weapons for instance. i expect this one's gonna be big.
Last edited by v1cious on Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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Damn I was just about to start a topic on this series too....anyways I am with you on this V1cious. I love this series already from the start. Spoiler throught episode one just to be safe. spoiler[Wow I love how a majority of the show was shown throught the eyes of a camera. As someone who always has their camera with them it's so nice to see the story being told throught the lens that can't lie. The characters (well so far) seem to be interesting, but only time will only tell. Much like you noted with the mechs I had that same feeling about metal gear. It's much like that first time (in original PS game) you saw Rex in MGS, you had this sense of how powerful this mech really is. Also the sounds are dead on in anime, when that rocket goes off and people are screaming, and soliders are hitting the deck looking for the hostile. Sounds are very powerful. ] One thing that this anime reminds me of Iraq, (except no UN help) with government trying to bring peace to a country in turmoil. Till next time, Delta Kiral |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 12083 Location: Frisco, TX |
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I saw the first couple of episodes the other day, and I'm sort of iffy on what to think.
The directing and camerawork are one of a kind, that's for sure. The art is very realistic and the animation is also quite fluid (great job on the CG). The music adds a nice foreign twist to the atmosphere and really accentuates the separation of this title from your usual anime. But because they try to tell the story from all of these in-show cameras, I feel like I'm being limited in the "scope" of what's really going on. The plot sounds simple enough having to retrieve that flag, but where's the "focus?" Is it on Shirasu, Akagi, or are we supposed to observe the story and have it complimented by narration? Judging from the presentation, I feel there's a very high potential for the writers to put in a lot of symbolism and that sort of thing. But like I mentioned, it feels a little constricting when all we can see is this first person-esque point of view. Then again, it's only 2 episodes. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but at least throw in some monologues or something, yeah? Almost feels like the first episode of Texhnolyze... |
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Deltakiral
Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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I really like the music, and as noted before the sound effects. You feel like your in the moment of fight, you feel the ground shake.
Look like we are having the polar negative of one another. I see the camera as outside the box, meaning the characters are there but the camera tell the story and they don't lie. Narrators can misque a story and bend and shape it the way they want it to sounds. However Cameras don't lie they can only show us what they see, and for me we are seeing the real people are. As to focus it's on Shirasu and human being in general (thus far) I thought that in episode 2 spoiler[we really got the feel for Shirasu character as she was learning what life is like in the military and the politics surrounding it. Specifically in episode 2 when she takes that picture of herself at the end. It's like the before picture and I think that towards the end we'll see what the after looks like.] I think that part of the story and the development of her character.
I agree here, I think that we are already seeing shades of our (USA) current war in Iraq, what did we accomplish and what are we doing for the good of people. But as time goes on I think that anti-war feel and the destructive effect it's has on the soliders and reporter will be shown, or at least I think. Till next time, Delta Kiral |
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v1cious
Posts: 6281 Location: Houston, TX |
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i see where he's coming from. it did bug me in the second episode that spoiler[she didn't get to go on the mission, and we only got to see the footage taken from the mecha.]
that aside, i still think this show is sheer brilliance so far. i can't wait to see where it's going. |
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Ragg
Posts: 144 |
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What is Flag more leaned towards? Is it more military action, or is it more drama developed. Although I believe plot is extremely important, lots of talk doesn't really appeal to me. That's why I quit on Monster. How would you guys describe it? I've read the description in the Encyclopedia, but that doesn't really give you an answer to my type of question.
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v1cious
Posts: 6281 Location: Houston, TX |
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so far there's not much action but i've only seen two episodes, so that could change down the line. the show is mostly focused on the world as seen through the eyes of the photographer. it's really well done. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12083 Location: Frisco, TX |
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There's very little of anything at this point. The dialogue is mostly narration and some snippets of conversation from a first person view, the action is mainly a glossy lookover of a giant mech, and the drama is next to non-existent. However, what stands out is the cinematography. It's basically the accounts of a war through the eyes of two photographers and the lenses of their cameras. Kind of like what you'd expect to see from a CNN cameraman, but without the reporter. It's something I haven't really experienced in anime, but is also something I consider very experimental until further progression. It looks cool, but that's about it so far. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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Well, you know how lots of anime fans like to say "There can be lots of different kinds of anime! It's not like American cartoons where they only make kids comedy shows! There's anime about cooking and ninjas and high school relationships and .... there's anime about almost everything!" I guess you could say this is one of those almost everything titles. Flag is the first photojournalism anime. (Until dormcat shows up and tells me I'm wrong.) There's actually NOT a lot of talk because the images do most of the storytelling. However if you were expecting some kind of Full Metal Panic military-otaku fanservice, this isn't it. It's much more realistic (*coughcough* except for the mecha) and based a lot in believable political and military situations. |
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Ragg
Posts: 144 |
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Well I got ahold of the 1st episode, and I dropped out at 15:00 minutes. maybe it's cause it is really uncomfortable in this chair, but I did find all the different ways of view very interesting.... However, I don't think I'd keep going with this one. Just me, probably not everyone else.
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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Having seen the first episode of Flag, I can sort of understand your comparison but I think Texhnolyze is far more effective. Maybe it's because I'm into film in general, or that I love cerebral stories, but the first episode (or in general the first 5) of Texhnolyze that everyone found so boring just amazed me. The singular focus of the narrative in that episode was effective enough that it didn't need much dialogue in my opinion: the events on screen spoke for themselves, and what was left untold made it even more interesting. The initial episode of Flag was good but no where near as effective as the Tex opener. The series is clearly trying to make some big statements about the current state of the world, but at the moment it all comes of rather predictable. It never really focuses on anything, be it the reasons the country in in turmoil, the role of the international community or even the main character's personal role. While the lack of grit made it a bit off-putting, it was a good intro the the situation and I do hope that the series can focus in on the main character's story; addressing international issues of war is a great topic, but unless they're willing to take a "Battle of Algiers" approach I think there's a limit to how effective it would be. As for the actual storytelling, it was facinating to say the least. There were times when it helped the narrative quite a bit, and times when it was unessisary and disorienting. For all the realism they couldn't resist filming the mech scene with multiple camera shots and action-film cutting, which urked me a bit. Still, it seems to be working most of the time (and I'm sure it does wonders for their budget), so I'd like to see where they take it. Anyways, I'm interested to see where they can take it and hopefully create an exellent series. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I'm a huge Takahashi (Creator and Executive Director) fan and am really looking forward to this series. Most of his projects seem to share much between each other. Doesn't this series show any visual styles with Gasaraki? Does the plot show any similarities to Blue Gender? I love the visual look in Gasaraki, and hope he also incorpotates it it his forthcoming Votoms series. According to amazon this series is also mastered in HD, widescreen and 5.1. The DVDs should be very impressive, and hopefully will be released in a HD format by the time it hits the US. |
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adonais
Posts: 302 |
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Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but, FLAG 05: getting down to business. After a couple of sleeping pill episodes, this series looks like it's finally ramping up, and espisode 5 actually grabbed 100% of my attention. I tried to characterize the series a while back and was stumped; it's not really action, and not much of a drama, certainly no romance; no suspense, really, and certainly not a comedy. And the whole camera viewfinder thing is getting really old already (all right, we get it, they are [phe-tah-gruh-phuurrs]...give it a rest already). I don't really know what it is. So how come it's so fascinating?
Maybe the realism of it all (apart from the HAWVCs, though I might have misspelled that), that this could essentially happen today, or even have happened in the past. Anyway, liking it better and better. Did it occur to anyone else that the current administration (US) could take a few cues from FLAG...like, lessons learned, or smth (except they would invariably fail to draw the right conclusions as usual). But maybe that's speaking too soon 
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