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Most Aesthetically Daring Tournament: Nominations (ABOUT TO START)


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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:48 pm Reply with quote
SethMosrite wrote:
^ I would like to hear a justification for your vote against Nichijou.


Second. Nichijou was so daring that it flopped hardcore. And no, that's not sarcasm. Just goes to show the otaku audience couldn't handle it.
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:49 pm Reply with quote
SethMosrite wrote:
^ I would like to hear a justification for your vote against Nichijou.

In terms of animation it is the best show KyoAni has ever made , but I wouldn't call it daring really.
Quote:
Second. Nichijou was so daring that it flopped hardcore. And no, that's not sarcasm. Just goes to show the otaku audience couldn't handle it.

Flopped hardcore my ass, it increased sales of manga from 30 k to regular 150k.Disc sales amounted 2,7k , but it also had numerous box re-releases which significantly increased its sales.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:56 pm Reply with quote
danilo07 wrote:
In terms of animation it is the best show KyoAni has ever made , but I wouldn't call it daring really.


Consider how they could have played it "safe" by making it another Lucky Star or K-ON, but instead they really cranked up the wierdness and did all sorts of crazy visual gags.

danilo07 wrote:
Flopped hardcore my ass, it increased sales of manga from 30 k to regular 150k.Disc sales amounted 2,7k , but it also had numerous box re-releases which significantly increased its sales.


Really? I remember hearing there'd be no season 2 due to poor sales. I also remember seeing quite a few KyoAni fanboys hating on it.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar


Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16935
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:59 pm Reply with quote
Spastic Minnow wrote:
^^^^
Psycho

If they make it into the tourney each description will stand on its own. You should probably rewrite those so they just describe each show by itself instead of in relation to each other.

Maybe put commentary about the relative darkness of each outside of the description.

I suck at doing reviews lol. Always get caught up on how to properly express what I am thinking. I'll give them a shot though. Always feel my reviews sound...boring or simple.

I'm also going to throw in support for these shows posted after my nomination post.

Paprika
House of 5 Leaves
Lain
Metropolis
Samurai Girl/Bride
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Galap
Moderator


Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 2354
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:08 pm Reply with quote
Just a reminder, votes against need justifications.

Nominating: Birdy the Mighty: Decode

A lot of the less kinetic moments of this are in something like a conventional style, but in the action scenes, things transition to a wide variety of styles that have a sort of central theme; variations on a theme if you will. I’d say the general commonalities a lot of them have is exaggerated depictions of momentum and force, motion through 3d space, and weight and gravity. A lot of this is achieved through ‘rugged’ looking drawings and ‘off model’ animation.

One sequence was so daring as to piss a lot of people off: when the episode that contained it aired, it was met with such an outcry that it was replaced with something more conventional in the DVD version. Because the style featured such a departure from what came before (but only really represented taking the series’ typical aesthetic and turning it up to 11), and the drawing was so rough and boxy, people thought it looked bad. Here’s the original TV version, by Tomoyuki Niho, in all its glory. I love the way she springs up and leaps around in the moving background, and you can really feel the force of her jumping, landing, and smashing the robots. You get real insights into her mental state, too, from a combination of her facial expressions and the drawing style.

This part had an interesting intentional use of low framerate. I think I read somewhere that the animator timed the drawings according to a musical rhythm. I think it looks really cool.

I think everything culminates in the final fight of the series, which depicts extremes of momentum and force that I’ve never seen before or since. This and the earlier Tomoyuki Niho stuff were the things that triggered my interest in animation.

More video:
1
2
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Consider how they could have played it "safe" by making it another Lucky Star or K-ON, but instead they really cranked up the wierdness and did all sorts of crazy visual gags.

Even if if we take it that Kadokawa made "daring" business move by making a decision to adapt Nichijou (which they didn't), it is still only a daring business move not an aesthetically daring show.I think that an anime is abundant with random visual gags that you speak of , I can't remember the last I watched comedy anime without big dose of weirdness to back it up.
Quote:
Really? I remember hearing there'd be no season 2 due to poor sales. I also remember seeing quite a few KyoAni fanboys hating on it.

Yeah really, people continually exaggerate Nichijou's sales.
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One-Eye



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2261
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 8:27 pm Reply with quote
誤称 wrote:
Adventurous or audaciously bold, hence doing something simply masterfully doesn't meet the qualifications, imnsho.
Yes, but what is adventurous or audaciously bold? Can you drill it down further than that? Some may consider shocking violence on screen bold because of its grotesqueness, but is that really bold? Some anime fans eat that up with a spoon and would say yes (I'm not so convinced). I understand what you are saying about mastery of a style. Its a reason why Academic Art became denigrated. However, for the purposes of this tournament we are looking for things that are different, unique, perhaps uncommon and it can include perhaps one element or a variety of elements. Van Goh was a master of his style but I believe he managed to maintain his unique vision and refine it over time. So I agree that its not enough to be well polished or masterfully done, but mastery also doesn't preclude a work either.

Quote:
Personally, I'd also question the inclusion of things like Soul Eater where it isn't audacious to animate a successful manga in the same aesthetics as that manga. I'd feel the Flowers of Evil would be a great example of being aesthetically daring because it tossed caution to the wind, dared to redesign the characters and make the terrible (meaning awe inspiring) choice of rotoscoping the entire show.

Does that explain why I feel a lot of the shows being nominated simply shouldn't even be in consideration? For example Aria? Really? What breaks the norms there? Its an average moe healing anime, if its aesthetically daring, so is K-on....
Well I agree with you concerning Soul Eater and Aria, which is the reason I wont be voting for them. I also mentioned Flowers of Evil in an earlier post as well saying that it had a place in this tournament and the style chosen was brave on the creators part. However, how strong of a contender is it? Some might argue that rotoscoping itself is nothing new and the only thing daring was as you said the "choice" to use it. In that case perhaps something with a unique albeit refined style including several elements may have more weight? Maybe?

I'd also just like to point out if you aren't familiar with it is that part of the process of these tournaments is to nominate stuff and somethings will be voted up, some down and some wont make the cutoff list because of lack of votes. The ones that make it into these kinds of tournaments go into brackets often with a range from strong contenders all the way down to marginal. Usually marginal stuff doesn't make it past the first round or two depending on how many competitors there are. Strong arguments can influence how far a contender can go in the tourney and yes there will be some popular anime involved. However, as you can see by the reaction in this thread to some of the nominations its no guarantee that popular works will wholly dominate. I hope you participate, because the more diversity of opinion keeps everything fresh.

TsunaReborn! wrote:
You just had to ask Laughing . To be fair I did nominate it because of it is aesthetically beautiful but to me that is different as I personally haven't seen a show at that level so [to me] it is
Galap wrote:
striking
.
I think the underwater scenes and imageries are different (shown in Ex.3) as it is not something you would expect to see. The underwater world has four noticeable seasons and has a clear day and night cycles. In the evening they can see the stars clearly unlike something like this.
Here I am more than likely looking at the difference and uniqueness of the environment rather than the art work itself.
I don't have a problem with Nagi being beautiful. No that's ok. Something can be beautiful and different. The thing is that I don't think that its really pushing the boundaries of convention that much. It needs to go further to make me experience the ocean in a different way. So for this reason I think I have to:

Vote against Nagi no Asukara
Sorry, Tsuna. Sad
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rheiders



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 1137
Location: Colorful Colorado :)
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:00 pm Reply with quote
Sorry if this has already been answered somewhere, but does "aesthetically daring" only include visual elements? When I hear that phrase I also immediately think of sound design and music, but only visual elements seem to be under discussion so I wanted to make sure.

Voting for:
Serial Experiments Lain
Metropolis
Birdy the Mighty: Decode

Nominating:

Last Exile
This show successfully combines CG animation and traditional hand-drawn animation in an interesting way. The machines and many of the backgrounds are created with CG, while the character animation is generally done traditionally. While Gonzo used a lot of (generally bad) CG in their shows back in the day—Gankutsuou is a good example of Gonzo over-relying on bad CG—IMO Last Exile is the only one where it really, really works. The aircraft designs themselves are pretty unique and lovely to look at as well.
OP (Normally I wouldn't link to the OP to demonstrate a show's overall animation style, but I think this one gets it across pretty well.)

Summer Wars
The "real-world" parts of this film look pretty conventional for anime, and certainly aren’t anything new for Mamoru Hosoda. However, the Oz sequences of this movie more than merit a nomination. The avatar designs are a ton of fun and the overall design of the virtual world of Oz is extremely creative and aesthetically beautiful. The animation in these sequences is even more kinetic and full of energy than Hosoda’s normal style, which is saying something.
Introduction to Oz
King Kazma vs Love Machine

The Animatrix: “Kid’s Story”
Much like the movie it’s based off of, The Animatrix is mainly an exercise in style, and several of the shorts are pretty daring. This short has a very simple plot—following a teen try to outrun a group of Agents—so it’s Kazuto Nakazawa’s unique animation for the short that is the primary reason to watch. The semi-realistic but very sketchy style and highly kinetic, expressionist outlines create a uniquely frantic atmosphere that I’ve never really seen anywhere else.
Man, it's hard to find just clips from a seven-minute short.

The Animatrix: “World Record”
This is another style-over-substance animation short that tells a simple story about an Olympic athlete running a race despite physical complications. With the exaggerated proportions and movements of the main character, you can really feel his exertion as he lunges toward the finish line with single-minded determination. When he accidentally breaks through the Matrix through sheer force of will, you understand.
Running
Breaking out of the Matrix
---

I'll also point out that when I supported Soul Eater, it wasn't just for the spooky designs (though for me, art style is going to be a big factor in this tournament--as someone studying art and not animation, it just happens to interest me somewhat more^^). I love the way the show distorts and skews the backgrounds and perspectives to suit a particular mood. The show deals a lot with madness, and it's interesting watching as a POV character falls deeper into madness, their own proportions and the background around them becomes more and more distorted to match. It's a really nice touch and while I don't think this show will make it that far in the tournament, I do think it deserves a spot.

Oh, and for anybody whining about how Madoka Magica is just the same old SHAFT stuff (I disagree, but I'll save that for the tournament unless it looks like the show won't get in)--by that logic, we should just disallow any Shinbo show from being nominated because nearly every style element he uses frequently was borrowed from Ikuhara. "Another show did it first" just seems like a very reductive and counterproductive line of logic to use here where much more interesting discussions could be had about artistic choices and reasoning. So what? Which show did it better? What does the choice mean for each show? Why was the choice made in favor of other, perhaps more conventional options? Which show takes the choice further?


Last edited by rheiders on Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:11 am; edited 2 times in total
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 10:03 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:


1.) Nominated isn't bolded
2.) Title doesn't link to ANN page.


Fixed.
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SethMosrite



Joined: 27 Nov 2010
Posts: 173
Location: Boston, MA
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 10:29 pm Reply with quote
[quote="danilo07"]
Quote:
.I think that an anime is abundant with random visual gags that you speak of , I can't remember the last I watched comedy anime without big dose of weirdness to back it up.


I think it is clear to most that the aesthetics of Nichijou are more daring than average visual gags. The most memorable moments are the mundane events amplified to epic proportions or minimized until we see every detail but Nichijou goes far beyond that. I would point to the show within the show "Helvetica Standard", the "Like Love" and "Short Thoughts" segments. Also the photo-realistic nature shots inserted between scenes. Even the character models themselves are not static, KyoAni seems to have half a dozen different models for each character depending on the goals of the scene. Nichijou is "audaciously bold", especially for a slice of life comedy. In my opinion, it is more than qualified for a spot in this tournament.
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Akane the Catgirl



Joined: 09 Oct 2013
Posts: 1091
Location: LA, Baby!
PostPosted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 11:43 pm Reply with quote
Now Supporting:
Summer Wars

Before I make my final nomination, I would like to apologize for previously putting up Attack on Titan. I have made a huge mistake, and it shall not be made again. With that, please instead consider the following:


AKIRA:


If this movie has anything, it's budget, budget, budget. Easily the biggest strength the film has is it's beautiful animation and editing, brought to us by none other than the creator of the original manga, Katsuhiro Otomo. Particularly noticeable to me is the character animation, none of which I have ever seen in any other anime. Of course, you can never forget the action sequences or the creepy transformation scene at the end. Please nominate this. (And Bebop, why is nobody voting for that?)


Well, I couldn't find a good video. Instead, have a picture of Tetsuo's mutant arm.


Last edited by Akane the Catgirl on Sun Jun 22, 2014 4:25 am; edited 1 time in total
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TsunaReborn!



Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Posts: 4713
Location: Cheltenham UK
PostPosted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 2:57 am Reply with quote
One-Eye wrote:
Vote against Nagi no Asukara
Sorry, Tsuna. Sad


Laughing no need to apologise - I'm not taking any of this personally. This kind of tournament is very subjective - I can see why many would nominate against it but for me I would class Nagi as a little daring or different. That's why we have this voting stage to cut out the inappropriate nominations or very weak contenders.

Though I will throw some support for Akira - I was going to nominate it myself but it guessed that someone would do it and write it much better than I would Laughing
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:33 am Reply with quote
danilo07 wrote:

Ping Pong (Though designs are great, the animation has been so abysmal that it in my mind it was immediately crossed off.Moreover,Kevin Aymeric's backgrounds aren't as good as you would expect and most of the aesthetical appeal was directly taken from a really popular source material.Can we really say that anime is daring if it is following formula set out by the original manga?)


That would depend on whether or not the source material is supposed to be relevant here and as far as i understood the rules, it is not (correct me if i'm wrong)?
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Ignatz





PostPosted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:29 pm Reply with quote
Is no one going to nominate Kaiba and The Tatami Galaxy? Confused
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:36 pm Reply with quote
Ignatz wrote:
Is no one going to nominate Kaiba and The Tatami Galaxy? Confused

I might nominate them later , but if you want to be my guest.
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