Forum - View topicFlowers Of Evil (TV).
|
Goto page Previous Next |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
|
||
|
I can see how fans of the manga would feel let down by this to say the least, but since I haven't read it and am not attached to it, that's not a problem for me. My problem is that the animation and character designs were the most interesting thing about the entire episode. This was 20 minutes of relentless boredom. Sure, that's realistic, but I can get all the relentless boredom I need from my own life.
And it really doesn't help things when the symbol of "evil" in this is the goofy kooshball mascot from Hakkenden. I guess Hana's is evil because it has unruly fur... 
I would have said the iconic image came a few seconds later when they did the close up of her eyes. I really got the sense of murderous intent from those eyes. Plot-wise, that was the only truly interesting moment of the episode for me. I'll give it another try to see if it can improve, but it's looking doubtful. |
|||
|
|||
zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
|
||
|
Man, I don't often feel a need to comment on things being fugly, mostly because my standards for that are incredibly low, but this is downright fugly.
Now, the idea of rotoscoping actually doesn't bother me. It didn't in Trapeze, but Trapeze was based on novels, not manga with well existing character designs. Also, it didn't use flat out rotoscoping most of the time, it combined it with other things (the closest to complete rotoscoping would've been the nurse in some scenes I think). Of course, they also made that one psychiatrist guy look like a South Park cutout. But they also mixed it with more traditional animation and whatnot, so it was a weird mix, but never hideous, and so I got used to it. The idea of rotoscoping here though does bother me because when you rotoscope to a certain point, why not just make it live action? Or was the objective to be perhaps as fugly as possible to make the audience feel uncomfortable, I'm not sure. Will the animation stay this fugly throughout? I mean, if they wanted more realistic characters, you can still use traditional animation to do that, the Colorful movie had more simplistic character designs and it never looked fugly. But I also don't feel like this is the manga that deserved to look like this. Isn't there some strange indie manga that could have this done to it? Also, the director worked on Mushishi? Now I'm just really confused! I've read two volumes of the manga, it's not really for me, but this can't possibly be for me any more than the manga is. I'm detecting a bit of The Last Airbender syndrome here in which fans dislike it for one reason, and people who haven't read any of the manga dislike it for others, but we're all left crying in a corner just the same. |
|||
|
|||
|
Svidrigailov
|
|
||
|
Well I for one thought the first episode was pretty brilliant--granted, I had no prejudices since I haven't read the manga. There's a very lonely, introverted feel to it (aided in no small part by a sparingly applied minimalist score), the characters provide the audience with information through (in my opinion) relatively natural conversation (which I find to be something of a rarity in many anime) without resorting to explicit narrative exegesis, and the rotoscoping provides--aside from the life it breathes into a work--a compromise, meeting us halfway between the 'ugliness' (I'd prefer to say 'less idealized depiction') of reality and the 'prettiness' (likewise, 'more idealized depiction') of the typical anime. I'm very much looking forward to the next episode.
I really don't understand all this hatin' on rotoscoping. The arguments being put forth seem to discredit a number of schools, not the least of which would be portraiture and photorealism (if the point is to be as realistic as possible, why not just take a picture, no?) |
|||
danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
|
||
|
Since I have been actively defending art choices in Spotlight thread,I thought I should post here some negative sides of it.First off is the disappearing faces thing that appears quite frequently and completely ruins the mood.Now I think this was created to show us when people appear close to us, their features appear more prominent ,which was pretty smart however things dont pop up just like that in real life and it ruins the tension.Also voices of actors didn't synch up with movements of lips.But overall the look of those actors(this is rotoscoped),the stares that they give improves upon the creepiness of original.Now somebody might ask why hasn't this been made in live action.Well other posters have already answered half of that question,I think one of the reasons this is anime is because of lighting,here director made this place shine so much that it actually turns into this muted gray color.These results are very hard to turn in live action,unless you are Werner Herzog (see The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans).
I see that a lot of people have complained about pace and no plot in this episode,well that was quite intentional.You see the protagonist here feels that place in which lives is monotonous and that his life repetitious. Now director here brilliantly showed that by reusing the same footage of rotten structures in that town,having protagonist walk in the same pattern to school,even dialogue with his friends contributes to this emotion.You also get glimpse of his loneliness and his desire to break free from city.There is scene near the end of this episode when main character just looks at hills ,you never hear what he is thinking but you know exactly what he is thinking about. The use of music was quite good as well,that minimalist score creates an amazing atmosphere.Acting too felt very natural compared to most animes,emotions were subtly and realistically played .There was one scene when character was waking up in his bed and you could hear the rustling of sheets.That too brought me closer to imagining this anime as a real life situation. People will hate this anime,no rather they hate it currently.But I think this is well done anime that overcomes its bad aspects with all of these contributions,Can not wait for more. |
|||
|
|||
12skippy21
 Posts: 785 Location: York, England |
|
||
|
Colour me intrigued. One thing this first episode did, if nothing else, was to make me start reading the manga. While not an awful lot happened I quite like the art style even if it was inconsistent, I do get bored of the same cutsey character designs.
While I am not as harsh on the first episode as others the pacing was off the mark and probably the worst part for me. I can say now the male lead will not interest me in the slightest but there is certainly an interesting female lead they have here. I shall stay tuned. |
|||
|
|||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
|
||
That was actually one of the things I liked about the animation. Maybe because irl I can't tell who people are until they get close enough to me to make out their faces, so it was pretty close to how I see the world anyway. Everyone's just a blob until they enter a certain range. Also, it couldn't ruin the tension for me since there wasn't any in this aside from the one scene with the teacher.
|
|||
|
|||
Riddley
 Posts: 536 Location: Ireland |
|
||
|
I haven't read the manga, but I think it's going to go on my must-read list now.
Remember guys, anime aren't meant to be exact adaptations of the mangas just like the HP movies aren't meant to be exact adapations of the books. From not having read the manga, with the whole focus on Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil, the realism feel in the animation adds to it imo. I would say they could have done it better though. The blob-y-ness of the artwork makes all the characters blend in with each other. That might have been done with purpose though, and one would only know after the fact. The two characters that stand out are the MC and that girl with redhair (too lazy to find her name). Likely the reason everyone else blobs into each other? To focus on the two MCs? Keep in mind too that the directors didn't release character designs before the anime went live. That was done with purpose too. Either to hide what they felt was a mistake (not likely) or to make it a surprise for viewers and have that gut, visceral reaction (more likely). And as for the look of the girl, who said she was meant to be pretty? Maybe she is, but her attitude says otherwise. All I know is that the look she had in the anime was way scarier and more intimidating in comparison with the pic of the manga in this thread. That one just looked like an pissy hot teenager. In the anime she looked like she was going to kill him. |
|||
|
|||
Parse Error
 Posts: 592 |
|
||
|
I found the first episode quite enjoyable, but then again I also haven't checked out the manga yet. It managed to establish and maintain a very intense and creepy atmosphere without resorting to heavy-handed and cliched tactics such as frequent random shots of broken dolls or dead insects, which was refreshing not to mention far more effective. I can understand how the pacing could frustrate most people, there were several very Ga-nime-like moments where it paused for contemplation, but for me that only enhanced the mood. For now I'll have to stay away from the manga or else this will probably start to annoy me as well, but it will still be there for me to check out after the anime is finished, so that's simply a matter of patience.
|
|||
|
|||
walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
|
||
|
I agree, it's purdy ugly, but tolerable because I also haven't read the manga and thus have no set in vision of what people look like. It's also fairly easy to hear it's being voice acting in that naturalistic way, like I've seen the 80s teen dramas of Bobby's in Deep, To-Y, and Nineteen-19.
|
|||
|
|||
DKL
 Posts: 1941 Location: California, USA |
|
||
|
I've read the manga first and I remember that the first thing that I thought to myself was: WOW... these people are too attractive, too clean-looking.
Even the animation is interesting to me particularly because of a lot of the visual acting (how people move around, hold conversations, get out of bed... even how people took tests felt really expressive). Really digging what I've seen of this so far. I like how it mostly looks like the main dude is living a normal life, but you can feel it in the air that there's a certain dissatisfaction to everything that's not entirely obvious (he hangs around a group of friends... but is he really there with them?). I like it, and even though I know that I'm suppose to take it as an original take on the thing, I am genuinely curious if they're going to maintain some aspects of the original author's sense of humor (dude treated those gym clothes like the corpse of the person he murdered... it was amazing). |
|||
|
|||
chrisb
 Subscriber Posts: 617 Location: USA |
|
||
|
The anime gives off a much better atmosphere than the manga. The anime throws you into a very unsettling world and the art style really helps. The manga just felt "off". If nothing else that ending song was amazing.
|
|||
|
|||
ZorgonXtreme
 Posts: 251 Location: Anchorage, AK |
|
||
|
I always wondered what Anime would be like with ugly people that seem to live in the deepest dip of the uncanny valley and now I know.
The backgrounds are pretty, at least and the weird mood intrigues me, but I honestly don't know about the rest of the show. It's like, "Oh, this so-and-so chick is the hottest chick in the school" and then her face is 50% teeth. |
|||
|
|||
|
wm4
Posts: 42 |
|
||
|
Here is my opinion: IF IG PRODUCTION WANTED TO GET A DECOY TO TRY OUT SOMETHING, THEY SHOULD
MAKE AN ORIGINAL PLOT OF THEMSELVES, NOT F***K SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK. It's really insulting to the original manga author to make that crap and claim it as being based on original. |
|||
|
|||
|
walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
|
||
|
Apparently the mangaka wanted this too, for some reason, it's only pissing off the fans of the manga, who are never allowed to hate adaptations for, also for some reason.
|
|||
|
|||
|
Svidrigailov
|
|
||
|
About the disappearing faces thing, I think it's more a function of the use of a single pen diameter than anything else; at a certain point, facial features will get muddy and incomprehensible.
Who said she was the "hottest" in the school? I like that the protagonist's object of affectionate furtive glances is someone other than a generic pretty-anime-girl--for the same reason I prefer "my mistresses eyes are nothing like the sun..." to "how do I compare thee." |
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group