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donhumberto wrote:

This. So much this. I thought I was the only one who thought Sawano is actually a terrible composer. I swear it, he manages to ruin almost every series he's in by copy-pasting the same ost over and over again. It's like he tries to draw all the attention to his ultra-bombastic music (which basically repeats the same motif every single time) instead of complementing the scenes, which is what a good composer should do.
It's such a pity with the huge amount of talented musicians making anime ost's he's currently the most succesful one... Sad

Sawano copy and pastes all his work? Laughing

Okay, then I want to point to a series especially to point out his range, look at the character songs for Kill la Kill, where specifically each of the characters bombastic to their different archetype, by which I mean they embody their archetype to the fullest. The character songs act as background music, and it is once you sit back and listen to them that you see how exceedingly different they are from each other, but how they each perfectly capture the character they are about, and can have an effect.

Ryuko's song (Before My Body is Dry) might be the obvious one you would think, with its song all about hyping oneself up and the working with her partner. But there are others you maybe don't think of like Satsuki's (Kiryuu G@ KiLL), which embodies her might of will and military and oppressive atmosphere. Sanegeyama's is like a sports festival under the nature of his arrogance but also discipline. Nonon's is a parade that reflects her girly charisma but also ruthlessness that she would pose to those under her and stand in her way. Mako's (Light your heart up) is super bubbly with a tinge of sadness, but also a super faith in friendship and a bit of awareness that betrays her otherwise simple placement. Ragyo's pretty much feels like it exudes her beauty but also her hugely oppressive presence that may eclipse her daughters and without effort. And Nui's, which is kind of my personal favourite, which embodies her sort of soft initial appearance with an undercurrent that something is not right, before it slowly seems to warp and show the true terror that beyond clashing with her cutesy appearance accentuates her as all the more terrifying.

All of those songs are quite different from each other, with their own instruments and air to them, that once you notice them propelled their characters up, you can find them on YouTube. It was really something I got into after I was done with the series and happening to be interested in one song before hearing them all. I really would not be surprise if Sawano has particularly something to stick his teeth into here which has clashes of characters from different genre and role within the genre which the music could take advantage of song types common to their genres which you might not even notice. That you are only really thinking of some of his OP, which I do think I can see how the OP here has some similarities to some in Aldnoah:Zero, which I don't think is out of place.

Gina Szanboti wrote:

I think this is going to be fun. But one thing that I wish they'd done would have been to hire different character designers for the characters that are ostensibly from different properties.

Neat idea, but I don't think it's feasible. I'm no artist, but I would think that one key to consistently drawing characters in an animated series is to have a consistent design style. Vary it too much and you're just asking for errors unless you have a situation where individual artists are assigned to animating individual characters.

Oh, and since Sentai Filmworks holds the license for a few other Amazon Strike titles, I wouldn't be surprised if they work out an agreement to distribute Amazon's other acquisitions.

zrnzle500 wrote:

Something tells me Mamika would be most disturbed by finding doujinshi of her, though I can't imagine Selesia would be pleased.

I'm pretty sure NONE of the characters want to see what fan-works have created for them. Except maybe that psycho-looking girl in the intro.

Morry wrote:

I'm pretty sure NONE of the characters want to see what fan-works have created for them. Except maybe that psycho-looking girl in the intro.

Of course, no more than anyone else would like coming across...such material made of them without their knowledge or consent. Though considering she was surprised an adult man had seen her show, I imagine Mamika would be most affected by finding out some view her character in a...different manner than the target audience.

I see people say this is a copy or what not, but it's the first time me seeing this type of anime. A reverse of the recent trends of Konosuba and Re:Zero where instead of the real into the fantasy, the fantasy is going into the real. And the way the characters have been handled has been well done. They aren't over exaggerating, but give the more realistic approach of analyzing the surroundings in order to survive. Especially when the Magic Girl realized that people were getting hurt and the surroundings were being destroyed because of her. So she realizes there are consequences.

As for the music, I really enjoyed it. Love to hear the OST when it's released.

Key wrote:

Oh, and since Sentai Filmworks holds the license for a few other Amazon Strike titles, I wouldn't be surprised if they work out an agreement to distribute Amazon's other acquisitions.

I'd considered that possibility, but the likelihood depends on what the nature of Sentai/Amazon's relationship is. Most (all?) of Sentai's titles are streaming on Strike only in NA only. Anime Lab and Crunchyroll have gotten a handful of their titles in Australia and Europe respectively, which suggests that Sentai were the original licencors for those titles, and likely approached Amazon as a streaming platform to compete with CR/Funimation (since The Anime Network exclusives have seemingly not gone over well). If it were Amazon approaching Sentai as a means to distribute/market series that Amazon had licensed it might be more likely, but unless this venture goes well for both parties I don't trust that Amazon will have much incentive to even release their exclusive shows physically.

Back on the topic of the show: I'm really enjoying it so far! I found the premiere to be entertaining but mostly interesting in potential and concept, but episode 2 won me over a lot more. I like that each fictional character seems to cop to their own, consistent internal logic depending on their origin. Meteora is an NPC who hands out information, and so she goes on longwinded explanations of ideas where the other characters keep asking her to Explain Further, etc. Mamika is from a kids' show where beating hearts and happiness into your enemies gets them on your side, and is also kind of a brat from being in a show that likely centers itself around her desires. They're not "deep" per se, but it feels like a lot of thought has been put into the context that would inform their actions and personalities, which is really refreshing in a show that could easily have just gone for flat stereotypes for its cast.

Key wrote:

Neat idea, but I don't think it's feasible. I'm no artist, but I would think that one key to consistently drawing characters in an animated series is to have a consistent design style. Vary it too much and you're just asking for errors unless you have a situation where individual artists are assigned to animating individual characters.

I'm not asking for radical differences. Just doing different kinds of eyes would've helped immensely, but as it is, everyone we've seen so far has the exact same eye design except for Matsubara and Final Boss guy. Hell, just give them differently shaped pupils or something. Atom the Beginning managed at least 3 very different character eye types in the first episode so it can't be that hard.

Also, experienced animators have already had to draw all sorts of design types, so tapping that experience for just enough variety to make the characters seem like they could be from different creators shouldn't be that hard, once the character designs are in place. But it's a moot point anyway, since they didn't do it. Smile

Key wrote:

Gina Szanboti wrote:

I think this is going to be fun. But one thing that I wish they'd done would have been to hire different character designers for the characters that are ostensibly from different properties.

Neat idea, but I don't think it's feasible. I'm no artist, but I would think that one key to consistently drawing characters in an animated series is to have a consistent design style. Vary it too much and you're just asking for errors unless you have a situation where individual artists are assigned to animating individual characters.

Yeah, pretty much. The character designer of an anime series normally also acts as its chief animation director, making sure that animation throughout the series stays more or less faithful to the designs. Situations where an anime has several chief animation directors are pretty common, but they're usually born out of necessity and/or poor planning rather than a deliberate pursuit of stylistic variety. Having several different character designers check the same cuts whenever they contain more than one main character sounds like a logistical nightmare for a TV production.

vonPeterhof wrote:

Key wrote:

Gina Szanboti wrote:

I think this is going to be fun. But one thing that I wish they'd done would have been to hire different character designers for the characters that are ostensibly from different properties.

Neat idea, but I don't think it's feasible. I'm no artist, but I would think that one key to consistently drawing characters in an animated series is to have a consistent design style. Vary it too much and you're just asking for errors unless you have a situation where individual artists are assigned to animating individual characters.

Yeah, pretty much. The character designer of an anime series normally also acts as its chief animation director, making sure that animation throughout the series stays more or less faithful to the designs. Situations where an anime has several chief animation directors are pretty common, but they're usually born out of necessity and/or poor planning rather than a deliberate pursuit of stylistic variety. Having several different character designers check the same cuts whenever they contain more than one main character sounds like a logistical nightmare for a TV production.

That's actually the way the majority of western animation is done, where everything is broken down by character rather than by cut. Of course there are advantages and disadvantages to this approach, but it is certainly something that can be made to work.

Gina Szanboti wrote:

I'm not asking for radical differences. Just doing different kinds of eyes would've helped immensely, but as it is, everyone we've seen so far has the exact same eye design except for Matsubara and Final Boss guy. Hell, just give them differently shaped pupils or something. Atom the Beginning managed at least 3 very different character eye types in the first episode so it can't be that hard.

Also, experienced animators have already had to draw all sorts of design types, so tapping that experience for just enough variety to make the characters seem like they could be from different creators shouldn't be that hard, once the character designs are in place. But it's a moot point anyway, since they didn't do it. Smile

But here is the thing, that although in their various works they would have different types of character designs in the line of eyes and such. In the creator world they should have elements of the same type of character design. They are not being Rodger rabbit toons appearing in the real world, they instead get mistaken as really good cosplayers, so there should be an element in their design outside of their outfits that grounds them in their new setting. And on that I kind think there could have been more work done to differentiate the perceived difference they would see when they look at them in the flesh to their sources. But I do think there has been a little in that apart from the anime she came from, pictures of her on the books did look visually different of Selesia.

There is a visual challenge that this show will have to represent these characters as being representative of their genre, but still believable that they are existing in the same space.

Galap wrote:

vonPeterhof wrote:

Having several different character designers check the same cuts whenever they contain more than one main character sounds like a logistical nightmare for a TV production.

That's actually the way the majority of western animation is done, where everything is broken down by character rather than by cut. Of course there are advantages and disadvantages to this approach, but it is certainly something that can be made to work.

Oh definitely, but I was specifically talking from the perspective of the present day Japanese industry, which is characterized by both an overabundance of projects and a rather limited pool of (largely freelance) professionals. Even if all the character designers are drawn from the same studio's in-house talent, much of the key animation will almost certainly be done by animators from other studios and freelancers working at home. Production assistants already have to wrangle dozens of overworked peoples' schedules, so adding the extra steps for checking each individual character could be a serious headache.

DuskyPredator wrote:

They are not being Rodger rabbit toons appearing in the real world

They're not? That was the impression I had with the first episode. That they are characters from entirely different settings that should clash with the 'real world' setting.

Megiddo wrote:

They're not? That was the impression I had with the first episode. That they are characters from entirely different settings that should clash with the 'real world' setting.

Different setting yes with characteristics to their setting, but I am pretty sure that they are not big eyed alien creatures with unnatural complextions that would look like this:

The creator guy in the episode said she looked like a good cosplayer, not something that they just walked onto the set of Space Jam.

Megiddo wrote:

DuskyPredator wrote:

They are not being Rodger rabbit toons appearing in the real world

They're not? That was the impression I had with the first episode. That they are characters from entirely different settings that should clash with the 'real world' setting.

The only one I've seen that would creep folks out would be the 'school girl'.
She looks to be another antagonist in her world, turned protagonist in the "real" world.

Watching episode two I was also wondering about what the characters "really" looked like. Like, everyone treats them like they're really good cosplayers, but when Celestia looks at the anime version of herself on the website, she reacts more like it's a photograph than an artistic representation...

I'm actually guessing this point won't be touched on at all though. It seems to be standard that anime within anime is treated as looking indistinguishable from the real world.

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