Forum - View topicANNCast - From The New World
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Thank you as always, chaps. What striking praise for this show! An abstract, draining, purposefully obtuse, horrifying and surrealist dystopia will most probably harm me, but in spite of seemingly every major plot point being spoiled with relish, I shall still try to watch a small handful of episodes to see if it is as rewarding as you claim.
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helln00
Posts: 106 |
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very nice podcast of one of my favourite show, i think i just signed up for this.
one thing which i would like to say about the show though which i think has been mentioned but i would just like to get out. when it was mentioned that a point or moral of the show was that human had all of these violent subconcious tendencies and how human intellect is the thing that help bring this beast under control and to a certain extent i disagree with that as atleast in my interpretation and i think similar point was said was that the "logical" and scientific controls that are imposed by their society that repressed their emotions and subconcious and enslaved a class of people leads to these outcomes and so them ignoring their emotions and subconciousness and actively trying to suppress it with their conditioning leads to all of their problems and that they need freedom to their emotions and their madness as individuals and as a society to function. this is a point that is also strong within brave new world and with other scared of impact of technology and science sci-fi that i think is the message of the show |
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unitmikey
 Posts: 286 |
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This show really was kind of awesome. I think the reason why a lot of the exposition was tolerable was because of how the director used the atmosphere for amplification during heavier dialogue, like the use of shadow over the kids when they are talking to the slug monster thing towards the beginning. Composition of shots was just really great in general.
Then of course it also just worked so well because of how much they threw in there with the story. I was not aware of the free love thing coming at all and I think it worked well in the world-building process. Even if you don't like the whole artistic aspect of the show, FTNW is just compelling because it's never really clear what is going to happen next. It manages to bring unpredictability to a plot that is actually not that innovative (the twist involving the rat people was almost too obvious imo, but well-done nonetheless). |
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Vanadise
 Posts: 493 |
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FtNW is criminally underappreciated. It's easily one of my favorite series, period. (and I was trading fansubbed VHS tapes in the 90's)
I remember watching fansubs of it when it came out, and the ending left me stunned; Daisuke Namikawa's performance as Squealer at the end was amazing. I bought the Blu-rays when they came out and watched through it again recently, and I think I enjoyed it even more the second time. The first few plot arcs seem a bit disjointed when you're first watching the series, but after you've seen the entire series they tie together impressively well. Occasionally the animation is a little sloppy, but that's really the only complaint I've got. I recommend it to pretty much everybody. |
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bemused Bohemian
Posts: 404 Location: central Mizzou (Moral Oralville) |
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When the series finished on Crunchyroll a few years ago there was a fan poll held in the anime forums with limited participation (contest open to all where few assert, opine, actually vote). Out of the seasonal releases at the time this series was voted the favorite by the fanbase that participated. Thanks for validating the opinions of those CR members at the time as we took a lot of flak for that anime choice.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5424 Location: Iscandar |
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From the New World grabbed me from the start, and I was able to follow it weekly. I like the show a lot and feel a lot of admiration for it. This podcast has made me wonder If perhaps I underrated FtNW a bit.
I am glad to hear that you three (Jacob, Max, Zac) were able to appreciate this under the radar anime gem. And damn that stupid ecchi manga for potentially turning away many fans from the fantastic anime version. |
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GVman
 Posts: 729 |
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I watched part of the show before and didn't like it, but I think I may have judged it unfairly. I was in an anime club at the time, and I would miss a meeting here and there for schoolwork. Those missed episodes really took me out of the ones I was catching, and I probably just wrote it off quickly. Every time I look back on it, it seems like it's the kind of thing I'd like. Y'all've finally convinced me to revisit it.
But y'all thought the show looked good? Really? The poor art is probably the biggest reason why I dropped it. I don't remember anything about the show being visually striking; all I remember is bad CG, zooming in on characters' faces while they run so they won't have to animate everything else, and action scenes with tons of cuts to hide all the shortcuts. Maybe I was just in bad mood, but I certainly don't remember anything particularly stellar. |
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Ghost_Wheel
 Posts: 203 |
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I think what was meant there isn't that intellect isn't bringing the beast under control in a passive sense, that we suppress our emotions and subconsious desires and that makes the problem go away, but in an incredibly active one. That we as rational beings can create a societal structure in which we are allowed to be free and without danger, in which we can be educated and trusted enough to share ideas, in which we can be coherent enough to share a common, attainable, and stable vision. Really happy to see my boy Galap on this show, and the whole podcast was a wonderful listen. Keep up the good work guys! |
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raich8
Posts: 17 |
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Good cast, good show.
Am I the only one who laughed when Zac said "there's a lot of uh, tragic shit like that" ? |
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lordoffacepalm
Posts: 1 |
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Great podcast guys, I couldn't agree more with how you praise the show.
About the dub, the dub that Sentai Filmworks made is the definition of a mixed bag and it definitely gets better as the series goes on and the characters age, but at the start it's clear that the voice actors are straining themselves to voice 12-year-olds. This is especially true for Grag Aryes and Monica Rial as Satoru and Maria. They are still two of the best actors in the business so it's never dealbreaker but it is very noticeable. By the time the characters are teenagers everyone sounds much more natural, except for Clint Bickham as Shun who just...kind of...totally...blows , and thus ruins his character's climax. All of the other supporting roles are good to great (usually) with one notable exception. John Kaiser as Squealer is amazing. I cannot stress enough just how utterly mind blowing he is at this role, and I wish I could accurately describe him but you'll just have to listen for yourself. The only other role I can compare this to is Alessandro Juliani as L in the dub of Death Note, not that they sound alike, they don't, but in the sense of: "Oh my God this guy sounds amazing he even blows the Japanese out of the water, how did this happen." His role alone is worth suffering through the rough spots in the English dub alone, trust me, it's worth it. Just switch to the Japanese when Shun spoiler[ turns into a karmic demon] because he does not sound remotely convincing in the dub. |
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Alexis.Anagram
 Posts: 278 Location: Mishopshno |
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In contrast with the reviewers, I'm a bit surprised to see this so highly regarded. FtNW was one of the first shows I watched on Crunchyroll, and I remember going in with positive anticipation only to find myself massively let down. The details aren't the freshest in my mind, but I'm pretty sure it broke me somewhere between the silly humanoid rat creatures, the abundant, stilted exposition and the insulting queer baiting in service of the usual convenient, reductionist dissertation on how same-sex attraction is an adolescent phase (or something).
I did think it had a strong start, but I ended up getting the impression that it was torn between a lot of ambitious yet disparate plot lines and character arcs which it was ultimately obligated to manage through convoluted explanations as to why they were all occurring in the same universe. To be fair, I also have no love for The Hunger Games, more of an Ursula K. Le Guin fangirl myself. Maybe that has something to do with it.
I have to agree, I recall one of my earliest misgivings with the show was how stiff and boring the animation work felt the majority of the time. It didn't help that the show would carve out entire episodes to just dump background and context on the viewer. |
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GVman
Posts: 729 |
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As well as I remember, kids in the society are forced to be gay until they reach adulthood, where they are forced to be straight. I could be wrong; Zac, Jacob, and Max didn't mention anything about enforced homosexuality, instead saying it's this "free love" society. I might've misread the subs or something
I don't think the character designs helped, either. They're intentionally flat-looking, and I think stuff like that can look great. However, when everything else looks so lazy, they come off as lazy, as well. |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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From the New World sounded interesting from the description but I dropped it after about 3 or 4 episodes. It felt like I was watching a dark, slice of life show. That said, the setting and themes of the show are exactly the kind of the stuff I like, it's just the execution, at least for the beginning, really turned me off.
It was actually the opposite for me. I thought the first 3-4 episodes were pretty dull, just lots of info-dumping about the world. I also remember from the streaming reviews back then that the show had a lot of exposition heavy episodes. Anyway, I should give it another shot. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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^^It picks up as it goes on. I've heard other people complain about it having a rather slow start. I don't agree, but, yeah, the story does continuously pick up more and more as things are pieced together.
Ah, so Zac's tweet was not an April Fools joke. That makes me happy. This is one of my all time favorite series. Out of the several hundred anime I've seen, it is one of only like 8 or 9 that I have rated a 10. My avatar might possibly give away some of my love. As to the art. First time through, I wasn't a huge fan of it. At the time I was still more into conventional looking stuff, and it doesn't really look like that. I would have probably thought Tatami Galaxy looked bad back then too. Second time through, I really appreciated it a lot more. The backgrounds are often incredible, and the direction is very strong. Ishihama-sensei did his best with the resources available to him, and while the fluidity is lacking at times, the framing is extremely clever and when it looked good, it looked perfect. I have a number of wonderful clips from the show favorited on Sakugabooru. Takashi Kojima did some fantastic work, and can we talk about that ending? Like, holy shit, that is quite possibly the best ending theme I've ever seen. Shingo Yamashita just killed it. And Risa Taneda is heavenly. Combining them made something seriously special. |
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Dragonsandphoenix
 Posts: 82 Location: Malaysia |
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Wow, kinda surprised at the level of praise this show got. I did like the show and was looking forward to this podcast, but I was sorta coming in expecting some good things and some discussion about the problems with the pacing or tone. Not that I was disappointed with this! I loved hearing all of their thoughts on the show. I agree with Jacob, the show is good, but it did not fill me with too much emotions like my all-time favourite anime would.
I do think this is unique in the sense that it is not comparable with any other anime I've watched. Not to say that that automatically makes it a masterpiece, but it is its own thing which is pretty cool. Throughout parts of the show I did get the distinct impression that it was being adapted from a book, which was one of my complaints. The pacing was sort of slow, getting into the last third. The time-skips were handled well enough but they did feel a bit jarring. I think my biggest issue was Maria and Mamoru's child. Her existence threw me off despite the fact that she fit well enough within show's narrative. I think it just bothers me that Maria and Mamoru were killed off-screen. I honestly thought at least Maria would come back. |
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