Another episode has come and gone. This episode marking the first casualty of the holy grail war. Looks like Rider is out of the running. It is a bit sad to see her go so unceremoniously and even defeated off screen. Well, we shall see you again in the upcoming heavens feel movie, where you are sure to have a more substantial role. Shinji also fulfils his most important role as a character, that being giving the audience immense joy to see him get his ego some much needed bruising. It’s hard not to smile when seeing Rin kick him down a peg or kick him down literally. Speaking of Rin, I am not normally a fan of tsundere antics and there is the possibility of me being biased due to my love for this series but I did find her scene of bashfully dragging Shirou to eat lunch with her to be most amusing, and somewhat adorable. The two do have a chemistry onscreen that I feel is better than the Saber and Shirou dynamic. The current relationship between Shirou and Saber is far more fitting than that of the shy, overly awkward lovey dovey atmosphere of the Fate route that quite honestly irritates me to the core. While there may be moments of Shirou being overly aware of Sabers femininity, it really is a relationship of mutual respect. It’s far more respectful to her character than putting her as a love interest. Put simply, Saber makes a better friend than a wife candidate.
Shirou was also quite different this episode. The start showing him having a dream of getting torn apart by swords in his body. I get the symbolism but I feel the execution could have been better. It couldn’t really help looking very silly to me. I think this scene could have benefited from a little gore, or at least making the scene more horrific. Still it’s nice to see something signify the changes in Shirou. Cause he certainly has changed. One by annoying Saber in training because he started adopting Archers fighting style and managed to Saber to start taking him seriously. And two by being very proficient in battle against Casters familiars. He has definitely leveled up in battle prowess. Inception foghorns in the BGM notwithstanding, battle scenes remain a treat with a number of CG dragon bone warriors being the cannon fodder.
Now it is true that anime CG has always been not really a pleasant sight as it never blends with the animation. Still, I would consider UFOtables CG to be excellent as while the bone creatures do not blend in, at least they are not horribly alienating. I find the main problem with CG in anime has to be with movement. More often the movement of CG characters is stiff and unnatural. It becomes most apparent in human CG characters. Hence the reason why it’s be used on robots or mechanical vehicles. However the often stiff movement of anime CG works in favor here as the creatures are undead skeletons, so naturally their movement would be jittery. Adding something computer generated into another medium will always look unconvincing but at least here it does not hamper the experience. I only wish modern horror movies would take this fact into account. This episode ends with Rin questioning Shirou’s unnatural calm with dealing with horrific situations and Shirou dropping a line that shows he’s more that meets the eye. Next episode looks to see everyone’s favorite fake priest show up so till then I bid you adieu.
“stiff and unnatural” Probably because the original source plays at 23.976fps. If it was playing at like 60fps (with frame duplicating and stuff like that) the 3D CG would look smoother. I mean, I’ve seen some 60fps video files with shows like Sidonia and it looked great! I mean, it “looks” a lot smoother compared to its original 23.976fps. But, alas, the original source is, again, played at 23.976fps so the 3D CG animations don’t look that great.
Interesting. Is there anything really stopping them from using 60 frames per second? Like I say that if there were playing it at higher speeds than they would need to draw more frames.(I don’t think Duplicates and motion tweens would be enough to cover the excess) CG is generally an animation saving technique so if they were going to give it that much detail then they might as well just make it 2D instead.
Sidonia did have better CG though the characters suffered from uncanny valley. There was also the problem that characters really stood out when they stopped moving. I remember quite a few scenes where characters were talking and some other side character was just so very still. Almost like a statue.
I think the problem is that rendering animations in 60fps would take a lot of time and money to do all of it. Not to mention all the frames they have to make. 😛
Someone’s overconfident in their abilities
In terms of 3D CGI, it continues to improve as people are starting to incorporate 2D sensibilities into the work. A lot of backgrounds that look painted may in fact be rendered in 3D with texture mapping, and the technology on continues to improve in the way it is used, especially with some features moving towards a stop-motion route.
Still, while there’s been some notable progress in 3D CGI (this season especially), I have to be disappointed in the CG work this episode. After Expelled in Paradise and F/Z’s Berserker (a lot of work was put into animating him), I can’t help but balk at how the CGI just goes with the “photorealistic clashing with the 2D” route other shows take.