Ah, why not? I’m going to blog this series. Thanks to L.A. for pointing out that I missed this series. This series is basically THE powerhouse in animation-budget for this season, plus Yoko Kanno’s work is very impressive as well. The second episode was also much better than the rather underwhelming first episode, something of which I’m very glad. The series isn’t perfect: it still combines military with teenagers and characters tend to coincidentally run into each other (how often do you meet a famous pop idol that happens to be near anyway?), but I really like how the creators showed the fear in that female character’s eyes when she got dragged into the sky during the big fight.
The staff behind this also looks quite promising. The animation-company behind this series is Satelight. The thing with Satelight is that their most recent series have been really underwhelming. Their line-up from the past few years just consisted out of Shugo Chara, Kamichama Karin, KISS DUM, Angelique, Galaxy Angel-Rune and Glass Fleet. On the other hand, they DID produce the stellar Noein (which was absolutely beautiful), Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna, and two series with rumoured excellent graphics, but which I still have to see: Aquarion and HeatGuy J. It looks like they’re really trying to go back to their old roots with Macross Frontier, back to their quality-series. I now know why Kiss Dum, Kamichama Karin and Shugo Chara managed to win me over when they first aired: Satelight definitely know how to make graphics look good, it’s just the execution that was really buggy.
The other staff behind this series is interesting as well, but my biggest worry right now is Shoji Kawamori, the chief director. I’ve checked his profile on ANN a bit, and he’s really worked on a lot of different series, but mostly as the mechanical designs. So, yes, he does know how to produce good graphics, but I was a bit disappointed to see the series he directed before. While I can’t judge on anything of Macross that he’s done, I have heard some things about how Aquarion was to be a series with great production-values, but hardly anything else. Arjuna also could have been much better in my opinion, Spring and Chaos was a disappointing adaptation of one of Kenji Miyazawa’s stories because it didn’t know where it wanted to go, and in the end the only non-graphical thing that I can really praise him for is his role in the creation, screenplay and supervision (but NOT the direction) of Visions of Escaflowne.
Luckily, the director of this series looks more promising. He did some pretty strange series as a hentai-one, Saint Seiya, but his repertoire also includes episode 15 and 22 of none other than Noein (especially the last one was nothing but awesomeness), he directed Black Heaven (talk about something completely different) and strangely enough he was also behind the key animation of episode 11 of Ergo Proxy, which was without a doubt the trippiest one of that entire series.
So, yeah, this series can go both ways, but I’m interested to find out in which direction this series will go. This also means, however, that my Thursdays will be absolutely packed from now on. I’m not entirely sure on which other shows I’ll be blogging this season, but if Toshokan Sensou also has a good second episode, that means that I’ll be blogging SIX shows on the same day. I think that some kind of new personal record. So, you can indeed expect lots of activity from me around Tuesday and Thursday, while the other days will end up relatively quiet. Seriously, why do all the good shows air at the same time?!
Wait a minute, who is the director?
Is it Norio Matsumoto? Cause if it is then I am so watching this.
Considering how you tend to like a lot of series that are critically slammed (Avenger, Trinity Blood etc) you might actually like Aquarion. Btw did you bother to watch the tv broadcast of episode 1? Since Sheryl’s actions make no sense if you go off the Deculture/pilot episode.
Aquarion was (if you’re talking about what I watched), in my opinion, hilariously bad. The production was indeed good, but orgasmic gattai sequences and cheesy speeches and characters, coupled with a very generic mecha plotline – well, it just didn’t do it for me.
I would have loved it as a kid, but it was really hard to continue past the first episode.
Denizen: the Chief director is Shoji Kawamori and the director is Yasuhito Kikuchi.
Westlo: They changed the first episode? That indeed explains a lot. Thanks for pointing out.
Aquarion is supposed to be a subtle old-school super robots parody. Unfortunately most people didn’t get the intentional cheese and took it far too seriously. It’s still a show with faults, but very enjoyable, especially its second half.
Well, I do suggest checking out these shows by Kawamori (in this order), they’re worth a watch IMO.
Do you remember love? (movie)
Macross Zero (OVA)
Macross Plus (OVA)
..and yeah, the Frontier episode 1 broadcast version is different. Perhaps you may end up liking that one better than the one in December.
Honestly, I don’t mind Kawamori Shoji or Kikuchi Yasuhito, i think tey’re both great staff for the series.
What worries me the most is the series composition/script, Yoshino Hiroyuki, i think he would be better without Sunrise, but still his name makes me nervous all the time.
btw, quite a lot of staffs, espeically plannings and producers are from Sunrise.
I can’t believe you’re bashing Shoji Kawamori (who’s only going to “direct” the series) and didn’t even “mention” the scrit-writer.
Direction is only artistic, and you’ve already noticed how beautiful this series is. Rhere’s no point complaining about something you (should have) already noticed AND thought it was good. What you should worry about is the story, the scenario, the script ! And who’s going to write it ? It’s goddamn Hiroyuki Yoshino.
The guy who helped Ichirou Okouchi to write Code Geass’ scenario ! The guy who created the awful Mai Hime and the EVEN MORE AWFUL Mai Otome. The guy who helped creating awful Gundam Seed and the EVEN MORE AWfUL Gundam Seed Destiny ?
I think you should worry about the obvious and not try to find the near-invisible flaws in the good domains.
Windspirit: Regarding Shoji Kawamori: I was just surprised to see that the guy has worked on so many series, yet the series that I’ve seen that were under his direction all turned out disappointing, hence my worries. Of course, this can also be because I’ve never seen anything of Macross.
Also, what is “Series composition” anyway? I always thought that it was the general outline or something similar. I didn’t mention Hiroyuki Yoshino because I never really know what kinds of influences these people have. In my opinion, the storyboard and direction (of which I don’t agree that it’s just artistical, by the way) are much more important.
I think you should watch the movie “Macross – Do You Remember Love?”, it recaps very well the most important parts of the Macross Universe AND is a stunning piece of art.
And as for the direction, when I say art, I meant “execution”. For example, I’ll never blame Goro Taniguchi for making Code Geass because he’s only executing the script Hiroyuki Yoshino and Ichirou Okouchi wrote. Also, the storyboard doesn’t have anything to do with the script-writing : it’s just a series of illustrations to illustrate a very general movement, to which they add in-between animation.
Here you go : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard
All of this is “execution” : they’re “executing” something they are given, and they are given the script. The script is the same as writing the story of the episode : “The dude said that, then he quits the room, slamming the door”, etc. Actions, dialogues, etc., everything is written in there. The series composition is, I think, the general progression of the story, the characters’s role and issues, the plot’s layers, all the base on which the show will stand on. They take “parts” of the general idea and create scripts of episodes out of it, imaginating scenes for development, etc.
So… yes, I think you SHOULD worry a lot about the “source” of all, which is the script. And the script for this series is done by Hiroyuki Yoshino, who’s a typical Sunrise writer, and well all know that Sunrise, since Bones’s formation, is made of pure fail.
Windspirit//But MarcrossF episode 2 was a really unusual aproach for Yoshino Hiroyuki and I was quite surpirsed that he actually wrote this. Yeah, i also don’t deny that what he has been written aren’t really that impressive but I feel like he won’t turn out too bad this time.
Man it’s just an anime. Let’s not worry too much and just enjoy as much as we can.
Yeah psgels the broadcast version of episode 1 cut out… roughly… 6-7 minutes of stuff and inserted the OP as well as a few other new scenes. Like the thing Sheryl is watching on her tv while reviewing the performance the night before. Having Alto mouth of at Sheryl actually makes sense in the tv version as opposed to deculture where it kinda came from nowhere. They also really play up Sheryl’s diva/bitchy attitude which just telegraphs her warming up/being less of a diva eventually.
The first DVD/Blueray is going to have a 32 minute version of the first episode in addition to the Deculture pilot.
guys what should i do to watch the 2nd episode
i mean i dont know how to download it from here ??help