General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

[Drascin]

Yeah, early Nighteye characterization is probably one of MHA's few (in my opinion) writing fumbles. I don't mind a few fanservice scenes sprinkled here and there, but that tickle machine thing was slightly unconfortable for me, and I read and loved Prison School. And most importantly, it was eye-rollingly not funny.

Luckily this should last just another episode or two, then the worst parts of the characterization get toned down and Nighteye becomes a pretty solid character.

Nighteye in general was also kind of a spike in the comic having a message of "you need to suck up to terrible people in your industry to learn anything in it, and refusing to do this means you're not ready to do what it takes and be the best", which has not been making me happy.

[John Cribati]

"you need to suck up to terrible people in your industry to learn anything in it, and refusing to do this means you're not ready to do what it takes and be the best", which has not been making me happy.

Something something {Scrubbed} mutter mutter

[Cozzer]

Yeah, I think Nighteye was supposed to come off as overly strict and "kind of a jackass, but in a quirky and ultimately endearing way", but he ended up closer to "an actual jackass you'd want nothing to do with unless you're forced to" territory. He gets better once the story moves past the "new hardass mentor doesn't accept the main character" stage.

[uncool]

Netflix is doing a new Ghost in the Shell series, and just released a trailer, and...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbc8tdWe6lY

oh
oh god

[LaZodiac]

Oh that looks miserable. What the **** did they do.

[Rodin]

Ghost in the Shell: The PS2 Years.

[uncool]

My eyes could be deceiving me, but it looks like the literal only things that move are:

1. The Major
2. The jeep
3. a sand filter over the whole thing

Not even the damn trees and bushes move, even when they're the focus of the shot. It feels like they're deliberately doing the minimum possible animation. Were they about to lose the IP?

[-D-]

Netflix is doing a new Ghost in the Shell series, and just released a trailer, and...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbc8tdWe6lY

Memes back on the menu!

Anyone wants to do a Manga/Anime/Netflix adaptation?

[gomipile]

Okay. I just watched the Ghost in the Shell teaser and.... It wasn't that bad? I mean, I was expecting much worse based on the comments here. But... it was fine? Maybe a bit low-effort, but perfectly acceptable as a teaser.

[LaZodiac]

Okay. I just watched the Ghost in the Shell teaser and.... It wasn't that bad? I mean, I was expecting much worse based on the comments here. But... it was fine? Maybe a bit low-effort, but perfectly acceptable as a teaser.

Contrast it with other GITS stuff and that's thte issue. The original SAC was animated beautifully, and this...

Like, yeah, it's not BAD, but it looks like a student film. She looks to soft and generic, like she has no actual character to her. And while you could argue that makes sense given the type of body she uses, it still just looks so... basic. It feels wrong.

[Excession]

Contrast it with other GITS stuff and that's thte issue. The original SAC was animated beautifully, and this...

Like, yeah, it's not BAD, but it looks like a student film. She looks to soft and generic, like she has no actual character to her. And while you could argue that makes sense given the type of body she uses, it still just looks so... basic. It feels wrong.

Is the phrase "asset flip" applicable to anime? Because it looks like the background assets and character design were done by two completely different people. They're not even using the same cell shading.

Unity asset store shopping cart:
Dusty palm tree: $0.99
Sagebrush: $0.50
Ruined city: $10.00
Jeep, with working suspension: $5.00
Anime girl: $25.00

The character has no facial expression at all, and it's wierding me out. Plus, what is she looking at? She gets out of a jeep in the middle of nowhere, comments on how quiet it is, but doesn't look around at the scenery.

[uncool]

Okay. I just watched the Ghost in the Shell teaser and.... It wasn't that bad? I mean, I was expecting much worse based on the comments here. But... it was fine? Maybe a bit low-effort, but perfectly acceptable as a teaser.

Let me illustrate my point with literally the first example of an anime teaser I could think of, and one I don't think I've seen before. Here's the first BNHA trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIb3nnOeves

There's plenty of low-effort parts. The text, the pan on an unmoving All Might. But it has some moments that clearly say "We put effort in here. You will enjoy the animation" - and the low-effort moments are there to support those big moments. The composition of the punch at the end - every component works together to sell it. The background, the lighting on his eyes, his torso and legs, and of course the hand itself all work together to sell the punch. And some moments that point to character - All Might is the consummate confident hero with that huge smile over the shoulder. The hand cut that suggests a change from aspiration - a hand held out - to execution - the punch itself.

The BNHA trailer doesn't look like something popped out by a starting animation student. It shows polish and direction. The GitS teaser literally looks like amateur videos I've seen submitted to the early Saxxy awards, just with somewhat smoothed animation. The unmoving generic backgrounds, the simple animation of the few things that do move with almost no interaction, hell, even the cut that barely suggests continuity that clearly can't be there, and which isn't clearly thematically important. And that's not to mention how little character there is in it. She doesn't even look like she relaxes when she implies she should feel relaxed - and her screech to a halt doesn't go well with relaxation. It looks like a beginner's effort, with none of the care or love that went into the older series.

It may be just how we approach teasers, but this is our first introduction to the series' animation. It's something they specifically excerpted for our first impression. I expect the teaser to absolutely have some signs of high effort. So if the entire teaser is this low-effort, that seems to me like a strong indicator that very little effort went into the whole series.

[Reddish Mage]

Amateurish is an understatement. I’ve seen amateur projects that look like more effort.

Moreover, nothing about the video reminded me of GiTS. This could be anything.

[uncool]

Amateurish is an understatement. I’ve seen amateur projects that look like more effort.

Moreover, nothing about the video reminded me of GiTS. This could be anything.

Eh, she is recognizably the Major, and the tachikoma is on the jeep.

But other than that...yeah.

[Rodin]

I was serious when I said "PS2 Years". It looks like a PS2 era FMV from something like FFX. The textures are higher res, but other than that FFX FMVs actually out-animate this teaser trailer. A better comparison would be to PS3 era in-engine cutscenes where they're using already existing assets to build a video rather than animating a high quality video from scratch.

Hell, compare it to an actual video game trailer from several years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-stRXMhNgzA

[uncool]

From a pure direction standpoint: the non-text half consists of 5 shots. 3 very short shots, one short shot, and one long shot. The ruin-centered town shot, the upwards shot of the palm, the street-centered town shot, the desert shot, and the shot of the Major. All of them feel silent; none of them reinforce what she says at the end - if anything, the screeching stop detracts from it.

A quick rewrite: the sound must follow what she says. She has to start with noise, that slowly fades away as she gets further and further from the city or town. So in the rewrite, the first shot has her passing by a clear town square, with what probably should be voices. Second shot, on the edge of town, a few voices. Third shot, town in the background, a couple of voices. Fourth shot, somewhat longer, shows the desert as the Major slows to a stop, and the last voice dies off. Fifth shot stays mostly the same as the original - a bit shorter of a tilting shot; enough to show that it's the Major. Same line, but use the extra time to have the tachikoma loudly say something. It adds a bit of humor to remember, reminds us of some of the things we loved in the originals, and even builds the relationship between the Major and the tachikomas.

It's still pretty generic, but at least it has something to remember.

[Rynjin]

Nighteye in general was also kind of a spike in the comic having a message of "you need to suck up to terrible people in your industry to learn anything in it, and refusing to do this means you're not ready to do what it takes and be the best", which has not been making me happy.

Much like all of us, the people of My Hero Academia live in a society.

Bottom Text

[Tvtyrant]

Contrast it with other GITS stuff and that's thte issue. The original SAC was animated beautifully, and this...

Like, yeah, it's not BAD, but it looks like a student film. She looks to soft and generic, like she has no actual character to her. And while you could argue that makes sense given the type of body she uses, it still just looks so... basic. It feels wrong.

Some of the background elements are literally 2D. It looks a lot like TF2 or Crackdown, really boxy cell shading that gets muddy in the background. I'm not a Ghost in the Shell person, but the art is a full decade out of date.

[Cozzer]

I, uh. How could anybody think presenting that trailer to the public was a good idea? That was embarassing.

[Rynjin]

Jeez, I don't even like Ghost in the Shell and I'm embarrassed on behalf of its fanbase.

It's not quite Berserk 2016 bad, but the fact that that monstrosity even makes a glancing reference across your brain is damning enough.

[-D-]

It's not quite Berserk 2016 bad, but the fact that that monstrosity even makes a glancing reference across your brain is damning enough.

I think it's worse. Berserk had "some" animation. This is basically we animated Major and her car.

[HandofShadows]

I think it's worse. Berserk had "some" animation. This is basically we animated Major and her car.

"And we didn't do put that much effort into it."

Yeah, that's bad. But the two directors for the series are very talented and know the source material. I don't see ANY of their flair there. It's like it was put out by a third party as a stopgap or something.

[-D-]

Two directors, could be God Kings of the Eight Noble Paths, that won't mean ****, if they have a nonexistent budget and two 3D animator guys.

[ellenate]

@Golden Kamuy season 2 ep 1

can animal lovers watch this show?

at first, i just took all the hunting as a sort of realism, but with season 2's opening episode-

maybe the creator just likes gore.

---

stray dogs continues to be a strange show... (in a good way)

[LaZodiac]

@Golden Kamuy season 2 ep 1

can animal lovers watch this show?

at first, i just took all the hunting as a sort of realism, but with season 2's opening episode-

maybe the creator just likes gore.

---

stray dogs continues to be a strange show... (in a good way)

Okay so, you really need to specify what you mean exactly about Golden Kamuy being weird about gore.

Because yeah they kill a lot of animals but it's always with a lot of respect given to them, tehy use every part they can, and there's a lot of cool learning.

Yes they kill a lot of humans, but most of them are bastards who deserve it and on the whole it helps to contrast the "good killing" of animals.

Yes there is a man covered in human skin that he tanned and turned into clothing in the opening and yes it's unsettling and weird but that's just a part of the series; people are ****ing weird out in the wilderness with nothing to do but exist.

If any of this sets you off that's perfectly fine and I would encourage trying to watch it anyway, because I swear it's good. It's oh so very good. But no, this series doesn't have a weird thing for gore, it's just... very gore-y for thematic reasons, at times.

[-D-]

I just realized something about Demon slayer.

Spoiler

Show

Tanjiro's didn't kill a lower moon demon until Train arc.

EDIT: Spoiler fix and fixed Tanjiro's name.

[Rodin]

I just realized something about Demon slayer.

May want to spoiler that since the anime isn't there yet? I know it's technically true based on what we've seen already, but there's an implication there* that's a definite spoiler for season 2 of the anime assuming I'm reading your post correctly.

Spoiler: *

Show

that Tanjiro is going to kill a lower moon demon in the Train arc

[ellenate]

Okay so, you really need to specify what you mean exactly about Golden Kamuy being weird about gore.

Because yeah they kill a lot of animals but it's always with a lot of respect given to them, tehy use every part they can, and there's a lot of cool learning.

Yes they kill a lot of humans, but most of them are bastards who deserve it and on the whole it helps to contrast the "good killing" of animals.

Yes there is a man covered in human skin that he tanned and turned into clothing in the opening and yes it's unsettling and weird but that's just a part of the series; people are ****ing weird out in the wilderness with nothing to do but exist.

If any of this sets you off that's perfectly fine and I would encourage trying to watch it anyway, because I swear it's good. It's oh so very good. But no, this series doesn't have a weird thing for gore, it's just... very gore-y for thematic reasons, at times.

Generally speaking i put story over just about everything else.

that said, it's all inline with the story, so i wouldn't really label it as weird...

just gratuitous in the amount but i wouldn't drop it for that.

[LaZodiac]

Generally speaking i put story over just about everything else.

that said, it's all inline with the story, so i wouldn't really label it as weird...

just gratuitous in the amount but i wouldn't drop it for that.

If it helps any the anime toned down a lot of the gore. I guess this is what it means to live the Seinen manga high-life.

Also god I love the story of Golden Kamuy so much. It's so good.

[Excession]

Netflix released a teaser for another 3D animated show. The difference here is remarkable. I would love to see an analysis of why this works when the GitS teaser didn't. All I can tell is that this is good, but I can't work out the details of why.