I watched the first episode of what appears to be the so-called "Car Saga" of Utena last night. Man, the second you think you've got one metaphor figured out in this show, it throws ten more at you.
The one complaint about this show that I have so far is all the recapping and revisiting of past events. It probably wouldn't be so annoying if I was viewing this show the way it was originally formatted, serialized on TV over the course of months, but still. I appreciate that they try to add a different perspective to the events, like the revisiting of the Nanami episodes, but it didn't really bring anything to the table that I didn't already figure out. The episode at the end of the "Bitch Slap Saga" where they revisited all the battles against the council members seemed especially useless to me, save for a few glimpses of what was to come. In the end, I guess you could chalk it up as a creative way to save animation budget while still progressing the story somewhat.
Yeah, I usually have people skip episode 24 (the Nanami recap episode) entirely when I watch Utena with them. It's cute, but as you said, there is almost nothing that is actually significant to see in that episode other than the bit with C-ko and the three glasses dudes at the end, which as bits go, is not so terrible to miss. Episode 13 is a bit more significant for the reasons you stated, but yeah, otherwise it was probably just done to save budget. You kind of have to forgive a good number of things in Utena as a result of its shoestring budget. All things considered, though, they sure achieved a hell of a lot with their limited resources. It's amazing there aren't more pronounced flaws than there are.
The upside you have to look forward to is that the Cars Saga recap episode is probably the best recap episode in the history of recap episodes. I won't say more than that.
None for you if you're not wearing your Sebastian Dior Cowbell.
As for me, I'm about halfway through Ghost Hound. I'd passed over this series a million times and finally gave it a chance, and it was not what I was expecting. It's totally introspective, mind-screwy and has successfully freaked me out before bed more than once. Original concept by Shirow Masamune, directed by Ryutaro Nakamura (Serial Experiments Lain/Kino no Tabi), done by Studio IG (Ghost in the Shell S.A.C.). ...I found all this out and felt like some things made more sense. A little. Not much. If you're looking for a supernatural/scifi/horror that can't make up its mind as to whether ghosts are real or every character is just losing their mind, this is a good one. I hear the ending is anti-climactic, but somehow that doesn't surprise me much. It's freaky, but very placid.
The upside you have to look forward to is that the Cars Saga recap episode is probably the best recap episode in the history of recap episodes. I won't say more than that.
I kind of have to disagree. While the new animation scenes are excellent, it dosn't handle the recapped footage in an intresting way. I would nominate Macross's "Phantasm" as the best recap episode, because the old and new footage are integrated seamlessly and it makes sense that Hikaru would be reliving the experiences as he is having a fever dream. In short, Cars Saga recap is the second best recap episode in the history of recap episodes.
All that aside, I'm being real classy right now because I have "discovered" a huge backlog of noitamiA shows, specifically Nodame Cantabile. The sappy romance loving part of me has combined (like Getter Robo) with the classy and musical part of me to cement my love for this show. Also, Noda is hilarious. Savants are funny!
I recently finished Armor Hunter Mellowlink, which is set in the Votoms universe. The premise: give a dude an anti-tank/anti-mech rifle, and explore every fucking crazy way he can explode mechs with it. Gold!
That's the official spelling. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that's correct dude. While I don't know jack shit 'bout Cyrillic, that's how you'd spell it in Greek, with all capital letters. And Cyrillic is just a mod of Greek, if I'm not mistaken, so I would assume the alphabet was mostly the same.
That's the official spelling. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that's correct dude. While I don't know jack shit 'bout Cyrillic, that's how you'd spell it in Greek, with all capital letters. And Cyrillic is just a mod of Greek, if I'm not mistaken, so I would assume the alphabet was mostly the same.
Ah, you are correct. I mis-remembered. My bad - My Greek isn't great, I was expecting it to be ΠλανήÄε - because stupidly, I didn't account for it being in Allcaps - Most of my Greek Knowledge is rote-learned from books, and even then, it's not strong. Sorry about that.
Edit - Also, Goddamn, What the hell is up with your avatar? We need to be fixing that shit.
Just finished Asobi ni Ikuyo! Turned out to be great series. Especially in the harem/romantic comedy genre, a show can end really horribly and sour the mood. But with this show? Everything wrapped up swimmingly, and there was great action throughout it. Has a couple of cons, but it was overall really nice.
When the filler episodes are the best episodes of your anime you have a problem.
I think you're just mixing up which episodes are the filler and which are not. When you have hundreds of episodes, and only a handful aren't filler, that's the problem.
When the filler episodes are the best episodes of your anime you have a problem.
I think you're just mixing up which episodes are the filler and which are not. When you have hundreds of episodes, and only a handful aren't filler, that's the problem.
Not necessarily true. Also, some Googling tells me the one Sonic mentioned is indeed a filler episode.
Comments
The one complaint about this show that I have so far is all the recapping and revisiting of past events. It probably wouldn't be so annoying if I was viewing this show the way it was originally formatted, serialized on TV over the course of months, but still. I appreciate that they try to add a different perspective to the events, like the revisiting of the Nanami episodes, but it didn't really bring anything to the table that I didn't already figure out. The episode at the end of the "Bitch Slap Saga" where they revisited all the battles against the council members seemed especially useless to me, save for a few glimpses of what was to come. In the end, I guess you could chalk it up as a creative way to save animation budget while still progressing the story somewhat.
The upside you have to look forward to is that the Cars Saga recap episode is probably the best recap episode in the history of recap episodes. I won't say more than that.
That is all.
As for me, I'm about halfway through Ghost Hound. I'd passed over this series a million times and finally gave it a chance, and it was not what I was expecting. It's totally introspective, mind-screwy and has successfully freaked me out before bed more than once. Original concept by Shirow Masamune, directed by Ryutaro Nakamura (Serial Experiments Lain/Kino no Tabi), done by Studio IG (Ghost in the Shell S.A.C.). ...I found all this out and felt like some things made more sense. A little. Not much. If you're looking for a supernatural/scifi/horror that can't make up its mind as to whether ghosts are real or every character is just losing their mind, this is a good one. I hear the ending is anti-climactic, but somehow that doesn't surprise me much. It's freaky, but very placid.
All that aside, I'm being real classy right now because I have "discovered" a huge backlog of noitamiA shows, specifically Nodame Cantabile. The sappy romance loving part of me has combined (like Getter Robo) with the classy and musical part of me to cement my love for this show. Also, Noda is hilarious. Savants are funny!
http://www.amazon.co.jp/プラãƒãƒ†ã‚¹-Blu-ray-Box-5-1ch-Surround/dp/B0021ZMHTE
=/ Oh well, the show is great in SD anyway.
Edit - Also, Goddamn, What the hell is up with your avatar? We need to be fixing that shit.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/9875/avatarforumq.jpg
Also, Majin Boo, who I loved.