Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Generic #757858
 Posts: 1354 |
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Haven't watched much anime lately, but I finally got around to crossing off a few on shows on my 'Want to see' list.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt I propably would've liked this a more if the quality had been a bit more even and the humor a bit less crude, but a fun show nonetheless. Really hope Gainax and Imaishi (yes, I know he quit the company, but still) get around to making season 2. Rating: Very Good The Big O Visuals inspired by Batman TAS, great characters, awesome giant robots and a plot filled with mysteries. What more could you possibly want? And man, those last three episodes... 
Rating: Excellent Next I think I'll do something unprecedented and actually start following a new show as it's airing. Time for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure! |
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ManOfRust
 Posts: 1935 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Excellent post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I have little of substance to add, but I did enjoy reading your take on the series, especially within the context of your knowledge of and interest in the actual Yamato. This series is one that I watched on TV as a kid. Here in the states we had the heavily edited, dubbed version known as Star Blazers, and even in the late 70s some of the censorship that led to the banning of Requiem for Battleship Yamato lingers in the reworking of the original anime into the American broadcast version. Even the name of the Yamato was changed. I'm not sure if changes like these were made to make the show seem less "foreign" or if it was feared that references to the mortal enemy Japan of the 40s would be too controversial in a time where the legacy of WWII was, I think, much more directly a part of the American psyche than it is today with 30 more years of separation from the event. I rewatched the series a while back and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the show again, but I suspect much of my enjoyment came from nostalgia value. As you mention, the series suffers many shortcomings in comparison with more modern works, but here in the US at least, at the time of its release even the edited version was completely different from every other cartoon on TV. Today's kids are so much more sophisticated at earlier ages than we were, so it may seem ridiculous to think that this show seemed complex and mature, but at the time it had a feel that was so much more realistic and serious than any other animated work on TV that it was something special. One of these days I'll have to get around to watching the original, unedited version. Your fanservice picture of Yuki Mori (or Nova as she was known in Star Blazers) made me smile. Nothing like that made it into the edited US version of show! I think this is a show that can still be enjoyed as long as the viewer brings an appreciation for what it is, and an understanding of the times during which it was released. In my case, a bit of nostalgia for revisiting a little piece of my childhood didn't hurt either. |
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Adam Wednesdays
Posts: 30 |
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Recently finished:
"Trigun" I'd never watched this one before, so I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. In all honesty, I find it a bit overrated. A lot of the comedy in the first act falls incredibly flat, and the whole schtick was wearisome after only a few episodes; if I didn't already know about the massive tonal shift, I would have dropped it long before I reached that point. The energy does pick up a bit once Legato and the Gung Ho Guns show up, but what starts out as a validly unnerving threat quickly devolves into a series of minor obstacles, up until Legato's last stand, in favor of broadly-drawn and simplistic moralizing and philosophizing that didn't need nearly as much time spent rehashing all of it as we got. And on top of that, I didn't care about most of the characters: the insurance company girls are a decent gimmick at first but then spend a lot of time hanging around doing nothing when the plot could have been spent developing it's parts that should have gotten more development and screen time, and honestly I just didn't care about Vash one way or the other most of the time. That said, it is fun, and there were parts that I enjoyed. I doubt I'll ever go back and watch it again, but it wasn't a complete waste of time. "C-Control" I'm a little surprised that it took this long to get the comparison between tournament fighting blood-sport and the modern financial system; once I heard the premise, it seemed so obvious. 
"C" was a fun little series with an interesting high concept that was bogged down by hewing to too many cliches: the villain's little sister's incurable case of Mysterious Anime Little Sister Disease, the unnecessary romantic implications between the lead character and his "Asset" fighting monster, and an ending that's cleanness and simplicity compromises the high concept and resolves it all far too neatly for the Economics metaphor to stand up by the time the credits roll. The obvious budget-saving much either (multiple fights that are set up and then not shown are the most obvious ones), but money being tight is hardly the production staff's fault. That said, there was a lot to like about "C"- an interesting conflict, a dynamic and sympathetic villain, and a nice visual style despite some shaky CGI. The unsettling atmosphere of the scenes where the creepy clown man comes to people to invite them to the Financial District is very well done, in particular. On the whole, "C" was well worth the watch. "K" Dropped this one after two episodes, with gusto. A nice visual style can't make up for completely bungled storytelling, especially when everything that happens is all so dull. Currently watching: "Wolf's Rain"- I'm only an episode in so far, but I'm liking what I'm seeing. Very much looking forward to the rest of this. And I still haven't finished the original "Macross." And seeing as the next disc from Netflix has been sitting on my table for three weeks, unopened, with hardly any thought of actually watching it given... I think it's safe to say this series has failed to connect with me. I do want to finish it, if only for curiosity's sake, but I'm in no hurry to do so. Or I could just rewatch "Do You Remember Love" instead. |
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Tris8
 Posts: 2114 Location: Where the rain is. |
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I finished The Mystic Archives of Dantalian. It was fine, but my overall feelings are that it is a poor man's Gosick. The two shows are very similar: both have short, gothic lolita teenage female tsundere leads who love books and spend the majority of their time surrounded by them. Both are set in Europe in the early 1900's. Both have male leads that the lead females abuse and have a crush on. Both have a blonde cheerful girl who is friends with the male lead. I might have enjoyed Dantalian more if it I hadn't recently seen Gosick.
The thing about The Mystic Archives of Dantalian is that it comes up with some really good concepts. I especially liked the tragedy of spoiler[the two lovers who could never be together, because when one of them died the other was resurrected, and so they couldn't be alive at the same time.] I also thought it did a great job with the Book of Wisdom. If a person spoiler[literally knows everything, what's the point to life? You already know EVERYTHING. It was deliciously creepy to see children talk about having the ability to take over the entire world, but deciding not to because there was no point.] The problem is that a lot of these good ideas weren't executed very well. The conclusion to the lover's story and the end of the show felt a little rushed, and almost no mysteries that were posed were answered. I have been intending to watch this for a long time, so now that Halloween approaches I have the push I needed to start Higurashi: When They Cry. I have seen the first 10 eps so far (2 1/2 arcs in), and so far it's a little slow. If it is anything like Umineko: When They Cry, it'll continue to be a little slow until half-way through, when things really start to connect and unfold. It's got a really great creepy atmosphere and EVERYONE is creepy and sketchy, including the main character. Very looking forward to the revelations behind the killing. |
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Lil Kis
Posts: 163 |
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I'm currently watching deadman wonderland that my sister won at a anime convention. I also am watching One Piece
One Piece is the better of the two obivously [Mod Edit: Signature removed. Stop posting signatures as they are disabled for a reason. You have been warned before about this and we will start simply removing posts if you continue to post signatures, particularly when those signatures can be viewed as propaganda irrelevant to this forums content.] |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I’ve watched Princess Tutu twice now and I just am shocked that so many people love this sick show. It’s just prurient trash dressed up mendaciously in the costumery of something as good and pure as fairy tale. All of the protestations of about it its brilliance and emotional power are just rationalizations to cover for how blatantly is appeals to the lowest common masturbatory denominator. I mean, just look at some of this shit.
The damned show has a panty shot in the opening sequence for chrissakes! 
The main character is just another frequently naked loli. Oh well, I guess since she could be considered not technically human, it doesn’t count. 
And like most anime these days, it’s really just about boobs. *shifty look* Anybody buy that? Well, I did watch Princess Tutu a second time not long ago, and in fact, I loved it even more than the first time. It’s an extraordinary series, so I couldn’t help vomiting forth a great quivering, nonsensical farrago of words about it. To tell the truth, it’s a wild bunch of paragraphs held together with spit and wire. As I watched I found myself with a tremendous amount to say, more than I was equal to. I’m sure that it’s quite wrong and maybe a little crazy, but gosh darn, I tried my best. And since certain disreputable parties have gone and raised the goddamned bar, I tried my hand at incorporating images into my opinion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Tutu is the story of a duck who becomes a girl who becomes a magical ballerina. That’s not as strange as the bee of the bird of the moth, but it’s nevertheless a rather unusual show. It has a cute, childlike, almost naïve façade, but that conceals sophistication, depth and darkness, yet it is every bit as sincere as its façade professes. It has fairy tales at its heart, but eschews as much of their methods as it embraces. It achieves most of this through the qualities and growth of its characters, which gives all of the meaning in the story a deep and endearing humanity. The heart and lead of Princess Tutu is Duck, the duck and girl and magical ballerina. She begins merely a duck in a pond, admiring a distant, dancing prince who seems quite sad, but she is resigned to never knowing him, as a waterfowl surely never could. That wouldn’t be a very good story, of course, so forthwith a pair of wide, terrifying eyes appear and a sumptuously villainous voice offers her a chance not just at knowing the prince, but at saving him. For, you see, the Prince once fought a horrible raven, which he could only defeat by shattering his heart into shards to seal the raven away, but those shards could do with finding. Duck abruptly find herself a student in a ballet program at an academy and the prince whom she admired is a senior student named Mytho. 
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! Duck is an uncannily endearing character. She’s often nervous, awkward and silly, yet kind and earnest nearly to a fault. Our heroine is not the perfect, admired idol of the academy she attends, that image belongs to another player, but rather a struggling, clumsy student who is nevertheless can’t be gotten down and seemingly dances with considerable joy and individuality. That virtue being a theme that I think the series could have explored more. Zeal does not equate, unfortunately, to skill, thus she is routinely threatened with marriage by the instructor, Mr. Cat. Such a character suits the kind of show that Princess Tutu looks like on its surface, but deeper in her is one that fits the kind of show that it is within. She can be introspective in a way not typical of a children’s heroine, knowing doubt, uncertainty and insecurity that bring her far closer to human, even though they might be motivated by fantastical things. She is neither dehumanizingly cute and bumbling nor insufferably bleak and brooding, but rather embodies those qualities in very mortal proportions. That reflects one of the great strengths of the series: even though it is full of strange, magical things resident only in imagination, it uses them to peer closer at us and encourage reflection upon it, just as so many fairy tales sought to do. Standing opposite Duck is Rue, the poised, graceful, haughty pride of the small advanced class. She is Duck’s obvious rival and indeed is entangled with Mytho as the story begins. Her beauty and impressive accomplishments make her seem so unconquerable that even Duck sees the destiny in their relationship, but you know how fairy tales go. Yet Rue is not some arrogant, monotonous cipher. She shows flashes of real kindness, but with a human inconsistency, tinged by plausible selfishness. Her haughtiness is domineering, but not all-consuming and it has not made her hollow inside. Like anybody else in Princess Tutu, she bears trial and doubt, tugged at and tested by her desires, her identity and her fate. 
Heroine and… ? The relationship that is perhaps most interesting is that between Mytho and Fakir, the latter seeming the harsh possessor of the former than the friend to him that we might expect by their close familiarity. Their bond is deep and strong, yet seems to manifest perversely, each seems to have something missing that keeps them astray. Rather than fraternal camaraderie and mutual respect, Fakir seems compelled to derogate and condescend to Mytho, who seems incapable of anything but compliant passivity, as though he has lost the means to find significance in life. The fairy tale prince and his closest companion have a broken relationship that leads them on crooked path down the road. Princess Tutu is in no small part Fakir’s story. It is indeed his path through it that has the longest, widest turn and most embodies the themes of the series. Nevertheless, it does not overawe the rest of the players, because so intertwined are the four principals that even if Fakir walks the path, Rue, Mytho and Duck plotted, paved and guided him down it. Mytho too travels a considerable way, but his part is more to be tugged along helplessly by the story, even if that’s not how he gets to the place that he was going to. 
You're my sunshine and I want you to know That my feelings are true I really love you Oh you're my best friend The series has a deep bench of supporting players. The kindly, yet enigmatic Edel is an oddly endearing presence as she pleasantly grinds her organ and tugs Duck in the right direction. Young Uzura slips in later on and dad-gum, does she ever manage to be adorable rather than obnoxious. The ballet teacher, the anthropomorphic cat aptly named Mr. Cat, proves surprisingly complete. An at first comic player who wields the prospect of marriage like a paddle and bears stress by resorting to paroxysms of felinity, as the story advances, his fixation on marriage turns out to be an honest exultation of love, even if it is still exploited comically once or twice. He further breaks the limit of his initial casting by proving fair minded and even wise. Duck’s friends Lillie and Pike are an interesting pair. They aren’t very complete characters on their own, but in a way, they seem like aspects of Duck. The serious, tomboyish Pike a pragmatic superego urging Duck to at least try as hard as is practical while the cooing Lillie plays id with cotton-candy malevolence, urging Duck to swaddle herself in the easy cuteness of her failings and limitations. There are many incidental characters and players who feature for an episode, all of whom are well cast in their parts and prove surprisingly whole themselves. At least, there is also Drosselmeyer, the delicious, gleefully maniacal arch storyteller and, as the grim short fairy tales that open every episode informs us first thing in the series, a man who died, yet somehow shouts with glee from beyond the grave at every twist and turn in the story. His part in the tale is fascinating, he is the push that puts and keeps the story in motion. He seems malign, but without evil and uncaring without cruelty. He just wants a good story, which is a curious and marvelous part to have anybody playing. Also, he has an awesome hat. I have no clue what the Hell it’s supposed to be, but it is amazing. 
The man has style. You gotta respect anybody willing to rock that look. What Duck, Rue, Mytho and Fakir go through is set against a delightful, idyllic backdrop. The setting is Gold Crown Town, a charming renaissance borough, untroubled by the world beyond its walls that seems pulled from the imagination of a, German high romantic poet. Its streets are walked by inward looking congenial townsfolk, cheerful students and anthropomorphic animals. The whole arrangement will rightfully seem a little suspicious, even sinister to even modestly canny viewers, but the last part might cause particular pause. Yet, as conspicuously strange as it might appear to us, nobody pays it any heed except for one or two passing quizzical looks. Rather curious, that. 
HOLY CRAP THAT GIRL IS AN ALLIGATOR! Am I the only one who notices this?!? Watch out, she’ll eat you! The unifying theme of all of their stories is a question of self-determination and resistance to fate. Each of the characters is cast in a well-defined part with likely ends that would serve well in a good story that they each in turn prepare to consign themselves to. Yet, Princess Tutu is not about being consigned to a good story. It could certainly be a fine series if it were, but the harder, cleverer path that it dares is a darker, more gripping one. The narrative arc of Princess Tutu has a remarkable emotional potency. It is unassuming at the start, but rises to something far richer and ends with among the tensest, most compelling and most moving of final acts. What I think best distinguishes Princess Tutu is that it shows us the strings that pull the audience in and along, which is usually a grievous sin, but rather than casting the audience out of the story with blunt, contrived exposition or gratuitous prurience, it achieves this by laying bare our competing interests in the story. The tale of Duck, Mytho, Fakir and Ru is compelling and each of them gets their due to be sympathetic so that we become invested in them and have hopes for how things will end up for them. Yet, as that all plays out, Drosselmeyer lurks beneath it, as literally as figuratively working the machinery of the story, chortling with dark glee over the anguishing twists and tragic turns that make a good story. He seems malevolent, yet he isn’t really malicious, rather the players in the tale have no meaning to him as people, only as characters to be toyed and tinkered with for his entertainment. The sympathies of the audience naturally belong with the principals in the story, yet the character who represents our perspective and interest in the story is Drosselmeyer. When we partake of entertainment, our reactions derive from our investment in the characters, yet the value of those reactions comes from the unhappiness and misfortune inflicted upon them. Even when we would most relish seeing their triumph or vindication, those would have no meaning or even possibility unless they are made to fail and suffer first. To those characters, however, this must seem like inconceivable, wanton cruelty. Princess Tutu is as much about its audience as its characters and what happens to them.* 
Pull the string! Pull the string! Errr.. I mean… work the gears? Love and violence are intertwined at the heart of Princess Tutu. This suits a series inspired by fairy tales, which so often torment and assault the parties to a romance. Here they are tools for subverting the expectations of the form. For much of the series, love is dangerous, even a threat. Being a fairy tale, love seems almost imposed by expectation and contrivance; people are loved because it is their part to be loved or because it is fated. This is played comically every time Mr. Cat threatens troublemakers and poor performers with marriage, but it also has real menace. Love drives one character to be almost hateful out of an obsessive desire to protect and holds another in the sway of evil, then to a maelstrom of anguish and betrayal. It leads the heroine to be trapped by self-doubt and confusion. And at the crucial point, love is perverted from something that fills the heart to one that mercilessly corrupts it. Indeed, as the series descends into its darkest pits, love seems to be only an instrument of selfishness that exposes a bleak truth of the human heart. Hand in hand with the menace of love is violence, be it physical or emotional. Princess Tutu has a dim view of violence as a means. Even when employed in ways that ought to seem heroic, it is tainted by anger and if it accomplishes anything at all, it will go bad or not last. The meaningful accomplishments in the series belong mostly to the arts, be it Tutu’s dancing or other fervent feats of expression. Fairy tales abound with violence, yet in Princes Tutu, it is mostly a means for the cruel, the angry, the selfish and the misguided who only achieve truly enduring, worthwhile things when they eschew it. Princess Tutu adopts and even revels in the appearance of fairy tales, but has no patience with their moral simplicity and fatalism. 
If I don’t tell you what’s going on here, what would you think is going on in this scene? As wonderful as all of the mulling over that Princess Tutu inspires and sustains might be, what gives merit to bothering with that is simpler. It is a profoundly sincere and honest series. There is not even a faint gasp of cynicism or bitterness to be found. No matter the heights or depths that it reaches to, it means them truly and forthrightly. It has a child’s unguarded sincerity without the simplicity of one and an adult’s psychological range without the bad faith cleverness that they can be so damned proud of. In a way, it’s as though it was born of a mind that had the fortune to be spared adolescence. It’s not trying to trick you, prove itself or shield itself in terror of its vulnerabilities. This lets it be compelling, exciting and especially moving. Every soul who sees it is sure to find at least one thing in it that thrusts deeply inward. 
I can’t say why, in either sense, but when Duck hears a certain sound in this scene, the tears just can’t help but come. Princess Tutu benefits from one of the finest musical scores in anime. Its musical score is as fittingly and effectively used of that of [i}Cowboy Bebop[/i], although of a very different kind. The score is light on original composition, the only one of real note being the gentle, graceful opening “Morning Grace”, which does not greedily grasp at your attention or try to infect your memory with catching hooks, but is subtly mesmerizing; I have never skipped it while watching the series. The score draws from the rich canon of classical western music, especially from, as it fitting, ballets and Russian composers like Mussorgsky. The music is used to great effect, whether for triumphant and joyful scenes set to things like “The Flower Waltz” or for mysterious and creepy ones scored with the likes of “Aquarium” from The Carnival of the Animals. Even perennial anthem of malevolence “Night on Bald Mountain” makes a well-chosen appearance. Every piece serves its scene well, abetting the mood, highlighting the motions and asserting the identity of the series. A few times, music is the centerpiece of the action in a way befitting a series where ballet is used much as other series use fisticuffs, such as “Giselle” at the climax of the fourth episode. The series can only be said to have adequate animation, the budget for something grander likely could not have been found anywhere. The director knew, however, to save where he could for some lovely dance scenes. The pas de deux looms too large in this series to be rendered sloppily. The art and design are all splendid. Each character’s design helps to embody their nature. Fakir’s Raven-black hair comports with parts of who he is at every stage and Rue’s voluminous likewise dark tresses frame her lovely face both to enchant and haunt. Unfeeling, adrift Mytho has a grey tuft on his head that seems to play along with what’s inside. Fakir and Mytho are both lithely slender and handsome, quite reasonably for characters in a fairy tale and ballerinos, to say nothing of one that appeals to a female audience. Rue is given an exceptionally striking form for the occasions when she needs one. Duck has a range of appearances, from that of an actual duck to the elegant Princess Tutu. She has a pronounced ahoge as a duck and a girl, a feather in the first case and tuft of light orange hair in the second, but loses it for a more refined look, including white hair extensions, as Princess Tutu. All is set against the backdrop of a calculatedly charming European town. It is, as you might expect, exactly the kind of place that you’d find in fairy tales. Yet, when the story demands, it can summon up and become enveloped in imagery of weird, frightening darkness. One character gains a particularly unnerving, twisted form in the series’ blackness-tinged final act. 
A town too lovely to trust. The English version of the series is very excellent. The leads all ably inhabit their characters, their voices sound as though they belong through the whole range of feeling that they experience. Chris Patton supplies Fakir a fraught edge that sounds equally fitting whether cutting outwardly at others or turned inward upon himself. Troy Hickman gives Mytho a light, slightly airy voice with the perfect notes of dispassion and detachment for the character, yet is also deeply unnerving in a very fittingly odd way when circumstances call for it. He perhaps keeps too much of the dispassion and detachment when the time comes for Mytho to discard them, but his performance is too excellent otherwise for this to be a serious complaint. Jessica Boone is a very fine Rue, managing to wield an edge much like Chris Patton, but with an added haughtiness as befit the character. It should hardly need to be said, but Luci Christian is superb as Duck and Princess Tutu. Her heart is clearly all in for the role, the voice that she gives Duck feels natural and deeply sincere whether flustered and awkward, doubtful and introspective or graceful and compassionate. The supporting cast give admirable efforts too. The mysterious TJP does something quite remarkable in making Mr. Cat, making the lisping, marriage-mad ballet teacher sound as close to what a real anthropomorphic cat would in fact sound like as I can imagine. Cynthia Martinez and Sasha Paysinger are exactly as girly and exaggerated as Pike and Lillie demand. Jennie Welch and Marcy Bannor both narrate the short fairy tales the precede each episode with just the right hint of menace as though they are warning the bad little children to be good, else something will get them. Christine Auten is very adroit in her two roles, giving Edel a cheerful, reassuring tone that’s just ever so slightly soulless and managing to play Uzura as genuinely delightful rather than as insufferable she seemed fated to be. All of the incidental and one-episode characters hit the right notes too, from the Tiffany Granteater to Vic Mignogna’s splendidly melodramatic Femio. The crown jewel must, however, be Marty Fleck as Drosselmeyer. He luxuriates voluptuously over every syllable, filling Drosselmeyer’s lines with exuberant, insouciant gleeful menace. Mr. Fleck was clearly having a lot of fun, which is good, because so was Drosselmeyer. Its first steps might be a little faltering and its animation bound by the size of the checks cut for it, but those are petty marks against a series so overwhelmingly, beautifully good. Perhaps the greatest compliment that may be paid to Princess Tutu is that it is not merely satisfying and enjoyable to watch, but also sustains and rewards thought on the series afterward, seeming all the better for it. It was clearly made with genuine care and passion, which by itself builds a generously situated floor for quality, which Princess Tutu rises very far above. It engaged feeling and thought with great deftness to great satisfaction. It is very evident why this series is so highly regarded and deeply beloved by many. It might have been a series aired for the convenient entertainment of children, but the creators marvelously overshot their target demographic, making something that would no doubt engage a young audience, but in fact become more and more worth watching as they grew older. Should fate ever err so grievously as to endow me with spawn of my own, they will undoubtedly watch Princess Tutu with daddy. *Thanks to a private correspondent for an observation on the experience of watching Princess Tutu that this is an elaboration upon. |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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Watch the in the booth sessions. They're all pretty good (especially the one where Kira Vincent-Davis basically steals someones role), but Luci's in the last volume is amazing. She starts crying in the booth while recording the final scenes. She cries in the commentary as well, but the booth sessions are great. It just goes to show that American voice actors don't care nearly enough as their Japanese counterparts 
There's also this funny video of Luci vs Nanae Katoh (the JP voice) in a "quack off". ...and turns out the final in the booth session is on Youtube as well, so there's no need to pop your DVD back in. NOTE: THAT VIDEO CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL SCENES. |
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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Last night I watched... Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack
Oh... ...my... ...goodness... Speaking as one whose mind sometimes plays with modal realism, I think I have never felt so glad when watching an anime that that is not our own reality. Though I may for the rest of my life be terrified by any occurrences of belching or flatulence. A truly disgusting OVA. |
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zawa113
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Oh, Princess Tutu, how I need to rewatch you again. I've been busy by life and stuff (my sister just got married, so at least any wedding related business is over! And it was a lovely wedding for anyone curious, but damn did a lot of people get drunk during reception, I'm amazed there was any liquor left at the end of the night. Also, my tongue still hasn't quite recovered from that special cherry I had, it made my tongue full on numb when I first had it). Anyway, I can't just go stick it in the DVD player, it's honeymoon time and someone has to house/cat sit, especially through Sandy, so maybe I can grab those DVDs in a few days.
But! I now have a little niece! Born 9/7/12! And her father (my step brother) likes anime! So encouraging him to show her Princess Tutu won't be a problem in the least! If a site has it cheap again for black friday/cyber monday, I might buy a few copies (one for her when she's older, or to give to her parents now, and just random gifts that I never know when I'll need). And he's gotten his wife into anime to some degree too (I gave him TTGL last xmas, and both he and his wife loved it). I don't know what else to add, but I can always add more info about the music. I really enjoy classical music, and the series is even better if you know the pieces and maybe a little bit of history about them. Not that it matters since they picked them so damn perfectly in the first place, but I think it only adds enjoyment if you look into the music, and those DVD specials really helped. I didn't know much on ballet music before, but I know more now due to this series. I liked the use of Danse Macabre towards the end (if you've seen the series and don't know what scene I'm talking about due to not knowing the name of the piece, it's spoiler[the one where Mytho has turned into the crow and goes rather crazy]). But yes, Princess Tutu is clearly why I think Junichi Satou makes the best shojo series, nothing is as deceptively fluffy as it looks. I also quite enjoyed Magic User's Club (which I totally meant to bring with me on this excursion), and since both series had the same character designer, I kept thinking "Duck!" half the time when watching it, but that's ok. @aiblentyn If you think GYO is creepy, find the short, 40 page manga called "The Enigma of Amigara Fault", that's the sort of creepy that'll stick with ya (oops! I said Junji Ito above instead of Junichi Sato, Junji Ito did GYO and Amigara, so I meant to say his name here) Last edited by zawa113 on Mon Oct 29, 2012 4:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23776 |
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So you found it as AWESOME as I did? Cool. 
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ailblentyn
Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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@ classicalzawa and Blood
Actually I didn't find it awesome. I thought there were touches of awesome (e.g. I liked the circus scene, I liked the bear-trap-like corpse carriages, I liked the girls snapping apocalypse on their cell phones) but I felt it just ended up going for gross overload when it could have been more creepy. I'll read that manga now. Thanks! [After reading] I liked that! |
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Errinundra
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Thanks for the marvellous review of Princess Tutu, Surrender Artist. As usual, a pleasure to read!
Your observation that the viewer is, in effect, Drosselmeyer is something I hadn't realised before - it's a great insight and adds even more to the show's richness. Yes, like Drosselmeyer, we spend much of the tale with an expectation as to how it will all turn out. And, just as they do to Drosselmeyer, the characters themselves upend our expectations. Better still, like him, we enjoy the way they gazump us. Thanks again. |
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Tris8
Posts: 2114 Location: Where the rain is. |
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 I admit, you had me going there. My reaction was  "But, but... I thought Surrender Artist liked Princess Tutu!!" Lol. Very tricksy.
Finished the first season of Higurashi: When They Cry and am starting the first episode of Higurashi Kai. As I thought, I really enjoyed the watch, answers started pouring in right after the halfway point, and it brings up more questions than it does/can answer. What I love about the When They Cry shows is how they explore in depth character's reactions to all sorts of situations. In many shows, characters will get pressured into doing something bad, and it is easy to rationalize it and forgive them by saying they never would have done it if it hadn't been for the situation. But you can never know for sure right? In Higurashi, you can because of spoiler[the time looping.] In the very beginning, when Keiichi kills those two, I was really really surprised. But, spoiler[I thought it was in self-defense, and that if he hadn't been driven into a corner he wouldn't have ever done that.] Later, I found that wasn't so spoiler[as he kills Satoko's uncle in cold blood. I definitely wouldn't call Keiichi blood-thirsty or a bad person, but he isn't particularly a good person either. Even putting aside the murders he commits. When Shion calls him on the phone to confess that the curse may be after them, he starts screaming, demanding that she take responsibility when it is equally their fault.] Through the spoiler[time loops], we are really able to see what each character is made of and what makes them tick. This show is a fascinating character study. But, it has flaws. I can't honestly call it a flawed masterpiece as it doesn't reach that level, more like a flawed excellent piece. The problem is that most of its flaws have a hand in making the show great so they can't simply be gotten rid of. The biggest being the whole first half is a touch on the slow side, but if that were changed the great sense of suspense and mystery it builds would probably be lost. The second half, in particular The Eye Opening Arc more than makes up for it. Now, time for my speculation! I'm pretty sure spoiler[Takano is one of the main puppeteers, if not the main puppeteer behind the cycle of tragedy. Dunno if she's a witch like Rika (probably not. I know Rika's identity from Umineko) but she definitely is more involved than has been shown so far.] Here's the evidence: spoiler[In every arc, Takano 'dies'. She dies by being burnt to death. It would be really easy for her to get another female corpse and burn it and make everyone think that she died. What elevates my suspicions even more is that the burnt corpse was killed the day before the festival, and Takano for sure attended the festival. The #1 thing that makes me suspect her though, is from the last episode of the first arc. Right before Keiichi is murdered in the phone booth, we see a lock of his murderer's hair, which is blond. It's possible that the killer was wearing a wig, but I find the idea unlikely. The killer knew Keiichi was going to die so there was no need for a disguise. There's only 3 blond characters in the story: Takano, Satoshi, and Satoko. Satoko is a little girl (~9 y.o.?), and the culprit seemed at least Keiichi's height so we can almost certainly cross her off. That leaves Takano and Satoshi, who at this point seem equally suspicious and mysterious.] Higurashi: When They Cry spins a very engaging mystery. While in other mysteries I often wait for the detective to figure things out (while making a few stab-in-the-dark guesses), this franchise drives me to piece things together on my own and come up with a solution. Higurashi and Umineko pique my attention in a manner that no other mystery story does. |
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Crisha
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Surrender Artist doesn't do what Surrender Artist does for Surrender Artist.
Surrender Artist does what Surrender Artist does because Surrender Artist is... Surrender Artist! Dude, man, I think you raised the bar once again for reviewing anime in this thread. Stop that! I really enjoyed reading your thoughtful, organized, and well-written analysis of the series. It was the review I always wanted to give the series but never attempted because I never thought I could actually be satisfied with something I wrote (it would have to be flawless, nothing less than the best). In fact, I'm having a hard time selecting which paragraphs I loved the most: the character analyses were great and the ones devoted to analzing the themes were amazing as well. It's the kind of review the series always deserved. I think I'm going to link it to the Princess Tutu livejournal. I'm certain many people there would appreciate it. And, yay, Drosselmeyer! Perhaps my only most minor nitpick of your review would be your choice of caption beneath Fakir manhandling Mytho. Too perfect an opportunity to use, "Do not touch The Mytho. My face, my beautiful face."
And I'd also love a write-up on the extras and the Japanese voices, but since this is more of an analysis of the series than it is the DVD releases, I'll let it slide.
Sadly, Troy Hickman's subdued performance in the last few episodes was a major detractor to me. While I greatly enjoyed the dub (especially Marty Fleck's Drosselmeyer - I agree with you 100% on everything you wrote about him), his lack of emotion was a major flaw within the last episode (everyone else performed very well though). In the end, the Japanese track is still my preference (I'm sorry, Marty, Luci, and Chris - I do love you guys!), largely due to the way Troy Hickman voiced Mytho for the last few episodes. I would like to recommend you to watch the last four or five episodes of the Japanese track, if you're up to it, SA. I recognize your preference for English dubs, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about the delivery of the performers. Maybe I'm hearing some extra emotion from Naoki's performance as Mytho that really isn't there. But to me, in the last episode, he really sounded like the noble prince spoiler[who was in love with Rue] that I was expecting, unlike with Troy who didn't sound much more different than his heartless self at the beginning. I'm thinking about watching the last few episodes all the way through in English and Japanese at some point. Ideally, I'd like to do the entire series, but even I fear I may get tired of a few episodes if I did that. So I think I'll stick with my favorites. |
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Surrender Artist
Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I didn't mention them, but I spent the Sunday after I finished watching the series, which I did on Saturday, watching the extra features. They are really excellent; ADV outdid themselves in the care and enthusiasm that they put into the North American release. The videos of Luci Christian in the booth certainly affected my interpretation of her performance. A feeling that the people who worked on something cared can affect my opinion of something a lot. Usually it can only be inferred from the merits of what they made, but the case of the English dub, especially Luci Christian, I could see that for myself.
I actually saw that last year before I'd even thought about buying the series. It's adorable.
Mwahahahahah! That's one success, which puts me ahead of your average cartoon supervillain. Next, I shall conquer the world! (Or maybe just write a scathing indictment of Cowboy Bebop)
I'm relieved and more than a little gratified that you liked it.
I'm pretty happy with that notion myself. It adds considerable depth to the series. I can claim only credit for its elabortion, the idea was directly inspired by something that a fellow subscriber mentioned to me about sympathizing with Drosselmeyer's desire for tragedies. That happened to set a spark off in my mind as I sat down to watch the series over again. Fortunately, it came to me very early on, which greatly added to my investment in the series. Besides being a pretty clever way to play with how we experience fiction, I also like it because it takes my usual aversion to things that make clear the contrivance of fiction as well as the illusions that it makes us embrace and makes that a key part of the series.
Get 'em started young and get 'em started good!
My father listened to a lot of classical music when I was a child, so I was already passingly acquainted with a lot of the music. It really was one of the most effective soundtracks I've ever heard. I put it on par with Cowboy Bebop, which is very high praise from me. It's a very different animal from that, but still of exceptional quality and used exceedingly well. The étude featurettes that ADV included explain the music very well. I was glad to finally find out that the faintly creep, mysterious sounding music that I so long associated with an advertisement for The Criterion Collection that was all over Hulu for a while is "Aquarium" from The Carnival of the Animals.
Thank you, I appreciate that very much. I wanted to write something the first time that I watched it in middle September, but it took seeing it again to really do it. Princess Tutu is better the second time, especially for thinking about it, because you can see or understand some things that are only visible or meaningful in light of what happens later on. Knowing the story also free some cognitive resources up to ponder everything else more. New things kept coming to to me as I watched it over. It was actually kind of exciting. At some points I was virtually jumping up and down with glee at the prospect of finding deeper understanding, I must have looked like a hair manatee that had been dropped onto a trampoline. I think that it's a little messy because it's a mix-breed between a review and an attempt at analysis. It's a little awkward going gag over themes that I think that I've found, but feeling obliged not to give anything away. That left me hinting and and implying things through verbal trickery. I could have tried separating the two, but that's more of a task than I'm up to. The structure also feels a little too systematic to me, because I would prefer to be writing in more of an 'essay' form. Ah well, Pauline Kael I ain't. (I'm not even Film Critic Hulk) I actually had more ideas that I could have tried to incorporate into the review, but the dear thing was turning into a traffic jam in my mind, so I decided to take some editorial discretion. I'd been thinking about and writing notes for more than two weeks, concurrently with this, before I finally posted it. I'm glad to have finished all of that so I can finally concentrate on that Rose of Versailles haiku contest. Man would I ever love to win that. One thing I would like to take the chance to say directly that I loved the way it toyed with our expectations. spoiler[The obvious outcome was for Tutu to triumph over Rue as Mytho's love, either tragically or by beating the fate spelled out for Princess Tutu. Both the fairy tale set-up and the theme of not being bound by fate play into this, but instead, Rue and Mytho end up together in the end after Rue and Mytho realized that they loved each other for good reasons rather than because they were fated. Princess Tutu also eluded fate, but rather than professing her love, then vanishing, she made a different kind of choice altogether. Much the same is true of Fakir, who was miserably anguished as long as he was caught in being the Knight, but found a good way out when he embraced writing. I also loved how Mytho, who would disregard any concern for his own safety to save small, weak things, was ultimately saved by a tiny duckling.]
By all means, it should be better than when something that put far less time into ended upon on EvaGeeks. I hope that it proves either enlightening or wrong in interesting ways.
Hells yeah, Drosselmeyer! I love his over-the-top style and voice. I doubt that I'll ever cosplay, but if I were to, I'd want to dress as Drosselmeyer. I wonder where Ikuko Itoh got the idea for that fantastic hat.
I have, for some reason, never wanted to discuss the DVD releases of things. ADV certain did a great job. I have the original six-volume release, which has really good cover art in both light and shadow. (some crazy person posted scans of all of the covers earlier this year) What I think sells it, as I have said, is the special features, which are helpful and well done. The études are all done by the voice actors in character; they discuss the choices and history of the music used in the series, which is a lovely touch given how important music is to it. There are also some good episode commentaries. The actor commentaries are pretty fluffy, but I thought that they were fun. The commentaries with the director and translators, however, are really interesting because they include some good information about details of the series and insights into some of the choices that they made. The videos of the English actors recording their lines are great as a chance to see how English dubs are made and to get a taste of the personalities of the English cast. Luci Christian obviously connected very strongly to the series and, as I said, Marty Fleck was clearly having fun with playing Drosselmeyer. Something that I think might be overlooked are the inserts with every volume. These, I presume, were translated from the Japanese release. They feature short essays by members of the cast and crew. They're all at least reasonably interesting, but the best one is the first by Ikuko Itoh, who created Princess Tutu. She recounts how she would listen to ballets with her father on a big old record player the size of a cabinet, which she grew very attached to and has kept in its proper place, even though it doesn't play anymore. That spoke to the sentimental romantic in me who hates casting things off just because they're old and just a little imperfect. It also gave a strong sense that there was something deeply personal about Princess Tutu for its creator. My only disappointment with the release is that there isn't an official artbox for the series. I'll have to hope that I can get one of those unofficial, but lovely, ones that you mentioned.
I agree with that, but I think that I felt it more strongly the first time around than the second. Perhaps I was too much more acclimated to it the second time to be affected. I do really like how Hickman plays the part for most of the series and he, like the rest of the cast, came to feel very at home in their characters to me, so perhaps I'm just too willing to forgive it because of that.
What the Hell, I've got the day off. (I'm an employee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and our offices were closed yesterday and today due to Hurricane Sandy, although I have had the good fortune of being unaffected by it) I watched the last volume (episode 23~26) and episode one over in Japanese. Consider this a small, partial erratum for the review. The Japanese case does superb work that is quite naturalistic. Nanae Katō leads the ensemble with great passion, portraying every feeling that Duck has with remarkable fullness, giving every expression, from the silly to the dignified to the distraught as clear and strong a note as she can be. Duck is the emotional heart of the series and she sounds it. Rue has a voice courtesy of Nana Mizuki that sounds clearly youthful, but holds the grace of a polite, well-bred young woman, creating a striking contrast when her careful elegance shudders or breaks. Naoki Yanagi and Takahiro Sakarai portray Mytho and Fakir ably with an interesting contrast. Mytho sounds rotely quiet and more boyish than he looks, as though he has regressed mentally. In appropriate counterpoint, Fakir sounds older than his visage, almost paternal, as though a wearying burden has imposed a terribly precocity upon his voice. Noboru Mitani makes Drosselmeyer sound like an eccentric, manic grandfather or crazy trickster uncle, full of wily malevolence.
I think that I largely agree. It sounds as though Naoki Yanagi's voice becomes more mature, slightly fuller sounding toward the end, which is a more pronounced contrast than in English. I also really like the contrast between Mytho and Fakir's voices in the Japanese version. I do, however, prefer Marty Fleck's sumptuous portrayal of Drosselmeyer, which is the aural equivalent of foie gras over rare veal with roast ortalan on the side. I also have to admit to liking TJP's wildly feline Mr. Cat too much to give the Japanese performance fair consideration. |
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