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[Labolas]

Catching up on Chained Soldier. One thing that has put me off is that the regular chapters are censored and the omake chapters are not. Like why? It's so weird and offputting. Other than that, it's a decent harem manga that does something new with the subgenre.

Caught up on Kaiju No. 8. And I still shocked that this getting a tv series when still feels relatively early in its run. A lot of characters got a power boost from where it last left off.
Also Caught up on Valhallian the Black Iron. It's probably the best Tenkaichi seinen manga with historical and mythical figures without being technically a Tenkaichi setting. Recommend.

Also Crayon Shin-chan is getting a movie. I wouldn't be surprised if this got an American theatrical release.

 

[Celcius]

Saturday‘s are for new episodes of Nagatoro! This week’s episode was hype/exciting. Yoshi’s special move had me laughing haha.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel
I. presage flower (2017)
II. lost butterfly (2019)
III. spring song (2020)

I've been meaning to re-watch this film trilogy for awhile now.

The long journey of the 3rd and final route of the celebrated 2004 visual novel to an anime adaptation was quite an adventure. The last film was released right into the midst of a certain global event in 2020, and most theatrical exhibitions of the film were canceled including all of the American showings. I ended up waiting almost 2 years for the Blu-ray to be released in North America. Spoiler: It was worth the wait.

The various adaptations of Fate franchise properties to animation have been pretty uneven in quality. The best recent adaptation was the F/SN Unlimited Blade Works TV series, also done by ufotable, so there were certain expectations for this film trilogy. And let's not mince words here: ufotable always delivers on their animation quality. The sheer amount of action sequences crammed into the 3 films is matched only by the consistency of the amazing animation work and the dedication of the production teams which worked on them. If you're used to ufotable quality, this is pretty average for them, but compared to most other animation studios it will always be mind blowing tier production values.

The breathtaking animation quality is matched by the thunderous soundtrack. It defaults to a 2-channel mix but an expanded 5.1 channel track is also available and highly recommended. Yuki Kajiura's wonderful music flows from all channels, and the surround channels are also used aggressively all the time and battles whirl all around you and slam you with deep and floor shaking bass. If you're looking for an example of a reference animated film soundtrack, you've come to the right place. Watch these movies during the day so you can turn them up and rattle your windows without making your neighbors want to kill you afterwards.

There is a lot of content to cover in roughly 360 minutes of total run time. If aren't already familiar with Fate in some way, shape, or form, the pace of the story leaves no time for voluminous explanations of terminology and lore and you will be completely lost. If you're at least played FGO, well that's something. But ideally you will have watched the previously mentioned UBW TV series, which was much more leisurely paced and provides enough background which will adequately prepare you for the breathless pacing from start to finish with minimal exposition of these films.

Heaven's Feel is by far the bleakest of the 3 routes of F/SN, and the typical ufotable tone and mood combined with the typical Yuki Kajiura soundtrack properly fits the content being adapted here. Quite frankly, HF is really fucking dark, and that's saying a lot in Nasuverse where relentless bleakness is kind of the calling card of the entire franchise. Not much was needed to be censored here either, as it was targeted for theatrical exhibition and so the usual anime TV standards didn't apply. You are free to enjoy copious amounts of blood and gore without having to look over your shoulder at the standards committee.

If you're a fan of Fate, you've already watched these films. If you're not, well you have to understand that the story will probably be incomprehensible to you unless you have at least prepared in advance with experience in FGO and ideally the UBW TV series. But really, the story isn't that complicated. Boy meets girl, girl has uh issues, something something worms, the girl and the world must be saved. Simple, really. Highly recommended to fans of great animation.

 

[Celcius]

Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel
I. presage flower (2017)
II. lost butterfly (2019)
III. spring song (2020)

I've been meaning to re-watch this film trilogy for awhile now.

The long journey of the 3rd and final route of the celebrated 2004 visual novel to an anime adaptation was quite an adventure. The last film was released right into the midst of a certain global event in 2020, and most theatrical exhibitions of the film were canceled including all of the American showings. I ended up waiting almost 2 years for the Blu-ray to be released in North America. Spoiler: It was worth the wait.

The various adaptations of Fate franchise properties to animation have been pretty uneven in quality. The best recent adaptation was the F/SN Unlimited Blade Works TV series, also done by ufotable, so there were certain expectations for this film trilogy. And let's not mince words here: ufotable always delivers on their animation quality. The sheer amount of action sequences crammed into the 3 films is matched only by the consistency of the amazing animation work and the dedication of the production teams which worked on them. If you're used to ufotable quality, this is pretty average for them, but compared to most other animation studios it will always be mind blowing tier production values.

The breathtaking animation quality is matched by the thunderous soundtrack. It defaults to a 2-channel mix but an expanded 5.1 channel track is also available and highly recommended. Yuki Kajiura's wonderful music flows from all channels, and the surround channels are also used aggressively all the time and battles whirl all around you and slam you with deep and floor shaking bass. If you're looking for an example of a reference animated film soundtrack, you've come to the right place. Watch these movies during the day so you can turn them up and rattle your windows without making your neighbors want to kill you afterwards.

There is a lot of content to cover in roughly 360 minutes of total run time. If aren't already familiar with Fate in some way, shape, or form, the pace of the story leaves no time for voluminous explanations of terminology and lore and you will be completely lost. If you're at least played FGO, well that's something. But ideally you will have watched the previously mentioned UBW TV series, which was much more leisurely paced and provides enough background which will adequately prepare you for the breathless pacing from start to finish with minimal exposition of these films.

Heaven's Feel is by far the bleakest of the 3 routes of F/SN, and the typical ufotable tone and mood combined with the typical Yuki Kajiura soundtrack properly fits the content being adapted here. Quite frankly, HF is really fucking dark, and that's saying a lot in Nasuverse where relentless bleakness is kind of the calling card of the entire franchise. Not much was needed to be censored here either, as it was targeted for theatrical exhibition and so the usual anime TV standards didn't apply. You are free to enjoy copious amounts of blood and gore without having to look over your shoulder at the standards committee.

If you're a fan of Fate, you've already watched these films. If you're not, well you have to understand that the story will probably be incomprehensible to you unless you have at least prepared in advance with experience in FGO and ideally the UBW TV series. But really, the story isn't that complicated. Boy meets girl, girl has uh issues, something something worms, the girl and the world must be saved. Simple, really. Highly recommended to fans of great animation.

Is this currently available to watch anywhere online? or you bought the blu-rays? I wouldn't mind seeing these again...

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Is this currently available to watch anywhere online? or you bought the blu-rays? I wouldn't mind seeing these again...

I bought the Blu-rays. They weren't cheap.

I don't know if they are streaming anywhere but it's an insult to the animation quality to watch a shitty stream of these films IMO

 

[Celcius]

Just finished watching the first 5 episodes of Nier. I haven't played through the game but I'm enjoying the anime. I knew who 2B was because she's the main character but 9S is a very interesting character as well. I also know who Kaine is just from seeing her designs but I look forward to seeing when she shows up and what she's like too.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Persona 3: The Movie
#1 - Spring of Birth (2013)
#2 - Midsummer Knight's Dream (2014)
#3 - Falling Down (2015)
#4 - Winter of Rebirth (2016)

For some reason, I remember watching the first one and then being annoyed that they were releasing one a year. So I decided to just wait until they were all released, and then I guess I forgot about them. The recent re-release of Persona 3 Portable on all platforms reminded me these movies exist, so I watched them all.

The P3 film quadrilogy covers only the events of The Journey. If you have played P3, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, these movies aren't for you anyways. P3 is an immensely long game, and in order to condense the events of an 80+ hours game into 4 movies which only total about 375 minutes of run time, the story is very rushed and many things happen with little background or explanation. You will not know what's going on unless you have played P3.

What we do have here is a surprisingly faithful attempt at trying to coherently tell the emotionally dense story of P3 without actually skipping anything because of the tight time constraints. I admit that it was so long since I played P3 that I had forgotten most of the story and the movies were nice for reminding me about all the stuff that happened. They also reminded me that P3 has far and away the best story, the best characters, the best setting, and the best themes of the "3D era" of Persona, and by that I mean Personas 3, 4, and 5. Any other longtime fans of the series will offer their own opinions as to which Persona had the best story but quite frankly you either agree 3 was the best or you're wrong. Deal with it.

The animation was produced by Aniplex's internal anime studio A-1 Pictures, with the exception of the first film. In general, plenty of budget was allocated to the many battle sequences which fill the 4 films, and quite a bit less budget was allocated for non-battle sequences. The general quality of animation tended to improve from one film to the next, while the first movie had some really sus looking faces, by the last film faces were generally drawn reasonably well enough to be recognizable as faces. I would say that overall the movies look decent and they do manage to look good when it counts the most. Similarly, the audio of the movies sound fine with clearly audible dialogue and the soundtrack is heavily carried by the music of Persona video game music computer Shoji Meguro who contributes remixed version of game tracks and also new tracks just for the movies.

The presentation is alright, but the strength of these movies is in the actual storyline of P3. Unlike the 2 games which came afterwards, P3 tends to be closer thematically to other games under the Shin Megami Tensei franchise umbrella. Themes of accepting mortality and death, the meaning of friendship and loss, and of course the end of the world are prevalent in this narrative and closely align with SMT titles in ways that the stories of P4 and P5 do not. This is why P3 is the best one, and progressively from P4 to P5 the Persona games have grown less and less connected with the franchise they originated from.

If you have played P3 and you haven't watched these movies, I would think you should. Not only will you get to enjoy this fantastic story again, you can completely ignore the recent P3P re-release and keep waiting and hoping that Atlus will get off their asses and produce a proper remaster of P3 which finally merges the FES and P3P branches back together. If you haven't played P3 or are scarcely aware of what Persona even is, this probably isn't the place to start.

Final Score: 8/10 would shoot myself in the head again

 

[GymWolf]

Is bungou stray dogs anime any good?

 

[darth.shrimp]

So I'm currently watching Dragon Ball super for the first time. I knew about characters like Hit, Jiren, or Kefla because of Dragon Ball FighterZ already, same with Ultra Instinct... but by the goddess, did episode 110 get me hyped as fuck. It felt like watching Goku turn SSJ against Freeza, decades ago, all over again, I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for people watching it unfold "live" 5 years ago.

 

[Labolas]

Takahiro Kimura has passed away. Known famously for doing the character designs of Code Geass. I known his work from Dirty Pair Flash, Kiddy Grade, GunXSword, Betterman, Variable Geo, and other anime. RIP to a legend.

 

[Doom85]

Takahiro Kimura has passed away. Known famously for doing the character designs of Code Geass.

Okay, I was baffled by this initially as it had been well established that manga group CLAMP did the character designs for Code Geass (as they fit their style to a tea, Suzaku is basically older Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura) but looking into it it seems CLAMP provided the character designs and it was Kimura‘s job to translate that into fitting into the anime so that the animators could utilize the designs well, and Kimura has studied CLAMP’s work extensively so he made sure as little was lost in the conversion as reasonably possible.

Regardless, RIP to someone who heavily contributed to a lot of great titles.

Also, holy shit, Labolas, does this mean you’ve actually seen Betterman?! I thought I was the only one out of like 17 people who have seen that show! It’s so obscure, but it’s pretty enjoyable for what it is.

 

[ValiantTraveler]

I came here to share the news. Very sad day for mecha fans. Kimura had a distinct style and his characters were full of life and energy. His work on GaoGaiGar was phenomenal. RIP to a legend.

 

[Labolas]

Also, holy shit, Labolas, does this mean you’ve actually seen Betterman?! I thought I was the only one out of like 17 people who have seen that show! It’s so obscure, but it’s pretty enjoyable for what it is.

Yeah I originally watched it back when it was on G4/Techtv. Had a couple dvds of it before selling it off.

 

[Celcius]

I can't believe there's only one episode of Danmachi season 4 left. This fight is going to be SO hype!

 

[Chastten]

Well, watched another bunch of shows and movies since my last post so might as well post my thoughts here

First up is Sound! Euphonium and it's quickly become one of my favorite anime ever. When I first started watching anime over 20 years ago I would've never given a show like this the light of day since it's basically just a bunch of schoolkids aiming for their band to go to Nationals, but honestly it's a fantastic watch. I love most characters, it's believable, looks and sounds great... Even the title drop at the end of Season 2 is really well done. Got nothing but praise for this and can't wait for the next season.

Liz and the Blue Bird is a spin-off movie from Sound! Euphonium, taking a subplot from the mainshow and making it into a movie. If you've seen the mainshow it's definitely worth a watch as it gives the spotlights to some of the sidecharacters that don't get as much attention otherwise.

Hyouka is a weird mystery/slice-of-life show but strangely addictive, mostly due to the adorable main character. I'm really not sure how to describe this show, but yeah, it's a KyoAni production so I'm pretty sure most people know it anyway.

I went into Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms blind, and holy shit, I wasn't prepared for all the feels. An immortal girl flees her home after an enemy attacks her homeland and finds a newborn baby she starts taking care for. It's a very touching and heartfelt story about immortality and aging and I'm honestly surprised it doesn't seem to be that well known. At times it gave me massive Violet Evergarden feels, it looks stunning, sound great and tells a wonderful story.

And finally Laid-Back Camp Season 2, and honestly, this show has no business being as entertaining as it is. It's just a show about a group of girls who like camping but it's executed brilliantly. It's a perfect show to watch a couple of episodes before bed.

Watched some more shows in the past few weeks but these 5 I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone with any kind of interest in anime. Not sure what I'm gonna watch next but I got a couple of hundred gigs of shows lined up so it's just a matter of what genre I feel like watching

 

[Doom85]

Well, watched another bunch of shows and movies since my last post so might as well post my thoughts here

First up is Sound! Euphonium and it's quickly become one of my favorite anime ever. When I first started watching anime over 20 years ago I would've never given a show like this the light of day since it's basically just a bunch of schoolkids aiming for their band to go to Nationals, but honestly it's a fantastic watch. I love most characters, it's believable, looks and sounds great... Even the title drop at the end of Season 2 is really well done. Got nothing but praise for this and can't wait for the next season.

Liz and the Blue Bird is a spin-off movie from Sound! Euphonium, taking a subplot from the mainshow and making it into a movie. If you've seen the mainshow it's definitely worth a watch as it gives the spotlights to some of the sidecharacters that don't get as much attention otherwise.

Hyouka is a weird mystery/slice-of-life show but strangely addictive, mostly due to the adorable main character. I'm really not sure how to describe this show, but yeah, it's a KyoAni production so I'm pretty sure most people know it anyway.

I went into Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms blind, and holy shit, I wasn't prepared for all the feels. An immortal girl flees her home after an enemy attacks her homeland and finds a newborn baby she starts taking care for. It's a very touching and heartfelt story about immortality and aging and I'm honestly surprised it doesn't seem to be that well known. At times it gave me massive Violet Evergarden feels, it looks stunning, sound great and tells a wonderful story.

And finally Laid-Back Camp Season 2, and honestly, this show has no business being as entertaining as it is. It's just a show about a group of girls who like camping but it's executed brilliantly. It's a perfect show to watch a couple of episodes before bed.

Watched some more shows in the past few weeks but these 5 I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone with any kind of interest in anime. Not sure what I'm gonna watch next but I got a couple of hundred gigs of shows lined up so it's just a matter of what genre I feel like watching

Not watched Hyouka yet, but I know the general setup, and thus this video has always made me laugh my ass off:




My favorite part:

Spoiler

”Oreki…it hurts when I poop.”
“Shut up!”

LOL, just so random.