What Anime and Animation are you currently watching?

Watching the Star Wars Visions series on Disney+.
Each one is a short film made by a different anime studio. Varied and interesting stylings. Most of these are very good.
 
Watching the Star Wars Visions series on Disney+.
Each one is a short film made by a different anime studio. Varied and interesting stylings. Most of these are very good.
Watching this too. Liking it a lot so far.

The Duel: In a Japan set in the Star Wars franchise, a ronin enters a village that is attacked by a Sith, and he seems to have everything planned out. Great worldbuilding, shown through little details, like the ropes on the minigun, the katana lightsaber (lightkatana?) etc. Also, a big love letter to Akira Kurosawa. 3D, black-and-white animation.

Tatooine Rhapsody: a jedi-turned-rock-singer on tour with his band makes a deal with the mercs after one of his band members. One of the most uplifting things you'll see today. The music is really cool. 2D animation with Kawaii characters.

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I also liked The Elder and The Twins.

I identified the four-point Japanese story structure in The Elder, and I enjoyed the theme of time and the comparisson between the children and the old man, between the apprentice and the master.

The Twins takes the rule of cool to a whole new level. Star Wars is criticized for its lack of actual science, explosions and sound in space; but, in this episode, the siblings actually fight in space. Their hair sway with the wind. They gasp and breath deeply. Weren't this not done by Studio Trigger, the suspension of disbelief would be zero.
 
Today starts Japan Fall 2021 Anime season.

Mieruko-chan. (Horror comedy. Source: manga.) A schoolgirl suddenly starts seeing ghosts, and the way she deals with it is by pretending they're not there. The title is a pun with "a girl who sees". The director made it very ecchi. I think there were, like, five or six close-up shots on the MC's ass throughout a 20-minute episode. So those of you who have a problem with sexualization, heads up! But the director's very competent with the horror direction. I'm still trying to find it funny though. I'll keep watching.

Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut. (Science Fantasy, Romance. Source: Ligh novel) During the cold war, the two sides compete to launch the first manned mission to space. The USSR plans to train a vampire to do it. The protagonist, a lieautenant, has to help train the vampire girl. From the first episode, I say that the Romance between the two works fine, and the idea itself deserves applause (although the execution is no masterpiece). The original title is The Moon, Laika and the Nosferatu. Makes sense because they keep comparing the vampire girl with the female dog that was sent to die in space by the soviets. I'll also keep watching this one.
 
Takt Op Destiny: good fight scenes and animation (it's a collab between studios MAPPA and Madhouse after all) but the worldbuilding is a mess so far. I'll apply the "first-three-episodes rule" before deciding to drop.

The following two are based on novels that would suit the Batty Book Titles thread:

Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside. Too clichéd. It twists the another world trope just a little bit, and the plot is too close to Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist. I'm dropping this one.

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat: the best anime of the season so far! What an opening. We start with the MC, basically Mads Mikkelsen, on a mission to assassinate a child-trafficker, and then it time-skips to the future, when Mads, I mean, the hero, is going to retire. It reminded of Polar (2019), and it's from the same author of Kaifuku, so I'm expecting some lewd things here. (not many in the first episode, just some panty shots).

 
I think this is the best anime season ever. Truly.

Mushoku Tensei S1-Part 2: despite the sexual part just getting weirder and weirder, this is just too fun to drop.

Comi-san can't communicate: a girl who is extremely introverted (read: a pathological introvert) teams up with a boy who is a specialist on "reading the air" to survive high school. She aims to make 99 more friends in a school full of weird people, and all exams are oral so I'm curious to see how they're going to handle it. The animation is beautiful.

Kimetsu no Yaiba, AKA Demon Slayer S2: The instant classic is back. The first eight episodes will be a recap of Mugen Train Arc, the one depicted in the movie, but with new scenes. Both the op and the ed are done by LiSA, as she did in S1. Although I think that she really fits, I'd like to see some new voices there.
 
Just finished Maya and the Three on Netflix. Wasn't too sure about this at first, but it soon won me over with its visuals, humour and heart. Nice to see something based (perhaps somewhat loosely) on Mesoamerican mythology.
 
I have a nearly full DVD HDD, so, I must watch a ton of that stuff before resuming anime. I just started s3 of Sgt. Frog, & would like to resume, but I must defer.
 
Cells At Work which is amazing, very funny and very accurate :)

Its about the Human Body/Immune System :)

You can find both Series so far on CrunchyRoll which I have on Phone but I think its on Laptops and Tablets too :)


Regards - Declan Sargent
This one's been on my to-watch list for a while now. But I did watch Ozzy & Drix as a kid. It's an American cartoon with pretty much the same plot.
 
Watched the full showing of Fena: Pirate Princess, and it would have been very good if: 1) the dialog was not drowned out by the music and: 2) the show did not end like a TV drama. It's anime, you know eye-candy.
The artwork was great, and had the potential for a lot of adventure - which you would take from the title. Basically disappointed, though if there is another season will give it a second chance.
Another show I watch is Black Clover. There may be another anime show on that will watch, but have to resort to my collection of DVDs for Ghost in the Shell and the Loduss Wars.
I have tried going to Cruncyroll, but not paying for it.
Don't get me wrong - I would rather watch anime then most of the regular TV shows on.
 
Finished off S1 of Arcane on Netflix. I loved the first three episodes of this, but got a bit bored by the end of E9, sadly. It remains visually stunning, though.

I felt the same way about Castlevania. The artstyle is great on Arcane, but the movements still have that uncanny valley / 3D thing going on. Great to see it progressing, though.
 
The artstyle is great on Arcane, but the movements still have that uncanny valley / 3D thing going on
I actually thought the valley was a lot less uncanny than almost every other realistic CG animation I've seen, and way better than I was expecting. The facial movements were generally pretty lifelike, except that they were sometimes a bit exaggerated. What they didn't seem to have put any effort into were the muscular movements in bare shoulders etc.
 
I actually thought the valley was a lot less uncanny than almost every other realistic CG animation I've seen, and way better than I was expecting. The facial movements were generally pretty lifelike, except that they were sometimes a bit exaggerated. What they didn't seem to have put any effort into were the muscular movements in bare shoulders etc.

I suspect there's two things that make it off - they're animating on 24's instead of 12's. If you watch Into the Spiderverse, they got round that slightly too smooth look of CG 2D by animating Miles Morales on 12's to get the look of animation.

The other thing is motion capture, so you lose all the animator tricks like squashing and stretching and wind ups and all that - so it looks a bit stiff. Still - being really picky here because every frame could be a concept art painting!
 
they're animating on 24's instead of 12's
Frames per second?

Also on this thread, I've just re-watched The Thief and the Cobbler, "Recobbled Cut Mark 4" on YouTube. This is an attempt to restore the director Richard Williams's vision for his never-completed 1970s animated film. It has a few pacing issues, but in general is a delight. The surreal destruction of the war machine at the end is hilarious.
 
I suspect there's two things that make it off - they're animating on 24's instead of 12's. If you watch Into the Spiderverse, they got round that slightly too smooth look of CG 2D by animating Miles Morales on 12's to get the look of animation.

The other thing is motion capture, so you lose all the animator tricks like squashing and stretching and wind ups and all that - so it looks a bit stiff. Still - being really picky here because every frame could be a concept art painting!
I'm guessing they did that with Into the Spiderverse to make it look and feel like a "moving comic book", so to speak. Cuz that's how it feels to me.
 
Just started Blade Runner: Black Lotus, and it's exactly what I was expecting: nothing new. It's nothing more than a spin-off that doesn't add much to the franchise; it's not a new world, so there's no sense of wonder. Also, the CGI and the movements really evoke the uncanny valley (maybe even more than the other series discussed here recently).

I'm a sucker for cyberpunk so I'll happily swallow anything you throw at me as long as it has neon lights :whistle: , but I really can't give anything more than a 7, maybe 7.5 out of 10 for this series.
 
I'm guessing they did that with Into the Spiderverse to make it look and feel like a "moving comic book", so to speak. Cuz that's how it feels to me.
More to make it look like real animation - we're so used to seeing animation on 12's, when we see it on 24's all the time it looks uncanny. 24 fps is usually reserved for action, only. They do the same thing in Beaststars too.
 

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