Mar 13, 2010 8:24 PM
Red Garden: Aion's Negative Thoughts
Anime Relations:
Red Garden
Because I'm dumb and I only feel like watching anime when I should be sleeping (/owl), I watched the second disc. I wasn't impressed.
Even though the content on the first disc moved slowly, there was a sense of purpose behind the proceedings. First the character introductions, then the introduction of monster battles and, finally, character development that fleshed out all four girls; Rachel in particular getting a lot of time.
But the second disc simply went around in circles. Rather than watching an anime with an established episode count, it was like watching some mediocre teen girl high school drama. Nothing advanced, and there was near to no action.
For example, Rachel's love life should've been partly resolved after the end of the first disc. However, the situation reset itself and, by the end of the second disc, her and her boyfriend are now in a similar situation; the only difference being a yawn worthy sub-plot involving one of the 'team party groupies' hooking up with Rachel's boyfriend. Zzzzzzzzz.
I'm hoping the run up to the finale gets going soon because it's now painfully obvious Gonzo did an improved version of what Bee Train do on a regular basis, without any flashbacks or staring contests. It's all quite sneaky, really--attempting to trick people into thinking they're seeing character development when, ultimately, all they're being shown is the same shit executed in a slightly different manner.
Turning the series into a musical of sorts has to be one of the most unique time wasting exercises, mind you. I can just see the conversation the Gonzo higher ups had when planning Red Garden:
'Hey, I know how to save on animation costs AND not have to advance anything at the same time! Why don't we have the characters, at complete random, start singing some boring song about being happy or sad to fit the mood for five minutes? And, because we hate those English speaking cheapskates, let's write in any licensing contract that the lyrics have to be hard to hear and cannot match the subtitles! It's ingenious!!!'
Arseholes. Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh since I keep laughing whenever everyone starts singing as if they've rehearsed in advance, and without any build-up, but c'mon...
Turning to your comments (person on a forum I frequent), I do like how four girls from totally different social groups have been forced together and have to fight to survive. But there's one big, ugly plot hole that connected them in the first place: the girl that ALL of these girls were friends with, at the same time. How on earth can one person get on with a classy/elegant chick, a party chick, a violent tomboy and a quiet/nerdy chick at the same time? Was this girl like the ultimate human or something? And it's totally implausible for all four of these girls to decide to look for their missing friend together.
I was willing to overlook that one flaw before, but not when the quality has dropped so much since the first disc.
As for the colour usage and whatnot, the characters' hair, skin and all the rest have caught my eyes on a number of occasions. Gonzo clearly put a lot of effort into that side. It's just a shame the graininess has kind of taken away from the visual experience. Without wanting to sound racist, the rarest of rare in anime - black people - don't look so great when they're flickering constantly.
...So, yeah, going on how Fabriluna found Gantz slow-paced enough to 6/10 it - even with the boobs and violence - and is struggling to deal with the quality characterization of Noein, I'm guessing he'll rate it 5-6/10 unless there's a serious improvement.
My ratings so far:
Disc 1: 8/10
Disc 2: 6/10
Even though the content on the first disc moved slowly, there was a sense of purpose behind the proceedings. First the character introductions, then the introduction of monster battles and, finally, character development that fleshed out all four girls; Rachel in particular getting a lot of time.
But the second disc simply went around in circles. Rather than watching an anime with an established episode count, it was like watching some mediocre teen girl high school drama. Nothing advanced, and there was near to no action.
For example, Rachel's love life should've been partly resolved after the end of the first disc. However, the situation reset itself and, by the end of the second disc, her and her boyfriend are now in a similar situation; the only difference being a yawn worthy sub-plot involving one of the 'team party groupies' hooking up with Rachel's boyfriend. Zzzzzzzzz.
I'm hoping the run up to the finale gets going soon because it's now painfully obvious Gonzo did an improved version of what Bee Train do on a regular basis, without any flashbacks or staring contests. It's all quite sneaky, really--attempting to trick people into thinking they're seeing character development when, ultimately, all they're being shown is the same shit executed in a slightly different manner.
Turning the series into a musical of sorts has to be one of the most unique time wasting exercises, mind you. I can just see the conversation the Gonzo higher ups had when planning Red Garden:
'Hey, I know how to save on animation costs AND not have to advance anything at the same time! Why don't we have the characters, at complete random, start singing some boring song about being happy or sad to fit the mood for five minutes? And, because we hate those English speaking cheapskates, let's write in any licensing contract that the lyrics have to be hard to hear and cannot match the subtitles! It's ingenious!!!'
Arseholes. Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh since I keep laughing whenever everyone starts singing as if they've rehearsed in advance, and without any build-up, but c'mon...
Turning to your comments (person on a forum I frequent), I do like how four girls from totally different social groups have been forced together and have to fight to survive. But there's one big, ugly plot hole that connected them in the first place: the girl that ALL of these girls were friends with, at the same time. How on earth can one person get on with a classy/elegant chick, a party chick, a violent tomboy and a quiet/nerdy chick at the same time? Was this girl like the ultimate human or something? And it's totally implausible for all four of these girls to decide to look for their missing friend together.
I was willing to overlook that one flaw before, but not when the quality has dropped so much since the first disc.
As for the colour usage and whatnot, the characters' hair, skin and all the rest have caught my eyes on a number of occasions. Gonzo clearly put a lot of effort into that side. It's just a shame the graininess has kind of taken away from the visual experience. Without wanting to sound racist, the rarest of rare in anime - black people - don't look so great when they're flickering constantly.
...So, yeah, going on how Fabriluna found Gantz slow-paced enough to 6/10 it - even with the boobs and violence - and is struggling to deal with the quality characterization of Noein, I'm guessing he'll rate it 5-6/10 unless there's a serious improvement.
My ratings so far:
Disc 1: 8/10
Disc 2: 6/10
Posted by
AironicallyHuman
| Mar 13, 2010 8:24 PM |
1 comments
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Aiferrific | Mar 14, 2010 11:45 PM
Boo, way to raise my hopes about a series I'd never heard of in one blog post, then stomp on them in the next. Use your few days off to watch the rest of the series and discover that it's fantastic, plz.
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