Resurrected Spotlight Anime: Flag

Orion1 said:
I've been nominating Flag for a while now, So I'll go ahead and start off this discussion. I'll also point you towards the Flag Reviews here on MAL since Beatnik and Santetjan have the top two and they are extremely detailed. After reading both of them I'll probably be reiterating a lot of what has already been said so I'll just highlight some of the analysis that's already been written.

First off for those of you who hate the Mecha genre, I think Flag should probably be one of the few exceptions. Yes it has Mecha but the series plays in the near future where Mecha are in the developmental stages. It also focus's more on the political ramifications of this new technology, and how it could affect military actions/strategy in the future of human warfare. While we have had some discussion about how unlikely Mecha are to be developed as viable weapons of the future since they are obviously too big of targets for modern hand held missiles. Plus the developmental costs seem like an outlandish venture for any nation today. However I think this show at least addresses this issue and offers some counter arguments for their creation. I thought reasonable believability was established for their tactical military usefulness in this particular series.

So you still don't like the idea of Mecha? I still think this show has more to offer. To say this series is Stylistically unique in it's story telling is an understatement. Flag is told entirely through the lens of a camera. The idea itself might seem like it could fall victim to its own pretension, but it doesn't. It seamlessly incorporates the narrative without deviation and it stays true to it's approach till the conclusion. I don't remember getting board and hoping the style would change. For this reason alone it deserves some recognition as a how to approach stylistic series. Basically the gimmick is woven very effectively and continues to offer the viewer a stimulating visual experience with exceptional 3d animation and life like character designs. Since the story plays out through the eye of a camera it takes on the feel of a documentary. The story itself makes use of modern political structures and very plausible socioeconomic conflicts in central Asia. The characters are not only believable, but they also become as important to the drama unfolding as the other political and military plot elements. Flag disseminated the human consequences of war in a unique way and for that it earned some points.

Santetjan brought up how the style made the series more "intense" to watch the action from the first person view of a camera and I couldn't agree more. He also points out that while the viewer is able to feel like they are viewing a realistic portrayal of the events unfolding, the viewers role as a spectator is always present. This spectator role allows the viewer impartiality and the ability to look at the political and socioeconomic events as an outsider. This is a quality that I can't say I've seen done as effectively in any other anime that I've seen.

The music is good, but certainly very repetitive. It sets the appropriate mood for a war drama but it never changes much like in the movie Platoon. This can be seen as both good and bad. I liked how each episode used still frame shots to create mood and continued the stylistic approach. For me this series is just too original not to be on our list. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot, especially regarding the character development in this story, but as I remember the people we get to know through the camera do feel as developed as you'd expect from a CNN special report. I think this series is definitely a genre buster and deserves to be in our relations list.

Orion1 said:
nadenade..