Discuss Anime and Mang

[Teto 2609]

I mostly think Japanese dubbing sounds better, just because I don't speak the language and so most of the time I can never tell if the voice actor is bad or not.

[Teto 2609]

Just finished The Sky Crawlers. Took me long enough, since I bought it a few weeks ago. Definitely an interesting movie. Read the pack of the box, News of the World reviewer said "Haunting, subtle, and hypnotically beautiful...". All three actually. Little music throughout, not a lot of excitement either. Lots of long drawn out stares and pauses and very few characters with multiple facial expressions. Some points where the long pauses didn't serve it too well, as I felt the other characters in the frame, or even the character of interest, stays perfectly still for too long without many idle movements. Made it feel kind of bland sometimes.

I don't usually deal so well with subtlety in these sorts of things, and miss a lot of those details. So after seeing 'subtle' on the back, I went in knowing to pay close attention. Which might be why I found so much of it empty, and caught onto the absence of idle animations. Maybe it really wasn't empty though, and it was just too deep for me to get. As I said, I'm not so good with reading into subtlety.

Very very quiet movie. Even the air battle scenes seemed oddly quiet. Perhaps to draw attention away from the combat scenes, since the war clearly wasn't the focus of the movie.

I also managed to figure out the twist from the start, when he was being guided around and said a lot about recognising things. Not sure if the hints were meant to be subtle, obvious, or if I was just thinking a lot into everything in this movie. But it did do a lot to make me doubt the idea. The idea being that the previous pilot for his plane was himself, and he'd forgotten everything for whatever reason. I didn't suspect anything sci-fi was involved in it though, so once they started talking about how the previous pilot was shot, I brushed off the idea. Since I often make pretty outlandish predictions, but rarely are they ever right.

The reincarnation of OCD guy solidified everything though. And before he'd returned, it had dropped plenty more hints. It seemed totally ridiculous throughout that Yuichi really was just a new guy, what with how Suito acted towards him; as if he was an old love of hers. But it still cast doubt over all of that for me. Yuichi seemed to take the news that he was the former pilot pretty passively, and the fact that he was was delivered without much of a mind-squid moment. Which I guess implies that we were meant to have got that figured out. The other girl who I forget the name of spoke of the fact that everybody accepted Yuichi when he arrived and kind of ignored the fact that he was the other guy. Despite pretty much knowing it, they were in denial about it. Yuichi and the audience seemed to feel the same sort of thing with the return of OCD guy. Nothing much was said about it, and we were just made to accept it. New guy arrives who looks just like the old guy who died. What's the big deal?

Plot all seemed very well orchestrated if it was set up the way I imagine. That being that it's pretty much trying to make you feel what the characters feel. That being doubt that Yuichi really is the old guy, despite really knowing it. Oh anime you do like to leave lots of things empty for perfectly legit reasons don't you.

Very nice visually though. I worried at the start that it was just going to be loaded with conspicuous CG. Happily enough though, all the backgrounds were all about as realistic looking as the planes, clouds, water, and landscapes they flew over in the opening sequence. With the characters being usual cels. Very nice looking cells for that matter. All very nicely animated when they're actually doing anything. In retrospect, maybe even the lack of movement in some characters was meant to say something. Who really knows with artsy movies like this.

The movie's definitely given me a lot to think about. Don't think I've ever taken this much out of a movie before. I should pay attention more often.

Will probably watch it a second time to see what more I can uncover or assume about characters based on what I've learned the first time around. To look on it again now that I'm wise to what is actually going on.

I would read reviews to see what flaws it has, but I guess I'll just leave it at my own opinion for once.

Also worth mentioning that a lot of the pauses seemed to drag on awkwardly long lengths of time. The characters seemed to stare blankly into the distance when they talked. A lot of things just seemed drained of emotion, while a lot of character totally contrast others by being very emotional, or lashing out. I'm not so sure if that's artistic or inconsistent. I'm sticking with artistic though, for the sake of just making the movie feel a lot better. If I can imagine that there's a lot of meaning behind everything, it's hard to dislike it.

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

Teto that trailer had awful voice acting gosh im not usually picky either.

Also, The Sky Crawler's animation looks a LOT like Kishimoto's art in Naruto. Not saying that's bad just something I noticed.

[Teto 2609]

Yeah it was pretty poor. It was okay at the start, but the blonde kid's voice was just so bad. Everybody else too, but none as bad as blonde kid voice actor >:

More Sky Crawlers junk:

The subtlety

The subtlety

[T1g 1503]

the difference between the voice actors of america and the voice actors of japan is that in japan voice actors are treated with as much respect as regular actors. most other countries do not take voice acting seriously, probably because most other countries don't take animation seriously. take Johnny Yong Bosch, for instance. He was an actor who transitioned into voice acting, as opposed to starting out as a voice actor.

[Knuckle 484]

-discussing actors who became voice actors.

-make no mention of Mark Hamill

T1g sucks

[T1g 1503]

dude i only remember like 3 english and 3 japanese voice actor names give me a break

i got katanagatari while coding today and im going to check it out later

[Aethix 129]

Stinking walking undead CGI sharks! Oh my!

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

Aethix, wot did I just watch?

[Chimetals 344]

olol, they called em fish in the video. i think i caught "the fish are walking!!!" (sakana aruite iru!!!!) at one point.

also, the creepy voice said "help me, aki...dont run away...lets be friends (maybe, "arent we friends?" im not entirely sure)" (tasukete aki...nigenaide...tomodachi desho?) or something to that effect.

love how the other advertized series at the end were cutsy lil things.

[Aethix 129]

olol, they called em fish in the video. i think i caught "the fish are walking!!!" (sakana aruite iru!!!!) at one point.

also, the creepy voice said "help me, aki...dont run away...lets be friends (maybe, "arent we friends?" im not entirely sure)" (tasukete aki...nigenaide...tomodachi desho?) or something to that effect.

love how the other advertized series at the end were cutsy lil things.

The "aren't we friends" makes more sense to me, given the circumstances:

It's a bit different from the original manga, but it's close enough for me to know that the girl Erika has been infected with the bacteria that's infecting the fish. The bacteria produces lots of gas, which causes the victims to bloat horrifically. I also get the feeling that Erika had been making fun of Aki about her weight earlier, because Aki seems to be enjoying Erika's bloatedness.

If you thought it was bad with the cutesy things at the end, you should have seen the trailer where they advertised all three at the same time.

Anyways, the manga is available in English, although you'll have to get the first volume used. It's pretty good. I'd describe it as a horror series that doesn't take itself too seriously.

[Chimetals 344]

yeah, i thought so too, i just couldnt remember what other translations "desho" has.

viruses: they make fish grow spindly legs.

[2356 23]

All I could think of was "VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOI"

[Chimetals 344]

it took a second for me to get that one, then i lolled.

oh gawd, now, if i ever watch that series, ill probably yell "VOOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" every time a shark/fish attacks. it will now be their battle cry in my head.

[Knuckle 484]

dude i only remember like 3 english and 3 japanese voice actor names give me a break

B-but...It's Luke Skywalker