I'm not exactly happy. Its just a generic 'flat' anime. Nothing seems epic or over produced. Every frame in the original was designed and animated with care and attention. Here, its just flat and boring like a lot of other anime out there. Tis a shame.
In episode 1, Why the pillows featured in mid episode whilst a montage of future episodes happen is beyond me. I just checked and this wasn't included in the Japanese version. Its in the advert break. Why did the American version have this?
Episode 2 is showing itself to be equally as good. Its on par with how good the first series was during its normal scenes. Though to be honest this has more in-tune hi junks than Progressive. It just shows that its creators have genuinely studied the first series for ideas and to retain as much of the original tone as possible.
The rest of the episodes are okay. Still fan fiction but trying too hard to be the same as series 1 but in disguise. Reminds me of how The Force Awakens was too similar to the first Star Wars trilogy. At least this is set in an alternative universe. its no sequel. But its still pointless. 5-10
Lan presents a collection of videos and clips from the Internet, mostly related to Anime, Manga, Japan, film and music. Reviews and general thoughts are also presented.
Monday 15 October 2018
Tuesday 10 July 2018
REVIEW: FLCL 2 - 'Progressive'
This isn't even a shadow of its former self. A shadow is still part of a person. This is more like having someone else's body parts, an arm or a leg, attached to what was already a perfect human being.
For starters, this isn't made from the original creators. At best this is made from fans. No scratch that, FLCL was never popular in Japan. This is made from individuals that may or may not have worked at Gainax during the animator manufacturer years. You know, the more recent years where they churn out animators all the friggin time then bring in fresh blood. Rinse and repeat.
To say the show is now 'flat' compared to the original is an understatement. There are almost NO high-jinks. There is now flat animation scenes with no zanyness pushed to 11.
Whats really terrible is that they missed a trick. During the promotional campaign I would have thought that the character Julia Jinyu was actually Haruko's boss. You know, the one that she was talking too via Naota's cat.
If they wanted to do a sequel right, why not have its climax being Haruko actually finding and capturing Atomsk's power. Maybe she needed Naota after many years of attempting solo, or behind the scenes trying (and failing) with humans, like Amarao was? Why not have it that the kids from the original show are now in those terrible in-between months / years of adjusting from a school/uni life to having real world jobs. That would be cool, right?
Instead we have this amazing opportunity ruined in the ending credits of the first episode, which wraps up Haruko defeating Atomsk who doesn't even look to be captured by Medical Mechanica. Sigh...
The Pillows being back is cool and all, however its off. This is because most of the time in the original, the voice track would be removed. Especially during moments when the characters are talking. Here, the songs are played with the voice track in tact, clashing with what the characters are saying, and for me, ruining the mood.
The kids in this series are lame and uninteresting.
Why were some punks in episode 2 talking Japanese? Did Cartoon Network have no budget for hiring a few voice actors?
WFT so the main characters can fly now? Yuh hu..
In episode 3 Haruko tries to fly but falls. Yuh Hu..
In episode 4, Haurko says she doesn't take orders. Yuh Hu.. series 1 she was getting orders from whoever she was talking to from the cat.
In my opinion they cant fly unless they have their colour powers. If that's what you call it.
Episode 6 was the only genuinely interesting episode, though the animation is sloppy as hell.
For starters, this isn't made from the original creators. At best this is made from fans. No scratch that, FLCL was never popular in Japan. This is made from individuals that may or may not have worked at Gainax during the animator manufacturer years. You know, the more recent years where they churn out animators all the friggin time then bring in fresh blood. Rinse and repeat.
To say the show is now 'flat' compared to the original is an understatement. There are almost NO high-jinks. There is now flat animation scenes with no zanyness pushed to 11.
Whats really terrible is that they missed a trick. During the promotional campaign I would have thought that the character Julia Jinyu was actually Haruko's boss. You know, the one that she was talking too via Naota's cat.
If they wanted to do a sequel right, why not have its climax being Haruko actually finding and capturing Atomsk's power. Maybe she needed Naota after many years of attempting solo, or behind the scenes trying (and failing) with humans, like Amarao was? Why not have it that the kids from the original show are now in those terrible in-between months / years of adjusting from a school/uni life to having real world jobs. That would be cool, right?
Instead we have this amazing opportunity ruined in the ending credits of the first episode, which wraps up Haruko defeating Atomsk who doesn't even look to be captured by Medical Mechanica. Sigh...
The Pillows being back is cool and all, however its off. This is because most of the time in the original, the voice track would be removed. Especially during moments when the characters are talking. Here, the songs are played with the voice track in tact, clashing with what the characters are saying, and for me, ruining the mood.
The kids in this series are lame and uninteresting.
Why were some punks in episode 2 talking Japanese? Did Cartoon Network have no budget for hiring a few voice actors?
WFT so the main characters can fly now? Yuh hu..
In episode 3 Haruko tries to fly but falls. Yuh Hu..
In episode 4, Haurko says she doesn't take orders. Yuh Hu.. series 1 she was getting orders from whoever she was talking to from the cat.
In my opinion they cant fly unless they have their colour powers. If that's what you call it.
Episode 6 was the only genuinely interesting episode, though the animation is sloppy as hell.
Friday 23 February 2018
REVIEW: Pogo- Ascend
For starters, I try before I buy. I'm no collector, So I dont think Star
Charts nor any album before this is worth a purchase (not talking about
EP's or singles). I consider Kindred Shadow the first REAL album from Nick. That
was flawless. I'm no fan of artists like Pogo/Nick re-using samples in
later songs. Its like they arnt happy with the original. There are 3
songs which I deleted off of Weightless because I felt they just didn't
belong. These were Trumpular (god- no, not Trump), Hoo ba ba Kanda (its
just more annoying Americans), and Dream Reaper (sounded evil- and it
uses samples from the previous album).
I'm pleased with this new album. In actual fact I
think its solid. Its dreamy, the flow of the songs fit nicely, and
nothing sounds off, apart from Take Those Pills, which doesn't have a
place on the album but feels like the eccentric kid in the middle.
Tuesday 9 January 2018
The mess that is Clamp, and why i'm now avoiding them
UPDATE:
I wont delete what I wrote originally. I am still pissed off, but at TsubaHolic rather than CCS. I just WISH the clear card prologue never existed. Its not canon. So let me be clear, The Clear Card anime series is 100% canon. I've watched it in full.
-------
OLD:
I got into the anime of Cardcaptor Sakura when it was still known as Cardcaptors. I really loved it. After I learnt of the hack job that dub was, I got into the uncut version, Cardcaptor Sakura, which was absolutely amazing.
After its second movie I craved for more, though the ending was brilliant and didn't need any more.
Then Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE the manga came out. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to read up on events of what happened afterwards for the protagonists of Cardcaptor Sakura. Only, it wasn't them. Oh well, I continued reading in the hopes that the original characters would turn up one day. Sakura did, but only for a short time to hand over her magical staff and say her infamous line in chapter 224.
I also started getting into xxxHolic which tied into Tsubasa. It was a better story, and the likelihood of Clow Reed appearing was high, who was another character from Cardcapor Sakura.
Many years later these two stories have been ended with cliffhangers multiple times now. Meaning they occasionally come back to continue their stories. However I am seriously thinking now that they wont end. Ever.
Many fans may think that Tsubasa is over but the characters never found a place they can call home. That was the point of its story. Likewise in xxxHolic the story stopped dead and isn't going anywhere, even though it keeps repeatably teasing fans about a mysterious egg that could change the fate of things and bring a close to the manga. Well its not. Its just a fucking Pokemon GS Ball: a plot device to attract its audience but doesn't ultimately do anything.
As for the anime version of xxxHolic and Tsubasa? Forget about them. They never even tried to catch up with the true manga storyline.
With the return of Cardcaptor Sakura, the Clear Card arc, I'm now questioning why I ever commited myself to both xxxHolic and Tsubasa in the first place. You see, I've never read the Cardcaptor Sakura manga. Even if the characters turn up in xxxHolic and Tsubasa, they would never be the same true anime characters, they would be the manga characters that I never read.
And there is NO WAY the Cardcaptor Sakura manga could EVER top the anime version. The anime version is in colour, its in moving pictures, it has more stories than its manga, its in more depth, and its characters speak and the music is great. It has soul. Usually there is just NO WAY a manga can outshine its anime adaptation if its done right. If the anime cant keep up to its manga or has a whole bunch of filler episodes, only then do we have a problem. But the Cardcaptor Sakura manga is only something like 12 volumes long. Its too friggin short to outshine its anime.
So now we have a problem. Why did i comit to the very long Tsubasa and xxxHolic mangas?
Bring in the new Cardcaptor Sakura Clear card arc anime. We defiantly have a problem. Its episode 'prologue' adapts the last few chapters of the original manga. Its a different universe from the original anime. The events from the original anime are mostly the same but it diverts at exactly 22:36 seconds into episode 69. After this moment, time passes between the events of the showdown with Eriol. In that time, Shouron gives Sakura the bear, and admits his feelings to Sakura differently some time after that. She makes a bear for him and manages to give it to him just in time before his bus departs for the airport (but there is no sign on his butler on the bus too, strangely). Regardless, this diversion is separate from the original path of the anime and therefore the original anime is safe from being trashed or tarnished. Thank god. This episode is however mostly bland and rigid. the animation is static with not as much love put into it as the original. Also the animators seem to forget that the anime was ending in colder weather early in the year 2000.
Somehow its back to being warmer weather in this episode. Maybe a lot of time has passed since the ending of the Sakura card arc and that's why Shouron's butler has already gone home back to Hong Kong? weird.
Okay. Time to watch episode 1. Reactions below:
AND THERE WE GO! We have modern TV's and smartphones now!this ISNT set in the early 2000's meaning its NOT the original anime canon.
Okay now I'm pissed off. This episode just said that Sakura stayed up all night to give Shouron a bear before he left. That never happened in the original anime, that was in the 'prologue'. Whats more that happened at a bus stop in the prologue, but this episode earlier referred to the airport scene in the original anime. And there is absolutely no way the prologue happened after the second movie so WTF?
---
No way am I watching this clusterfuck. Seriously, how much effort does it take for writers to understand the previous plot? HELLO! WATCH THE FINAL FEW EPISODES! sloppy. No way am I watching a window into a CCS universe that is somewhere between the original anime and the 'prologue', yet set in modern times.
There are now 3 Cardcaptor Sakura anime universes because of this fucking mess.
---
And that's why I have decided to stop out-rightly being interested in anything Clamp do ever again.
They never officially ended
TusbaHoli, and have decided
to undo any endings for Cardcapor Sakura too. This is a total clusterfuck. I never
read the Cardcapor Sakura manga and therefore don't care for events that happen in
that world, INCLUDING this clear card arc sequel. I realise now I'm only interested in watching a direct sequal to the original Cardcapor Sakura anime, leading off from its second movie.
Now that its 100%
official that the Clear Card arc anime is NOT a direct sequel to its
original anime, I'm past caring. I'm still interested in continuing the TsubaHoli
manga though, just because I invested so much time into reading them.
But hell, I'm totally expecting this Clear card arc to never end anyway. Thats just how Clamp works.
I wont delete what I wrote originally. I am still pissed off, but at TsubaHolic rather than CCS. I just WISH the clear card prologue never existed. Its not canon. So let me be clear, The Clear Card anime series is 100% canon. I've watched it in full.
-------
OLD:
I got into the anime of Cardcaptor Sakura when it was still known as Cardcaptors. I really loved it. After I learnt of the hack job that dub was, I got into the uncut version, Cardcaptor Sakura, which was absolutely amazing.
After its second movie I craved for more, though the ending was brilliant and didn't need any more.
Then Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE the manga came out. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to read up on events of what happened afterwards for the protagonists of Cardcaptor Sakura. Only, it wasn't them. Oh well, I continued reading in the hopes that the original characters would turn up one day. Sakura did, but only for a short time to hand over her magical staff and say her infamous line in chapter 224.
I also started getting into xxxHolic which tied into Tsubasa. It was a better story, and the likelihood of Clow Reed appearing was high, who was another character from Cardcapor Sakura.
Many years later these two stories have been ended with cliffhangers multiple times now. Meaning they occasionally come back to continue their stories. However I am seriously thinking now that they wont end. Ever.
Many fans may think that Tsubasa is over but the characters never found a place they can call home. That was the point of its story. Likewise in xxxHolic the story stopped dead and isn't going anywhere, even though it keeps repeatably teasing fans about a mysterious egg that could change the fate of things and bring a close to the manga. Well its not. Its just a fucking Pokemon GS Ball: a plot device to attract its audience but doesn't ultimately do anything.
As for the anime version of xxxHolic and Tsubasa? Forget about them. They never even tried to catch up with the true manga storyline.
With the return of Cardcaptor Sakura, the Clear Card arc, I'm now questioning why I ever commited myself to both xxxHolic and Tsubasa in the first place. You see, I've never read the Cardcaptor Sakura manga. Even if the characters turn up in xxxHolic and Tsubasa, they would never be the same true anime characters, they would be the manga characters that I never read.
And there is NO WAY the Cardcaptor Sakura manga could EVER top the anime version. The anime version is in colour, its in moving pictures, it has more stories than its manga, its in more depth, and its characters speak and the music is great. It has soul. Usually there is just NO WAY a manga can outshine its anime adaptation if its done right. If the anime cant keep up to its manga or has a whole bunch of filler episodes, only then do we have a problem. But the Cardcaptor Sakura manga is only something like 12 volumes long. Its too friggin short to outshine its anime.
So now we have a problem. Why did i comit to the very long Tsubasa and xxxHolic mangas?
Bring in the new Cardcaptor Sakura Clear card arc anime. We defiantly have a problem. Its episode 'prologue' adapts the last few chapters of the original manga. Its a different universe from the original anime. The events from the original anime are mostly the same but it diverts at exactly 22:36 seconds into episode 69. After this moment, time passes between the events of the showdown with Eriol. In that time, Shouron gives Sakura the bear, and admits his feelings to Sakura differently some time after that. She makes a bear for him and manages to give it to him just in time before his bus departs for the airport (but there is no sign on his butler on the bus too, strangely). Regardless, this diversion is separate from the original path of the anime and therefore the original anime is safe from being trashed or tarnished. Thank god. This episode is however mostly bland and rigid. the animation is static with not as much love put into it as the original. Also the animators seem to forget that the anime was ending in colder weather early in the year 2000.
Somehow its back to being warmer weather in this episode. Maybe a lot of time has passed since the ending of the Sakura card arc and that's why Shouron's butler has already gone home back to Hong Kong? weird.
Okay. Time to watch episode 1. Reactions below:
AND THERE WE GO! We have modern TV's and smartphones now!
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