danth

I've sampled a lot of new anime. The only recent stuff that impresses me, animation wise, is Haruhi and Ghost in the Shell. If you wanna tell me what other new shows have great animation, I'll check them out. I always hear this opinion that old anime has "washed out colors." The only possible reason I can see why people would have this opinion is if the video itself is made from faded masters or something. Because largely, old shows have rich, almost wet looking color, while new shows look practically pastel. And be assured I've seen a ton of old and new anime, so yes, this is a large blanket statement. I guess, but I'm talking about poorly drawn characters. I actually like a lot of the new character designs, but in new anime, characters are pretty much off-model in every frame. Ever seen Twelve Kingdoms? I love the box art, and all of the creator's artwork, but the animation is horrible. The characters in the anime look hideous. The there's stuff like Haruhi. I don't particularly like the chara designs, but the characters in the show are drawn so carefully that it's just pleasant to watch. Except a lot of old shows had great detail and great animation, whereas new stuff typically have neither. I mean, sure, the "mentality" of eighties animation, you could argue, was to have a lot of detail, but in reality, back then they had big budgets, lots of talent, Japanese animators, and dedication to quality. Now days, regardless of the mentality, 80's-quality animation is rarely achieved. Look at the Itano Circus for example, that stuff requires many cels per second, and yet they did it back in the "detail over fluidity" days. Now they do that stuff with computers, which is fine if you like watching video games. The whole thrust of computers in animation is to reduce cost, not to make better cartoons. It happens with everything in capitalism: once something becomes profitable, it must maximize profit, and quality suffers. I know that anime has traditionally had less cels per second that US animation, but if you look deeper, you'll see that a lot of old-school anime, even though animated at 12 images per second, really took advantage of each image and had stunning artwork at each "frame", whereas new stuff looks more like 6 frames, and it's not even as well drawn. Well, it's hard to compare Frontier's computer stuff with SDF's; of course it's more fluid, but for me personally, I'd rather watch hand-drawn animation. I'd take an Itano-directed episode of SDF any day. I think the episode of SDF where Max chased Miria into the Macross is the best animation ever made. But anyway, the non-cg parts of Frontier are really bad, in particular the character animation. It looks like modern-day Anime Friend. Like I said, it has nothing to do with character designs, although I think new character designs kinda suck as well. But yeah, the 80's had it's share of crap too -- ironically, Anime Friend-animated episodes of SDF Macross were among the worst. I realize that much of this argument is subjective, but that's not the end of the argument. Beauty is subjective, but how many dudes would rather make the sexy time with Roseanne Bar instead of Jessica Biel? You can also look at things like budget, cels per second, man-hours per episode, and that's all objective. But what really gets me is this: new anime isn't even hand-drawn. The animators "draw" by bending lines with a mouse in vector-based drawing programs, instead of free-hand drawing. And it really shows because the curves in modern character drawings look awkward and unnatural. Why do they do it this way? Because it's cheaper: they can just "bend" the lines to make a new digital cel instead of redrawing everything. And what's this crap where characters have to talk out of the side of their faces just so they don't have to draw one more cel. Talk about cheap.

That was way cool. Whenever I watch quality old school animation like that, I just can't get over how much better it is than the new garbage. New anime has washed out colors, poorly drawn characters, jerky animation...it's just ass. You can't beat eighties animation. Oh yeah, apparently Go Nagai created this show. Crazy.

Geez, I didn't realize just how out of whack the VF-25 toy is. I always thought the head was weird looking, and now that people have pointed out exactly what's wrong, I'm just not as impressed. It's funny how toy makers can really nail the detail and shape of each separate piece, but they screw up on something as important as the head, and then mess up on the overall proportions (like the legs attaching to the hips way to high and the shoulders being too wide).

Dude, is this subbed?

Amazing; it seems these things will finally be released.

I think you're right. I think the slight change in distance between the lasers actually makes a huge difference visually. Good catch there.

As much as I want to want it, I know the wheels won't spin and the forearm/fork area will probably be messed up, and certain pieces in bike mode won't lock tight.

Sweet! I hope they don't touch the music, because it's my all time favorite game soundtrack. It's pretty much a must-buy for me. Now they need to do Secret of Mana (since Children of Mana kinda sucked) and the Mother games.

Thanks guys! Wow, that is incredible.

I'd want a new style 1/60 VF-1 with fast packs. You can't beat the VF-1, and the new 1/60 looks best in all modes. And might as well have fast packs. If I had to pick, I'd take a 1J.

http://ga.sbcr.jp/mplamo/009690/ http://ga.sbcr.jp/mgundam/009842/

A nicer way to say it would be "chubby and old," but damn, it's true. I didn't know just how much Reba West really looks like Minmay...not DYRL or FB2112 Minmay, but definitely SDFM Minmay.

That's true. I was actually just thinking about how good the CM ride armor looked in photos, but when you get in in hand, its wheels don't even spin and its front fork section is a total mess. And don't even get me started on the windshield or Ray's version with the energy cannon that doesn't work at all in bike mode. I wonder what disappointing surprises the Beagle will bring us. Also, the CM ride armor looks pretty spot-on proportion wise, while the CM Legioss is completely deformed. Point being, a company can make a good looking Ride Armor and an ugly Legioss. But hope springs eternal!

Well, we can bombard them with money and see what happens. But yeah, these guys need to make a Legioss and Tread.

My heart just went pitter-patter. That thing is damn gorgeous.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi...,0,111563.story

Not that I know of, but a June release is not looking so likely.

I think a Robotech movie could work if they got Shinji Aramaki to design the mecha (because Nue prolly wouldn't do it) and Itano to direct the fight choreography and direction. Of course that will never happen, because it would rock too much.

Subpar? Really? What don't you like about it?

I'm right there with you. The wait on this toy will kill me. I passed on the 1/48 even though the VF-1 is my favorite design ever, but this new 1/60 valk wins in every way the 1/48 fails. And I want it now. IT'S MY VALKYRIE AND I NEED IT NOW!

Aww, that's no fun.

Sweet butt-raping Jesus, the 1/60 is perfect. Perfect! I might have to buy an extra one from whatever store will get it to me fastest.

Wow, the DX VF-25 is looking pretty damn good. No complaints here.

What? The VF-4 has fast packs? Holy crap. I've never seen that picture before! Yes. I'd buy it, fast packs or no. Just as longs as it look as good as the 1/60 YF-21 or VF-1. I love the VF-4, especially the fighter mode.

Yes, finally some news. It looks great, just needs some tread on those tires. Hopefully after this, Beagle will do more Mospeada mecha.