Anime Thigh Thread II

[Suicidal Panda]

Anyone watching this season's Shirobako, umm Sakura Quest? Sadly, I dropped it as I miss the creating an anime thing and wasn't as interested in her becoming queen, but I think about retrying h it

First 2-3 weren't too good, but I feel it picked up after that

[Neichus]

Tenshi no Tamago (Angel’s Egg) - ??/10

Angel’s Egg is a surreal Christian Rorschach test that submerges the viewer in a gallery of meaningful, but uninterpreted, images. It is one of the most fluidly alien works I have ever consumed. What follows can only be described as my own attempt to find the bottom.

First, the relevant facts:
• Oshii (the director) had extensive training in Christian theology
• Oshii had a sort of falling out or crisis of faith prior to the production of Angel’s Egg
• Oshii himself stated he didn’t know what the film was “about”

When first diving into Angel’s Egg, the first thing one needs to do is prepare to look for meaningful, religious symbolism in every scene and event. The second is to then abandon the thought of specific interpretations being the “right” ones. The best way to describe the design of the symbolism is “archetypal.” Water, trees, eggs, shadows, bones…all are so universal in human thought that one can hardly call them uniquely Christian or even religious in nature. This causes each of the scenes to have multiple valence levels, wherein the part of the observer is no longer passive in their meaning.

Every scene in this movie is a piece of art in its own right.

Take for example the men chasing the shadows of fish. Fish have an obvious link to Christianity, both in the fish symbol and the “fishers of men” phrase. Using this iconography, it has been suggested that this scene represents those of blind faith chasing after an ever-elusive true belief, only to damage the world around them. A secondary interpretation in the same current is based on the identifiably ancient structure of the fish. In this case they are not illusive but actually extinct: the shadows representing the belief that used to be, and the men are futilely attempting to reclaim it. Finally, yet other commentators suggest that by virtue of being shadows the fish must represent the negative of faith, the fallen angels that lead men to destruction intentionally. There is no clear consensus. But in all cases, the irreducible nature of the situation is unchanged: there is something that cannot be caught, yet men seek after it with all their might, even to the detriment of what is around them. A theme universal.

This brings me to an important point that is often sailed over: while there may be many “correct” interpretations, there are most certainly many wrong ones. For instance, the scene above is emphatically not about man’s lust for power and the subsequent spoiling of the world. Nor is it an allegory about the continual search for ultimate scientific truth, and the resulting horrors that it has caused. There are bounds to the interpretation. It does not take the shape of every container.

Because of the nature of this work, I feel it is only proper that I also descend from the position of author to get my feet wet in explaining what I experienced personally…and the truth of it is, it meant nothing to me. I have floundered for days, reading explanations and watching reviews. Cognitively I can explain what Angel’s Egg is, and emotionally I can sense the potent longing permeating its core, but these two things are not soluble with my own character.

Perhaps an example will do. Near the end of the film, the two journey to a building replete with bones. They wind around the columns and are embedded in the walls. Clearly, if any place is to be called a mausoleum, representative of death and the passage of time, this is it. My first response? Oh, it’s a museum (why else would the skeletons be mounted in the walls?). What a curious, but harmless, place. Dead? Yeah, they’re dead; so what? Dead creatures aren’t horrific, tragic, menacing, or a failure…and I wonder what species they are…?

“Here is the bird.”
…that’s not a bird…

I don’t intend to be flippant with my remarks, but truly the symbols one after another passed me by as unnatural, with hardly a ripple. It was like deciphering another language, one I did not speak natively. Intellectually I could grasp the literal meaning, but there was a palpable sense that their deeper impact was flowing through my fingers. I drew some solace from this review:

“This movie’s images tapped into the subconscious reservoir of my fears and desires, [but] maybe the images will mean nothing to another. It’s an expressionistic work, that however exquisitely crafted, will fall flat for some people.”

Because of this, I have decided for the first time to not award a rating to an anime. Angel’s Egg is pregnant with meaning to those who are attuned to it. It will drown you or baptize you, and I have been both surprised and humbled that I cannot encompass it through my intellect alone. I depart from Angel’s Egg, returning to more familiar seas, with the realization that there exist in the deeps things I cannot take the measure of.

[Shinzai]

Tenshi no Tamago (Angel’s Egg) - ??/10

Angel’s Egg is a surreal Christian Rorschach test that submerges the viewer in a gallery of meaningful, but uninterpreted, images. It is one of the most fluidly alien works I have ever consumed. What follows can only be described as my own attempt to find the bottom.

First, the relevant facts:
• Oshii (the director) had extensive training in Christian theology
• Oshii had a sort of falling out or crisis of faith prior to the production of Angel’s Egg
• Oshii himself stated he didn’t know what the film was “about”

This is a great review as usual, though I would suggest it may be worth comparing this to Oshii's later explorations into philosophy and theology. I'm pretty sure you've seen at least half of them at this point:

Ghost in the Shell 1+2, Jin-Roh, Patlabor 1+2 and Blood: The Last Vampire.

As I always say, he's one of my absolute favourite directors of any form, whether anime or otherwise, just due to his exceptional visionary style. The problem comes with the muddling of his messages. Almost everything he makes feels like a vague extrapolation or continuation of previous concepts and philosophies he's toyed with, but still has yet to master.

For all the philosophers he quotes in his later films, I can never help but feel that he's desperately searching for his own answers through his work and still has yet to find any palatable conclusion for himself, never mind his audience.

[Sesto]

saekano 09 - honestly i hate tomoya so much why does he have so many cute girls after him

i wouldn't mind having eriri as my gf tbh

- - - Updated - - -

ok i finished the episode

saekano's drama is so bad lmao

[Pejo]

I felt the drama in the latest episode was a tad forced - I did like the new girl tho. Not a huge fan of how the Eriri interacted with her tho

[Asetotti]

[BloodyAngel12]

[video=youtube;yKrp7XYIEu4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKrp7XYIEu4[ideo]

Is that a sequel or a prequel?

[Asetotti]

Is that a sequel or a prequel?

It's a prequel. No game no life Zero

[BloodyAngel12]

It's a prequel. No game no life Zero

Is this a possibility to get a s2 then?

[Hotmail]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2xJDuM9ZDM

Is this an OVA? My Japanese isn't good enough to make out whether they're advertising a theater release or a TV show.

[Hotmail]

It'll be a 12 episode TV show, I believe.

Yeah, down for 12 episodes.

I'll be on the lookout for some subs! Or maybe it will come out dubbed on Funimation, eventually . . .

In the meantime, what are some good gambling animes?

[BloodyAngel12]

Whats the cute girls doing cute things anime for this season?

[Asetotti]

Whats the cute girls doing cute things anime for this season?

Hinako note.

no idea if it's any good.

[Neichus]

KADO 9:

This went from sort of intriguing to outright dumb in a matter of seconds.

-Explanation of anisotropic: okay, fine. I've been a sucker for the idea of the unexplainable since the inception of the show, and this continues the thread. Higher dimensions and the idea of information being central to existence is fairly appealing to me.

-Explanation of the universe: actually, I'm still okay with this. It puts humans on a bit of a pedestal, but at the same time addresses why certain things are the way they are.

-zaShunina deciding he had made a mistake: okay, now we're straying into bad guy territory, which is simply boring. Considering the level of control he just demonstrated, brandishing a giant light blade beam is so laughable a way of elimination. Also, given that it is possible to create copies of people and such...wouldn't it have just been better if this had been one of several times, and that zaShunina was repeating a cycle? There were so many ways to go here that weren't cliche.

-Saraka Tsukai going Super Saiyan: ...and now it's dumb.

Well, not that this series was stellar up to this point, but I'm utterly unimpressed now.

[Shinzai]

I'll be on the lookout for some subs! Or maybe it will come out dubbed on Funimation, eventually . . .

In the meantime, what are some good gambling animes?

Just to add to what Unified suggested, I'd also suggest Akagi. It's from the same author as Kaiji, but I'd say it's a better anime, in my opinion, as it's a lot more grounded and set in the world of underground mahjong with the mafia.

[Neichus]

Just to add to what Unified suggested, I'd also suggest Akagi. It's from the same author as Kaiji, but I'd say it's a better anime, in my opinion, as it's a lot more grounded and set in the world of underground mahjong with the mafia.

I watched Akagi but felt it ended up being really....twice as long as it should be. I've had Kaiji on my list for a while, but if it's worse than Akagi, is it worth watching?

[Shinzai]

I watched Akagi but felt it ended up being really....twice as long as it should be. I've had Kaiji on my list for a while, but if it's worse than Akagi, is it worth watching?

It's more of a stylistic difference. Akagi as you note is long and feels long. Akagi's more about constant tension and more of a focus on realism in how long mahjong games go on for and how high the stakes are.

Kaiji is more of a death-game setup, with much more colourful characters and a much faster pace. I'd recommend it if your only issue with Akagi was its pacing. It's not a bad anime by any means (I gave both of them 8/10 if I remember correctly).

[BloodyAngel12]

[Hotmail]

[bals]