Name: Anonymous 2012-12-06 14:35
>What's good:
The soundtrack. The series features quite the collection of music that, with the exception of a few "hiccups" in direction, is usually aptly used.
>The art direction. Nice mix of anachronistic elementsー the whole 18-19th century Europe "schtick" the Empire has going for it pleases me and seems to be strangely fitting. The mechanical design is great, for the most part. I like the sleek look of the ships but some of the shuttles and airplanes are just too fat >(and ugly) to be functional (and more importantly, seem a little out of place in the anime itself). The background art is generally nice (except in space battles) as are the character/uniforms' designs etc.
>The (main) characters. Right now Reinhard is little more than an arguably better version of Char Aznable, but he's poised to become (or so I hope, if things are done right) a great character. I'm not so sure about Yang, Mr. Accidental Hero, but he's involved in (mostly indirectly though) some pretty interesting character interactions. A "shout-out" to Jessica is in order hereー she's the cause of one of the two scenes I liked a lot, when she steps up during the press conference in episode 3 (the other being Reinhard confessing that he is allergic to the golden flatulences of noble dogs: he simply must turn out to be what Char should've been). I'd say the anime is at its best when it focuses more on the characters, and it should stick to that. The character subplots and political intrigues are far more interesting than the background story and overarching plot.
>What isn't that good:
>The voice acting. Absolutely none of the performances stands out. Some scenes really needed more powerful and expressive acting. The script doesn't always help either. Not once was I under the impression that I'm being fed the abridged version of the dialogue, which most probably was the case since the film doesn't suffer from this particular problem.
>What sucks:
>The battle "strategies" and "tactics". And this is a rather important aspect since a significant part of the mains' characterization and development hangs on it, not to mention that the overarching plot revolves around a galactic war, so the fact that they're poorly done and unconvincingly portrayed has a pretty major cascade of effects. So, they're a big jokeー
>The first battle is all fine and well until its last stage which makes no sense. I'd say it only happens that way because the author wanted to have an ouroboros of space ships no matter what: actual tactics and common sense be damned, snakes eating themselves are "cool"! Except trading other things for the "cool" equivalent doesn't really work that well in this case. In retrospect there's also the fact that they play out like naval battles (the 3-dimensionality of space is largely ignored) but this is more of a nitpick. It sorta works under the "dream logic" of "space is a sea of stars" so you can go past it and it didn't really affect my suspension of disbelief like in the other cases.
>Either way, it gets from bad to worse. The 7th battle for the Iserlohn Fortress is a laughable mess from start to finish. It's a train of stupid cliches. The "impregnable" fortress is seized by little more than a handful of infiltrators on a walk in the park because the enemies are simply too stupid (in every way) to do anything. Every single step of the operation succeeds only because the story momentarily transforms into a world of idiocy:
>The Alliance forces (led by Yang) are too stupid to even forge IDs and paperwork, but that's alright since the Empire's mooks are even more stupid and let them through without them anyway. They're so stupid, in fact, that they don't even do a basic check-up (which would find, as you'd expect, some hidden guns), even though the whole situation was screaming "careful, there's some suspicious thing a going here". And then follows the "classic" routine of grabbing the dumb schmuck in command, keeping him at gunpoint and yelling your commands which will be followed to a T since the poor underlings are too stupid to realize that a key strategic point is more valuable than an old fart's life. They're also too incompetent a fighter to snipe or shoot the threat to eternal sleep, or do just about anything at all to slow down this "invasion" which will churn and plow through them with (wait for it) battle axes. And by "battle axes" I mean the melee weapon, indeedー it's not a code name for some in-universe device. The whole episode was so hilariously bad that by the end I was laughing with tears. It doesn't seem so funny anymore though...
>But the "grand prize" goes to the quenching of Maximilian's rebellion (under Siegfried's, Reinhard's right hand, command), which was "brilliantly" won with the aid of pixie dust (or "plot physics"), the Zephyr particles. There were other things that rubbed me the wrong way in this fight (like the dumb planetary defense system which is flawed by design- you can't properly protect a sphere with a necklace- since it creates two huge weak spots easily exploitable if the enemy attacks perpendicularly to the plane of the ring) but this takes the cake.
The aforementioned Zephyr particles. Something tells me that their physics will be at best treated similarly with how the Minovsky particles are treated in Gundam (meaning, relatively consistent but wishy washy, as the plot demands it) and at worst used as a convenient means to ass-pull battle outcomes and convenient twists (which is pretty much what happens the first time they're brought into the picture).
>And well, (the elephant in the room has to be addressed at one point) the animation. "Dated" doesn't even begin to describe it. Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if, when many say its animation is "dated", they don't mean "dated by today's standards" but "dated by late 1980s standards" because that's what I'd describe it as: dated by 1988s standards. When I think of OVA animation quality in 1988, titles like Gunbuster or Patlabor come to mind. No one should make the same mistake because it doesn't even begin to compare. With the exception of a couple or so scenes (like the water sprinklers scene, of all things, and Yang's car run) the animation is generally very stiff and choppy. The worst "culprits" however are the space battles. They're god-awful. The same couple of background layers (with the ship lights) were reused in every single space scene, as were the same 3 frame cycles of ships firing (which look like bad concert lasers), the ships' animation (when it's there) is super-choppy and looks like crap and the lame storyboarding which is nothing but cheap "show fleet turning on the concert lasers" or "show ship still-images panning across the screen", with the occasional godsent (if recycled) explosion or scene with small fighters (but no dynamic scenes), doesn't help at all. Occasionally, it even goes "up" (as in "down") to 1970s levels of quality.
They sure took their sweet time releasing the episodes, but anyone who'd mistakenly believe the project was rushed to completion should be forgiven, because sadly, they have plenty of reasons to believe that...
>What's hit or miss:
>The status-quo with Phezzan as a "neutral" party feels incredibly contrived. What's they're raison d'etre in larger scheme of things? They're the one, single faux neutral party that "conveniently" supplies various resources (most importantly, information) to the two warring factions. They're something of an excuse and a replacement for a spying element in the storyline. As it stands, the in-universe reason for Phezzan's status as an independent state is rather flimsy.
>The Iserlohn Corridor. This stinks of lazy writing. The author didn't want to deal with a complex and vast warzone so we get this contrived "arena" for the confrontation instead. If it does get explained at some point it will end up as the complete (but lame) storytelling gimmick that it is, and if it doesn't get explained that's even worse. Much worse...
The soundtrack. The series features quite the collection of music that, with the exception of a few "hiccups" in direction, is usually aptly used.
>The art direction. Nice mix of anachronistic elementsー the whole 18-19th century Europe "schtick" the Empire has going for it pleases me and seems to be strangely fitting. The mechanical design is great, for the most part. I like the sleek look of the ships but some of the shuttles and airplanes are just too fat >(and ugly) to be functional (and more importantly, seem a little out of place in the anime itself). The background art is generally nice (except in space battles) as are the character/uniforms' designs etc.
>The (main) characters. Right now Reinhard is little more than an arguably better version of Char Aznable, but he's poised to become (or so I hope, if things are done right) a great character. I'm not so sure about Yang, Mr. Accidental Hero, but he's involved in (mostly indirectly though) some pretty interesting character interactions. A "shout-out" to Jessica is in order hereー she's the cause of one of the two scenes I liked a lot, when she steps up during the press conference in episode 3 (the other being Reinhard confessing that he is allergic to the golden flatulences of noble dogs: he simply must turn out to be what Char should've been). I'd say the anime is at its best when it focuses more on the characters, and it should stick to that. The character subplots and political intrigues are far more interesting than the background story and overarching plot.
>What isn't that good:
>The voice acting. Absolutely none of the performances stands out. Some scenes really needed more powerful and expressive acting. The script doesn't always help either. Not once was I under the impression that I'm being fed the abridged version of the dialogue, which most probably was the case since the film doesn't suffer from this particular problem.
>What sucks:
>The battle "strategies" and "tactics". And this is a rather important aspect since a significant part of the mains' characterization and development hangs on it, not to mention that the overarching plot revolves around a galactic war, so the fact that they're poorly done and unconvincingly portrayed has a pretty major cascade of effects. So, they're a big jokeー
>The first battle is all fine and well until its last stage which makes no sense. I'd say it only happens that way because the author wanted to have an ouroboros of space ships no matter what: actual tactics and common sense be damned, snakes eating themselves are "cool"! Except trading other things for the "cool" equivalent doesn't really work that well in this case. In retrospect there's also the fact that they play out like naval battles (the 3-dimensionality of space is largely ignored) but this is more of a nitpick. It sorta works under the "dream logic" of "space is a sea of stars" so you can go past it and it didn't really affect my suspension of disbelief like in the other cases.
>Either way, it gets from bad to worse. The 7th battle for the Iserlohn Fortress is a laughable mess from start to finish. It's a train of stupid cliches. The "impregnable" fortress is seized by little more than a handful of infiltrators on a walk in the park because the enemies are simply too stupid (in every way) to do anything. Every single step of the operation succeeds only because the story momentarily transforms into a world of idiocy:
>The Alliance forces (led by Yang) are too stupid to even forge IDs and paperwork, but that's alright since the Empire's mooks are even more stupid and let them through without them anyway. They're so stupid, in fact, that they don't even do a basic check-up (which would find, as you'd expect, some hidden guns), even though the whole situation was screaming "careful, there's some suspicious thing a going here". And then follows the "classic" routine of grabbing the dumb schmuck in command, keeping him at gunpoint and yelling your commands which will be followed to a T since the poor underlings are too stupid to realize that a key strategic point is more valuable than an old fart's life. They're also too incompetent a fighter to snipe or shoot the threat to eternal sleep, or do just about anything at all to slow down this "invasion" which will churn and plow through them with (wait for it) battle axes. And by "battle axes" I mean the melee weapon, indeedー it's not a code name for some in-universe device. The whole episode was so hilariously bad that by the end I was laughing with tears. It doesn't seem so funny anymore though...
>But the "grand prize" goes to the quenching of Maximilian's rebellion (under Siegfried's, Reinhard's right hand, command), which was "brilliantly" won with the aid of pixie dust (or "plot physics"), the Zephyr particles. There were other things that rubbed me the wrong way in this fight (like the dumb planetary defense system which is flawed by design- you can't properly protect a sphere with a necklace- since it creates two huge weak spots easily exploitable if the enemy attacks perpendicularly to the plane of the ring) but this takes the cake.
The aforementioned Zephyr particles. Something tells me that their physics will be at best treated similarly with how the Minovsky particles are treated in Gundam (meaning, relatively consistent but wishy washy, as the plot demands it) and at worst used as a convenient means to ass-pull battle outcomes and convenient twists (which is pretty much what happens the first time they're brought into the picture).
>And well, (the elephant in the room has to be addressed at one point) the animation. "Dated" doesn't even begin to describe it. Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if, when many say its animation is "dated", they don't mean "dated by today's standards" but "dated by late 1980s standards" because that's what I'd describe it as: dated by 1988s standards. When I think of OVA animation quality in 1988, titles like Gunbuster or Patlabor come to mind. No one should make the same mistake because it doesn't even begin to compare. With the exception of a couple or so scenes (like the water sprinklers scene, of all things, and Yang's car run) the animation is generally very stiff and choppy. The worst "culprits" however are the space battles. They're god-awful. The same couple of background layers (with the ship lights) were reused in every single space scene, as were the same 3 frame cycles of ships firing (which look like bad concert lasers), the ships' animation (when it's there) is super-choppy and looks like crap and the lame storyboarding which is nothing but cheap "show fleet turning on the concert lasers" or "show ship still-images panning across the screen", with the occasional godsent (if recycled) explosion or scene with small fighters (but no dynamic scenes), doesn't help at all. Occasionally, it even goes "up" (as in "down") to 1970s levels of quality.
They sure took their sweet time releasing the episodes, but anyone who'd mistakenly believe the project was rushed to completion should be forgiven, because sadly, they have plenty of reasons to believe that...
>What's hit or miss:
>The status-quo with Phezzan as a "neutral" party feels incredibly contrived. What's they're raison d'etre in larger scheme of things? They're the one, single faux neutral party that "conveniently" supplies various resources (most importantly, information) to the two warring factions. They're something of an excuse and a replacement for a spying element in the storyline. As it stands, the in-universe reason for Phezzan's status as an independent state is rather flimsy.
>The Iserlohn Corridor. This stinks of lazy writing. The author didn't want to deal with a complex and vast warzone so we get this contrived "arena" for the confrontation instead. If it does get explained at some point it will end up as the complete (but lame) storytelling gimmick that it is, and if it doesn't get explained that's even worse. Much worse...