Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance

Too amazing. Rei is awesome. Asuka is awesome. Mari is awesome. The ED song remix is awesome.

Even Shinji is awesome. If something can make even Shinji seem awesome, you can be sure that that something is incredible.

97/100

The Sky Crawlers

Finally watched this. Been wanting to see it because the poster for it looked nice, and I’ve heard it mentioned in many places. They even made goddamn Pinky:st figures of the main characters. Didn’t know what it was going to be about other than piloting planes or whatever.

Anyways, this movie was true to its name, at least the “crawlers” part, since that was the pace at which the film moved. There were some scenes in the sky, but most of it was on land. Too bad!

Most people would say that this was excruciatingly slow (and objectively speaking, it really was), but I didn’t really mind it since I knew it was supposed to go at this pace to…add to the atmosphere or whatever, so I just took it for what it was and tried my best not to whine about the pacing. Also tried really hard to derive significant meaning from the whole story, but it was hard to do so since everything was so sparsely mentioned and maybe too subtly done. Sure leaves room for a lot of different interpretations, and in that way it can be seen as a thought-provoking film, but others might complain that it wasn’t really concrete enough to easily derive meaning from.

The setting was well-designed and the other fictional components of it were intriguing to say the least, but I couldn’t help but think that they had a lot of unexplored potential. I understood was Kildren was, but I would’ve liked it if they gave more concrete explanations on its significance and…other points. I liked the general world view they came up with as well, the settings were really well-realized and are really quite shiny, except in my mind I was kind of going like “Wat People with Japanese names in a European-like world who communicates in English and Japanese…this mesh of east and west reminds me of Sora no Woto!” Wish they utilized the world they created more as well because it’s really quite beautiful, and the fusion is interesting. Loved the town where the language was Polish, very cool.

Character designs were pretty uncreative, and the design style reminded me a lot of Kishimoto’s Naruto people, especially Kannami’s straight hair and slightly bulging eyes. Where have I seen him before…? Really liked Kusanagi at first glance, and her character also intrigued me. Strong women are the best, even more so when they look like younger gi- Uh okay. Didn’t really warm up to Kannami since he seemed so spaced out (or “at peace”?), but I get why he’s like that, kinda. Mitsuya was by far the most interesting since she seemed to have more emotion than everyone else combined, adding some much needed life to the down-looking cast, plus she also was the only one who asked questions and provided interesting information to the audience to make us question the world rather than just accept it for what it was.

The animation was alright, I really liked the close-up scenes, especially those with Kusanagi and/or guns. The CG is really very good, and I loved the aerial fights. Well done! The 2D animation also sometimes moved pretty sluggishly, and at those times I constantly wished that they would just either hurry up or make more small, fluid movements while stalling. A lot of the frames I noticed were pretty undetailed and, and actually overall there weren’t many frames, but I don’t think it matters since the characters usually aren’t doing anything special anyways - most of the time they’re just talking, turning to each other, staring at each other, or walking. I’m serious.

All in all, I didn’t really derive much concrete, not-just-my-own-interpretation-type meaning from this film despite trying hard to find meaning and to just stomach the slow pace, but to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it even though I really wanted to. I felt like I could’ve spent this time in a better place. Good effort though, it remotely intrigued me to say the least. Also that CG. Also planes. Also Kusanagi with glasses. 71/100

イバラード時間 / Iblard Jikan

Click on an image to enlarge! They’re all 1920x1080.

Just finished watching Iblard Jikan, a 30 minute OVA-type thing from Studio Ghibli. Never heard of it before, but gave it a try since it was a freeleech item on BakaBT, and the description layout was shiny.

Had no idea what to expect except something related to paintings, and was surprised to find practically a whole slideshow of gorgeous paintings set to music and minimal animation. At first, I was like wtf this is it?!, but as I watched I was completely immersed into this fantasy world filled with vibrant colours, exquisite and creative buildings and settings, and a very natural, rustic kind of atmosphere. Gave me a sense of nostalgia, and the Impressionist-like art style helped strengthen that feeling too.

Also, the video is separated into small segments of 3-5 minutes each, with each segment showcasing a different locale. It’s really intriguing. There’s also NO dialogue at all in the video, and it only consists of mainly still paintings (sometimes with some animated objects and people, as well as some CG work) set to an instrumental soundtrack. There’s one track with a male chorus singing, but they don’t sing lyrics, just notes. The CG used in the video are a little jarring and can be easily spotted, but it’s definitely not a deal-breaker, and is quite tastefully used. I kind of had fun trying to spot where the bits of animation and CG will come up.

Even though hearing that it’s basically a slideshow might make Iblard Jikan sound like a boring video, it’s really not because of the immense amount of detail and colour poured into each painting in the video. All the paintings are slowly panned then faded, but even if it seems like the paintings are panned very, very slowly, it doesn’t really seem like they give the viewer enough time to take in all the detail before the next painting comes up. I found myself trying to look into every crevice and detail of each scene, but I could never really finish doing it in the span of time they give me. There’s always the pause button, but it’s just so much more wonderful to watch it with the music still playing.

At first I thought it wasn’t based on a fantasy world, it becomes more and more apparent that this world is entirely made up, and integrates old-looking technology with natural backgrounds and settings. Top notch! My favourite are the trains on rails supported by nothing. Such a lovely floaty feel. Really loved how densely populated the cities are, too, and reminds me a lot of Teikoku Shounen’s old illustrations, but with a more organic and somewhat European feel to it. Made me really wonder how a city like this would work in real life, and could find no way to apply reason or logic to something as fantastical as this, so I just went ahead and accepted everything as it was. Would really like to try living in a world like that, though.

Here are some words that describe this video well: Stunning, wonderful, detailed, vibrant, creative, immersive, peaceful, artistic, rustic, natural, nostalgic, expansive, curious, subtle, and gorgeous.

This is really a video that’s best for watching if you want to forget the time and just escape into a beautifully constructed fantasy world. It’s basically a 30 minute tour of the world of Iblard. I love it.

Oh, and the little girl’s dress is so cute ﾊｧﾊｧ. 80/100, because I have a feeling I’ll forget I watched this and the CG was a slight detraction from the rest of the art style, but I really loved it while I watched it the first time, and it was successfully able to evoke in me a sense of wonder and amazement. I love that feeling.

More pictures:
Densely populated city
Train in the rain (I rhymed)
Woman in white at the window

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iblard_Jikan
MyAnimeList: http://myanimelist.net/anime/2891/Iblard_Jikan
BakaBT: http://www.bakabt.com/131063-iblard-jikan-iblard-time-animeclipse-1080p-h264.html