Teirayo said:I'm not quite at the point to watch this one yet but should I just wait for the last film to all be translated and watch them or would it be better to watch the show?
The series is good, but you need to pay attention to the actual contents of what's happening and much of it is delivered via subtext or people saying things (conversing between each other rather than exposition to the viewer). A lot of people who like the films are citing changes that are literally in the anime. It's just that on a second viewing, they're catching things. Someone told me for example that a character's motivation is explicitly stated in the films and 'why didn't they put that in the series, it's such an obvious scene'. It's in the series, the series just goes a mile a minute dude.
I'm not a big fan of some of the changes the films have made either which tone down the unique flavor, and at times the tone as well. For example when one character is kept prisoner in the TV series she retains a specific outfit and casually does ballet. This is flexing that prisoners are treated extremely well, that these people have no real concept of war, and that no one is in any danger (in that moment). Dance is also a running theme in the series, and something Tomino enjoys. In the films, this scene is changed to make it more 'normal'. She wears different clothes, she acts differently. She acts like people want and expect her to act, as viewers. But she doesn't act that way in the TV series because she's not in a normal situation as we would understand it. She's in a similar kind of situation in which political prisoners of the middle ages would be taken, and often returned unharmed. She's in a situation in which people are not used to fighting and violence in a way that hardens you and makes your first instinct to attack. These humanizing moments have also always been in Tomino's works, like Char helping Amuro change his car tire on the side of the road.
Had the moves not come out and 20 years had passed this series would be an underrated classic like Turn A, which also bombed and had similar reactions. If you don't like the TV series you won't like the movies anyways, because it's still the same characters and the same plot and the same events. You have to understand this is not war as you understand it in a modern sense. |