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Birthday1997
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JoinedJun 25, 2016

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Nov 10, 2018

Planet With (Anime) add

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When think of the word: anime, what usually comes to mind? Teenagers? Mechs? Magic? Long, dumb attack names? Life lessons? The supernatural? Some good ol friendship? One of these or none of these probably came to mind when you think of ‘anime.’ These tropes provide us as viewers with a sense of familiarity when checking out something and to recognize something in just a couple seconds from trope savviness. When there is an overuse of tropes, it can lead to something formulaic, boring, and having no pulse. But, playing around with tropes can lead to some unexpected results; catching the audience off-guard to stay entertaining ... and engaging. It can create something new, yet, familiar. And takes you on journey with teenagers, mechs, magic, long dumb attack names, the supernatural, and even some life lessons. That journey is Planet With!

If we’re talking about the looks of the characters, they look like they’re from the 2000’s. Which gives the show its unique look; the more cartoony style is just right for the shounen-like story ahead. The show uses a wonderful variety of colors throughout many areas of the show. The colors are able to present a natural division of the heroes and villains with Nebula having darker colors and Paladin having lighter and neutral colors. The dream sequences have a large bloom effect to make everything seem artificial and the magic effects have all sorts of colors to make it seem otherworldly and powerful. It would be wrong of me if I never brought up the CGI the show uses because its used a lot. Personally, I think it looks just fine. The variety in mech designs, being based off of animals, make them stand from other humanoid mecha; plus it moves pretty fluidly during the action sequences, which makes it all the more impressive. While the show has variety of elements thrown into its presentation, I can say this for certain: Planet With is visually consistent.

The characters become very well developed; which is shocking given the shows runtime! Each character has a definable personality from the start and as the story goes we begin to learn more about them. A majority of the characters’ depth comes from their backstories, so we understand their goals and drive towards decisions; and through the sealing devices we get to see their dreams, what they really want if they could have it. Not all the characters get a backstory or dream sequence but instead make it up with their strong personality and the entire cast overall is very entertaining.

If you want to make ‘psychokinetic mega-god photon armor’ sound powerful there is only one way to do it: MAKE IT SO LOUD IT CLIPS! Yoshikazu Iwanami is known for his loud sound effects and audio clipping and it’s used to wonderful effect here. It allows the mechs to give off more of an ‘umph’ in their attacks due to the CG models not really showing any damage unless they need to; plus it definitely makes up for the lack great animation in the show. The wonderful orchestral soundtrack gives the series of grandeur to its in its Sci-fi universe. Able to go blood pumping symphonies to emotional melodies; the score has a lot of range and is a great listen on its own.

Living in the now, not in the past; is an overarching theme that encompasses Planet With, and serves as the heart of its story. Many characters have regrets and emotional baggage and are given a glimpse into a wonderful dream, an alternate look into a life where the pain they went through never happened. But, that’s not how life works. It has its up and downs, it’s unpredictable, it can take and give away at any moment. It’s only through the give and takes of life that we can grow up and become the people who we are today, stronger and experienced. And this message is carried through in a story with no brakes. The pacing is phenomenal, every scene serves some sort of purpose to create one of the most efficient stories in recent years. A story that is able to be super fulfilling within 12 episodes that many other shows fail to accomplish in longer runtimes is a statement to its quality!

Twisting the audiences’ expectations without making them feel betrayed is a testament to Planet With’s quality. Entertaining and weird as hell with little need for questioning; it just makes sense. Somehow looks decent despite the different mediums the show uses. And knows just what to do to keep you invested. Planet With is an anime; through and through!

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Aug 24, 2018

Megalo Box (Anime) add

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When you hear the term ‘boxing anime’ there are two series that come to mind: Hajime no Ippo and Ashita no Joe. Ippo becoming a boxer out of wanting to become stronger and Joe Yabuki becoming a boxer by a chance meeting with a boxing coach that saw potential in him. I haven’t seen any of these series... but, what I have seen is Rocky; a story about Rocky Balboa, debt collector and part-time southpaw boxer, is given a chance to fight the heavyweight champion: Apollo Creed based off of his name alone. A pretty simple premise for a film that is just so effective ... with the charismatic Rocky, the romance with Adrian, the adrenaline pumping training scenes and the drama everywhere else. All culminating into one final fight of emotion and hype! A structure that Megalobox follows while taking in the sights along the way.

One thing you’ll immediately notice is the visual style of the show, which is very much reminiscent of series from the 90s, but just recreated using 2018 technology and nails it.The aesthetic oozes character with its detailed and recognizable character designs and its worn, lived in backgrounds that gives each environment its own sense of place in this world; with direction that shows us what each environment is like and how the characters interact in it. Each fight illustrates each fighter’s unique way of fighting with their gear and well choreographed to make up for any less than stellar animation cuts from the rest of the great ones.

If the aesthetic of show got your attention then the music will get you invested. Each piece of music encapsulates the characters, settings and emotion throughout its entire runtime. Like how the slums area uses more hip hop and rap or how Yukiko’s theme is mostly orchestral instruments given her higher status and how Yuri’s theme uses a lot techno beats with his integrated gear and deadly efficiency in the ring. A great OST on its own merits that is strengthened by the series its attached to. The sounds for each fight sound crisp with the squeaks of the fancy footwork and the satisfying ‘pop’ with each punch with more powerful punches sounding like it could KO you in real life. Sound is even consistent outside of fighting with the training equipment and mechanical movements of the Gear.

Story structure is pretty straightforward to follow. Each arc starts with the introduction of the new fighter, we learn more about the fighter, MC trains for fight, fight happens, repeat a couple more times. There able to repeat this structure because the writers are able to create interesting out of the ring conflicts that eventually build up to the actual fight. Aragaki is a particular highlight for me. Something I felt was a bit of a wasted opportunity was with the Gear. Gear seems to just be used to turn boxing into a bloody extreme sport, but I wanted to see real world applications of people using Gear in everyday life. It does get brought up towards the very end of series but did very little to satisfy this thought.

“Joe.” - Joe 2018

Our main character finally has a name, hooray! Yeah… there… isn’t really to much to the characters. Not to say they were poorly written. When a new character is introduced you definitely get an idea what they are like from the couple lines of dialogue and their design; there isn’t too much more to them outside of that first impression. Of course the main opponents are more fleshed out so we understand their purpose for participating in Megalonia; to the point where they have more going on with them than the main cast. However, what kept the characters interesting for me was how a majority of the cast are characterized as animals. Joe being a stray dog, Nanbu a scorpion, Fujimaki a snake, Yuri as a trained dog and how he refers to Yukiko as ‘owner’. Some fighters who aren’t given enough screen have an animal as part of their ring name which pretty much defines the type of person they are. Kind of ironic how Yukiko doesn’t approve of Joe for being a stray yet all the megalobox fighters are animals themselves.

Megalobox doesn’t try to do anything new or innovative with the story it’s trying to tell, but instead serves as a reminder for why we love these types of stories. An underdog rising through the ranks in order to fight on the ultimate stage to show their worth. With recognizable characters that you get at an instant, detailed, sketchy art to give its rough look and music to get your blood pumping. A tried and true way to create something that is the genuine article.

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