Evangelion Returns...

I recently found a copy of the new NGE movie, You Are (Not) Alone. It pretty much covers everything from the series from the first scene, stopping right before Asuka's debut. Some thoughts I've had...

- It feels just like Evangelion. Many of the scenes are almost exactly the same, though they do take away a good portion of the filler. I've heard some people complain about things missing like enough development time of characters or lack of drama for the sake of moving through the story. I agree that some parts feel rushed, but there was a need for the pace; if I try to not think of it in terms of the previous story, there are some odd choices of scenes (it'll probably be explained once the other films come out) but it still has most of the core to the story.

- I first watched NGE in about '02, before I even cared about Japanese culture, so one scene I never really understood in the dub was when Shinji first got to Misato's place and said "I'm home."; it makes so much more sense now that I know some about Japanese and the ただいま/おかえりなさい (tadaimi/okaerinasai) exchange.

- They've kept a lot of the random moments that you remember from the series, for those that pay attention like that. The bathroom scene (where they're talking while the camera goes across the line of stalls) still has the "Out of Order" sign on one of them.

- The CGI in here is a little overdone in some places. It may just be the nature of the style that comes with the series, but there are occasions where either it wasn't needed or it was too overdone. (2 exceptions: the Ramiel battle and the movement of the city)

- As one of those people that is used to be someone intending on being a music major, I really appreciated the music here. Many of the scenes used remixes from the old series, taken into more modern levels; the tracks have a sense of suspense on occasion, both by the nature of the tracks and what I expected from them. When you know the music, and you've heard it for a long time, the movie makes adjustments on those themes that you have heard for so many years, and the suspense increases greatly there.

- If I had one major complaint here, it's that there are scenes that are just plain too dark. You'll go 15 seconds hearing all kinds of things going on, and knowing that there are things going on, but you won't see anything going on. I've tried on both my monitors, at night, with all the lights off; you can't tell what the hell's going on...

- The Ramiel fight scenes (6th angel...the blue one that's shaped like a Octahedron with a hell of a sniper shot) is easily the best Evangelion set of scenes I have ever seen. The angel is around for the last 40 minutes of the film, and all you can say is ... damn. You just wish they could've done what they did in this film in the first series.

- I do think that this movie is better than the combined 6-7 episodes. You lose a lot of the theme work done simply because there are time restrictions here, but in return you get something that is genuinely a good watch. It's like watching a clip show of the best of Evangelion, but it's seamless, provides some great fight scenes, and still maintains what is the essence of Evangelion.

The new top dog (in anime) (tie, that is)

[ side note: I use this site for keeping track of anime I watch and want to see. I use it mostly to remember what I want to watch, but I also use it's "top 5" as a way for me to occasionally think about what I consider the best ]

Well, just a couple days ago I finished watching Haibane Renmei for the second time. The first time became a marathon run, just like Elfen Lied was, but this one was a bit more interesting to me.

When Tech TV was still around, they aired an anime series called Serial Experiments LAIN. I never thought this series was the greatest thing ever, but I thoroughly enjoyed it when I watched it. I remember biking to the first Magic store I regularly visited, passing by a power substation and hearing the sound, then even going so far as to trying to incorporate that note and the idea behind that note into some music I was writing. I just watching the series, but I always didn't like just how empty it was. You needed to really pay attention to go through the series, understanding everything. Some people like that kind of thing, but I tend to like listening to anime and being able to move my attention around if I need to.

Haibane Renmei's main designer is the same as LAIN, and the story shares a similar style to LAIN (very thematic, large amounts of allusion). However, the story is much deeper and conversational than LAIN, bringing the discussions between characters into light as a route to expression. It seems like I'm trying to grasp at little things here to explain the differences, but you really need to watch the two series to see just what is different about them.

But what I loved abou this series the most was just how good it was for "easy watching", like one of my other favorites, FLCL. It never pressed itself to you and forced you to pay attention, though watching it closely would mean a deeper understanding. You can just sit back, let this go, and just love the entire series for what it is.

The other thing about this series, though, is that this is the second series I have watched in recent months (the other being TokiKake) that I genuinely thought "Hey, this is a series I could use to introduce other people to anime." My mom's seen me watching a good number of series, and sometimes I get the feeling that she gets the wrong impression of why I watch anime. (I think most of this comes from when Ghost in the Shell was on [as] regularly, as that's usually when she stopped by my room when she went to bed) My older brother currently has my copy of FLCL, as I thought he'd be interested in a series that is like that. (He suggested Paprika to me, and they feel kind of similar) I never could really think of a series my parents would be interested in seeing, though I was looking at TokiKake for this summer among a couple other possible candidates. This one, though, will probably be first.

Next ones I'm looking at running through: Air, Gurren Lagann, and finally starting up xxxHolic. I may also restart Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei...

Elfen Lied

I'd heard a lot about this series in the past, and I have had it downloaded for a good while, but I just never got around to watching it. I always said that it was something that I would really need to be "in the mood" to watch.

Well, this past weekend I was just in the mood to watch something; I'd been re-watching Evangelion and didn't want to see any more of that, I didn't want to take a FLCL run or to watch something which I'd been watching already. So, I decided that I should finally see what this series was all about, and go beyond the first 8 minutes.

6 episodes later, I slept for the night with the thought of "wow, that series was not what I expected."

A little background, first. I first found out about this series from an anime-review website* which had some good reviews for the series. I'd also heard it in passing from many people, with such terms for it as "legalized anime-porn", "blood + nudity", ... you get the idea. My only experience with the series prior to the weekend was the first 8 minutes of episode 1; I'd heard more about that than any other part, so I watched that right when I first acquired the series.

The next day, I watched 2 episodes, finished Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations (the last episode just came out), and ran through the last 5 episodes.

That series is amazing. There's a website where I keep track of what I watch and also keep a running top-5 of animes; the list was FLCL/Haruhi/TokiKake/Evangelion/Outlaw Star. I never thought I'd stop considering Outlaw Star one of my top picks, but Elfen Lied kicked Evangelion to #5.

All I can say in a review of the series from what I heard about it that it is somewhat true. This series would never be aired on US television; the gore isn't an issue, but there'd be problems with the nudity. On the other hand, the series is just something that you could not expect coming into it. You are a little on-edge every second of the series, unexpected moments come in the first 8 minutes + some other sections that keep you on your seat, watching for the smallest change to prelude a large scene reminiscent of a horror film. In this tension, though, you get a very strong story for an anime, though you do see these "links broken and then re-attached by accident" stories often. The twists in the story, though, are ones that are unique to a series like this; the graphic nature of the series fits incredibly nicely, and the series wraps up with links complete and a very strong emotional bond formed between the main characters.

Elfen Lied is not a series for everyone, though. From everything I've read and from my opinion, I consider FLCL and this linked: you either love it or hate it. I would not suggest this series to anyone as their first series, or even 5th. Unless you can go beyond the explicit nature of the series to get to the true story, you will never like it; you can't do that if you don't have an understanding of the "intricacies" of anime. (in other words, there are strange things in this series, but you'll see stranger just going through other, much more normal animes)

* I went to the site as I was writing this, and I clicked on the first banner ad in several months intentionally. Lesson here: targeted advertisements on very specific sites work.