Movies and TV

[Psychotime]

Titan is ok. The first episode is awesome, but afterward it's just average.

The comic was a surprise hit in Japan that came out of nowhere, but once the cartoon started, it blew up all over the world.

A while ago, I tried to describe it to someone else.

Spoiler

It's a somewhat melodramatic (not that it's a bad thing) action series where the world has been overrun by giants and the remains of humanity (which is roughly steampunk in technology, but slightly medieval) are settled in an isolated country with layers upon layers of huge stone walls. The lower classes live on the outer layers, while the wealthiest (and the government) live in the innermost circle.

http://otakukokka.com/wps/media/2013/06/...strict.jpg

But after 100 years of safety, the giants somehow break through one layer of the country, into one of the outermost cities, killing hundreds of people.

The main characters: a hot-blooded boy named Eren/Aaron, his stoic badass foster sister Mikasa, and their wimpy but quick-witted friend Armin; all witness the destruction of their hometown and watch Eren's mother perish in front of them.

Years have passed, and the three characters, all grown up, have joined the nation's military to serve as the city's direct defense against the giants, which are slowly but surely encroaching further into the country.

But what really makes the military stand out is they way they fight. They're all trained to utilize gas powered grappling hooks attached to their hips to fly around and outmaneuver the giants and attack their weak spots with dual-wielded katanas.

I have to say it's the coolest and most original thing I've seen in a long time.





The major themes that seem to be going on in the series are loyalty and hope in the face of impossible odds, and the power of teamwork. It's most definitely a shonen series.

Fear and despair appear to be just as much as antagonists as the giants in the show, and conflicts arise among the ranks as many soldiers start to crack under the pressure while they watch their friends die around them in horrible ways. It's got a good balance of being pretty cynical while having a very clear optimistic core.

But don't get the wrong idea just because I bothered to write all of that. It's a pretty average show, if you ask me. The absolute best episode is the very first one, and I seriously recommend that. It will grab you from the first 10 minutes and will ensure that you will watch more episodes when the credits roll. It's amazing.

It will show you right from the start that this is a dead serious dark take on it's concept with a very bleak outlook. And the ending managed to get an emotional reaction out of characters I'd only been stuck with for less than a half hour. That's how good it was.

But I'll tell you right now that nothing afterward ever comes close to being nearly as good. It's just an average show afterward, but it's decent enough to keep me tuned in. One thing that really kills the tone is that eventually the giants start looking pretty damn silly despite how dangerous they are.

FLCL was probably a show I would have liked when I was 14. Now I just find it obnoxious.

Well, you won't like FLCL, unless you get what it's about (becoming a teenager). People in Ginax studio are not stupid, they won't go arround making random crap just because. If you look carefully, it's full of metaphores, like the girl on the vespa, being adolecense itself, baseball being sex, and many more I don't remember today. It's pretty cool when you actually get it.

No, I already know about that. And that doesn't make it any less obnoxious.

People in Ginax studio are not stupid, they won't go arround making random crap just because.

Panty and Stocking. Gunbuster. Dead Leaves (which is just as loud and obnoxious as FLCL, enough that it literally gave me a headache).

The only positive things I can say about Gainax is that they do deserve praise for pushing animation above the norm you'd expect in anime, and that they're at least earnest about what they do, however stupid it might be.

And I did enjoy Gurren Laggan, as well as Little Witch Academia (which was made by ex-Gainax people who split off into their own company, called Trigger).