Daily Anime Thoughts

[Naga]

why boring and badly animated was your question... and it is if compared to other stuff... and lagoon...

[randomredneck]

If you pointlessly compare something to something else, of course you think it'll look better.

[Naga]

well my verdict is always based on comparing... in a way...

[valondar]

Originally Posted by randomredneck

Show me the boring and badly animated in this. Go ahead, I'll wait...

That's really the best you can do? A generic knife fight with minimal choreography - par, repeat, par - that could have been ripped from any anime ever made? Since you want to compare Black Lagoon, try this on. Now that is how you execute an entertaining action sequence.

Jormungand, of course, is the kind of series that can make two armies of people shooting at each other look both badly animated and (in its inabiltiy to generate tension) boring as fuck. When i say Jormungand is the worst series I've seen in 2012, that puts it behind Tari Tari, a feckless school anime that never cohered into being about anything other than forgettable pablum - how does an action series fail so bad at the most basic, visceral level of entertainment?

It does this by having long, meandering conversations in the middle of shooting scenes that are poorly animated, by having no decent sense of pacing - entire episodes dawdle around inane negotiations and petty bickering between clients and sellers before they get to the action if they even remember to go there.

So I guess the done to death "Badass female mercenary"(Revy) the "Everyman thrown into an unusual situation"(Rock) or the "Creepy child killer"(Hansel and Gretel) have never been done before that show...

Matter of execution. Jormungand's characters are not well written. They are either shrill stereotypes or collected anime geniuses or - mostly - bland supernumeraries. There is no humour to their jokes and no motivation that is worth a damn. Black Lagoon could introduce a character and give him two lines to satirize how ridiculous anime characters can get with Rotten the Wizard; Jormungand took that idea seriously and gave us the dreadful Orchestra and his pantless wearing teenage girl.

And while Roanapur is teeming with a large and diverse supporting cast, many of whom are legitimately interesting in their own right - Balalaika, Chang - pretty much all of Hekmatyr's group besides the child soldier and the Finnish ex-soldier are interchangeable and forgettable.

Where Black Lagoon feels alive, Jormungand feels prefunctory and tired. A bunch of half-assed plot points thrown in a brew, stirred around, and shot out again. It's as painfully idiotic as it is underwritten - as offensively stupid as it is boring. The cardinal sin of any action series is to be boring, but I can't remember Jormungand ever having a single episode where anything happened and I cared in the slightest.

Yup, no cheesy fanservice here...

Try stills from the actual series. While there is some, there's actually surprisingly little for an anime of this genre... and there's nothing quite as stupid as Orchestra's groupie.

[randomredneck]

Originally Posted by Naga

well my verdict is always based on comparing... in a way...

Fair enough.

[randomredneck]

Originally Posted by valondar

That's really the best you can do? A generic knife fight with minimal choreography - par, repeat, par - that could have been ripped from any anime ever made? Since you want to compare Black Lagoon, try this on. Now that is how you execute an entertaining action sequence.

Mind giving me a video that isn't copyright blocked...

Originally Posted by valondar

how does an action series fail so bad at the most basic, visceral level of entertainment?

Because you're amazingly biased maybe?

Originally Posted by valondar

pretty much all of Hekmatyr's group besides the child soldier and the Finnish ex-soldier are interchangeable and forgettable.

Considering you only got to episode 4 apparently, I'm not shocked you think that...

Originally Posted by valondar

entire episodes dawdle around inane negotiations and petty bickering between clients and sellers before they get to the action if they even remember to go there.

That's because Koko is a weapons merchant.

Originally Posted by valondar

Try stills from the actual series. While there is some, there's actually surprisingly little for an anime of this genre... and there's nothing quite as stupid as Orchestra's groupie.

She appeared for 2 episodes. Ms. Booty Shorts there is the main character.

[valondar]

The clip linked was from Black Lagoon episode "Maid to Kill", the bar fight with Roberta and her umbrella gun. Some examples of it can also be found here, but you loose the sense of choreography and impeccable timing.

Originally Posted by randomredneck

Because you're amazingly biased maybe?

Completely. In fact, action is one of my favourite anime genres. Especially seinen action. I eat this shit right up - even, let's face it, really bad seinen action, stuff with idiotic characters or stupid storytelling. I've watched some of the dumbest stuff Kawajiri's ever strung together, I made it through all fifty episodes of the Golgo 13 TV series. I have relatively low bars for entertainment here, certainly lower than I have for many other kinds of anime. That I rate this lower than a series from a genre I'm not a big fan of (which is also bad) says something.

Considering you only got to episode 4 apparently, I'm not shocked you think that...

I watched the entire first season. It was by far the most unbearable series I've watched this year and by the end of it I was finishing it simply to be a completion junkie.

That's because Koko is a weapons merchant.

And the series is unable to make that interesting. Her deals with clients come off as either petty bickering or asininely executed power fantasies, or both. We have an action series with poorly executed action scenes and dead air when they're not shooting things. That is not a good combination, and really the essence of the problem - there's nothing that Jormungand is doing right as a series.

She appeared for 2 episodes. Ms. Booty Shorts there is the main character.

Not actual stills from any episodes. And Jormungand also has the large-breasted Valmet. You know, this dumbass.

[captaincrunch]

save your breath valondar.... or your wrists muscles I guess.

[valondar]

^
You're probably right captaincrunch. A bit of my anger comes from how disappointed I was in this series, I wanted so very much to love it. You know how often we get a really good, really fun real world action show? NOT OFTEN ENOUGH. There should be a Black Lagoon or at least a Michiko to Hatchin every year.

[BrainBlow]

Originally Posted by randomredneck

Show me the boring and badly animated in this. Go ahead, I'll wait...

...
What?
Excuse me? Was that supposed to be impressive?
Shenhua just being in the frame looks more impressive than that.
Did you link the wrong clip or something?
I've been more impressed by the Sword Fighting in Zero no Tsukaima.
A few swings, a slow motion shot, and TALK.
*applause*
Better shows recognize the stupidity of babble.

Originally Posted by randomredneck

So I guess the done to death "Badass female mercenary"(Revy) the "Everyman thrown into an unusual situation"(Rock) or the "Creepy child killer"(Hansel and Gretel) have never been done before that show...

Try to learn what cliché means before you declare them to be this.
Also, try to watch the goddamn show rather than judging them entirely based on minor word-of-mouth and pictures.

Originally Posted by randomredneck

Yup, no cheesy fanservice here...