IDK - Star Trek has lasted 60 years doing stuff like that.
IDK - Star Trek has lasted 60 years doing stuff like that.
But they didn't do it in the second episode when their future setting was barely established. And they didn't devote a contiguous third of the entire series to it. I already explicitly made that point.
No your right. STAR TREK didn't effectively repeat itself with two episodes in a row (the second and third episodes aired (in Broadcast order ( Charlie X followed by Where No Man Has Gone Before.)
(Three if you consider The Cage which was also about aliens manipulating the human mind and appearing into the darker side of the human mind.)
Out of the gate GR & Co seem to have a one track mind... pun intended.
No your right. STAR TREK didn't effectively repeat itself with two episodes in a row (the second and third episodes aired (in Broadcast order ( Charlie X followed by Where No Man Has Gone Before.)
What the hell possible relevance could that have to my point about Dirty Pair Flash being uninteresting because it wasted 5 of its 16 episodes recreating 1990s Tokyo when it had barely begun to establish its own future setting?
Also, the only reason Star Trek did Earth-duplicate planets was to save money by reusing existing backlots, costumes, props, etc. An animated series has no such excuse. It's really a terrible comparison and completely misses my point.
Animated series reused cels and backgrounds all the time back in the day to reduce time and costs. TAS did this all over the place. Evangelion did, too. That’s also why many series used to have a mid-way recap episode that was a glorified clip show, like Eva and Martian Successor Nadesico.
I'm not talking about those shows, I'm talking about Dirty Pair Flash. It wasn't reusing a damn thing -- I'm talking about episodes 7-11 of a 16-episode series. There was hardly anything to reuse, and they didn't reuse anything from the first 6-part arc, because they completely changed the setting for the second. That's the whole point -- they did one arc set on future Earth, then devoted the second one to a recreation of the then-present day, which is a weird thing to do so early in the run. I'm talking about the concept, the writing, not the animation, about which I have no complaints.
In my random anime explorations, I’ve finished watching Boogiepop Phantom. I can see why back in the day it was recommended for people who liked Serial Experiments Lain. One key difference is that BP is an apocryphal part of a light novel/manga/live action movie universe, plus the two anime series. SEL is a more complete, if still confusing, story. I’ll read the prequel light novel and leave it at that for now.
And I’ve finally watched the movie your name., which I quite liked. I’ve bought the novelization (a quick read by the writer/director that doesn’t add too much) and a sidequel by another writer, which I may read next. Some of his other films look interesting, so who knows what I may see next.
Edit: if you've seen and enjoyed your name., the novel your name. Another Side: Earthbound is well worth reading. The early chapters give a bit more of Taki and Mitsuha's body swap experiences, but the book also flashes back to the story of Mitsuha's parents, provides more context about the Shinto religion, makes certain elements of the comet incident more clear, and gives a bit more of an inner life to a few more characters.
And I’ve finally watched the movie your name., which I quite liked. I’ve bought the novelization (a quick read by the writer/director that doesn’t add too much) and a sidequel by another writer, which I may read next. Some of his other films look interesting, so who knows what I may see next.
Edit: if you've seen and enjoyed your name., the novel your name. Another Side: Earthbound is well worth reading. The early chapters give a bit more of Taki and Mitsuha's body swap experiences, but the book also flashes back to the story of Mitsuha's parents, provides more context about the Shinto religion, makes certain elements of the comet incident more clear, and gives a bit more of an inner life to a few more characters.
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I finally got around to finishing Dirty Pair Flash -- I see it took me about 3 weeks to get through the last 5 episodes, which shows how little it engaged me. The final miniseries, despite having themed titles like the first two story arcs, is pure standalones like the original series, but not very good. The main thing that distinguishes Flash, aside from its mediocrity, is that it's closer to the level of raciness, cheesecake, and occasional brief nudity (perhaps a factor in why they called it Flash) that I would've expected from something called Dirty Pair, unlike the original series, which was relatively tame in that regard (aside from a split-second glimpse of bare breasts in one episode and more substantial nudity in the first hourlong OVA special). There were times when I thought Rica Matsumoto (best known as the original Pokemon lead) did a pretty good job as Kei, though both Kei and Yuri were played even more broadly than the originals.
I also recently finished watching the 1994 series Magic Knight Rayearth on Crunchyroll, which I kind of stumbled across and decided on a whim to check out. The descriptions were a bit misleading, as the streamers carrying it give it a mature rating for nudity, but that's just for brief pseudo-nude transformation sequences seen only in the main titles and the season premieres, and it's actually fairly young-skewing. It's a magical-girl isekai series about three schoolgirls who get transported to a fantasy world to become the destined Magic Knights who will save it, along with the, err, giant robots (or guardian spirits that manifest as giant robots) that they acquire toward the end of the first season. It seems like a hodgepodge of pretty standard formulas at first, but then takes a subversive, dark twist at the climax of season 1, revealing some things that provoke a lot of guilt, soul-searching, and moral debates among the characters in season 2, touching on similar themes to Ursula LeGuin's iconic short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." It wasn't brilliant, and I found season 2 way too slow-paced with some silly new antagonists, but it had its appeal and I came to be somewhat fond of the three heroines (once I got used to the character designs, which are huge-eyed even by anime standards). Apparently there's a remake premiering in October, and if Crunchyroll carries it, I'll probably check it out.
I also recently finished watching the 1994 series Magic Knight Rayearth on Crunchyroll, which I kind of stumbled across and decided on a whim to check out. The descriptions were a bit misleading, as the streamers carrying it give it a mature rating for nudity, but that's just for brief pseudo-nude transformation sequences seen only in the main titles and the season premieres, and it's actually fairly young-skewing. It's a magical-girl isekai series about three schoolgirls who get transported to a fantasy world to become the destined Magic Knights who will save it, along with the, err, giant robots (or guardian spirits that manifest as giant robots) that they acquire toward the end of the first season. It seems like a hodgepodge of pretty standard formulas at first, but then takes a subversive, dark twist at the climax of season 1, revealing some things that provoke a lot of guilt, soul-searching, and moral debates among the characters in season 2, touching on similar themes to Ursula LeGuin's iconic short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." It wasn't brilliant, and I found season 2 way too slow-paced with some silly new antagonists, but it had its appeal and I came to be somewhat fond of the three heroines (once I got used to the character designs, which are huge-eyed even by anime standards). Apparently there's a remake premiering in October, and if Crunchyroll carries it, I'll probably check it out.
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