[TV] The What Animation Are You Watching Thread 2!: The Sequel!

Invincible episode 7 was good shit and now I'm totally onboard to watch Jason Mantzoukas handle the voices he has to now.
 
Something I appreciate about the series versus the comic is it gives more agency for both Sandra and Amber. With Sandra, they give her more to do in the show, actually figuring out Nolan's secret on her own, which created some great tension and drama between her and Nolan.

With Amber, she wasn't just this dumb blonde girl with honestly little personality. She's a more filled out character and figured out Mark's identity and wasn't just immediately starry-eyed about it. No "my boyfriend is a superhero" smiling line. She was pissed and with good reason. I actually like her a lot as a character in the show, even though I know Mark will eventually wind up with Eve.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Why did they fuck up the symbol on Atom Eve's costume to make it look like an anti-feminist symbol instead of electrons?
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Why did they fuck up the symbol on Atom Eve's costume to make it look like an anti-feminist symbol instead of electrons?
If this post I found is real, it was an error in the model sheet.



"The usage was incorrectly called out on the model sheet, resulting in the 'X-ed out female gender symbol' being the prevalent Atom Eve symbol and the 'correct' logo only being seen on rare occasions."

With how much computerization there is in art these days, I'm kinda amazed that there has to be a simplified version of the logo at all. I would have expected logos like that to just get copy pasted into place with some automatic deformation to match the circle surrounding them.
 
My friends and I started watching Season 3 of Final Space last night.
I had Goosebumps.

This is the best show you're probably not watching.
 
Kevin Smith (and Netflix) posted some pictures of the new He-Man show.



To be honest, I was really worried but this looks not bad.
 
Kevin Smith (and Netflix) posted some pictures of the new He-Man show.



To be honest, I was really worried but this looks not bad.
I'm confused why everyone looks so angry. "Angry" was not a word I'd ever associate with the original He-Man, despite each episode containing fighting.



He's smiling for like, 85% of these credits. He's practically smiling when he throws a punch. He-Man was beautiful, himbo cheese. I'm going to be so annoyed if this becomes some super-serious, man-pain drama from a DUDE WEARING A FUR BIKINI.
I swear to god, Kevin, don't make me come over the the 'Stash and yell at you. I have 15 minutes to kill.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I'm confused why everyone looks so angry. "Angry" was not a word I'd ever associate with the original He-Man, despite each episode containing fighting.



He's smiling for like, 85% of these credits. He's practically smiling when he throws a punch. He-Man was beautiful, himbo cheese. I'm going to be so annoyed if this becomes some super-serious, man-pain drama from a DUDE WEARING A FUR BIKINI.
I swear to god, Kevin, don't make me come over the the 'Stash and yell at you. I have 15 minutes to kill.
Maybe it's an homage to Dolph Lundgren
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Kevin Smith (and Netflix) posted some pictures of the new He-Man show.



To be honest, I was really worried but this looks not bad.
Facebook embeds don't work for me, so I'm assuming they don't work for others. Here's an alternate link:
Variety: He-Man, Teela Makeovers Revealed in First Look at Netflix’s ‘Masters of the Universe: Revelation’

EDIT: Mark Hamill as Skeletor, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Teela, Lena Heady as Evil Lynn... They're trying so hard to get me excited, but I'm still just MEH.
 
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Commentary on the above from a site I follow:
Hall is right, but on reflection I think he perhaps underestimates the commercial value of that audience and its ability to knock this show. By the time Noelle Stevenson made something new and wonderful from it, She-Ra was but a warm memory for its audience. But He Man, like all the other 80s boy-marketed stuff, is forever alive with its audience's cold grip on everything from their childhoods. [...] the backlash against the new She-Ra came from old men who never watched it then and would never watch it now. But the backlash against a significantly rebooted He-man would come from old men who never stopped watching it and are the only people who would ever watch it now.
He-Man was beautiful, himbo cheese. I'm going to be so annoyed if this becomes some super-serious, man-pain drama from a DUDE WEARING A FUR BIKINI.
If this ends up being pure cheese, then it will be exactly what I expect.
She-Ra was highly character-driven and questioned motivations and interactions, which is probably exactly why it appealed to the people who followed it.
He-Man is, at its heart, an action-oriented show that appeals to the (stereotypically male) power fantasy, so it's no wonder they're courting the same sort of viewers that made the first one such a success.

--Patrick
 
He-Man is, at its heart, an action-oriented show that appeals to the (stereotypically male) power fantasy, so it's no wonder they're courting the same sort of viewers that made the first one such a success.
It was, but oddly enough for a half-hour toy commercial made in the 80's, it was probably the least toxic of many "boys" shows when it came to tropes. Sure, most of the female cast was wearing bathing suits and go-go boots for...reasons... but they also were usually some of the most powerful characters besides He-Man. Teela was captain of the palace guards, and not there to be He-Man/Adam's girlfriend. The Sorceress was the most powerful figure in Eternia. Evil-Lyn was second-banana to Skeletor, but she was also his most powerful and reliable ally. The villains were usually more comical than diabolical. And He-Man himself was usually so genial, even as Adam, marching around in his little pink-and-purple onsie. He always had a sense of humor, and would more often try to diffuse a situation before he pulled out the Power Sword. I was a huge He-Man fan in the 80's because it was one of the shows were the cast seemed to be happy more often than not. (And I do own the dvds, which, eeesh, that writing does NOT hold up, so this isn't just nostaliga talking.)

I'm not saying this looks terrible or that is needs to be exactly like the original (the writing...god, no) but it's a shame if they remove all the joy that made it stand out.
 
I'm looking forward to the He-man reboot. We might be pleasantly surprised about the plot and character developments involved. Netflix seems to usually do pretty well with these properties.
Orko looks awesome too.
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Castlevania's last season was pretty ok. I don't understand why a show that's packed to the gills with little easter eggs (shelves in season 2 were laid out in the order of enemy number from the Symphony of the Night bestiary, having both a high potion and regular potion on Isaac's conquered library shelf, etc) was so terrified of using any of the iconic game music. Bloody Tears in season 2 was it. When Sypha, Trevor and Alucard are reunited for the last battle I kind of figured something was gonna be there, but they just played the incredibly underwhelming main show theme. That sucked. The big vampire lady (who's name I can't remember because her story was 123% irrelevant) sure had a pretty kick-ass suit of Guts' Berserk armor though. That made me laugh out loud.

Also, despite being insanely detailed, the animation was so chunky in places that it was like a fucking slideshow.

And finally it really does feel like the show is done, done. Doesn't feel like it will be coming back with future Belmonts at all. I'm glad it's done too, the Warren Ellis-isms (written by him or trying to imitate him) got to me. Saint Germain making an incredibly, incredibly lame sex joke during the climax of the show was eye rolling.**

DOUBLE EXTRA FINALLY, non main villain vampires are the legit biggest jobbers ever (until they aren't). Hilariously so. It's pretty lame when one wizard with a knife murders scores of them effortlessly.

** spoiler

Once Malcolm McDowell the vampire was revealed as Death, he still talked like a swearing cockney asshole. There was no shift to a more alien being. He was a 12 foot skeleton monster who talked like he needed to sweep chimneys to pay for his black lung treatments in ye olde Londontown, this is the kind of Warren Ellis shit I meant.

Listen to this dumb shit.

 
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I don't understand why a show that's packed to the gills with little easter eggs (shelves in season 2 were laid out in the order of enemy number from the Symphony of the Night bestiary, having both a high potion and regular potion on Isaac's conquered library shelf, etc) was so terrified of using any of the iconic game music. Bloody Tears in season 2 was it.
Don't know if it's the case here, but from what I understand Japan can sometimes be oddly unreasonable about licensing various assets.
 
Don't know if it's the case here, but from what I understand Japan can sometimes be oddly unreasonable about licensing various assets.
I don't feel like that's the case with Konami. They seem happy to have other people keep their IPs alive. Lets them continue to rerelease half-assed collections of old games as their sole video game output.
 
Some of Easter Eggs in Castlevania S4...

- Most of the various wizards that showed up were based on bosses and creatures. The purple one especially looked like Shaft.
- Saint Germain wears his outfit from Curse of Darkness in a couple scenes.
- Gergoth (the monster with the fire that attacks the castle) is from Dawn of Sorrow and shows up in a few other games too.
- Alucard's Shield is straight from Symphony of the Night art. He also takes his classic pose from the box art in one scene.
- Hector takes HIS classic pose from Curse of Darkness in one scene.
- Trevor picks up and throws away the Muramasa sword while he's looting the court under the city. It's the red bladed one.
- St. Germain's triangular book is a reference to a real life book written by the historical St. Germain.

As for more... Netflix has said they might do a spin-off set during a different time period, with different characters.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Castlevania S4 was decent, but not as good as the sheer awesomeness of S3. And I have some major problems with some things that happened toward the end.

There were two vampire suicides that were portrayed differently - Carmilla and Lenore.
Carmilla, facing defeat in battle, launched a desperate suicide attack, destroying herself with the intent of taking as many of her enemies as possible at the same time, with her last words being "I WIN!!!"

Lenore decided she didn't like living as a captive in a very plush and comfortable prison, and walked out into the sunrise.

In contrast to Carmilla, I have a problem with how Lenore's death was handled. Even putting aside the lameness factor, the way the act was portrayed was very problematic to me. The message was "if you're unhappy with your current circumstances, it is beautiful to kill yourself and your friends will not be sad as they watch you die, indeed they'll be supportive and they'll move on immediately."

Her entire line of reasoning was absurd - she's immortal. She will literally outlive her captors, and every day is a new opportunity to fix your predicament. If ANYONE should know that every day alive is another chance to make your situation better, it should be a vampire queen. But, no, a couple weeks in a comfy castle reading books and she's ready to kill herself, and when Hector starts to object, she tells him "this is what I want" and he immediately is on board.

What message does this send to someone who is depressed, and has had thoughts of self harm? It makes suicide sound beautiful, painless, and reasonable, when the decision process behind Lenore's suicide was completely bonkers.

At least Carmilla's death was plainly an act of insane desperation. But Lenore had time to think and reason, for weeks, and then decided captivity in luxury for a couple weeks, or even a couple decades, was too much to bear for a centuries-old immortal being?

It made the series have a very sour aftertaste, for me.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
The whole Forgemasters/Vampire Conquest part felt like an aborted storyline.
To me it felt like they knew they were wrapping up the main story with Dracula, Trevor, Sypha, Alucard, etc. and for some reason felt that they had to wrap up all the other storylines they had started, so they rushed endings for everyone else. They could have just left the tension hanging. They didn't have to answer "What did Lenore do with Carmilla gone?", they could have just left it.

It really feels like this is trying to preempt fans from complaining about a lack of closure. Because fandoms are shitty about demanding everything be explicilty explained, and are quieter about a horribly rushed ending than they are about ambiguity, because somehow having a single bad canon is better than a multitude of possible stories to speculate on. I fucking hate when pressure from "fandoms" pushes creators to make bad decisions.
 
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